> I am a fairly decent software engineer,
You need to stop saying that. You're not a software engineer.
Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?
111–120 of 202 posts
Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?
#112contract work?
Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can write good code in Java, Scala, Python, Perl, MATLAB, Javascript, and now learning Go. I can configure Apache, nginx, Ansible, Docker... I worked with nearly every favor of Linux, OpenSolaris/OmniOS, CoreOS, etc. I learned how to do things in big data, business intelligence, algorithmic trading. Learning new things is not a problem, this is what I enjoy. Most of them are marketable. What's killing me is inabili…
I can relate to your situation. While I have not completely figured it out, one thing I realized is that, even though I shelve many of my side projects, occasionally I come back to some of them, with fresh enthusiasm and move it forward another step or two (before loosing enthusiasm again). I realized that given enough "cycles" at least some of them are bound to be completed. So a new approach I am trying is the "GPU…
Your conclusions regarding "GPU pipeline of side projects" and "recursing down to the details" resonate with my personal experience a lot. Great s-expression analogy!
Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?
#114I will try another approach that has not been mentioned so far. I know this is HN, but you haven't really mentioned anything about novelty outside software. Now, I will try to not make assumptions, but is it perhaps that you are only seeking novelty in a very constrained way, which makes you feel uneasy about your choices? What type of food do you eat? What hobbies do you pursue? Maybe you have a very monotonous life…
Oh no, my life is anything but monotonous. I lived in 6 different countries (going through bureaucracy hell while getting paperwork done each time), visited another 20 or so, tried getting a PhD, founded two startups (failed both), etc etc. Part of the problem. :)
This sounds very similar to me! I've also been thinking about going for a PhD one day, or at least a degree. What was your field of study?
I don't know if I can think of any practical advice. But I'm in the same boat, and I think this can be a good quality if it means you are constantly thinking of new ideas. I also love starting new projects, and have even been able to finish a few. Recently I even posted an unfinished project on Reddit, which got a few laughs, and that's all I was going for.
If you're up for it, I would enjoy chatting about some of the projects we worked on, and countries we've lived in. I'm still looking for the perfect place on earth to settle down for a while, although I think I might have actually found it this week (New Plymouth, New Zealand).
Feel free to send me an email, my address should be in my profile. And we can also maybe work on some ways to mitigate the addiction to new things.
Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?
#115I am on similar lines, but i have a stable job .. (changed 3 jobs in the last 6 years). I quit my own startup because its boring. I cant stick to a project for more than a month.
Try working with a really growing startup you might like it. I was into infra for a while, the QA team, then development, then scaling dbs etc... Keep changing the role.
It is not just about the job. Try doing a course on coursera/edX. I do multiple courses across very different domains. I did Mathematics, biology, Electronics, then philosophy, Quantum computing etc. It gives you the element of "novelty" if the job doesnt interest you.
Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?
#116Looks like you have to adjust your mindset (definitely not easy but probably achievable) or, if you are confident enough, to adjust your career. For example you can write articles and do workshops/lectures.
Third option (more EU one than Swiss :) would be to postpone the decision.
Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?
#117(This is intended as just another idea to think about) The long-term passion and commitment come after some level of success, not before. Steve Jobs didn't dream of dedicating his life to Personal Computing. It was his early successes that fed into his self-image and a feeling that it was what he was meant to do. Maybe you need to find the right project. Turn your weakness into a strength by publicly launching a new…
Yes, I think passion and self-image are often tightly coupled.
Passionate people tend to project their ego/self-image onto their work.
Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?
#118Do you often show up to work late? Are you seen as generally unreliable? (Be honest with yourself.) Do you procrastinate a lot? Do you have a hard time transitioning? Are you late for things because you a) can't accurately estimate time and b) can't pull yourself away from the thing you're doing at that moment even though you know you're going to be late if you don't? Do you have a very unstructured sleep schedule? D…
Serious question: How is the following quoted paragraph linked to ADHD? Do you have a hard time transitioning? Are you late for things because you a) can't accurately estimate time and b) can't pull yourself away from the thing you're doing at that moment even though you know you're going to be late if you don't? Sounds more like extreme focus. Isn't this the exact opposite of ADHD?
I have a close relative who's being treated for ADHD - can confirm that she has certain activities into which she can be extremely focused.
Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?
#119Fixing that may take a long time, but it will probably fix your whole life, so it's worth it to just focus on this instead on software or work. Dedicate to work only the minimum necessary time for survival. There are probably a number of causes, but coffee may be one of them. Don't be radical, but if you're having too much coffee, I'd suggest cutting down to just one coffee in the morning. It will take a bit of effor…
There are probably a number of causes, but coffee may be one of them. Don't be radical, but if you're having too much coffee, I'd suggest cutting down to just one coffee in the morning. It will take a bit of effort but may help you concentrate. I'd suggest gradually cutting down to none. Apparently the alertness and general cognitive enhancing properties of caffeine don't really exist and all that people are noticing…
This
Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Interesting. My answer is an emphatic yes to all of those questions. In the back of my mind I've always suspected that I would be diagnosed with ADHD, but never talked to anyone about it. In the end I just chalked it up to being a different kind of person and catered my life around my behaviors instead of trying to force my behaviors into some ideal notion. Looking back at the age of 40, my life has been much richer…
> Interesting. My answer is an emphatic yes to all of those questions. In the back of my mind I've always suspected that I would be diagnosed with ADHD, but never talked to anyone about it. Same here, I always suspected it, but as I'm 25 and don't want to take medication, I never thought there's much that could be done. I would love here what y0y did to work with his condition as well.
Medication is not the only choice. Although it's the one where you might see small results at the earliest. CBT and biofeedback are promising new treatments, but not mainstream yet.
May I ask, where this bias against medication comes from?