90% of our life is maintenance

[Oblivious]

Has being alive in our society become so darn complicated that it's just plain not fun most of our lives? So when did this happen? Did you get the memo? I'm just going to throw out a random guess that most of us in the "civilized" world spend 90% of our lives performing mundane tasks or maintenance that society dictates. I don't want to be a bum, but I'm starting to think hippies had the right idea. Perhaps living with some tribe in Africa would actually be more enjoyable. I mean seriously. Who really needs indoor plumbing?

"90% maintenance?" you ask. Here's what I mean. I'll run down a few things we do, most of which take up a good portion of our lives.

Sleep. I love it, but I can't say it's very fun nor productive. There goes 25-33% of your life. Granted, this is something essential to life, so perhaps we can give it "a pass"

Work. I can certainly think of better things to do with my time, but I "need" to make money. We easily spend 15-25% of our life at work or commuting to/from.

Laundry. Fun? No.

Yard work. OK, doesn't apply to all. Enjoy your Apt. To me, I love the finished product, hate doing it.

Fixing things. Car broke down, house needs repair, your PC is finicky, you chipped a piece off your commemorative Star Trek plate... whatever it may be. It's time consumed otherwise better spent having fun/enjoyment.

Cleaning. Unless you're OCD, cleaning house, washing the car or spiffying up anything else is not fun. Yes, the finished product is impressive to behold and make use of, but getting there sucks.

Personal Hygiene. Again, it's worth it, but it's still time that could be better spent doing something else.

...and those are just a few examples of what I mean. I'm sure my list is incomplete, but I think you get my point. Perhaps this only makes any sense to me and you are curious as to WTF I'm smoking. I just wonder if we were all much more happy as humans before all this crap we have was spawned from the Earth through science to make our lives "easier".

It's just an epiphany I had recently; most of my life is spent doing things I "have" to do, not what I want to do. That's my profound, zen pontification for the day. Respond, don't respond, no matter. Thank you for listening.

Now, back to my electronic doodads and daily chores...

[XCON_Faxion]

Well that life isn't it?

[Afterburner]

The thing is there are tradeoffs. Technology doesn't work all the time, and it is also expensive. IF you want it you are going to have to endure the maintenance and drudgery that comes with it. If you aren't a big fan than you could do without most of the maintenance we engage in. Meh, I could live either way. I love both nature and technology and I could live with entirely engulfed in one or the other.

[nanobot_swarm]

thats life, it sucks, its not fun, but you gotta make the best of it

[NCC1017spock]

don't worry, depending on your age, with in the next 30-40 years most of that will be done by machines, robots, on click and it's done machines and ect... "not all of it but the lawn, dishes, repairs, lundary, and cleaning at least

[Sh0wdowN]

Originally Posted by Oblivious

Has being alive in our society become so darn complicated that it's just plain not fun most of our lives? So when did this happen? Did you get the memo? I'm just going to throw out a random guess that most of us in the "civilized" world spend 90% of our lives performing mundane tasks or maintenance that society dictates. I don't want to be a bum, but I'm starting to think hippies had the right idea. Perhaps living with some tribe in Africa would actually be more enjoyable. I mean seriously. Who really needs indoor plumbing?

Living with some tribe in Africa and congratulations, your life is now 100% about maintenance. They spend their entire days hunting for food or walking miles and miles to get a bit of water. Don't whine, please. You have more than enough time to do what you want.

Originally Posted by Oblivious

Sleep. I love it, but I can't say it's very fun nor productive. There goes 25-33% of your life. Granted, this is something essential to life, so perhaps we can give it "a pass"

I can agree that this is a useless requirement (well, sleep in itself isn't useless, but useless in the sense that if you had the option of not sleeping you'd rather choose that), but the rest .. not so much.

Originally Posted by Oblivious

Work. I can certainly think of better things to do with my time, but I "need" to make money. We easily spend 15-25% of our life at work or commuting to/from.

Which is why you should enjoy what you do, and look forward going to work. Ideally you should have a line of work directly aligned with your interest; education is key.

Originally Posted by Oblivious

Laundry. Fun? No.

Laundry? Takes 30 secs for me every 2nd or 3rd day [I wash a lot at the same time]. This is no big deal.

Originally Posted by Oblivious

Yard work. OK, doesn't apply to all. Enjoy your Apt. To me, I love the finished product, hate doing it.

Originally Posted by Oblivious

Fixing things. Car broke down, house needs repair, your PC is finicky, you chipped a piece off your commemorative Star Trek plate... whatever it may be. It's time consumed otherwise better spent having fun/enjoyment.

Actually this is more about saving time, as if you didn't fix it, you'd have to pay for it to get fixed or for a new one, and thus losing time -- you fix it 'cause it's a lot cheaper.

Originally Posted by Oblivious

Cleaning. Unless you're OCD, cleaning house, washing the car or spiffying up anything else is not fun. Yes, the finished product is impressive to behold and make use of, but getting there sucks.

It increases the overall satisfaction you have with your environment and organizing/archiving increases long-term effectiveness.

Originally Posted by Oblivious

Personal Hygiene. Again, it's worth it, but it's still time that could be better spent doing something else.

I like showering, while I wouldn't use the word 'fun' it's certainly pleasant and refreshing; playing a 'video game' (as you constantly talk about 'fun') is less useful.

Originally Posted by Oblivious

...and those are just a few examples of what I mean. I'm sure my list is incomplete, but I think you get my point. Perhaps this only makes any sense to me and you are curious as to WTF I'm smoking. I just wonder if we were all much more happy as humans before all this crap we have was spawned from the Earth through science to make our lives "easier".

It's just an epiphany I had recently; most of my life is spent doing things I "have" to do, not what I want to do. That's my profound, zen pontification for the day. Respond, don't respond, no matter. Thank you for listening.

Now, back to my electronic doodads and daily chores...

As I said above, life was entirely about maintenance earlier. Days spent hunting for food, night spent resting for the next hunt. It's the circle of life, and it's nothing new. I think your epiphany was a couple of million years too late.

[Nice Guy]

well maintenance is a part of your life and you should accept it because even animals maintain themselves. like, cats clean themselves and birds build and repair their nests. of course, over-doing maintenance is too time (or should i say life) consuming but the basics don't really take much. i mean, not like my aunt who vacuum-cleans her house almost every day, but 30 minutes (or less) once a week of maintenance to the place where you live really isn't too much, is it? or 10 minutes of showering every day? 1 minute to fill the washing machine?

about repairing things - well go ahead and live without a vaccum cleaner, washing machine and spend 5x more time doing all that stuff by hand. tech makes your life easier but it requires maintenance and it probably always will.

about the "working" part - yes, this is where far too many people waste too much life. you should get a job that you like to do, but of course, everyone knows that this often isn't possible. unfortunately, you can't always do whatever you want. yes, hippies had a point but then again - who will provide you with food, clothes and all the every day needs?

you could as well do all that yourself but then you'd spend 100% time on maintenance.

however, i do think that today's society's life tempo is too fast and people should spend more time just "living" not just breaking through the everyday. but that's another discussion already...

[Mr. Matt]

Leisure time has increased significantly in the last century, in the Western world anyway, thanks to advances in technology and reforms in labour laws. That's why the various entertainment industries have become such big business these days. If you think you have it bad now, think how your great-grandparents must have felt. Those poor bastards didn't even have a TV to unwind in front of on the rare occasion that they did have some spare time.

[Captain Fist]

Originally Posted by nanobot_swarm

thats life, it sucks, its not fun, but you gotta make the best of it

Am I the only person who doesn't think life is a miserable shit ball of tedium?

[Nemmerle]

What would you fill your leisure time with if not the artifacts of a relatively technologically advanced civilisation? If you don't want to pay the price of existing within such the solution is simple: go to some shit third world country and live out the dream of your low technology existence.