Live data from Hacker News

How I motivate myself to write

blog.pragmaticengineer.com

61–62 of 62 posts

Re: How I motivate myself to write

#61

Re the point regarding writing regularly, I built an app to develop my daily writing habit. I’ve been writing every day for almost 2 years, averaging around 800 words per day. I’m pretty happy with it:) https://enso.sonnet.io

A checkin a day is also a great habit for coding. Or, since I'm a tester -- a new passing test, every day.

Re: How I motivate myself to write

#62
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there's a binary of writers/non-writers. I think there's an energy threshold, above which people with an inclination to write would start doing so. If you took the average person, put them at a desk in a locked room with pen and paper, and left them there, they'd eventually write or draw something out of sheer boredom.

I don't think that's fair. Some people might do pushups or sing or fold origami or shoot spitballs instead.

General point here is that the activation energy of a task gets lower the more bored you are. Even if the exact proportion of the population who'd write or draw is below 50% (which I don't think it is), the general point still stands.
Post reply on HN