Unable to relax and addicted to being productive

[Bolletje]

I should add, before I romanticize my previous job too much, that it also gave me many sleepless nights wondering whether I had made the right decisions, it obliterated my social life and I was often so exhausted I would cry at random things when I was at home. It was and is my passion, but it came at a price.

 

[Fino]

I have an identical problem! It makes me wonder if my time spent attempting to relax is even productive relaxation because of how anxious I am while I'm doing it! But if I never attempt to relax, I slowly go mad from the endless productivity. Sometimes I think work is more relaxing than relaxing, which makes relaxing the work and work the relaxing, meaning I actually relax all the time and try to make time for work. The only problem is that relaxing, in this sense, is tiring.

Wow. I think I just lost my mind again.

 

[Wolfnox]

I have an identical problem! It makes me wonder if my time spent attempting to relax is even productive relaxation because of how anxious I am while I'm doing it! But if I never attempt to relax, I slowly go mad from the endless productivity. Sometimes I think work is more relaxing than relaxing, which makes relaxing the work and work the relaxing, meaning I actually relax all the time and try to make time for work. The only problem is that relaxing, in this sense, is tiring.

Wow. I think I just lost my mind again.

Makes since ti me. Says the talking wolf to the talking duck.

 

[Misery]

@Misery I've been playing Diablo since the first one came out in 1996. First gaming system was an Atari. The reason they call things addictions is because they know foolish people will part with their cash faster if they can be convinced it is a problem.

Edit: Actually after thinking about it my first gaming system was a roll of quarters and an arcade. Maybe it became an addiction after gaming systems cut out the middle man?

Yeah, similar for me. First was the ol' 2600. Never lost interest in it either. As a rule, I'd rather play that than the predatory and shallow modern crap that comes out these days. Same with arcade games, I've always adored those, but good luck finding a proper arcade now. Well.... I say that, but the biggest retro arcade of all is like 30 minutes from my house, and a smaller one closer, but not easy to reach.

As it is, about a year ago I got a stupidly expensive (like $4500) monster of a PC, and the main motivation was that I wanted it to be able to do ANYTHING at max everything without any trouble at all... including VR. And I wanted VR because of it's ability to recreate an entire retro arcade (via the 9000+ roms I have) and also the ability to recreate a setting like a bedroom from the 80s / 90s, complete with CRTs and everything and the ability to run all sorts of console games (old ones, roms) on those screens. Heck, run 15 at once if ya want. I have plenty of other things to do on VR and that machine in general, it's my main gaming device, but those are the main thing I grabbed it for and both get used alot.

I mean, playing roms on an emulator is great and all, but... nothing compared to doing it in an entire virtual recreation of those sorts of settings.

Honestly though I really miss those days. Even with all the advances in tech, I'd still love to go back to that time. Particularly when it comes to computers. Screw Windows, I want DOS back. And my old CGA & VGA stuff.

@Misery i remember when I was about 14 years old, my mom had to translate a book about WW2 and had a lot of trouble with the names of different types of weaponry and explosives. She was stupefied when I could help her out. I got that knowledge from video games. Also, especially as a kid and a teen, I got loads of English vocabulary from video games.

Yeah, there's alot that can be learned from gaming.

All the more reason that I get so annoyed at society in general trying to paint a picture of gaming as this braindead gun & gorefest. Thanks, giant stupid publishers, for that one. Bah. That's a whole other rant though.

 

[Wolfnox]

Yeah, similar for me. First was the ol' 2600. Never lost interest in it either. As a rule, I'd rather play that than the predatory and shallow modern crap that comes out these days. Same with arcade games, I've always adored those, but good luck finding a proper arcade now. Well.... I say that, but the biggest retro arcade of all is like 30 minutes from my house, and a smaller one closer, but not easy to reach.

As it is, about a year ago I got a stupidly expensive (like $4500) monster of a PC, and the main motivation was that I wanted it to be able to do ANYTHING at max everything without any trouble at all... including VR. And I wanted VR because of it's ability to recreate an entire retro arcade (via the 9000+ roms I have) and also the ability to recreate a setting like a bedroom from the 80s / 90s, complete with CRTs and everything and the ability to run all sorts of console games (old ones, roms) on those screens. Heck, run 15 at once if ya want. I have plenty of other things to do on VR and that machine in general, it's my main gaming device, but those are the main thing I grabbed it for and both get used alot.

I mean, playing roms on an emulator is great and all, but... nothing compared to doing it in an entire virtual recreation of those sorts of settings.

Honestly though I really miss those days. Even with all the advances in tech, I'd still love to go back to that time. Particularly when it comes to computers. Screw Windows, I want DOS back. And my old CGA & VGA stuff.



Yeah, there's alot that can be learned from gaming.

All the more reason that I get so annoyed at society in general trying to paint a picture of gaming as this braindead gun & gorefest. Thanks, giant stupid publishers, for that one. Bah. That's a whole other rant though.

You see this on youtube? Said it was made in vrchat.

 

[Ken S.]

Wow. I think I just lost my mind again.

Again?

 

[Ken S.]

@Misery I used to game with a guy who is in Canada that makes retro arcade style machines that hold anywhere from 40 to 120 old arcade games each. His first one cost him $30 for the stick and buttons. The rest he got from dumpster diving and downloading "Abandonedware" software. Running DOS and windows 3.11.

 

[Bolletje]

Yeah, there's alot that can be learned from gaming.

All the more reason that I get so annoyed at society in general trying to paint a picture of gaming as this braindead gun & gorefest.

I agree. I’ve been playing video games ever since I was a kid and I’ve learned a lot from them. I’ve also had the pleasure of exploring fantastic worlds and immersive stories. I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, I’ve cursed and I’ve lost all track of time. I’ve also made lasting friendships through MMO’s. Video games aren’t a braindead pastime at all, to me.

What’s interesting is that a lot of doctors that operate scopes for surgery and diagnostic procedures are advised to play video games on a console so they learn how to control things with their thumbs and fingers alone.

 

[Aspychata]

I love the right employment because as stated here, it doesn't feel like work.

 

[Sid Delicious]

I have the same issue. Except when I'm with a partner (because I can rationalise to myself that I'm making the relationship better). But when I'm single I can't stop working until I crash. I have no off switch.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I seem to have gotten addicted to not being productive these past couple of decades.