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Ask HN: Not smart enough to a programmer, where to take my life from here?
151–160 of 173 posts
Re: Ask HN: Not smart enough to a programmer, where to take my life from here?
#152Do you find you have problems concentrating and focusing on things that interest you? Also, do you by any chance do a lot of high dopamine low effort activities (eg, videogames, social media, television, recreational drugs, junk food)? If yes to both then perhaps try a dopamine “detox” to reset your receptors.
I found that I was finding it harder and harder to do things that take effort, even if they interested me (programming for work or fun, reading mom-fiction material, chores, etc) but instead spent a lot of time on HN (errr..), youtube, playing videogames, eating junk food... By abstaining from all stimulating activities, to make “low dopamine” the new normal, I could make the payoff of high effort activities worthwhile again. Concentration and motivation improved.
Re: Ask HN: Not smart enough to a programmer, where to take my life from here?
#153just to add in - you're not slow, you're probably average. When you start working, all the things you can learn in a weekend quickly evaporate within 1-2 years of your working career. The only things left to learn are those that take 3 months or more. These things take the right mindset to learn - continuing to think about them, tackle them, ignoring failure and coming back to it over and over because that's the natu…
MBTI is pseudoscience without any empirical backing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers%E2%80%93Briggs_Type_Indi... Really the only personality test with any strong empirical backing is the Big Five test: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits All other personality tests reduce down to the Big Five when you try to test for co variance.
The exercise is about finding a language that you can use to describe your shared values. For that use case MBTI is perfectly fine.
Re: Ask HN: Not smart enough to a programmer, where to take my life from here?
#154Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's the question that inevitably pops up from this: what do you do if nothing interests you in this way? There are interesting things, sure, but those are usually fleeting. You'll be interested in something for a month or two and then lose interest in it. You can't earn a living on that. What do you do then?
A while back, I overheard a coworker of mine was complaining about a cousin that was couch-surfing his way through relatives, not getting a job, just playing video games all day and moving on to a different relative or friend after getting kicked out of the last place he stayed. The coworker and the person he was talking to were both very confused by how anyone could ever want to live that way. I had a very different…
Did he actually enjoy living that way? To me, that sounds like the result of having no real options and playing video games constantly to avoid facing that reality...
Re: Ask HN: Not smart enough to a programmer, where to take my life from here?
#155Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you hit the nail on the head here. This person tries to get us to believe they're stupid; but, if they believe that themselves, truly, then they're going to create self-fulfilling prophecies. They need to find something they're interested in to work on every day. 8 hours is a long time each day to be doing something, it's better if you're interested in it, so that at least some of those hours are fun. And I w…
Here's the question that inevitably pops up from this: what do you do if nothing interests you in this way? There are interesting things, sure, but those are usually fleeting. You'll be interested in something for a month or two and then lose interest in it. You can't earn a living on that. What do you do then?
This.
I recall clearly how amazing mini quadcopters were to me! I bought some, I wrote 3D models and designed my own 3D printable chassis, I even made one from ground up, with FPV camera and all! I built and flew (until destruction) maybe 20 or 25 quads, it was all I did, all day, for 2 months. Now there's a box of spare parts and unfinished related projects that I won't touch before the day I decide to throw it all in the big "electronics junk" bin for use in future projects.
Re: Ask HN: Not smart enough to a programmer, where to take my life from here?
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's the question that inevitably pops up from this: what do you do if nothing interests you in this way? There are interesting things, sure, but those are usually fleeting. You'll be interested in something for a month or two and then lose interest in it. You can't earn a living on that. What do you do then?
According to my father, the business world in my country is currently experiencing difficulties finding talent because, in the words of his bosses, "young people today are too soft and quit when things get slightly difficult". While there are many other factors here that I don't want to get into (such as loyalty being a two-way street and so on), I often wonder whether the idea of "this is not a hobby, it's a job" mi…
> is anyone really passionate about packing items for Amazon?
Yes, you can! At least for a short time. I went to New Zealand on a working holiday visa. I did a lot of odd jobs there. I did fruit picking for about one month. First I thought it will be boring, but it turned out really satisfying. You can start optimizing each step of the process, shave down a few seconds here and there, finding better ways to do things. In the end, me and my girlfriend were in the top 5 five with some Japanese people (they are crazy fast), and on average we picked and packed 2-3 times more than the average.
I just want to point out some seemingly boring jobs can be satisfying.
I read a lot of horror stories about Amazon. It won't work with the current way, but that is a good thing. Amazon will have to upper their workplace standard otherwise nobody going to work there.
Re: Ask HN: Not smart enough to a programmer, where to take my life from here?
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here's the question that inevitably pops up from this: what do you do if nothing interests you in this way? There are interesting things, sure, but those are usually fleeting. You'll be interested in something for a month or two and then lose interest in it. You can't earn a living on that. What do you do then?
This. I recall clearly how amazing mini quadcopters were to me! I bought some, I wrote 3D models and designed my own 3D printable chassis, I even made one from ground up, with FPV camera and all! I built and flew (until destruction) maybe 20 or 25 quads, it was all I did, all day, for 2 months. Now there's a box of spare parts and unfinished related projects that I won't touch before the day I decide to throw it all…
What you did sounds amazing! Yet I’m getting a tone from your comment that reveals some kind of disappointment in yourself. Reminds me of this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22792829. Check out the book mentioned in the top comment (Refuse to Choose), it may resonate with you. It certainly resonated with me after reading it recently.
Re: Ask HN: Not smart enough to a programmer, where to take my life from here?
#158throwaway88p, I think you actually seem to a very mentally healthy guy, despite what the nerds over here suggest. The obsession to solve intellectual problems for the sake of solving problems with no grounding in reality ( or a made up reality) is what is glorified by these nerds here. While this obsessive trait (hard wired) does result in some extraordinary benefits for humanity, it is not mentally rewarding for someone who can see it for what it is i.e grunt work.
The ability of be bored is I think just an important useful neuro-mental process, just like the ability to forget. depending of which side you lean it may be useful or be a liability under different circumstances.
To end on a pessimistic note, one cannot manufacture interest, unless we come up with a way to skillfully manipulate our neuro hard wiring. I think we a long way off from achieving that.
Re: Ask HN: Not smart enough to a programmer, where to take my life from here?
#159It's possible, though I don't know you, that you're too smart to be a programmer. And maybe "programmer" is the problem. Be a _____ who can also code. Zed Shaw said it best in the final pages of learn python the hard way. Programming as a career is rarely fulfilling to anyone. But being a teacher/doctor/librarian/entrepreneur/warehouse worker/farmer/etc. that can code is a super power. I'm basically talking to myself…
>I'm basically talking to myself with this pep talk so I appreciate you bringing it up but.. let's both go find the thing that we like and apply programming to that thing!
Good way to put it. Programming is not a end in itself, it's a tool like many other that we use to navigate the sh*t called life.
Re: Ask HN: Not smart enough to a programmer, where to take my life from here?
#160Earlier quoted context omitted.
A while back, I overheard a coworker of mine was complaining about a cousin that was couch-surfing his way through relatives, not getting a job, just playing video games all day and moving on to a different relative or friend after getting kicked out of the last place he stayed. The coworker and the person he was talking to were both very confused by how anyone could ever want to live that way. I had a very different…
Did he actually enjoy living that way? To me, that sounds like the result of having no real options and playing video games constantly to avoid facing that reality...
> To me, that sounds like the result of having no real options and playing video games constantly to avoid facing that reality...
I think that is the point of the parent comment. Some people think it is horrible, like a result of having no options, and some people think it is ideal! Personally, I would go crazy without deadlines hanging over my head and lots of resources to tackle those deadlines with.