Most of my creation is done at work now, previously more balanced outside of work with side projects but with little kids a more demanding job its hard, so outside work time is more consumption, though some of that is social consumption which I feel has value (pub, gaming).
The blissful Zen of a good side project
91–100 of 140 posts
Re: The blissful Zen of a good side project
#92I’ve noticed I get this same feeling by writing a tight prompt to AI. Not even reading the result fully, just sending it to be deep processed.
Good for a quick hit of bliss zen when you need it.
Re: The blissful Zen of a good side project
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
The author wrote about long periods of time when he wasn't encouraged to make anything creative, and just consume.
You're definitely not alone. In my case it's somewhat of a learned behavior, a lot of my favorite video games make me violently motion sick so over time I just stopped playing them. Most TV is pretty boring IMO. There's always exceptions but it's not something I find myself regularly being drawn to. I'm always tinkering on something (a longtime favorite is gardening), and I'm pretty sure I'll always be tinkering unti…
Thankfully the long tail of the Internet means there is a world you can connect to.
Re: The blissful Zen of a good side project
#94> I’ve spent pretty much every night in recent memory burning through video games, and I finally, inevitably, hit the wall with that approach.
I burned out on gaming a few years ago. I used to be able to power through weeks of the most inane incremental "game" slop as if it was a voyage to the new world. Now I struggle to force myself to play the most acclaimed AAA titles for 15-20 minutes. I still browse the steam store from time to time, but I finally stopped buying things.
The amount of time I spend on side projects has almost perfectly filled the gap. There have even been a few nights recently where I stayed up very late to watch an experiment unfold. We're talking about staring at a single chart that updates once a second for hours that is getting my heart rate up like a League of Legends game.
I think from a dopamine perspective, you can make a good trade here. The other side can feel even better. It's the transition period that hurts. You've got to get that first tiny bit of traction on the project so it feels like you might eventually have an impact in the world around you. The more it sucks during the first 48 hours, the more likely it will stick indefinitely. When you come back in the morning to a successful experiment run or a good stopping point, it can very quickly snowball into something that rivals the pharmacology of gaming.
Re: The blissful Zen of a good side project
#95Ah yes, "blissful" Zen. That's the best kind!
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It reminds me of Yunmen, a monk who lived in China. He was born around 860 A.D. and he lived ninety years. His enlightenment story is a classic:
One day, Yunmen went to visit Mujo. When Mujo heard Yunmen coming, he closed the door to his room. Yunmen knocked on the door. Mujo said, “Who is it?”
Yunmen said, “It’s me.”
Mujo said, “What do you want?”
Yunmen said, “I’m not clear about my life. I’d like the master to give me some instruction.”
Mujo then opened the door, took one look at Yunmen and closed it again.
Yunmen knocked on the door like this for three days in a row. On the third day, when Mujo opened the door, Yunmen stuck his foot in the door. Mujo grabbed Yunmen and yelled, “Speak! Speak!” When Yunmen began to speak, Mujo gave him a shove and said, “Too late.” Mujo slammed the door. Yunmen’s foot was still there, and the slamming door broke Yunmen’s foot. And at that moment, Yunmen was greatly enlightened.
Re: The blissful Zen of a good side project
#96I feel this in a side project way but also in a hobby project way. Blissful Zen is a great way to put it. Story: My mother had 2 of her 3 dogs die on the same day. We buried them in the backyard as we have many little friends before them. This was the first time I dug the graves (my dad had always beared that -- but he passed away last year). The grave soil was very clay rich. I had recently seen a video on how to re…
This sounds amazingly cool, would love to read about the process after you’re done if you have an intention to write about it.
Re: The blissful Zen of a good side project
#97> I’ve spent pretty much every night in recent memory burning through video games, and I finally, inevitably, hit the wall with that approach.
I feel like I can only play games that are about 20-50 hours and have a definitive end or game that you can chip away at an hour at a time (e.g. EAFC). Even playing for just a couple hours a night feels like time that could be going towards a side project but time to unwind is important.
Re: The blissful Zen of a good side project
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
As much as vibe coding is obviously ridiculous, using it as a crutch purposefully in this way is amazing. I heard someone call it a tool for energy management once and I feel that
Why would it be obviously ridiculous if it granted the parent commenter so much productivity? Perhaps the same obvious ridiculousness that manual agrarians passed upon the tractor.
Vibe coding is not using a chat interface to explore an unfamiliar domain like GP describes, it's letting an agent tool like Cursor or Goose do most of the work semi-independently.
Re: The blissful Zen of a good side project
#99It's an interesting read. I'm in the complete opposite camp. I can't pick up a game controller for more than 5 minutes without feeling like I'm wasting time. This has lead to many, many side projects throughout the years, which I tend to like a zen garden[1]. Pruning, refining, improving, and sometimes rewriting. As soon as I work out the game mechanics of any game, I just see it as just content now, and there is not…
Have you tried League of Legends or Valorant? I'm like you as I can't not have multiple side projects going on at any time, but at the same time there is so much room to improve in these kinds of game I find them hard to stop at times.
I'm somewhat the same way as parent, getting bored once I figured out the mechanics. While I haven't tried League of Legends, I have tried Valorant, and generally the type of games that is more about mastery of a skill rather than discovery, exploration, story or problem-solving, gets boring fast for me at least.
Re: The blissful Zen of a good side project
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