There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me • Hacker News Board

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#191

Post by lazyhummingbird » Fri, Feb 20, 2015, 3:48 PM UTC

swayvil wrote: post #140

javajosh wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You're shopping, not creating. It's very hard to stop shopping, and if you don't stop, you lose. There's a fantastic SF story that is the perfect allegory (Arthur C. Clarke, Superiority ): http://www.mayofamily.com/RLM/txt_Clarke_Superiority.html EDIT: It angers me that this comment was down-voted. That story was difficult to find, and it really is the perfect allegory to the OP's problem, and the more general "wors…

Good story. Re anger : Have you met the internet? He is 14 years old and hates everything except tentacle-porn.

When you know what you like, you know what you like!

I AM 4CHAN. EXPECT ME. DOSE ANYONE HAVE GOOD HACKER TUTORIALLS I HEARD THIS WEBSITE CAN MAKE ME 1337 XD

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Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#192

Post by lazyhummingbird » Fri, Feb 20, 2015, 3:53 PM UTC

mikelyons wrote: post #47

Dealing with Adult A.D.D. is more than just taking medication and "forcing" focus. You have to use your working memory or supplements to it, like a note-pad, to coach yourself about what is the best use of your time. You obviously know that none of these other things is helping get actual project work done. One thing that has been very helpful for me is counseling. (Also called therapy). A psychiatrist will prescribe…

I second what you had to say about self-coaching and listmaking. Ruling an ADHD mind is all about the meta-game.

I've always thought it was cruel that methods for dealing with my ADHD involved exactly the kinds of things that ADHD would to keep me from doing: -Setting appointments with doctors -Reading full books -Regularly checking schedules and priority lists

Eventually, I buckle down and these things happen. But it takes me longer than it takes other people, and the trip definitely goes uphill.

But if you're fighting, you're winning.

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#193

Post by dhandel » Fri, Feb 20, 2015, 4:33 PM UTC

lllllll wrote: post #100

inDigiNeous wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Morning yoga is the thing that enables me to work as a coder. And swims also. If my body is stiff, so is my brain and my ability to code properly. Also daily meditation. 20 minutes a day does wonders to shutting down the mind and seeing things from a completely new angle. I would say taking care of your health is the number one priority any coder (or human) should have. The amount of hours sitting in front of the com…

Swimming + sauna almost daily accounts for 50% of my productivity. I'd be so lost without that. Also sports in general. Any recommendations for yoga/meditation resources to learn the techniques/methodologies? I've been thinking about trying that for a long time now.

headspace.com is a great way to get started with mindfulness meditation.

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#194

Post by mangeletti » Fri, Feb 20, 2015, 4:51 PM UTC

It's discipline and only discipline.

I have the exact same problem. In fact, in trying to build my latest and greatest creation, I've decided to use Django 1.8, since it'll be ready for prime time before I'm done. This isn't a problem, but the need to try out every new feature and uncover bugs in features that I don't even need (bugs that will be ironed out in the next few weeks anyway)... that's a huge problem. I've spent 8-12 hours of my precious coding time at night, after work, on this nonsense, in the past week alone. Why? Because I'm always in search of perfection, or something. I'll spend 8 hours trying to figure out the best way to model my data, instead of just trying to accomplish the end goal. If I try to accomplish the goals I've set out, I'll end up with the right data models anyway.

Next, time to finish learning Angular, because this time I'm going to use more Ajax, so may as well. It'll save me time in the long run, since jQuery.ajax(...) will remove the DRY from my app.... right?

Engineering creates a kind of OCD / ADD combination. I've found in the past, the only way to overcome this is to set a schedule and stick to it. No email after X and before X, no Hacker News or any other distractions from X to X, no new tools while building your app, etc.

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#195

Post by computerjunkie » Sat, Feb 21, 2015, 1:47 AM UTC

Dowwie wrote: post #179

computerjunkie wrote: post #51

"Tot Facienda Parum Factum" - "So much to do, so little done" This article resonates with me so much. I don't know if every other self taught developer goes/went through this, but its truly annoying. Its so easy to get caught up in a another_new_JavaScript_framework.js or front end framework, but if you look back you begin to see that you wasted time focusing on the trendy things (author mentions he does this).HN, Te…

The article and especially the thread of comments resonates! My hypothesis is that the path of learning for the autodidact is non-linear. As problem solvers who adopt optimization as a core value, we beat ourselves up about how unproductive we are, not understanding the intrinsic nature of self-teaching.

we beat ourselves up about how unproductive we are, not understanding the intrinsic nature of self-teaching.

Agreed.

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#196

Post by ClarkCant » Sat, Feb 21, 2015, 5:25 PM UTC

Don't get a therapist, get a manager! Working at a company will help with several of your problems, some of which you already clearly identified (lack of discipline, lack of socialization) and others which apparently are just dawning on you (getting paid peanuts with things like elance, not earning enough to take real week-end breaks and holidays, and probably not having yet started with retirement discounts, hoping you will hit it big before you need them).

By all means, keep learning on your spare time and keep planning for a personal piece of work which will bring you pride/recognition/profit (or if possible all three), but at the same time just accept that you may also remain an honest craftsman for a long time, and organize you life accordingly.

If you stop living like the solitary genius that you're discovering you're not, and start caring also for more down to earth goals, your life will get more structured, and this will also make it easier to get more friendship and love into your life.

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#197

Post by ClarkCant » Sat, Feb 21, 2015, 5:26 PM UTC

Don't get a therapist, get a manager! Working at a company will help with several of your problems, some of which you already clearly identified (lack of discipline, lack of socialization) and others which apparently are just dawning on you (getting paid peanuts with things like elance, not earning enough to take real week-end breaks and holidays, and probably not having yet started with retirement discounts, hoping you will hit it big before you need them).

By all means, keep learning on your spare time and keep planning for a personal piece of work which will bring you pride/recognition/profit (or if possible all three), but at the same time just accept that you may also remain an honest craftsman for a long time, and organize you life accordingly.

If you stop living like the solitary genius that you're discovering you're not, and start caring also for more down-to-earth goals, your life will get more structured, and this will also make it easier to get more friendship and love into your life.

Re: There are too many shiny objects and it is killing me

#198

Post by mbrodersen » Mon, Feb 23, 2015, 7:19 AM UTC

"How do you finish a 300 page book? By writing 10 pages every day" (I think this quote is from Steven King). So (continuing the analogy) write 10 pages a day. Whether you feel like it or not. Whether you feel the pages are good or not. When your 10 pages are written, you can play with shiny stuff the rest of the day. Motivation (being happy while doing it) is not required. You will be happy after you have written the pages because you feel progress.