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Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#191

Post by mtreis86 »

pacoverdi wrote: post #167
hoorayimhelping wrote: post #141

You don't climb a mountain by thinking about mountains then making a huge epic trek in a couple of leaps. You climb a mountain by taking one step at a time. You have to take thousands of steps to reach the top of a mountain. Not every step is going to be perfect, or even pretty. Some will go in the wrong direction and you'll need to backtrack. Some will be missteps that might hurt. But if you keep making a concerted…

I like and often use the mountain metaphor myself. Sometimes the path to the top includes some abrupt parts, akin to climbing a vertical wall. These are big efforts that requires long periods of concentration. These are often followed by easy trails with no elevation, or even downward. This can be boilerplate that you can do without even thinking. When you've reached the top, if you realize that the path you followed…

I like it too.

Find a local maximum that gives you some space to see around you. Climb a tree, or walk uphill for a good while - maybe a path will be more obvious from up there. In the metaphor, go spend some time learning some hobby for a while, something you enjoy doing but haven't put time into, then re-evaluate.

There is no best mountain to climb, just more mountains.

Sometimes there is no path where you want to go and you are the one who gets to blaze it. This doesn't have to be huge either, the path gets too worn down in places and new turns need to be added to get around those spots.

If you spend too much time looking at your map and compass, you won't end up putting many miles down.

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#192

Post by throwaway392938 »

throwaway392938 wrote: post #181

I'm using a throwaway account for this because I don't want to be this candid with any account that can be traced back to me. After reading some of the response mentioning ADHD and the issues people have, I wanted to talk about my issues and see if it resonates with anyone else and if others relates to it. It's not something I ever really discussed with anyone and I do think it would be good for me to hear from other…

For some reason, when I try to edit this post, it doesn't update it correctly, there's a paragraph missing:

On the other hand, whenever my mind find something interesting, I can have a lot of focus. I'm able to spend a couple of week only thinking about that issue, during that time, nothing else really matters, and I can't really get interested in anything else. I have difficulty talking about anything else with my partner (which she used to find annoying). This can be anything from a problem at work, to researching what the best video projector would be and trying to understand everything behind the technology of all models in the market place... I do have a tendency to become completely uninterested about that subject or that task after it. So, for example, recently, I suddenly became obsessive about headphones and audio gear, I researched everything about them, bought quite a few high end headphones (spent a quarter of my salary on them) but by the time they finally arrived, I was no longer interested and couldn't even really find the motivation to test them. I barely use them and they are now gathering dust on my shelf

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#193

Post by eklin »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #175
spawarotti wrote: post #117

Some people here suggest you might have ADHD. I encourage you to consider this, but suggest for you to be very skeptical towards this possibility. You can find extended discussion on this here: [1]. Focus first on fundamentals like sleep, exercise, diet, good social and romantic ties. Even if just one of your fundamentals is off, it might cause your brain to tell you “Hey, you want for me to put some long, hard, focu…

I live with two people with ADHD and I'm not seeing it. The OP describes giving up too easily for hard tasks, which is fairly common (I mean I have it) without any other indications for ADHD.

I have ADHD and while giving up easily is an indication for ADHD I have also a washing list of other symptoms, e.g. switching to a new hobby every other week, having sudden urges to google random things because my brain thinks it is of utmost importance to know about it RIGHT NOW, inability to maintain concentration if the thing I have to do doesn't interest me - but hyperfocusing on things for days on end if they interest me etc etc

ADHD is much more centered around concentration than just giving up easily, I guess.

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#194

Post by codegladiator »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #179

"Lazy" is just another way of saying that you're not doing something somebody else thinks you should be doing. Nobody is lazy at playing video games or eating a favorite food. If you like doing it, you do it. You can't be lazy. You can only be lazy in some kind of context where you or others judge you and find you wanting. So two pieces of advice. First, stop judging so much. Do what you love doing and don't feel the…

> Nobody is lazy at playing video games or eating a favorite food

Have you met me ?

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#195

Post by SquishyPanda23 »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #179

"Lazy" is just another way of saying that you're not doing something somebody else thinks you should be doing. Nobody is lazy at playing video games or eating a favorite food. If you like doing it, you do it. You can't be lazy. You can only be lazy in some kind of context where you or others judge you and find you wanting. So two pieces of advice. First, stop judging so much. Do what you love doing and don't feel the…

> stop judging so much

IMO this is the best advice here. The root issue seems to be anxiety, self-love, and judgment.

if your experience of love as a child was conditioned on performance metrics, then any time you go to solve a problem you have to deal with a whole ocean of emotion and trauma that others don't have to deal with.

It will take some work to understand and get past it, and my advice would be not to go it alone. Perhaps find a professional therapist who can help to get started.

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#196

Post by eklin »

throwaway392938 wrote: post #192
throwaway392938 wrote: post #181

I'm using a throwaway account for this because I don't want to be this candid with any account that can be traced back to me. After reading some of the response mentioning ADHD and the issues people have, I wanted to talk about my issues and see if it resonates with anyone else and if others relates to it. It's not something I ever really discussed with anyone and I do think it would be good for me to hear from other…

For some reason, when I try to edit this post, it doesn't update it correctly, there's a paragraph missing: On the other hand, whenever my mind find something interesting, I can have a lot of focus. I'm able to spend a couple of week only thinking about that issue, during that time, nothing else really matters, and I can't really get interested in anything else. I have difficulty talking about anything else with my p…

I have adhd and I would suggest you get that checked out because it sounds similar to how I experience it. Also search for hyperfocus online, it is what happens if people with ADHD get interested in something! As I said in another post, I get immensely interested in a new hobby like e.g. playing DND or learning how to play the guitar for one, two, maybe three weeks and after that - nada. Except "high dopamine" stuff like video games.

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#197

Post by Kinrany »

hoorayimhelping wrote: post #141

You don't climb a mountain by thinking about mountains then making a huge epic trek in a couple of leaps. You climb a mountain by taking one step at a time. You have to take thousands of steps to reach the top of a mountain. Not every step is going to be perfect, or even pretty. Some will go in the wrong direction and you'll need to backtrack. Some will be missteps that might hurt. But if you keep making a concerted…

Mountain climbing seems like a bad metaphor because you very much do need to prepare in advance for the whole trek. You won't be able to buy food and a radio once you're already stuck in a cave with no equipment.

I don't do mountain climbing and could be completely wrong though.

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#198

Post by pankajdoharey »

hoorayimhelping wrote: post #141

You don't climb a mountain by thinking about mountains then making a huge epic trek in a couple of leaps. You climb a mountain by taking one step at a time. You have to take thousands of steps to reach the top of a mountain. Not every step is going to be perfect, or even pretty. Some will go in the wrong direction and you'll need to backtrack. Some will be missteps that might hurt. But if you keep making a concerted…

Pretty good advice i think as long as we backtrack, i specially could relate to it since i love climbing mountains.

Re: Ask HN: How do I overcome mental laziness?

#199

Post by kaybe »

vntx wrote: post #23

Some things that have been extremely useful for me: Play video games that require intense focus for prolonged durations to perform well like Starcraft 2, CSGO, DOTA 2 helped me build mental endurance. Reduce social media. I’ve found that this was the most productive. Social media was fragmenting my attention by making me anxious and addicted. After I reduced Reddit and Facebook usage, my mental discipline increased d…

I think world-building games can help a little.

Making decisions and living with the outcome, letting things go and showing NPCs and other players what you built (especially if the community is supportive) - these skills are very transferable.

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