I conditioned myself to fail
brainbun.com
I conditioned myself to fail
1–10 of 80 posts
Re: I conditioned myself to fail
#2I’m starting to feel like yeah, dopamine and information overload have their effects, but I also feel like there is a certain point in life where people age out of “the extrinsic motivation force field” that insulates and propels young people toward adulthood and then leaves them once resources are reallocated to the next crop of kids who are primed to enter the labor market.
Re: I conditioned myself to fail
#3This hits home. I love the thrill of the build and I immediately stop caring once it's done. I love the 'rewire for action' perspective because I've conditioned myself that seeking information IS action. But it's not really, it's decision avoidance via constructive procrastination. And that feels amazing because it makes me more knowledgeable while also ensuring that I avoid any anxiety associated with execution. Gotta fix this.
Re: I conditioned myself to fail
#4 > But then when I launch, I either don’t get much feedback at all, or I get a lot of feedback for a day, which then dies down completely after the launch.
The harsh reality is that most products fail and due to so many failed attempts, I kind of internalised that I’m doing effort for nothing.
But then whenever there’s a sale or a positive comment, I get another small jolt of motivation and I can build a bit again.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Despite Garry Tan's advice, I ended up building a travel planning app (initially just for personal use). I shared it with Reddit and ended up with a few thousand users. It had a big peak of active users that's settled down into a small community of very sticky users; never a commercial success. What keeps me coming back to it time and again is that I use it myself to plan my trips and every time I take it on a trip, I learn something new and spend a bit more time tidying it up or adding some missing feature.
Re: I conditioned myself to fail
#5I have ADHD and have this very problem. I barely get to the build it phase. Mostly I get a high from just the sketch it out, type up ideas, attempt some actual build time, then think it's stupid/too niche/no one will use it/etc and move on to the next addictive idea.
Still trying to figure out a way to get dopamine from doing the work and accomplishing stuff. Even if I do discipline myself and get something working, it has almost no effect on me emotionally leaving me wondering why I even bothered and it seems like a waste of time making me feel guilty. When I was younger I had so much more motivation and energy while getting more done.
Re: I conditioned myself to fail
#6> But then when I launch, I either don’t get much feedback at all, or I get a lot of feedback for a day, which then dies down completely after the launch. The harsh reality is that most products fail and due to so many failed attempts, I kind of internalised that I’m doing effort for nothing. But then whenever there’s a sale or a positive comment, I get another small jolt of motivation and I can build a bit again. I'…
I just looked up your app out of curiosity, and realized I had just watched your video about react's inverted-reactivity model just a few hours ago! Small world!
Re: I conditioned myself to fail
#7> But then when I launch, I either don’t get much feedback at all, or I get a lot of feedback for a day, which then dies down completely after the launch. The harsh reality is that most products fail and due to so many failed attempts, I kind of internalised that I’m doing effort for nothing. But then whenever there’s a sale or a positive comment, I get another small jolt of motivation and I can build a bit again. I'…
I just looked up your app out of curiosity, and realized I had just watched your video about react's inverted-reactivity model just a few hours ago! Small world!
Small world, indeed! Hope that video was useful/interesting!
Re: I conditioned myself to fail
#8I found the image at the bottom very surprising and enlightening. I wonder where it is from. It's really a new thought for me.
Re: I conditioned myself to fail
#9I found the image at the bottom very surprising and enlightening. I wonder where it is from. It's really a new thought for me.
It says at the bottom it's from Sahil Bloom (@SahilBloom)
Re: I conditioned myself to fail
#10I'm not a mental health professional, and I don't know the author. Please be assured that I don't mean any disrespect whatsoever: consider getting tested for ADHD by a mental health professional.
I was diagnosed very late, since my ADHD was of the "inattentive" kind. I would not be troublesome at home or at school, like an hyperactive child would. A lot of people like this go undiagnosed.
One of the traits of ADHD is that our brains crave novelty, and that is definitely one of my struggles. Having professional help makes a difference.
> When I’m building something, that information is the thing coming to life in front of my eyes, every new button etc is awesome.
The neurotypical version of this is called "being in the zone", which just means "enjoying what you are doing, so holding concentration for long periods of time takes very little effort". The ADHD version of this is more intense, it's called hyperfocus. The activity absorbs all of your attention. You barely feel hunger or sleepiness, you can literally go a it for days, you keep thinking about it while you are not doing it. It's useful if you happen to hyperfocus on something that is helpful to you.