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Ask HN: Overcoming Blah?
Lately I've found myself unable to conquer even the smallest challenges. I've been trained my whole life to look a dozen moves ahead and choose the optimum path towards solving a problem. But most of the challenges I face now are mundane (where the decision isn't that critical) or worse, come down to a choice between two or more mediocre solutions. The consistent lack of challenge is sapping my motivation.
So while overanalyzing a problem is good for engineering, it's often bad for short term contracting and personal relationships. I've become disinterested in work and seem to read the news or do anything else besides getting the job done. Sometimes I wish someone else could take the reins and just give me a stream of tiny tasks and simple yes/no or A/B choices so all I have to do is make a decision and not have to worry about maintaining the whole context of the problem in my mind. But I don't want to work for someone else, because it's resulted in negative reinforcement and burnout. I also don't see a way to be compensated fairly for taking on the burden of being solely in charge of a project, with its loose ends and followups.
So my question is, how do you "snap out of it" and get real work done consistently day by day? I've found trance music to be helpful, and working at certain hours. But I'm looking for deeper inspiration, more metaphysical, like if I do A B C, then X life goal will result and my life will move forward. I'm not feeling that now. As far as I can tell, my future entails a never-ending stream of minutia that causes a spiritual crippling of my resolve and psyche. I worry that since I work and correspond with regular folks, that their agenda will always be at odds with mine and govern my life.
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- bhousel 14y agoYou will probably need to look outside work for meaningful challenges and deeper inspiration. My serious suggestion to you is to take on a big goal that has nothing to do with your job, like say, run a marathon or something.
- zackmorris 14y agoYa I used to weight train a lot and when I reached my goal on bench, I fell out of it back in early 2008. My goals now mostly involve inventions or kickstarter projects but I can't figure out how to incorporate them into my life. For example, my girlfriend's main priority is that I make money so I can be a provider. I just worry that without real meaning in my work, that I will never make any money anyway.
- moocow01 14y agoI see a lot of my own opinion in your post. I did not have similar feelings when I started the transition from college to SV about 6 or 7 years ago but have similar thoughts after going from project to project, company to company. Oddly from the outside most would look at my history as a good career. Learning the new thing no longer feels like tangible growth that will move things forward for me personally. I love software development but sometimes the ecosystem of work that surrounds it depresses me - PM, buzzwords, hype - to me its all pretty intellectually disengaging and tiring. Interesting creative solutions to real problems done with other genuinely technically minded people is inspiring but seems to be increasingly rare in terms of the pool of opportunities. Anyhow enough about me - I think you've answered your own question in the continued part. Id certainly like to see a similar ecosystem grow as you you've described it. Try to work toward that - helping empower other folks like yourself could be pretty energizing.
- 001sky 14y agoThe consistent lack of challenge is sapping my motivation Sometimes I wish someone else could take the reins and just give me a stream of tiny tasks and simple yes/no or A/B choices so all I have to do is make a decision and not have to worry about maintaining the whole context of the problem in my mind. There is an odd juxtaposition here. It sounds like you need to re-frame your first sentence into a larger context. Is this X that you are doing functional to a larger goal? Or not. The second part, needs to be also simplified. You can abstract the logic, and solve problems on a higher plane. You can compartmentalize and solve smaller, less complex problems. Or you can delegate to solve the tasks. That, of course presumes you have the power to do anything about the situation you are in. If your job is just a one-man-wack-a-mole game, it might not be a remediable situation. At either level. Then, you must decide if it's on a critical path to your future success, or not. If yes, you have to suck it up and get to the next level. If its not, time to consider extracting yourself from the situation. Pre-visualize your situation with clarity. That is the virst step. Then you can build momentum. As the movie said, "Fear breeds hesitation, and hesitation makes your worst fears, come true." But it is important to think fast and move slow. Until you get that clarity. Then you go.
- logn 14y agoHelp people and be grateful for what you have.