My take is that it's about the "stimulating activity" rather than the actual screen time. When broken down it's intuitive, but the "reduce screen time" adage often gets repeated without that distinction.
Specifically about your problem: for me, I move from a state of "active engagement" to "passive consumption". 1 to 2 hours before bed, I stop doing anything engaging that requires my active participation - work, video games, learning. I shift to lounging on the couch and reading fiction or watching a movie/show. The key is in my intentions behind each: in the evening, my goal is to relax. I dont turn on a movie with the intention to learn or to be entertained; I'm just there to experience it.
Sorry if that's too abstract; the feeling is hard to communicate. Hopefully it's a useful starting point for further thinking.
Seconded. I'm interested in the topic, but there's not enough information for me to commit (and by HN standards, I'm relatively carefree when it comes to providing my email).
“Grey Thinking” as a term does a poor job at conveying what I _think_ the author wants to say. And that is, (1) don’t make generic statements and (2) consider your perspective. When you boil a problem down to its specifics, you get back to black and white thinking. Using the article’s example, “War is awful but history shows it to be occasionally necessary, and a very complex phenomenon” still contains the black and white statement of “War is good when situation X occurs and bad when situation Y occurs.”
On most days, nearly 100% of my time is spent doing actual work.
I'm able to reach that level because I work for myself, which permits me to aggressively decline meetings, focus on one project, control my work environment, and partition my time for maximum effectiveness.
When I was traditionally employed in tech, it was somewhere in the threshold most people here are describing (25-50%).
When I worked at a warehouse in high school, my time was mostly spent working with some bullshiting interspersed.
Target the end users with cheap/free/trials to gain significant traction then make your pitch to executives. By then, you already have all the evidence you need to make the sell.
I’ve found that my projects split in two ways: (a) fun hobby vs. problem to solve and (b) don’t monetize vs. monetize. Out of the 4 possible combinations there, I only take on (1) fun hobby projects that I don’t intend to monetize and (2) problem to solve that I intend to monetize.
I try to avoid the other two because fun hobby projects that I want to monetize are essentially solutions looking for a problem and problems to solve but not monetize aren’t as enjoyable as the (1) or (2).
So to answer your question: look at my hobbies to identify fun stuff that will enrich my experience or identify a problem then validate the need beyond myself.
I just moved to the Bay Area from Chicago, so I can provide some general logistics advice. These are the first things that come to mind, but if you have questions, my email is in my signature. Unfortunately, I can’t help with the contrast between Sydney & Bay Area culture.
// Living
Lifestyle – the Bay Area experience varies greatly based on where you are. Take the time to find an area that has things, people, lifestyles you’re interested in.
Housing – short term options are abundant in the Bay Area, but vary in price and availability by location. HotPads, Craigslist, AirBnb, Padmapper are all great options for finding housing.
Transportation – most of the Bay Area isn’t easily accessed by public transportation. CalTrain, BART, and Muni will get you to a general area, but you’ll likely need to Lyft or Uber from there.
// Jobs
There are many small startups (<20 employees) that pay well. Don’t hesitate to apply somewhere with a seemingly small presence.
If you’re finding it difficult to get interviews, recruiting agencies would be a solid alternative. If you’re talented and hook up with a good agency, you can find some very good opportunities.
Big fan of Pipedrive myself. Fairly lightweight, but with good features. Visual pipeline structure is nice. Easy to use interface (though text formatting is a weak spot).
I'll share what I do when I'm burnt out and some of my logic for why I think it is effective:
I love working towards a goal. I find the journey enjoyable and the achievement gratifying. For that reason, idle time simply isn't interesting to me.
But working towards another non-work related professional goal while I'm burnt out isn't effective. It doesn't allow for proper relaxation or repair even though it is a break from my job. And why is that? Because I'm still predominantly using my mind, which is already tapped out, to work towards that goal.
So instead, during times when I'm at or near burn out, I do things that are physically exhausting. Hike, kayak, run. It feeds my desire to achieve (reach the summit, complete a trip, run 3 miles), but in a fundamentally different way. My brain stops trying to logic its way through the problem and instead focuses on the physical exertion. I use it as a weapon against fatigue when my efficiency is declining. One hard physical exertion can be enough offload weeks worth of mental fatigue.
How to Win Friends and Influence People. It could have just as easily been named "How to be a Good Person". Carnegie's advice is practical, yet powerful. I return to it every few months to make sure I'm staying on track.
Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography. Franklin led one of the most interesting lives in human history, and this book is a window into his mind. There's a lot of great advice sprinkled in with subtle, timely humor. Another book I return to often.
If you two believe in each other, you'll WANT to bounce ideas off of each other. You'll be creating the vision together by doing so. Titles are meaningless as far as setting vision goes IMO, especially at an early stage.
Figure out what your tax situation will be before selling. Short-term capital gains are taxed at your ordinary income tax bracket whereas long-term capital gains are taxed no higher than 20%.
If they'll be taxed at the short-term level, wait one year until they turn into long-term capital gains. You'll be saved from paying thousands in taxes.