H265: Technical Overview - <AUTHOR> https://sonnati.wordpress.com/2014/06/20/h265-part-i-technical-overview/ <comment><USER2> It'll be interesting to see the adoption rate of h265/HEVC and whether it will actually take off since the licensing costs seem to be prohibitively expensive[1].

AV1 may wind up being the defacto winner because of this even if it means we have to wait longer before any transition occurs. We may wind up sticking to h264 and VP9 longer despite hardware already shipping with h265/HEVC support.

[1] [https://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/07/26/0149234/hevc- advance...](https://yro.slashdot.org/story/15/07/26/0149234/hevc-advance- announces-h265-royalty-rates-raises-some-hackles)

<comment><USER3> It has taken off among pirates alright.

(There is a noticeable battery life penalty for h265 content though)

<comment><USER4> I thought H265 was banned among most private trackers?

I know my private releases to friends are all H265, though they all use hardware that has native decoding (or is beefy enough to transcode from)

<comment><USER5> How common are native h265 decoders now? I've been curious when we would start to see stronger hardware support.

<comment><USER6> Most Samsung phones can do it. I know at least as early as the Note 4. HEVC is codec of choice for 360 video for the Gear environment due to its small file size. The Galaxy S7 can do 4K60 in HEVC. Although, VLC has a hard time playing these files on beefy PCs used to encode these files. My 4K/UHD LG SmartTV running WebOS from 2013/14 plays HEVC as well. The Netflix app handles their 4K streams with no problem.

There are just personal first hand knowledge examples.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> While we're discussing codecs that effectively obsolete the ones that came before, I thought I should mention the absolutely incredible Opus codec, which is interestingly based partly off the Skype codec. Basically you get equivalent quality to 'other' audio codecs but using up half the space.

[http://opus-codec.org/](http://opus-codec.org/)

<comment><USER8> Opus is so much better than any lossy audio codec that came before that I wonder if it will be the "ultimate" audio codec. I'm sure minor improvements will continue to be made but it does feel like we're pushing the limits of lossy compression at this point.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> Funny how interesting comments always end up on the front page a day or two later. Happens on Reddit all the time too.

This one is because of this comment: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12872108](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12872108)

</comment><comment><USER10> The massive increase in the number of choices the encoder has to make (and correspondingly, the decoder to follow) is the main reason why H.265 requires so much more processing power than H.264, and H.264 compared to previous standards as well. The intra prediction modes (33 directions!) are a good example of this.

That said, if you actually get the standard and look at the section on the intra prediction modes, how to compute them is spelled out in very detailed pseudocode.

<comment><USER11> Also expensive is using CABAC, which is much slower (for better compression ratio). H.264 allowed used a faster coder called CAVLC.

There are two ways to interpret this: either low-powered devices have become much stronger, or h.264 is just not supporting some classes of devices.

<comment><USER2> I believe CABAC in h265/HEVC should be faster than CABAC in h264/AVC. If you produced CABAC for h264 and h265 with all things being equal you should actually gain in decoding speed moving to h265.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Another technical overview: [http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=167081](http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=167081)

Edit: Just realised IshKebab linked to my comment linking to doom9 in yesterday's h264 thread.

<comment><USER13> Off topic, but:

Really nice to seem doom9 mentioned. Doom9 is one of those places that I used to frequent a lot. That knowledge saved me a lot of learning in university :)

Sadly also one of those places where I forgot both the password to my account and the gmx email doesn't exist anymore. It's a shame, the account is from 2001.

</comment></comment><comment><USER14> This was a very fascinating writeup. Video codecs are still sorcery to me, but I was kind of blown away by how many individual operations are employed in shedding redundancy. I kind of assumed that there was a single flat algorithm being employed, not a dozen or so special case optimizations that by some stroke of magic play so nicely together.

<comment><USER15> If you're curious about this sort of thing, you can play with [http://aomanalyzer.org/](http://aomanalyzer.org/) which is a tool that lets you inspect AV1 (AOM/VP9) bit streams.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> I've no knowledge of this kind of stuff but what's the big difference between h265 and VP9?

<comment><USER17> On the technology side of things, h265 and VP9 are both attempting to further increase compression efficiency so that we can deliver super high resolutions, wide color gamuts, and bit depths greater than 8. These features are very difficult to achieve with wide compatibility when utilizing h264 and VP8.

More generally, h265 and VP9 can be seen as competitors in the same space, but with some meaningful differences in philosophy. VP9 is a royalty-free codec developed by Google. The VPx series of codecs all stem from the work of the On2 company, which Google acquired specifically so that it could get into the video codec space.

h265 is patent-protected by a number of parties who are chilling the adoption and rollout of this new codec. As a result, VP9 has seen some rapid adoption by both hardware and software manufacturers lately. If you work in digital video today, the likelihood is that you will need to support both codecs in your processing stack and delivery pipelines.

Other interesting developments in this space include the Daala codec in development by the Xiph Foundation (responsible for Ogg Vorbis, Theora, and the wonderful Opus audio codec) and the Thor codec in development by Cisco and their tech partners. Both are aiming to be next-generation royalty-free codecs for distribution of even smaller, and even prettier videos.

<comment><USER18> It is also important to mention AV1 ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOMedia_Video_1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOMedia_Video_1)) which is meant to replace VP9 and compete against H.265.

<comment><USER19> Looking at AV1, it looks almost too good to be true.

Just about everyone onboard, including hardware manufacturers, patent unencumbered, free, and looks to be a very capable format.

So what are some of the downsides? What are some of its issues?

<comment><USER20> One issue is that it's a prototype with planned future greatness. It's tricky to reach H265 compression ratio without touching patented methods. Even if they reach it, by that time H265 will probably have well-optimized encoders/decoders, so there will be major speed differences. Still a worthy effort of course.

<comment><USER21> H.265 already has realtime 4kp60 10-bit encoder boxes out there, multiple hardware decoder and encoder IPs. This race started back in 2012 or earlier. Existing chips in consumer devices trounces every H.264 encoder out there: [http://compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/hevc_2016/MSU_H...](http://compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/hevc_2016/MSU_HEVC_comparison_2016_free.pdf) Which is not the case for any encoder of VPx ascent.

It's easy to project hopes into something that doesn't exist yet. But this contender is coming late.

<comment> TD-Linux Afaik every phone made in the last year has a VP9 hardware decoder.

<comment><USER22> I know the iPhone 6, 6s, and 7 all have hardware h.265, and use it for FaceTime for example for many years. I can not locate evidence that they have VP9.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> I hope it won't get a wide adoption of H.264. We need free codec alternative, instead of locking everyone into this closed / patented codec for years to come.

What's the story with Daala + Thor aka NETVC and Alliance for Open Media plans? When do they plan to make their codec production ready?

<comment><USER24> They are targeting having the format frozen by March 2017.

[http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured- Ar...](http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured- Articles/A-Progress-Report-The-Alliance-for-Open-Media-and-the- AV1-Codec-110383.aspx)

<comment><USER23> _> So how will contributions from Google's VP10, Mozilla's Daala, or Cisco's Thor be represented in AV1? Gabe Frost explained, "The baseline code in the AV1 project represents where the lion's share of investment came from before the investment," essentially indicating that code from VP10, by far the most mature of the three, will dominate. Frost indicated that AV1 will contain some of the best ideas and features of both Daala and Thor._

So will Mozilla continuing developing Daala? And what about NETVC? How does it correlate to AV1?

<comment><USER25> Daala will continue to be developed but as a research testbed.

<comment><USER23> Does it mean they didn't manage to advance Daala to needed quality to make it production ready?

<comment><USER25> I don't think so, if we are to believe arewecompressedyet.com, Daala is on par with x265 quality-wise. But they are now sharing their technologies to make Alliance for Open Media's AV1, the next gen patent free codec. They've been talks about using Daala as a still image codec but I don't know if it's gonna happen or not.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> It's totally random but I read a paper in ML with the same kind of decomposition for the picture. Does someone know it by some chance? I think it was linked to group theory.

<comment><USER27> Is anything _not_ linked to group theory?

<comment><USER26> Ya I just have a few memories of it. Sorry I can't help much... Thank you though.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Can someone here estimate how valuable modern video codecs are? Everybody needs them but development is super expensive and requires many bright minds.

<comment><USER29> Extremely valuable. Most of the traffic on the web is video. Youtube / NetFlix / torrents / porn.

H265/HEVC lets you halve the traffic while keeping the quality the same. That's a big deal.</comment></comment>


How to embed HTML5 into a native Mac OSX app - <AUTHOR> http://blog.lostdecadegames.com/how-to-embed-html5-into-a-native-mac-osx-app

<comment><USER2> Best of all, you can submit those apps to the Mac App Store. (I have. Great compromise.)

<comment><USER3> So I guess that puts you one level above "casual spammer." How do you sleep at night?

<comment><USER2> No. The app is just as legit as my iOS version: <http://subdivideapp.com/>

There's nothing inherently spammy about writing a Mac app in HTML.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> Embed "Webkit".

HTML5 is not a browser viewport.

</comment><comment><USER5> Wouldn't this make it easier than ever to illegally distribute the app? Show Package Contents -> copy and paste files?

<comment><USER6> The alternative is just security through obscurity.</comment></comment>


Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert - <AUTHOR> https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thesundayedition/the-sunday-edition-for-june-14-2020-1.5604357/there-s-a-reason-we-procrastinate-and-it-s-not-laziness-1.5604433 <comment><USER2> Words of warning from a not so young (36) chronic procrastinator with a rather messed up life: Take it seriously. I'm not talking about reading HN in your 7th work hour when doing stupid Excel sheets. I'm talking about messing up years and years of your life. I believe it's a symptom of some deeper issues and it won't go away from alone. Lack of sleep, stress, work overload, information overload amplify the effects but once it crept into your life outside of work it really can wreak havoc. Simple things start to become complicated and you are in a constant negative feedback loop. The worst is that you procrastinate not only work but rather your own existence because you'll constantly attempt to catch up but just can't.

At the moment doing pomodoro and putting everything in kanban charts and devide&conquer seem to work somewhat. I don't really have any clever advice beyond that, it just sucks.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, agreed. For me avoidance of _tasks_ was just the visible problem; the root was avoidance of _feelings_.

I don't really struggle with procrastination much any more, but it took all sorts of work that would have seemed apparently unrelated to me. E.g., a regular sleep schedule is really helpful, and that required an automated lighting system that helps me keep in sync with the sun. Regular cardio helps keep my baseline anxiety level much lower. Meditation, therapy, medication, food choices, and an awful lot of introspection and self-experimentation were necessary. And time, just a lot of time to unwind the bad habits and bad associations.

I get that it feels hopeless sometimes, but I hope you'll continue. Note that you can't catch up if your baseline is some arbitrary standard. But the right way to measure it is improvement from where you are now. Then there's no "catching up". There's just today, and whether you're going to make things better by one day's worth.

<comment><USER4> > E.g., a regular sleep schedule is really helpful, and that required an > automated lighting system that helps me keep in sync with the sun.

Wouldn't letting the curtains open achieve the same thing?

<comment><USER5> Depending on your location (urban or rural) having your curtains open could expose other light sources (street or car lights) and make it harder to get to sleep.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Well, the difficult emotion is often some form of fear. Fear of failing, of making a mistake, in some cases, of making the problem worse. All of these fears are in a fundamental sense legitimate, but the direct solution is, insofar as it is possible, to prepare and practice.

The alternative is to tackle something _even harder_ that includes the thing you want to make as a special case. This is a recent discovery of mine. The pressure of accomplishing the bigger, harder thing can often drive you to simply knock out the smaller thing to get it out of the way, and that's often good enough.

There's an apocryphal story in rabbinical lore about a farmer who's frustrated that his home is so noisy that he can't sleep. The Rabbi sympathizes and tells the farmer to invite another animal into his home night after night. The farmer gets more frantic, angry even that this "solution" isn't working. Then the rabbi tells the farmer to remove all the animals, and the farmer, now in peace and quiet, could fall soundly asleep. The solution above is the same: you don't eliminate the fear, you replace it with a greater fear such that the original fear doesn't seem to matter!

<comment><USER7> > The alternative is to tackle something even harder that includes the thing > you want to make as a special case.

This is the main operating principle of [http://www.structuredprocrastination.com](http://www.structuredprocrastination.com)

<comment><USER8> After reading that article a while back, I started making longer to-do lists. I found that it's hard for me to do a task on a three item to-do list. But if my list has 20 items, it's somehow easier to pick an item from the middle of the list and bang it out.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> I always read here and there people commenting about certain tips not working well on their own procrastination issues. My experience is no different.

Some months ago I wrote about how procrastination had harmed my life. I was going through a lot. Thankfully, things have hugely improved since then. Step by step, I'm getting my life together.

Way before my ex-wife left me, I had been reading some books on the subject. I had already identified the emotional nature of my procrastination, but I was still struggling to find a solution.

If I could give one advice to people who are facing very bad cases of procrastination, that would be: if you have the chance, get some psychotherapy. That was instrumental in my recovering.

My case had a complex emotional background. The extreme pressure I was putting over myself. The insanely huge goals I had established. My inclination to define my own value as a person based solely on my intellectual accomplishments. Everything mixed together. Overwhelming.

Don't get me wrong, the books helped. But mine was too complex a case and some personalized advice was needed.

<comment><USER10> "The extreme pressure I was putting over myself. The insanely huge goals I had established. My inclination to define my own value as a person based solely on my intellectual accomplishments. Everything mixed together. Overwhelming."

Thank you for writing, this really jives with my experience. I would read HN or various articles or do "fun" work to get dopamine hits, but the reality my psychotherapist revealed was that I internalized a lot of external pressures/expectations to do X Y Z in my career. It led to me resigning my job as an SQL/R programmer in February...bright-eyed looking for the next position...

And now I'm unemployed, so things are going super.

<comment><USER9> Thanks for sharing this. I'm glad that you looked for a therapy. We are all going through tough times regarding jobs and economy, but I'm pretty sure you'll be OK. Stay safe and don't let the present times let you down, things are going to be normal again soon.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> > Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says > expert

I love this tagline! I think this is as accurate as one can get about why we procrastinate, in one sentence.

\---

> What research has indicated across a wide variety of studies is that it is > an emotion regulation situation.

So CBT, meditation and similar things might help. I'd like to see studies on that.

Hypothesis:

emotion regulation (bad) --> coping (none-existent) --> procrastination

emotion regulation (bad) --> coping (e.g. mindfulness or CBT) --> less procrastination

\---

> What's the song of the procrastinator: "I don't want to, I don't feel like > it," and usually there's the chorus of: "I'll feel more like it tomorrow."

That's a very playful way to phrase a characterization: what's the song of. I'm stealing it ;-)

<comment><USER12> " > Procrastination is driven by our desire to avoid difficult emotions, says expert"

That makes sense for some procrastination, but other procrastination is laziness.

Mopping the floor, taking out the garbage, mowing the lawn types of procrastination... those are under your own purview and don't involve big emotions or decisions...

So I think it explains some kinds of procrastination but not all.

<comment><USER13> It's not about just doing the dishes, it's about the sum of all the other chores and things you have to do. It's overwhelming in its entirety, not the individual tasks.

When they look at the washing up a procrastinator doesn't _just_ see the washing up, they also see that they have to do a laundry, fix the cupboard creak, do a full clean of the cupboards, clean under the fridge, wash the floors, dust the cobwebs, fix the dripping tap, take out the recycling, decide what to do with those old jars, etc., etc.

Even if they do eventually manage to do a flurry of chores, and usually feel great, it's not a habit to do it again. It's not a scheduled minor, automatic, task. Your brain deals with habits much easier than things you have to consciously do.

So it inadvertently builds up, and BAM, as if from nowhere, there's a massive pile of washing up with a whole load of OTHER tasks mentally attached to it again.

You see it as easy and lazinness, but we don't. The irony is that living like this is actually a lot harder, you're having to ultimately put more work in for often worse results.

<comment><USER14> > _When they look at the washing up a procrastinator doesn 't just see the > washing up, they also see that they have to do a laundry, fix the cupboard > creak, do a full clean of the cupboards, clean under the fridge, wash the > floors, dust the cobwebs, fix the dripping tap, take out the recycling, > decide what to do with those old jars, etc., etc_

This reminds me: is there a word to describe a related phenomenon, that I find incredibly frustrating? It goes as follows: say I want to take a one minute break to fetch myself some coffee. I go to the kitchen, find the dishwasher running and no clean cup, so I have to clean one myself. I do that, then discover I have to refill the water and the beans in the coffee machine. I make the coffee, and the machine flashes red. The dredgewater bin is full. I need to pour it out and clean it. I get dirty and coffee-smelly, so I want to wash my hands. Doing that, I use the last bit of soap in the dispenser, so now I have to fetch the 5L jug and carefully refill it. By this time, what started as a one-minute break turned into 10 minutes of chores, and I'm already anxious about getting back to work.

Some form of the story above happens to me pretty much every other day. Is there a name for this kind of unexpected recursive expansion of chores?

<comment><USER15> Yak shaving is a term I use when I run into a chain of tasks.

[https://www.hanselman.com/blog/YakShavingDefinedIllGetThatDo...](https://www.hanselman.com/blog/YakShavingDefinedIllGetThatDoneAsSoonAsIShaveThisYak.aspx)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fnfeuoh4s8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fnfeuoh4s8)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> I have had a weird relationship with procrastination, I find I get more appropriate work done when I'm exhausted. When I have no energy it will take all my concentration to stick to the job at hand but I do stick to it, when I have plenty of energy my monkey brain gets distracted easier. I've also found the the GTD technique of breaking items into smaller tasks, setting a next action and make sure the action starts with a verb helps.

<comment> sjm-lbm Same.

My interpretation is a little different, though: I think that a lot of my emotional struggle with procrastination is some fear of creating something less than perfect (or, for that matter, at least less than what I'm capable of). When exhaustion and/or stress over a _very near_ deadline override that, I end up tossing something together.. and in the clear light of the next day, I usually find what whatever I did is at least a good start at whatever I need to do.

As a side note, I've also found that setting a next action helps - I usually take it a step further and make sure it's a simple and/or easy action, though. Very often, without intentionally making sure to save something easy, I'll knock out anything simple that's in line with what I've been doing. If something is complex enough to think "well, that will take a long time, this is a good stopping point" it's _also_ a task that will be harder to get started whenever I come back to what I'm doing.

<comment><USER17> So your interpretation is kind of based on fear?

Like, you want to to your work perfectly, because otherwise ... will happen?

You procrastinate so that you have to finish the work on the last hour and then can tell yourself that you did not use your full potential, so that no one can judge you (as they did not see the full potential), because otherwise ... would happen?

<comment><USER18> I'm not sure if you mean to, but you sound a bit dismissive.

It seems exactly like the kind of habits complex emotional creatures like humans develop. And it's not nearly as bad a habit as some other stuff, like addiction etc, which most people do understand. Even though the effects on ones life can be just as catastrophic.

<comment><USER17> I am sorry. I did not mean to sound dismissive. I was just observing.

I guess the strongest emotion is fear which "motivates" us. And one should verify whether some actions are based on fear and how it influences our lives. And maybe now this is only procrastination. But as the previous commenter said, one had to watch out for themselves.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> Sometimes comments like "Oh I'm procrastinating by reading this article while at work (at my successful software engineering job)" seem a little insensitive. It's like telling a blind man "Yeah, I close my eyes too sometimes".

<comment><USER20> I'm not sure what you mean, it's not like procrastinating is a mental disorder or permanent disability like being blind. If you are avoiding work that you need to be doing then by definition you are procrastinating, career success has nothing to do with it.

It's not like it's insensitive to say you are anxious about something minor when there exists people with more severe anxiety problems. It's just the name of a symptom.

<comment><USER21> I'm fairly sure the author means that if you're still able to maintain a more or less demanding job and all the social obligations thereof, the degree of your suffering is nowhere near as serious as it could be. Take for instance someone suffering from debilitating/easily triggered mental breakdowns/ seizures.

You may think that these conditions are not strongly related to procrastination, I can argue against that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> At the risk of being a bad trope, if you're struggling with the emotional half of things I would recommend therapy.

Even if you don't "discover" something traumatic in your past that explains everything, having someone to explain your feelings to often does wonders for your emotional well being in general. A lot of therapists will also specialize in procrastination, and may have extra strategies that help.

<comment><USER23> I highly recommend therapy. Generally, men in the US find it difficult to seek out help. Often they think it's a failing and avoid it, especially in the context of relationships. Therapy is something you could almost do for yourself, if you could work out the puzzle. Therapy can do wonders at breaking the initial problem and giving you some things you can work on.

Therapists can also provide useful inputs for career and work optimization. They get treated as mental health problem solvers, but you may get more optimization out of therapy than attending a conference or doing something that's traditional for career development.

Finding the right therapist takes some effort. Don't expect it to help initially. Do some education on the kinds of things they treat and mental health in general. I suffer from anxiety, but I never made that connection before.

<comment><USER24> Practically speaking, what would a therapiat tell me that I can't find or learn on my own?

<comment><USER22> If you're extremely self reflective; nothing.

For most of us, a therapist can tell you a lot of things that you could observe about yourself but won't admit to. Most people have a blind spot the size of themselves.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER25> Its interesting, I never really thought about it like this. In high school I was an extreme procrastinator. Avoiding the boredom of doing the task is certainly part of it, everything was too easy. But when I know I can finish an assignment in two hours the night before its due, why would I ever start it early? There was no benefit to completing things early. But, there was always a high from getting away with procrastinating to the last minute. Just like that rush from solving a hard programming problem. Essentially I experienced a reward for procrastinating, and was always chasing that. At least that is how it felt to me.

But eventually, after some time not doing so well at college because of this, I ended up joining the Marine Corps. Since then, I have been much less of a procrastinator. Not really because my motivation or anything changed, its entirely because my tolerance for uncomfortable situations and tasks went way way up. So this explanation actually makes sense to me once I really consider it.

<comment><USER8> I had the same high school - college experience as you. HS was easy to pull off with no work and last minute efforts. Then it caught up with me in college. Instead of the Marines, I did a restart at a lesser college, and ended up becoming friends with a group of dudes who had had the same exact experience. I think part of it is related to the growth/fixed mindset theory.

</comment></comment><comment><USER26> My solution is similar (breaking down the problem), the cause is - at least partially - different.

If I am procrastinating in software development or research it is

(1) for complexity reasons, (2) for foreseeable vast grunt work I have already done and solved in the past.

Example (1): I have to choose between at least two fundamental different ways to get ahead in writing software. I know that implications come late, wasted time can be a lot. I will often pause until it comes to me.

Example (2): Writing a new library in Julia, when I covered the topic in Python or C++ years ago, but cannot directly reuse it, the whole thing intensifies when it has already been done in several incarnations. Becomes more and more difficult ("been there, done that") with age, especially if the occasion is determined from outside. The same applies to research which requires a larger amount of knowledge from the past that needs to be reactivated.

(2) could be attributed to negative emotions (boredom, and yes, even laziness), but (1) is different, more a search for an optimal strategy prior to the start, because the cost for doing otherwise could be prohibitive. It is simply unwillingness in decision-making (too early).

<comment> and-hi I'm familiar with your (1) and I think it fits extremely well with the negative emotion explanation.

At least for me, making a difficult decision that might have far-reaching consequences can be very uncomfortable if I don't have all the information. And it can be very easy to procrastinate because I tell myself that more information might be available in the future (even when that is clearly not true).

So, it's not so much that I search for an optimal strategy and more that I know there isn't one and I don't want to bite the bullet yet and make a decision.

<comment><USER27> My brain latches onto the few examples where it did pay off, though. "Imagine if I would've started earlier - all that work I did would've been completely _wasted_."

In reality, that work probably wouldn't have been completely wasted, and even then, I certainly wouldn't be any further behind on the project if I'd done it instead of slacking off.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Also there is a thin line between procrastination and brutal prioritization. I often feel that procrastination ping and think to myself, is this really the next most important thing for me to do? Often times it is not, and once in a while it is. A lot of my work is creative in nature and forcing the creative process when you're blocked is not always a good use of time. There is a balance between deadline, now and the time it comes to you with a force that screams to leave your body. The trick is understanding yourself and being honest, am I putting this off because it's too fuzzy, not clear what the next step is etc? or is it just brutal prioritization?

Also note that I've changed roles quite a bit in my life and when I delete the final TODO list I look back at the things I did not get done. It's as informative to review your accomplishments as it is your failures, but also what you never got around to doing. Often that last category will make me laugh "look at all those stupid things I thought were important"... rm -f TODO

And as I tell people all the time, the day after you die there will be more email in your inbox. If you focus on emptying your inbox your life will be empty when you leave. But your inbox will still be filling up.

<comment><USER29> > A lot of my work is creative in nature and forcing the creative process when > you're blocked is not always a good use of time.

Yeah I gotta agree with this. Sometimes it's like you are trying to walk through a wall and it's just not working. Our subconscious tells us "this is not working, try something else". Now the dysfunctional reaction is to pass time waiting for the wall to collapse under its own weight. And the "correct" solution is to search for a door. But the tricky thingy is we may not realize on a conscious level that the wall is even there or that the wall is the reason we are passing time.

</comment></comment><comment><USER30> > We believed that it was poor time management and that if we just worked a > bit harder and had more self-discipline, we could do the job

It's frustrating that the "experts" still see things this way. As if it's some moral defect that people are too lazy to overcome.

Can't stop procrastinating? "Just work a little harder and get started already"

Depressed? "Just cheer up and get over it."

Addicted to drugs? "Just look at the negative consequences and stop using them"

I guess I could see this article as a step in the right direction, but it's still frustrating to see how the casual stigmatization of behavioral health and its symptoms continues to linger.

</comment><comment><USER31> >'Just get started'? If I could just get started then I wouldn't have a procrastination problem." I thought: fair enough.

This never worked for me. I write one sentence or do the small task and then I go off and do something else. Perhaps it's due to my (bad) habit of context- switching but either way I've never benefited much from this approach despite often trying it.

<comment><USER32> I am exactly the same, though ADHD medication has helped tremendously in this respect. Terrible context switching, not lack of attention, is the bane of my existence.

Have you ever had a test?

<comment><USER31> >Have you ever had a test?

At university a councilor (or similar) said they believe I have ADHD but it was near the end of a school year so nothing came out of it.

For what is worth, I've tried most common adhd meds on my own and while they definitely they also ruin my sleep so I am not convinced that going through the hassle of getting an official diagnosis will help all that much.

<comment><USER32> I agree, it's definitely a difficult balance to strike.

I found that even small amounts of stimulant medication does help even if it's not super obvious in the moment, and the upside is that it doesn't interfere with sleep too much, but I try hard not to make a habit out of it. Sleep, above all else, is the best predictor of my mood / productivity / physical health.

I try not to take anything after about noon, though. This is especially true about caffeine, for me. I might get a crash in the late afternoon, but it's a price worth paying for a good night's sleep.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER33> Just want to say that if someone here truly has tried to overcome procrastination, but still fails, try to get screened for ADD/ADHD.

Even though it's a condition that is also quite over diagnosed, it's simultaneously a condition that's underdiagnosed IMO - it really depends on where you're looking / sampling. A lot of kids fly under the radar, because they don't show any obvious signs, even more so those with ADD / non- hyperactive.

<comment><USER34> It also gets progressively worse, adult AD(spectrum) can be life ruining. I wish it was more recognized and I wish it was easier to get medication/treatment. The side effects are nothing compared to half a life wasted.

<comment><USER33> Yes, it's quite sad. For a lot of adults, their lives don't really start until they've been diagnosed, and gotten on some treatment - usually a medication that works for them. Lots of these people have tried and failed school, tried and failed jobs, etc.

But then the bricks fall in their place, and they can try to redo all that. Unfortunately, by that time, a lot of doors have been closed - especially if you want to work in tech or professional industries.

Now, I'm not trying to scare posters, but it's much better to get that stuff figured out before you've gone too long to make lasting damage, both to your own health, and to your professional life.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER35> This may be true for some forms of procrastination, but there's one kind in particular that has a much cleaner and more precise story behind it. Your intuitive task planning system will simply _refuse_ to go down paths that it _knows_ has a reward-to-effort ratio incompatible with long-term flourishing. Instead, it will prune that task planning process in favor of either something known to be of higher value, or some strategy that it believes will help find high-value tasks. Modelling procrastination this way explains several phenomena:

1\. The "honeymoon period" of organizational methods. This is simply the period of time where your intuitive task-planning system hasn't figured out that your new organizational method is generating insufficiently rewarding plans. Once you learn that it has you tilting at windmills, the honeymoon "ends" as the system itself gets pruned for something easier or novel enough that it might be more effective.

2\. The unreasonable effectiveness of breaking things down into simple steps. Every piece of uncertainty and risk that your plan has to overcome adds to the amount of expected reward necessary to successfully motivate the effort. Listing out simple, well-understood steps significantly reduces the sense of venturing into the unknown, and the lower perceived risk directly affects your short-term willingness to engage in the process.

3\. The loop people often get stuck in of closing a social media feed (eg, reddit), only to re-open it 30 seconds later. When you don't have a good short-term plan, finding something interesting is the "default". Competition between social media sites has generated several highly popular super-stimuli for this niche.

<comment><USER36> the downside of knowing more than one language is I have access to too many social media sites. The pull is insane.

</comment></comment><comment><USER37> Whenever I do something. I assume that it's going to be a business failure. That helps me to avoid procrastination which could otherwise arise out of a fear of failure. Business success is not within my own control so everything I do needs to have a "fallback purpose".

Everything I do is at once a business opportunity, a learning experience and a technical stepping stone which I can re-use for future projects. All of my work builds on top of my previous work and I constantly combine it with other people's work. This strategy is failure-proof and it stops procrastination. I've been doing it for almost 10 years. It does get a bit closer to business success every time. You have to set yourself up for success and sometimes that requires redefining success.

<comment><USER38> Thank you for sharing this perspective, it really resonated with me. I've always struggled with procrastination at a moderate level, but the last 6 months or so have been especially bad.

I had worked my heart out on a project that the business decided not to pursue. It killed me, all my time was wasted, business was fucking up, would have to re-do all this work in subpar tools etc. As I got moved onto a new project, it has been insanely hard to get motivated to work on it.

Just assuming that it will be a business failure again... it relieves a lot of pressure off me. And you are right - at this scale I have almost no say on whether the business decides to run with it or not, so why worry about it?

<comment><USER37> I know the feeling. I think this is one of the major challenges of working for a big company, there is no sense of ownership over the project and you usually can't reuse that code for your own purposes later.

I highly recommend working for an open source company if possible. I find it motivating to think that some people I've never met from a future generation could pick up ideas from my work and continue the mission.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER39> Ritalin.

Yepp went from a very bad grade to a very good grade.

You can't tell me its about 'avoiding negative emotions' if i have prepared my learning desk with everything i need, cleaned it, etc. then i open the book and i literlay can't learn.

That wall is much easier to break with ritalin.

Is that shitty? Probably. Is it healthy? Probably not. But it brought me much further then before and i'm pretty sure that through that i have more habbits which stay without ritalin.

<comment><USER40> Ritalin suppresses some of those deeper emotions. It also gives you additional rewarding feelings for completing tasks here and now. Unless you have ADHD due to genetic factors then imo it's just a mask over the real emotional issue. A very effective and useful one but still a temporary measure.

<comment><USER41> I view Ritalin and Adderall as a performance enhancer. I have never seen a biological study proving ADHD except perhaps some EEG. Virtually everyone I have known prescribed amphetamines abused them.

(Anecdotal warning) And my ex roommate was a large prescriber of Adderall. He would see patients for 3 minutes. He had 3 homes (one an $8m condo) and drove a matte black Lamborghini Aventador. He was way overweight and dressed like Mick Jagger on LSD. That's the type of person diagnosing ADHD at least in Los Angeles.

<comment><USER32> That view is actually both extremely common, and very dangerous for the people genuinely suffering from ADHD symptoms, like myself.

Many years of misery could've been avoided had I not met people that thought this way, earlier in life.

<comment><USER42> Yeah, I'm still struggling with taking this seriously for myself. Not only am I contending with the inevitable procrastination of setting an appointment with a doctor, but there's also a chunk of my brain screaming, "don't tell anyone, everyone will think you're a druggy, adhd is bullshit!"

<comment><USER39> I have to remind myself to take ritalin.

I get it through subscription, so no black market or shit and i'm still not taking it every day

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER43> Looks like I'm late the party but I submitted a YouTube video talking about this as "The Wall of Awful" emotions and experiences you need to get through in order to start a task that has negative emotions associated with it. It totally changed how I approached my procrastination by simply asking myself "why" I was avoiding a task.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo08uS904Rg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo08uS904Rg)

<comment><USER44> Just supporting this since I was going to share it too but searched and found yours first. It is related to ADHD but I think applies to everyone to some degree.

The part about conflating emotion and time (in the follow up) really gets to me. How he says mowing the lawn is "an all day project" simply because it's been built up to feel that way.

</comment></comment><comment><USER45> For me the biggest help has been David D. Burns (the author of feeling good) technique called the TIC-TOC technique(1).

It's basically like a Pros and Cons list but targeted to cure procrastination but identifying the cognitive distortions in the TICs (or task-interfering cognitions). It has been so helpful for me that I ended up writing a small web-app for myself to do this whenever I don't feel like doing anything!

(1) [http://www.elizakingsford.com/wp- content/uploads/2016/11/TIC...](http://www.elizakingsford.com/wp- content/uploads/2016/11/TIC-TOC-Technique.pdf)

<comment><USER46> Mind sharing a link to your web-app? I ask this while actively procrastinating from work.

<comment><USER45> Sure, it's here: [https://www.feelhappy.win/app.html#/dashboard](https://www.feelhappy.win/app.html#/dashboard)

It's not just this TIC-TOC thing but I've kinda converted all his CBT exercises like Cost Benefit Analysis, Daily mood log, Acceptance paradox, tec into my web app.

Small disclaimer: I made this site only for myself so it is buggy and unpolished as hell. Get's the work done for me though, but ymmv.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER47> Time boxing is the best treatment I've found. A project may feel overwelming, but usually I can bring myself to bite off one tomato (25 minutes) of it. I can generally make a noticeable amount of progress in that time, and more importantly, clarify the next actions whose ambiguities have been leading me to procrastinate.

In one such session I actually completed a project I had put off for years

<comment><USER48> Three years ago a friend and I were looking at different divisions of time -- in one of our Eastern Philosophy books there was a mention of splitting the day into 60 segments. We were puzzled. If there are 60 snaps in a day, how many minutes are in each snap? The answer is delightfully simple: 24 minutes per snap. (60 minutes an hour with 24 hours or 24 minutes a snap with 60 snaps). We have started using the 24-minute mark as a more flexible form of time measurement and of "see you soon" \-- see you in a couple of snaps.

<comment><USER49> What book is this if you don't mind me asking?

<comment><USER48> Myriad Worlds (The Treasury of Knowledge). There is a portion on calculating days and the keyword is "clepsydra measure"

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> > Randy Pausch, an M.I.T. professor who died of cancer

How does this get into the article without basic fact-checking? He was a professor at CMU.

<comment><USER51> > _Randy Pausch, an M.I.T. professor who died of cancer_

The piece also referred to his "final lecture," when it wasn't; the lecture was a part of series titled "Last Lectures" (note the capitalization).

</comment></comment><comment><USER52> I read the article while procrastinating on a work task I should be doing. I think the author nails it. When I just get started on a task, picking the simplest thing to do first without much planning, then I naturally get into a flow where small sub-tasks present themselves as I go.

If instead I start planning out all that is left to do, I quickly become demotivated and overwhelmed not knowing where to start. A sort of "analysis- paralysis".

The big problem for me is that even if I get into a productive flow its much to easy to run into a blocker that pulls me out into paralysis again (could be a family interruption, a harder sub-task, etc).

</comment><comment><USER53> Procrastination was been hitting me hard recently. I was so stressed out that I found myself literally saying "I'm not good enough." I knew that was not accurate, but I was still feeling inadequate. So I look a long lunch. While I was out I realized that I could pivot to saying "My code's not good enough" and "I am not my code". I was working through a lot, but I just wanted to share that it is possible to make incremental gains when you're feeling like krapola.

<comment><USER54> In a similar vein, when I start to feel like that I try to remind myself that I should be "questioning my knowledge, not my self".

I think it's quite a powerful idea. Questioning your knowledge can lead to positive introspection and growth, whereas questioning or doubting yourself will not.

<comment><USER53> Yeah, When I reached "my code's not good enough", I started to come up with some actionable steps to take to resolve that.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER55> A lot of people talking about their struggles. I'm going to plug HealthyGamerGG and suggest people take a watch of this [https://youtu.be/WQ5bkdFuFhg](https://youtu.be/WQ5bkdFuFhg) because it might help them.

Basically he explains an equation that goes on in our head when we procrastinate and how to change that equation. This is done through a live therapy session with a Twitch streamer who struggles with laziness.

I think this will help more than one person here.

<comment><USER56> That was great, thanks. I've studied Buddhism a bit, but I feel like I learned something new by watching this :). This Dr was very articulate with his ideas, and I loved the honesty of the "troubled gamer".

</comment></comment><comment><USER57> This article gives great advice, but there's also the other end that I personally struggle with, namely: where's the reward?

I noticed that it's especially hard for me to bring things to the state of "100% done", because the emotional reward for that is so much smaller than getting to the first 70%.

I tried shifting my thinking about this by treating that 70% as an actual 50% (given the time spent), but it feels like a half-measure.

<comment><USER58> Theres this thing called "the 80/20 rule".

Story time:

My dad used to work at Sainsbury's (big UK supermarket chain). One day the CEO (Lord Sainsbury I think he said it was) popped over to his desk.

"<Dad's name>, you do great work. I know I can always count on you."

"But... You spend so much effort on details that don't end up being important. The first 80% of your work takes as long as the last 20%."

"The thing is, that first 80% is more usually good enough for what we need. Why don't you try and hit 80% and then wait and see if we need that last 20% next time? It might save you some time."

Caveat - I may have made the name up. But it quite often works in practice.

<comment><USER59> He's asking your dad not to finish any work? This is really hard to apply to development or, say, mowing the lawn.

<comment><USER58> No, he asked him to do 80% of what he would normally do (something like 95%) because the last 20% usually takes the same amount of the effort.

Development example: cover 80% of the possible file types an application might need to ingest. If users start asking for one of the 20% of filetypes then you can add said filetype later on.

Mowing the lawn: it's fine to skip the absolute edges of the lawn. You can come back with a strimmer later on to tidy up.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER60> Reminds me of the old saying "The only difficult part is to get started". So when I am struggling with starting a huge task, I tell myself that this task consists of parts "a+b+c+d..." but I am only going to do part 'a' today/now. And the surpising part is that when I am finished with part 'a', I am eager to keep on going! You don't have to but you just might.

</comment><comment><USER61> I'll say it again: procrastination is a bullshit detector of the free and cry for the help of non-free.

<comment><USER62> Can you say it again, but with some more context? I have no idea what that sentence could possibly mean!

<comment><USER63> The claim seems to be: (i) if you are economically independent, procrastination is an indication that the postponed task is not worth doing after all; (ii) if you are forced to do it for money, procrastination is just a natural reaction to being forced to do something one doesn't want to do, namely not doing it for as long as possible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER64> Coding has always been humbling for me. I'm reminded daily that I'm very low on the totem pole. But I don't really procrastinate with what I think will be difficult for me, or beat myself up over stuff that I really cannot even grasp (higher math).

I don't feel any pressure to bullshit about my skills or depth of knowledge so I have no problem admitting I don't know squat about something, and I'm fearless about diving in to learn what I need to know because it's really not that hard to admit when something is over my head. In my experience everyone I've worked with appreciated it when I told them "I can't do that". The tangible upside to that is when I say I can do it they have complete confidence it will get done.

</comment><comment><USER65> I'm not sure what my problem is, but I find it incredibly hard to focus on some things for any meaningful amount of time.

For example, I've been diving back into C recently and going through and exercises takes me forever.

I notice I'll do one, switch to YouTube to swap song, find an interesting video about literally anything, watch that, and then do another exercise.

I've looked at ADHD but I'm not sure I fit, in pretty good at getting my work tasks done by the deadline, but if I focused I could probably do them a day earlier.

For reading, I use an old Kindle and can stay focused easily, so maybe it's just not opening a web browser is what I need to try.

<comment><USER66> I assume you do programming in your day job. If so, no matter what HN crowd claims about side projects, picking another programming task as your extra curricular activity can be the main reason why you are easily distracted. Maybe by the end of the week (or work day) you are simply tired of looking at screens with small and dense text.

<comment><USER67> It may be cliche, but I found a bunch of non-computer hobbies and it helped a lot. Unfortunately it also gave me a glimpse of life not spent sitting in front of a screen, and while I still love programming, I am looking for a way to escape using computers for a living. Sorry, software industry, it's not you, it's the screens.

<comment><USER68> I love programming but it's starting to get to my spine. I'm self employed which is great cause I get to spend my micro breaks on a mattress (and stepping away from the screen seems to help me think over what I'm working on -- diffuse mode thinking).

Considering getting a real job but something tells me most offices aren't suitable for lying down. (I read about someone on a polyphasic sleep schedule who took her afternoon nap during the lunch break and she had to hide in the server room!)

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER69> Summary:

"Here's the magic — the next time you face a task that your whole body is screaming, "I don't want to, I don't feel like it," ask yourself: what's the next action? What's the next action I'd need to take to make some progress? Don't break the whole task down. That will be sure to overwhelm you. I think if most of us broke our whole task down, we'd realize that life's too short, you can never get it all done. Instead just say, "What's the next action?" and keep that action as small and as concrete as possible. "

</comment><comment><USER70> i found that at least in relation to tech and software engineering, procrastination happens when you need to do mundane work, or worse - work on code you know is ultimately meaningless. another factor is stress, which is usually generated by management via deadlines or constant harassing to get things done (tm). it's basically oppression, it's just hard to see or admit because you're being reasonably compensated, and not doing hard labor. but it's oppression nonetheless.

free yourself, before you have a nervous breakdown or get fully domesticated by the system.

</comment><comment><USER71> I procrastinate. I am not sure there is a single reason, but one that I have clearly identified with a psy is the fear to be judged. By working in a hurry, it gives me a good excuse if the result is not perfect.

</comment><comment><USER72> I thought I was terrible at time management but I was actually terrible at saying no. I would just agree to do everything for everyone and then realize there was no way I could do it and then do none of that stuff and work on something I actually wanted to do.

I learned to say no to other people and that didn't work. Then I learned to say no to myself. That helped a lot.

Turned out I was saying yes to everything cause I liked the feeling of being important because I had a lot to do.

</comment><comment><USER73> Interesting topic. Any of you doing everything right - work, sports, cooking, some reading, etc - but procrastinating social life? I feel like that's what I do. I always have excuses not to go out to meet new people or meet the people I know. Meeting people in general feels like something I should do and thereby not that enjoyable. Work feels like something I should do less - because I want to have a life! - and thereby is highly enjoyable.

</comment><comment><USER74> People wouldnt procrastinate if there wasn't some evolutionary advantage...

Personally, I have found that if I get on with certain tasks in a team environment with too much vigor, I start to get other team members feeling left out or feeling their input isn't adding value. Keep doing it and the team will fall apart. Sitting around and being lazy for a bit helps keep the team together and has more forward progress overall.

<comment><USER75> > People wouldnt procrastinate if there wasn't some evolutionary advantage...

That's probably not a reasonable assumption. Evolution doesn't work so fast. Procrastination might simply be an indication that we're not living under liveable conditions. Why do octopuses eat their own limbs under some conditions? Does it give them an evolutionary advantage?

<comment><USER76> Not sure how authentic it is, but here [1] is an explanation:

> It is believed that it is caused by a virus/bacteria which can manage to > take hold on a stressed octopus. The biting is said to be due to irritation > and biting alleviates the affected area. An octopus can lose an arm without > harm and regrow it. By biting it off, the octopus loses the infected arm and > hopefully a healthy one regrows, but in captive situations, probably caused > by bad water quality, the infection can't be shaken off.

[1] [https://tonmo.com/articles/do-octopuses-commit- suicide.47/](https://tonmo.com/articles/do-octopuses-commit-suicide.47/)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER77> Procrastination is often the result of a form of perfectionism.

Or rather, knowing that a half assed job will only backfire when we have to present it.

The solution is to break things down into smaller units and increase collaboration with others. This is also true of solitary things like working out or quitting a bad habit.

Lower your client's expectations of a first draft etc. and involve one of their low level stakeholders in a collaboration.

Then you will stop procrastinating.

</comment><comment><USER78> This article was _really_ light on facts :)

It's important to recognize that not all 'procrastination' is created equal. Not wanting to do a homework assignment is not the same as putting off asking a girl out on a date.

One is not wanting to do what you're not interested in but feel like you have to, another is wanting to do it but feeling anxious about the outcome.

I'm sure there are many other types too, I haven't given it much thought.

For each type, you need a separate approach. For school assignments for example, what worked for me was figuring out what my end goal is, once I knew, I felt fine getting a slightly above passing grade in classes I felt were not useful for me, and spending more time on classes I was interested in.

I'd still procrastinate but the burden lifted somewhat simply because it takes less work to get a pass-grade than try and get a good grade on every assignment.

Regarding the girls situation - I wish somebody had just told me that women in highschool and their 20s are largely looking for novel experiences and somebody they feel comfortable with to do them with, because there is a great deal of uncertainty in their life.

Once you understand that, you can align your needs with theirs and so much of the thinking and trying to figure it out and procrastination goes away.

Long story short - most problems are solved by seeing the bigger picture and having some very simple tactics in place - procrastination is a by-product of those problems, not a 'disease' that needs a treatment and guess what, _some_ amount of procrastination is _always_ going to be present in your life, it's just part of being a human being :)

</comment><comment><USER79> So here is my approach to procrastination. Let yourself work on something for 15 minutes and stop if you don't want to continue after that. If you do, set a hard limit on how much time you spend doing that thing.

For instance, cleaning the house. Spend 15 minutes doing it but no more than 2 hours. See how long you can go. This simple rule gets me to the gym and for runs in the morning, doing my taxes, etc.

</comment><comment><USER80> For me, being bored is painful. As in an almost physical sensation of pain.

It's strong enough that I'd prefer most levels of pain to being bored.

Adderal took that pain away. (I am diagnosed ADHD)

I no longer "avoid" stuff that I used to in the past. Even when I'm off adderal. Focus is not as good, but I don't have that fear of pain anymore.

I use audiobooks when I have housework to do. An interesting story makes a big difference

</comment><comment><USER81> >It's not just a matter of buckling down and getting it done. There are negative emotions associated with doing a set task and we know how to get rid of them: avoid the task.

I have been procrastinating on all types of home projects and they've been piling up. I'm not certain what is meant by 'negative emotions' in this case. One specific task I have is hanging up towel holders. The negative thoughts I have are generally around what happens if I do it wrong; are they crooked or do I have a bunch of holes in the wall. Is that what they are talking about? I didn't listen to the 22 minute audio clip, I'm guessing it is explained further in there.

<comment><USER67> The fear of failure is a very powerful feeling. Even if it's a subconscious or subtle worry.

</comment></comment><comment><USER82> I created a transcription for my notes, thought I'd share:

[https://gist.github.com/torsday/258250b13996a686fb615ee04a55...](https://gist.github.com/torsday/258250b13996a686fb615ee04a55ee6a)

</comment><comment><USER83> I find myself somewhat procrastinating, I end up reading up HN posts and comments when my work task is utterly boring and repetitive and when I learn nothing new from it. When it's something repetitive the hardest part is to get myself started. When there is an interesting problem to work on I don't procrastinate. Can anyone explain to me how is this emotional? I love doing the dishes and that is repetitive too but at least there is a phisical element in it. I think I am alergic to bureaucratic processes but I do somehow see their utility, they're just not suited for me.

</comment><comment><USER76> > What's the next action I'd need to take to make some progress? Don't break > the whole task down. That will be sure to overwhelm you.

Isn't this the idea behind Getting Things Done in a nutshell?

<comment><USER68> Yeah :) The two key questions to always keep in mind:

(1) What's the desired outcome?

(2) What's the next action?

</comment></comment><comment><USER84> I'm hesitant to share this, considering Aaron Swartz tragic end, but this [0] post helped me a lot to learn to tackle procrastination. The following is a key quote:

> Yes it's painful, but the trick is to make that mental shift. To realize > that the pain isn't something awful to be postponed and avoided, but a > signal that you're getting stronger — something to savor and enjoy. It's > what makes you better.

[0] [http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dalio](http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/dalio)

</comment><comment><USER85> The best explanation I have ever heard for procrastination is this - it allows you to maintain an illusion that "you could do it, if you just tried." You do no work, you don't risk your self image.

When you try in earnest, you spend a lot of effort, all for the potential reward of "All your effort isn't good enough, you are a proven failure."

I am not saying that this doesn't conflict with "It is the mean in the arena...who dared greatly...", but it makes perfect sense to me.

</comment><comment><USER86> As in games I hope we one day come up with an Energy bar.

With teams or family it feels like a question of regenerating Energy in Others whose tanks are drained or not that large in the first place.

</comment><comment><USER11> > Here's the magic — the next time you face a task that your whole body is > screaming, "I don't want to, I don't feel like it," ask yourself: what's the > next action? What's the next action I'd need to take to make some progress? > Don't break the whole task down. That will be sure to overwhelm you. I think > if most of us broke our whole task down, we'd realize that life's too short, > you can never get it all done. Instead just say, "What's the next action?" > and keep that action as small and as concrete as possible.

I'm actually handling this area in my life right now, and I decided I'd use my intuition rather than my intellect to handle it (and analyze with my intellect if my intuition came up with something interesting).

It did.

Here is my idea: be playful about the tasks your procrastinate on. Don't cater to your intellect, cater to your emotions.

I have 2 examples with flexibility training and lifting weights.

Flexibility training: ask yourself questions that stir up curiosity, such as

"how does this feel?"

"what do I like about it?"

"what do I dislike about it?"

"will I think similar ideas the next day if I answer these questions (spoiler alert: I personally don't)"

And then focus relentlessly on the fun (if you have some of it) and really indulge in it. I've likened flexibility training to a lot of things I find fun.

\--- Example 2 ---

Strength training: ask yourself questions that stir up curiosity _and fun_! Such as

"How does it feel fun?"

"How does the pain feel fun?"

"What is it that I don't like about it? Why?"

"Are there moments when there's a part of the activity that I dislike or like and it flips to the other side, why?"

In practice: I mostly ask "how does it feel fun?" and shamelessly focus on it.

\--- Some theory ---

I'd want to ask the professor if he considered playfulness and curiosity as potential moderators or mediators that could enhance motivation to procrastinate less.

I believe that playfulness and curiosity are related to the competency and autonomy aspect of self-determination theory, so to me it makes sense that those aspects heighten motivation in general and therefore reduce motivation.

Another idea: talk with people about your workouts that you've done (then you also bring in the "relatedness" part of self-determination theory).

</comment><comment><USER87> Just came here to post a link to his podcast.

[https://iprocrastinate.libsyn.com/](https://iprocrastinate.libsyn.com/) [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/iprocrastinate- podcast...](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/iprocrastinate- podcast/id129144284)

He hasn't been very active with it in the last 3+ years, but it was a great listen.

<comment><USER88> Maybe he'll get to making another episode later...

</comment></comment><comment><USER89> One reason I procrastinate is because a decent % of my tasks just go away on their own, so if I did everything as soon as I was supposed to, I'd be wasting time.

</comment><comment><USER90> I have a sheet I use for beating procrastination -- and I see how it fits with this model. The idea of the sheet is that you record four things (dreams,goals,actions and fears) -- and it's the fourth thing: fears (or problems) that really helps you uncover and overcome the emotional component of procrastination.

I've put the sheet online here:

[https://dgaf.secretgeek.net/](https://dgaf.secretgeek.net/)

</comment><comment><USER91> I'm way too tense and can't deal with emotions at all. I procrastinate about everything because I get overwhelmed when things go wrong. I'm learning to just accept who I am and change my goals so there are less things to procrastinate about. This means giving up a lot of fantasies about what I could accomplish, things that other people can manage but somehow I can't.

</comment><comment><USER92> This service is magic (disclosure: started by a friend) -- Focusmate [1] -- it is basically productivity as a service. The service does video co-working sessions and it honestly works like magic. Incredibly helpful for procrastination -- it just instantly gets you in the zone.

[1] [https://www.focusmate.com/](https://www.focusmate.com/)

</comment><comment><USER93> As David Allen says once on a podcast, the real crisis comes not in the thick of a project but after you've finished and need to decide what to work on next. I think it was this one [0].

[0]: [https://www.humanmedia.org/product/horizons- attention/](https://www.humanmedia.org/product/horizons-attention/)

</comment><comment><USER94> Procrastination is an act. The pop-psychological theory that assumes that everyone procrastinates for the same reason is as ridiculous as theory that would assume everyone is violent for the same reason.

What about one person procrastinating without any difficult emotions just cause she is lazy and other people procrastinating for variety of reasons from difficult to simple.

</comment><comment><USER95> Speaking solely for myself. It bloody well is laziness.

I had to think twice about whether or not I'd be bothered to write this comment.

</comment><comment><USER96> Emotions my a$$. I procrastinate because it's easier to do something else more interesting.

I find that if I can identify something that needs to be done, which requires more work than the task currently at hand, then I can get done what needs to be done by procrastinating on the harder task.

That's the secret to my success. YMMV.

</comment><comment><USER97> Almost everything we do can be explained by desire to seek rewarding feelings and avoid uncomfortable ones

</comment><comment><USER98> I can relate to the article. Whenever I take on a bigger project, it feels like procrastination lets me defer failure.

I am lately able to convince myself that you can only get better by trying, but was not always the case.

So yeah. Some procrastination is definitely driven by emotion.

</comment><comment><USER99> > if you've ever tried to do some mindfulness meditation, you realize we're > not very good at it.

Well that's the point, to get better at it. It helps to have some good instructions; the book _The Mind Illuminated_ is fantastic.

</comment><comment><USER100> I'm a procrastinator that used a schedule to help minimize it but this work from home has really hindered it.

Keeping a schedule when I work eat and play in the same space is a lot harder than I imagined.

</comment><comment><USER101> If you aren't traditionally a procrastinator, but have been under stress (especially after recent events) and are now procrastinating, try getting evaluated for burnout.

</comment><comment><USER102> Fun (interesting? predictable?) fact:

I've been putting off reading this since early yesterday. I've kept it unread in my RSS reader and looked at it at least a dozen times now.

</comment><comment><USER103> I've found that if it feels like crap, so to speak, you're doing it right! We're not SUPPOSED to be content all the time, and that's okay. Next time you feel bad emotions when you're starting something, think, this is an indicator that I'm doing it right. After a while, the feeling is not as intense, it becomes a habit, then after you have had it as a habit you should use that uncomfortable feeling to guide your next move. Usually the thing you don't want to do (the thing you are lazy about) is the right thing to do! Wishing everyone an awesome day :)

</comment><comment><USER104> The best advice I've heard from hacker news in a while. I've been procrastinating this business paper for a bit.

</comment><comment><USER105> I'm not procrastinating I'm practicing Intermittent Dopamine Fasting.

</comment><comment><USER106> It was never a time issue.

</comment><comment><USER107> yup, coursera's 'learning how to learn' mentions _just_ that in the first week of the lessons. excellent, excellent, excellent course, btw, _heavily_ recommended.

</comment><comment><USER108> To me it is also a conscious choice avoiding premature actions.

<comment><USER26> That is rational postponing, but both can be connected. Procrastination by definition has always something to do with negative feelings. But IMO not so much in the sense of the article. Only a few people care about future emotions, they may come or not. Real are only the ones in the present, characteristic for this trait. To unveil the underlying problem by lifting it up to its rational core might or might not help (not all are within yourself).

</comment></comment><comment><USER109> Randy Pausch was of CMU not MIT as stated in the article

</comment><comment><USER110> Procrastination expert? That's hell of a skill.

</comment><comment><USER111> Interesting read! Thx

</comment><comment><USER112> this is a very helpful perspective.</comment>


Video appears in paper magazines - <AUTHOR> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8211209.stm

<comment><USER2> This technology is going to take off once OLEDs become more cost efficient. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_light-emitting_diode>

I'm not sure if I like that though. If the USA, we already have TVs at the gas station and grocery stores. And lots of people have to deal with those online videos ads that start playing as soon as you load the page. (ABC.com, car websites, etc.) Now we'll have to deal with the flashing, talking ads inside our magazines. The rampant advertising is already pretty annoying. How much is enough?

Hopefully there comes a way to mute/pause all those video ads with one shot.

</comment><comment><USER3> I'll gladly pay for anyone's copy of this highly-collectible and future- valuable magazine if they'd ship me one to Europe :)

I can see it being an interesting subject on Antique Roadshow 2090 and buying someone something nice.

</comment><comment><USER4> This is still based on 'regular' LCD tech though, wait until your newspaper is distributed on electronic paper and someone reinvents the 'blink' tag.</comment>


Torrentz.eu Domain Suspended After UK Police Request - <AUTHOR> http://torrentfreak.com/torrentz-eu-domain-suspended-uk-police-request-140526/ <comment><USER2> This is the equivalent of UK or say Turkey shutting down Youtube.com _worldwide_ , because they don't want it being used there in Turkey.</comment>


GPS directs driver to death in Spain's largest reservoir - <AUTHOR> http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/04/gps-driver-death-spanish-reservoir

<comment><USER2> Doesn't make sense. It must have been a bad driver. What if they had been on the correct road, but something suddenly appeared on the road in front of them (deer, or a broken car, tree that fell over the road, whatever)? They shouldn't have been going so fast that they had no time to react.</comment>


Steve Jobs On Android - <AUTHOR> http://techcrunch.com/2010/06/01/steve-jobs-on-googles-android-betrayal-my-sex-life-is-pretty-good/

<comment><USER2> Steve Jobs says Apple "created" WebKit. That wording makes it sounds like it started from nothing. But it didn't, WebKit was forked from the KHTML project in 2002 and later diverged (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webkit#Origins>). One might say WebKit evolved out of KHTML.

<comment><USER3> >> Steve Jobs says Apple "created" WebKit. That wording makes it sounds like it started from nothing.

That wording is also more TechCrunch's than Steve's.

Steve's words:

> Well Chrome is not... you know. And it's based on webkit, work we did at > Apple.

> Almost every modern browser is based on webkit... Nokia, Palm, Android, RIM > has one... and of course ours.

> We've created a real competitor to IE. In the mobile space it's #1.

(link: <http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/01/steve-jobs-live-from-d8/>)

While that still takes more credit than I'd care to see, "work we did at Apple" definitely is a softer statement than "Apple 'created' WebKit". Even though the word "created" does come up a couple of sentences later...

<comment><USER4> After watching some of the video footage, I noticed that Engadget's transcription is often highly paraphrased. So I transcribed directly from one of the D8 videos:

      Steve: We took a tiny little open source project, and we
      created what's called "WebKit" out there, and we did an
      interesting thing for Apple: we put it in open source.

So it turns out that he _did_ say they "created" WebKit, but he also points out that it was created using an existing open source project.

Turns out this thread was a lot of hubbub over nothing, as I suspected. Unless someone wants to gripe about KHTML being described as "tiny little".

<comment><USER5> > and we created what's called "WebKit" out there, and we did an interesting > thing for Apple: we put it in open source.

He's acting like Apple had a choice about the licensing of someone else's work.

<comment><USER4> When you choose to build off a LGPLed project, you are choosing to open source the work you put into it. They could have easily chosen not to build off a LGPLed project.

Stop fishing for perceived slights. This is petty, and a waste of the internet.

<comment><USER5> When you chose to use an OSS project, you choose to follow the license, sure.

But what Jobs said - 'we put it in open source' - implies that it KHTML wasn't already OSS.

<comment><USER4> Dear god, did you completely fail to read the first part of the quote? How can he imply that KHTML wasn't already open source when he _specifically refers to it as open source?_

The "interesting thing for Apple" is that they chose to put their efforts into an open source project in the first place. Apple, the company that likes to control its software as much as possible. This is all he's saying. Don't read anything more into it than that.

<comment><USER5> Yes I did. The full quote is:

> Steve: We took a tiny little open source project, and we created what's > called "WebKit" out there, and we did an interesting thing for Apple: we put > it in open source.

which doesn't serve any value beyond simply saying:

"We took a tiny little open source project, and worked on it."

Steve adding 'we created what's called "WebKit" out there, and we did an interesting thing for Apple: we put it in open source' makes no sense - it's either:

\- redundant (KHTML was already LGPLed, so obviously Apple's patches would be)

\- implying Webkit was something 'created' by Apple that Apple had choice over their licensing with.

To me it seems the latter, which is somewhat disingenuous. You obviously disagree. Invoking spiritual beings is unnecessary.

<comment><USER4> I refer you to my previous comment: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1397514>

Let me break it down a bit further. WebKit is an Apple-initiated project. It is the web counterpart to Apple's native UIKit framework. If they wanted to, they could have made WebKit closed source, eschewing the use of KHTML entirely. They were in no way obligated to use KHTML as a starting point. And for a company like Apple, you can be sure the decision to tie themselves to the LGPL was not undertaken lightly.

In choosing to use the LGPLed KHTML project as the basis for WebKit, they _chose_ to put _WebKit_ in open source. They did exactly what Steve Jobs said they did, no disingenuity required.

Sure, maybe he could have ordered his phrases more clearly, but he's speaking off the cuff here.

<comment><USER5> > If they wanted to, they could have made WebKit closed source, eschewing the > use of KHTML entirely.

Yes, I understand what you're saying - Apple made a choice about what product to use and was aware of the licensing implications.

Apple got to make one choice: use KHTML or something else. As soon as they chose KHTML, the choice of licensing was made for them. Saying 'we open sourced it' implies Apple made the choice to open source it. They did not. They were obligated to by the fact the people who made the code licensed it that way.

Linksys got to make one choice: use Linux or something else. As soon as they chose Linux, the choice was made for them.

Job's already mentioned that Apple chose to use an OSS app. Saying they 'chose the licensing for it' is wrong: they didn't, someone in the KDE project made that decision. Apple abided by the rules, they didn't create them.

<comment><USER4> Let me try this again.

Let's say we form a company to develop a web layout engine. We haven't made anything yet, and we're wondering if it would be better to make our layout engine closed source or open. We decide to go with open. Why? Because we're fed up with having to support slow, non-standards-compliant browsers for our web apps. If our fast, standards-compliant layout engine is open source, maybe more browsers will use it, and web development will be less sucky for us in the future.

It turns out that there's already some great open source code called KHTML that we can build on to create our engine, and it's licensed with the LGPL. Well, that's no problem, because we decided our layout engine was going to be open source anyway. So why not fork it? We don't have to, but it's good code, so we might as well. Thus, our open source layout engine ends up being based on KHTML. _But it was not our decision to use KHTML that made our engine open source._ _We_ decided that it was going to be open source, irrespective of whether we decided to use KHTML.

Likewise, Apple chose whether or not WebKit would be open source, irrespective of whether they decided to use KHTML.

You seem to be making the argument that Apple just decided to base WebKit on KHTML without much concern for the licensing implications, and inadvertently ended up "stuck" with a WebKit that must adhere to the LGPL. Hence, Steve Jobs is disingenuously suggesting that WebKit was intentionally open source. And what I'm saying is, given Apple's long history of tight control over its software, not to mention their willingness to rewrite their software from scratch, that assumption just isn't credible. Whereas they have credible, self-interested motives for creating an open source layout engine, just like Google has credible self-interested motives for making Android open source.

<comment><USER5> > You seem to be making the argument that Apple just decided to base WebKit on > KHTML without much concern for the licensing implications

No.

I'm saying 'we used something OSS! Then we decided to make it OSS!' is either nonsensical or misleading.

<comment><USER4> Well, I tried my best.

<comment><USER5> I didn't think it was that hard to understand. Do you get what I'm saying now?

<comment><USER4> I've always gotten what you've been saying. You seem to be completely incapable of getting what I'm saying. And I'm certain you have to ability to get what I'm saying, but I think you just really, really don't want to. Or you're trolling. Not really sure at this point.

<comment><USER5> >>> You seem to be making the argument that Apple just decided to base WebKit on KHTML without much concern for the licensing implications

>I've always gotten what you've been saying.

Clearly you haven't.

OTOH, if you think I've misunderstood or mischaracterized anything you've said, you haven't said so.

Anyway, I give up.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> Why do people try to turn normal business competition into some sort of Cain and Able story?

<comment><USER7> That's actually pretty accurate when it comes to Steve Jobs. First it was him and Gates and then him and Schmidt. In both cases it was a close relationship followed by backstabbing.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> "My sex life is pretty good"? What does that even mean?

<comment><USER9> Engadget's live coverage has more context. It isn't quite a non-sequitor like TechCrunch says -- Walt actually asked Jobs about his relationship with Google, and Jobs made a joke.

      6:49PM Walt: How's your relationship?
      6:49PM Steve: My sex life is pretty good.

<http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/01/steve-jobs-live-from-d8/>

<comment><USER10> fracking TC and its linkbait shit. TC goes back to my hosts file.

<comment><USER11> Arrington trying to vye for some more clicks IMO

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Speaking as a someone who's worked as an ER nurse for 18 years... Steve looks like hell.

I'm guessing he's down to about 120lbs. More pics here: <http://d8.allthingsd.com/speakers/steve-jobs/#slideshow-1-32> I know it's a touchy subject, but holy crap. I did a double take when I saw the pictures of him. He is not a well man.

<comment><USER13> Vegans have a hard time (re)gaining weight.

<comment><USER14> Can you back that up? I know all those vegan carbs have to be going somewhere...

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I found the most interesting part to be right at the end. Apple is a hardware company first, and one market where they already have some expertise is in displays. I realize it's not the exact same technology for TVs, but to think that Apple would not at least give it a shot, with an iTunes backend providing content seems like a missed opportunity in another multibillion dollar market. I figure the next "revolutionary" Apple product will be a "smart" TV.

<comment><USER16> ... And one that won't let you watch "porn" aka anything that slams apple?! I'm sure it will be awesome like the iPad and I'll buy one (btw)

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Is there a video of this available yet?

<comment><USER17> Some clips are beginning to appear on allthingsd.com.

</comment></comment><comment><USER16> Why isn't anyone talking about the inability to install non-apple approved apps on the iPhone, the iPad, pretty soon apple tv, and I'm sure in about a couple of year all apple devices. Isn't this a major issue? The inability to have access to apps that steve doesn't necessarily approve of?

As I write this on my iPad, I wonder how long it will be before I'm not allowed to type certain words on apple "soft" keyboards?

Steve stance on the reasons for disallowing apps also concerns me. It would ok if he does this to create a monopoly (which is really what the store is, for all intents and purposes), but what scares me is that he claims he does it for "people"

... And Walt and Sara, just like last time, didn't think that was an important enough issue to press upon. Kudos for asking about the gizmodo issue though

<comment><USER18> Uhh, a lot of people are talking about that stuff. All the time.

<comment><USER16> True, but nobody who has access to steve wants to call him out on that?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> _Just because we're competing with someone doesn't mean we have to be rude._

Great point in light of Google's last IO announcements along the lines of _we discovered we can use the internet to sync Android_.

<comment><USER20> To be clear, that statement was making fun of the current state of Android. The next sentence was an apology for not having the functionality earlier.</comment></comment>


Poachable: Anonymously look for your dream job - <AUTHOR> https://poachable.co/

<comment><AUTHOR> I just came across this site, anyone used this and have feedback to give on it?</comment>


BuzzFeed and Vox Media May Bail on SXSW Unless Canceled Panels Are Reinstated - <AUTHOR> http://recode.net/2015/10/27/buzzfeed-to-withdraw-from-sxsw-unless-organizers-reverse-panel-cancelations/ <comment><USER2> What do we have to cancel to get Buzzfeed and Vox Media to shut down operations completely? I'm in.

</comment><comment><USER3> Good, Vox and BuzzFeed are terrible publications and nobody wants them at SXSW.</comment>


Why there aren't more software startups in India - <AUTHOR> http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/429/Why-There-Aren-t-More-Software-Startups-In-India.aspx

<comment><USER2> I have a different perspective on this, having built a product company (Zoho Corp) in India for the past 13+ years. Basically India's emerging IT industry coincided with the global credit bubble of the past 2 decades, which simply inflated the IT services industry to monster proportions, in the process sucking the oxygen of talent out of the system. So product start-ups that could have been never got off the ground.

This is the mirror image of the process in the US that funneled talent towards the financial complex, which meant the IT industry had to import talent or outsource the work. A good percentage of the talent came from India, and a lot of the outsourced work went to India. In that environment of easy money flowing into services, product companies found it hard to recruit talent (which the author of the post also alludes to).

This process basically derailed the emergence of product-based IT industry in India. Some of the Indian services giants of today (Wipro and HCL in particular) were product companies originally. They built some innovative products in India (an x86 based Unix well ahead of Linux, an IP concentrator/router for ISPs in early, to quote two examples) in the late 80s/early 90s. But once the 90's boom got underway, they found it far more lucrative to rent out the talent than to build products.

In Economics, it is impossible to argue "what might have been", but I believe the configuration of IT industry in India points to how the bubble massively distorted an industry.

<comment><USER3> "an x86 based Unix well ahead of Linux, an IP concentrator/router for ISPs in early, to quote two examples"

Any links ?

Other than the distortions that 'easy money' introduced, the few startups that tried valiantly to make products never even made it even to the foot notes. Some of these guys were so idealistic that they committed themselves to a non- existent "Indian market". But there is easy money to be made in the US as well.Dharmesh'sixth point about cultural factors might make people uncomfortable, but it's generally true of the IT folks of the last two decades:

"I've found Indians to be almost overly practical (in the short-term sense) and not passionate about some of the softer things (like user experience, marketing, branding and other things) which in today's world are large contributors to future outcomes of software startups. "

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> These same reasons generally apply to Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Diego, Omaha, Manchester, Paris, Munich, Tokyo, Osaka, Beijing, Hong Kong, Sydney, Melbourne, Accra, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, and every other major city that asks "why not us?"

To do a product company, you need 1) talent, 2) money to ride out the non- revenue-generating product development, and 3) precedents to help you navigate legal/vendor/cultural issues.

The two biggest pure software startups (37signals and Matasano) I know in Chicago got around this by "being Indian" - starting off as consulting companies. Even Zoho started off as an offshore consulting company for many, many years.

<comment><USER2> On Zoho, I want to clarify that we always were a product company, with product development based out of India from the beginning. We never followed the traditional offshore consulting model, which we felt would make it difficult to build products (PG has written about the difficulty transitioning from consulting to products).

We started the company selling software to networking OEMs, 1996-present, I still do sales calls for this software, we are the leader in that niche (<http://webnms.com> ). From that we expanded to build software that manages corporate networks, 2004-present, we are doing quite well in that market (<http://manageengine.com> ). The latest evolution is Zoho, 2005 - present, it is our most well known division, so the company changed its name to Zoho Corp this year (<http://zohocorp.com> ).

In silicon valley these would have been 3 different companies, with the first 2 "exiting" (mostly by being acquired). We preferred to keep building.

<comment><USER4> Sridhar, I had heard (from a relative in India) that the networking products (your first two on your list) were consulting projects that you productized. It appears what I had heard was wrong, and I apologize.

Kudos to you for building a product company from day one; that's the tough road, and I commend you for pursuing it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> > 5\. Too Much Bureaucracy

This is plain wrong today. As a person who started a company in Hyderabad, India, I know that the state governments of both IT Hubs of India(Hyderabad, Banglore) try very hard to be non-beurocratic. To register a pvt ltd company, I gave my CA, 25000 INR (~500USD). I never had to go to any govt office, they bought in some papers which I signed, and that was all it needed to get all required paperwork etc. My bank sent a representative to my office to open a bank account, and I didnt even have to go to my bank to open an account. Admiteddly all this took about 2 weeks, but I never felt it was bureaucratic.

Anyway this point is moot if you are talking why no product companies, as this impacts any type of company equally.

</comment><comment><USER6> Until recently, the fact that the worst Java-speaking engineer in the room got a 50% yearly pay raise and that annual turnovers among engineering staff were close to 50% rather sharply limited the desire of technically inclined founders to start companies and their ability to retain talent.

In the last three years, the company my day job works through has burned through, oh, call it 5 PLs on the team that I manage, and about 100 engineers. Fully staffed strength for that team is below 30.

This is a constant bugbear for us and annoys my company more than every other issue we've had with India save one. (The biggie, hopefully not applicable to startups.)

</comment><comment><USER7> India follows the "Sheep Herd" mentality. The whole country's economy is based on people getting into "Profitable" domains mostly following the success of a pioneer in the field. The most recent example of this ideology is the "Business Process Outsourcing" industry. New BPO units are propping up here and there at a dime a dozen leading to a quality deterioration in the final deliverable. This process will continue till a saturation level is reached and then they will wait till another "Killer" domain picks up momentum. Till then India will be in a so called "Calm Period" where nothing great and major takes place.

</comment><comment><USER8> India is still far behind in terms of infrastructure( bandwidth, payment, IT penetration ), very few people have made business of into fullfilling indian market, one of the few who made it were tally( indian accounting ) and naukri( job site )

IIT and IIM alumnis mostly prefer to go with business plans and want easy money fro VC's which does not happen very often

Most of the other so called products,services are either have US focus or try to clone existing products for Indian market

We at RailsFactory / Sedin Technologies would like to be in product space, but we are into consulting to build our expertise and network with people and understand end user usage for various services and products we build for our clients

</comment><comment><USER9> Useful information for those wishing to form a start-up in India:

<http://madaan.com/investing.htm>

</comment><comment><USER10> So, you need several local-state-government sponsored ycombinator clones, focused on elimination of 5. 3. and 4. For example, Sikkim is a great place to start.

<comment><USER11> What's so great about Sikkim?

<comment><USER10> Its capital - Gangtok - government offices, banks, university, communications and infrastructure.</comment></comment></comment>


Number of coronavirus cases and deaths in US pale in comparison to seasonal flu - <AUTHOR> https://abcnews.go.com/Health/coronavirus-map-tracking-spread-us-world/story?id=69415591 <comment><AUTHOR> "The growing number of lab-confirmed cases in the U.S. at this point still pales in comparison to the seasonal flu, which kills an estimated 12,000 to 61,000 people per year and affects between 9 million and 45 million people in the country, according to the CDC."

</comment><comment><USER2> Misleading title... bordering on disinformation.

"Still, experts warn that the COVID-19 shouldn't be downplayed or compared to a bad case of the flu. Instead, the respiratory disease is more akin to severe pneumonia, and in serious cases, patients experiencing difficulty breathing have been hospitalized and put on ventilators."

<comment><AUTHOR> What specifically is misleading or not factual about it? It's comparing number of cases and deaths, not the virus itself.

<comment><USER3> Repeating the quote: "experts warn that the COVID-19 shouldn't be .. compared to a bad case of the flu". Contrasting the victim counts literally implies the comparison this article warns against.

<comment><AUTHOR> >>Contrasting the victim counts literally implies the comparison this article warns against

The title is a comparison of the counts of cases and deaths, not the severity or impact of the illness. It's...data. And by the way, those people who are dead from influenza likely count just as much as those dead from coronavirus.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Big, Bold Designer PowerPoint Templates for Your Next Pitch - <AUTHOR> http://workawesome.com/communication/9-big-bold-designer-powerpoint-templates/

<comment><USER2> These are all nice, but I think the #1 important thing to take away is to focus on big ideas and high-level concepts and communicate them clearly. If the slides confuse the viewer or distract them with overly chic typography, they can't be considered successful.

Ultimately, you have to drill down and ask yourself how you can distill the essence of what you want to pitch into a very brief yet powerful slide. Hopefully these slides can help some to do that!

</comment><comment><USER3> wonder if there are similar templates for LibreOffice ?

I wouldnt mind paying for something like that</comment>


Is the Closed Source Inevitable? - <AUTHOR> http://www.oreillynet.com/onlamp/blog/2008/04/is_the_closed_source_inevitabl_1.html

<comment><USER2> Of course closed source is inevitable. Most really awesome technology is closed source.

Not that I'm dissing open source, it has it's place, but it's not as good at really pushing the boundaries. I can't think of any open source I get super excited about and want to use every day.

<comment><USER3> Not the most exciting software, but I have no better closed-source alternatives to Firefox 3, TrueCrypt, OpenVPN, and lighttpd. But I agree, some of my favorite stuff is closed source.

<comment><USER2> TrueCrypt. WebKit (oops. duh). Yeah. There are a few.</comment></comment></comment>


Show HN: California health insurance enrollment complaints growing 111%/year - <AUTHOR> https://wpso.dmhc.ca.gov/dashboard/ComplaintsIMRs.aspx <comment><AUTHOR> That's 111%/year, smoothed over the last 3 years, 2013 to 2016. Greatest proportionate jump was in 2013.

Select "Enrollment" from the drop-down menu of the line chart.</comment>