Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

>Um. "I don't keep a calendar" means "I consider my time more important than yours, so we'll meet at my sole convenience." I would love to do that, but everyone else in the world would rightly understand it that way and would treat it as a refusal to do core elements of my job.

The advice is for free persons, not for us salaried workers.

(Not to mention that TFA already covers this: "I'm totally serious. If you pull it off -- and in many structured jobs, you simply can't" and again later: "Clearly this only works if you can get away with it. If you have a structured job, a structured job environment, or you're a CEO, it will be hard to pull off.").

See also: https://medium.com/incerto/how-to-legally-own-another-person...



So basically it's for the already affluent. "If you're rich and have no obligations only work when you want to" doesn't seem that novel. It's productivity when there's little value on said productivity.


You don't have to be affluent. You can be e.g. a freelancer graphic designer making at most 50-60K a year and do that. Or have a small company and do that. Or be a farmer and do that.

But the conclusion seems wrong "It's productivity when there's little value on said productivity." -- the productivity of the affluent has even more value (at least monetarily) than the productivity of some office worker.


You can be a designer whose willing to burn bridges and don't need to pay a mortgage, but yeah, you could be someone who doesn't need stuff. I'd love to see a farmer put off feeding the animals or not keep a schedule. "I'll just harvest the crops next month."

>Want to spend all day writing a research report? Do it!

>Want to spend all day coding? Do it!

>Want to spend all day at the cafe down the street reading a book on personal productivity? Do it!

These are not things someone who needs to work for a living can do, picking and choosing activities at their leisure.

Regarding "little value on said productivity", I meant value to the individual, not to society as a whole. If you can afford to squander opportunities clearly whatever you're producing isn't as vital to you as for others who need the productivity to continue be able to afford to live.


>These are not things someone who needs to work for a living can do, picking and choosing activities at their leisure.

It's not what someone who needs to work on somebody else's spec can do.

A writer living off his books, for example, even if they make just 50K/year, can shape their days however they want.

Or, to return to the freelancer, if you have a specialty, and people can to you, you can be picky about what jobs you do and when.

I know people that are like that and they are by no means rich.


Do novelist never attend meetings by their publisher? Same with freelancers - can you just blow off your client and commit to nothing?




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: