The days are long but the decades are short (2015)
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment order> On work: it’s difficult to do a great job on work you don’t care about. And it’s hard to be totally happy/fulfilled in life if you don’t like what you do for your work I get that this is aimed at the startup crowd, but I've always felt that this sentiment is pretty privileged. We, the elite, get to cherry pick our work and do what we like. But I bet 9/10 people will never feel they have this…
This is better than most of these "tips for a good life" lists, but I feel like it too misses a certain level of overarching consistency. Almost every item has a situation in which the "correct" thing to do is exactly the opposite of what is recommended. How do you make that decision? As with all of these lists, I always wonder whether this is what the author thinks now, after attaining success, or if these principles are what they…
Here's something these posts never touch on: dealing with the inevitable routine and the boredom that comes with it. You always read that life is short, seize the moment, etc. and I call BS. I like to think I did all that, I'm well under 40 and have really travelled the world, succeeded professionally, lived in 10 countries, did everything I ever wanted to do. And now what? The problem with achieving things is that you run out of goals…
The advice isn't bad at all, but then you've heard it all before. Most people tend to figure most of this out by the time they are in their mid-thirties, or never do. I can only speak from my own perspective, but the irony is that the people I tend to be deeply impressed by don't tend to follow this sort of mechanistic or "optimized wisdom" approach to life. They tend to be more chaotic, less rational (sometimes dangerously so)…
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 4
- Total points
- 1594
- Total comments
- 577
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015-04-28 | The days are long but the decades are shortFirst breakout · Best thread | jordanmessina | 1163 | 387 |
| 2018-06-11 | The days are long and the decades are short | mthwsjc_ | 4 | 0 |
| 2018-07-08 | The days are long but the decades are short | dsr12 | 3 | 0 |
| 2018-07-09 | The days are long but the decades are short (2015) | Shank | 2 | 0 |
| 2019-08-11 | The days are long but the decades are short – Sam Altman | vinnyglennon | 2 | 1 |
| 2019-09-07 | The days are long but the decades are short (2015)Hall induction | hvo | 193 | 33 |
| 2021-02-08 | The days are long but the decades are short (2015) | baxtr | 104 | 73 |
| 2022-06-22 | The days are long but the decades are short | henrik_w | 2 | 0 |
| 2023-04-19 | The days are long but the decades are shortLatest 20+ point return | dbrereton | 115 | 83 |
| 2024-08-09 | The days are long but the decades are short (2015) | tosh | 1 | 0 |
| 2025-01-09 | The days are long but the decades are short (2015) | scriptnull | 1 | 0 |
| 2025-12-05 | The days are long but the decades are short (2015) | bootlegbilly | 4 | 0 |