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Ask HN: I am a good developer but have a serious gaming addiction

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Re: Ask HN: I am a good developer but have a serious gaming addiction

#51

Post by jwdunne »

nekopa wrote: post #38
larksimian wrote: post #18

tldr: gamify your development process and jobify your gaming process. Get good feedback loops going for your programming so you can track progress. Count how much money you are earning for every hour of gaming. Why is gaming more fun than programming? In my opinion, it’s because of 3 reasons: 1. The action-effect feedback cycle is almost instantaneous 2. Your long-term goals are well defined and easy to hold in your…

I've looked into habitrpg.com which allows you to gasify your life. It's a little too cutesy for me, so I am going to try and roll my own version to use.

That actually looks really cool.

HackerRPG would be cool too. Sort of like CodeWars but with the stats building and gold accruement/expenditure. A social MMO aspect would be really cool too.

Re: Ask HN: I am a good developer but have a serious gaming addiction

#52

Post by gte910h »

Sleep more, wake up the same time of day, visit a sleep doctor if you don't sleep enough or you snore, shower the same time every day, put clothes on down to the shoes, make sure your apartment is cool, likely cooler than you'd leave it on in the evening.

Break down all your tasks into the TINYiest chunks you can imagine. Do a chunk, repeat, then break it down in the tiny chunks again.

Re: Ask HN: I am a good developer but have a serious gaming addiction

#53

Post by cjbprime »

JDGM wrote: post #22

First off: don't feel too bad. The behaviour you describe is super-common and I think probably the norm, rather than the exception. Most people don't have to battle with it though, because they have regular jobs with commitment-reinforcing routines and regulations. What you need is to somehow get that same level of external "force" on you in this new running-your-own-business environment, where otherwise it is so eas…

This is written really well, kudos.

Re: Ask HN: I am a good developer but have a serious gaming addiction

#55

Post by jacobolus »

JDGM wrote: post #22

First off: don't feel too bad. The behaviour you describe is super-common and I think probably the norm, rather than the exception. Most people don't have to battle with it though, because they have regular jobs with commitment-reinforcing routines and regulations. What you need is to somehow get that same level of external "force" on you in this new running-your-own-business environment, where otherwise it is so eas…

Be warned though, this kind of intense visualization of bad consequences (or positive rewards) can also back-fire: if you start associating thoughts about your work with potential negative consequences it could drive you to shut down / try to distract yourself harder, and if you start daydreaming about positive consequences it could satisfy your reward circuitry and reduce your motivation.

In other words, you have to know yourself and your own triggers and defense mechanisms: what works for one person might be the worst possible thing for another.

Re: Ask HN: I am a good developer but have a serious gaming addiction

#56

Post by dahdum »

Cancel your apartment internet.

It will suck. You'll be reading your emails on your phone, you can't Netflix, you can't torrent, you can't play LoL/Diablo, you can't do much of anything anymore. You'll get home and be immediately bored.

This won't treat the problem, but the symptom, and will get you going to the co-working space or just Starbucks. It's like 5x harder to procrastinate at a co-working space than at home, at least for me. Bonus is feeling better having showered and dressed, and gotten out of the house to a semi-social environment.

Re: Ask HN: I am a good developer but have a serious gaming addiction

#57

Post by r_bartoli »

abalone wrote: post #47

I'm in the same boat. But I was able to move on from games some years ago. I think you've reached an important point where you are able to see it as an enemy to your happiness in life, and that you have a serious self control problem. That is a significant first step. For me, my game addiction was causing all kind of wrist problems, in addition to making me feel crappy about my lack of life/productivity. A couple ins…

Same situation here. I agree with all your points and in addition a big help for me has been to sell my desktop computer (mainly built for gaming) and work from a laptop with no gaming capabilities.

Re: Ask HN: I am a good developer but have a serious gaming addiction

#58

Post by vsvn »

Dear gameraddict,

First, don't blame yourself for it will do nothing but send you into a spiral of depression.

Second, learn some self control. Start with small promises to yourself, keep and repeat the promises. You have to do it everyday, at the same time; rain or shine.

Three, you're working for yourself so you set the time when you work and when you play. When you have a plan, apply second.

Four, there are many types of people. Some people are better in the office. Some are better when they work at home. It is obvious that you do not work well when you are at home, so GET OUT. Go to coffee shop or join a co-working space.

Five, punish yourself. Since you answer to no one (except for maybe your clients), you need to be able to punish yourself. For every promise that you couldn't keep, you can't play for the entire day.

I was in a similar position as you are. Although I didn't quit my job, but I do have a lot of side projects. At the time, when I was working all I could think about are the games and what sorta of things I could be doing (i also play diablo). I would deliver the projects late and would always have some stupid excuse about it. In time, I was very bitter, dishonest, and not very happy with myself. I did some research and read up on game addiction or other bad habits and put together the list above for myself. It was really hard the first 2 or 3 weeks, it was even harder compared to when I quit smoking.

Over time, I am able to be very strict with the use my time. Now my fiance is complaining that Im too mechanic about it.

Hope you are able to overcome this. Good luck

Re: Ask HN: I am a good developer but have a serious gaming addiction

#59

Post by User8712 »

abalone wrote: post #47

I'm in the same boat. But I was able to move on from games some years ago. I think you've reached an important point where you are able to see it as an enemy to your happiness in life, and that you have a serious self control problem. That is a significant first step. For me, my game addiction was causing all kind of wrist problems, in addition to making me feel crappy about my lack of life/productivity. A couple ins…

Cold turkey and uninstalling works well. In my case, anytime I wanted to game, I'd get a prompt that the 10gb download would take 12 or 24 hours to reinstall. I was looking to game that instant, not tomorrow, so I wouldn't bother downloading. It was a small barrier, but it prevented games from being available at the click of a button.

Let me ask you a couple of questions...

1. Do you want to take a break from work right now and play a few games?

2. Do you want to play games tomorrow?

Uninstalling games, and forcing them to be redownloaded changed the question from number one, to number two. Like most people, I aspire to be a better person tomorrow, so it was easy to say no to question number two, and redownloading.

Re: Ask HN: I am a good developer but have a serious gaming addiction

#60

Post by abalone »

User8712 wrote: post #59
abalone wrote: post #47

I'm in the same boat. But I was able to move on from games some years ago. I think you've reached an important point where you are able to see it as an enemy to your happiness in life, and that you have a serious self control problem. That is a significant first step. For me, my game addiction was causing all kind of wrist problems, in addition to making me feel crappy about my lack of life/productivity. A couple ins…

Cold turkey and uninstalling works well. In my case, anytime I wanted to game, I'd get a prompt that the 10gb download would take 12 or 24 hours to reinstall. I was looking to game that instant, not tomorrow, so I wouldn't bother downloading. It was a small barrier, but it prevented games from being available at the click of a button. Let me ask you a couple of questions... 1. Do you want to take a break from work ri…

Exactly. I in fact was battling a jonesing for "2048" as I was writing that. I'm sure you all know that's a web game.. the 10GB games are no longer an issue for me because of that download bandwidth barrier. It does help. It kind of helps that the web games are kind of B.S. in comparison to the 10GB games. :-)
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