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The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

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Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#61

Post by briefcomment »

aidenn0 wrote: post #19
tut-urut-utut wrote: post #3

This is excellent advice. Just by doing something, the habit gets created and the longer it gets, the easier it is to get started.

This has literally never worked for me with any habits I've tried intentionally cultivating. I'll pick something and do it every day for several weeks. Then I stop. Am I doing it wrong? Am I just weird that I can't seem to form good habits? I sincerely think I wouldn't remember to brush my teeth in the morning if my mouth didn't feel so gross, and I've been doing that every morning for over 30 years!

I think that just means that your subconscious cost benefit analysis concluded that it wasn't worth it. I think that's normal. You'll probably try out a bunch of hobbies/habits in a lifetime, and only choose to stick with a couple.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#62

Post by KittenInABox »

honzzz wrote: post #56
scarmig wrote: post #2

Is it generally easy for people to get permission from their day job to code on the side, without assigning all rights to the employer?

Could you please explain to someone who is not from the US what is the justification behind this? It seems that it is not uncommon in the US that the employer has some rights to stuff you do in your free time - to me that seems as "reasonable" as "you sold me your house so your car is also mine now". What I do in my free time is none of my employer's business, why would they have any right to any of it?

It's because in the US the theory is that by hiring you salaried, they hire your mind and creative output, not a set labor. This means they pay you for anything your mind produces and then try to claim ownership for anything your mind produces whether you were in-office or not.

(this is usually not enforcable unless you actively build competing services)

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#63

Post by jnovek »

This was exactly how we built OwnLocal before we quit our day jobs. In a sense, it was very easy because when you don't know how big the problem is, everything feels like progress.

Now I see 40 barreling towards me and it's hard to just do a little bit every day. Because I have experience, I can form a much bigger picture of an idea in my head and it's hard to peel off a tiny bit and make that feel like a success.

This curses me in my startup attempts but it also curses me in my work. It's hard to think like a founder anymore. I always overspec projects because I can easily guess what demons lie on the horizon.

I miss my early startup days when I could just write some code every day and feel successful. I want that back.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#64

Post by armoredkitten »

cweill wrote: post #27

I'm taking a course on how to build and grow a YouTube channel. The main advice they give is "just commit to making a video once a week, every week, for 2 years, and you're life will change." It's a tautology, no guarantees on how well your channel will do, but it's such a simple idea, and nice motivator to build momentum and keep going.

Tom Scott's 3-part series (on YouTube) a few years back on "How to be popular on the Internet"[0] has similar advice. There are higher-cost and lower-cost ideas, but given the amount of randomness inherent to getting popular, quantity tends to be the more important factor. He of course says it much better than I can.

[0] URL of first part here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0AMaW4XRCI

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#65

Post by nocman »

aidenn0 wrote: post #36
KittenInABox wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered you might have some disorder that affects your executive function capacity like ADHD and therefore requires alternative strategies to organize and cultivate habits?

I am, in fact, diagnosed with ADHD, and my previous therapist says I'm a fairly extreme case. I do have alternative strategies for organization, but have not heard anything about problems with cultivating habits (indeed, many people have recommend cultivating habits as a coping mechanism).

A lot of advice I hear is that it takes about 30 days of doing something daily to form a habit. Perhaps you are stopping just short of the necessary number of days?

Also, given that you have been diagnosed with ADHD, maybe it would take you longer than others to form the habit. I don't have any outside info to support that -- it's just a possibility that came to mind.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#66

Post by MattGaiser »

aidenn0 wrote: post #19
tut-urut-utut wrote: post #3

This is excellent advice. Just by doing something, the habit gets created and the longer it gets, the easier it is to get started.

This has literally never worked for me with any habits I've tried intentionally cultivating. I'll pick something and do it every day for several weeks. Then I stop. Am I doing it wrong? Am I just weird that I can't seem to form good habits? I sincerely think I wouldn't remember to brush my teeth in the morning if my mouth didn't feel so gross, and I've been doing that every morning for over 30 years!

I can't form habits of any kind either. There are days when "brush teeth" has to be a checklist item as I can easily go to bed without doing it. Same with eating even.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#67

Post by jobsort »

bgroat wrote: post #37

2 Questions: 1. I see you're on v.0.21 - how stable is this? I know the point of the article is that you don't set deadlines, but I'm anxious to implement something that may have breaking changes. 2. How can I pay you? I'm implementing search now, considering Algolia or PG_Search. I want to give you a shot, but I also want to pay you.

I'm using Typesense on https://www.jobsort.com and haven't had a single crash; it's quite stable.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#68

Post by brabel »

honzzz wrote: post #56
scarmig wrote: post #2

Is it generally easy for people to get permission from their day job to code on the side, without assigning all rights to the employer?

Could you please explain to someone who is not from the US what is the justification behind this? It seems that it is not uncommon in the US that the employer has some rights to stuff you do in your free time - to me that seems as "reasonable" as "you sold me your house so your car is also mine now". What I do in my free time is none of my employer's business, why would they have any right to any of it?

It happens in Europe too. The rationale is that the employer gives you a lot of knowledge and tools which you could use to your own benefit... there are clear cases of abuse, some leading to litigation. I guess the employers want to defend themselves against IP theft basically.

What I normally do is ask for an agreement that projects unrelated to my employer's business is ok for me to work on, which I have always been able to get (sometimes they ask for authorization on a case-by-case basis, but usually it's just common sense).

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#69

Post by spideymans »

munificent wrote: post #40

I've written two books over the past decade as well as learning some other skills and hobbies and this is absolutely the most vital lesson I've learned. There is an incredible power in simply pouring a little time into something every day over a long period of time. It feels like a superpower when you see it start compounding. The Grand Canyon was created by little drops of water bouncing off rocks for millenia. Cons…

Yup. Knowledge usually works like this.

When I first got into home cooking a few years ago, the learning process was painfully slow. It must've taken several attempts spread across a week just to learn how to make basic scrambled eggs the "proper" way. Now after a few years of experience, every ingredient I learn to work with seemingly unlocks a dozen more dishes that I can easily assemble. The rate of learning accelerates evermore.

Software is very much the same. And the cool thing about software is that the domain of knowledge is effectively infinite. No one person can ever run out of things to know in this field. You can only learn more and get even better.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#70

Post by yreg »

solatic wrote: post #48
laurieg wrote: post #30

I like the advice but it always seems to backfire for me. I started jogging everyday. Maybe 2 or 3km. But recently I struggle to do 500m a day. Same with programming. I'll start with a few good days but then it devolves to opening an editor, writing a comment or one line then closing it straight after.

Physical exercise is an exception because the body needs rest. The "just show up" goal with exercise is to begin with 3x a week and then gradually increase that as your body grows stronger.

Why is non-physical activity any different? To me 3x a week sounds like a good idea for starting mental exercise as well.
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