Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#111

Post by kaens » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 2:15 AM UTC

fmora wrote: post #83

binspace wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, try coding while high. I find it does not really diminish my IQ, it just changes the how I think. Basically, my thinking becomes more tangential, so I'm able to explore scenarios with depth. It also relaxes me and helps me to let go of certain notions create boundaries to coming up with different solutions. Usually, when encountering such a problem, I will pace around the house exploring the line of thought. Of…

"Does not really diminish my IQ" You remind me of a TV program where they did a study how drinking affect driving. The test subjects would swear that they drive even better when drunk. They got them drunk, put them behind the wheel, and it was horrible. They completely suck. How do you know is not the same thing with you. We would need to do an experiment to verify your claims.

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/misc/driving/driving.htm

I tried to find a non-druglibrary.org link to this study, but wasn't able to find freely available .gov links for it.

http://www.ntis.gov/search/product.aspx?ABBR=PB94173630

I don't advocate driving while stoned.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#112

Post by sp332 » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 2:20 AM UTC

olliesaunders wrote: post #106

Too much time surfing the web? http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/05/ff_nicholas_carr/all/1 http://tkcollier.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/acquired-attention... Also relevant: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=956493

I see what you did there!

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#113

Post by Qz » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 2:44 AM UTC

CamperBob wrote: post #93

stan_rogers wrote: post #72

Take this seriously. Very seriously. What you're describing may be no more than acute stress, something that can be fixed with a proper vacation (as in "completely vacate your life" -- go on a camping trip, visit an ashram or monastery, spend some time wwoofing) and a subsequent lifestyle change to allow for periods of relaxation and enjoyment during your normal routine. Or it may be something much bigger. As a sober…

Not to downplay the serious symptoms you've described, but that's all a bit dramatic when the guy has described nothing more or less than Slashdot Syndrome. When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.

Thats a rather Eurocentric viewpoint. A good portion of the world may be closer to a zebra than a horse at any given moment.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#114

Post by starkfist » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 2:57 AM UTC

This exact thing started happening to me more and more frequently when I hit age 30. I tried all the standard remedies: psychological tricks, pomodoro techniques, vacations, exercise, reducing stimulants, increasing stimulants, blocking the internet, and so forth. However, in late 2008 I faced up to the fact that I simply do not care as much about programming as I once did. I also did some soul searching and realized that perhaps I never really "liked" programming. My relationship to programming has been more like an obsession or compulsion than someone pursuing a passion.

My solution is that I set a hard deadline of my 35th birthday to leave the field. I took a much higher paying programming job in the financial sector at the beginning of 2009, and moved in with roommates for the first time in 15 years, to save as much money as possible. I am lucky in that I have other talents to explore, and friends and relatives with unrelated businesses where I can always get a job in a pinch.

This might not be the right way for anyone else. However, I thought that since your symptoms are exactly the same as mine, I should share. I wish I would have figured this out for myself years sooner, as I could have saved myself a lot of frustration and unhappiness. Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#115

Post by rphlx » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 3:11 AM UTC

I went through this for a few weeks before I realized the cause. For me it was social media and news sites -- especially FB, twitter, mashable, reddit, and to some extent HN. These sites are carefully designed to make you ADD, so that you keep coming back for more, like a drug addiction. Call me cynical but basically, they are machines designed to numb and enslave the masses (possibly excluding HN).

If you are spending more than 5-10 mins/day on these sites, IMO it's a problem -- that is time you could be using to create something, rather than consuming meaningless social media updates from people you probably don't really care about. It's sad to see that even very talented developers, scientists, and otherwise-rational people are geting sucked into this bullshit.

Join a gym, hang out with friends IRL, travel -- basically, go offline for a while until you find your center again.

I realize the irony of posting this as an HN comment. But at least I'm on my way to the gym.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#116

Post by karlzt » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 3:29 AM UTC

go to a place where there are many trees, what you need is a break of what distracts you.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#117

Post by metamemetics » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 4:03 AM UTC

jawngee wrote: post #28

Marijuana + Exercise. Seriously. I was having exactly the same issues recently, mostly the result of burning out in a giant flame from my last gig. MJ and getting off my mildly chubby ass were huge boons to productivity. YMMV, but it's worth a shot. I'd go for something a long the lines of Sour Diesel or BC Blueberry are strains I've found to really increase concentration and focus without making one lazy or sleepy.

For me Hash+coding is great (relaxed energy), but Weed+coding = miserable failure (attention span = gone). Coding on Sour Diesel, my hat is off to you!

Although I am a big fan of better living through chemistry ( low dose 2c-i & aniracetam), here are some reliable non-drug suggestions for the OP:

1. Change your location. I get easily distracted and waste time at home, but am super vigilant if coding at coffee shops even though there are technically more people talking and more distractions. Physically go somewhere to work where you arent used to procrastinating and train your brain to associate that place with getting work done. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context-dependent_memory

2. Turn your internet off. Most laptops have a physical switch to turn your wireless on and off quickly. If the internet is your primary distraction, simply turn it off when you aren't researching or deploying.

3) Organization: Here are some ideas: use timers on your computer such as WorkRave, make lists in a pocket notebook, talk to yourself or record audionotes, express the intention for your next actions in language by writing or talking somehow. Minimalize your desktop and browser home page as much as possible, so you start of by doing what you want not whats in front of you.

Psychotherapy is great for reducing the misery of the severely depressed people, but it won't help you with general 'distractability'. That's a learned behavior you can only override with practice.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#118

Post by jasonkeene » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 4:42 AM UTC

If you use a mac check out http://macfreedom.com/ or http://anti-social.cc/ I use freedom every time I have work in front of me that I want solid time to complete and I can't trust myself not to get distracted down some rabbit hole. It sounds stupid at first but two things it does for you over just unplugging from the network is that 1) you can still communicate with your local network/VPN and 2) you can't get back online without restarting your machine.

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#119

Post by binspace » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 4:54 AM UTC

fmora wrote: post #83

binspace wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, try coding while high. I find it does not really diminish my IQ, it just changes the how I think. Basically, my thinking becomes more tangential, so I'm able to explore scenarios with depth. It also relaxes me and helps me to let go of certain notions create boundaries to coming up with different solutions. Usually, when encountering such a problem, I will pace around the house exploring the line of thought. Of…

"Does not really diminish my IQ" You remind me of a TV program where they did a study how drinking affect driving. The test subjects would swear that they drive even better when drunk. They got them drunk, put them behind the wheel, and it was horrible. They completely suck. How do you know is not the same thing with you. We would need to do an experiment to verify your claims.

> "Does not really diminish my IQ"

Sorry, I meant it does not significantly diminish my IQ.

> How do you know is not the same thing with you.

First, I did not say I'm smarter when high. There was a study that shows that there is a small drop (~ 4 points) http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/04/22/text.iq/.

I also see my work when I am sober and it's fine.

The question is what needs to be optimized. At times (not all the time IMO and certainly not in the office), the benefit of exploring new options and increasing motivation of the task outweighs the slight drop in IQ.

> The test subjects would swear that they drive even better when drunk.

I did not swear I code better either. I take a different approach to solve the problem at hand, which leads to better results due to diversity in the problem solving process. I code sober much more often than when high. My code is also peer reviewed. It seems to work out just fine.

Sometimes you just have to loosen up. However you want to do that is up to you, as long as you use proper discretion if it is a controversial approach...

Re: Ask HN: My brain refuses to think, what should I do?

#120

Post by thebigshane » Mon, Jul 26, 2010, 5:05 AM UTC

datawalke wrote: post #10

From time to time I suffer the same issue. I look back hours later and get angry at myself for 'wasting' so much time. There are a few things you can do to help you out that others have mentioned. However this works for me the best: I edit my hosts file (Windows: /Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts, Mac: /etc/hosts) to look something similar to: 127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com 127.0.0.1 techcrunch.com www.techcrunch.c…

I have to mention Leechblock again, a firefox plugin that lets you customize times/days that you can (or can not) view certain webpages. Great for keeping yourself from surfing when you come home from work but letting you surf on a lazy saturday morning. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4476/