[HN Gopher] Too much free time may be almost as bad as too little ___________________________________________________________________ Too much free time may be almost as bad as too little Author : porterde Score : 15 points Date : 2021-09-09 19:34 UTC (3 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.apa.org) (TXT) w3m dump (www.apa.org) | eplanit wrote: | Yes, but then there are examples like this guy: | | https://www.businessinsider.com/woodworker-drivable-wooden-b... | | ...who I hope gets as much free time as is possible. | bpodgursky wrote: | Is it really "free time", if you've committed to an ambitious | professional (he's a carpenter) project to fill the time? | "Treat your hobby as a job" seems compatible with the OP | thesis. | loa_in_ wrote: | Anecdotally I can report myself having an enormous excess of free | time but only because I'm in a tough financial and mental | situation, I have no job, but I'm also living a very frugal | lifestyle to compensate. This frugality leads to few | possibilities to meaningfully go forward. For the last year and | until next month or so I'm having basically unlimited free time, | but I'm not happy about it. | ggm wrote: | I'm close to retirement age. I'm advised by everyone I ask not | to just go "cold turkey", but find things to do which give | respect from others, and contribute to some activity. It could | be part-time work, or volunteering, but taking a role in an | activity which builds something, is better for your health. | It's probably a variant of CBT, taking behaviour which commands | respect engenders a sense of self-respect which lifts the | spirit. You have purpose. | | Talking to unemployed people, who want to work, I also know | they say that the support systems in the state typically make | this really hard: you cannot commit to work without pay, if it | risks your status as unemployed, to recieve welfare. If you | have to go in to interview or for some welfare process, and | can't volunteer that day, a lot of agencies can't use you | because they can't rely on you. So, its a double trap: its | "safer" to do nothing, because you can't either let down the | people you want to do things with or, be denied welfare. Truly, | a trap. | | So, if you don't have a risk here, I very much suggest you find | some thing to do, any thing, which contributes back to some | other endevour. Wash dishes in a local kindy. Hold newborn | babies in hospital whose parents can't be there. Help pack food | for people who are starving. Join a morning pick-up-litter | group. | | I also know how tedious these suggestions are, how much they | hurt and irritate. When they were put to me in times past, I | "bit back" and told people not to be facetious or patronising. | I knew these things could be done, I didn't need to be "told". | I had to be driven out of a slump, taken in hand, and guided to | a better sense of my place in the world, so I don't say this as | "haven't walked there". | | (I only say this because you strongly suggest your are aware | this situation is not improving your mental health, or making | you happy. To use an internet witticism or two, "you do you" | and "Im not the boss of you") | HenryKissinger wrote: | Nonsense. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-09-09 23:00 UTC)