思考与写作newyorker.com
我本以为今天能做成很多事，也本以为 35 岁前能成就很多
I thought I would have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35
2020 — 2022，它一次次回到首页
黑点是上首页（≥ 50 分）的那次投稿，空心点是没冲上去的投稿，点越大分数越高。
导读
《纽约客》的一篇幽默短文，作者自嘲今天没做成什么事、35 岁前也没实现当年的雄心壮志。文章以夸张的独白戳中许多人的共同焦虑：总觉得时间被浪费、成就远低于预期。
为什么经久不衰：它用幽默说出普遍的年龄与成就焦虑，每次登上 HN 都引发关于拖延、期望与自我接纳的长讨论，多年后依然戳中读者。
HN 评论精选
放弃拼命冲刺、改用可持续的慢节奏后，反而过得更好也做得更多
七年前我雄心勃勃，创业时告诉妻子我们 40 岁前很可能成为百万富翁。结果公司因倦怠而结束，赚了钱但没到那个程度，还拒绝了一次几乎能让我实现目标的收购。之后我来了个 180 度大转弯：不再拼命到精疲力竭，改用乌龟式慢节奏。只要保持一致、抓住动力爆发期，反而完成了惊人的成果，生活质量也是史上最好。这本来就该是我的目标。
bstar77查看英文原文
I was incredibly driven about 7 years ago... I was a founder of a startup and had really lofty aspirations. I told my wife that it was very possible that we would be millionaires by the time we hit 40. Fast forward to today and that did not happen. The startup is no more, but mainly due to burnout. We made money and did well, but not well enough. I never made my millions, but did have a substantial aqui-hire opportunity that I turned down that would have almost gotten me there. Once that part of my life played out, I decided to make a 180 turn... I'm not working to exhaustion anymore and take a tortoise approach to my career. I've found that as long as I'm consistent and have my eye on my goals, it doesn't matter how hard I work outside of my day job. I just need to be consistent and take advantage of bursts of motivation. I've accomplished a surprising amount with this approach. I'm not stressed, I have the best quality of life that I've ever had and work is generally fun. This is what my goal should have been from the beginning.
最危险的是那些“感觉有产出”的伪生产性消遣
最危险的干扰是那些感觉很有产出、实际却没朝目标前进的事，比如刷 Hacker News。大脑会自我辩护说至少在“学习”什么，其实往往只是浪费了本可投入真正在乎之事的时间。连成瘾性游戏也靠升级机制让人感觉有产出——我们都有创造的欲望，只是容易把精力花在更轻松、更不孤独的伪生产性活动上。
voidhorse查看英文原文
Funny piece. It can be so easy to waste time when we have the internet. I think the most dangerous distractions are the ones that feel productive but don’t actually work toward your goals. For example, browsing hacker news. Such an activity is useful every now and then, but at least for myself I often scroll around only to realize later that it was a massive waste of time I could’ve spent working on something I care about. I think the brain justifies it since hey, at least I’m “learning” something (not really). Even something like an addictive videogame is designed to make you feel productive by giving you levels to progress through etc—fundamentally I think we all have a desire to produce, it’s just easy to spend time putting that energy into the wrong forms of productive activity, since these are usually easier and less isolating than actually producing crafts or products.
用时间追踪工具诚实面对休闲耗时，才能开始改变
我长期指导计算机专业学生和新毕业工程师，令人震惊的是很多人总觉得时间不够，却说不清时间去哪了。有人抱怨 8 小时工作日占满了全部工作日时间，深入一查，其实是 Reddit、Facebook、电视和游戏悄悄吃掉了 6 小时以上而不自知。建议用屏幕时间统计工具记录，很多人估计自己每天刷 30 分钟，结果报告显示 2-3 小时以上。关键是诚实地面对自己花了多少时间。
PragmaticPulp查看英文原文
I've been mentoring CS college students and new grad SWEs for a while. It's shocking to see how many of them perpetually feel like they're overwhelmed and short on time, yet they can't account for where they've actually spent their time. It's not uncommon for new grad SWEs to complain that an 8-hour work day is somehow consuming 100% of their weekday hours, leaving them without any time to do anything else. On further investigation, they're just being pulled into Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, TV, and video games for far more time than they realize. It's almost like those activities are subtracting 6+ hours out of their day without them realizing it. Nobody likes to be told that they're wasting their free time, but I've had mild success encouraging people to use basic time tracking utilities like the Screen Time feature in iOS. It's eye-opening to watch people estimate their daily screen time around 30 minutes and then be shocked when their reports come back at 2-3 hours or more. Of course, some amount of leisure activity is necessary throughout the day. It's important to not shame people for spending time on things they enjoy (Hacker News, video games, Reddit, Twitter), but it is important that they can be honest with themselves about how much time they're spending on those activities. Measuring time spent in leisure activities is the only real way to start closing the feedback loop. Structured procrastination (Spending 5 timed minutes out of every 30 minutes on leisure activities, aka Pomodoro technique) is a good way to start getting a handle on this.
问题不在拖延，而在我们对自己抱有的不切实际的期望
大家把这篇文章读成拖延的警世故事，但我觉得它讲的是我们给自己设定的不切实际的期望——也许来自虚假的精英社会、社交媒体比较或父母的期待。我原以为现在该是百万富翁、改变世界、有维基百科词条和游艇。但我现在真正想要的是放下那把量尺，接受自己就是这样的人，别再为达不到儿时定下的荒谬期望而自责。
abootstrapper查看英文原文
Everyone here is reading this article as a cautionary tale on procrastination. To me it’s about the unrealistic expectations we place on ourselves. Maybe that’s due to our fake meritocratic society, or comparisons made on social media, or our parents expectations. I thought I’d be a millionaire by now, changing the world for the better, with a Wikipedia page and a yacht. But what I really want now is to put down the measuring stick, and be ok with being me. It’s time to stop beating myself up for not living up to the absurd expectations I set for myself as a child.
历次讨论
同类还值得读
保持你的身份认同足够小
Keep Your Identity Small (2009)
Paul Graham 2009 年的一篇短文：人一旦把某个话题当成自己身份的一部分（宗教、政治、编程语言皆然），讨论就会退化成站队和争吵，因为此时争论的不再是事实，而是"我是谁…
思考与写作上首页 5 次 · 2009–2021paulgraham.com编辑精选苏格拉底式教学法：通过提问而非讲授来教学
The Socratic Method: Teaching by Asking Instead of by Telling
记录了作者用纯提问的方式，引导一群小学生从零推导出二进制计数法的课堂实验，展示了苏格拉底式教学法的惊人效果。
思考与写作上首页 5 次 · 2011–2022garlikov.com你不能说的话
What You Can't Say (2004)
Paul Graham 2004 年的经典文章，探讨那些因道德时尚而不能公开说出的观点。
思考与写作上首页 5 次 · 2014–2022paulgraham.com编辑精选龙暴君的寓言（2005）
The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant (2005)
哲学家 Nick Bostrom 于 2005 年写的一则寓言：一条每天吞噬数千人的巨龙（隐喻死亡与衰老）长期被人类当作不可抗拒的自然规律接受，直到有人提出并最终用导弹将其杀死，…
思考与写作上首页 5 次 · 2009–2021nickbostrom.com编辑精选现实有着惊人的细节量
Reality has a surprising amount of detail (2017)
2017 年的博文指出，现实远比我们以为的充满细节：我们习惯用简化的心智模型看世界，直到真正动手做事（比如作者举的造楼梯例子）才发现处处是未曾预料的细节。
思考与写作上首页 4 次 · 2018–2025johnsalvatier.org编辑精选