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I'm completely demotivated to work; what can I do?

• nemathode 13y ago
  Aniracetam (or Oxiracetam, if Aniracetam doesn't work for you) + DMAE. Don't forget to balance your blood pressure, use venous or arterial drugs to enhance whole body blood flow (don't use drugs that work only locally). If you don't want to use blood-related drugs, then just exercise regularly (try to focus only on resistance-oriented exercises). Try to sleep on a hard bed without any pillows. Also, increase your metabolism and energy by drinking a cup or three of coffee in first half of day and eating a big (300+ grams) portion of boiled grains + a good piece of meat, but with small amounts of fat. And don't forget to eat a lot of fruits - primarily oranges, apples, bananas and pears.
  • WizzleKake 13y ago
    If we are suggesting drugs, may as well throw in a suggestion for amphetamines. But personally, I would recommend intense and sustained cardiovascular exercise.
    • frodopwns 13y ago
      Adderall would make anything fun.
      • 910138391 13y ago
        modafinil. your solution, for dire needs ofcourse
    • danneu 13y ago
      I take an amphetamine pro-drug (Vyvanse) and I'm incredibly reluctant to recommend it any time someone expresses trouble with motivation/focus. But it did change my life at that critical I-don't-know-how-I'll-make-it-through-university moment. Especially when everyone around me offered stellar advice like "try harder" and "don't buy in to the Big Pharma ADD/ADHD-conspiracy". It turns out that I'm also reluctant to just offer "exercise more!" or "work on yourself -- it's your behavior!". It's frustrating and anxiety-inducing enough to struggle with motivation. If the only solution is to put pressure on such people by suggesting it's all in their head, then what do we do if that pressure doesn't actually fix anything? Do we count down to the catastrophe so that we can chime in one last time with "See? Look what you did."? Exercising and taking a sabbatical are good advice, but sabbaticals are out of the question for most people (especially a kid in highschool), and exercise is only that -- good advice. At some point we have to admit that the results of no-improvement will out-trouble our concerns/stigma over last resorts like medication.
    • nemathode 13y ago
      Don't compare aniracetam or oxi to amphetamines (or ritalin) - the former is legal and safe enough, and the latter is much more dangerous and ineffective (in terms of concentration enhancing). I would never ever recommend amphetamines nor ritalin, cannabis or other "useful" drugs, that always make you want to take more of them. All what they can give is faster burnout of your brain and state of lack of energy (also, problems with your skin, thanks to amphetamine overdose). What OP was talking about was not psychostimulation, but concentration enhancer, something that would just reduce effects of "mind wandering" and let him do tasks that he doesn't want to otherwise. Aniracetam and oxi do greatly reduce effects of "mind wandering", large amounts of grains and fruits give your brain very much glucose, i.e. energy to use to, coffee increases your metabolism and blood flow, and gives a slight stimulation, so you can force yourself to do task more easily. Don't overuse coffee, though, it's effects can last from 1 to 3 days (or even more).
  • DanBC 13y ago
    Some of the nootropics are Prescription Only Medications. Being arrested for possession would have some negative consequences for OP. Accepting a caution would be worse. So, if OP does want to try this be careful about the legal status and if the police do call be polite but say, firmly and clearly, that you'll answer their questions after you've spoken to a lawyer, and refuse to say anything else.
    • buu700 13y ago
      I've never used aniracetam and can't advocate one way or the other, but it looks like aniracetam is OTC in the UK (where it sounds like OP lives) and freely available from amazon.co.uk.
• sillysaurus2 13y ago
  Step back and ask yourself: What are my assumptions? Why do I believe these assumptions to be true? What if they aren't true? You have at least 50 years ahead of you. That's a long time. But the next 5 years will profoundly shape your next 50. If that feels like too much pressure, then simply don't worry about it. It's more important to relax than to optimize your life if you're the type of person who doesn't react well to a lot of pressure.
• JamilD 13y ago
  I know it seems like what you learn in school is boring, and perhaps even trivial, but it provides an important foundation to what you'll learn in University. When I was in high school, I'd attempt to apply the stuff I was learning in math to more interesting problems that I was actually interested in – for example, using the simple calculus I was being taught to start to understand some aspects of machine learning. The truth is, a lot of high school math is rather fascinating – you just need to find a place to apply what you're learning. I still use that technique now; I find a lot of the electronics courses at university extremely dull, so I'll write a program to solve, say, a diode circuit using the exponential model. And I end up learning so much more than I would just studying. So studying high school math and learning interesting things doesn't have to be mutually exclusive :)
• yuxt 13y ago
  Open a map, close your eyes and point randomly. Pack you backpack, buy tickets and go there without any reservation. Spend at least 1 month away from home, comfort and routine. When you are back you will know exactly what to do.
  • discostrings 13y ago
    > Open a map, close your eyes and point randomly. Pack you backpack, buy tickets and go there without any reservation. Spend at least 1 month away from home, comfort and routine. This sounds like an interesting and exciting life-changing plan and everything, but I don't think it's particularly actionable advice for most sixteen-year-olds in today's world, and I don't think it's likely to help with the question at hand. The submitter isn't asking /what to do/; the submitter is asking /how can I be more motivated in what I'm doing/! I think better advice is to focus on how the things you're learning relate to the things you like to do. So try to focus on how math can improve your programming, research, and other interests. Also, keep in mind that you're building a foundation--things are more interesting once you get to the stage where you're building on top of it. Even if you decide not to use it in a few years, it's a really nice thing to have that will give you a lot of flexibility.
    • scarecrowbob 13y ago
      I think we can abstract the advice you're commenting on to "if you don't feel motivated to do what you're doing, do something else", which seems okay. It's quite possible that continuing to do things you are not enthusiastic about doing may be a bad idea. I see your point that it's not a very actionable bit of real advice. Pragmatically, if you told my 16 year old to pack a bag and leave, I'd want to smack you :D
      • jotm 13y ago
        Sixteen is old enough - especially when he can always return. Being away from everything for a few months really puts things into perspective - why are you doing what you're doing, why you were so afraid of some things, whether you're on the right path, and more.
• linux_devil 13y ago
  Take it easy, there are lot of options available online if you are not enjoying what is being taught in college but you have interest in particular subject. For e.g.: When I was in college I felt my profs. are boring , so I always used to take online courses , like algorithms , operating system through ocw.mit.edu or stanford.edu or coursera , It helped me a lot to maintain interest in subject , and at same time participate in discussions online , there is always a big community somewhere which will be happy to help you .
• allworknoplay 13y ago
  Fuck school, it has no intrinsic value. It's not an end in itself, and it's not built for everyone. If it's not built for you, find something you DO like and dive into it hard. You're on hacker news for some reason -- what is it you're into? Learn how to do it yourself, get technical, build skills around that. Also, make friends who are likewise into it. I promise you'll be a lot more engaged. Do the school work but do it with something else in mind. Also: the guys suggesting drugs know nothing about you and are probably not doctors. I love drugs, but I'd never suggest them without knowing more about you. It's absurdly easy to build a serious amphetamine dependency that will leave you feeling a lot worse than you do now.
• loceng 13y ago
  Exercise. Relatively new discovery that lactic acid, that comes from muscle use, is a "pre-cursor" for motivation.
  • timmm 13y ago
    Counter-example: Me, I don't work out. I work 9-5 at a tech job and then spend the weekend working on my own products. I don't struggle with motivation as I literally enjoy what I do. Always question advice that people like to rattle off - humans are very good at perpetuating bad memes without a second thought. Like that running a marathon (26 miles) in one go is somehow healthy, without ever questioning why a healthy activity would make them shit their pants and nipples bleed. In fact exercising would probably decrease the probability that I would be productive as it would consume more of my time and energy. My 0.02
• cognitiveben 13y ago
  Drop out and find something that motivates you. It's harder than the standard path, but if you're bright and industrious it can be a much more interesting ride. Also, university is always there later. I did the above, got bored in my second successful career and am now finishing up a Ph.D. that I started, as an undergrad, at the age of 27. I think I got more out of the program than my younger counterparts, and thanks to a decade of making money and connections, I did it in significantly better style. No regrets.
• nulagrithom 13y ago
  Do you have a job? Go push a mop for a couple years. It will motivate you to do well in school and has the added benefit of giving you some money for university.
  • jmtame 13y ago
    I actually second this. I worked a bunch of odd jobs starting at 15 years old (you were supposed to be 16, so I had to get consent from the principal to flip burgers). As I was taking the garbage out while working at a grocery store, it just hit me: I can't do this for the rest of my life. I believe I was around 18 years old, so maybe a little older than the OP. I joined the local chamber of commerce and started consulting that summer and made more money than the previous 3 summers, and I enjoyed the work I was doing. It's good to work awful jobs. It builds healthy character and eventually it'll probably hit you that you really want to be doing more intellectual things, which conveniently pays more money than most physical labor.
• Aqueous 13y ago
  It's nice to chip away at programming but if you don't have an academic basis to guide your studies it is going to keep you out of a lot of jobs when you get out. Take it from someone who knows - I've programmed useful things in just about every language, but because I didn't major in Computer Science (Physics/Philosophy instead) I'm unable to compete for the top tier of jobs. Hopefully this isn't permanent, as I'm teaching myself computer science now, but I could've saved myself a lot of work if I had just chosen a concentration more suitable for the jobs I was interested in. You may be a confident auto-didact but even auto-didacts tend to have large blind spots. You don't know what you don't know, and school is there to tell you.
  • eropple 13y ago
    I don't know where you are, but if you're in the U.S. (or even if you're not), feel free to drop me a line. Some of the best developers I know come from non-CS backgrounds and I know folks who are always looking. Email's in my profile.
  • matttheatheist 13y ago
    As a Computer ENGINEER, I can easily tell you that Computer SCIENCE is essentially a liberal arts degree. Seriously, they don't know st about technology, unless it comes safely wrapped in an API. And by the way, studying Physics is orders of magnitude more difficult that learning CS. And for that alone, I would hire a Physicist over a CS guy any day of the week. Ask any recruiter, and they'll tell you the same thing. Physics is a higher pecking order than CS.
• undoware 13y ago
  Your soul is probably waking up. That's the black lung of coding. You have three, maybe four choices. Visual arts, music, and writing, with performing with an asterisk (it's not for everyone.) Get used to being a lot poorer, but happier.
  • FLUX-YOU 13y ago
    Take it from someone who fucked up and went for arts: You get demotivated there too. At least with math and programming jobs, you have some money to fix things.
    • scarecrowbob 13y ago
      But, as someone who also went towards the arts (I'm a regularly gigging musician) and letters (I have a BA in Philosophy and dumpped my PhD during my dissertation), I can say that it wasn't super hard to get back into a technical position coming from a high-school and early college education where I learned a lot of logic, math, and programming skills... since leaving my PhD program I've been consulting doing PHP-based development for the last 4 years, and I'm on track career wise as I would have been if I was teaching at a university somewhere. This is wholly a un-based feeling, but I feel that it has been a lot easier to pick up new and professionally useful technical skills in my 30s than it would have been if I had done well in my 20s with a technical career and had to pick up the useful philosophical and musical skills I enjoy using in my 30s.
• unobliged 13y ago
  It sometimes helps to study the history of whatever subject you are working towards in school. For example, the history of mathematics can provide a lot of inspiration for what can be done with the knowledge. Focus on the outcomes you want and see the schooling as a means to an end.
• ISeemToBeAVerb 13y ago
  Pick up a copy of Cal Newport's book "So Good They Can't Ignore You." Read that book and then think about your situation some more. Cal brings up some very interesting observations, and you're at the perfect point in your life to read it.
• billyjobob 13y ago
  So you don't like school work. You could get higher grades if only you were more motivated... i.e. you are exactly like every other 16 year old I ever knew. Most of them because more motivated once they started university and were able to focus on what they enjoyed studying. I'd be more worried if you were motivated at 16, because then you'd probably burn out, or grow up to be an obnoxious brain box. Also, since you sound like you are in the UK, you should realise that grades don't matter here. No-one will ever ask what you scored in your maths A-level. Your success in life will mostly be determined by the connections your parents have. The only thing you can do to improve your chances is network and make some more connections of your own at university. Plenty of top jobs go to those who graduated with the "gentleman's third" because they spent their time networking rather than studying.
  • cjfont 13y ago
    > Your success in life will mostly be determined by the connections your parents have Sorry but this statement doesn't ring true to me, because I know of several cases where two brothers have had divergent success outcomes based on their personalities and the choices they've made. There's also MANY ways to forge your own connections in life.
    • coherentpony 13y ago
      You're completely right. It's not true. Your success in life will mostly be determined by the connections you make.
      • jwdunne 13y ago
        It's also likely you inherit the connections your parents make - provided you maintain a good relationship with them. Everyone once in a while, I'll heard about a guy by mum knows who needs some work done on his website. Since my mum is an assistant in Tesco, these are not stupendous opportunities (though not to discredit, I can use the money). If my mum or dad was an investment banker and I was still a web developer, I imagine they would still send leads my way. There just may be more in quantity or monetary value or both.
• ehutch79 13y ago
  Wait, your two years from going to college? That makes you what, 16?
• Goladus 13y ago
  One way to overcome a lack of motivation is to ruthlessly eliminate distractions. Tailor your environment and to be (and practice habits that are) maximally conducive to studying. If you have a hard time "taking a step back" to take an objective look at your habits and lifestyle, you might find yoga and meditation helpful. Exercise can also help keep your energy up, but in my experience exercise doesn't magically solve motivation problems and sometimes gets in the way. Working a hard labor can give you good experience but I think the motivation that comes from that sort of work tends to be vastly overstated and wears off very quickly. Do you spend time programming because you're motivated to program? Have you produced anything of value? What sort of research do you do? What motivates you besides programming and research? Who is paying the bills right now?
• almosnow 13y ago
  There are none, if you don't feel it then it's not there. Or you could follow the advice other people had leave here... and eventually you will come back to this same situation but when you are 50 and tired... Seriously dude, my advice, if you don't feel it leave it; and if you don't feel nothing anywhere then do nothing, many cool things happen when you are "doing nothing".
• sosborn 13y ago
  > spend my free time programming Sounds like you enjoy programming. Assuming this is a correct assumption, go all in on it and start contributing to open source projects. If you have the talent then you might be able to get a good job out of high school. At the very least, you might want to look into Computer Science programs in University.
• DanBC 13y ago
  You have a temporary hurdle to jump over. Get good grades. The aim of getting good grades is only to get good grades. There's a bunch of stuff that you can do with good grades, and if that motivates you it's great. But at the moment you just need to get the good grades. So, perhaps when you're studying you put in 30 minutes for school work, and 15 minutes for what you enjoy, then have a break. Then repeat that. This allows you to get the good grades, and keeps you interested in the subject. You'll have a bit more freedom in Uni, and you'll so you can see your current task (get good grades) as also being "learn some discipline". There will be some people who want to get better grades than you. Thus, you should get best grades you can just to stick one in the eye of those people.
  • marvin 13y ago
    This is very good advice. If you get nothing else out of high school, make sure you learn the discipline it takes to study something that's not immediately rewarding. Not only is it important right now in order to have choices for the immediate future, it's a skill that will serve you well throughout life.
  • tzakrajs 13y ago
    Working for good grades caused me to get burnt out on school. What has motivated me to learn more than anything has been due to being engrossed by the value of the learnings application. If you can be motivated by increasing a grade letter, more power to you. But I argue that a student focused on a grade is going to get less out of the education than someone fixated on a subject for its own merit.
• brador 13y ago
  Researching? Tell me you don't mean reading random wikipedia articles and browsing the web here. You're at the stage of life where you need to develop deep skills in subjects. At the early stages of that process it can be hard to motivate yourself. You're gonna have to power through and realise you're doing this for future you not current you.
• irremediable 13y ago
  Hey there! From the sound of it, you're about sixteen years old and live in Britain. A few years ago, I was your age and in a similar position. What grades are you getting at the minute? A-levels might be easier for you than you realise. As to how to motivate yourself to study for them... study the cool things you can do with maths. Try to solve problems. Calculus, linear algebra and statistics are the fundament of the maths curriculum, and they're all hugely useful. Figure out how to prove things. Figure out how to solve mechanics problems with calculus. Program some statistical analysis stuff. Frankly, if you're a smart kid and enjoy maths/programming, I expect you'll do fine at A-level. And if not, it doesn't mean much. Some of the best programmers I know didn't bother going to university.
• alexkus 13y ago
  Sounds just like me at 16. Wasn't very motivated despite studying the A-Levels I wanted to (Maths, Physics, Computing). Spent all my spare time stealing Internet access at the local University (this was back in 1992/1993). I got decent grades (AAB) and got into my first choice University, but the motivation to do well still wasn't there. Ended up getting a 2:2 where everyone expected me to get a 1st. After that I was lucky and ended up in a good job where degree result didn't matter. Looking back I wish I'd talked to someone (not my parents) about it at the time. So I'd recommend finding someone to talk to at your college; your form tutor (depends, I didn't get on with mine), careers advisor, pastoral care reps, etc. Just remember that they should be there to help you do your best, not bollock you for not putting your full effort in.
• usablebytes 13y ago
  First thing - don't search for motivation or don't try to get yourself motivated. You'll end up looking for things that will make you feel good which will in-turn promote procrastination and thereby take you away from actions. The truth is motivation doesn't last. It's a push mechanism. You'll have to focus on things that pull you towards it. If you keep going like the way you are currently, how would your life be? Definitely you understand the problem with it and this post is the proof. But ask yourself - "why do you want to get A-levels at school?". If programming and researching keeps you going, by all means, you should focus on it. Make sure you put the best possible efforts in it; the rest will follow automatically.
• SixSigma 13y ago
  Go and visit your local big council estate. Poor futureless unfortunates should give you some mojo. Or even just watch Benefits Street
• ef4 13y ago
  > Are there any ways by which I could motivate myself to study more? Probably not, if you're asking the question. But I don't think you should study more. I think you should program more, since it's already something you enjoy enough to do for fun. It's a question of playing to your strengths. Put in the 10,000 hours of sustained effort that it takes to truly become great at it. Prove your abilities through open source. You will have no problem finding an interesting and well-paying career, if you push yourself hard to always keep learning both about programming and about the business of software. If that sounds like a lot of hard work, well yeah, it is. There's no shortcut. Either suck it up and do your homework and color inside the lines, or summon the guts to blaze your own path. Or do neither and let the path of least resistance take you where it wants. Which path are you more likely to regret 40 years from now?
  • msutherl 13y ago
    I'm not sure it's advisable to encourage somebody not to do well on their A-levels. It's not like the US where you can get low marks in secondary school and be fine. He won't be able to attend a decent university, ever. Correct me if I'm wrong.
    • iyra72 13y ago
      This is true, sadly.
    • ef4 13y ago
      The same logic applies in the US. You won't be going to a good college if you have bad high school grades. But my advice was to consider eschewing academia entirely. I've worked with too many well-paid, respected developers without degrees to take the value of credentialing very seriously. It's not a panacea, of course. It takes a lot of sustained work and learning whether you do it in school or not. Some people just find it easier to learn outside of formal schooling.
      • msutherl 13y ago
        I think it's better to make that decision when you're 18, not 16. Always best to keep your options open because you don't know how you or the world will change, even in the near future.
• negamax 13y ago
  What do you seek? Minimizing pain, maximizing pleasure. That's what we all are programmed to seek. You find that and associate it with the studies. E.g.s Maximizing pleasure: + Do you want to work in another country/place. Your studies can get you there. + Want to have interesting conversation with people. Study. + Want to understand and have a say about a topic. Study. Minimizing Pain: - Don't set yourself for failure few years down the line or make it tough - Avoid getting into a meaningless job - (Works for Asians) Think of peers getting ahead of you.
  • timmm 13y ago
    > Minimizing pain, maximizing pleasure. Too reductivist, so do I eat the ice cream sundae and get pleasure right now? To the detriment of my long term health or do I eat the kale forfeiting short term pleasure and gaining long term pleasure? Your model has no predictive power.
• alecco 13y ago
  Some things that help me: Visualize goal: close your eyes, imagine your acceptance letters When stuck, go for a little walk or physical exercise Do goal-oriented studying (e.g. Pomodoro technique) Understand the education system wants you to comply, this is wrong, but the faster you get over it the faster you'll forget about it. It's better to keep your mouth shut, don't complain or antagonize, they are not going to change for you or anybody (they haven't in centuries). Give them the little self importance they crave for and get from them what you want (grades, diploma). Of course, keep your mind critical but keep it to yourself until they give you what you want. Also don't overwork yourself, perhaps this is not the best time to spend many hours doing unrelated programming or research. It can be a distraction to your education goal. We have limited willpower, try to avoid depletion. Only when you achieve your studying goals for the day you get to do your own thing. Study in the mornings, play in the afternoons. Modifying your routine takes a while, do it in baby steps. Remove all temptations that might get in the way to your goals until you achieve them. But keep a good chunk of the day to clean up your head. Of course, YMMV.
  • alecco 13y ago
    It might help to go study to a special quiet and motivational place, a library or your aunt's house.
• rando289 13y ago
  Endeavor to make these things a habit. Every day or 5 days a week etc. Write down some realistic things you want to do today that you might avoid. Do this as early in the day as possible. Before you make a decision which will avoid doing one of those things you wrote down, stop, think about it for 60+ seconds. Usually these decisions are done just like instincts without thinking: "hit next episode on netflix", "read this HN link", etc. In that 60+ seconds, suggestions: 1. Decide to start on the thing you'd rather avoid for just 5 minutes, then you can quit if you want. 2. Imagine your future self looking back on your decisions. 3. Remember how this thing ties into long term goals. 4. Plan a reward for yourself if you do the thing. 5. When negative thoughts or feelings happen, accept them, don't believe them or give them any more power, see them from the outside.
  • timmm 13y ago
    Sorry but little tricks and magic bullets like this do nothing in the long term to alleviate the issue. Primarily because you won't stick to the habit. OP you will have to decide whether doing work and being productive is something you want for yourself, you will not be able to fein an answer for any substantial amount of time. Your answer is also subject to change. My guess is if you completely gave in to your de-motivated mentality you would quickly realize how bankrupt it is and be driven back to working.
• bane 13y ago
  I'm going to say something that's a little tough but it's meant as advice coming from years of mistakes before I finally got my head on the right way: Part of growing up is learning to prioritize what you need to do, even if it isn't fun, over what you like to do. This is how the real world works, and it's what you'll spend the rest of your life doing. Learning to do it when you're young, when mistakes are smaller, will make the rest of your life so much better. When you get your needs out of the way, the fun stuff you can do is all the better, and you'll know more about the fun stuff that you're doing enabling you to open more worlds of enjoyment later that you'll never be able to conceive of without putting in the hard work to start. Doors will be open to you that you'll never even imagine if you put in the work to build the foundation of your life right now. Digging the metaphorical ditches and laying the metaphorical concrete for your foundation sucks, but that's how life is. Lots of sucky boring shitty work, for a few profound moments of bliss. I know this sounds just like words right now, but I wish this was a concept that I had truly grokked much earlier in my life before I had to spend years fixing all the bits and pieces I needed to do that I had deferred. Nobody gets to do the fun stuff for long, without working out all the dreadfully boring bits a head of time. Want to be an explorer? Spend months raising money and building schedules and looking at maps and buying equipment. Want to be a rock star? Spend years learning to play an instrument, playing in dive bars and making demo tapes. Get a break then play the same 4 hit songs for 20 years. Want to write awesome code and run an awesome business? Spend years learning computational theory, business management and leadership, raising funds, and last but not least, writing thousands of lines of boring boiler plate, edge case handling and plumbing code. Want to be an author? Spend a few years writing a couple hundred pages on your topic then get rejected by 99 out of 100 publishers. Then do an endless book tour where you read the same passage from your book 300 times. Learning to do the boring, dreadfully dull, uninteresting stuff...learning to just muscle through it...is the most important life skill any human being can learn. It's the marshmallow test magnified by a million.
  • g0v 13y ago
    I'm relatively young and often fighting myself to get things done as well. I've taken steps to force myself away from distracting things and focus on stuff that needs to get done. For example, I've installed a website blocking extension on Firefox and blocked sites I'm drawn towards from 8am to 5pm, also uninstalled all other browsers (I have broken and installed chrome just to procrastinate, since uninstalled). Right now I have a 1500 word paper to start but am stalling and finding a slow cooker recipe for dinner. Nearly every day I am fighting myself to be productive, it can be pretty painful in its own way. I figure if I'm ultimately winning(being productive) then I am making some sort of progress in my personal growth. What you said there is the main reason I know I have to push myself. I know if I don't then I'll just end up being disappointed in myself. So, essentially, fear is what drives me.
• hacktard 13y ago
  Obviously growth hacking. My own experience in endless self-promotion. twitter. Guru. And perhaps... Venture Capital. love, "Hacker"news.
• Geee 13y ago
  You don't need motivation or inspiration, and most of the time you don't have these. Just do what you have to do.
• mamuninfo 13y ago
  This is very common situation for most of the people and it is also general for all fields. Many colleague around me who are also not interested about their daily work. Mind set is important factor to do something. Just sharing a video with you.... In youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN34FNbOKXc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN34FNbOKXc
  • romanovcode 13y ago
    Can't stop but think that title of this video sounds like some super-cheesy self-improvement BS. "The Power of Belief"
• jahewson 13y ago
  I went through this phase of the British school system some 14 years ago, just as the AS/A2 exams were being introduced. I'm a very technically minded person, but I found school's treatment of these subjects to be intensely boring. I found it hard to pay attention and not be distracted by some more interesting or immediately rewarding passtime such as programming. While much of the A-level material is presented in a tedious manner, there are other books and sources available beyond your curriculum and I encourage you to seek these out. Applied topics such as computer science and engineering simply assume that you have a good grasp on the fundamentals. Books such as The New Turing Omnibus give you a taste of lots of topics, find some you like and dig deeper. Try and find some exciting, applied use of the boring school math, or chemistry, or phyisics. Find books and resources which guide you through learning rather than just reading Wikipedia. In summary, try to find the cool things that can be accomplished with the fundamentals you learn at school and you'll be more motivated to work through the tedium. Don't be afraid of "degree level" texts. Try to stay away from any programming that involves drudgery and focus on enlightened, mathematically-inclined tasks: learn Haskell, implement fundamental algorithms, find hard problems like SAT, fourier transforms, optimisation. Find something which requires the skills you learn at school but which is exciting enough to hold your attention. Do lots of little things.
• WWKong 13y ago
  Yes. By changing your attitude that 100% of what you do should be "enjoyable". Try and strike a balance. In real world you will find that most everyone puts up with stuff for safety net around basic needs like house, car, raising family etc. Right now I would enjoy 2 weeks off in Maldives. But I'm here working on this presentation to make my boss look good.
• winstonx 13y ago
  > I'm two years before heading off to university, but I have no motivation to learn the things that are being taught at college. Personally, that was a really tough time for me in my life. > I chose to study the subjects that I thought I would enjoy, but sadly this isn't true. That happened to me too. > I'm assuming that if I had made other choices for subjects, I'd be in a similar problem. Maybe; it's hard to know where other paths would have led. > Maths is one of the subjects I'm studying, and although I enjoy maths itself, I'm not enjoying what I learn in school. I had that same experience. That's why I studied maths on my own, outside of school (I consider programming a subset of maths.) > I can't be motivated to put the work in, so that I can get good results at the end of the year. Same thing happened to me. > I spend my free time programming or researching instead, That's also what I did. Studying philosophy also helped alot :-) > but I can't continue doing this if I want to get the A-levels I need to enter a half-decent university. I found my high school to be very oppressive, so instead I went on academic strike and programmed for fun. I almost flunked out of high school, and only got into one university that has a tradition of accepting everyone. It was all for the best. I'm not saying you should do that. But, it was the path I needed to take. You can live a wonderful life regardless of what academic success you achieve or fail to achieve. Older people have a bad habit of advising younger people they need to do very specific actions in order to achieve very specific goals. In this ancient tradition, I will now offer you very specific advice ;-) (1) Ask yourself: do you desire the goals you are told to desire. What are your goals? What do you actually want from life? (2) Once you have your goals in mind, your advisors will usually be conservative. That is, their advice usually describes one path to your goal --- not the only path. For example, if you want to go to a half-decent university and an advisor tells you, "you should try to get straight A's" --- then your advisor is being conservative. Yes, if you get straight A's it will be easier to get into a half-decent university. But it's not the only way. Furthermore, younger people are often more creative in finding ways to sidestep tradition. (3) Ask for lots of advice, but only listen to advice skeptically. (4) Don't be afraid to "Go ahead and fail." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-20/go-ahead-let-your-kids-fail.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-20/go-ahead-let-your-k... > Are there any ways by which I could motivate myself to study more? I would caution against trying to coerce yourself into being more motivated. Follow your own path. When people give you advice it's up to you to take it or leave it. Even this advice.
• fit2rule 13y ago
  Get a job. Plain and simple, this the best way to motivate yourself to study more. Fact is though, you don't need to study more. You should work a lot more. Working is the only really effective, motivating, way to take what you've learned through your studies and apply it to the real world. Without actually doing something for someone, a lot of what people learn in school is useless. It isn't until you actually have a user that you become a developer.
• gte910h 13y ago
  Lots of people hit depression in college. See a doctor. You may not be sleeping enough, drinking too much, sleeping irregularly, etc, all which can cause depression
• mistercow 13y ago
  If you spend your free time programming or researching, and aren't motivated by academics, then you might want to reconsider academic direction you're going in. For someone who has the motivation to learn programming on their own, I seriously question the value of a formal education in anything like CS or math. You already know you can learn that stuff more easily outside of a classroom, so I would argue that taking that academic path is a waste of both your time and money. Instead, I would consider studying something totally different. Programming is a wild card - you can play it to improve any hand you have. Keep honing those skills, but go to university for something you can't so easily learn on your own. This is the advice I wish someone had given me before I went and wasted time in college.
  • danpat 13y ago
    > Programming is a wild card - you can play it to improve any hand you have. This is the truth. Every success I've had has been where I've applied my computing skills to an environment where no-one with those skills had yet appeared. The efficiency gains you can make to mundane, non-computing tasks by applying a bit of programming knowledge will often knock the socks off people who've been doing things the same old way for years.
• dhughes 13y ago
  They way I think about it is you can work a dead end job for 80 hours per week making $8 an hour to make enough to survive and not have any free time to socialize, go to the gym or be with family. Or study for and try to get a decent job you like that pays half decent so you don't have to become a human eraser and wear yourself down doing the work of others. Having many skills to fall back on is great but trying to learn everything losing focus and never finishing anything isn't much help. Or realize you need to focus and find a career that you like and is wanted by employers. I recall years ago they mentioned "The fear" and it is a great example of suddenly realizing shit I better start getting good at this life thing, now! Time is shorter than you think your health can suddenly rapidly fail, saving for retirement is a constant worry. Time is so short it's as if nothing you do can be done soon enough. Realizing that early in life is fantastic. A big part of life I think is having mentors who are examples to follow it's good to have a person who you can think "What would Bob do?" as an internal guide. It's easy to say all that but hard to do, I haven't mastered that yet.
  • msutherl 13y ago
    I've found this fear to be my greatest motivator, but it has also lead me down false paths. Truth is, your dichotomy is a fiction. There are plenty of people who live fulfilling lives without ever having consciously focused on learning skills and meeting qualifications wanted by employers. However, nobody gets anywhere by being lazy – one then needs to find another motivator. One I have in mind is: repulsion toward injustices in the world. Rather than fearing drudgery, you can hold yourself personally accountable for evils and optimize for effecting change. Of course this is also a fiction. An individual is most likely incapable of effecting significant change in the world. All motivations are irrational, but you still must have one. If you haven't found one, keep looking. Watch documentaries, travel, read books. You will find things to care about.
    • dhughes 13y ago
      I shouldn't say or at least didn't mean a lot of money is the only way to be happy, yes finding something you love to do and your family is able to live a good life is the goal. Education is a great character builder I often see educated people in stressful situations far more calm than someone who worked all their lives wit no education other than high school. It's not a science it doesn't apply every time but education gives you options, if you lose your job at a sawmill where you worked since age 16 you're going to be stressed. Sooner or later we all figure this out but it's better to discover that at age 18 than 49.
• betadreamer 13y ago
  University and school is very different. I was a B~C (even D & F) student in high school because I hated what I was taught in school. I enjoy Math but somehow was not motivated as well. I went to the okay university afterwards but things started to change. Everything what I learn there somehow made sense and was not boring anymore. It might be just the fact that university have better teacher but it was more motivating. Somehow I turned my self from B~C student to a A dean list student. I went to CMU for grad school after graduation. The point i want to make is that university is different from school and you can always climb up the ladder as long as you try hard at some point.
• bayesianhorse 13y ago
  Sounds a lot like an onsetting depression. Seeking medication now might save you a lot of time and suffering. It's very important to recognize that your judgement about what interests you is probably distorted, currently. So think twice about making any rash decisions that relate to emotions or relationships....
• reledi 13y ago
  > but I can't continue doing this if I want to get the A-levels I need to enter a half-decent university. Not sure where you're from, but in Canada you don't need all A's to get into a half-decent university. However, if you want to get into a top university, you'll need good grades and more (e.g. extracurricular activities). I'm sure any university you will get into will be just fine. During your time at uni, you get out what you put in. Don't stress about getting into your dream university. You'll do fine wherever as long you like what you do and you get involved with stuff happening around you. Grades are just a means to an end, don't focus on them too much.
• forgottenpaswrd 13y ago
  "Are there any ways by which I could motivate myself to study more?" You told us, the answer is no. You already dedicate your time to programming, because you need it. I also needed it when I was your age. In my case I started programming while also studying engineering in Europe. I made a company with the code I accumulated over this time, with the knowledge of programming being really useful to manage other people(and identifying who is really good or not at it and so on). People consider me rich now(there is always someone else with more money, but I have more than what my family needs), but I went through very hard times before it(my family wanted me to get a good job instead of risking so much). If you force yourself to study more, you will regret it. My advice: Focus on learning to study more efficiently, the idea is to use the time you already use to study faster and get better grades while also giving time to programming. Learn from the masters, read the Audiobook "The Now habit", learn aabout mindmaps and mnemonics, and always go for the best. Use software for remembering stuff.
• zacinbusiness 13y ago
  Get a shit job. Get shot at by a thug. Clean up other peoples shit and piss all day for minimum wage. That's what worked for me.
• Codhisattva 13y ago
  Exercise. Lots of it.
• briantakita 13y ago
  Adopt continous improvement for everything you do. This makes a game where you can improve your thinking, skills, and processes. It won't be boring because you can always do it better.
• gmantastic 13y ago
  Being 16-18 and studying for your A-levels can be a horrible time - it was for me. Relationships with your friends start to change as you grow up at different rates (I don't know whether this applies to you), interests change, and you have so little energy it feels like an effort to get out of bed before noon. Some things that worked for me were hanging out with some different, more studious people, and learning the course material from books in the order I chose rather than following the course (I missed a lot of classes, but I would't recommend that). Make a game out of getting the grades that will be your ticket out of there! On a serious note, if you think you might be depressed, talk to someone (a doctor or counsellor) about it.
• Theodores 13y ago
  The problem with education is that it always has a different take on a subject to what personally fascinates you about the subject. Subjects that might have floated your boat personally for many years will be taught differently to what you expect, killing your interest in a subject. There is an adage about teaching - if you cannot do then teach, if you cannot teach then teach Geography. If we take Geography as an example, you might think of geography as being about places on a map, be able to name all U.S. state capitals and know where Dhaka is and Dakar isn't. Then, in a geography class, you might find that knowing where anywhere is does not matter in the least. 'How flood plains are formed', 'how a volcano works' will be what is taught, without any mention at all of physical places. The geography example is an example of how expectations of a subject can be wrong at the basic school level, you can live with a mis-match of expectations in geography syllabus, however, go to university and it is another kettle of fish. You might think politics would be a useful thing to study, be passionate about the subject and be knowledgeable about current affairs. Again, none of that would matter. Computer science is another area of concern. You might be good at programming and be up to date with whatever is on HN. Yet, at university you might get taught languages and methodologies that are a world away. There might actually be reasons why the university teach what they teach that are not readily apparent. The military might have some link up that means that stuff that matters to designing jet fighters gets taught. Clearly none of it - 'ADA' - for instance - might have no relevance in the real world. Returning to your subject of maths, in the real world you are doing pretty well if you have problems that require secondary school stuff - trigonometry, calculating prices with tax, differential equations. Actually you could probably go a long way on getting a man on the moon with secondary school maths, yet there is a whole world of maths beyond that. Triple integrations, anyone? Even if you do find a real world use - electronics with Gauss's theorem - there aren't many uses for that real world use. It is all too convenient for maths to be taught in such a way that it is abstract and not practical, e.g. teaching a program to do it for you, or working on a large dataset in a computationally efficient way. Even reading the data in is not something that would be taught. It is a bit like how you can do a degree in electronics and never touch a soldering iron or know how to fix a fuse. So my suggestion is to not head off to university so hastily. Work somewhere for a little while then go to university because you know why you are going. You can actually learn useful stuff at university rather than go there to just get a bit of paper.
• kirillzubovsky 13y ago
  Dude, whatever you choose to do, please do yourself a favor and ignore the bullshit advice that starts with - "this is how the real world works..." That nonsense only comes from people who had settled for the average. Life works in any way that you want it to work. Look, if you don't want to do the shit work, don't do it, but don't bitch and moan and complain about it. Instead, find a way to still get shit done, while not doing the work you don't want to do. You don't like doing homework? Nobody does. It's a waste of time and you will not use 90% of what you've learned. Spend the bare minimum time you need to pass high-school on work that you have to get done, devote the rest of your time to the work you want to get done. If that means learning computer programming, do it. I had friends in high-school who managed hosting companies, while at high-school. Guess what, while the rest of us were solving stupid problems and learning history, those guys made money. It's not a bad skill to learn. Anyways, this discussion could go back and forth... Get off your ars, close HN and just f'ing do something!
  • elwell 13y ago
    Really? > Life works in any way that you want it to work. This, kids, is why you shouldn't smoke crack.
  • s0rce 13y ago
    "Spend the bare minimum time you need to pass high-school on work that you have to get done" >> and get the grades you need to go to college to learn more For me, the bare minimum still got me good grades in high school, but in college I worked really hard, sometimes the bare minimum isn't enough to succeed.
  • j45 13y ago
    Mind letting us learn more about what you did specifically yourself that that ended up in your recommendation and how it turned out? The story often brings out more of a perspective.
  • psc 13y ago
    Great post. This is the kind of perspective you want to have. This reminds me of PG's high school essay: "The important thing is to get out there and do stuff. Instead of waiting to be taught, go out and learn." - PG Before I quote the whole thing, the OP (and anyone in the same position) should read the whole essay: http://paulgraham.com/hs.html http://paulgraham.com/hs.html If you want the real world to be (quoting from the other post) "lots of sucky boring shitty work, for a few profound moments of bliss," that's fine. But if you don't want to accept that, you don't have to. What Kirill said above is totally right; life works how you want it to. It's normal for someone in high school to feel like the OP, especially someone who's a hacker at heart. School limits you in a lot of ways, but you don't have to let it stop you. You just have to realize that the boundaries are self imposed. You can do real things. So treat school like a day job, get it out of the way, and do what's interesting to you.
• RivieraKid 13y ago
  I tried couple of anti-procrastination techniques and the only one I had moderate success with is the "no internet mode". When I have some project to finish, I make a decision that until it's finished, I won't use the internet at all from the morning to 8pm (except for work-related things and email). What's really important here is that you have to decide firmly. This usually lasts couple of days but I'm thinking about doing this every day.
• clipityclapity 13y ago
  Here's my story. Two years ago, I dropped out of a mathematically oriented master's. Let's say I quit because I wanted to found a company. That's what I tell everybody. And that's what I did. I can get into the details of why it didn't work, but I'll tell you something here, something which, until now, I have only written down in places nobody would read it: I might have been running from reality. Using the company as a hide-out. "Maybe this will give me a purpose?" We pulled the plug when we were forced to realize that it was a dead end. Pause six months. Rethink life. Winter, not a good time. Moved to another country and tried again. It went better, but still not good enough. Again, six months of nothing. Winter. Travel. Maybe languages are my thing? Different cultures? Get lost. Come back. Winter. This time, I'm not letting it steal six months. I'm trying for another project (Show HN soon), I'm going on another travel, and I'll keep on looking, because I know one thing: an office will be the death of me. Unfortunately, programming is generally done in offices. But there's always that doubt. Got some freelance jobs to make ends meet. Flipping burgers, for programmers. Can't continue this way. Stability, future, kids, wives, divorces. So listen, I can't give you a straight advice. I still don't even know where I went wrong exactly, or if I went wrong at all. I don't know if I would've been happier in another place. I sometimes lovingly think back about academia, then I see what happens there and I want to run even farther away than I already am. Motivation is still a problem for me, at times, but it's getting less. I have no regrets (yet), just doubt. A shred of what I would've had, had I not tried for that first company. On the upside: I feel free. Every day. Alive. I can decide to drop everything here and emigrate within a week. And I'm doing it. Because I can. Because it feels like the right choice. If you tell me where you live I can drop by if I'm ever around :) Good luck with whatever path you choose. No matter what you do, do it with pride, son. I believe in you, as long as you do. Sorry I couldn't give you real advice. Oh wait that's not true I totally do have some! Got so caught up in the story.. listen if you really want to tackle this: TALK TO PEOPLE. In terms they can understand. Don't say, "I have doubts." Say: "Can I study with you next Friday? If you FORCE me to be there and do it, I will cook dinner for you." Tell a girl, if she asks why explain here you have trouble concentrating alone, joke that maybe she will make it worse but you're willing to try, and tell her that it's definitely absolutely not a cunning ploy to get a date with her (it's not). If she rejects you ask someone else until you have a girl. Then choose a guy for a different subject (not a close friend, high risk of fucking around), and somebody you really don't know for another one, and a buddhist for the next, and an atheist, and and and make sure you surround your study-self with as many different styles of living as possible. You will be able to draw inspiration from them. Solitude is what's killing you. Your life will mix with theirs and your energy will combine. I'm not even half joking here; the energy you draw from linking your progress to someone else ("teamplay") can amaze you. I'll be your first contact if you want, no problem. Drop me a line on Skype and we can work / study for an hour every Thursday afternoon. (send me your skype though, not leaving it here :P) Peace out, stranger!
• chegra 13y ago
  Ok let me play some mental games with you. Ask yourself would you rather pay $10/$100/$1000 or study for 5 hours? Find the amount where you rather do the studying then pledge to donate that amount to charity. Do this everyday. I find this works for. I estimate you are doing 4 a-levels. That's about 2000 pages of work. A 500 pg book for each subject. If you study 20 pages a day and do all the exercises, I guarantee you will get an A for whatever course(oh yea and do the past papers). In a hundred days or so you could be finished studying for A-levels. Enjoy the days of where you have if/then reward structures. If you study hard you get good grades then you go to a good university then you get a good job. After this, there is hardly any guaranteed recipe for success. So, take the success while you can.
• romanovcode 13y ago
  If you want to be professional programmer you don't really need university. In this profession recruitment doesn't lie when tell things like "BS in CS or similar experience.". Just go and work, then pick up and study something else, like Mathematics or Physics.
• tobinharris 13y ago
  Keep programming and researching. Then use your skills to make cool things. Then show them to potential employers. You'll do great. Try and get to uni anyway. But take the pressure of yourself. If you're making cool things and learning loads you're ahead of the pack.
• poobrains 13y ago
  It could be depression. Google "depression test" to give you an idea about it's symptoms. If you think you've got depression, get medical help ASAP. There are some treatments that can make a big difference in your quality of life.
• brianbarker 13y ago
  I had a rough time getting through my Computer Science degree, despite loving software. I still find things I hate. Currently, I've done web apps for a few years and now I'm fucking sick of them. Time to move on to a new area of CS that challenges me. That's pretty much how it goes. You'll do stuff you hate, but you have to use that as a foundation to do the things you love.
• aaron695 13y ago
  People seem to be misreading your question. You seem fully aware that the subjects you're studying are very important and you need to do well at them. As someone once told me most motivational speakers just lend you motivation. Once you've left the room pumped you quickly go back to square one. So it's hard to know what works, there's a lot of crap out there. I've had moderate success with the Pomodoro Technique http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique But if it doesn't work for you, or as often happens it only works for a while, make sure you go on to something else.
• gqvijay 13y ago
  Wow, you sound like me 20 years ago. And I am quiet surprised at "that's life, shape up" responses. Knowing what I know now, I wish someone would've told me: - Try to get into top schools like Stanford, Harvard, etc. - If you don't have the financial means or the grades or whatever, don't get discouraged one bit! - Since you enjoy "programming or researching", stop stressing over colleges. In my humble opinion, most colleges are overrated. They are designed for drones and will suck the passion out of what you are majoring in. (note: may not be true for all) - In my opinion, typical educational institutions in our country is broken. - Instead, start interning. Do small projects that you can showcase on your passion. Join programming groups, meet ups that are related, etc. - In short, make a living in doing what you love (programming). When you find a job and love what you do, you are no longer "working". Finally, watch this: http://new.ted.com/talks/larry_smith_why_you_will_fail_to_have_a_great_career http://new.ted.com/talks/larry_smith_why_you_will_fail_to_ha...
• jbcurtin2 13y ago
  You're depressed, mate. I bike 10 miles a day( 4 - 6 times a week ) to keep myself in the saddle. After that, I have no issue with this kind of stuff. Eating right is huge, too.
• orasis 13y ago
  Travel the world. Ignore these asshats that try to guilt trip you into working through your slump.
• wildpeaks 13y ago
  If you're a gamer, think of it as Skyrim: you have to craft a lot of iron daggers before you can make dragon armors, but it's worth it :) (that or install a mod, but I haven't found the editor for RealLife yet)
• lallysingh 13y ago
  It's not the material, it's not you. It's the rest of your life. You have to find a way to recharge. I didn't do that for too long, and my grades dropped. My GPA dropped by 50%. I finally took a semester off. I traveled. I got out of the grind and away from family and work and actually tried to explore life a bit. <i-am-obviously-projecting> When you're young and out of high school, you're mostly trying to figure out who you are independent of your parents and upbringing. Sometimes being out of your folks' house for a while and not figuring that out leaves you empty. </i-am-obviously-projecting>. After that, I made recharging a normal part of my week. I gave myself a small music budget (a new album a month, that can't be top-40), looked into other activities (martial arts, motorcycling), and made a point to study different sub-topics of computer science at different times. The same classes that were boring me out, I read their textbooks on the train to work.