Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma

#131

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Feb 14, 2015, 5:26 PM UTC

maxerickson wrote: post #129

busterarm wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just replying to this to bookmark for myself to read later. sry

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Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma

#132

Post by luizparreira » Sat, Feb 14, 2015, 5:33 PM UTC

I go through that problem a lot as well, sometimes I am enrolled into 5 or 6 MOOCS at the same time, just because I find them all interesting. The way I do to get over this and finish some of it is by watching a couple or more lectures from all courses and decide which one I want to be pursing til the end. As many people have noted here, you have to choose the things that you want to accomplish and is most important for you at this point of your life and stick with it. That does not mean you cannot go and have a look at something from other topic that you are interested in, just that you need to concentrate and focus on some things only in order to really get a grasp of it.

Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma

#133

Post by morninj » Sat, Feb 14, 2015, 5:35 PM UTC

ghubbard wrote: post #96

samuell wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and in my recent experience, following the "pomodoro technique", aka "timeboxing", where you work in 25 minute sprints, with a timer set, and focus on ONE, WRITTEN DOWN task for these 25 minutes, whereafter you take a few minutes break, possibly reconsider if you continue with the same task for the next 25 minutes or choose something else, and then continue. This can help in this paralyzed kind of state, since i…

And to help yourself remember to do your pomodoros, you can use a tool like Beeminder[0], which can track and show you your progress towards your goal as well as act as a commitment device[1] to keep you working on goals over time. [0] https://www.beeminder.com/ [1] http://blog.beeminder.com/akrasia/

But how will I remember to use Beeminder?

Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma

#134

Post by baby » Sat, Feb 14, 2015, 5:35 PM UTC

I'll give you my list of things I do when I'm in such a state:

* change the furniture of place in my apartment.

* go in libraries to work

* start working right away when you wake up

* set a 30 minutes timer and start working right away, if you get distracted reset the timer.

* coffee

* make lists of what I have to do

Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma

#135

Post by FrankenPC » Sat, Feb 14, 2015, 5:53 PM UTC

I think we all suffer from this dilemma to varying degrees.

Side note: I just read an interesting article on addictive behavior. It suggests that absolute addiction is not really as hard to overcome as we previously thought. The problem with addiction is it's a way to bond with something. Bonding is the actual addiction. You can bond with people, drugs, things, behaviors. If you want to overcome a particular addictive pattern of behavior, you bond with something else and you will overcome it.

Back to your problem. I think we all develop addictive patterns of behavior. One of those patterns is absorbing new possibilities. Learning what's possible. But never acting on it. It's a side effect of having access to all this information. I suggest you bond with one particular idea. Do this by bonding with the people who are already bonded with the idea. Focus on one thing. I don't think it actually matters what it is as long as it's in line with your learning/career goals. Locate blogs and other people on campus with a strong bond to the idea you are trying to master. Embed yourself in with these people. Get to know them. Believe in what they preach. Absorb the information until you reach a level of mastery that appeals to you. Then leave and do it again with a new idea. You have to become a true follower and believer of the particular scripture you are chasing down. Once you do that, your mind will open up and allow you to absorb as much knowledge as you have time for.

Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma

#136

Post by FrankenPC » Sat, Feb 14, 2015, 5:55 PM UTC

joshux wrote: post #106

Team up with other people. I've recently organized a learning group doing the projects of some MOOC courses. My procrastination of finishing the homeworks magically disappeared.

This. It's the bond that opens up the mind. Feeling connected to other believers in the idea will instantly glue you to it. We are, after all pack animals. Trying to imbue importance to concepts without the associated human bond is really difficult. Some people do it effortlessly but I suspect that's because they are loaners from birth so they are used to creating their own self importance.

Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma

#137

Post by trcollinson » Sat, Feb 14, 2015, 5:57 PM UTC

snarfy wrote: post #93

At any one time I'd have a dozen projects all being worked on, none of them ever being finished. As I got older I made a rule never to start a new project until the old project is finished. As I've switched, I've noticed the motivations have changed. The last 20% of any project is un-fun work. All the excitement is gone and all that is left is tedium. This is when your eyes start wandering to other projects. It's add…

This was an absolutely brilliant observation. I have never thought of it as an addiction to the fun part. But this is exactly the problem I have! I'm so grateful you pointed it out.

You could probably write an entire book on this observation.

Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma

#138

Post by agumonkey » Sat, Feb 14, 2015, 6:07 PM UTC

karmacondon wrote: post #10

"Whom the gods wish to destroy, they give unlimited resources." In your case, educational resources. It's difficult to say because of the details you omitted, but whatever it is you're trying to do is probably the wrong thing. If you need to cover 4 highly technical subjects in 4 months, then you've made a wrong turn somewhere and you need to stop and re-evaluate things. No matter how important it seems, no matter ho…

That's how the company behind Duke Nukem 3D drove itself out. I can't recall the number, but I think they did like 5 rewrites of the sequel. Every time they got something running, there was a new shiny engine that would unleash there deepest fantasies so they started from scratch since they could afford it. 17 years later, no sequel, no company.

Re: Ask HN: The “I want to do everything but end up doing nothing” dilemma

#139

Post by rational-future » Sat, Feb 14, 2015, 6:13 PM UTC

FrankenPC wrote: post #135

I think we all suffer from this dilemma to varying degrees. Side note: I just read an interesting article on addictive behavior. It suggests that absolute addiction is not really as hard to overcome as we previously thought. The problem with addiction is it's a way to bond with something. Bonding is the actual addiction. You can bond with people, drugs, things, behaviors. If you want to overcome a particular addictiv…

Link for the article?