Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Underperforming, feeling stuck

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–135 of 135 posts

Re: Ask HN: Underperforming, feeling stuck

#131

Post by markkanof »

gagi wrote: post #58

throwaway_stuck: 1. Is programming the right job for you? If you feel uncomfortable or dismissive of this line of thinking, consider a quote by Jefferson: "Question with boldness even the existence of God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear." If programming is the profession that truly satisfies you and complements your abilities and personality, then…

Your second point has always been really helpful for me. Since. I spend all day basically living in my own head and moving bits around to create intangible products. I find that it helps to do some activity with more tangible results, to avoid burnout.

My current activity is cooking. I make the time most nights to make a real dinner from scratch. I've gotten in to bread baking too. The part that I think is most beneficial is both that it produces something that you can actually touch (and taste) and I can finish preparing a meal in an hour or two, so I don't have to wait for months to see the outcome of he thing I am creating. Plus it doesn't hurt to have a solid healthy meal everyday.

Re: Ask HN: Underperforming, feeling stuck

#132

Post by rhizome »

terra_t wrote: post #96

You can be depressed without realizing it. Part of you can think that you like your job, while another part of you hates it. The best way to detect burnout isn't to ask "do you feel burned out?" but to ask "can you get the work done?" I was stuck in the code mines a few years ago; I'd always find some way to convince myself I was happy about what I was doing, but then I read this blog about SEO and started dreaming a…

Depression is a very common side effect of ADHD due to a person's natural reaction toward not being able to get stuff done.

Re: Ask HN: Underperforming, feeling stuck

#133

Post by [deleted] »

mason55 wrote: post #118
araneae wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand, if you hate working out and working, and you have a limited amount of willpower, you might end up spending all of your willpower working out.

If there is literally no physical activity you enjoy and no job you enjoy then you are probably suffering from some kind of depression.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Underperforming, feeling stuck

#134

Post by lisper »

throwaway_stuck wrote: post #21
lisper wrote: post #17

Definitely familiar. What I would suggest is to figure out what it is you're really getting hung up on. It has to be something more specific than "my brain turns to mush." Try writing down a description of the problem you think you're having. The act of rendering a thought into writing will often break a logjam for me.

I get hung up in a number of ways, but the most severe is when I'm trying to learn how the existing system works. I'll be listlessly paging back and forth between spaghetti code classes, and things get all fuzzy, and then it feels like I've spent enough time on this, and some sort of strategy to do my project occurs to me. And then I try it, but it doesn't work because I still didn't understand the existing code. Rin…

One important thing to keep in mind is that progress doesn't always feel like progress. Trying something that turns out not to work might feel like a waste of time, but it's actually progress: now you know this doesn't work and you can try something else that is more likely to work. As long as you remember what didn't work and don't end up in loops where you keep trying the same non-working thing over and over again (which is harder than it sounds) you will sooner or later get it to work.
Post reply on HN