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Ask HN: You've got one month, what's your challenge?

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Re: Ask HN: You've got one month, what's your challenge?

#61

Post by mezod »

elnado wrote: post #14

Ugh, regardless of what we say we wish to do on this post, what I'm sure many of us lack is external motivation to do it. One app to help solve that is called Spar, developed by a friend of a friend ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spar!-get-better-at-stuff/id... ). You set a goal with your friends, e.g. read a chapter every day, and put 20$ or so in the "pot". Whoever does the best at meeting the goal, gets the pot…

I see what the friend of a friend did here :P Does it work? I'm not sure that kind of motivation would work for me

Re: Ask HN: You've got one month, what's your challenge?

#62

Post by mezod »

brendoncrawford wrote: post #45
elnado wrote: post #14

Ugh, regardless of what we say we wish to do on this post, what I'm sure many of us lack is external motivation to do it. One app to help solve that is called Spar, developed by a friend of a friend ( https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spar!-get-better-at-stuff/id... ). You set a goal with your friends, e.g. read a chapter every day, and put 20$ or so in the "pot". Whoever does the best at meeting the goal, gets the pot…

When the incentive to finish a goal shifts from the innate satisfaction of completion to a fear of financial penalty, is it possible that the goal itself will unintentionally change in subtle ways?

good point, the goal will vary for sure... for the bad

Re: Ask HN: You've got one month, what's your challenge?

#64

Post by mezod »

sn9 wrote: post #31

You could take a self-paced MOOC and master its contents in a month.

that could be a nice idea. Because you seem to have understood the goal of my question, I'll dig deeper. I need ideas on the WHAT. Like what would you take a MOOC on? The idea is that there's so many things I might not have even thought of that you might consider...!

Re: Ask HN: You've got one month, what's your challenge?

#65

Post by mezod »

tdy721 wrote: post #13

finish http://videopoker.academy * Get a trainer version playable without sign in * Add history and stats interface * Work up a tutorial * Integrate Stripe * import style + FX from https://poker.hyprtxt.com

cool idea... would I be able to learn poker decently in one month? :P

Re: Ask HN: You've got one month, what's your challenge?

#67

Post by slindsey »

foobarbax123 wrote: post #4

Find a better place to work. Just started as a software engineer, fresh out of college. I come home and I am constantly learning, which I enjoy, go to work and introduce new ideas and am shot idea not because of my ideas but beucasue im a newbie. Over the past couple of month has eatten away at my confidence and starting to just blow it off. :(

So I'm in charge of a software development group and I have a guy who is like you. I shoot down his ideas all the time. I don't like it. I try to encourage him. We hired him because he is "constantly learning" and seems to enjoy the work and do things on his own time just like I do and just like you do.

But I shoot him down because his ideas don't fit in our group. We mostly do boring CRUD stuff for internal customers. Most things are very similar and having 7 similar projects all built in different ways with different technology is NOT maintainable. The other developers wouldn't be able to work on things that he built. Yes, the other developers should get up to speed on different technologies, but different isn't always better and I can't change them all.

Anyhow, my point. Maybe your ideas aren't shot down because you're the "newbie". Maybe they don't fit that organization. Keep learning. Keep enjoying the tech. Keep an open mind and maybe the old-timers where you are might teach you something and hopefully you can teach them something also, someday. Mostly, don't get discouraged and keep your eyes open for something better.

Re: Ask HN: You've got one month, what's your challenge?

#68

Post by mezod »

Matachines wrote: post #7

Master stoicism and Deep Work.

I'm not sure this qualifies, how is this a challenge, or how can you accomplish it in 30 days? :P

The only answer that actually served the purpose of my question so far, which was to discover a new topic of interest :-)

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