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Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

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Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#141

Post by [deleted] »

randallsquared wrote: post #131
badpenny wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are probably a number of causes, but coffee may be one of them. Don't be radical, but if you're having too much coffee, I'd suggest cutting down to just one coffee in the morning. It will take a bit of effort but may help you concentrate. I'd suggest gradually cutting down to none. Apparently the alertness and general cognitive enhancing properties of caffeine don't really exist and all that people are noticing…

Given the way that first cup of coffee in months can affect a person, you seem to be suggesting that caffeine withdrawal is a permanent condition. ;)

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#142

Post by jharohit »

I would suggest create a profile on Upwork.com (or some other active freelancing website) and list down your areas of knowledge. Price yourself competitively - slightly below average rates so as not be considered cheap and low quality but not overpriced as well.

This will help in 2 ways: 1) Slowly bring in cash which will tackle your $50k debt in definite time period. Remember "compounding" is the biggest weapon! 2) The client's project will be short self contained tasks which will bind you in a timeframe to complete stuff. This is very important if you want to grow the focus and tenacity that you lack right now.

After a couple of months or a year, you will notice substantial benefits. The big debt will have come down a lot + you would have learnt to execute on ideas.

Now you will finally be ready to execute on your own stuff and make it big hopefully.

(Advice rendered from personal experiences!)

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#143

Post by y0y »

duncanawoods wrote: post #108

I have found people like you really useful to know because you have had contact with such a broad range of techs that when I have a problem, I can quiz you and get some killer pointers for where to look next. I wouldn't want you to change, just to find your place in the world and satisfaction in being naturally you. Its like you have pockets full of keys and really good at finding new keys just no locks to use them w…

I love this comment. It may be true that he is suffering some ill-effects of his ADHD (which he describes as being diagnosed with in another comment) but instead of pointing it out like the rest of us you really did a great job of highlighting some of the great benefits of it. I actually took something from this with regard to myself and it's really awesome to know that this kind of thing can be appreciated by someone!

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#144

Post by hanniabu »

nairboon wrote: post #120
hanniabu wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Interesting. My answer is an emphatic yes to all of those questions. In the back of my mind I've always suspected that I would be diagnosed with ADHD, but never talked to anyone about it. Same here, I always suspected it, but as I'm 25 and don't want to take medication, I never thought there's much that could be done. I would love here what y0y did to work with his condition as well.

Medication is not the only choice. Although it's the one where you might see small results at the earliest. CBT and biofeedback are promising new treatments, but not mainstream yet. May I ask, where this bias against medication comes from?

Y0y's other comment answers this pretty well

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#145

Post by y0y »

atemerev wrote: post #70
colordrops wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. My answer is an emphatic yes to all of those questions. In the back of my mind I've always suspected that I would be diagnosed with ADHD, but never talked to anyone about it. In the end I just chalked it up to being a different kind of person and catered my life around my behaviors instead of trying to force my behaviors into some ideal notion. Looking back at the age of 40, my life has been much richer…

OP here — I am on treatment now, including medication. Didn't help me strategically, but it was worth it being diagnosed nevertheless. At least, medications helped me stopping losing things.

Hey OP, I'm not keen on publicly talking about my exact medications / treatment specifics (though most can be gleaned), but if you are interested in talking offline more about what has worked for me, leave me an email address or some way to contact you and I'd be happy to offer any insight or help that I can. I'm not some professional expert, just another guy who can relate to you emphatically and who's happy to share what he can.

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#146

Post by petercooper »

duncanawoods wrote: post #108

I have found people like you really useful to know because you have had contact with such a broad range of techs that when I have a problem, I can quiz you and get some killer pointers for where to look next. I wouldn't want you to change, just to find your place in the world and satisfaction in being naturally you. Its like you have pockets full of keys and really good at finding new keys just no locks to use them w…

It's funny you say that, and for entirely related reasons that I work in the news/media space where this sort of behavior can be sculpted into a positive (and got out of being a professional programmer where it's not such a positive). I'd write more but I just saw something new and shiny come out.. :-D

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#147

Post by tvm »

vlehto wrote: post #130
tvm wrote: post #10

Such behaviour can be hardcoded for certain types of personalities and is not bad per se. You're just trying to achieve something that isn't compatible with your personality. I'd perhaps recommend doing an MBTI personality test (there's a bunch of them on the internet). This might help you to understand the mechanisms behind your behaviour and most importantly give you some hints how to make yourself useful. I recomm…

This was my first thought too. MBTI is not considered "scientific", by psychologists. But r/ENTP in reddit is filled with people who seem to suffer from extreme novelty addiction. Other possibility would be ADHD or some weird version of autism. ADHD would often have difficulties to stay focused even in new things. Autistic are often very picky about their interests and get easily bored about everything else. Which is…

Yes, it's not "scientific", but generally categorizes people with similar behaviour quite well. If you know your classification then there's a fair chance that there are more people that have same problems as you and gives you chance to read about their experiences and solutions.

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#149

Post by oneJob »

Also, check out the book "Changing For Good" by James Prochaska. There is quote, (not from the book) "Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth." So bounce ideas off people you know and trust. Seek council and constructive criticism. Read evidence based "self help" books. Get a life coach. Because, "I want to change this or that about me" is never as simple as it seems. Especially if you want to make it a beneficial change.

Re: Ask HN: Novelty addiction is ruining my life and career. What should I do?

#150

Post by Fishman343 »

badpenny wrote: post #103
jng wrote: post #99

Fixing that may take a long time, but it will probably fix your whole life, so it's worth it to just focus on this instead on software or work. Dedicate to work only the minimum necessary time for survival. There are probably a number of causes, but coffee may be one of them. Don't be radical, but if you're having too much coffee, I'd suggest cutting down to just one coffee in the morning. It will take a bit of effor…

There are probably a number of causes, but coffee may be one of them. Don't be radical, but if you're having too much coffee, I'd suggest cutting down to just one coffee in the morning. It will take a bit of effort but may help you concentrate. I'd suggest gradually cutting down to none. Apparently the alertness and general cognitive enhancing properties of caffeine don't really exist and all that people are noticing…

This is clearly unsubstantiated - the benefits of coffee are very clearly outlined. Maybe some people who drinks too much are experiencing the withdrawal, but if you do not over-do it, there is a 90% chance of feeling more alert when you drink coffee.
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