Interesting Links for 27-08-2017

[andrewducker]

This is the relationship I have with my to-read list

(tags: internet life )

A good piece on Joss Whedon

(tags: JossWhedon marriage buffy tv writing women viaJennieRigg )

Here Is What Happens When You Run Away From All Of Your Problems

(tags: life advice )

You can only use the Wi-Fi at St Pancras station if you give them control of your Twitter account

(tags: Twitter wifi OhForFucksSake )

Hope Lies In Rebellion — Some Analysis Of “The Music of Rogue One”

(tags: music StarWars viaFanf )

Can we know what animals are thinking?

(tags: animals thought mind )

A short history of tool use

(tags: tools technology )

NASA sent one identical twin brother to space for a year and studied how it changed him

(tags: NASA space genetics twins )

Maybe We All Need a Little Less Balance

(tags: life advice )

Explaining just how evil Joe Arpaio is

(tags: evil usa police )

Comments

[snippy]

I've always resisted the word balance as applied to my life. I wrote about it here: https://gelasticjew.blogspot.com/2011/01/forget-balance.html.

Re the balance thing.

[xenophanean]

I'm a bit suspicious of anything which says you should tilt all of your time and energy to one purpose. I think flow activities are a bit like love.

Absolutely you get some of the best people who really are on top of the world in their fields eat it drink it and just adore every moment. That's good. If you're saying "don't try to gatekeep these, keep your heart open for something you really love doing", that's good advice. I think there's a dark-side though, and that's the bad relationship of activities.

Maybe you spend all your time at something because there's something unhealthy you like from it. You're addicted to the speed and danger of your market speculation job, but secretly you find it slightly horrifying what you're doing, and it's so stressful that you drink and smoke yourself to sleep every night.

Maybe it's something it needs from you. You hold a team together, you care about the people, but it's badly set up, and everything somebody drops, every little bit of laziness, or corruption or incompetence pulls on your mental health to hold it together. It's sort of what you love, but it's abusive, and eventually it'll break you.

Finally, and worst of all, maybe it's just what everyone expects. You hate what you do, or maybe at a lower intensity you'd like it, but everyone you work with is aping these "top people" in the fields, and is forced to pretend to be the same, spending all the time they could be giving to things they really care about to something they don't.

It's wonderful to spend time doing what you love, it's a bit of a privilege to be so good at it, and for it to be the right thing that it provides a living. But that's *why* the talk of balance; for most people that they're not in love with primary job, hopefully they like it, but sometimes it's okay to like a few things, and then... you might want balance your time between them.

Re: Re the balance thing.

[andrewducker]

I agree that throwing yourself into something you're not passionate about is a terrible idea. And quitting your job when you have responsibilities and/or no backup plan is also a terrible idea.

But I do tend to see a lot of scorn about people who _really_ throw themselves into things. As if they have "too much time on their hands" or otherwise care too much about things other people don't. Passion is a good thing, and if you can find a way to spend time on things you're passionate about then holding back is rarely going to make you happier.

Re: Re the balance thing.

[xenophanean]

I think we basically agree, I'm just a bit concerned that the article's thinking could be used as fuel to the maybe people *don't* need work / life balance camp that I've seen growing, arguing that if they're not willing to spend another 3 hours a night on work for free, they don't love it, so shouldn't be there.

Work life balance is a compromise based on the fact that the vast majority love something more than their work probably always will do.