61–70 of 72 posts
I commit to doing at least one commit to my project every day, and make it a point to not skip a day. It can be a one-line change to a text file, but I have to do it.
Every day just need to work on my project for 10 minutes. If I can only manage 10 minutes, then that's fine...
The same goes for exercise, or anything you need to get done.
Getting my first sale on a side project gave me new energy. Eventually more and more people started giving me feedback and I kept going. Even people who were rude gave me energy because that means they care enough that something is bothering them.
The No Free Lunch theorem tells us no search algorithm is optimal over all possible problem-spaces. Without prior knowledge about what may be found and what will be needed, no one can say whether deep-dive in one place or shallow-jump into many places is optimal. And optimal according to whose metric? I've done a fair share of both. I think the perception accomplishment was just around the next turn (but you stopped…
>how persistence can separate people into can/can't
Yep. This is the main catalyst for "success". Reminds me of the following quote by Calvin Coolidge;
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and Determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
>the kind of motivation for continuing something after the newness has worn off is maybe a different source
Quite right! I believe this source is mainly the "wish to improve (on some self determined scale) and progress day by day". Popular culture knows it as "Kaizen" or "Continuous Improvement" (all cultures have their own term for this).
I've spent my life frequently getting into new things, all kinds of things. I've never thought of it as a bad thing. What I do regret is not making good records for the first 25+ years of that! Of the things I was learning, books/people/inspirations etc in the various fields. I have old notebooks filled with stuff, but they're a big mess of many topics, impossible to use again really. I started making LaTeX books about 5 years ago, starting with one for each year, then chapters separating to form new books once they got big enough. e.g. there's PDF books on maths, image processing/graphics, programming languages, my programs, a programming language I created, my writing etc. So now I have lovely, well-organised records, and next time I'm into a particular thing—I can only be into 1 or 2 things at a time!— it's there waiting for me to take up again. I love that feeling of returning to a field after a long time and getting a lot further than I'd gotten before!
Also I could never think it's a waste learning something about a field, even if you never return. I've found lately can talk to almost anyone I meet for hours about what interests them or about their job, because I've been into so many things that nothing is unrelated or that distant from my interests. And you notice similarities and connections between different areas. Blah blah. In short, I can't see this as a bad thing at all, don't know why you're beating yourself up. Enjoy!
p.s. Maybe try cognitive behavioral therapy? (e.g. Albert Ellis' book New Guide to Rational Living) and look at what you are saying to yourself, what are your beliefs, that make you feel bad about this—sounds like guilt or shame or something—and change them. I've found changing beliefs like that, thought-habits, isn't very hard, and is fun. And of course magically transforms your life for the better. Good luck.
Hi, I'm a bit confused - you describe getting into new interests, but also 'projects'. It seems you love getting into new things, but also have an idea that you should produce something in the field before moving on. And feeling guilty for becoming interested in something else?! Makes no sense to me. I've spent my life frequently getting into new things, all kinds of things. I've never thought of it as a bad thing. W…
Sometimes going on a while without talking about things to people can get you in an internal feedback loop where you lose touch with reality. Your point of view is refreshing to see -- it just so happens I love messing around with LaTeX, and I did think of that, just never made it happen. I will. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of benefit these little 'self-books' will bring. Thank you!
Hi, I'm a bit confused - you describe getting into new interests, but also 'projects'. It seems you love getting into new things, but also have an idea that you should produce something in the field before moving on. And feeling guilty for becoming interested in something else?! Makes no sense to me. I've spent my life frequently getting into new things, all kinds of things. I've never thought of it as a bad thing. W…
Hi Adam, thank you for your comment. Comments like yours are exactly the reason why I chose to talk about this in a public forum, so that I could get an external point of view. Sometimes going on a while without talking about things to people can get you in an internal feedback loop where you lose touch with reality. Your point of view is refreshing to see -- it just so happens I love messing around with LaTeX, and I…
The Dip will outline this idea of keeping at it as things don’t really pickup right away.
Atomic Habit gives some great ideas on structuring things to make them habits. Setting your environment up to make it easier to get started etc.
I guess Feynman says it better.
"Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don't think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn't stop you from doing anything at all." - Richard Feynman
One issue I see is that none of the project examples you listed have a real end. They are continuous and can never be finished. "Create an online 4-player version of battle-city" is a project. "Game dev" is not a project.
Then the things like journaling, knowledge management, and note taking are big tells. To me these seem upside down. The natural thing to do is to have a defined project and take notes and journal and gather knowledge when you encounter road-blocks while executing the project. Otherwise these activities are fruitless on their own.
I think you might benefit from reading this series of short articles: https://mindingourway.com/guilt/ (note that you have to read them in order).
Being a "generalist" is great and will pay off in the long run but only if you want to do stuff independently (entrepreneur, youtuber etc). If you want to move up the career ladder, I suggest you "specialise" first for quite some time and then get back to being a "generalist". I guess Feynman says it better. "Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't ma…