The case against morning yoga, daily routines, and endless meetings

Attitudes Toward Routines

• Many commenters say routines are crucial: they reduce overhead, keep life from “becoming a mess,” and make proactive outreach, collaboration, and side projects feasible.
• Others resonate with the article’s dislike of hyper-structured “CEO morning routines,” but still use modest, flexible routines to support what matters to them.
• Several emphasize that routines are a means, not an end: a stable base that enables resilience, spontaneity, and more meaningful work.

Routines, Maintenance, and Compounding

• Exercise, yoga, and similar “small” habits are framed as high-impact over time: they improve health, mood, and decision-making, even if they aren’t career 10x events.
• Routine is likened to maintenance: unglamorous but essential, especially for long-term research, fitness, relationships, and creative work.
• Some note that without fixed time slots, self-care practices get crowded out by “urgent” tasks.

ADHD and Fragility of Habits

• Commenters with ADHD say routines are especially necessary yet also fragile.
• Disruptions (travel, WFH shifts, missed days) can derail them for days or weeks.
• Strategies mentioned: planning for lower-productivity days, using “placeholders” (e.g., 5 pushups instead of full workout), and aiming for ~80% adherence rather than perfection.
• There is pushback against advice that amounts to “just adapt,” seen as trivializing how hard habit change is for ADHD.

Critiques of “10x Work” and Hustle Culture

• Many reject the obsession with “10x work” and productivity maximization, calling it hustle culture or VC-centric thinking.
• Skepticism that 10x effort yields 10x pay unless you own the company.
• Some argue “10x work” often means cherry-picking interesting, visible tasks while others handle the grunt work and fallout.

Serendipity, Impact, and Hindsight

• Disagreement over whether careers are defined by rare “upside swings” or by cumulative “area under the curve.”
• Several note hindsight bias: you rarely know in advance which task is 10x, so telling people to focus only on those is likened to “only buying stocks that go up.”
• A common middle ground: routines and discipline make you prepared so that when rare high-impact opportunities appear, you can actually capitalize on them.

Teaching Career Side Discussion

• One commenter reports leaving a prestigious, competitive career for teaching and finding far higher personal satisfaction.
• Others describe severe problems in (especially US) teaching: low pay in many areas, poor working conditions, constant bureaucracy and policy churn, burnout, and limited exit options.
• Some point to data suggesting relatively low suicide rates among education workers and speculate that purpose, community, and focus on the future may contribute, while acknowledging teaching can still be very stressful.