18 ms·

Ask HN: How do I switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer?

• zem 9y ago
  somewhere along the line ​our notion of amateur internet content production shifted from a site model to a blog model, and I feel we do not consciously examine that enough. take your youtube channel - why are you bothered by your weekly production rate? the 'channel' (an unfortunate name that plays into this fallacy) does not consist of one latest video, growing more and more irrelevant the longer ago it was posted, it consists of all the videos you have added there, living in parallel, and interesting to different people at different times as and when they are discovered. posting two videos and then nothing for months does not mean you have a dead channel, it means you have a collection of two videos. add to that collection as and when you feel like it; it will only grow over time.
• zatkin 9y ago
  Identify a problem, and develop a solution for it. Don't let anyone, even yourself, hold you back from solving that problem. It can be a problem at any scale. With sufficient motivation and commitment, you can solve just about anything.
• Walkman 9y ago
  You just start doing, that's it. Don't overthink just start it NOW! No work is perfect, you have to release it and let people judge so you can improve or abandon but if you release nothing, you will never know.
• andai 9y ago
  No one else can answer these questions for you. If your rationalizations don't make sense, they're covering up for deeper fears you may be reluctant to face. Imagine starting work on these things right now and notice how you feel. Investigate from there. Or, ignore the feeling, and go work on your dreams anyway :) Best wishes Also, an important thing to realize is that everyone is bad at stuff in the beginning. In the words of Jake the Dog, "Suckin at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something!" Or (can't remember where i got this) "Every artist has 10,000 shitty drawings in them, it's best to get them out as quickly as possible." Deliberately making something bad (because it will probably end up sorta bad at first, whether you want it or not) can help you overcome the delusion of "it has to be perfect or people will judge me!" Aim to fail because failure is an essential part to success. You keep sucking until one day you wake up and realize things are going really well. You have to make it to that day though. The only real failure is giving up.
  • CharlieA 9y ago
    This reminds me of a quote attributed to Van Gogh. No idea how accurate it is, but the sentiment is great. > "If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced." (ofc: Replace PAINT with anything you like!)
    • mbrock 9y ago
      From one of Vincent's letters to Theo: “Just slap anything on when you see a blank canvas staring at you like some imbecile. The canvas has an idiotic stare and mesmerises some painters so much that they turn into idiots themselves. […] Life itself, too, is forever turning an infinitely vacant, disheartening, dispiriting blank side towards man on which nothing appears, any more than it does on a blank canvas. But no matter how vacant and vain, how dead life may appear to be, the man of faith, of energy, of warmth, who knows something, will not be put off so easily.”
  • andai 9y ago
    Another useful perspective to have is to start thinking in terms of other people's needs. Eg. instead of "how can I make a million dollars" ask "how can I provide a million dollars in value?" Thinking in terms of people's needs is also beneficial to relationships and mental health, ie. noticing the needs of those around you, how you are / aren't meeting those needs, as well as your own. This way of thinking helps me make decisions in my life.
• slackingoff2017 9y ago
  99% of the human species blows their time on Facebook so don't feel too bad about it
  • andai 9y ago
    Hey, that just makes me feel worse!
  • rmetzler 9y ago
    Delete the smartphone app now. Thank me later.
    • Profragile 9y ago
      I did that last year to avoid bullshit generated and perpetuated by people I know. This year, I decided to delete the reddit app to get away from bullshit generated and perpetuated by people I don't know. I still consume some bullshit, but I'm getting there.
      • hk__2 9y ago
        reddit is an awesome source of information if you subscribe to the good subreddits (i.e. not crowded ones like /r/pics or /r/worldnews). I’ve learnt a lot from /r/photography and got very good feedback when I posted some projects on /r/python or /r/clojure.
        • Bakary 9y ago
          If you can compartmentalize, then it's great, however I feel the danger lies in that for every useful tidbit you don't notice the rest of the time it sucks away from you.
    • ganonm 9y ago
      I just deleted the app and moved several of my smaller group conversations over to WhatsApp (yes, the irony that this is also owned by Facebook is not lost on me). Been contemplating this for a while but you have provided the necessary impetus, thanks.
• pjc50 9y ago
  Other way round: you're feeling a desire to contribute, but you're not seeing an unmet need. Start by finding an audience, even if it's just one person. Maybe you actually want to make a different kind of contribution such as through volunteering.
• titanix2 9y ago
  For your Youtube channel, I'll advise you to prepare a few more before launch: this way you'll be able to skip a week or two easily... which should lessen the fear of not being able to keep the pace. Also you can choose a two weeks release schedule which is easier to keep (video is a lot of work). Having deadline helps a lot to start and finish projects. Procrastination can also be change in productive procrastination: instead of making you video you can write a blog post. For example, I'm right know programming a game I wanted to start for a long time instead of writing a research paper (and oh, commenting on HN). Finally I use visualisation before starting something. Instead of just thinking or writing down "write the blog post about XXX" I envision the final product for some time and how it will affect positively my life. Then I have more motivation to actually start it!
• rmetzler 9y ago
  Your time is limited. You spend time consuming, when you want to spend time producing. So, stop (or at least decrease) your consumption. Start small. Put online what you learn. If you learned something today, you might teach someone else tomorrow.
• disillusioned 9y ago
  Man, this is me all over. I've spoken to friends about how I feel like on the "consumer vs. creator continuum," I'm far too far on the consumer side. It's just easier to watch Netflix after coming home from work, instead of creating something new. The commitment is a big deal too. I don't want to start a blog, write two posts, and then abandon it, and I know that's more likely than not. I even struggle a bit with what the voice would be of the blog: would I write about work-related things? Just whatever comes to mind? I don't have a great answer for you, but accountability and not breaking the chain are the two biggest things I hear: creating something every day, and having a couple of friends checking in on you, for instance. Oh, and in my case, having just had a newborn doesn't help the situation. My brain is just too tired with the down time I have, frequently, so here I am, writing in an HN comment instead of the course I should be writing, or the other ideas I have kicking around. :-/
  • weavie 9y ago
    Having a newborn is one of the most precious ways to be a producer. Enjoy that and don't sweat anything else.
  • jon-wood 9y ago
    If you've just had a child your best approach may be to just accept that for the next few years you don't have time for active production. Your active learning/production right now is learning how to raise a child. Trust me on this one, you're not going to look back in a few years time and regret spending too much time watching your child growing up into an independent person.
• rayalez 9y ago
  Figure out(decide) what you want to create, and then develop enough skill to be able to do that. Some epiphanies I have encountered on my path: - Terminal value - do things you want to do for the sake of themselves. Not to achieve some purpose, or benefit the society, or whatever, understand what YOU value and want to make. - You don't "find your passion", you choose it. Make a decision on what you want to do with the following years of your life, and then figure out a way to make it work. - Enjoying the process of creating things is a combination of skillset and value. When it works - programming or writing is supposed to feel like playing minecraft(or whatever is the most engaging computer game you can imagine). You do not force yourself to do it, you do it for the sake of the game. You are driven to make fun stuff, and then you do it because you can. - Read the book about Flow, and about gamification - understand how your mind works and what drives it. It's all about the reward loop, your brain craves dopamine, and you satisfy this craving by setting clear, small goals and accomplishing them. - If you feel "fear" I would guess that it's either because of the lack of skill(you dont want to waste time and hard work when you're not sure that you can successfully create something valuable), or because of the "ego" - you care too much about your self image, about what others will think of you or about what you think of youself, you tie your sense of self-worth to the quality of work you produce. To fix the first one you develop more skill, to fix the second you realize that this shit doesn't matter. The only thing within your control is how much understanding/practice you put into your craft, so you learn to only care about that and none of the irrelevant stuff. To summarize: 1. Find the terminal value your brain craves. What do you want to do with your life, what do you want to make? 2. Follow the path to mastery, give all of your attention to getting good at what you do. That's the only thing within your control, and everything else doesn't matter. 3. Focus on practicing your craft, for the sake of the process. Design a rewarding process by understanding the idea of flow state, and your brain's core drives, and turn it into a habit. Set clear, valuable, attainable goals, break them down into simple steps, and accomplish them. Make this your lifestyle. And creating cool stuff will simply be a side-effect of this process. Also don't feel too guilty for "consuming" stuff, it's okay to relax and have fun and watch comedy and be inspired by the creativity of others. Focus your energy on creating more, not on consuming less. Also, don't worry about following the schedule - it's an unnecessary arbitrary constraint you've made up that will just make things more difficult and add pressure. Moving further matters, following a plan does not. Use it as a tool if it helps, throw it out if it stands in your way.
• thruflo22 9y ago
  Publish at least one tweet / post / video / commit / GitHub issue / comment per day. If you want to run a marathon, the most important thing is to run 1k per day. Once you're out in the road, the distance will take care of itself.
• duopixel 9y ago
  Through my hostsfile I block everything of which I habitually consume and feels like "junk information", such as Reddit. You notice it is junk when you have spent some time there, look back and think "what have I learned" and the answer to yourself is "nothing", then you can do away with it, as it's a time waste. I block these websites because habit takes you there when you're bored. The dns failure is simply a reminder that you were about to waste time, and you can put it to better use. There is nothing wrong with consuming information, what you put into your mind eventually comes out in creative expression. In my case I can't force myself to be creative when I don't feel like it, but when the creative impulse is felt, my raw materials (the contents of my mind) are better ingredients.
• factsaresacred 9y ago
  How much spare time do you have, what are your living conditions like, your energy levels, hours of sleep, computer speed, monitor size, task management approach? I ask because you need to: A. build an environment conducive to producing. B. practice discipline. Like you, I had some half-baked blogs and projects that were doomed for failure. After way too much wasted time it was obvious that I wasn't living a lifestyle congruent with my goals. No successful person ever prioritized Facebook over their project. I was lying to myself and had to snap out of it. So I began applying a version of the Broken windows theory* - which argues that if you prevent small crimes it discourages large crimes - to my life. (In this case the smaller crimes were procrastination and the larger crime was not getting my shit together like I know I ought to). The rules were simple: 1. Everything I did had to align with my goal to produce. I got a faster laptop, dual screens (this makes a difference, trust me), began sleeping well and eating well, rationed consuming to 2 hours a day, stopped drinking (hangovers are dumb...for now at least). 2. Apply discipline everywhere. I made my bed first thing each morning, the apartment was always spotless, I worked out every day. Even began doing stuff like not using auto-correct on Chrome - fight your lazy brain and spell the word correctly dammit. The idea was to practice discipline as much as possible so as to train it like a muscle. End result: I learned how to code, built a product, quit my job and am now at 500 customers. So you can do it. It's just going to cost you - dates, meetups with friends, a slight drop in Facebook-notification-induced-dopamine. But, I assure you, the joy from creating something that people enjoy eclipses all of that. This approach is geared more for an all in lifestyle change. If you just want to be a better blogger, even a fraction of the above will do. Worse than the fear of commitment is the tinge of regret. Took almost a decade to figure that one out. *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broken_windows_theory
  • leblancfg 9y ago
    This resonates well with my experience. In sports training, many top athletes will use 2-3 month cycles broken in 3-4 sections that focus on specific adaptations. Endurance, strength, power, etc. For long-term goals, the most important section -- base conditioning -- aims at slowly building up your body's training capacity. If your body can withstand one more hour of workout without injury or sickness, then over time these gains will accumulate. As opposed to strength training though, it can take many months before there is a tangible difference. I feel as though for the brain, and creative work in general, the situation is very similar. With months and years of "training", it too can withstand to work for longer hours. The parent's comment on creating the proper environment is certainly key.
• unlmtd 9y ago
  Realize that money is the be-all and end-all your existence. But it worked for me, so it probably won't work for someone else. Also realize that nobody knows what they're talking about.
• spookyuser 9y ago
  Since I find these book recommended on HN a lot, I guess it's my turn to share them as well. The War of Art [1] and Do the Work [2] both are excellent books about making things and why it's hard. I found them motivating not only because of the solutions in the books but also just because someone describing the problems I have with creating, so clearly, is helpful to read. It's nice knowing you're not a crazy person and that these are problems a lot of people go through. They're also very short and easy to read. So give them a shot. [1] http://www.stevenpressfield.com/the-war-of-art/ http://www.stevenpressfield.com/the-war-of-art/ [2] http://www.stevenpressfield.com/do-the-work/ http://www.stevenpressfield.com/do-the-work/
• Siduri 9y ago
  Eat the world while you still can, fool.
• baxtr 9y ago
  I am like that too. I need to push myself towards creation every single day, otherwise I slip into the consumption trap (still happens once in a while). This is what helps me: - Think backwards. How many years do you have left? How many days? Time is running, we only get to live once - Stop consuming in the morning. Instead of checking emails, news etc on your smartphone, I get up and write down all the things I want to do the day. Then I start working on the top items - Enjoy traction. Once you release something you'll get hooked on the data. How many people like my post? What's the feedback I receive. When I see that there is traction, I get excited and I enjoy interacting with the community Btw: You are already contributing :) Look at the feedback here.
• touchofevil 9y ago
  As an extremely dedicated procrastinator, the most insightful idea I have found regarding this topic is something called "The Procrastination Doom Loop"[1] I'd also highly recommend a book called "The War of Art"[2] which was written by a procrastinator who eventually made good. I'm still struggling with procrastination, but my personal feeling is that the key is probably to create a routine where you just execute your productive work during a set block of time everyday, much like a job. This is just so you don't have to decide whether or not to do the work "now" which will break the procrastination doom loop. Good luck! [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/08/the-procrastination-loop-and-how-to-break-it/379142/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/08/the-pro... [2] https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative-Battles/dp/1936891026 https://www.amazon.com/War-Art-Through-Creative-Battles/dp/1...
• visarga 9y ago
  All the frameworks, languages, libraries, datasets, courses, papers, videos, groups and tools (have I missed any?) are here for us to combine and configure however we like. We might be overwhelmed by their volume and think that we have nothing original to add, but we can still remain creative in how we combine and mix them. All this content is like lego pieces, we can have lots of fun putting them together in new ways. That's why they shouldn't be a barrier, but an ingredient to creativity. The trick is to seek what you enjoy, then creative energy builds up.
• superasn 9y ago
  Having been a similar situation myself my advice for you would be to first of all stop blaming yourself for being lazy, or not doing enough. I don't know if you are but it's easy to fall into that trap. My most unproductive period was when I was trying to do too much, all sorts of things, with insane deadlines. It really had an opposite effect on me wherein I started procrastinating a lot and then felt guilty for wasting another day. Weird part was that I wasn't even having fun with my time. It was just a weird state where I was working without actually accomplishing anything. Anyway, I got my mojo back when I just said fuck it and said goodbye to those imaginary deadlines and started doing the so called time wasters like watching Netflix, reddit, hn, etc 100% guilt free. Instantly without the pressure and guilt, the quality of work and more importantly stuff started getting done again. It may be a unique case but try it for a few days. Maybe it'll work for you too!
• nickjj 9y ago
  I schedule out my time. For instance, Wednesday and Friday are dedicated to nothing but writing blog posts. I tend to spend half the time researching and the other half writing. By the time Wednesday rolls along, I'm pretty eager to start writing. I usually keep a buffer of a month's worth of posts. Then the rest of my time is spent producing content of other types (courses, etc.) and consulting. Luckily I don't use FB, IG and barely use Twitter. HN and Youtube still soak up a pretty decent amount of time, but I use various browser extensions and other tactics to keep myself in check. In fact, I blogged about that[0] a few months ago and this combo works better than anything I've ever tried. [0]: https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/how-to-overcome-procrastination-with-a-3-pronged-attack https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/how-to-overcome-procrastinati...
• marvin 9y ago
  I'm going to say something that might be wildly unpopular among ambitious people: If you have a full-time job, you are by far not a passive consumer. You presumably contribute >40 hours every week of creatively demanding, high-quality labor to society. For most people, the premise of this question is wrong. Procrastination, when you don't obviously have a lot of available time and effort, is a symptom that most of your creative energies are already spent elsewhere and are unavailable for other high-energy pursuits. I commend the effort to organizing your remaining free time to produce something of societal value, but for most people this is an exercise that will in the long run lead to burnout. Your mind is already subconsciously telling you this. I know some people who have energy levels that allow them to sustainably burn the candle at both ends, but they are a small minority. I am quite envious of this group; they appear to have a big leg up in accomplishing great things, but there appears to be a component of either genetics or upbringing that leaves only a small portion of people with this capability. If you are not in this minority and you strongly desire to produce more creative output outside of your full-time job, there are two options: You can set small goals, e.g. spending 3-5 hours a week of dedicated time towards your pursuit, or putting everything else in your life on pause for a year or two while you go at it with all your effort. The latter course of action will likely not be sustainable, and you have to listen to your mind and body when it's had enough of it. My preferred choice would be to get a job that pays enough to sustain your lifestyle but has much smaller hours (e.g. 60% or 40% of a full-time position), if this is at all possible. Most places, sadly, it isn't an option. If you can organize this, you free up a significant portion of your creative energy, which can then be used for other ambitious goals.
  • k__ 9y ago
    So true. I'm blogging one a week about dev stuff and it takes 2-4 hours depending on the topic. I met a few devs with family and children, and they were blown away by my commitment.
    • kungtotte 9y ago
      Yeah, some weeks between work, family time, and other commitments I'd be lucky to get 2-4 hours of free time all to myself.
• paublyrne 9y ago
  I would ask if you think uploading videos to youtube that you feel obliged to produce for the sake of being 'productive', is really contributing to society. We have a glut of online content. For every tweet that illuminates, there are 9 that constitute meaningless chatter, background noise that serves only to obfuscate the good stuff. The freedom that the internet has given people to communicate is a wonderful and empowering thing, but the idea that we must 'produce' something to be contributing to our world is just wrong, in my opinion. If you have free time, why not do some volunteer work in your community? Most countries have, for example, charities that help connect lonely elderly people with others to meet, say, for coffee once a week. I would say that represents a contribution of significant value.
  • petra 9y ago
    So true. And even if he wants to contribute in a field he's good at, like programming - creating your own project is often just an exercise in vanity, when you could do a lot more good, behind the scenes, as part of a larger group working on something more of value.
  • Applejinx 9y ago
    This. Can you learn something so intensely that there's a purpose for you to produce, other than 'I don't feel like just enjoying and celebrating the creative works of others'? Anyone who's really locked into the nasty treadmill of staying creatively relevant, truly loves a good fan or good consumer. Somebody's gotta do the experiencing, sift through the chaff, find the gold. If you're working in the creative sphere, odds are you can't even do that because keeping up a genuine creative output is too heavy of a commitment. I think this is the future knocking at our doors. One day energy and goods will be all produced by robots and machines, and we will all be consumers by vocation, whose job it is to sift through the noise and find the signal. As we can see in this post, as soon as we're comfortable with that we're already unsatisfied, and want the celebrity of being informationally significant. And that becomes the equivalent of a struggle for survival. Once survival is taken care of, it's beneath notice, and importance becomes everything. (or if you like, expressing informational generosity)
    • 9y ago
• andreasgonewild 9y ago
  "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." ~~Marianne Williamson, A Return To Love Do it :)
  • inadequathrowy 9y ago
    >Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. Is this actually true? I am fairly certain I fear inadequacy more than power. I've talked to and read people, including artists, writers, and programmers, who expressed fear of not measuring up to standards -- others' or their own. It seems very common. I have rarely heard someone express fear of becoming too powerful, too influential, etc. Moreover, when I did, it was by people who were already successful and, crucially, their primary worry was that they wouldn't be able to use the power or influence well (i.e., inadequacy again).
    • gagege 9y ago
      You are correct. That quote is complete feel-good mumbo jumbo.
• rwieruch 9y ago
  I followed two rules to shift from a consumer to a producer: 1. have a fixed amount of time to read HN, Reddit, Twitter, Email 2. have a release schedule The first rule helps me to keep the consuming time to a minimum. Only once in the morning, after lunch and after work I check the recent (!) updates on all necessary platforms. It can be hard in the beginning, but at some point it becomes a habit. The second rule helps me to stick to producing. I blog about web development and self-growth and therefore I have a backlog of ideas to write about. Once a week I post an article.
• rythie 9y ago
  To me, you need come up a schedule a stick to it no matter what. For example when I wanted to do more photography, I started a 365 project [1] to a take a photo everyday and publish it. The first couple of weeks were hard, but after a while I restructured my days, workflow & equipment to suit it. I'd say, if you want to do YouTube, you should at least do the 1 per week thing. If you are short on time, you can do Q&A/livestream episodes. I'm sure you'd be are aware of Casey Neistat [2], who has said multiple times he wished he'd done daily vlogging sooner. [1] https://www.flickr.com/photos/richardcunningham/albums/72157648121116463 https://www.flickr.com/photos/richardcunningham/albums/72157... [2] https://www.youtube.com/user/caseyneistat https://www.youtube.com/user/caseyneistat
• deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
• edem 9y ago
  What you can always do is to give feedback. For example I actively create issues on OSS projects I use. Most devs (including me) have no idea how their software is being used and what corner cases they have with which other devs are struggling. If you want to start your own blog the easiest way is to use Jekyll + Github. It is just 5 clicks away...Contributing to OSS can also be started by simple bugfixing tasks.
• abuani 9y ago
  I've gone through this recently, and it's very difficult to overcome. I've read close to 50 books on topics like this, and some of the best advice I have gotten are from 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Turn that ship around, Talent is Overrated, Flow, and The power of habit. These books provide mental models and frameworks that you can start using immediately to overcome this issue. What I've found is most people look entirely at efficiency. They want to produce more with less, and this is their goal. However, this usually completely leaves out the value of the activity in question. What value is it that you contribute to open source? Do they provide a truly meaningful difference in your life currently, or are they merely passive participants that are means to an end for you? Do their values and goals match your values and goals? Chances are, if you answered yes to these, then you will not need much more motivation to give back to these groups. You will do it out of a sense of duty to your values and knowing that it will satiate a personal demand you have. Now what can you do today without reading all of the literature in the world on the topic? Write out the eulogy you want told at your funeral 3 years from now. Seriously, turn off all distractions and think long and hard on how you want your family, friends, coworkers and connections to speak of you. Chances are through this activity you will begin to define some values that define your character. Hone in on these, and identify tasks that will relate to these values and drive them forward. Think of what single activity you can do today that will have the biggest impact on your ongoing well being, and figure out how you can turn that into a habit. After you start having small successes, you hopefully will begin rewiring yourself to start chasing personal victories as opposed to constant consumption. What I personally found is that I tried to do things for the sake of doing things. I would create simply to share, and skip the 80% of the work that would actually provide me value. Sharing with the world is important, but if you don't go through personal growth while creating, sharing with the world becomes empty and you chase metrics and statistics. You will beginning acting out of need for validation as opposed to acting out of what's important to your values. The closer you can tie your values to your actions, the more satisfaction you'll ultimately get out of what you do. It makes it easier to prioritize tasks and see a week/month/year in the future and know that you're making the correct decision not just for present you, but future you. There's a ton of crap advice out there on this particular topic, but there's a lot of good. If you start with the few books I listed above, note books that the authors reference and relate too. Create a list from these books on what to read next. Be ready to throw away old habits and models that no longer drive your life in the direction you want to go. Habits are reprogrammable, but the longer and deeper they're held, the more effort it will take. Most people reject this entire process because in the short term, you're more likely to be uncomfortable as things don't always work out. You may lose some productivity, or at least perceive yourself as losing productivity, but habits pay off much like compound interest. It's a long game, the payoff is built up over time. Be ready to adjust your parameters to improve the likelyhood that you meet the long term goals, but don't be afraid to see short term losses. The more legitimate experience you get, the quicker it will be for you to know when to cut your losses and move on. You can always reduce this by reaching out to people who may have been in your situation. You learn more from others failures then you do successes, so make sure you fluff their accomplishments, but don't be afraid to ask about what they "wish they knew". This is often where the real advice is.
• OliverJones 9y ago
  Your transition -- consumer to producer -- is one I've been through a few times. But I didn't realize it in the moments it happened for me. (I produced written-word stuff; tech tutorials etc). Each time I went through ramping up my output, I did so because I realized people were benefiting from what I produced. I did realize people were reading what I wrote. It was the knowledge I was doing somebody some good that motivated me. You asked for advice, so I'll give it. Open up that YouTube channel, as soon as possible. Add more videos when it makes sense to do so, not because of a self-imposed schedule. If the subject matter of your YouTube channel is relevant to your workplace, see if you can work out some kind of lunch'n'learn project so you can present it. You can also invite colleagues to present their stuff in the same lunch'n'learn series. This next bit of advice probably sounds impossibly artsy-fartsy. Let your muse -- your motivation -- find you. Don't force yourself to crank stuff out just for the sake of cranking it out. Your job has enough of that. As for finding the time.... what are you doing reading Hacker News? :-) :-) This point applies much more strongly to FB and other media outlets who measure "engagement" -- who get paid for stealing your time.
• jansho 9y ago
  If what is holding you back is fear, then perhaps I can make a recommendation to break it. Start with meeting like-minded people! Whether it's volunteering, meetup groups or tech events ... just pick one. While it sounds nerve-wrecking - it was for me - actually, it's a low commitment activity. You're not trying to prove anything. You're not even expecting to make new friends. But watching other makers in action, and listening to what they say can slowly build up that push for yourself to become one. It's different to reading and watching interviews at home because when you're out there, it all becomes personal. If I read about a guy who dreams of the next guitar picker, I'd probably roll my eyes and move on. But actually meeting one who is excitedly showing his prototype, and talking about his dream and motivations, that's endearing and actually inspiring. I may not see the guitar picker to ever change the world but I add this to my mental stock of maker stories, and this helps me to keep going. Lately, I've found that it's much easier to slide into my project and focus on the real essentials. The more I go out and meet people, the more confident and articulated I get, and my idea gets refined further. And yes, inevitably you do make new and quite interesting friends :) When it does become too much, then just step back a bit - remember, this is supposed to be low commitment! Edit typo.
• everyone 9y ago
  It sounds like you dont actually want to do those things.
• kstenerud 9y ago
  Don't contribute out of guilt. You'll never make anything good that way. At certain points in your life, you'll be inspired to build something for its own sake. THAT will be something worthwhile to contribute. Until then, chill out. Want to increase your odds of that happening? Train your creativity. How do you do that? Play! Play with things. Fuck around. Use it in ways it's not meant to be used. Break it! Have you ever seen kids keep themselves occupied by using things in weird, wrong, and probably useless ways? Do that! Do things that nobody else is doing, not for what riches it might hold (because it probably won't), but for the pure joy of play and exploration, not caring about the judgments of everyone who will inevitably shake their head. Randomness breeds novelty.
• RichardHeart 9y ago
  By breaking old habits and putting the new ones first thing in the morning. I did it, made a YouTube channel, and made a video about it. I think the gambling sucks, stop gaming one or stop learning start doing would be most relevant towards you actually getting your channel up.
• xname2 9y ago
  Find a lover, get married, raise at least two good kids. This will be your best contribution to the society.
  • egh5oon 9y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_overpopulation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_overpopulation The last thing this world needs is more people, by far. If anything, adopt kids. Also, how's the marriage required?
  • Bakary 9y ago
    There's no guarantee that these new persons would provide a benefit, even if they are raised well.
• deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
• swiley 9y ago
  Get rid of your browser and your smartphone. Avoid GUIs and closed software and anything that involves psychologists or "UX designers." Force yourself to understand what your doing.
• deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
• sova 9y ago
  The process from consumption to production can be gradual and organic. Highly I'd recommend getting some sort of blog service and posting when you can about various topics. It does not have to be anything massive or even focused, but over time if you did, say, one post a week, you will find that things add up, all those little dust motes of posts can become a mountain all together (as the Japanese proverb goes).
• wpietri 9y ago
  My biggest tip: minimize what you do. Since you want to do more, I know this sounds crazy. But when I set up a personal kanban system, it really changed my life. You establish a backlog of what you want to do. Then you limit the amount of work in process (WIP). That gives you a very small number of open tasks to switch between, which means you end up increasing your focus and being forced to finish things. (Or at least clearly admit that you're quitting a thing.) This process is, honestly, pretty unpleasant at first. Being a passive consumer pays off right now. There's always a new article, a new tweet. When you're bored, you just skip ahead. Real work is frustrating and pays off very slowly. So you're going to spend months just breaking yourself of your quick-entertainment habits and learning to put up with the frustration of longer scale. If you really struggle, consider trying out the pomodoro system, which involves fixed periods of focus with breaks. E.g., 25 minutes of work with 5 minutes of break. When I'm feeling really resistant to production and just want to fuck around on the Internet, I'll tell myself, "Ok, one pomodoro of work on the project." I'll set my countdown timer and just fucking do the work for 25 minutes, no matter how much I don't want to. Often after that, I get into it and it's fine. But that first wall of resistance can be brutal. The other thing that really helped me is taking up running. Pick a race, like a 5K. Train for it and do it. Then pick another race. The main trick to running successfully is not giving up. You learn to put one goddamn foot in front of another. Some days it's a joy and some days you hate it, but that ends up not mattering so much. You slowly learn that your feelings are just these things your brain does. You can notice them without having to obey them.
  • mi100hael 9y ago
    +1 my wife and I set up a kanban board in our house for tasks we needed to accomplish so we could easily see each others priorities and current efforts. It was game-changing. We are able to get more done with much lower stress.
  • stil 9y ago
    ++, I'm in the middle of a project that was supposed to be a quick 2-3 weekend deal. It's now taken much longer than I originally hoped, and I'm constantly tempted to give up/set it down for another few months but I know I just need to reformulate a plan and finish it instead of starting other things and having 2-3 half assed projects.
• sireat 9y ago
  Not everyone can be productive all the time and that is ok. Also, think what you really want to produce. It could be that your goals are too vague and big. As soon as you stop thinking of it(blogging, making videos, coding) as a committment you will be at an ease. The trick is to make a committment for two-four weeks, after that it could become a nice habit. If it still feels like a burden it is not the right thing for you.
• aurelianito 9y ago
  What I do is to publish short things that I may want to read latter in my blog. Sometimes someone else find them useful, if so great. But the main consumer of my blog is me. I usually use it as reference for some little problems that come over and over. And, sometimes, I do send links to my blog when someone else has a problem I blogged about in the past. Doing this I publish about 25 articles every year. Wanna take a look? Is at https://aurelianito.blogspot.com https://aurelianito.blogspot.com (warning: content is written in Spanish) And lately I also do some YouTube screencasts about go, the game. The trick for me is to commit to upload whatever happens in the screencast, no preparation at all. Check them out too. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTQoyI2lMoFO2bGa2b6Sy-iSUs1PAvcRi http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTQoyI2lMoFO2bGa2b6Sy-...
• aurelianito 9y ago
  What I do is to publish short things that I may want to read latter in my blog. Sometimes someone else find them useful, if so great. But the main consumer of my blog is me. I usually use it as reference for some little problems that come over and over. And, sometimes, I do send links to my blog when someone else has a problem I blogged about in the past. Doin this I publish about 25 articles every year. Wanna take a look? Is at https://aurelianito.blogspot.com https://aurelianito.blogspot.com (warning: content is written in Spanish) Oh! The key for me is no commitment. Just do the first video/ blog post and work from there. If I take a year off it is fine.
• mark_l_watson 9y ago
  I write books and sometimes blog. I keep a file for notes and ideas for future writing. This process might provide you with kickstart material for the times when you are motivated to spend an evening writing. For open source projects, choose something that you are really interested in and start a public git repo. Whenever you are motivated to work on your project for an hour or two, then add a feature. My friend, it is all about one thought at a time, one keystroke at a time. If you are not enjoying the creative process then stop and start up again on another day.
• spaceisballer 9y ago
  So there is another possibility, it can be that you are more excited by the idea of creating videos than doing it. Perhaps there is some other venture you are both interested in and motivated to do.
  • taway_1212 9y ago
    I read /r/gamedev semi-frequently, and this seems to be by far the most common issue there. People just want to have created a game, but the actual process of creation (long and tedious slog, with little chance of payoff) is too much for them.
• dahart 9y ago
  Curiosity, and fun -- selfish fun. You're giving yourself not just too much, but the wrong kind of pressure. Find something that's more fun and interesting to you than browsing Facebook, something you'd rather be doing, and something that scratches an itch or helps you learn something you want to know. Don't do it for social value, don't expect to give more than you take, and don't commit to it. Do something for yourself, and those things will happen naturally as a byproduct when you find the right thing that you care about so much more than Instagram that you can't bring yourself to browse Instgram. Finding the thing is your job at this point, so don't stick to one of the things you listed until you try them all and try many other things too. Try boating, or woodworking, or exercise, or eating, or volunteering at the homeless shelter. (If you want a blog or vlog, you need stories to write/video about, after all.) Find something you enjoy before you even think about commitment. There's almost nobody writing blogs or open source software or posting videos to YouTube that are worrying about their contribution to society -- they are doing it because they love it, they like participating in the activity for reasons that primarily benefit them -- and only occasionally and secondarily do they benefit others -- and that's okay!
  • WA 9y ago
    This should be #1 comment. Nailed it. If "commitment" is holding you back, simply don't commit, but create something without external validation. I think it also helps to think less in a constant stream of content, but more how TV shows are organized: Seasons and episodes. So you basically start this "show" of 10 videos about X and then you're done with it. No eternal commitment necessary.
• bsvalley 9y ago
  Start taking actions - baby steps. That's it! Keep being a consumer, it's not one or the other, you can produce while consuming it's not a big deal. The only difference between the 2 is "actions". Just do it :)
• kilon 9y ago
  "but I just can't force myself to do it" Actually you can. I used to tell myself what you just said but then when I reached the dead end of lack of powerful motivation I did understand that I had to force it. In Greece we say "The beginning is half of everything" and my problem is beginning something. Sticking to it is not a big issues assuming I do not take a large break for it , say a few days or couple of weeks . Then I have to force myself to start again. Which as you imagine happens ofter. But when I do it , its easy to continue, no pressure involved and makes me happy. So yeah starting something can be a pain in the ass and you need to punch your way through this phase which fortunately does not last long. Forcing yourself to start doing something is a good idea. But forcing yourself to keep doing it can be an indication that it does not make you happy or you simply do not like it. Dont do that. Pick something you really like. It does not have to be amazing, just something you like doing. Whats the worse it can happen if you pressure yourself ? Will you head explode ? Will you be very unhappy ? Will you fail ? Heads do not explode, happiness is not permanent and failure is part of life and improvement. I think if you pressure yourself hard at the right time can easily solve your problem. In the end you will realise that motivation alone is not enough always to overcome fear of failure, boredom or confusion. See pressure as your first product, self motivation. Actually self motivation is best thing you can produce. The second best, is motivating others.
• awl130 9y ago
  I made one change that made a difference: Cancel all-you-can-eat subscriptions, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. When you must opt-in every time to consume content, it makes it easier to instead dedicate your time to creating content.
  • rak00n 9y ago
    I disagree. Some of the series I consumed through​ Netflix/HBO Now changed my perspective​. That's a fair exchange of my time.
    • vwcx 9y ago
      I challenge you to interrogate what sort of perspective changes happened. I used to think the same: that the occasional Netflix series binge was opening my mind to a new perspective on X topic. But after deeper consideration, I realize the perspective changes were still on-par with shifts that could/would happen from other pursuits, like learning a language or just meeting new people. And this perspective wasn't earned through more "screen time"...something we should all be trying to reduce.
    • eswat 9y ago
      I think similarly with video games. However very, very few of these ever has a considerable impact on improving my wisdom or changing perspective. It would be crazy for me to subscribe to something like Humble Monthly Bundle with this realization. Might be worth to ask yourself if you really need to subscribe to have access to this content to reach the same outcome. Or if you can replace these experiences with something else or try them à la carte.
  • mpfundstein 9y ago
    Yes. I also started to get cds/lps again and quit spotify. Automatically you consume less with the extra effect of slightly better quality and more active listening :-)
• stvrbbns 9y ago
  It sounds like part of the problem is not wanting to commit to just one of those tasks (assuming that releasing YouTube videos weekly would make it hard or impossible to also contribute to open source software, and write for a blog, etc.). If that is it, then I'd simply say "don't worry about it". A YouTube channel with 2 useful videos isn't a failed channel, it is 2 more useful videos on YouTube. Most visitors won't care whether or not you have 0 more or 100 more videos, or blog articles, so long as you can solve their current problem (whether that is entertainment, or instruction, or whatever). Make sure to find something you enjoy doing so it's not just more work. Don't confuse "being productive" with "seeking numeric social validation". For example, why would you make more videos? Is there content which you once wished were freely out there and can now provide yourself, or would you just feel better getting 100 views and 10 likes on a video you made instead of reading a book?
• SFJulie 9y ago
  I code, do ham, wine, gardening cider, bread, pastry, cooking, music, bike fixing, knitting, sometimes write and compose. The secret: being ruined and not having money for buying any of these goods. Let me tell you, you sometimes you would like to stop having to be an active producer. It is a rich person problem to not be able to produce in whatever field (intellectual or physical).
• orasis 9y ago
  My practice is mindfulness. Each moment is an opportunity to serve.
• z3t4 9y ago
  figure out what you really want. what is the end goal ? if its a inner goal set aside time. prepare for it so there is no start cost. make it a habit.
• Fricken 9y ago
  If want to deliver value to society, just stop. It's a bloated overweight out of control monster. It's already way too much, don't feed it. Don't contribute to it, it's not the sort of thing we want to encourage. We don't live in times of scarcity anymore, we live in times of too much of everything. If you feel otherwise, it's because you're a dumb ape who only understands not enough, because that's all your evolutionary history has taught you.
  • delegate 9y ago
    I have to admit that I'm leaning more and more towards a similar view. There's a (rapidly growing) Ocean of content out there and any one's contribution looks more and more like an insignificant drop in that Ocean. Consumers care less and less about what the content is, as long as it excites their input sensors in satisfactory ways. Content is functionally "attention grabbing" and there are many industries involved and competing in this space, so when you say "I want to produce content", you're actually saying, "I want people to pay attention to me, so that what I say becomes a canvas on which others place an ad and pay me for this" (that's if you want to make money, otherwise it's just 'pay attention to me'. Because of technology, content does not die by being forgotten, but is stored in this ocean and continues grabbing attention long after it has been produced, so the ocean of content grows, while while human's capacity to consume it is constant.
    • taway_1212 9y ago
      There's an ocean of content nowadays, but masterpieces are still scarce.
    • gagege 9y ago
      This is a big realization I had recently. A lof of influences led up to it but the basic thought went like this: Why am I trying to make something if I don't have anything to say? When I asked myself, "What is my message?" I came up empty, or with parroted nonsense that I don't actually believe in. So now, my mission is to just live and enjoy the things I truly enjoy and maybe eventually I'll have something interesting to say. It is no longer my goal to create media. I don't want to say "I want to make a y or write an x." Instead the goal is to say, "People need to know about x."
• scriptstar 9y ago
  It's a combination of several things like 'fear of failure', 'fear of success' and procrastination. 1. Just build something very very tiny thing and sell it for less than 5 quid something like $1.99. 2. Repeat until you see some success and get motivation. 3. While doing this just be in the same tribe who's making things like you. Talk to them and share your experiences with them. Grow with them, together. 4. The momentum automatically move you to the next level. 5. Finally find a mentor who's been in this journey before and embrace his/her advise. Let me know where can I buy your first tiny product and I will buy no matter what it is. Good luck!
  • big_spammer 9y ago
    Hi, I would like you to buy my first product for something like $1.99. Where can I send you a link in private?
• faragon 9y ago
  Open a GitHub account and publish.
• timwaagh 9y ago
  you can always choose to do this. cancel your internet subscription would be the first thing to do. then you will be more productive in your free time. guaranteed. now that is a radical step but it has worked for me. what is key is creating the right environment to be productive. not everybody can be with 10,000 distractions just one mouseclick away.
• PaulRobinson 9y ago
  There are some great answers here, truly. I am only going to add to it from my own perspective. I have had a side business with a partner since 2006. In that business we might have turned over £50k in all that time. We aimed for it to be a replacement for our day jobs. The problem is the exact problem you have. About two months ago I suddenly lost the ability to use my legs thanks to an abscess compressing my spine which was removed and have undergone rehabilitation. I'm still on crutches, and hope to be able to make a full recovery within a couple of months. However I spent 2 months thinking about this a lot. What's interesting is that I could have spent 2 months working on side projects - I was off work, an inpatient in a hospital with WiFi and my laptop. Instead, I decided to take stock. I then realised the key was the rehabilitation itself was giving me the answers, and I concluded: - Whilst having big goals is awesome, you need to focus on the here and now and doing the work you can do right now - Small and often is better than big commitments - Celebrate small victories. Got 5% more done than you did last week? Well done you - keep that up, and in a year you'll be doing 12 times what you did last week. - Keep a log of what you have done once you've done it, with dates. Once a month go back and reflect, and congratulate yourself for the progress you have made. Seriously, this helped me so much - it's a bit like not wanting to break the chain. - Give yourself time to rest. Your body really, really needs it. - Things will rarely work out quite as well as you hope, or as badly as you fear. Just do the work, and see where it takes you. - Motivational videos got me out of slumps a few times. These both helped me at different points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbkZrOU1Zag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbkZrOU1Zag (technically a Nike advert, but I have the audio of this on my phone and listen to it a few times a month) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flKP4Te8L94 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flKP4Te8L94 All of this got me through rehab, and I'm starting to see it drip into other parts of my life including work and side projects. Don't be so hard on yourself, but remember the best laid plans are worth nothing: go get a pomodoro timer and do 25 minutes on that project right now. Then do another tomorrow. And then perhaps another straight after. Have a days rest between if you want. If you find yourself doing two of those pomodoros every other day, you're going to look back after a few weeks and realise you've actually got quite a lot done. Good luck.
• cubano 9y ago
  If you find something you truly love to do, it will never really seem like "forcing" anything and your high commitment level will just happen. My take is that you really haven't found this love in your life yet. You are trying to pigeonhole other peoples passions (like youtube vids and OS projects) into yours. That will never work long term. For me, it was music; I loved it so much that you couldn't stop me from playing, and pretty much all available time outside work was spend practicing and playing in my band at the time. It was the ideal social lubricant as well, as being a gifted "nerd" 35 years ago was a totally different thing then it is now. Literally, at work and school I interacted with the math kids that were often picked on and made fun of. Playing and practicing live music not only soothed my soul, but gave me self-esteem and a ton of social status. And it hardly ever seemed like "real" work I think that is the key for a sustainable hobby commitment. [edits]
• zobzu 9y ago
  how do i make money instead of spending it? make stuff. when it fails, make more stuff. never stop.
• vcool07 9y ago
  Don't start with "How", you'll most probably give up after some time. Always start with "Why?". If the "Why" part is a strong enough reason for you, you will find a way to accomplish it. If it's not, well, you'll find excuses and give up on it sooner or later !
  • gagege 9y ago
    This is correct. All the other people saying "Just make stuff, just publish, don't worry" are not helping at all.
• dizzystar 9y ago
  >> Lately I've realized that I consume way too much. Be it Instagram, Facebook, Reddit, HackerNews, Youtube, etc. Maybe easier for me to say since I don't like social media much, but really the mindset is wrong. There is a HUGE difference between using FB, YouTube, Twitter, etc, for product promotion -vs- consuming content. You are sort of consuming, but the mindset and results are very different. >> Another thing that is holding me back I think is the fear of commitement. I have a partially ready youtube channel, with two videos, not listed. I tell myself that I'll open the videos to the public and then start realising videos on a weekly schedule but the commitement seems like a such a burden on me that I don't think I'll be able to keep up. This is wrong as well. You are confusing "commitment" with "consistency" or rather, attempting to reach some undefined metric of consistency. The only "consistent" thing you have is either "do it" or "don't do it." It doesn't matter if you post once a week, once a month, or every day. Just get started. The first step is always the hardest step, and this goes for your project, blog, YT channel, whatever. Just doing it once is enough to get those first steps past your fear. And don't confuse myth with reality. Every overnight success story took 10+ years to write, and the back-story is a graveyard of failed ideas and plans.
• transposed 9y ago
  It may come across as a simplistic answer but here it goes: just get comfortable making mistakes and being wrong. When I first entered this sphere, one thing that immediately struck me was the worshiping of brilliant ideas/code and the perfectionism that comes with it. In my opinion, less is gained when there is a culture that causes the majority of people to first doubt and second guess themselves while the people who have established a reputation raise their hand and continue to dominate the discussion. I like to believe the we live in a meritocracy, and that the best ideas inevitably make their way to the top, but that is stifled when our western obsession with flawless individualism gives pause to our intuitive and creative thoughts. If you have good intentions and find yourself in good company, you should have nothing to fear. It really is a matter of "just do it". Thought without the possibility of action is imprisonment.
• oneplane 9y ago
  I have two cents (eurocents): Start small, and try to find your boundaries. Then get good enough at it to know you're contributing. This way there is a long term goal you'll always be able to reach, yet a short term check is in place so you don't go too far.
• rocky1138 9y ago
  Commit to building something. Everything else will happen by itself if you are truly committed.
• tordecken 9y ago
  There is a thing which I constantly have to admit to myself: I will not do all the things I want to do. It makes me sad for a moment, until I realize that the chaotic and unfocused way I drift towards the thing that's currently grabbing my attention is reducing my productivity and the number of those projects I will accomplish. The only answer is to get focused and prioritize the things you want to do. Make a plan. Create a system.
• JohnStrange 9y ago
  Okay, I believe I can say something about that, because I've just finished my 9th novel in German - where only one [1] is (self-)published so far, though -, have published a little hobby music album [2], and also used to sell a little shareware program [3] next to my full-time job. So I'm definitely not super-productive but still relatively active, even when most of my projects never see the final daylight. In my experience, if you find something that you really, really like and manage to reserve the necessary spare time, then you will become productive automatically. That could be anything, from sword smithing to rocket construction. If your projects persistently fail or die, then you're perhaps already too busy with family or daytime job, or maybe what your doing is not really the right thing for you. Just do it for the fun, never for money or fame. Self-advertisement: [1] http://richard-loewe.de http://richard-loewe.de [2] https://ericspace.bandcamp.com/releases https://ericspace.bandcamp.com/releases [3] http://peppermind.com http://peppermind.com
• geekme 9y ago
  The only thing in my mind everyday is to get out of my 9 to 5 job. This keeps motivating me. I have started a blog which teaches a programming language. I had a target of 2 blog posts per week. I have given up watching television totally and I work for 12 to 14 hours daily even on weekends. My urge to resign my job and start on my own keeps motivating me. Although I am not able to achieve my target of 2 blog posts a week, I am able to post 1 per week and I guess I will be able to post 2 per week with a little more dedication. One more thing that helped me is the pomodoro technique. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique. I would encourage you to start first. Whether its a youtube video video or a blog post stop making it perfect and publish it right now. Once its out in the hands of the public you will learn a lot from their feedback.
• daddyo 9y ago
  For me blogging worked best when blogging on a subject I just turned novice in. I'd write as if writing for myself 1 year ago. This worked out really well. Positive feedback made me write more. Now I've become more expert on that subject and I don't want to write simple tutorials anymore (it feels too much like work). I also gained a fear of being wrong, as I realized how deep and nuanced the subject really is. As for Youtube: seems like you fell into the trap of planning too far ahead. Most channels never work out. Even if you stick to a weekly schedule, viewership will only steadily rise. Why not release your current videos, try a (bi-)monthly schedule and see where it goes? Fear of commitment is a rationalized excuse your brain makes to avoid burning calories :). Or it's to avoid a setback: you put in all this effort and it did not work out. People avoid relationships for fear of commitment too, without ever giving it a shot, or asking if the other person also wants commitment. For open source or research I give myself very small timeframes. You can think about it the rest of the week, and have a very productive hour or two coding or writing. As for procrastination, check out "productive procrastination". It helped me get stuff done, when even more important stuff needed to be done :). http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/10-ways-for-productive-procrastination.html http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/10-ways-for-pr...
• agumonkey 9y ago
  I'm partly waking up for various reasons. And right now I just go to meetups, events etc to see what would stick. Fun fact, I expected that event related to my deepest hobbies would make me feel at home but not really (if at all). All in all, it's a human feel thing and a subject. Also, I realize that existing as an adult outside of a field or shielded by a big company is quite a surprising experience. You have to integrate with people, communities, society and is mostly an altruism thing. It makes you see other working people differently and also adult life altogether.
• exception_e 9y ago
  > I also would like to contribute to open source software projects If you'd like, I'm looking for help on https://github.com/GoTeamEpsilon/OpenEMR-AWS-Guide https://github.com/GoTeamEpsilon/OpenEMR-AWS-Guide Send me an email at matthewvita48@gmail.com ...this applies to anyone in this thread as well :)
• paintnp 9y ago
  I can definitely relate to this. Here's how you do it. You just do it. Period. If you have two videos ready, make them public. It's the intention that counts. If you want to help people learn, or contribute, don't get bogged down by how people will judge you. It is an extremely exhilarating feeling when someone reaches out to you and lets you know that they found your content useful. The moment you make the switch from being a passive consumer to an active producer, something switches within you. I started putting out videos on tensorflow a few months ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-EvyKpZjmQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-EvyKpZjmQ This was the first time I had done anything like this- my goal is not to get subscribers, or views or anything, it is just to put out content in a form that I would have liked to consume. I have a three and half year old and there have been times where he is literally sitting on my head while I am trying to make the videos. It's all worth it. Just take the next step.
  • trevyn 9y ago
    Also, it's actually better if the videos are not polished, because they're more authentic. Scooter Braun, Justin Bieber's manager, has talked a bit about this. For reference, Justin's first YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQOFRZ1wNLw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQOFRZ1wNLw
• jes5199 9y ago
  I recommend the book "Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking"
• the_cat_kittles 9y ago
  publishing stuff means accepting its flaws, which is hard. just do it, the feedback you get will help you improve faster than if you hadn't.
• floydtom2 9y ago
  Control devices remotely hack + Burner Numbers hack + Verified Paypal Accounts hack + Any social media account hack + Android & iPhone Hack + server crashed hack + Text message interception hack + Twitters hack + Skype hack + Credit cards hacker + We can drop money into bank accounts. + credit score hack + blank credit card sale + Hack and use Credit Card to shop online + Monitor any phone and email address + Tap into anybody's call and monitor their conversation CONTACT:ftom9856 via kik Or email blackspothack@gmail. com
• floydtom2 9y ago
  Control devices remotely hack + Burner Numbers hack + Verified Paypal Accounts hack + Any social media account hack + Android & iPhone Hack + server crashed hack + Text message interception hack + Twitters hack + Skype hack + Credit cards hacker + We can drop money into bank accounts. + credit score hack + blank credit card sale + Hack and use Credit Card to shop online + Monitor any phone and email address + Tap into anybody's call and monitor their conversation CONTACT:ftom9856 via kik Or email blackspothack@gmail. com
• cpt_snowcrash 9y ago
  Many people have already listed out some good solutions for bandwidth issue. For your passive consumption issue I would highly recommend cutting yourself off from mainstream social apps like instagram, snapchat and facebook. Human minds have limited capacity to focus and be attentive to particular area and using these apps usually overload the daily threshold limit of cognitive load we can take. I have personally renounced all of mainstream social media apps and am very conscious of what I consume on daily basis ( I prefer very few news articles which are relevant to me ). Other than that I depend upon books or long form in depth content for a topic I need to learn about. This gives your brain bandwidth to think and construct original thoughts which are the very foundation producing or building anything.
• yodsanklai 9y ago
  Don't put too much pressure on yourself. You don't need to commit on anything. Upload what you have, and little by little your channel/github will grow. It doesn't have to be perfect. I can share my experience. I post some guitar videos on a youtube channel, maybe two or three times a year, whenever I feel like it. It doesn't seem like much, but it's been 7 years now and I have about 20 videos now. It's not going to change the face of the world, but it's satisfying. I can follow my progression, it's an additional motivation to practice, and some people find them useful. Same thing for github. Whenever I write some code, I put it there. Better than lost on my hard drive and it incentives me to write better documentation. Even if nobody cares, it's still useful for me. I regret now that I didn't do it back when I was a student (pre-github).
• ignostic 9y ago
  > Am I pressuring myself too much to make the switch? How did you do it? It sounds to me like you feel pressure to do this because someone told you that you should be a creator. So in that sense, yes, that's foolish. Instead pressure yourself to accomplish something you want to accomplish. Let me use a parallel from my previous life as a technical/digital marketer. There was a prevalent idea out there that you should be "building your personal brand" all the time. Every speaker would tell me this, and they were the experts, right? So I wrote lengthy blog posts in my free time. I'd tweet and retweet and follow the right people, making the right connections, working for the right company. I had built up to several hundred twitter followers, hundreds of thousands of pageviews, and was on a path to becoming a well-known voice in digital marketing. And I was absolutely miserable. I felt constant pressure to say something meaningful every day. When my blog posts received lukewarm reception or criticism it was very hard for me. I'd internalize it and try to use it as fuel to do better next time. Then one day I followed a fantasy author I had just read. He had 100 tweets, 10k followers, and only following a few others. And he'd only written one book so far! He'd done none of the work I had to "build his own brand," but he was infinitely more famous than I was. The reason why was obvious: he'd contributed something of great value. I was out there rehashing knowledge and adding 160 character commentary, but it was all low-value high-volume stuff. And I wasn't contributing because I enjoyed it. I was doing it because someone told me I should from a podium. Those people who talk about contributing are the contributors. Those people who talk about building a personal brand have the podium because they built their personal brand. They're approaching things from their perspective. But I was an introvert who hated speaking. I was working to a goal I would HATE. So how did I make the switch? I thought about what I wanted to accomplish. That was a comfortable life with financial independence with very little attention from the outside world. I realized the speaking circuit was a high-investment highly-visible way to make money, so I abandoned my "personal brand" altogether, which didn't make my bosses overly happy. After all, I was getting their name out their as well. Instead I created something that made money quietly. I enjoyed the challenge of it, and I felt like I was finally working towards something worthwhile. I worked most weekends, and honed my skills. I became a better writer and learned a lot more about coding. Knowing I'd started on the right path - a competitive but clearly potentially lucrative path - gave me confidence and motivation. Now, a few years later, I'm basically retired. I still have goals, but things that would have seemed ridiculous to me a few years ago seem within reach now. If you want to cure cancer, you don't need to write a blog or contribute to projects. If your goal is to become a name in the software development community, maybe you do. But don't create for creation's sake. Think about what you want to get done, and if that involves making money be certain that you can do something measurably better than what's out there already. TL;DR: Don't focus on 'creating' as your goal, but on what you want to accomplish
• paulcole 9y ago
  Just embrace being a consumer. You're already doing it a lot and probably enjoy it in some way. If producing was really that important to you, well, then you'd be doing it. There's nothing wrong with just consuming. It's how most people live and odds are that you're not that different. I'm a proud consumer and non-producer (outside of work).
  • heinz 9y ago
    That's just sad.
• humaninstrument 9y ago
  I just want to say thank you all for your responses. You guys are amazing.
• msaltz 9y ago
  I was having similar thoughts/issues lately (a couple months ago), and I came up with a way to be more systematic about achieving goals, etc. I wrote about it here: https://hackernoon.com/an-agile-approach-to-life-7bb2e9ccbc81 https://hackernoon.com/an-agile-approach-to-life-7bb2e9ccbc8... Tldr; Think of myself as a product, and try to use a sort of agile development style to improve myself. I assign myself "sprints" (one or two at a time, one to two weeks each) and basically during my free time when I think "What should I do now?" I just do the sprint and it takes the pressure off. I've still been doing it since I wrote the above post and it's been working pretty well. I've read 5 novels in the past two months or so (EDIT: for context, more than I'd read in the past year), and I've tried a variety of what I call "personal sprints" that include things like "Wake up at the exact same time for two weeks", or "Say yes to all invitations for things for two weeks". I sort of have the mentality now that "The sprint is the law" and it's helped me have a level of discipline that I haven't achieved in the past. It's really fun because it's low pressure and experiment-based ("Let's try making excessive eye contact for a week, lol") and if something doesn't work out, you didn't spend much time doing it anyways. Another less related thing is that I read that habit forming is sort of like a muscle, and once you form one habit, it can become easier to form others. So for a little while I was doing habit "layering" where I'd have a priority list for habits and basically as long as I did the top thing on my list, I was happy, even if I didn't get the others. Gradually I moved to the top two things, and so on. Hope that helps.
• themagician 9y ago
  Consume less. When you post on Facebook or Instagram you are just doing work so someone else can make money off that work. If you want to actually make something then do it for yourself.
• thatwebdude 9y ago
  I recently ditched most social media. Starting contributing to my blog about guitar more. It gets basically no traffic, but I definitely feel like I'm actually contributing something, even if it's for the one lone googler out there. I force myself into a specific topic that interest me. I think that's the key.
• pgbovine 9y ago
  This is something I've thought a lot about in the past. This short vlog episode of mine may give you some ideas: "For Aspiring Creators, Content Means Everything" http://pgbovine.net/PG-Vlog-9-content-means-everything.htm http://pgbovine.net/PG-Vlog-9-content-means-everything.htm
• rkunal 9y ago
  We are always looking for answers in some 'advanced' system. Forcing ourselves to do something 'hard', to prove to ourselves that we are doing something. May be a simpler system is good enough. 1. You can better focus on producing, when your needs to consume gets satisfied. Techs such as Facebook, Instagram are designed to keep you hooked, give a hit on every use, but never lead to satisfaction. Trick is to go back to basics. Spend more quality time with people around you. The human bonding fulfils the needs that these tech claim to replace. With this alternative, your passive consumptions will automatically decrease. 2. Contribution to the society does not have to be via creating content on web platforms. Technology is an enabler, it should not be confused as something to do with the goal. One does not contribute to 'open source', one simply contributes to a 'mission'. May be, you are afraid of commitment because you do not have a goal, something that you would personally want to achieve for yourself in your contribution. But your focus is on the means to achieve it. Eg. Writing blog post, creating videos. Simplify it down. Write down your short term goal. Focus on working towards achieving it. You may realise that you do not need these platforms.
• ajani 9y ago
  Ask yourself what it means to be consuming? Is it the same as depending on something other than you to tell you what to do? Is it not the same as asking people how to become a creator? You don't need to become a creator. When you stop depending on outside agency, and just be, creation comes quite automatically. It is hard to stop consuming. Because you believe that there is something in the video, the book, the blog, your friend's post, that is going to give you something. But what is the value of these things? You can only give up consuming when you see the vapidity and the emptiness of what you are consuming. And you can only do that when you question what you are consuming. Question it's relevance. It's meaning. Have you consumed this post and the replies? What now? What is it's value? Has this post changed you? Will you now at this moment, stop reading and delete all your social media accounts and go work on your project? Then ask, what do you mean by contribute to society? What is society? Is it your friends? Does making an app that makes their lives easier, give you the feeling that you are contributing? Or do you mean Society at large, where the problems are vast like hunger, disease, poverty, inane war and violence. Or is it solving the crippling effect that the education system has on generations of children world-wide making them into passive consumers, by years of exposure to images and ideas, not reality and learning. Finally, what is your need to contribute? Is it a way to make yourself look better in your own eyes? By becoming a popular writer/anarchist/whatever. Or is it that you see the need for real work that needs to be done to fix the broken world we live in? Stop consuming. Learn what is worth doing by looking at the world, with skepticism. Understand what is needed. Depend on yourself. Then the creation will come of its own.
• aidenn0 9y ago
  The people I know that are most good at self-motivating production have two traits that seem almost opposing: 1) They are unsatisfied with what already exists 2) They aren't afraid to fail #1 gives them a reason to get started and #2 makes sure that they finish. People without #1 lack direction (If there isn't an open-source project that is both the best in the field, but missing something you deem important, how the heck do you pick what to write?) People without #2 either spend so much time trying to make their creation the best that they never publish it, or end up giving up once they realize that they aren't going to write the "perfect" book/blog/code.
• Mz 9y ago
  I will suggest that you are not able to do more because you just don't have it to give. Your job and other responsibilities are taking all you've got already. That said, it isn't hopeless. You can do some of the following things to squeeze more out of life: 1. Improve your diet and overall fitness level so you have more energy. 2. Improve your sleep habits so you have more energy. 3. Streamline your life (such as reducing how much material stuff you own) so that you can free up time and energy that is currently accounted for. Additionally, you can do creative/productive stuff in your free time if you will stop applying job-like metrics to it. If you want to blog more, start some ridiculous blog that is easy to post to and then just post crap. Keep it short and don't give yourself a schedule. This idea that you need to updated a youtube channel weekly is crazy talk. You can update it once in a blue moon and if people like what you do, it will get some traffic (maybe not tons) and it will add value to the world. I am medically handicapped. I have multiple blogs. NONE of them has a schedule. My most successful one gets a few hundred page views a day and is sometimes updated as little as once a month. In fact, it was officially abandoned at one time for about six months with a "BYE!" post informing visitors it was abandoned and I resumed it when I realized it was getting traffic via organic search because people had need of the info. It is a niche thing and will never be big, but I do it whenever the fuck I do it and people benefit from it and say nice things about it and it even occasionally makes a smidgeon of money.
• EternalData 9y ago
  I've recently taken a step in this direction by being really deliberate about my media choices and designing around them. For example, as a consumer, I realized I was obsessive about looking over r/Politics and forever updating news sources of sometimes dubious quality, which distracted from all productivity for me at times. I've decided to order print editions of the New Yorker, and focus on long-form pieces from ProPublica as a rule to scratch that itch. I feel like part of the solution to reducing consumption at the very least is to realize what the initiating triggers and needs of your consumption are, and trying to find a way to sate them in a way that allows you to chunk a time to engage with high-quality solutions to your consumption needs -- and then that frees up more time to be a creator. As for the active producer part -- the only insight I've really gathered is that you want to commit yourself to something big and imposes costs on yourself (i.e time already dedicated to that project) to make yourself follow through (i.e use the sunk cost fallacy to your advantage).
• jng 9y ago
  Here's some shared experiences that may be applicable to your case. I am a 43 year old that struggled with procrastination all my life. Even then, I did achieve some impressive things, in various ways, over the years. Wrote a book to learn x86 assembly and got it published quite successfully when I was 21. Led the technical team of a AAA team. Built and sold a software product online for 11 years, 6 figures sales. But then I failed many times in achieved my creative goals. I think I just wasn't looking at things from the right angle. With creative stuff: writing, music, etc... I had to find another way. Technical projects tend to be big. Don't be wrong, something like "publishing a youtube video every week" is a huge amount of work and very scary, involving time, energy, creativity, and the very logical fear of nobody giving a shoot about it. What worked for me creatively was to bring projects down to the smallest expression. I wanted to write short fiction stories, I decided to write "tweetstories" in 140 characters. I wanted to do storytelling, did a lot of stand-up comedy, 5min sets. For music, short piano pieces. Make it such that the amount of work is not the problem. And then you will find what the real issue is. For me, I had to accept producing bad stuff. We sometimes don't produce stuff because we're scared to produce bad stuff. And there's no way around it. You can't choose to be a good artist, but you can choose to be a bad artist. And that's the only way. Watch Ira Glass's video on creativity, he describes it perfectly. Good luck. This is very reasonable stuff to struggle with.
• JacksonGariety 9y ago
  Read critical theory! I recommend starting with Guy Debord's "The Society of the Spectacle" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Society_of_the_Spectacle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Society_of_the_Spectacle)
  • buccl 9y ago
    And Adorno: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_industry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_industry
• thirdreplicator 9y ago
  Build stuff.
• bdickason 9y ago
  I have a full time software-ish job (product manager) and I go in and out of being 'productive' vs. consuming (playing games, watching tv, etc). Here are the things that I've found make my side projects work: 1. Start with something insanely tiny - Every side project software or library I've built were ~4hr hacks just trying to get a basic, basic version of something working to see if I could even do it. Example: I wanted to build a web view of the books I've read, so I just installed nodejs and tried to see if I could even get a list of books from goodread. This would be step 1. Step 2 would be getting my books, step 3 would be displaying them in a browser. That's it. Once I accomplished each step, I set out a new set of tiny steps. Nothing huge, nothing crazy, nothing ambitious. Just get started and prove to yourself that you can do it :) 2. Social Pressure - More than anything, this has been huge for me. My current project is a twitch bot that I'm making for my friends' stream. I started working on it and got a basic version that could respond to commands up and running in a day, then they started playing with it and having tons of fun. Now they make videos and want to show them on the stream, they have new ideas for commands, and one of them is even helping me code it. It's been really great :) Another example of this is building a game with my brother. We started working on it together and it gave us more reasons to talk regularly and a shared purpose. This kept me going much longer than the actual game itself did. 3. Choose tech that know or you think is fun - I know this is not the ideal way to build a project, but what you're grappling with is just motivation. Pick technology that you're interested in or one that you know and you enjoy working in. For me that's nodejs and I've been writing things in it off and on for years. 4. Open source everything - by default every project I start is open source. If it's code, I constantly publish it on github. If it's a video, I post it on youtube. Blog post? Put it on medium or my blog. First, it pushes you to put things out into the world and figure out the details of releasing them (like writing documentation!) Second, every once and a while, they'll stick :) My goodreads module I mentioned above has 2 people who are actively maintaining it as I don't have alot of time/motivation to do so. They're still pushing changes and a few months ago, a co-worker stumbled upon it and used it in one of his personal projects :D Very cool! Hope this is helpful, I've found alot of joy in side projects, even if none of them will likely ever make me any money or bring me any fame/succcess.
• tanilama 9y ago
  Create. The one and true way.
• Bakary 9y ago
  Are you actually interested in doing the things themselves, or is the thought of becoming a person that does those things the source of your motivation?
• pacomerh 9y ago
  We all function differently, let me give you an example. There's the kind of people that don't need much help doing things, they don't need advice or productivity tools, or reading motivational articles that are actually only an excuse to avoid starting things. These kind of people will tell you that if you really want to do something you won't need to spend your life procrastinating, because if you want it so much, the energy to do it will come out natural. This might not have happened to you because you haven't found the right thing to create. But not everyone is like that, not everyone knows what they should be prioritizing. Some people need inspiration, for these kind of people I would strongly recommend collaborating with others. Work with others, get inspired by commitment and sharing ideas. For some people the problem of not having energy to create things is related to not having small social rewards that keep you going like fuel. Energizing by others is important and will get you going.
• DTrejo 9y ago
  You're having trouble creating/contributing back because you're not sure what other people need from you (when you find them, it'll be like someone opened your faucet for creativity). Try doing a sales safari※ for an audience you want to help and see what happens. Find people with expensive problems† and help them solve those problems with your words, a software product, or consulting. ※ https://stackingthebricks.com https://stackingthebricks.com † https://expensiveproblem.com https://expensiveproblem.com
• marenkay 9y ago
  Having been there myself after becoming a single parenting dad, I can recommend a few things: - instead of consuming, try producing small things. Personally I started out writing a daily diary. First thing in the morning next to coffee is writing. That gives a good impression of what you actually did. - figure out what you actually like, what picks your interest in an amount that it can pull you off of procrastinating. I would recommend learning something completely new. I went off learning a new language, looked into two new programming languages, and started doing something that is the opposite of my day job. If you want to try out Open Source: - find projects you actively use. Improve them. Even making a README nicer is a start. - find something that you can Open Source. Personally I went with pushing out a new OS project every week and do that for two months now. In the end it is very simple: you have to reach the point where you are fed up with just sitting in front of social media, etc. That mostly means realizing that doing has more value for improving ones self. Stick with it. And that is the hard part. Parting words: if you lack discipline and fall back to procrastinating, reserve fixed times in your calendar for activities. Best advice for the end: enjoy yourself. Be you. Do what fulfills your inner self.
• teekert 9y ago
  This sounds very familiar, I'll tell you how I deal with this. First of all I feel you should drop the wish to deliver "value to society". You are applying pressure to yourself based on a very vague statement: What is value? Who is society? What does a society value? You feel an emptiness, a need to please others and I argue that is impossible to fill the emptiness by focusing on anything but yourself. There is no such thing as society, there are people, and people have very different opinions as to what constitutes value. So what do you do? Assuming you are not a sociopath, you have loved ones, and you like to see them happy. Most of all, you'd like to see yourself happy. You have to realize that this is not a selfish goal (or that selfishness is not bad!). A happy person is a joy to work with, a happy person will make his surroundings better. So, what do you like to do? Maybe working with a computer makes you feel empty? I recently made a bunk in my caravan, working with my hands, using wood and tools and creating something tangible is nice and very different from computer related work. Programming, bloging and all that social network stuff is very much in your head. Some books I can recommend: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, you will get down voted for liking it on HN ;) but to a pleaser such as myself (and you too, mr. "I want to deliver value to society"), it offers an incredibly powerful philosophy for seeing the morality in putting yourself first (as a healthy, non-sociopathic human!). Don't take advice on this philosophy from people who didn't read the book! It helped me a lot. My wife likes a strong me, that knows what he wants because she likes to do things I like. Doing things I like makes me happy and productive and allows me to give back much more! F society (it's to vague)! F the world (it's to big), focus on yourself, the rest will come later :) (You know what selflessness is? Doing stuff you hate, purely for others, it's unsustainable and you won't be a pleasant person to be around while you do it. Doing something you love and making others feel better in the process is not selfishness, and it is a much more sustainable way to make yourself happy.) Find out what makes you feel good, calm, makes your head tranquil, and do as much of it as possible. For me it is very specific: "Find beautiful natural waters and swim in them with the kids." Start with getting rid of the pressure to make society better.
• roystonvassey 9y ago
  As someone who works a lot on the computer, producing what is essentially sequence of bits, I had the same thoughts a few years back. What helped me alleviate this feeling of consumerism was to pick up DIY projects at home. I resolved to fix everything at home, even if I failed at it or ended up costing me more than if I'd just called professional help the first time. But, over time, I became good at it and the sense of satisfaction you get from building/fixing things with hand is wonderful at alleviating the overbearing sense of uselessness that I'd otherwise feel, clicking on 'never-ending reddit' or refreshing Facebook endlessly. A few sample projects (fixes really), if it's of any help, that I've worked on: 1. Completely dismantle my bicycle and fix it back. I can now fix any problem that it has on my own without having to take it to a bike shop. 2. Fix a flat tire on my motorbike. 3. Leaking taps and pipes are a forte now. 4. Compost pit to convert organic kitchen waste to organic fertiliser for my garden. 5. Gardening; this takes a lot of time and I'm really not into it but when I get around to it, it gives me the most joy. 6. Fixed a DIY rack for my DTH + Playstation console
• intrepidkarthi 9y ago
  At the end of the day, it is very difficult for you to find an answer here. But there are quite a lot of interesting perspectives listed down here. It is all upto you and how you consume all these mediums & your time. Try to follow a different & disciplined routine. If you are able to follow it up for a continuous 30 days, may be you will start producing rather than consuming. Write down your activities on a daily basis.
• usegolang 9y ago
  Over the last 9 months or so I have slowly moved from never blogging, releasing videos, or doing anything like that to fairly consistently releasing educational articles related to Go at https://www.calhoun.io https://www.calhoun.io , writing a book (+ videos for a complete course) teaching web development with Go, and releasing a few screencasts teaching algorithms with Go. I say all that to tell you that I didn't just magically start writing every day. I started slowly. Some days I was too worn out to write, but I would try to push myself to spend 10m doing SOMETHING nearly every day. Maybe that was writing up some quick code to see if it would make an interesting article, or maybe I would take an article idea and turn it into a rough outline, or maybe I would turn a small section of the outline into sentences and paragraphs. It didn't matter as long as I tried to build that habit of doing something. At first it was hard but it got way easier. And 10m a day really isn't a big commitment. As you figure out your own process you will find there are many small pieces you can work on each day that slowly help you turn whatever you want to do into a habit. So my advice is to start with small goals that you can achieve and build on them. Maybe instead of one video a week you should try one every two weeks. If you get an extra video out, great, but if you don't you won't feel like you failed. And regardless of what you do, don't feel like you have to do something. There are several great blogs out there that aren't regular but only have articles pop up when the author feels particularly inspired. That is okay too. A regular schedule helps build an audience but it def isn't necessary.
• anonnyj 9y ago
  I moved and took a weekend-only job for this express purpose. I can't imagine getting anything done under 9-5, 5 days a week conditions. I've heard of it being done, but for me it's an impossibilty. Even on the mere 2 days of work, I'm unable to do much more than recouperate on those evenings. I would no doubt squander weekends under "normal" conditions. I personally find aforementioned achedule wildly inhumane though.
• gagege 9y ago
  Do you have something interesting to say? Or do you just feel pressure to "make stuff"? If you're an interesting person, people will want to hear what you say. And the only way to become interesting, is to be interested. Get out into the world, stop consuming the things you consume so much of, and consume things that can actually change your perspective. What do you truly care about? Figure out what that is, and read/listen to as many books as there are on the subject. Buy a handheld mic and interview people. Have something to say that you couldn't possibly imagine not making YouTube videos about. Now, stop reading pointless comment threads. Like, permanently. :)
• samteeeee 9y ago
  Check out the book "Deep Work" by Cal Newport.
• mbubb 9y ago
  Great question. THink of a class from years back where we studies Vico (16th cent Italian thinker). Verum factum. We can know what we have made. The rest is theology, etc. I saw this to my preteen kids - when thinking about a job you want to do something where you are making things, not just performing a service. It is hard to reorient. What works for one person does nto necc work for all. For me "Extreme Ownership" was helpful (book by Willink and Babin) plus the podcast spun off from it. Some good ideas on how to live a more disciplined and free life. Sometimes you need a toehold. For me it has been waking up before 5AM and doing something disciplined (somedays just making my bed).
• egonschiele 9y ago
  Speaking as a producer, you can also help by paying for your consumption! Patreon is a great service that lets you pay people who create content you like. You could also subscribe to your local paper, or buy a book. That way you would switch to being an active consumer, and producers would thank you :)
• rc390 9y ago
  Well, perhaps you could think in this way whenever you browse your Facebook feed, Youtube, etc.: Why am I watching other people enjoying their lives when I could live my own? I get to live only once. Every big XYZ person that I watch has gone through this stage and so can I. It's all about how you fight your mind. That's why they say compete against yourself. If a toddler never took the effort to walk during infant-hood, the toddler would never be able to walk. It is only when you get uncomfortable, does learning happen. You do it for the sake of learning, not for producing immediate results. Try to learn to enjoy the stage whenever you have acquired something new, let it be anything small. Trust me, you will reap the benefits of your hard work when you take it this way, rather than forcing yourself to do something. Results may take months or years and hence you need to be patient. More over, there is never a chance for regret if it's something that you genuinely want to do. You might have watched Cristiano Ronaldo playing an old man's prank. Even though he played like a professional on the streets, nobody ever cared until he finally revealed himself. The lesson being, nobody ever cares whatever you are unless you you make a name for yourself. So go upload that youtube video of yours'. You are just building your foundation. There is nothing to loose. Regret is poison. Never consume it.
• kavbojka 9y ago
  I would encourage you to find or build real, fleshspace community. I find that I am more productive and also gentler to myself when I am working in concert with others who are also trying to accomplish something and sharing honestly about their challenges. It might take a bit of trial and error but finding likeminded folks is crucial!
• sfRattan 9y ago
  # Always Be Creating If you want to shift from being a consumer to a producer, create something every day. If you're a writer, Stephen King suggests writing at least a page a day, even if you throw most of them away. The idea is that even if you don't have a ton of time or energy for something big today, you can still do a little bit to keep your creative mind engaged and mentally 'fit.' In other words, small things every day and bigger things when you can and have the time. That principle can apply to other sorts of creative pursuits. One sketch every day if you're an artist. Play a song every day on your instrument (or sing it) if you're a musician. If I'm working on a software project on the side, my extrapolation of the every day principle is to get some atomic feature of function to pass all my unit tests each day. With a small side project, that's​ usually doable in under an hour. Of course, you might need some more time up front to get your project to that well oiled state and write unit tests. There are other small thing per day sort of metrics that apply to software: even if you don't add an atomic feature, you might handle an outstanding pull request (or decide how to handle it), or pick a bug that you're focused on for the next week. The persistence implied here is actually much harder​ that the actual creative process, but once you're rolling it's easier to maintain. # Share-Worthy Milestones Set achievement goals with the question: how far along do I have to get before there is some way I can share this project that will be interesting to other people? With a story or stage play, the first person you'd share with is an informal editor or friend, then a reading (play) or writing group (story), and eventually a professional editor or agent. Keep track of those milestones, and don't talk up what you're doing until you reach one of them. With a song, it might be: ready to perform at a bar that hosts local musicians, ready to record/master a version, and finally ready to sell alone or in an album online. Software is trickier. There's ready-for-people-to-mess-with-it and also ready to maintain as a package (or packages) with regular releases. But there's also ready to host as a service and/or ready to monetize. It all depends on where you want to go with the project. # Escaping a Passive/Consumer Mindset I have several rules of thumb for keeping myself out of the consumer mindset. They are all either about managing time or managing things/stuff. 1. 80% of the things I own should be tools for making or doing something. That's four out of every five discrete things. And I'm constantly eyeing the last 20% for stuff to dispose of or donate. Anything that just sits on a shelf is in line for the guillotine. I do count books as tools for learning, but I try to only buy them rarely and any title I don't consider valuable enough to loan out regularly or reference in the future goes in a box labeled 'Sell at Half-Price Books.' 2. News reading is for downtime. I subscribe to the Wall Street Journal digitally and I do read it every day, but the key is that the reading happens when there is downtime: waiting for a meeting, a big project is compiling, unit testing or analysis is running on a big data set, et cetera. If news reading is happening during my free time (usually here or on reddit) I set a timer on my phone for a half hour. If I haven't been interested enough in a topic to draft and post my own comment after that time, I stop and do something else. Another great thing is listening to podcasts while doing chores or driving. 3. Television should average out to an hour every 3 or 4 days. That's 1 or 2 shows a week that I keep up with, at most. It was The Expanse until recently. It will probably be Game of Thrones again​ soon. And maybe one other show on the side. I also find myself less drawn to video games than I was as a kid, teenager, or student. I still try to remind myself to only game when there's some RPG I'm excited about---most recently The Witcher 3---and that feeling is more and more rare also. Some people cut out television and video games entirely, which I suppose may be necessary if you have trouble practicing self restraint. 4. Set aside time for creative and competitive play. Some of the larger things I still own are board games, and I use them. Head-to-head competition in a social setting requires a different kind of creativity and lets my brain switch​ gears from solitary creative pursuits. When I was growing up my dad always hated board games and I didn't get it until I realized that he gets his share of head-to-head competition every day as a trial lawyer and doesn't want more of it at home. That itch isn't scratched for me by writing software (though I hear programming competitions can be intense and rewarding) and I suspect committing some time to competitive, in-person games with sociable people (often friends) prevents me from burning out on work and lonely creation. If you don't have friends (who are so inclined also), look for a regularly scheduled meet up at a local game store. 5. Keep a balanced budget and use cash for petty transactions. It shocks me how many in my generation (mid-twenties) don't balance their accounts or track spending. I withdraw cash before going out, either for errands or for pleasure, and keep a check register which includes those withdrawals and which I validate against my account balance and activity online weekly. There's something about cash leaving my hand that makes it hard to use it buying stupid crap. Which, in turn, helps me keep to my first rule about owning mostly useful tools. I use these rules of thumb because they work for me, but I don't assume they'd work unmodified for anyone. I hope they're at least helpful as a starting point for people who slip into passive consumption all too easily.
• beeps 9y ago
  > Also would like to contribute to open source software projects, or write more for my blog, but I just can't force myself to do it. This is kinda a mix of fear (of what?!) and procrastination habits Start answering questions on stack overflow. You can also find a more noob friendly oss project (kubernetes, Django) and start fixing docs, or look for "help-wanted" type labels. Lurk around their IRC/slack channels for a while, and if that doesn't help, lurk moar.
• justboxing 9y ago
  Here's how I did it. YMMV. [NOTE: I do have a fairly taxing full-time job and also go to a boxing gym 5 times a week or more after work, and still made the time to be a creator after all that, by forcing myself to adhere the following rules I set for myself. Not bragging, it took me over 10 years to finally get the discipline, just trying to tell you it can be done.] 1) Stop watching the news * , on TV and online. It's hard at first, but can be done. 2) Sign out of all social media apps, and pick just 1 or 2 that you really cherish, so that you are not out cold with nothing to consume. For me, I was able to whittle it down to just hackernews. HN does a great job of filtering out or flagging Political News articles and other click baity / fake stuff. And the quality of articles and stories are very high. I also use the Show HN tab to inspire myself, when I see that everyday, and almost every hour, someone has CREATED and SHIPPED something useful or awesome. 3) Set a small goal of 30 mins per day, or 1 hour per day to work on whatever it is you want to produce. I started with 30 mins a day and worked my way up (6 months later) to now 3 to 4 hours a day and 6 hours on weekends. I shipped my 1st side-project last week -- soft launched it -- and am about to do a Show HN within the next week to 10 days. Hope this helps! [ You'll notice that when you do #2, your real-life interactions with your online friends and fam will dramatically improve in quality. "Catch-up" convos will happen in person in real life, at the gym or elsewhere, instead of mindlessly clicking Like and blowing hearts online on their "Stories" and "Feeds"] * Related Reading (by Buffer Founder & CEO): "The power of ignoring mainstream news" => http://joel.is/the-power-of-ignoring-mainstream-news/ http://joel.is/the-power-of-ignoring-mainstream-news/