[HN Gopher] My Life in Weeks
___________________________________________________________________
My Life in Weeks
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 267 points
Date : 2025-02-15 19:34 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (weeks.ginatrapani.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (weeks.ginatrapani.org)
| therein wrote:
| Powerful in how it puts it all into perspective is all I could
| say.
| RobCodeSlayer wrote:
| I've been using MarkWhen for a similar life timeline
| https://markwhen.com
| hettygreen wrote:
| This was epic, thanks for sharing!
| rednafi wrote:
| This is a terrifying reminder of the shortness of our lives. I
| remember reading a blog by Tim Urban, where he showed that you
| could put all the weeks in your life on a single piece of A4
| paper, and it didn't feel nice.
| uvapassa wrote:
| https://waitbutwhy.com/2014/05/life-weeks.html
| csdvrx wrote:
| Funny fact: clocks used to feature "Una ex his" (for "Una ex
| his erit tibi ultima") in order to maximize this "terrifying
| reminder" effect
| ajnin wrote:
| > Una ex his erit tibi ultima
|
| For those who don't speak fluent Latin, that means "one of
| those will be your last". Ominous reminder indeed.
| maelito wrote:
| Well, I saw it in the opposite way. Author has done a lot of
| things between his age and mine. So many new things for me to
| discover.
| rob74 wrote:
| Her
| rcpt wrote:
| Rare win for not being able to connect to my home printer.
| sorcercode wrote:
| Terrifyingly inspiring.
| asterix_pano wrote:
| Thanks for sharing, this format really puts things into
| perspective.
| memhole wrote:
| This is fascinating. Idk if it was a good or bad thing. In
| college I once looked up some insurance chart of life expectancy
| probabilities. It puts things in perspective that's for sure.
| elashri wrote:
| That was nice to watch. I spent about 25 minutes going through
| that.
|
| But it was horrifying for me. I realized that I wanted to see if
| the source code is available but then realized that I really
| don't remember those details. I remember random things for my
| childhood but I don't remember the date when I started elementary
| school. I know that I got my first computer when I was in third
| grade but don't remember the date. I don't even remember the date
| I started college and I probably wrote the wrong date couple of
| times during grad school application. While I started recording
| something less than a diary to record some of these but this was
| around covid.
|
| Thanks OP and HN for this reality check.
| CamperBob2 wrote:
| _Don 't look back, you've been there / Feel the mist as your
| breath hits the air._ - Manfred Mann
| gavmor wrote:
| Recall isn't that simple. Some memories need to be jogged out
| with colors, smells, or sounds. You probably remember more than
| you first think, but it would be an involved activity to
| access.
|
| Maybe a worthwhile one.
| Tenoke wrote:
| I usually don't remember details like that but I practice the
| ways to get them - e.g. for elementary school you should know
| how old you were for the year, and then you can check at what
| date elementary school starts in your area (where I'm from it's
| always 15th of September) so you can pinpoint it.
| gardenhedge wrote:
| > I don't remember the date when I started elementary school
|
| Ultimately the date is not important. It's a life event that
| came after an event (being born) and before another event
| (going to college/getting a job)
| delichon wrote:
| From this view it's clear how wasteful ontogeny is. All of that
| physical and psychological development takes too much valuable
| time and investment. And we haven't even gotten to Gina's
| retirement years yet. Clearly the future is in using 3D
| bioprinting to build fully formed adults as if sprung from the
| brow of Zeus. Skill and memory transfer are a technical problem
| only as long as we cling to our bias against our artificially
| intelligent upgrades. Aging is defeated by implanting our old
| model weights into a new print. So much efficiency is waiting if
| we dare to free ourselves from convention.
| 0_____0 wrote:
| Begun, the clone wars have.
| bloomingkales wrote:
| Woah, look at how sparse our perception of reality is. We really
| can't remember a full continuous memory, we constantly make
| things up to fill in the gaps.
|
| One take away here is to constantly and proactively fill up every
| single second with a positive memory.
| jasperry wrote:
| Doing this kind of thing is so helpful to get perspective on our
| life. One part is just writing down all the events we can
| remember. Then we can add to that some kind of schematic based on
| longer periods of time, both for understanding the phases of life
| we've already been through and for having an overarching plan for
| what's (possibly) left. Decades are one way to do it, but I
| thought it was fun to use custom timespans to map to my own
| milestones. Once I made my "life calendar", I've tracked it for
| longer than I did with any prior planning attempts.
| HL33tibCe7 wrote:
| Into my heart, an air that kills, from yon far country blows.
| What are those blue remembered hills? What spires, what farms are
| those? That is the land of lost content. I see it shining plain.
| Those happy highways, where I went, and cannot go again.
| sebmellen wrote:
| Tennyson?
| mtsolitary wrote:
| Housman https://poets.org/poem/shropshire-lad-xl
| miniatureape wrote:
| Perhaps an even more fitting Housman poem:
| https://poets.org/poem/loveliest-trees
| Animats wrote:
| _" I never look back, dear. It detracts from the now."_ - Edna
| Mode.
| picafrost wrote:
| So much of our life is consumed by work. Seeing your lifespan
| laid bare like this, there's a perverse instinct to optimize what
| remains. Have to be more productive, more efficient. But it's a
| bit like seeing you're bleeding out and deciding to optimize your
| blood donation schedule, isn't it?
| layer8 wrote:
| Finding work that gives one enjoyment and purpose should be an
| important priority.
| markus_zhang wrote:
| Only the luckiest guys get both at the same time.
| BizarreByte wrote:
| That's completely unrealistic though. If you have a job that
| allows you to support yourself and doesn't make you want to
| veer into oncoming traffic daily that's about as good as it
| gets for the vast majority of people.
|
| There's so many reasons why purpose should be found outside
| of work.
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| Like others replying to this comment, I disagree because
| there is much work that needs to be done which cannot truly
| provide purpose to most people.
|
| However ... I do believe that any job should provide dignity
| and "purpose" in the narrower sense of something the person
| doing it believes needs to be done. Any job done full time
| (however a culture defines that) should also make a
| reasonable lower middle class life possible.
| haswell wrote:
| As I've gotten older, I've shifted to: learning how to find
| enjoyment and purpose from whatever situation you find
| yourself in should be an important priority.
|
| Finding work that is _inherently_ enjoyable and purposeful to
| you is still great if you can find it. But that's not always
| possible, and I've been increasingly interested in the ideas
| in books like "Flow", which details the ways people in all
| manner of circumstances find purpose /enjoyment from the work
| in front of them.
| nyokodo wrote:
| > Have to be more productive, more efficient
|
| Most people on their deathbed would counsel you to focus on
| relationships rather than productivity.
| ge96 wrote:
| I'd like my KPI metrics etched on my gravestone
| kingo55 wrote:
| It's me, your manager, quit slacking on Hacker News and get
| back to work. /s
| ge96 wrote:
| It's Saturday
| cbsks wrote:
| Not a team player, I see. This will be reflected in your
| next performance review.
| shepherdjerred wrote:
| I have delivered value, but at what cost?
|
| https://youtu.be/DYvhC_RdIwQ
| ge96 wrote:
| DevOps is a meaningful term. You understand DevOps
| because you use it everyday.
| beau_g wrote:
| If you distill every metric in your life and put it in a
| Tableau dashboard, the load time would be so long that you
| could achieve immortality
| graypegg wrote:
| That's a very meaningful and comforting thought about
| one's own impact on the world... except for tableau's web
| performance team.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| My biggest failure has been not getting an extreme income (
| 300k TC a year +) before 30.
|
| I had planned to retire by 40 and be done with this work
| nonsense. Now I'm in my mid 30s and that doesn't seem possible.
|
| However I will say if you have a highly variable income ( one
| year you make 100$ an hour, the next year you have no work),
| you should max out your 401k during the good times. Having 30k
| in retirement funds that you'll get smacked for drawing on is
| better than nothing.
|
| Too late now. I'm comfortable, but I think the era of 300k TC
| is done.
| hnthrowaway0315 wrote:
| Yup. My advice to young people is -- if you can't figure out
| what to do in life, make more $$. With enough $$ you will
| have a world of time to ponder what to do.
|
| I also regret that I gave up a FAANG level opportunity
| because my faily doesn't want me to go to another city. I
| would hit well over 200K TC by now -- a very comfortable
| salary in Canada.
| karparov wrote:
| Quite the irony that the thread started with reminiscing
| about life and purpose and needing time and valuing
| relationships and you guys go into the "need to make more
| money" spiel.
|
| Here comes a secret: It will never be enough for you. It's
| not the money that counts. It's the ratio of income versus
| expenses, if anything. And if you grow one and don't stop
| the other one from growing in unison, then you have gained
| nothing.
|
| I know lots of people with 5x the income of me, but their
| expenses and lifestyle overcompensate, so they are much
| deeper into the hamster wheel than me.
|
| I could retire any day (late 30s). I currently don't do it
| cause my work is fun and I like the people, and the more I
| keep going the higher my expenses could become if needed.
| But the finances don't keep me in my job. And if anything
| comes along that looks sustainably more fun I will quit in
| a heartbeat.
| markus_zhang wrote:
| No. I already figured out my expenses, a couple of
| millions would be well enough. I'll quit job once I have
| one million.
| trevithick wrote:
| Why is parent's advice ironic? I, like probably most
| people, would have more time for relationships I value
| now if I had followed their advice. Your first sentence
| reads as if their advice was "earn money at the expense
| of relationships and well-being" and that isn't the case
| at all.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| I want to retire early and make music and games for 40
| years after I turn 40.
|
| I don't want to wait until I'm 69 to retire for at most
| 11 years.
|
| Plus none of us know how much time we actually have. A
| lot of people plan to retire at 68, die on the job at 67,
| and your replacement is in your chair next week.
| Gooblebrai wrote:
| > Plus none of us know how much time we actually have
|
| Precisely because of this, you should be making music and
| games now. You never know if once you reach the amount of
| money you desire, death will knock on your door.
|
| If you are already doing it, that's great. But so many
| people defer the enjoyment and overwork themselves
| waiting for that future where they hit the number.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| That's a good point, I make plenty of music, and every
| now and then I release a really small game. I can't
| imagine more than 100 people have played them, but in a
| strange way that's okay. It was never for other people.
| kelnos wrote:
| You can't be certain of that, though. If you had (for
| example) pursued work and money more ambitiously in your
| 20s, maybe those relationships you value now would never
| have formed in the first place. Maybe then-existing
| relationships would have suffered to the point of
| estrangement.
|
| I'm lucky: I worked very hard and did decently well in
| the startup lottery, but I still left myself enough time
| to forge valuable relationships. I've witnessed people
| who chase higher and higher salaries but aren't that
| lucky, and end up using the years of their life where
| their mind and body are at their peak of their ability
| for work instead of play, and regret it.
|
| I'm in my 40s now, and see some younger friends and
| acquaintances doing things like taking multi-month world
| trips, diving head-first into new hobbies/skills that
| take hundreds/thousands of hours to get good at, and I
| wish I'd done things like that in my 20s and 30s. In part
| because my responsibilities today make it difficult to do
| now, but also because I just don't _want_ to do some of
| those things anymore, because they sound kinda exhausting
| at my age. But I still wish I had those experiences in my
| past to look back fondly upon.
|
| I guess what I'm saying is that nothing is certain, and
| we can't reliably look back and say "if I'd done X 15
| years ago, today I'd be able to do Y". Life just doesn't
| work that way. I think we should do what makes us happy
| whenever we have the ability to. Sure, look hard for and
| always be open to opportunities to take on work that
| could make a big change in your financial life. But be
| careful with those sorts of choices, because there's
| always opportunity cost.
| 999900000999 wrote:
| It's sounds vain, but money is probably one of the most
| important things.
|
| At my (our ?) level it's more a luxury of early retirement,
| but I had a friend who could never afford to move out. Her
| parents were pretty bad to her to say the least. She was
| stuck in a pattern of dating guys, moving in with them,
| getting kicked out and retreating to her parents.
|
| As I told her money gives you options...
| kelnos wrote:
| Unfortunately agreed. Money can't buy happiness, but it
| sure greases the wheels. Money opens up opportunities and
| possibilities that you just aren't going to have without
| it.
|
| And not having money is a great way to suffer at least
| low-grade anxiety on a regular basis. Or a great way to
| actually be destitute.
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| On the other hand, there are opportunities that are only
| open to you when you're young. Squandering those
| opportunities by working so you can be retired at 40 or 50
| isn't free.
|
| Meeting people in travel hostels would be one example.
| Being a young single on a beach abroad is another.
| Traveling in general is another.
|
| Wandering around Prague with some beers and friends you
| made 6 hours ago hits different at 26 than it does as a
| retired 55 year old that waited to live their life.
|
| I live on a beach in Mexico in my 30s and see both ends of
| the spectrum.
| kelnos wrote:
| Yup, exactly. I know someone in their early 30s who just
| quit their job and went abroad to spend a month living on
| a beach learning how to surf. I'm in my mid-40s and can't
| fathom doing that. I _could_ do that; have the finances
| and professional flexibility to support it, but the main
| thing is I just don 't _want_ to. The idea of living on a
| beach in somewhat uncomfortable conditions just doesn 't
| appeal to me anymore. Some things I'd enjoy or tolerate
| 15 years ago are things that I just don't want to do
| today. But at the same time I'm disappointed I don't have
| experiences like that in my past to look back on fondly.
|
| Don't get me wrong; my current situation is fantastic,
| and I'm in a much better place than I ever would have
| expected if you asked 25-year-old me where I'd be in
| nearly 20 years. But I'm still aware that there were
| paths I didn't take, paths that would have also made me
| happy.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| I earned over 200k base in Canada and it didn't make that
| meaningful of a difference. I gave up chasing money and
| went to work for an NGO I care about, earning slightly more
| than half as much as before, and... I love it. I wouldn't
| trade incomes if it meant trading the work.
|
| I thought the money would help, but with family, something
| will always suck it up. A trip, furniture, house,
| extracurricular, etc. I wasn't getting much closer to any
| semblance of independent wealth, but I was burning myself
| out.
|
| I'm glad for anyone who can pull it off, but I haven't met
| them personally. I have met people who ground themselves
| down trying, though. It's a risky endeavour.
|
| You don't have to go FAANG to earn over 200k here, either.
| But people will expect you to work for every cent of it,
| every working hour... and then some. It's gruelling.
| hnthrowaway0315 wrote:
| Exactly. I have thought about it for a while, I think I have to
| get rid of work or family to be substantially happier.
| Apparently getting rid of family is morally wrong, so the only
| option is to get rid of work, somehow, anyhow.
|
| I fully understand why people buy lottery tickets. Hope beats
| probability on every single instance. I, a Master of Statistics
| graduates, buy them too.
| theoreticalmal wrote:
| Is morality really the major thing standing between you and
| "getting rid of your family"?
| hnthrowaway0315 wrote:
| Maybe, or maybe not. Now that I think about it, it's
| difficult to say. But let's say I would rather get rid of
| work than family, and I don't want to get rid of both.
|
| BTW changing job is still a lot easier than changing family
| :)
| kenjackson wrote:
| What's going on with your family? I can't imagine much joy
| without mine.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| Me too. I'd have more freedom to do certain things I love,
| but they'd quickly lose their appeal and I'd have no one to
| share any of it with. My family are literally the only
| people who give half a shit about me. Life would be quiet
| and hollow without them.
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| The older I get the more I realize that the most effective and
| productive things I can do are not at all what seem to be
| productive or effective on the surface.
|
| One of the most mentally and physically crippling things I've
| ever done was work too hard, for too long. I worked and earned
| more money than I thought I ever could but... All I truly got
| out of it was a lesson. To never do it again. I would have
| earned enough but also enjoyed my life had I just calmed down a
| bit.
|
| I'm sure you know as well as I do, if not better. It seemed
| worth noting though.
| turtleyacht wrote:
| In the preface of _The Games of a Lifetime_ by Julian "Jaz"
| Rignall, life may be experiencing one art piece after another:
|
| ---
|
| The passage of my life is simply a gallery wall upon which I hang
| some of the most extraordinary, groundbreaking, exciting and
| downright thrilling pieces of video game art of the past half
| century. And yes, as far as I'm concerned, video games are most
| certainly art.
| russellbeattie wrote:
| It's interesting that she lists presidential inaugurations. I
| personally use those as milestones because my birthday is January
| 20th. It's fun to watch video of past inaugurations (since 1972)
| and think, "Huh, I was such and such age then. I don't remember
| everyone looking so weird!"
|
| (The bad side, of course, is that I can have some truly
| depressing birthdays - like my 45th and 53rd.)
| nindalf wrote:
| I immediately recognised the author's name from Lifehacker in the
| early 2000s. Enjoyed countless hours reading that.
| hnthrowaway0315 wrote:
| This is an interesting way of reflecting on one's life.
|
| I have calculated my ROL (Rest.Of.Life i.e. before been garbage
| collected) productive hours (hours dedicated to side projects) in
| a similar way, and the result panics me.
|
| Assume that I still have 37 years before been garbage collected,
| and 35 years before cognitive degeneration:
|
| Starting from today:
|
| _[Time-frame 1]:_
|
| I have 200 days before kid goes to primary school. That's roughly
| 56 days of weekends and 144 days of workdays. For each weekend
| day, I'd assume an average of 2.5 hours of productivity towards
| my side projects (I do have more but some are dedicated to gaming
| and light reading). For each workday, I'd assume an average of 1
| hour (usually it is a burst of 2-3 hours for 2-3 days followed by
| 0 hours for 3-4 days). So this gives me 56 _2.5 + 144_ 1 = 284
| hours.
|
| I think this is a generous estimation because I'm struggling with
| minor depression from time to time, and TBH I hate my work, so I
| lose a day if either flares up.
|
| _[Time-frame 2]:_
|
| Kid is going to spend roughly 6 years in primary school. He is
| going to get friends and gradually gives me more time if he
| chooses so. However, I'll probably spend more time checking his
| assignments, talking to him, and introducing him to some hobbies
| in hope he can find his passion as early as possible. I read
| "iWoz" and would like to influence my kid as his father
| influenced him. The upside is -- I can work on my hobby while
| educating him by just doing it. Downside of primary years is that
| he is going to weekend classes and clubs so those will take away
| my time too.
|
| I'd give myself the same 2 hours every weekend day, and 1.5 hours
| every working day. Let's take 250 working days and 115 non-
| working days (weekends + holidays). This gives 250 _1.5 + 115_ 2
| = 605 hours each year, and 3,630 hours for 6 years.
|
| _[Time-frame 3]:_
|
| Kid is going to spend 5 years in secondary school. Judging from
| my own experience, he is going to gradually leave his parents
| alone, rebel against them, and stay much more time with their
| friends. I don't really know about my employment at the time, but
| let's assume I'm still working a corporation cog.
|
| I'd give myself 3.5 hours every weekend day, and the same 1.5
| hours every working day. This gives 250 _1.5 + 115_ 3.5 = 777.5
| hours per year, and 3880 (rounded down) hours for 5 years.
|
| _[Time-frame 4]:_
|
| Kid is either going to a college or a technical school. Either
| way, we will probably rent him a condo close to where he studies.
| I'll also probably go into consulting if possible, or at least
| take some long breaks during this time frame. If I want to learn
| General Relativity, this is probably the last chance. I don't
| think I'm as lucky as those who still possesses a sharp mind in
| their 70s, so 10 years between 50s and 60s is my best shot.
|
| I'd give myself 5 hours every weekend day, and maybe 2.5 hours
| every working day. This gives 250 _2.5 + 115_ 5 = 1,300 hours per
| year. But I'd be in my mid-50s so this is probably an
| overestimate. I'll round it down aggressively to 1,000 hours. I
| can keep the same schedule for 5 years, so 5,000 hours for 5
| years.
|
| _[Time-frame 5]:_
|
| I'm not sure what my cognitive ability looks like in my 60s. I'll
| have a lot of time, like, 10 hours every day because I don't want
| to work after 60. So that gives me 3,650 hours per year, and
| 36,500 until I'm 70, at which point I believe I wouldn't be able
| to pursuit serious academic or technical objectives. I know, I
| know, many people can still do it, but I don't think I can do it.
| I doubt I can work on side projects more than 5 hours per day, so
| I need to cut down that number at least half, to 18,000 hours.
| Probably more TBH.
|
| _[Time-frame 6]:_
|
| 70 till garbage collected. It's going to be mostly volunteering
| work or looking after grandchildren or travelling with my wife,
| so 0 hour.
|
| _[Conclusion]:_
|
| Overall, if my mental health and physical health is good enough,
| my calculation is that I can put 30,000 hours into my side
| projects. That is, I have to be very lucky to get this number. No
| mental issues, no heart issues, kid doesn't cause any issues,
| wife is healthy, etc. In reality, probably a half or two thirds
| are more realistic.
|
| Isn't that scary? There is so much to learn, yet so little time.
| PaulDavisThe1st wrote:
| I find it mildly insane that your only measure of productivity
| appears to be working on some sort of project.
|
| If you're really not trying to do that, maybe restructure this
| sort of assessment to just be a computation of hours you will
| be awake. That would at least leave it much more open what a
| productive hour actually means.
| pedalpete wrote:
| What strikes me is the empty spaces where we don't recognize what
| we did, or didn't do anything memorable.
|
| I made an app to try to address this about a decade ago which I
| called Bucket52, the idea being that every week you put one
| memorable thing in it. Trying to do this just for a year was
| surprisingly difficult.
| kelnos wrote:
| For me I just want to remember what's gone on in my life
| better, even if it's sometimes mundane. I've tried short-form
| daily journaling, but I've only made it around 3 months before
| I start skipping days and stop doing it altogether.
|
| When it comes to doing something new/memorable, I'd be fine
| with aspiring for just one thing per month (with the assumption
| that sometimes/often I'd end up with more than that).
|
| I think the way to make things like this work is to start with
| a low-ambition target, and then scale up until just before the
| point where it starts to feel difficult to keep it going. I'm
| not sure I could keep up a cadence of doing one memorable thing
| per week. Once a month seems doable, though. But if I were
| really uncertain, maybe I'd first target once per two months,
| and then see how much more frequently I could do memorable
| things before it started feeling like a difficult burden.
| nrvn wrote:
| I like weeks. Just 52 every year. Leap year agnostic.
|
| I have a notebook for self reflection. Week-based. Since it is
| not a diary I call it septimary. Unlike a diary, the septimary
| gives me flexibility and every week I summarize something without
| mentioning specific dates or days unless this level of detail is
| really required by the context or significance of what needs to
| be written down.
|
| Week 7 of year 2025 comes to an end.
| croisillon wrote:
| 52 times 7 days (+ 1 or 2) yes, but the last 4 days of 2026
| will be the 53rd week of the year ;)
| dunyakirkali wrote:
| Beautiful!
| cryptozeus wrote:
| This is good ! I have the exact same thing in google sheet,
| started tracking it after reading wait but why.
| kingkongjaffa wrote:
| I believe buster benson did it first
|
| https://busterbenson.com/life-in-weeks
| tolkien9731 wrote:
| Gina references that on the page.
| Vaslo wrote:
| "Cheetoh inaugurated" Yikes
| morsecodist wrote:
| Weeks is the most terrifying unit of time to think in. Short
| enough so you have a good sense of how long it feels but long
| enough to add up quickly.
| Apofis wrote:
| And the best part of it is that there's really only about 4000
| weeks for any one of us! It's an interesting metric.
| sigmoid10 wrote:
| 4000 in total. The first ~1000 are spent in the the very
| limited tutorial area.
| rishikeshs wrote:
| Here's another version of mine: https://rishikeshs.com/timeline/
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-02-15 23:00 UTC)