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Ask HN: Solo developer, what's your recipe to start working?

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Re: Ask HN: Solo developer, what's your recipe to start working?

#51

Post by stevewodil »

rendall wrote: post #48
stevewodil wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I followed this advice I would be perpetually taking 3 months off, and never get back to working. Don't diagnose people in 10 sentences. Have you ever tried solo developing? Without the extrinsic motivation, and forced external schedule it's fairly difficult for most people to stay on target with all the distractions we have today.

> Don't diagnose people in 10 sentences Literally every single response here is doing that. The advice is fine, even if it would be bad for you personally.

Yeah whenever somebody doesn't want to get started on something I tell them they have burnout and should take 3 months off. I'm kind of a doctor now honestly. They probably also have ADHD and depression based on my analysis.

Re: Ask HN: Solo developer, what's your recipe to start working?

#52

Post by dalmo3 »

5cott0 wrote: post #25

"A warlord once stopped at a monastery on his way home from a successful military campaign. He came to visit the abbot who was an old teacher of his. As the abbot and the warlord sat in the courtyard pleasantly chatting and drinking tea, they were distracted by an argument between a novice and a senior monk. The novice was complaining that the meditation technique given him by the senior monk was ineffective and wort…

If I tell you your house is burning down, you won't ask what's the temperature of the fire.

Re: Ask HN: Solo developer, what's your recipe to start working?

#53

Post by Viliam1234 »

tubularhells wrote: post #19
bhu1st wrote: post #17

Have you experienced a vision of the person you might become, the work you could accomplish, the realized being you were meant to be? Are you a writer who doesn’t write, a painter who doesn’t paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what “Resistance” is. - The War of Art - by Steven Pressfield

This is dumb. You are not meant to be anyone. You do not become a person who you are currently not. You are you, always, and you change throughout your life. Now here, next there. There is no percentage bar to fill up. No 'ding, grats' at level 60.

Yet somehow there is the pleasant feeling of doing what you are "meant to do" and the unpleasant feeling of wasting years of your life without doing what you are "meant to do".

Imagine a hypothetical "universal basic income" with a twist: you have to work for 8 hours a day, doing whatever you choose to do, and it doesn't have to be profitable at all. But you have to do something, because in this hypothetical universe they have lie detectors that actually work, and they connect you to one every week and ask whether you worked, and you don't get the money if you know you didn't. What would you do? -- If you have an answer for this that didn't change significantly for years, then that is what you are "meant to do".

People often don't do what they are "meant to do". One reason is that they need to pay their bills, and they don't have a sufficient safety net that would allow them to spend a few years doing something that doesn't immediately bring money. Another reason is that perhaps the work is necessary but not profitable; for example it would be nice to have people who take care of the homeless, but it's something that can hardly bring profit -- even if you reduce some negative externalities, there is no way for you to capture this value; or perhaps there is, but you only have people-care skills, not economical skills that would be necessary to create the business plan.

Re: Ask HN: Solo developer, what's your recipe to start working?

#54

Post by finiteseries »

Mc_Big_G wrote: post #45
finiteseries wrote: post #24

Don’t build things for yourself. Don’t build things by yourself. Build for specific people, and feel responsible to those people. Tie your social status into it. Humans are incredibly social animals, take full advantage of that fact and make sure you’re sailing with the wind on the ocean, not tinkering with model boats in a poorly ventilated bedroom.

> Don’t build things for yourself. This is counter to most of the startup advice I've seen. It's practically a meme at this point that many successful startups come out of scratching your own itch.

This is advice for a solo developer struggling with emotion management, not a meme.

Re: Ask HN: Solo developer, what's your recipe to start working?

#55

Post by josefdlange »

pototo666 wrote: post #5
DarrenDev wrote: post #4

Sometimes the size of the project you’re working on — or looking to work on — can be daunting. At the day job, you have a manager to break down the work for you and pass it around the team in bite-sized chunks. You have to be that manager yourself — breaking the app or product down into small components and working out what should get done first. Build a list in a form you’re familiar with — even if it’s a form you d…

Thanks, the list advice is promising. I used to have list in my side project, mostly to help me remember what to do. I stopped having them when I becoem full-time, believing that I know what to do, which is only half true. I shall log in my trello again. :)

IMO give paper lists -- or maybe something like Notes on an iPad with an Apple Pencil if you're really married to digitization -- a fair shake. Sometimes I find my brain needs the tactile/concreteness to really build motivation.

Even just checking a box on paper! No book is going to solve the problem for you, but "Every Tool's a Hammer" (Adam Savage, of Mythbusters and Tested fame) I found to be a great little memoir about learning how to be a self-directed maker.

Re: Ask HN: Solo developer, what's your recipe to start working?

#58

Post by tubularhells »

stevewodil wrote: post #28
tubularhells wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could move workout to the morning when your testosterone levels are highest during the day-night cycle. Easier gains.

Do you have data to backup the fact that you would make more muscle gains by training in the morning? Testosterone levels are higher, yes, but muscles are weaker in the morning and your cortisol levels are higher. I usually weight train in the afternoon/evening.

Do your research please.

Re: Ask HN: Solo developer, what's your recipe to start working?

#59

Post by tubularhells »

Viliam1234 wrote: post #53
tubularhells wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is dumb. You are not meant to be anyone. You do not become a person who you are currently not. You are you, always, and you change throughout your life. Now here, next there. There is no percentage bar to fill up. No 'ding, grats' at level 60.

Yet somehow there is the pleasant feeling of doing what you are "meant to do" and the unpleasant feeling of wasting years of your life without doing what you are "meant to do". Imagine a hypothetical "universal basic income" with a twist: you have to work for 8 hours a day, doing whatever you choose to do, and it doesn't have to be profitable at all. But you have to do something , because in this hypothetical univers…

Your reasoning is very poor. Such thought experiments might convince an elementary school student, but that's it.

Re: Ask HN: Solo developer, what's your recipe to start working?

#60

Post by tjalfi »

5cott0 wrote: post #25

"A warlord once stopped at a monastery on his way home from a successful military campaign. He came to visit the abbot who was an old teacher of his. As the abbot and the warlord sat in the courtyard pleasantly chatting and drinking tea, they were distracted by an argument between a novice and a senior monk. The novice was complaining that the meditation technique given him by the senior monk was ineffective and wort…

This reminds me of the Stephen King story Quitters, Inc. about a company that takes a similar approach to quitting smoking.
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