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I wrote a book for O'Reilly. It was grueling and I really struggled with it. The only thing that worked was following the Jerry Seinfeld "Don't break the chain"

by xrd 5y ago

I wrote a book for O'Reilly. It was grueling and I really struggled with it. The only thing that worked was following the Jerry Seinfeld "Don't break the chain" rule: promise yourself you will write every day, and mark it on your calendar each time you do, and never let there be a gap. It doesn't matter from where you start. If you do this, you'll accomplish more than you ever thought you could. You aren't built different.

joeberon 5y ago
Yes they are built different: one person has no struggles writing and actively loves it, cannot stop doing it; the other finds it effortful and painful. Those two people will have vastly different experiences writing the book. The former will gain energy and feel great, the latter will feel pressured and depressed. We are not all the same, we are all built different, don’t ignore this reality
- xcambar 5y ago
  That doesn't invalidate GP's comment. Even if you struggle, having a little commitment every day helps building habits and actually relieves the struggle (because a habit creates familiarity and ease). The "we're all different" part plays a role in how long it takes to adapt and bind to this new/building habit.
  - joeberon 5y ago
- lelanthran 5y ago
  >> You aren't built different. > Yes they are built different: one person has no struggles writing and actively loves it, cannot stop doing it; the other finds it effortful and painful. GP probably worded it poorly; yes, we're all built different, but all the successful authors who spoke about their experience all expressed similar struggles. Terry Pratchett said once (can't be bothered to look for the exact quote) that he literally had to force himself to sit in front of the keyboard for a minimum time each night and type anything, just to get the groove started. Stephen King said a similar thing in Danse Macabre. When it comes to software, Joel Spolsky in his JoelOnSoftware blog said the same thing - Fire and Motion is your friend (https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/06/fire-and-motion/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/06/fire-and-motion/). When it comes to achieving something[1], you need to "not break the chain". You need to force yourself to start on it each day. After maybe 30m of doing it you'll get into the groove and continue with less effort for the day. [1] The actual "Something" is not important. Spend 30m each day practising guitar and eventually you'll be good enough to be in a band. Mark off a time slot on your calendar every day to spend working on your side-project, and ensure that you have nothing booked after that time-slot, and eventually you'll release your product. Force yourself to start typing into your book-in-progress for not less than[2] 30m after dinner every single day and I assure you, you will have a completed book in two years. [2] My experience is that if I force myself to spend not less than 30m on something, by the time the 30m expires, I get into the groove and can run in that rut all day if necessary. Getting into that groove is the hard part, and is probably why work productivity for most devs is about 10% less than side-project productivity - at work you are constantly yanked out of the rut.
  - ohlookabird 5y ago
    Absolutely! Noticing that it usually takes ~20min for me of getting into the groove was a profound revelation for me a few years ago. I noticed a pattern that if keep on powering through those initial 20min, there is a good chance you can continue being productive for a few hours or even the whole day.
    - baby 5y ago
      That’s what makes pomodoro so powerful imo. I only need it to start the day, then I can drop it.
  - swatcoder 5y ago
    > all the successful authors who spoke about their experience all expressed similar struggles. Definitely not true. Some people really don’t have those sorts of struggles. It doesn’t mean that those who do need to push themselves shouldn’t write/paint/code/swim/whatever, or that the results of their effort are of any lesser quality, or that they’re not in highly esteemed company. It just means that people have different processes and motivations and drives, and that there are many paths that lead to comparable accomplishment. To say otherwise isn’t entirely the encouragement I think you’re trying to offer. It’s denying the reality of other people’s lived experience.
    - lelanthran 5y ago
      > > all the successful authors who spoke about their experience all expressed similar struggles. > Definitely not true. You're saying that all the successful authors who spoke about their experience did not all express similar struggles? You have a quote from a successful author, who said that they did not express similar struggles? Because I am only making the claim about what successful authors said, not whether they were lying or not.
      - swatcoder 5y ago
        Indeed, there are even several examples discussed elsewhere on this page already! Some successful authors have shared their struggles with motivation and perseverance, and others have shared their lack of such. For some people, writing is a refuge from the stresses of the world, for others it’s a compulsion, for others it’s a surge of inspiration that moves through them now and then, etc This variety of process is common to all traditionally creative endeavors, and even things like athletics or coding. There’s no shortage of “successful” people sharing their experience of such. I can’t know, but you may be blinding yourself through some kind of confirmation bias.
- quickthrower2 5y ago
  Then better to find the thing that energizes you. For me it is getting to know a good framework like NextJS and working on small solo projects. For me it is not writing books … I find it fairly tedious. Nor is it the typical day job of old complicated codebased and small incremental improvements on big established software products.
prawn 5y ago
I wrote some chapters for Apress/Glasshouse or whoever it was many years back. By the end of the editing process, I had a "THINK OF THE MONEY" sign taped to the top of my CRT display. And there wasn't even that much money! I grew to detest the gig by the end of it.
latexr 5y ago
> the Jerry Seinfeld "Don't break the chain" rule Jerry Seinfeld, by his own admission, didn’t invent that: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/jerry_seinfeld_here_i_will_give_you_an_answer/ceiugt5/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/jerry_seinfeld...
- xrd 5y ago
  I'm so excited to learn this. And, that he thinks it is a terrible idea. Maybe the takeaway is that you have to trick (or lie to) your brain somehow when you want to do something bigger than you can imagine. Maybe this is why some really nutty people have done amazing things.

by xrd 5y ago

joeberon 5y ago

Yes they are built different: one person has no struggles writing and actively loves it, cannot stop doing it; the other finds it effortful and painful. Those two people will have vastly different experiences writing the book. The former will gain energy and feel great, the latter will feel pressured and depressed. We are not all the same, we are all built different, don’t ignore this reality

xcambar 5y ago
That doesn't invalidate GP's comment. Even if you struggle, having a little commitment every day helps building habits and actually relieves the struggle (because a habit creates familiarity and ease). The "we're all different" part plays a role in how long it takes to adapt and bind to this new/building habit.
- joeberon 5y ago
lelanthran 5y ago
>> You aren't built different. > Yes they are built different: one person has no struggles writing and actively loves it, cannot stop doing it; the other finds it effortful and painful. GP probably worded it poorly; yes, we're all built different, but all the successful authors who spoke about their experience all expressed similar struggles. Terry Pratchett said once (can't be bothered to look for the exact quote) that he literally had to force himself to sit in front of the keyboard for a minimum time each night and type anything, just to get the groove started. Stephen King said a similar thing in Danse Macabre. When it comes to software, Joel Spolsky in his JoelOnSoftware blog said the same thing - Fire and Motion is your friend (https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/06/fire-and-motion/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2002/01/06/fire-and-motion/). When it comes to achieving something[1], you need to "not break the chain". You need to force yourself to start on it each day. After maybe 30m of doing it you'll get into the groove and continue with less effort for the day. [1] The actual "Something" is not important. Spend 30m each day practising guitar and eventually you'll be good enough to be in a band. Mark off a time slot on your calendar every day to spend working on your side-project, and ensure that you have nothing booked after that time-slot, and eventually you'll release your product. Force yourself to start typing into your book-in-progress for not less than[2] 30m after dinner every single day and I assure you, you will have a completed book in two years. [2] My experience is that if I force myself to spend not less than 30m on something, by the time the 30m expires, I get into the groove and can run in that rut all day if necessary. Getting into that groove is the hard part, and is probably why work productivity for most devs is about 10% less than side-project productivity - at work you are constantly yanked out of the rut.
- ohlookabird 5y ago
  Absolutely! Noticing that it usually takes ~20min for me of getting into the groove was a profound revelation for me a few years ago. I noticed a pattern that if keep on powering through those initial 20min, there is a good chance you can continue being productive for a few hours or even the whole day.
  - baby 5y ago
    That’s what makes pomodoro so powerful imo. I only need it to start the day, then I can drop it.
- swatcoder 5y ago
  > all the successful authors who spoke about their experience all expressed similar struggles. Definitely not true. Some people really don’t have those sorts of struggles. It doesn’t mean that those who do need to push themselves shouldn’t write/paint/code/swim/whatever, or that the results of their effort are of any lesser quality, or that they’re not in highly esteemed company. It just means that people have different processes and motivations and drives, and that there are many paths that lead to comparable accomplishment. To say otherwise isn’t entirely the encouragement I think you’re trying to offer. It’s denying the reality of other people’s lived experience.
  - lelanthran 5y ago
    > > all the successful authors who spoke about their experience all expressed similar struggles. > Definitely not true. You're saying that all the successful authors who spoke about their experience did not all express similar struggles? You have a quote from a successful author, who said that they did not express similar struggles? Because I am only making the claim about what successful authors said, not whether they were lying or not.
    - swatcoder 5y ago
      Indeed, there are even several examples discussed elsewhere on this page already! Some successful authors have shared their struggles with motivation and perseverance, and others have shared their lack of such. For some people, writing is a refuge from the stresses of the world, for others it’s a compulsion, for others it’s a surge of inspiration that moves through them now and then, etc This variety of process is common to all traditionally creative endeavors, and even things like athletics or coding. There’s no shortage of “successful” people sharing their experience of such. I can’t know, but you may be blinding yourself through some kind of confirmation bias.
quickthrower2 5y ago
Then better to find the thing that energizes you. For me it is getting to know a good framework like NextJS and working on small solo projects. For me it is not writing books … I find it fairly tedious. Nor is it the typical day job of old complicated codebased and small incremental improvements on big established software products.

prawn 5y ago

I wrote some chapters for Apress/Glasshouse or whoever it was many years back. By the end of the editing process, I had a "THINK OF THE MONEY" sign taped to the top of my CRT display. And there wasn't even that much money! I grew to detest the gig by the end of it.

latexr 5y ago

> the Jerry Seinfeld "Don't break the chain" rule Jerry Seinfeld, by his own admission, didn’t invent that: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/jerry_seinfeld_here_i_will_give_you_an_answer/ceiugt5/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1ujvrg/jerry_seinfeld...

xrd 5y ago
I'm so excited to learn this. And, that he thinks it is a terrible idea. Maybe the takeaway is that you have to trick (or lie to) your brain somehow when you want to do something bigger than you can imagine. Maybe this is why some really nutty people have done amazing things.