[wantsanagent]

I don't care about learning Mandarin, I want to find out how this guy's motivation system works and then download it into my brain.

Doing a PhD and learning Mandarin as a side project?! Doing hours of Anki practice and new note taking, some of it while running on a treadmill? There's just a crazy amount of drive (and what sounds like an epic memory) here.

I don't think people consider base motivation enough when thinking about processes and this guy won some kind of biological and/or upbringing lottery.

[jcla1]

Do not underestimate the urge to procrastinate (by still doing productive things, like learning Mandarin) while pursuing a PhD.

I am not sure if this will be the author's experience too, but pursuing a PhD will often leave you exhausted without any hope of ever finding "the final missing ingredient" to solve the problem you are currently tackling. So turning to entirely unrelated problems, however productive they may seem to outsides, suddenly becomes an attractive alternative in order to procrastinate.

[TheEzEzz]

I wrote my own dynamic keyboard layout to optimize typing speed while procrastinating on my dissertation.

15 years later I'm still using it. My dissertation not so much.

Procrastination is (sometimes) awesome.

[niek_pas]

I am currently learning to color grade, am an active bedroom musician, enjoy cooking and learning about food science, and am training for my first half marathon alongside my PhD. The side project thing is definitely real.

[shepherdjerred]

Having something to procrastinate on is half the reason I’m going to grad school while working full time.

It truly is an excellent hack.

[Agingcoder]

I’m not sure it’s procrastination. Years ago, when struggling with maths , I learned juggling ( 5 balls, tricks etc ) and ended up spending quite a bit of time on it every single day.

In practice, it made me feel very good, more relaxed, because I was able to learn something new and make progress rapidly - self confidence was back. The maths soon got unstuck and life became good.

[leemailll]

haha, so true. I had the same experience while in graduate school.

[Barrin92]

I think an increasingly big difference isn't so much drive as it is sort of the inverse, lack of distraction. A lot of people's attention is just permanently dispersed. What's very effective is just cut all low quality or non necessary media or apps out of your life or limit them to say 15 minutes a day.

Then when you have inevitably nothing to do you can either throw in 10 minutes of doing anki flash cards or doing nothing, and that'll lower the bar to learn immensely. If I had to guess one thing that Isaak doesn't do is scroll for hours through newsfeeds or TikTok. With myself and most people I know that's by far the biggest thing to eat time.

[StefanBatory]

Absolutely - I'm vouching for this comment.

[shepherdjerred]

> Doing hours of Anki practice and new note taking, some of it while running on a treadmill?

I studied with Anki on long 1hr walks and it worked incredibly well for me. I’d definitely recommend trying it!

Some things I learned were DS/algos, Greek alphabet pronunciation (so that I could read math symbols), the periodic table/chemical properties, and misc LeetCode interviewing stuff.

[kenrick95]

> DS/algos

How do you study that on Anki?

[helge9210]

I emigrated twice within ten years (move, learn the language, find a job, than find a job, move, learn the language). I sometimes wonder how does it feel not having to run and push all the time just not to fall behind.

The price for the motivation could be higher you're willing to pay.

[hintymad]

I'm guessing for someone learning a new language is relaxing and therefore helps recharging the person after hours of intense PhD work - things like enjoying daily progress, discovery of foreign culture, the euphoria of being able to read and watch new stuff...

[latentsea]

Learning a new language is a stressful grind. I've studied CJK at a similar pace as this article, and it's equal parts exhaustion as it is elation. Not for the feint of heart.

[fn-mote]

Exactly this.

Unlike the PhD, they make daily progress on the language. Success is visible.

(Edit: ok, the truth is they were not doing this at the same time as the PhD. I still like my comment.)

[musicale]

https://structuredprocrastination.com

See also "The Art of Procrastination" (2012).

[spongebobism]

Thanks, that was a great read and resonates a lot with me. Looking back, most of my learning new languages, getting in shape, playing the guitar, and making new friends was structured procrastination.

[Metacelsus]

He wasn't doing a PhD at the time he was learning Mandarin (he's just started his PhD).

[naming_the_user]

For what it's worth I've been through periods of this multiple times with different things and it never really feels like discipline is required (aside from on some _really_ busy days), you just want to do it if you're actually interested.

I likely couldn't force myself to learn, say, Spanish, if I tried despite it being technically far easier. It's just not interesting to me in the same way.

[layman51]

It’s interesting that you mention motivation/drive on a post like this. I have similar thoughts whenever there are posts about personalized learning technology or improving public education.

[almostgotcaught]

> Doing a PhD and learning Mandarin as a side project?!

his matriculation year is 2024 (and fall classes haven't even started) so he's doing a PhD like the pre-med kids were "doing" med school freshman year. people that brag like this don't finish - there were a few in my cohort too that washed out after quals.

[wenc]

Author also graduated high school from Austria early, and finished a Berkeley math degree in 2 years. I’d say author is gifted.

That said, technical PhDs often require a combination of raw mental horsepower, persistence and luck. (Working for the right advisor in a promising area)

I brought about the same smarts as my peers but they graduated in 5 years whereas I did 8 years because I didn’t have the most promising area of research plus I got unlucky.

[serf]

as someone with lots of impressively credentialed braggart friends.. that's not always the case.

although w.r.t. myself? absolutely agree with the sentiment. I would wash out in half a week with that kind of workload.

[Agingcoder]

Not really - I’d say he just really wants to. Just like when you meet someone and want to spend time with them, are binge watching a show, playing a video game, reading a book, writing code : you want to do that thing again, here learn mandarin.

I’m a lot more familiar with Japanese than with mandarin (and use srs), and it’s worth noting than srs essentially turns anything into an extremely satisfying game : you learn quickly, you really wonder how far you can go, so you keep playing.

I believe that’s the killer combo : really wanting to do something, and having that something turned into a game to avoid giving up.

[10xalphadev]

I use ChatGPT/Claude in bed...

[trhway]

>download it into my brain

"it" is the youth. The guy looks to be mid-20ies. Back then in those years i could go for 3 days without sleep while working, studying, drinking, etc. and many of my friends and classmates at the University were similar.

[seper8]

Noone goes without sleep for three days and doesnt pay a severe heavy price for it. Stop it with that dumb sleep machismo...