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Maybe I just read it differently, but for me this article described a way to cram things that I _want_ to do (other people might play the violin every night at

Maybe I just read it differently, but for me this article described a way to cram things that I _want_ to do (other people might play the violin every night at 20 for fun?) into the early morning hours. You're making a good point, _if_ we're talking about doing business in these hours (like trying to progress on your own little startup idea). If you just want to meddle with a small project, experiment with this $randomNewTech or improve your code for the fun of it, then this attitude of 'It should be fun' seems perfectly alright.

alinajaf 15y ago
I think doing work you don't like or that you find difficult is compatible with new tech you want to learn just for the heck of it. As an example I'm currently trying to deep-dive on Natural Language Processing. I'm a middling programmer but quite useless at Maths, so I know my weak points are going to be the stats used in NLP. In this, I've picked up the most highly recommended university level NLP text I could find I'm putting in a couple of hours a week studying it. After about thirty minutes in, I begin losing focus and it starts becoming really easy to think of distractions or reasons why I shouldn't be doing it. It's at times like that when it helps to realize that no, I should be doing this, I don't need to take a break, I should just power through. I'm not necessarily enjoying everything I do in these sessions, and it's definitely hard work in unfamiliar territory. I've found that concentration is like a muscle, the more you train it, the harder and longer you can maintain it without taking a break. For me, expecting the work to be fun sets me up to give in as soon as I start losing focus. Interestingly, after going at work 100% for hours at a time, I actually feel way better than I do than after a half-arsed attempt at productivity. Usually I've created or learned something, and I don't have that guilty feeling that I could have got more done today.

alinajaf 15y ago

I think doing work you don't like or that you find difficult is compatible with new tech you want to learn just for the heck of it. As an example I'm currently trying to deep-dive on Natural Language Processing. I'm a middling programmer but quite useless at Maths, so I know my weak points are going to be the stats used in NLP. In this, I've picked up the most highly recommended university level NLP text I could find I'm putting in a couple of hours a week studying it. After about thirty minutes in, I begin losing focus and it starts becoming really easy to think of distractions or reasons why I shouldn't be doing it. It's at times like that when it helps to realize that no, I should be doing this, I don't need to take a break, I should just power through. I'm not necessarily enjoying everything I do in these sessions, and it's definitely hard work in unfamiliar territory. I've found that concentration is like a muscle, the more you train it, the harder and longer you can maintain it without taking a break. For me, expecting the work to be fun sets me up to give in as soon as I start losing focus. Interestingly, after going at work 100% for hours at a time, I actually feel way better than I do than after a half-arsed attempt at productivity. Usually I've created or learned something, and I don't have that guilty feeling that I could have got more done today.