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Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#211

Post by bdickason »

I have a full time software-ish job (product manager) and I go in and out of being 'productive' vs. consuming (playing games, watching tv, etc). Here are the things that I've found make my side projects work:

1. Start with something insanely tiny - Every side project software or library I've built were ~4hr hacks just trying to get a basic, basic version of something working to see if I could even do it. Example: I wanted to build a web view of the books I've read, so I just installed nodejs and tried to see if I could even get a list of books from goodread. This would be step 1. Step 2 would be getting my books, step 3 would be displaying them in a browser. That's it. Once I accomplished each step, I set out a new set of tiny steps. Nothing huge, nothing crazy, nothing ambitious. Just get started and prove to yourself that you can do it :)

2. Social Pressure - More than anything, this has been huge for me. My current project is a twitch bot that I'm making for my friends' stream. I started working on it and got a basic version that could respond to commands up and running in a day, then they started playing with it and having tons of fun. Now they make videos and want to show them on the stream, they have new ideas for commands, and one of them is even helping me code it. It's been really great :) Another example of this is building a game with my brother. We started working on it together and it gave us more reasons to talk regularly and a shared purpose. This kept me going much longer than the actual game itself did.

3. Choose tech that know or you think is fun - I know this is not the ideal way to build a project, but what you're grappling with is just motivation. Pick technology that you're interested in or one that you know and you enjoy working in. For me that's nodejs and I've been writing things in it off and on for years.

4. Open source everything - by default every project I start is open source. If it's code, I constantly publish it on github. If it's a video, I post it on youtube. Blog post? Put it on medium or my blog. First, it pushes you to put things out into the world and figure out the details of releasing them (like writing documentation!) Second, every once and a while, they'll stick :) My goodreads module I mentioned above has 2 people who are actively maintaining it as I don't have alot of time/motivation to do so. They're still pushing changes and a few months ago, a co-worker stumbled upon it and used it in one of his personal projects :D Very cool!

Hope this is helpful, I've found alot of joy in side projects, even if none of them will likely ever make me any money or bring me any fame/succcess.

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#213

Post by nurettin »

coldtea wrote: post #64
nurettin wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you cite any credible source other than subjective reasoning for creativity being a limited resource that we spend during a dayjob and have almost none left to build something at home?

Because the fact that daily work exhausts people and drains their energy is some kind of complex nuanced issue that requires dedicated research to verify? Obviously it depends on how demanding/time consuming the daily job is, but that's a standard observation with millennia of empirical evidence. I swear, it's like people can't even tie their shoes anymore unless there's a long-term study (and preferably, meta studie…

It isn't a "complex nuanced issue", talking about the depletion of some non-existent entity (creative energies? srsly?) is at best a failure of self-expression and at worst spiritual nonsense.

I guess people get defensive because of this very frustration of being wrong and unable to correct themselves at the same time.

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#214

Post by taneq »

ZenoArrow wrote: post #149
cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just curious. How long has it been?

cocktailpeanuts, one question, how would you describe the feeling of burnout?

Have you ever had brake fade in a car? It's like that, but inside your mind. Everything starts feeling mushy and mental processes don't get the results they used to.

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#216

Post by heyoni »

marvin wrote: post #27

I'm going to say something that might be wildly unpopular among ambitious people: If you have a full-time job, you are by far not a passive consumer. You presumably contribute >40 hours every week of creatively demanding, high-quality labor to society. For most people, the premise of this question is wrong. Procrastination, when you don't obviously have a lot of available time and effort, is a symptom that most of yo…

I would add that if you can find some overlap between your daily job and any personal goals you've set, you could potentially be using your good creative energy for two things rather than one.

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#217

Post by taneq »

the_common_man wrote: post #207
kmicklas wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the solution to this is the 20% time rule, but Google only really does this. Google doesn't really do this either anymore.

Why was it discontinued? Seems like a win-win to Google and Employees. I thought gmail came out of this 20% time...

Just judging from comments here, it sounds like officially it's still running but unofficially that 20% time had better not detract any actual work hours from any of your official work. So really it's "work 20% overtime on whatever you want, and the company will own it" which doesn't sound very motivating to me.

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#218

Post by stil »

wpietri wrote: post #69

My biggest tip: minimize what you do. Since you want to do more, I know this sounds crazy. But when I set up a personal kanban system, it really changed my life. You establish a backlog of what you want to do. Then you limit the amount of work in process (WIP). That gives you a very small number of open tasks to switch between, which means you end up increasing your focus and being forced to finish things. (Or at lea…

++, I'm in the middle of a project that was supposed to be a quick 2-3 weekend deal. It's now taken much longer than I originally hoped, and I'm constantly tempted to give up/set it down for another few months but I know I just need to reformulate a plan and finish it instead of starting other things and having 2-3 half assed projects.

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#219

Post by TheKarateKid »

ashark wrote: post #181
Xcelerate wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I know some people who have energy levels that allow them to sustainably burn the candle at both ends, but they are a small minority. I am quite envious of this group; they appear to have a big leg up in accomplishing great things, but there appears to be a component of either genetics or upbringing that leaves only a small portion of people with this capability. Why isn't there more research on this? A huge number…

Some days I feel fucking great . Like I can take on the world. Do anything. I'm motivated, want to get things done, and feel like I can do it. There's not a hint of fog in my brain, not a bit of fatigue in my muscles. It's awesome . I leap out of bed, think "damn, I feel great !" and just go . But... it's also only 5-10 days a year, and seems to hit more-or-less at random (though sunny, long, not-too-humid days seem…

What you described could be symptoms of undiagnosed ADHD. The brain fog, only 5-10 days of random great/motivated days.

Contrary to popular belief, people with ADHD can be very smart and successful without even realizing they have it. Check out the ADHD subreddit and TotallyADD.com.

Re: Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

#220

Post by pacomerh »

We all function differently, let me give you an example. There's the kind of people that don't need much help doing things, they don't need advice or productivity tools, or reading motivational articles that are actually only an excuse to avoid starting things. These kind of people will tell you that if you really want to do something you won't need to spend your life procrastinating, because if you want it so much, the energy to do it will come out natural. This might not have happened to you because you haven't found the right thing to create. But not everyone is like that, not everyone knows what they should be prioritizing. Some people need inspiration, for these kind of people I would strongly recommend collaborating with others. Work with others, get inspired by commitment and sharing ideas. For some people the problem of not having energy to create things is related to not having small social rewards that keep you going like fuel. Energizing by others is important and will get you going.
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