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Comment by pjc50 | Hacker News Reader

All of those apart from dishwashing and some of the shopping are benefits/entertainment, surely?

I think it's useful for people to make a distinction between "I'm doing this by choice as entertainment" vs "I'm doing this as a default activity that's sort of addictive, and not really enjoying it". TV, social media, and, er, Hackernews can fall into the latter category if you're not mindful.

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Totally this. For me, it's about whether the cost is imposed on me, or chosen voluntarily.

So I love videogames, but I hate those designed to suck you in on purpose via cheap psychology tricks. I love books. But I hate ads, infomercials and content with very low quality/size ratio. And I absolutely hate maintenance tasks (dusting, washing dishes, exercise) and wish they could all be automated away.

> I absolutely hate maintenance tasks (dusting, washing dishes, exercise) and wish they could all be automated away

I sort of share this opinion, and when it comes to dusting and washing dishes I still agree. But recently I started weightlifting and its come to be much more fun than just straight cardio ever was, now I look forward to going to the gym. Worth a try if you haven't already.

Also polishing my shoes is a maintenance task, but I find it very relaxing and gratifying when I'm done. But yeah, as soon as I can get a robot butler to handle the other stuff I'll be happy as a clam.

I agree, but also feel that sometimes 'maintenance tasks' can be incredibly humanizing. Life can feel artificial when there are too few maintenance tasks.

Feels to me like the Stockholm syndrome thing (for lack of a better term). You can't avoid the bug, so in order to keep your sanity, you start to treat it as a feature. Similar thing as with treating death as a "natural state of things", ergo good.

A counter-intuitive finding: studies claim you'll feel happier while doing lame tasks if you concentrate entirely on the task at hand (i.e. being in the present.) I find this rather difficult to test, but momentary glimmers are promising.

N=1 counterfinding, but I find myself incredibly frustrated if I "concentrate entirely on the task at hand" while doing household cleaning. Instead I try and think of anything else.

These sorts of discussions add more value to my thought life than 'healthy and normal' 'real life' conversations (sports, weather, ailments, traffic). I find that "real life" relationships involve a lot more wasted time. So I guess your mileage may vary.

I think it's dangerous to place "add value to my thought life" too high on the spectrum of things that are valuable. Human connection, empathy, direct service to others are also tremendously important parts of life that are sometimes forgotten when "thought life" is put ahead of "real life" too often.

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