Did you ever wonder how much the terms “guilt” and “office” are connected? Did you ever wish to just relax while working (and have your work benefit from it), but didn’t actually do so, since it looks bad? Wish you could work at home, knowing you’d be more effective there? Did nine-to-five ever feel like a nice corset, like an excuse for not getting work done? Do you want to know why there’s no way past proper discipline? I felt many of these things during my days at Prof. Dörfler’s institute, as a consequence of having a proper office, colleagues and all, but I was never really able to put them into context or come to a conclusion on what to do about them.
Paul Graham, of whose writing I’ve been a fanboy for a while, says it straight and to the point, and many of his points seem like appropriate endpoints of thoughts I’ve had.
I’m glad I found this before starting grad school for several reasons:
- Now I know I’m not alone in feeling like this.
- Feeling guilty about stuff is nearly always a bad idea.
- It’s almost always a better idea to just do what you think is reasonable, even if it looks bad.
Duh? Maybe. But I challenge you to live by these principles every day. (And myself, too.)
PS: Sorry that this is propagated straight from Slashdot. But then, I think it’s too important to miss.