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> Yesterday, I finally realized that this method would never, ever work. I was shocked. But it never, ever has. I’ve been after myself on this score for, what,

> Yesterday, I finally realized that this method would never, ever work. I was shocked. But it never, ever has. I’ve been after myself on this score for, what, like ten years? Had it ever worked once in that time, I asked myself. No! I had a similar realisation a few years ago. I used to try to come up with side project ideas by sitting down with a piece of paper and writing down every idea I could think of. Then, I’d decide which of these ideas seemed in the realm of possibility for me with my current skill set. Out of that whittled-down list, I’d then choose the idea that I thought would have the most chance of success. The problem? I could never remain motivated. It turned out that I had invented a formula for choosing ideas that neither extended my skills nor spoke to my inner curiosity. Things only changed when I asked myself the question “has this ever worked for me in the past? Even once?” I decided my new philosophy was to work on whatever I was most curious about — even if it seemed way too hard for me, or if everyone else thought it was stupid. I haven’t exactly made millions of dollars from this approach, but I’ve learned more in the past four years (and had more fun doing it) than I did in the previous 10. It makes me wonder what other things I might be doing out of habit that have never actually worked.

acalzycalzy 3y ago
In a sense this didn’t work out for you either - financially anyway
- atoav 3y ago
  First, finances are most of the time just a roundabout way of trying to be happy. So in a way doing things that make you happy directly instead of doing things hoping to gain money for that activity and then spending that money to hope to gain happiness will never work the same (provided you are not starving). Second, many people on this platform, me included, got good at the things they do for a living, because they did it for fun (and sometimes still do). Going for the fun project helps you learn faster and better. It might be "the wrong" thing to learn, but who is even able to judge that?
  - beebmam 3y ago
    > finances are most of the time just a roundabout way of trying to be happy If you consider not dying a form of happiness, sure. Seems overly reductive to me.
    - wuiheerfoj 3y ago
      I’d suggest ‚most‘ people ‚most of the time’ are not on the brink of death due to their finances
    - atoav 3y ago
      I live in a nation where we consider it normal to not let those living around us die of starvation or illness. That includes me. Also: I made that caveat and you skipped right past it. Everything is a gradient of course. I am not suggesting you have to never follow some discipline and always go for the fun route.
jcadam 3y ago
I used to spend a lot of my spare time on side projects, thinking I'd hit on something successful eventually. Now, I'm in my 40s and I'm like "Done with work; I think I'll go for a walk and then take a nap."
- ChuckNorris89 3y ago
  >Now, I'm in my 40s and I'm like "Done with work; I think I'll go for a walk and then take a nap." I'm in my early thirties and never had any side projects. After busting my ass coding like hell for 6 years in university and after 8 hours of coding at work per day, I was always seeking to do non-coding activities in my free time: trying out new hobbies, going for a walk, having drinks with friends and going dancing, dating, witching a movie, jerking off, cooking, reading, hiking, SLEEPING! etc. This hurt my chances of getting into flashy well paying VC funded agile scale-ups where every applicant was a 20-something with a huge GitHub portfolio, but, and I hope I don't offend anyone, life is too short to spend my free time doing things I don't enjoy, just to look good in front of $COMPANY, that will lay you off the next day if 'line goes down', so I narrow my job search at companies where coding is done for the paycheck, not for the lifestyle. I do spend my free time sometimes tinkering with various linux distros and DEs, and sometimes reverse engineering, but moistly working on hardware projects to build to increase my comfort around the house like a tap-water to air apartment AC cooling unit for the summer. I've always been a hands-on kind of tinkerer, with physical things, not with code, since I can't touch it.
  - carlmr 3y ago
    I spend my free time cooking, baking bread, climbing, hiking, skiing. I need something off-screen after work. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
  - kirso 3y ago
    I think this is awesome. Side projects can be woodworking or selling fish after you caught it. Screw the current youtube side hustle conventions, do what feels right.
  - vb234 3y ago
gretch 3y ago
I agree with you and have similar feelings about myself. There’s a saying I like that I think captures this well - “strike when the iron is hot”. Whenever I feel that spark swell inside of me, I drop everything else and immediately follow it. It’s okay to put off the haircut or the grocery shopping or whatever other mundane day to day chore I had - this is what living is for.
PikachuEXE 3y ago
I keep motivation as part of the "skill set" (capability/ability?) to work on something. I contribute to OSS for problems/ideas that troubles/benefits me the most. Sometimes it's just a bit tricky thing that requires some time to do the digging (e.g. dig the library and debug issue). Sometimes it's a feature I want on something I am using. I think much of the coding understanding learned by non-required tasks (OSS contribution included but not all) are from doing these kind of things bit by bit (some by reading, but practicing coding probably makes it much better). But not to dream about making millions or even pennies for doing what you are interested in. It's expectation management. Money does has certain kind of value, but might not be so aligned with your other interested sectors (e.g. fun, security, control of data)
rikroots 3y ago
Discovering (in my late 20s) that I was a natural-born follower of Epicurus[1] was a revelation that helped solve some (seemingly insurmountable) mental and emotional problems I was going through at the time - once I realised I needed to stop self-imposing tasks, schedules and deadlines on myself and accept/work with my natural instincts towards life. I'm also, in a strange way, glad that I didn't discover Epicurus earlier. Choosing the more difficult path is also part of my personality - but I have found some incredible friends as a result. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus
madaxe_again 3y ago
I spent much of my life doggedly clinging to the idea that if I managed to beat myself hard enough, morale would improve. It worked, insofar as it kept me going for years, and years, and took me places - but by the end I was a husk. This path leads to burnout. Post-burnout, the floggings continued until I finally got it through my thick skull that I was inflicting harm on those around me, as watching someone you love castigate themselves incessantly is apparently not easy. I’ve finally just about stopped, after a few years of therapy and a lot of time in nature. Turns out that the motivation I had as a small kid, before I was taught to be cruel to myself at age seven, was still there, but had been overlain with a system of brutality that was necessary for my survival in the boarding school environment. I once again find myself doing things with passion and joy, rather than drudgingly hauling my sorry ass through the thorns.
- hackyourbrain 3y ago
  I think I started being very mean to myself at age 12. It's weird to find someone else who ended up in this situation. I hope I can go back like you did, one day :-)
itronitron 3y ago
>> writing down every idea I could think of. Then, I’d decide which of these ideas seemed in the realm of possibility for me This has actually worked well for me in the past, but the trick for me was to wait at least a month after an idea was written down before starting on it. Basically, while working on one thing, I would jot all my 'newer and better' ideas into a journal so that I could finish the current thing. After finishing the current thing I would read through my journal to decide what to start next, realizing that most of the ideas I had written down were pretty lame. The delay in time saved me from starting work on things that I would have abandoned soon after (albeit for good reason) and I developed more confidence and determination in finishing the things I started, since those ideas had proven themselves over the others. Another approach I take is to breakdown a large task into smaller tasks that I can complete in less than one or two hours since I deal with a lot of interruptions during the day. This allows me to recognize my progress on a task and makes it easier to remember the state of things at any particular stopping point.

acalzycalzy 3y ago

In a sense this didn’t work out for you either - financially anyway

atoav 3y ago
First, finances are most of the time just a roundabout way of trying to be happy. So in a way doing things that make you happy directly instead of doing things hoping to gain money for that activity and then spending that money to hope to gain happiness will never work the same (provided you are not starving). Second, many people on this platform, me included, got good at the things they do for a living, because they did it for fun (and sometimes still do). Going for the fun project helps you learn faster and better. It might be "the wrong" thing to learn, but who is even able to judge that?
- beebmam 3y ago
  > finances are most of the time just a roundabout way of trying to be happy If you consider not dying a form of happiness, sure. Seems overly reductive to me.
  - wuiheerfoj 3y ago
    I’d suggest ‚most‘ people ‚most of the time’ are not on the brink of death due to their finances
  - atoav 3y ago
    I live in a nation where we consider it normal to not let those living around us die of starvation or illness. That includes me. Also: I made that caveat and you skipped right past it. Everything is a gradient of course. I am not suggesting you have to never follow some discipline and always go for the fun route.

jcadam 3y ago

I used to spend a lot of my spare time on side projects, thinking I'd hit on something successful eventually. Now, I'm in my 40s and I'm like "Done with work; I think I'll go for a walk and then take a nap."

ChuckNorris89 3y ago
>Now, I'm in my 40s and I'm like "Done with work; I think I'll go for a walk and then take a nap." I'm in my early thirties and never had any side projects. After busting my ass coding like hell for 6 years in university and after 8 hours of coding at work per day, I was always seeking to do non-coding activities in my free time: trying out new hobbies, going for a walk, having drinks with friends and going dancing, dating, witching a movie, jerking off, cooking, reading, hiking, SLEEPING! etc. This hurt my chances of getting into flashy well paying VC funded agile scale-ups where every applicant was a 20-something with a huge GitHub portfolio, but, and I hope I don't offend anyone, life is too short to spend my free time doing things I don't enjoy, just to look good in front of $COMPANY, that will lay you off the next day if 'line goes down', so I narrow my job search at companies where coding is done for the paycheck, not for the lifestyle. I do spend my free time sometimes tinkering with various linux distros and DEs, and sometimes reverse engineering, but moistly working on hardware projects to build to increase my comfort around the house like a tap-water to air apartment AC cooling unit for the summer. I've always been a hands-on kind of tinkerer, with physical things, not with code, since I can't touch it.
- carlmr 3y ago
  I spend my free time cooking, baking bread, climbing, hiking, skiing. I need something off-screen after work. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
- kirso 3y ago
  I think this is awesome. Side projects can be woodworking or selling fish after you caught it. Screw the current youtube side hustle conventions, do what feels right.
- vb234 3y ago

gretch 3y ago

I agree with you and have similar feelings about myself. There’s a saying I like that I think captures this well - “strike when the iron is hot”. Whenever I feel that spark swell inside of me, I drop everything else and immediately follow it. It’s okay to put off the haircut or the grocery shopping or whatever other mundane day to day chore I had - this is what living is for.

PikachuEXE 3y ago

I keep motivation as part of the "skill set" (capability/ability?) to work on something. I contribute to OSS for problems/ideas that troubles/benefits me the most. Sometimes it's just a bit tricky thing that requires some time to do the digging (e.g. dig the library and debug issue). Sometimes it's a feature I want on something I am using. I think much of the coding understanding learned by non-required tasks (OSS contribution included but not all) are from doing these kind of things bit by bit (some by reading, but practicing coding probably makes it much better). But not to dream about making millions or even pennies for doing what you are interested in. It's expectation management. Money does has certain kind of value, but might not be so aligned with your other interested sectors (e.g. fun, security, control of data)

rikroots 3y ago

Discovering (in my late 20s) that I was a natural-born follower of Epicurus[1] was a revelation that helped solve some (seemingly insurmountable) mental and emotional problems I was going through at the time - once I realised I needed to stop self-imposing tasks, schedules and deadlines on myself and accept/work with my natural instincts towards life. I'm also, in a strange way, glad that I didn't discover Epicurus earlier. Choosing the more difficult path is also part of my personality - but I have found some incredible friends as a result. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus

madaxe_again 3y ago

I spent much of my life doggedly clinging to the idea that if I managed to beat myself hard enough, morale would improve. It worked, insofar as it kept me going for years, and years, and took me places - but by the end I was a husk. This path leads to burnout. Post-burnout, the floggings continued until I finally got it through my thick skull that I was inflicting harm on those around me, as watching someone you love castigate themselves incessantly is apparently not easy. I’ve finally just about stopped, after a few years of therapy and a lot of time in nature. Turns out that the motivation I had as a small kid, before I was taught to be cruel to myself at age seven, was still there, but had been overlain with a system of brutality that was necessary for my survival in the boarding school environment. I once again find myself doing things with passion and joy, rather than drudgingly hauling my sorry ass through the thorns.

hackyourbrain 3y ago
I think I started being very mean to myself at age 12. It's weird to find someone else who ended up in this situation. I hope I can go back like you did, one day :-)

itronitron 3y ago

>> writing down every idea I could think of. Then, I’d decide which of these ideas seemed in the realm of possibility for me This has actually worked well for me in the past, but the trick for me was to wait at least a month after an idea was written down before starting on it. Basically, while working on one thing, I would jot all my 'newer and better' ideas into a journal so that I could finish the current thing. After finishing the current thing I would read through my journal to decide what to start next, realizing that most of the ideas I had written down were pretty lame. The delay in time saved me from starting work on things that I would have abandoned soon after (albeit for good reason) and I developed more confidence and determination in finishing the things I started, since those ideas had proven themselves over the others. Another approach I take is to breakdown a large task into smaller tasks that I can complete in less than one or two hours since I deal with a lot of interruptions during the day. This allows me to recognize my progress on a task and makes it easier to remember the state of things at any particular stopping point.