Good luck! We can all do this. Create and create and you will eventually catch up with your taste.
I have a personal theory that unhappiness is due to too much consumption, not enough personal creation. Even if it just a sketchnote or a doodle... that is enough.
> Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this.
> We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It’s only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.
No joke. I made no specific resolution, but a few weeks ago I promised myself to do this. Includes origami, programming and coloring books (if you're impressed by drawing, and want to learn drawing, you should start somewhere.)
I found this line in an old blog post from 2013 in my drafts folder.
> But honestly, I've been thinking back, trying to remember the last time I felt like I was really in control and being the person I wanted to be.
That was 5 years ago and I now realize I've felt like that almost the whole time, with brief breaks. My goal is to treat this as a real problem and solve it.
Let me guess you are employed? I was in a similar situation and quitting my job helped me get out of this. Beginning was bumpy and I regreted it somewhat for some time, but I don’t even think about it anymore. It’s ok if you don’t have a plan or a project, you need some curiosity and general area of what you are interested in (a stack of unread books counts).
You aren’t betting on your project but on your skills. Like if you spend a year doing a thing, you’ll be a beast. And even if your thing doesn’t work out, you’ll be fine.
Email me (<my username>@gmail.com) if you need someone to help you plan it. I don’t have all the answers but I have some. This counts for anyone else reading this as well.
Really good artists hate their work. They are their own worst critic. That's why they always improve. It's the poor artists that think their own work is great, better than everyone else.
The person you want to be should be better than the person you are today, but that also means it's unattainable.
Just checked your blog. Are you really clear about the person you do want to be?
Are you moving to Denmark? BTW a former colleague of mine moved from UK to Copenhagen and absolutely loves the quality of life there. Funnily enough another colleague just emigrated to Canada!
I don't like resolutions. They are lies we tell ourselves, false promises from our present self about our future self. If you actually believe you can accomplish your resolutions, you don't need a manufactured holiday, like New Year's, to decide to change your life. Any day of the week should work. Don't wait until 2018 - start today.
Posted on January 1st, 2018 for the majority of the world. ;)
I get your point, but resolutions are powerful tools. Ever walked into a room and forgotten why you did? It’s because you artificially create a new cognitive context when you walk through a door. A new year is similar. It may only be symbolic, but shedding dead weight and planning for a new year is an important exercise for many people - successful goalsetters included.
One should draw a line in sand. Of course any millisecond might be your resolution. But we are humans, not machines. Motivation derives from importance. Anything you value is good enough.
If resolutions were so powerful, why not have monthly, weekly, daily, or hourly resolutions? Imagine the things we could accomplish if all it took was to attach a goal to a discrete unit of time. My new day resolution is to get some more sleep.
I’ll be doing a slightly-silly personal challenge that I made up: walk 7,777,777 steps, write 777,777 words, do 77,777 jumping jacks, 7,777 press-ups, eat 777 different types of fruit, achieve target weight of 77kg, and run 7 10K races.
* Exercise Everyday (intensity/duration may vary, but never ever miss)
* Make healthy diet changes one at a time (Very very hard to do. Try to do multiple stuff and drop them all. ) First change, start with raw veggies in the morning.
* Delta-debug how to get into flow state as many time and as fast as possible (Kramer's rule from below, couldn't be better stated). For starters, work on one and only one thing at a time. Suffering from analysis-paralysitis and spread-too-thiningitis
With respect to your first point I would advise to give yourself some slack. Not only does the body need some rest days, but it will also help with willpower. My usual goal is no less than three days and no more than six.
Learn new tech stacks , and get into Big data & ML. TO not be a generalist dev anymore, and get into either Amazon or Microsoft. May be find the right girl and get married. Lesser Netflix , more reading books and writing (blogs/Medium).Not to laze around on weekends and invest that time into building new skills and advance my career. As always lots of stuff to do and hope I can achieve the maximum possible till Jan 1 2019. Happy New Year HN !
I haven't found a greater thrill in life than meeting a girl in day-to-day life (like at the supermarket). Always a mixture of deep fear and excitement, despite any attempts to rationalize the heart-pounding away.
Improve my Spanish vocabulary by extensively reading at least one million words of Spanish. I’m currently at the level where I can read about 12 pages of Harry Potter per hour without a dictionary, or faster with Readlang. One million words is about the length of the entire Harry Potter series.
Continue my porn-free streak to prioritize real life sexual experiences.
"Who knew making friends in a city could be so hard?"
I've never found a place where it was easy to make friends, though the easiest has seemed to be language class full of other immigrants. We all had that one thing in common.
How do you plan on shipping every day, being more accountable, and staying focused when you take enough time off to visit 6 different countries in one year? Sounds like resolution #6 should be to stop bullshitting yourself.
Probably try for a Master's degree since my employer would essentially pay for it.
I've been wondering what the next step is for me after 5 years as a (professional) web developer. I still enjoy it but I can't help but think that there's something after. I work on a very modern stack (React, Redux, TypeScript, etc.) and I imagine many here would be satisfied with that. But lately I keep trying to define the value that I bring to the table and it's hard to verbalize, when it shouldn't be. So learning to express that is also on the table.
I've also been getting my feet wet with crypto, machine learning and FinTech. They may turn out to be 2017 fads but so was JavaScript and jQuery back in the day.
11 years ago my resolution was to stop making resolutions. So I've got some great resolution ideas but am screwed because I never fail to deliver on a new years resolution.
I'm spending more time working on things that I can touch. That means more woodworking, electronics projects without any software attached, and customizing real-world tools like my desk, coffeemaker, and bass amp for what I want them to do.
I'd also like to get my bench press up from 170 to 225 and cut carbs down, but not eliminate them.
1. Build a 2d side scroller.
2. Build the website currently codename saw.
3. Up my CS game.
4. Build a robot that will at least pickup one object.
5. It is time I buy that school bus to live in for a while.
Alex Vermeer's guide "8,760 hours" [1] could be helpful if you didn't already come up with your resolutions: Its method gives you a framework how to analyze and prioritize your long term goals for this or the next year.
[+] [-] mlmartin|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wallflower|8 years ago|reply
I have a personal theory that unhappiness is due to too much consumption, not enough personal creation. Even if it just a sketchnote or a doodle... that is enough.
> Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this.
> We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It’s only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.
-Ira Glass
Video version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wLP0izeJE
https://youtu.be/E1oZhEIrer4
[+] [-] hardfire|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] imhoguy|8 years ago|reply
I plan good consumption, some laziness to free mind, more good body stretch and some good creation in cooperation with others.
[+] [-] b0rsuk|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|8 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] roryisok|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whatyoucantsay|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] willart4food|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nitins|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sidcool|8 years ago|reply
What are you planning on creating? /s
[+] [-] captn3m0|8 years ago|reply
>Create, not Consume
Even tried making a poster out of it.
[+] [-] Ozaq|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Kluny|8 years ago|reply
> But honestly, I've been thinking back, trying to remember the last time I felt like I was really in control and being the person I wanted to be.
That was 5 years ago and I now realize I've felt like that almost the whole time, with brief breaks. My goal is to treat this as a real problem and solve it.
[+] [-] adamnemecek|8 years ago|reply
You aren’t betting on your project but on your skills. Like if you spend a year doing a thing, you’ll be a beast. And even if your thing doesn’t work out, you’ll be fine.
Email me (<my username>@gmail.com) if you need someone to help you plan it. I don’t have all the answers but I have some. This counts for anyone else reading this as well.
[+] [-] snarfy|8 years ago|reply
The person you want to be should be better than the person you are today, but that also means it's unattainable.
[+] [-] zapperdapper|8 years ago|reply
Are you moving to Denmark? BTW a former colleague of mine moved from UK to Copenhagen and absolutely loves the quality of life there. Funnily enough another colleague just emigrated to Canada!
[+] [-] Afforess|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] keithwhor|8 years ago|reply
Posted on January 1st, 2018 for the majority of the world. ;)
I get your point, but resolutions are powerful tools. Ever walked into a room and forgotten why you did? It’s because you artificially create a new cognitive context when you walk through a door. A new year is similar. It may only be symbolic, but shedding dead weight and planning for a new year is an important exercise for many people - successful goalsetters included.
[+] [-] yakitori|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kaskavalci|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JSONwebtoken|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jl6|8 years ago|reply
https://medium.com/@7sevens/the-seven-sevens-challenge-c7b7d...
[+] [-] sharmi|8 years ago|reply
* Make healthy diet changes one at a time (Very very hard to do. Try to do multiple stuff and drop them all. ) First change, start with raw veggies in the morning.
* Delta-debug how to get into flow state as many time and as fast as possible (Kramer's rule from below, couldn't be better stated). For starters, work on one and only one thing at a time. Suffering from analysis-paralysitis and spread-too-thiningitis
[+] [-] red0|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] parvatzar|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] starpilot|8 years ago|reply
Get my hiking rate of ascent to 2,500 ft/hr.
[+] [-] chillacy|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] parvatzar|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] s0rce|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jurassic|8 years ago|reply
Continue my porn-free streak to prioritize real life sexual experiences.
[+] [-] olingern|8 years ago|reply
- Undo minor case of hip impingement ( sitting down too much! )
- Connect with more people / foster better relationships. Who knew making friends in a city could be so hard?
Programming
- Finish SICP. Made it through four chapters with co-workers, and then everyone dropped off.
- Continue exploring functional programming
- Finish my homegrown Japanese kana / kanji language learning tool
Other:
- Take some of the wisdom from this thread[1], and make myself more "marketable" through blogging, giving talks, etc.
- Pass the JLPT 3 test
[1] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15994410
[+] [-] Broken_Hippo|8 years ago|reply
I've never found a place where it was easy to make friends, though the easiest has seemed to be language class full of other immigrants. We all had that one thing in common.
[+] [-] sirtel|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zitterbewegung|8 years ago|reply
Release an Open Source Project and develop it for a year.
Turn my comments into blog posts instead of just comments.
But most important to have fun!
[+] [-] vinrob92|8 years ago|reply
2. Be more accountable - write on Skype every day to my business partner what I will work on today.
3. Stay focused - Keep putting the gas on the 1 or 2 things taht work.
4. Stop seeking perfection - find 90% of results with 10% of efforts.
And of course:
5. Travel more - I plan to visit South Korea, Japan, China, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia this year!
[+] [-] owenversteeg|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JSONwebtoken|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hguhghuff|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] arenaninja|8 years ago|reply
I've been wondering what the next step is for me after 5 years as a (professional) web developer. I still enjoy it but I can't help but think that there's something after. I work on a very modern stack (React, Redux, TypeScript, etc.) and I imagine many here would be satisfied with that. But lately I keep trying to define the value that I bring to the table and it's hard to verbalize, when it shouldn't be. So learning to express that is also on the table.
I've also been getting my feet wet with crypto, machine learning and FinTech. They may turn out to be 2017 fads but so was JavaScript and jQuery back in the day.
[+] [-] emerged|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kramer1416|8 years ago|reply
- Run and exercise at least 3 times a week
- Delta-debug how to get into flow state as many time and as fast as possible
[+] [-] RickJWag|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] PascLeRasc|8 years ago|reply
I'd also like to get my bench press up from 170 to 225 and cut carbs down, but not eliminate them.
[+] [-] smilesnd|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ruxkor|8 years ago|reply
[1]: https://alexvermeer.com/8760hours/
HN post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13249796
[+] [-] maxdeviant|8 years ago|reply
- Work less, achieve more
- No alcohol
- Read more
- Write more
- Practice my Mandarin
- Produce 1 song/week (https://weeklybeats.com/)
- Continue to make one thing every day
[+] [-] keithwhor|8 years ago|reply
- 1,000lbs combined 1RM on Squat, Bench, Deadlift
- Run two half-marathons
- Spend more time with my girlfriend and my dog
Hold me to it, HackerNews.
[1] https://stdlib.com/