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Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

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Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#81

Post by jacobmischka »

Borrible wrote: post #54
jacobmischka wrote: post #7

I read (listened to, technically) this book a few weeks ago because I've always been inspired by the idea of Feynman and didn't know much about him. Honestly, I actually like him less after having read it. As I guess I should have expected, because its subtitle is "Adventures of a Curious Character", it's unfortunately for me filled with many more random personal anecdotes, often involving naked women, prostitutes, g…

Just read his lectures decades ago. So, he was an overall great guy, you say? And there is an audio book version of his illustrious escapades? Great, have to give it a try. Thank you!

I might recommend actually reading it, the narration of the Audible recording at least wasn't spectacular.

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#83

Post by wizzwizz4 »

justinclift wrote: post #53
teraku wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your cognitive workload is too high. There are three forms of cognitive workload: Intrinsic, External and Germane. Intrinsic is things you just *know*. How to write a class in java, how to write a query in SQL, ... External is stuff you only need occasionally, and need to look up every time: How to deploy to X, how to set up CI/CD, ... Germane is context knowledge. Usually referred to as business knowledge. You want…

> it's best to ... What are you basing this opinion on? :) --- As an aside, the blog in your profile link ( https://teraku.me ) has an invalid HTTPS cert. Seems to be for a different domain.

Once you're connected, it seems to serve the right cert for some reason. Badly-configured shared hosting?

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#85

Post by piva00 »

schindlabua wrote: post #66
Netcob wrote: post #44

Goal-oriented work, creativity and motivation definitely have a difficult relationship. In programming, I learn the most things simply by experimenting at home on my own. I'm thinking about switching jobs, so I wanted to learn some new frameworks and concepts to help with that, and I decided to make my personal projects a bit more "professional". Use continuous integration, focus more on web stuff, build and automati…

Hah sounds like you described me perfectly. But I do have to say, ever since I'm programming full-time I seem not to be able to just code for fun anymore. I used to program all day long.. and I guess I still do, but now it's for work, and after 8h of work I'm just done, you know? The "stuff I want to look at" list is growing longer and longer and there's no hope of me ever catching up. (I can't imagine how it is for…

I don't know how old you are and for how long you've been programming but your experience mimics my progression.

I started playing with some kind of programming when I was about 9-10, BASIC on a MSX and later HTML that opened up me for web development on ASP 3.0 and PHP at the time.

It was a very big hobby when I was young and turned into a career when I was pretty young, about 16. It stayed as a hobby for another 9-10 years but I got to the point where thinking about programming outside of my paid time was exhausting...

It helped me tremendously, I would never have a career if I wasn't extremely curious about programming for 15-20 years of my life, I just got to the same stage as you did.

There is an evergrowing and endless list of things I want to learn and experience, staying on top of the latest tech on my own free time is just too costly nowadays. I still do it, when I need it for work and during work hours, and all the accumulated experience helps me to figure out things way faster so I don't need to use my free time to catch up. Increasingly rarely I get that curiosity again, to use my free time to study something work-related. When I do it nowadays it's for much larger and abstract concepts such as organisation culture and change, team spirit and building trust and effective communication.

I noticed that the past 5 years of my career has been much more about the human and social aspect of work rather than technical ones. And I didn't try to become a manager, tech lead or product owner, it has just attracted me as I think I always got attracted to gaps of efficiency at work. It seems that seeing this human aspect of work brought me closer to more human aspects of life (arts, music, sociology) and a bit away from controlling the machine I learned when I was a kid.

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#86

Post by motiejus »

schindlabua wrote: post #66
Netcob wrote: post #44

Goal-oriented work, creativity and motivation definitely have a difficult relationship. In programming, I learn the most things simply by experimenting at home on my own. I'm thinking about switching jobs, so I wanted to learn some new frameworks and concepts to help with that, and I decided to make my personal projects a bit more "professional". Use continuous integration, focus more on web stuff, build and automati…

Hah sounds like you described me perfectly. But I do have to say, ever since I'm programming full-time I seem not to be able to just code for fun anymore. I used to program all day long.. and I guess I still do, but now it's for work, and after 8h of work I'm just done, you know? The "stuff I want to look at" list is growing longer and longer and there's no hope of me ever catching up. (I can't imagine how it is for…

I do have small children, and, for like many others, I get to do my things when everyone are asleep. You seem to have interest (which means you have energy), but the problem seems to be finishing. I have the same issue.

I am maintaining a list of them in a notebook, and am trying to limit the number of them to not more than 8-10 at the same time. And I can only start a new one if I finish an old one.

Everything in that list is a task with a clear Definition Of Done, so I know when I can cross them out. Realistically, each of them would take from 4 hours to a week (assuming full-time). Over the years, many things got done. Slower than I'd like, surely, but I think a SaaS business will come out of those TODOs in a few years.

This way, things are moving forward (since I must complete something), but I am allowing myself freedom to switch effortlessly. That motivates to do *something* when the hour comes. :)

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#87

Post by nickthemagicman »

teraku wrote: post #46
Netcob wrote: post #44

Goal-oriented work, creativity and motivation definitely have a difficult relationship. In programming, I learn the most things simply by experimenting at home on my own. I'm thinking about switching jobs, so I wanted to learn some new frameworks and concepts to help with that, and I decided to make my personal projects a bit more "professional". Use continuous integration, focus more on web stuff, build and automati…

Your cognitive workload is too high. There are three forms of cognitive workload: Intrinsic, External and Germane. Intrinsic is things you just *know*. How to write a class in java, how to write a query in SQL, ... External is stuff you only need occasionally, and need to look up every time: How to deploy to X, how to set up CI/CD, ... Germane is context knowledge. Usually referred to as business knowledge. You want…

I don't know why you're being devoted, this is interesting.

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#88

Post by MaxBarraclough »

bradrn wrote: post #16

> When I was in high school, I'd see water running out of a faucet growing narrower, and wonder if I could figure out what determines that curve. I found it was rather easy to do. Out of curiosity, does anyone know the solution to this problem? I wouldn’t even know how to approach it. (I’m an undergraduate physics major; I know nothing about fluid dynamics, but from Feynmann’s description I suspect that isn’t necessa…

Bernoulli's principle seems relevant here, I'm surprised no one has mentioned it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli%27s_principle#Incomp...

Re: Feynman: I am burned out and I'll never accomplish anything (1985)

#89

Post by otras »

jacobmischka wrote: post #7

I read (listened to, technically) this book a few weeks ago because I've always been inspired by the idea of Feynman and didn't know much about him. Honestly, I actually like him less after having read it. As I guess I should have expected, because its subtitle is "Adventures of a Curious Character", it's unfortunately for me filled with many more random personal anecdotes, often involving naked women, prostitutes, g…

If you’re looking for a deeper look beyond the anecdotes, I’d recommend James Gleick’s Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman. It covers much more of the ideas he had and what drove him.
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