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I second this: reading all this can create a sense of guilt. I think for myself, the key is knowing that the guy who biked across India wasn't writing a novel.

I second this: reading all this can create a sense of guilt. I think for myself, the key is knowing that the guy who biked across India wasn't writing a novel. Or at least, he wasn't biking across India, writing a novel, and maintaining a 40+ hour job and raising a family. I'm a husband, father of two kids, am involved in my church, and own a house with a yard. So, "contributing to open source" and "writing every day" or "learning a new skill" is #5 on my list. Probably further down the list if I think about it. That said, I think it is possible to do _one_ of those things well on a regular basis. Right now I'm learning a new programming language. Before that I was reading a number of books. Bottom line: it starts with knowing your own personal bandwidth limits, and knowing your prioritizes. Then backfill with the rest.

tragic 12y ago
> I think for myself, the key is knowing that the guy who biked across India wasn't writing a novel. Or at least, he wasn't biking across India, writing a novel, and maintaining a 40+ hour job and raising a family. Well exactly. A bit of back-of-the-envelope calculation tells me that (to sicken the GP) I write at least 30000 words every 5 months - and that's with a time investment of 3-5 hours on a Tuesday evening (I write commentary for a weekly paper). I could hit eighty or ninety thousand if I didn't like video games and talking to my girlfriend etc. There's no magic there - my dad is a writer, and when I was 6 I wanted to Be Like Him, and ever since I've enjoyed writing. You do that for 22 years, you pick up some speed and style. On the other hand, whenever I think "I need to contribute to $OPEN_SOURCE_PROJECT", I suffer immediately from 'don't know where to start' paralysis, and usually give up pretty quickly. Nobody's ever going to be confident at everything. EDIT: The other thing is sort of 'confirmation bias' - stuff you're very productive at feels very easy, so you don't notice the productivity so much as you feel acutely useless at things which feel difficult.
- justysebitcoin 12y ago
  You don't contribute to open source because you think you need to contribute to open source. That only leads to "don't know where to start" paralysis. You contribute to an open source project because it had a bug or lacked a feature you needed and you took care of it. There is no paralysis when you have laser-focus on a particular problem.
shubhamjain 12y ago
I have always picked up things because I have found them interesting but the sense of guilt of not doing enough plagues you when you see success and recognition of other people in those fields. For eg, someone who didn't waste his time during grad years and was able to complete many awesome things, fetched a job that I could only imagine. Lately, I have been avoiding going out on weekends, because "I have to do build something for world to show". Has this been helpful? Yes maybe, but not certainly, "very enjoyable".
thirdtruck 12y ago
I agree. It's easy to overlook the sustainability advantage of doing something every day. With the rarest exceptions, I've spent at least an hour every day on preparing for, executing, and fulfilling the Kickstarter I ran last year (http://planetoz.net/kickstarter http://planetoz.net/kickstarter). It's only an hour, but it adds up. It's taken much longer to complete than I anticipated. However, I've made steady progress despite losing one job, moving to a new state, and starting a new job over the course of that year. If I had tried to put in 2-4 hours of work every day, on top of managing my full time career, I know (from many a HN comment) that I would have burned out. Instead, I have all my bills in order, steady income, and the funds I need to get the external help (editors, proofreaders, cover artists) that I need beyond what the Kickstarter helped cover. This means a longer wait for my backers, but also much better rewards for their patience. With the hour a day pace, a finished novel looks like an inevitability rather than a mere dream.
Kaihuang724 12y ago
> Bottom line: it starts with knowing your own personal bandwidth limits, and knowing your prioritizes. Then backfill with the rest. I agree with this. All these articles about doing X number of things in order to be productive really are just ideas. They are ideas that you may or may not incorporate depending on what is beneficial for yourself. I work out and stretch every morning, and have recently started to write and read a little bit before I get to work. I don't do these things so I can tell other people about my accomplishments or my awesome rituals. I do these things because they help me throughout my day. Stretching and working out gives me more energy while writing in the morning helps organize my thoughts for the day.

tragic 12y ago

> I think for myself, the key is knowing that the guy who biked across India wasn't writing a novel. Or at least, he wasn't biking across India, writing a novel, and maintaining a 40+ hour job and raising a family. Well exactly. A bit of back-of-the-envelope calculation tells me that (to sicken the GP) I write at least 30000 words every 5 months - and that's with a time investment of 3-5 hours on a Tuesday evening (I write commentary for a weekly paper). I could hit eighty or ninety thousand if I didn't like video games and talking to my girlfriend etc. There's no magic there - my dad is a writer, and when I was 6 I wanted to Be Like Him, and ever since I've enjoyed writing. You do that for 22 years, you pick up some speed and style. On the other hand, whenever I think "I need to contribute to $OPEN_SOURCE_PROJECT", I suffer immediately from 'don't know where to start' paralysis, and usually give up pretty quickly. Nobody's ever going to be confident at everything. EDIT: The other thing is sort of 'confirmation bias' - stuff you're very productive at feels very easy, so you don't notice the productivity so much as you feel acutely useless at things which feel difficult.

justysebitcoin 12y ago
You don't contribute to open source because you think you need to contribute to open source. That only leads to "don't know where to start" paralysis. You contribute to an open source project because it had a bug or lacked a feature you needed and you took care of it. There is no paralysis when you have laser-focus on a particular problem.

shubhamjain 12y ago

I have always picked up things because I have found them interesting but the sense of guilt of not doing enough plagues you when you see success and recognition of other people in those fields. For eg, someone who didn't waste his time during grad years and was able to complete many awesome things, fetched a job that I could only imagine. Lately, I have been avoiding going out on weekends, because "I have to do build something for world to show". Has this been helpful? Yes maybe, but not certainly, "very enjoyable".

thirdtruck 12y ago

I agree. It's easy to overlook the sustainability advantage of doing something every day. With the rarest exceptions, I've spent at least an hour every day on preparing for, executing, and fulfilling the Kickstarter I ran last year (http://planetoz.net/kickstarter http://planetoz.net/kickstarter). It's only an hour, but it adds up. It's taken much longer to complete than I anticipated. However, I've made steady progress despite losing one job, moving to a new state, and starting a new job over the course of that year. If I had tried to put in 2-4 hours of work every day, on top of managing my full time career, I know (from many a HN comment) that I would have burned out. Instead, I have all my bills in order, steady income, and the funds I need to get the external help (editors, proofreaders, cover artists) that I need beyond what the Kickstarter helped cover. This means a longer wait for my backers, but also much better rewards for their patience. With the hour a day pace, a finished novel looks like an inevitability rather than a mere dream.

Kaihuang724 12y ago

> Bottom line: it starts with knowing your own personal bandwidth limits, and knowing your prioritizes. Then backfill with the rest. I agree with this. All these articles about doing X number of things in order to be productive really are just ideas. They are ideas that you may or may not incorporate depending on what is beneficial for yourself. I work out and stretch every morning, and have recently started to write and read a little bit before I get to work. I don't do these things so I can tell other people about my accomplishments or my awesome rituals. I do these things because they help me throughout my day. Stretching and working out gives me more energy while writing in the morning helps organize my thoughts for the day.