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I'm completely demotivated to work; what can I do?

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Re: I'm completely demotivated to work; what can I do?

#31

Post by scarecrowbob »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #24
undoware wrote: post #13

Your soul is probably waking up. That's the black lung of coding. You have three, maybe four choices. Visual arts, music, and writing, with performing with an asterisk (it's not for everyone.) Get used to being a lot poorer, but happier.

Take it from someone who fucked up and went for arts: You get demotivated there too. At least with math and programming jobs, you have some money to fix things.

But, as someone who also went towards the arts (I'm a regularly gigging musician) and letters (I have a BA in Philosophy and dumpped my PhD during my dissertation), I can say that it wasn't super hard to get back into a technical position coming from a high-school and early college education where I learned a lot of logic, math, and programming skills... since leaving my PhD program I've been consulting doing PHP-based development for the last 4 years, and I'm on track career wise as I would have been if I was teaching at a university somewhere.

This is wholly a un-based feeling, but I feel that it has been a lot easier to pick up new and professionally useful technical skills in my 30s than it would have been if I had done well in my 20s with a technical career and had to pick up the useful philosophical and musical skills I enjoy using in my 30s.

Re: I'm completely demotivated to work; what can I do?

#32

Post by coherentpony »

cjfont wrote: post #29
billyjobob wrote: post #16

So you don't like school work. You could get higher grades if only you were more motivated... i.e. you are exactly like every other 16 year old I ever knew. Most of them because more motivated once they started university and were able to focus on what they enjoyed studying. I'd be more worried if you were motivated at 16, because then you'd probably burn out, or grow up to be an obnoxious brain box. Also, since you…

> Your success in life will mostly be determined by the connections your parents have Sorry but this statement doesn't ring true to me, because I know of several cases where two brothers have had divergent success outcomes based on their personalities and the choices they've made. There's also MANY ways to forge your own connections in life.

You're completely right. It's not true. Your success in life will mostly be determined by the connections you make.

Re: I'm completely demotivated to work; what can I do?

#33

Post by DanBC »

billyjobob wrote: post #16

So you don't like school work. You could get higher grades if only you were more motivated... i.e. you are exactly like every other 16 year old I ever knew. Most of them because more motivated once they started university and were able to focus on what they enjoyed studying. I'd be more worried if you were motivated at 16, because then you'd probably burn out, or grow up to be an obnoxious brain box. Also, since you…

OP has to get into university first.

They're not likely to do that if they drop out of A level study now.

Re: I'm completely demotivated to work; what can I do?

#34

Post by dominotw »

cjfont wrote: post #29
billyjobob wrote: post #16

So you don't like school work. You could get higher grades if only you were more motivated... i.e. you are exactly like every other 16 year old I ever knew. Most of them because more motivated once they started university and were able to focus on what they enjoyed studying. I'd be more worried if you were motivated at 16, because then you'd probably burn out, or grow up to be an obnoxious brain box. Also, since you…

> Your success in life will mostly be determined by the connections your parents have Sorry but this statement doesn't ring true to me, because I know of several cases where two brothers have had divergent success outcomes based on their personalities and the choices they've made. There's also MANY ways to forge your own connections in life.

I recently saw this documentary, 'Who gets the best jobs'[1]. It overwhelmingly supports OP's stance.

1.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bD7U8kqI8A

Re: I'm completely demotivated to work; what can I do?

#35

Post by usablebytes »

First thing - don't search for motivation or don't try to get yourself motivated. You'll end up looking for things that will make you feel good which will in-turn promote procrastination and thereby take you away from actions. The truth is motivation doesn't last. It's a push mechanism. You'll have to focus on things that pull you towards it.

If you keep going like the way you are currently, how would your life be? Definitely you understand the problem with it and this post is the proof. But ask yourself - "why do you want to get A-levels at school?". If programming and researching keeps you going, by all means, you should focus on it. Make sure you put the best possible efforts in it; the rest will follow automatically.

Re: I'm completely demotivated to work; what can I do?

#36

Post by jotm »

scarecrowbob wrote: post #27
discostrings wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Open a map, close your eyes and point randomly. Pack you backpack, buy tickets and go there without any reservation. Spend at least 1 month away from home, comfort and routine. This sounds like an interesting and exciting life-changing plan and everything, but I don't think it's particularly actionable advice for most sixteen-year-olds in today's world, and I don't think it's likely to help with the question at han…

I think we can abstract the advice you're commenting on to "if you don't feel motivated to do what you're doing, do something else", which seems okay. It's quite possible that continuing to do things you are not enthusiastic about doing may be a bad idea. I see your point that it's not a very actionable bit of real advice. Pragmatically, if you told my 16 year old to pack a bag and leave, I'd want to smack you :D

Sixteen is old enough - especially when he can always return. Being away from everything for a few months really puts things into perspective - why are you doing what you're doing, why you were so afraid of some things, whether you're on the right path, and more.

Re: I'm completely demotivated to work; what can I do?

#37

Post by danneu »

WizzleKake wrote: post #4
nemathode wrote: post #2

Aniracetam (or Oxiracetam, if Aniracetam doesn't work for you) + DMAE. Don't forget to balance your blood pressure, use venous or arterial drugs to enhance whole body blood flow (don't use drugs that work only locally). If you don't want to use blood-related drugs, then just exercise regularly (try to focus only on resistance-oriented exercises). Try to sleep on a hard bed without any pillows. Also, increase your met…

If we are suggesting drugs, may as well throw in a suggestion for amphetamines. But personally, I would recommend intense and sustained cardiovascular exercise.

I take an amphetamine pro-drug (Vyvanse) and I'm incredibly reluctant to recommend it any time someone expresses trouble with motivation/focus.

But it did change my life at that critical I-don't-know-how-I'll-make-it-through-university moment. Especially when everyone around me offered stellar advice like "try harder" and "don't buy in to the Big Pharma ADD/ADHD-conspiracy".

It turns out that I'm also reluctant to just offer "exercise more!" or "work on yourself -- it's your behavior!". It's frustrating and anxiety-inducing enough to struggle with motivation. If the only solution is to put pressure on such people by suggesting it's all in their head, then what do we do if that pressure doesn't actually fix anything? Do we count down to the catastrophe so that we can chime in one last time with "See? Look what you did."?

Exercising and taking a sabbatical are good advice, but sabbaticals are out of the question for most people (especially a kid in highschool), and exercise is only that -- good advice.

At some point we have to admit that the results of no-improvement will out-trouble our concerns/stigma over last resorts like medication.

Re: I'm completely demotivated to work; what can I do?

#39

Post by ef4 »

> Are there any ways by which I could motivate myself to study more?

Probably not, if you're asking the question. But I don't think you should study more. I think you should program more, since it's already something you enjoy enough to do for fun. It's a question of playing to your strengths.

Put in the 10,000 hours of sustained effort that it takes to truly become great at it. Prove your abilities through open source.

You will have no problem finding an interesting and well-paying career, if you push yourself hard to always keep learning both about programming and about the business of software.

If that sounds like a lot of hard work, well yeah, it is. There's no shortcut. Either suck it up and do your homework and color inside the lines, or summon the guts to blaze your own path. Or do neither and let the path of least resistance take you where it wants.

Which path are you more likely to regret 40 years from now?

Re: I'm completely demotivated to work; what can I do?

#40

Post by negamax »

What do you seek? Minimizing pain, maximizing pleasure. That's what we all are programmed to seek. You find that and associate it with the studies.

E.g.s

Maximizing pleasure:

+ Do you want to work in another country/place. Your studies can get you there.

+ Want to have interesting conversation with people. Study.

+ Want to understand and have a say about a topic. Study.

Minimizing Pain:

- Don't set yourself for failure few years down the line or make it tough

- Avoid getting into a meaningless job

- (Works for Asians) Think of peers getting ahead of you.

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