Comments on: social web fatigue, and doing what’s important

By: Hugh

Hugh — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 20:51:20 +0000

@chris: indeed family trumps all. i guess i was specifically thinking of the community of web bloggers developers & entrepreneurs out there, many of whom seem to make lots of noise about things that just seem so empty. also the time I/we waste doing silly things that we still don’t enjoy all that much (ie wasting an afternoon surfing the web instead of doing the hundreds of good things we could be doing). It’s a constant battle for me. part of that is day-to-day (ie focus on the things i ought to do); and part of that is larger (what should I really focus on?)

@dan: yes, getting stuff done is essential to feeling good, for me anyway. socializing is generally more fun, but without accomplishment, it gets depressing.

@miette: stop reading my blog and start writing dammit!

@matt: bless you my son.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 04:31:55 +0000

amen.

By: miette

miette — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:03:27 +0000

Well said, of course, and in a world bred on the milk of distraction, good to be reminded of every now and again.

By: Dan Parsons

Dan Parsons — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 01:18:50 +0000

I totally agree, Hugh. This is why I go through long periods of not blogging. I feel like communicating is supposed to be balanced with productivity. If I’m communicating all the time, I run out of useful things to communicate, because I haven’t actually *done* anything. Also it just makes me feel sick after a while. I think this is why most of my RSS feeds are for news blogs and not “people” blogs; there’s only so much socialization (even virtual) I can stomach before I wish I lived in an abandoned mine shaft on a world suffering from nuclear winter.

By: Christopher Hughes

Christopher Hughes — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:52:52 +0000

I know exactly what you mean. The answer that always comes to me is: providing a comfortable living for your family is important. And it is really hard, in ways you don’t expect.

So I do very strange and trivial things all day (in the eyes of many – including myself) so that my family have their wants provided for. Everything else has to come second – including my wish for a more ‘important’ reason to get out of bed.

The point is, of course, that there is no more important reason to get out of bed.