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I am burned out while still in learning phase

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Re: I am burned out while still in learning phase

#11

Post by pastylegs »

It sounds like you are trying too hard to feel validated and you want immediate success. You have written a very long piece including your entire background, the success of your peers compared to yourself, the positions and awards you have gotten in various competitions (for better or worse). You sound entirely focused on accolades and achievements yet you have only been going at this for at most 1/2 years.

You need to calm down and slow down. You are only 22/23. You have so much time ahead of you and you have to walk before you can run. You have burned yourself out by too high expectations. It's not as easy as having an idea, hacking away at it for a few months and then reaping the reward.

I would suggest lowering your expectations over the short term and trying to come up with some realistic goals for the next few months. Not "launch great project in 6 months" but "talk to 5 people about the validity of feature X in the 7 days" etc.

You've already helped yourself by acknowledging the problem, writing about it and telling your family and friends.

Re: I am burned out while still in learning phase

#12

Post by dkyc »

Get a team! Seriously, it sounds you're basically working alone most of the time. This doesn't work for most people (including me) - find a small, "doable" project, doesn't have to be world changing, that you and some other people can complete (complete = getting to measurable result) in a month or two. Even if it fails, you're still in a mentally & emotionally better situation than before. Don't put too much pressure on yourself, you've got time for those world-changing projects later on.

Re: I am burned out while still in learning phase

#13

Post by ddrager »

What I can tell you is that you are not alone. The startup/coding world, and even just the world in general can be very stressful. Many of us have gone through similar things as you.

It is important to figure out yourself first, and move on from there. You may sometimes try to handle everything internally and it is just impossible to do that all of the time. If you reach out to your friends and family I think they will be more supportive and understanding than you may think.

Feel free to reach out to me if you need someone to talk to - its my user @gmail.

Re: I am burned out while still in learning phase

#14

Post by blindhippo »

You're burning out because you're thinking the world works the same way that you experience it through lenses like Hacker News, tech blogs and the like.

Stop reading them. Seriously, they are damaging your world view - ESPECIALLY HACKER NEWS. If you can't read these things with a critical eye, you will end up in a death spiral where you feel constantly inadaquate. I speak from some personal experience here...

Turn off the computer and go outside. Go for a walk. Go for a run. Go to a local tech meetup. Meet other people. Talk to other people. THIS is where you will learn how to do what you want to do.

You will not change the world with a web app. No one changes the world with a web app. Or an android app. Or an iPhone app.

The world is vast and has many places that need smart people. Find those places, adapt to what they need and start solving problems in the way you can - not by what you think the tech world would do.

Start small, think long term. Build something every day (even if it's trivial). Think of life as a long hike. Each moment feels short, meaningless, but after a while you will turn around and look back at how far you have gone and will be absolutely astonished.

Re: I am burned out while still in learning phase

#15

Post by FLUX-YOU »

pastylegs wrote: post #11

It sounds like you are trying too hard to feel validated and you want immediate success. You have written a very long piece including your entire background, the success of your peers compared to yourself, the positions and awards you have gotten in various competitions (for better or worse). You sound entirely focused on accolades and achievements yet you have only been going at this for at most 1/2 years. You need…

I'm in OP's shoes, except at 28. Nothing motivates me better than the thought of hitting 30. :)

Re: I am burned out while still in learning phase

#16

Post by dasil003 »

I can't speak personally to your culture, but the symptoms here sound like very strong social pressure to avoid failure. Couple this with a strong cultural emphasis on the importance of family (and not disappointing them), and I can see this resulting in extreme stress.

To succeed as an entrepreneur requires coping with fear of failure. In the US we are lucky enough to see failure as part of the process of learning, and we are also a very individualistic society, which of course comes with its own downsides, but at least it makes it much easier for most people to reject familial pressure to do things a certain way.

I'm not sure what the solution is, but you are young and have plenty of time to figure this stuff out. I hope you can find a support system within your friends or family that will listen and understand what you are trying to accomplish. A little bit of such support can go a long way, it's very hard to do it alone.

Re: I am burned out while still in learning phase

#17

Post by insensible »

Sensitivity to noise is common among highly intelligent people. You would almost certainly benefit from the book The Mood Cure by Julia Ross.

https://www.moodcure.com/

But I bet you will benefit more from getting out of the box you're stuck in now. You've allowed yourself to get hemmed in by one or more false assumptions about yourself and the world. Find those and destroy them. You've got unique strengths. Use those, not the ones Everybody Else wants you to have.

Re: I am burned out while still in learning phase

#18

Post by advm »

Keep doing what you're doing now: taking a break. You evidenced some initial interest in drawing or modelling, perhaps go back to doing that for a hobby. Reconnect with your friends, as you are. Perhaps go on a trip. You're burned out because you've been pushing yourself too hard.

Give your mind some time to relax. Take all the time that you need. Maybe a few months. Maybe a year or more. The time will come when you know you're ready to get back to changing the world.

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