This is the way I interpreted the article.

I do like being busy and thrive in a dynamic environment. But, my partner and I made a conscious decision years ago to make sure our leisure time can be just that. When a busy week leads into a busy weekend, we get burnt out. So, we make sure we have weekends with NO plans. Just chill and do NOTHING.

NIKSEN!

All you really have in the world is time, time well spent or time spent being lazy with yourself is still time spent on you. People often wish their life to be a fulfilling Experience, and everyone at their end will say they wish they would have done a thousand things more, but this world doesn't work on freedom and getting the most out of those 70-80 years. We work on working mostly to make the next guy richer.

If we didn't need money we probably wouldn't be working shit jobs, be more creative in both 'employment' and hobbies, but that's a given I suppose.

Huh? Slavery was communism?… care to show how you reached that wild conclusion?

Finally! Something I can excel at.

The biggest slavery policy was communism. Look how it ended.

Philosophy appears to be where lazy people rationalise underachievement and make generalisations about things. Like this generalisation.

What meaning, then, does the genealogy of self as animal provide us? What does it prefigure in our actions that we may value?

My husband is finally learning this. He’s a very driven person who couldn’t stay still even on the weekends. Finally he just stayed at home doing nothing and he said it was the best thing ever. He feels recharged.

I have two jobs where I just sit there all day and do nothing. I work sixty hours a week and I get paid about 20 percent higher then the entry level minimum around here. Most people who start at McDonald’s are making thirteen dollars. I am making seventeen dollars at both. I also get cool fifty percent discounts on our products and the right to sample anything for free. I am exhausted at the end of every day but I am not overwhelmed at the end of the week, even though I work so much. I am saving so I can invest in the stock market. I want about thirty k. And then another thirty k to keep in Bitcoin and then another thirty for my own personal emergency fund and then I want to save for a house. Hopefully in fifteen years my house is paid off and I can retire into a part time position at one job lol 😅

The definition of a mindlessly 'productive' existence.

Core engineering jobs are no joke. I've met my fair share of burnt out software engineers, that it almost seems like a rite of passage.

There are some roles that are less demanding, some more, though nothing can be generalised.

Solutions engineer in my experience IS customer support, at a high level. My jobs in that area have always come with a pile of 500 tickets underneath the day to day.

IMO being a software engineer is less stressful, provided you work fast when you do work

Great minds think alike, hah. It's honestly a bit of a struggle to force myself to engage when I know deep down that the 'normalcy' of, say, the mid-10s is probably gone forever. That we're headed toward an existential abyss and I'm powerless to alter that trajectory.

At the same time, I also know passively doomscrolling social media is doing me no favors. Sometimes I just shut it all down, grab the dogs and go hiking on my work breaks, or just wander around DC aimlessly.

I want to get in to minor woodworking, like shadowboxes, small resin pours etc. And I want to finally learn to use one of my Arduinos to set up an automated irrigation system for gardening next spring.

Beyond that, it's a lot of what you mentioned - I've made a conscious effort to go watch classic films I always used to pretend I'd seen. I play a lot of simulators on PC, like Cities: Skylines, where I can make towns in which I'd want to live. I go through spells of obsessively playing Rocket League still, even though I've probably maxed out my abilities in Diamond I. Euro Truck Sim 2 and American Truck Sim are great for zenning out and just enjoying the ride.

Lastly, something I've been thinking a lot about, is getting back into music production. It was the only thing that really brought me joy when I was a teenager dealing w/depression, and I probably pumped out around 100 crude tracks between 16 and 19. But now I'm mid-30s, haven't produced anything in about 5 years and I can't explain why. It always gave me a sense of pride and wonderment to see a project through, send it off to my musician buddies and hear their positive feedback. Plus, if I do have kids, I want to be able to show them who I am, and not just leave it a mystery. Something tangible and personal, even if the music itself ages horribly. Hah. I think that's what I'll focus on next.

Cheers for the inspiration!

“I once worked with a guy for three years and never learned his name. Best friend I ever had. We still never talk sometimes.”

We are social creatures after all. I think everyone wants to feel they have a purpose and are doing something valuable but in our culture we try to strive for productivity instead which can sometimes work but not always. I don't think you wanting to be productive is a bad thing but a misplaced feeling or urge.

His concept of the achievement subject in particular, who basically enslaves themselves in an endless cycle

A beautiful sentiment

I was discussing self-help books as self-help and aphorisms. I realize now the way I wrote that part of the essay is a reason why my point is being misunderstood. I love philosophy, and I think that everyone should engage with it. The point of my essay is that literature is a way that a person without a sufficient foundation in philosophy can still connect with the ideas. I see self-help books as poor attempt to connect people with philosophical ideas, as self-help books lack any sort of nuance; they water-down the philosophical discussion. I think that literature puts a different angle to philosophical discussion.

I can explain this away in the comment section, but your critique accurately points out how poorly written my essay is. It was intended for a very broad (and poorly thought out, in retrospect) audience. Thanks for the feedback.

A scientific theory is only a scientific theory if you are allowed to question it...

"increasingly clear negative personal and societal effects of, for instance, vaccine and climate change denialism."

Aaand that's where they lose credibility for espousing dogmatic views compounded by mass hysteria.

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Only one shot at this life thing, don't let other brainwashed individuals take that away from you.

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More than likely means "being nonproductive in the capitalist sense".

Honestly I believe it’s more about the company than the job itself. From my chemistry class most have ended up in similar jobs yet most say it’s unbearable. I earn a little less than most but am absolutely loving work. After weekends I can barely wait to get started again.

I’m learning so much every day, got tons of freedom and everyone is basically on the same level (no powerplay or anything). Also there’s always someone having your back no matter what.