The issue is the ego. Ego has a lot of ideas about itself and others. Ego has such high opinion about itself it only can do great work. Which prevents it from doing anything. It's kind of a way of avoiding failures. Because failures will break the grant ideas about himself OP has created.
I accidentally went through a spiritual awakening which diluted ego. I have no problem in doing any kind of work now. Whether it's great or petty.
OP needs to work on the ego. Or figure out a situation where OP has to ship things no matter what. Which is hard unless you are jobless and can't figure a way out apart from building useful things that people pay for.
I struggle with this myself, especially around writing. My solution, from a coding perspective:
If I had a massive new app to build, it would indeed feel overwhelming if I felt like I just had to sit down and build it. I think we get extra stuck on that with writing, as it often feels like we just need to go from an empty page to a well-reasoned and edited blog post, with a lot of ambiguous struggle in between.
With programming, I start breaking it down into pieces of functionality, and smaller ones, until I have a list of concrete things I can actually get my head around and write the code for. I keep on doing those small things, build the structure around them, and eventually I have my app.
I do the same with writing now. Not an outline really, but a list of concepts I want to get across, then smaller ideas. I write out a few of those, often a paragraph at a time. The structure starts to reveal itself, and soon enough I have a new blog post.
I think the key here is arriving at something small enough that it doesn't feel overwhelming. New app or blog post feels like way too much in the moment, and my body and mind to everything possible to avoid it (procrastination). Writing out a paragraph, coding a function - very doable.
I agree with this, but when working with a team I always feel motivated to see the progression made. Rarely do solo developers work well with others and rarely do collaborative developers work well by themselves. It really depends on the dynamic of the environment and the goal of the team.
Great points! Sometimes setting what feels like a lower bar for what you want to accomplish is the best way to get things done.
"I'm just going to spend like 20 minutes writing out this small feature and then call it a day", and doing that like 50 times throughout your side project, will result in a completed side project! :)
Even if it feels really lame, I catch myself thinking: "Well that's not very much to get done," I force myself to knock it out. If I can compare a small feature to emptying the dishwasher -- it only takes 5 minutes -- it makes the task feel a lot more manageable.
Maybe a better analogy is: put just 1 or 2 cups away from the dishwasher, and leave the rest, and don't beat yourself up about it. You know you'll return to put the rest away later.
If you're stuck, just start writing whatever junk is in your head. Make it hilariously bad! Write like a total idiot.
But often that alone is enough to unstick you. Having very rough work is infinitely better than staring at a blank page.
2) Procrastinate "a little bit"
Rebrand some procrastination as manageable short breaks, stop beating yourself up, and take control back from your rebellious subconscious. That way, you're working with yourself, not against it.
3) Always be asking yourself, "What's the smallest thing I can do RIGHT now?" and doing it.
E.g. you might not know how to write a full paper, but you can write down all your random ideas on a sheet of paper. Do that. Then once you're done with that, the next step might be writing an outline. Then, expanding each outline into a short paragraph...
But don't think that far ahead, just do the smallest thing now!
I feel like this also applies to software development. I have a friend, who is a perfectionist. they're really smart! a lot smarter than me actually. with that being said total output and progress towards a goal we both share is higher on my end because I'm as they put it "more industrious". I don't say this as a brag, but more people have different struggles to get started and different motivations. I'm not motivated by the big picture, I'm motivated by the challenge in front of me. others might be motivated by the big picture and not the smaller challenges. either way, I think recognizing that fact, and your motivation, alone is a step in the right direction.
the whole one digs can be deepened similar to Zeno's Paradox by procrastinating a little bit with bad small distractions allowing time to exponentiate small problems into untractable ones.
It is a little reductionary, almost akin to telling depressed people to have a slightly better today than the day before; not necessarily wrong but just rephrasing the problem.
I've been listening to a psychology podcast, and they label every "should"-statement as a cognitive distortion.
> While I do read articles here and there, it’s far less than I should.
Formulating it as a "should" abstracts away who wants it, and makes an artificially abstract norm out of it.
But what is actually? It's probably just something that the author wants. Not doing something I want feels less bad than not doing something I should. There are lots of things that I want and don't get or don't do, I'm already used to that.
It's a bit like the passive voice in writing, it hides who does something, or should do something.
Some "should"s are also what we think that others want us to do, often just assuming that without asking.
And so on. If you assume that every "should" is a thinking error, some go away, some become "want"s. It's a good first step, I recommend it.
> Some "should"s are also what we think that others want us to do, often just assuming that without asking.
Yep, and to take it further, I'd argue this kind of thinking is a reflection of any shortcomings that you think others perceive in you. It's an inadequacy complex.
You think about others saying: "Bill doesn't read enough. He isn't intelligent enough. He isn't informed enough. He spends too much time doing other things..." -- says who? Sometimes this can come from loved ones or colleagues priding themselves in their own hobbies or activities. Other times it can come from past criticism you've received from friends or family.
There is so much freedom in doing something for yourself (because you know it's right) versus pleasing others, when it doesn't really benefit others.
As an example, I don't cave to the pressures of working out because I know I'd only be doing it to impress others. I'm at a healthy weight, but I play recreational sports instead to get my exercise, because I enjoy doing it. I also benefit from socializing with others and being outside doing something competitive.
I (too recently) realized "shoulda, coulda, woulda"'s are generally useless, and to focus on only "need, want"s. If it doesn't fit into these two categories then it's not important enough to think about.
I will repeat my standard advice for writing more: lower your standards, and allow yourself (in fact force yourself) to publish things despite knowing that they could be better if you just changed a few more things...
Also, write about things you've learned and projects you've built: both of those are topics where you aren't expected to provide shining new insight never seen before online: https://simonwillison.net/2022/Nov/6/what-to-blog-about/
Love the overall message, and you’ve obv got the HackerCreds to back it up, but I’ll throw an obligatory “what does it mean to force oneself to do something?” IMHO the idea that you can ‘force’ yourself to do things puts a moral/normative element in the discussion that does more harm than good. It makes one feel like they somehow chose failure, when it inevitably arrives.
We all agree that are limits to self control, otherwise people would force themselves to work all the time, or not be depressed/anxious, or snap out of ADHD - or, hell, not to feel grief. “Encouraging”, “welcoming”, and “promoting” the defeat of perfectionism-based procrastination seems more helpful in the aggregate, IMHO
Worrying what others think resonates with me a lot.
Every few weeks I try to motivate myself to write more online (HN, X, blogs) and consistently get “self sabotage” stuck. (Been going on for >2 years)
The article just says they pushed through and “put it aside”, but that has never seemed to quite work for me. I can push through once or twice, not enough to build a daily habit/obsession like I want.
Anyone have any tips that worked for getting over this hurdle?
> Anyone have any tips that worked for getting over this hurdle?
Since nobody suggested this:
Write for yourself, locally. This removed my writer's block.
After writing for myself for about a year, I blogged consistently for two years.
I've since lost the kadence and want to get back to it, but now priorities have come in the way.
Now I usually write for my local tech community.
I know there's a dozen people who like to learn things if there's an easy way. That motivates me a lot
There's another hurdle of having a clear idea of the target audience; when you're the target audience, it gets a little fuzzy. So it has helped me to think of either "what I'd like to read 6 months from now if I had to learn this after partially forgetting it". Or someone else concrete I'm not actually obligated to share my writing with. Just so I can aim my writing better.
I have no idea if it will help, but the amount of nitpicking I see when people post things online is much more than the amount of nitpicking I’ve seen in the actual PhD defenses I’ve attended, or the research paper peer reviews I’ve gotten back. Of course, it is always possible that you’ll bump into, like, the one person who has much more experience than most professors in a topic, on the Internet. Alternatively, maybe the professors, being experts, can find the positive contribution in imperfect projects.
If you're looking to set up a habit cycle, I'd recommend three steps:
1. Find a cue that will remind you to start writing, e.g. having your morning coffee
2. Write any amount of time; say 30min or so
3. Reward yourself. I just have a little snack, but it could be anything
Works great for me, and I found once I changed some small habits, it was also easier to do better overall.
This advice is from the book "The power of habit" by Charles Dhuigg
It took me way too long to realize this but most people don’t think or care about you. I’m not saying this in a bad way, but only worry about those that matter like your family and friends. No one else thinks about you anyway, so don’t preoccupy yourself worrying about what they think.
I think maybe polish is getting in the way. There's so many really beautiful blog posts out there, well researched, and the author can represent themselves as an expert. But more often than not the really deeply true information I tend to find is a quick little hacker news comment written quickly.
Now a hacker news comment can only contain so much, so sharing your truth a little broader might require some additional medium (graphics, code example, video) but you can clearly articulate yourself well in a HN comment, so maybe think of the blogs as just a little more than a HN comment?
I always remind myself that even the celebrated works supposedly have glaring holes in them. If they can get popular and be cherished, then my work too doesn't have to be "water-tight" at all times.
Hemingway said once that the trick to getting writing done was to stop writing when you know what happens next.
Other writers have talked about being compelled to write to get an idea out of their head that’s stuck there. I think they’re much the same thing. You’re essentially leaving yourself in that obsessed state until you can sit down again.
If you try to sit down with just a long term goal in mind you’re torturing yourself. And likely creating negative reinforcement of future stuckness. Write the bit in front of you, pause when you have an idea what’s next, not when you run out of steam.
Focus on your docs, code, and blog because they’re under your control. Write for yourself. Write for the people who use your work. Publish smaller chunks of work. Add value to your real network.
X, HN, and other socials are far less important. You have no control over whether the algorithm decides to amplify your content. Most work that’s foundational to society isn’t popular on socials today and won’t ever be. There’s a lottery chance you’ll get picked for amplification. Winning that lottery is great, but playing the lottery is not investing in your future.
I've never had much of a fear of not being good enough for others but I've had a fear of not being good enough for myself. I don't know if this will get you over the hurdle but here's what really opened up my work and had me procrastinating less as an artist was:
The act and the process of creating art is what I enjoy. The outcome of that work and sense of accomplishment is fleeting, not that important, and a little out of my hands.
Once I realized this I just make more things, take more chances, and find myself making "better" work than I ever have. So just spend your time doing the thing you like doing. If you don't actually enjoy the process then you probably aren't meant to do it, regardless of the outcome or the accolades.
> Worrying what others think resonates with me a lot.
- There are lots of blog posts and youtube videos about this topic. Try whether any will help you.
- If you post, go down the rabbit hole of your thoughts. What will happen? Keep going with "and then" as far as possible. Then replace negative thoughts with more positive ones. Those have to be believable and not just blindly positive. E.g. replacing "everybody will hate this" with "a lot of people will hate this, but some will really enjoy it" is already progress.
- As a child, did you have a caregiver or teacher that gave you the feeling that if you make mistakes, they will stop loving you? Make it clear to your adult self that you are deserving of love no matter what.
- Do you have types of writing which are easy for you? No matter the answer, why is that?
- Create something intentionally bad without publishing it, and sit with your bad feelings for a while. Usually that reduces the anxiety.
- If you post something, explore your feelings. Is that like nervousness before an exam, general anxiety or something completely different. This might give you a clue, why you struggle.
- Imagine a friend would come to you with this problem. What advice would you give them? How would you react to something you posted if somebody else wrote it?
- Be kind to yourself. Changing this is a long journey.
> Anyone have any tips that worked for getting over this hurdle?
This might give you something to work with: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42102050. Maybe you're confusing natural and reasonable behaviour with self-sabotage? They look the same from some perspectives (such as perfectionism and people-pleasing).
Do you actually enjoy the process of writing online?
Because for me I’ve realized there’s a difference between enjoying actually doing a hobby versus just fantasizing about what it would be like to be good at it.
Maybe that’s not what you’re experiencing, but I’ve tried to get into hobbies and have run into the feeling you describe. Eventually I would drop the hobby because I just didn’t enjoy doing it.
One thing that helped me was accepting that it is not that I might fail but that I will fail initially.
I will produce bad articles because to become good you have to start with your current skill level which probably sucks if you are average. To become good you have to write. Nothing beats actually doing it. But knowing that everyone published something stupid at some point helps me accept that I will also go through that process as well. Everyone failed, everyone will fail and it is fine to fail.
And no matter how good you become you will still fail from time to time. You never graduate from it. Look at the famous movie directors, writers and journalists. Are all their works great? Is each of their work always better than the previous ones? Of course not. Some works will be amazing and insightful, some might be mediocre. Even the very best will have their ups and downs, so why not you?
Each time I publish a post I already accept it might be subpar.
It might be your unconscious deciding that it's not worth doing? Posting things online is rather useless and often brings more negatives than positives.
Sometimes I feel like someone already wrote what I am writing and it doesn't feel good to just work on something I know could be critiqued hard because an alternative exists.
Forget about trying to change this from the perspective of thoughts. Cognitively understanding that you should "just" stop worrying about what other people think about your work might not bring you far.
Instead, realize that anxiety is a bodily phenomenon and as such needs to be addressed with the body. That means: Breathing techniques, exercise etc.
> Instead, realize that anxiety is a bodily phenomenon and as such needs to be addressed with the body. That means: Breathing techniques, exercise etc.
It is not a bodily thing, just there is a bodily feedback loop: you feel anxious, it leads to a bodily reaction, your senses register it, you feel more anxious. Sometimes dealing with the body and breaking the feedback loop is enough, but for me personally it works for 10 minutes or so. If I hadn't overcome the psychological reasons of my anxiety, I feel myself anxious.
> Cognitively understanding that you should "just" stop worrying about what other people think about your work might not bring you far.
May not bring or may bring. It depends... People are different, so different methods are best for them. I deal with things mostly in a psychological ways. My general method for anxiety is to make my anxiety into a fear, by finding the thing that makes me anxious (this step is standard way of psychotherapists to deal with anxiety). Then I imagine that the thing happened and how will I adapt. Mostly I find out that this thing is not as bad as I perceive it, it cannot kill me, it cannot hurt me physically, I can deal with associated social costs, or if I cannot... For example sometimes I can reframe the situation: my goal is not to send the rocket to the Moon (with 10% chance of a success), but rather to do a test launch, to find out how my rocket perform (here we get ~100% chance of a success).
I need to accept the possibility of a failure, and understand that the possible failure is not terminal, it is just possible and acceptable setback. People tend to dramatize and say that some failures are not acceptable, but if people really had a possibility of an unacceptable outcome (lets say it is a painful death for all involved and their families) then the most rational thing to do would be to stop the activity that could lead to this outcome. When I allow myself to buy the dramatization I face anxiety issues.
> > That means: Breathing techniques, exercise etc.
It also means alcohol, drugs, shrooms, ketamine, MDMA, Research Chemicals, uppers, downers, amplifier substances , smoothering substances, focus enhancers, dissociatives...
I mean the modern society seems like coming up with some trends such as the war on drugs, the vice taxes and all the patronizing BS, only to discover that there is a reason why those things exist and we indulged in them for as long as we have been around in the first place
TIL: there are randoms in the world who feel the exact what I feel, on daily basis for past three or four years.
It is frustrating. One recent mindset change I have adopted that reduces the feeling of overwhelming is:
1. Say it out loud, "I have plenty of time" and breathe deeply
2. "I have to work within constraint for which I do not have control of"
3. Can things be a lot more worse then they are? Fortunately, the answer to this has been 100% yes. Things can be worse in terms of developing complicated medical condition to family complication.
4. There always be be 'noise', work on reducing it and accept the 'distractions' are noise. Since distraction is noise, ignore it instead of giving into it.
Something that's not really answered in this post but maybe in another one is - why are they writing?
I used to have the exact same ambitions, blocks and difficulties writing (you can see on my blog).
Turns out, I just don't like writing. It's something that many smart minds extol as a great practice, which I 100% agreed, but once I gave it a serious go for myself, just didn't really enjoy the journey, product nor the outcome.
Usually, you need to like one of those elements otherwise there's a good chance you're not doing the thing for yourself, but because someone else is giving you the reason.
Do try though, because you won't know until you do.
> This ties into my fear of not being good enough. I’m constantly worried about what others might think of my writing. If I don’t think it’s great, how can I expect anyone else to?
I believe this belongs under the term Perfectionist Dilemma, as defined by Adam Miller [1]:
The perfectionist dilemma is when a creator values the quality of a finished product, such to the extent that it inhibits their ability to iterate, change, and even produce. For many, it’s the ultimate writer’s block, invoking a fear that the finished product isn’t or won’t be as originally intended.
> When I read articles on Hacker News about people doing incredible things and writing brilliantly about them, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed.
I totally agree with this. I believe it's an instinct feeling, so I'm accepting it as it is.
Perfectionism is a problem that a lot of us have, and it stops us from failing enough times to perfect ourselves. Finishing a failure is a success. Somebody reading your blog entry and hating it is successfully attracting a reader. Somebody telling you how terrible something you wrote was is successfully attracting a reader and inspiring a reaction.
If the substance of the bad review hurts, it means you've communicated something clearly enough that it was easy to pick apart. If you understand and accept the criticism about how you were wrong, now you have a better chance of being right.
This is Hillary Rettig's specialty; she largely focuses on being kind to yourself, and getting out of your own ass. The world isn't ending when you fail.
I really think we do a number on kids expecting a 100%, perfection, as a goal. And then only give them one chance to achieve it, but ask them to do it day after day for years. It creates some really unhealthy coping mechanism.
Review: The author uses this article to say why they're not writing as much as they want. They break it down into two reasons: self judgement of quality, and the quality bar set by articles and projects in their sphere of reading.
It ends with having acknowledged the issues, the author is ready to write more.
Opinion: having seen this with many friends I think the author does good to acknowledge it, but the main thing to figure out is why they're writing. To be prolific at writing does not need to imply prolific at publishing.
I've actually started to write these review style comments because far too often the articles posted here don't have substance and interesting debates happen around bad data. So I wanted to see a change and critique the content not just the general concepts behind it. I now write more without having to accept my contributions are significant. But also create a network effect where friends read my reviews instead of being swayed by the upvotes and comment sizes, or worse the algorithm.
One thing to keep in mind is that the vast, overwhelming majority of people in the world, or even your town, don't know who you are and will never be aware of anything you do. This goes even for people who are relatively well known in their field. It's nearly daily I see some story here about someone who is apparently "well known" and my reaction is "Who? I've never heard of this person."
Don't worry about being good enough or what other people will think. The truth is almost nobody even cares.
Maybe because you care about what others think you actually tell yourself that you need to write and read more to become "better" (not necessarily than others, just "better" as a person because you feel inadequate) and your body tells you that it's not actually what you want?
The solution might be to use the internet less and enjoy the offline life some more, not to "overcome the hurdle".
I think people here might like Oliver Burkeman's books where he talks about this stuff a lot. I loved his book "Four Thousand Weeks", and there is a new follow-up "Meditation for Mortals" which I have not read yet but seems to be well-received.
He's one of the few people I've seen address what I think is the key difficulty with this sort of stuff: that you can think think that you're addressing procrastination/perfectionism when actually you are engaging in it (with a target of fixing your procrastination/perfectionism). It's a difficult situation to break out of, because it seems like any effort to break-out would necessarily have this sort of grasping, but I think he (and Buddhist meditation) talk a lot about that key challenge.
[+] [-] hshshshshsh|1 year ago|reply
The issue is the ego. Ego has a lot of ideas about itself and others. Ego has such high opinion about itself it only can do great work. Which prevents it from doing anything. It's kind of a way of avoiding failures. Because failures will break the grant ideas about himself OP has created.
I accidentally went through a spiritual awakening which diluted ego. I have no problem in doing any kind of work now. Whether it's great or petty.
OP needs to work on the ego. Or figure out a situation where OP has to ship things no matter what. Which is hard unless you are jobless and can't figure a way out apart from building useful things that people pay for.
[+] [-] spuds|1 year ago|reply
If I had a massive new app to build, it would indeed feel overwhelming if I felt like I just had to sit down and build it. I think we get extra stuck on that with writing, as it often feels like we just need to go from an empty page to a well-reasoned and edited blog post, with a lot of ambiguous struggle in between.
With programming, I start breaking it down into pieces of functionality, and smaller ones, until I have a list of concrete things I can actually get my head around and write the code for. I keep on doing those small things, build the structure around them, and eventually I have my app.
I do the same with writing now. Not an outline really, but a list of concepts I want to get across, then smaller ideas. I write out a few of those, often a paragraph at a time. The structure starts to reveal itself, and soon enough I have a new blog post.
I think the key here is arriving at something small enough that it doesn't feel overwhelming. New app or blog post feels like way too much in the moment, and my body and mind to everything possible to avoid it (procrastination). Writing out a paragraph, coding a function - very doable.
[+] [-] Sparkyte|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] docmars|1 year ago|reply
"I'm just going to spend like 20 minutes writing out this small feature and then call it a day", and doing that like 50 times throughout your side project, will result in a completed side project! :)
Even if it feels really lame, I catch myself thinking: "Well that's not very much to get done," I force myself to knock it out. If I can compare a small feature to emptying the dishwasher -- it only takes 5 minutes -- it makes the task feel a lot more manageable.
Maybe a better analogy is: put just 1 or 2 cups away from the dishwasher, and leave the rest, and don't beat yourself up about it. You know you'll return to put the rest away later.
[+] [-] Schiendelman|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] asdfman123|1 year ago|reply
1) Give yourself permission to do bad work.
If you're stuck, just start writing whatever junk is in your head. Make it hilariously bad! Write like a total idiot.
But often that alone is enough to unstick you. Having very rough work is infinitely better than staring at a blank page.
2) Procrastinate "a little bit"
Rebrand some procrastination as manageable short breaks, stop beating yourself up, and take control back from your rebellious subconscious. That way, you're working with yourself, not against it.
3) Always be asking yourself, "What's the smallest thing I can do RIGHT now?" and doing it.
E.g. you might not know how to write a full paper, but you can write down all your random ideas on a sheet of paper. Do that. Then once you're done with that, the next step might be writing an outline. Then, expanding each outline into a short paragraph...
But don't think that far ahead, just do the smallest thing now!
[+] [-] jdironman|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] Jerrrry|1 year ago|reply
the whole one digs can be deepened similar to Zeno's Paradox by procrastinating a little bit with bad small distractions allowing time to exponentiate small problems into untractable ones.
It is a little reductionary, almost akin to telling depressed people to have a slightly better today than the day before; not necessarily wrong but just rephrasing the problem.
It is correct, but only by definition.
[+] [-] perlgeek|1 year ago|reply
> While I do read articles here and there, it’s far less than I should.
Formulating it as a "should" abstracts away who wants it, and makes an artificially abstract norm out of it.
But what is actually? It's probably just something that the author wants. Not doing something I want feels less bad than not doing something I should. There are lots of things that I want and don't get or don't do, I'm already used to that.
It's a bit like the passive voice in writing, it hides who does something, or should do something.
Some "should"s are also what we think that others want us to do, often just assuming that without asking.
And so on. If you assume that every "should" is a thinking error, some go away, some become "want"s. It's a good first step, I recommend it.
[+] [-] docmars|1 year ago|reply
Yep, and to take it further, I'd argue this kind of thinking is a reflection of any shortcomings that you think others perceive in you. It's an inadequacy complex.
You think about others saying: "Bill doesn't read enough. He isn't intelligent enough. He isn't informed enough. He spends too much time doing other things..." -- says who? Sometimes this can come from loved ones or colleagues priding themselves in their own hobbies or activities. Other times it can come from past criticism you've received from friends or family.
There is so much freedom in doing something for yourself (because you know it's right) versus pleasing others, when it doesn't really benefit others.
As an example, I don't cave to the pressures of working out because I know I'd only be doing it to impress others. I'm at a healthy weight, but I play recreational sports instead to get my exercise, because I enjoy doing it. I also benefit from socializing with others and being outside doing something competitive.
[+] [-] gsuuon|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] pwrstick|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] simonw|1 year ago|reply
Also, write about things you've learned and projects you've built: both of those are topics where you aren't expected to provide shining new insight never seen before online: https://simonwillison.net/2022/Nov/6/what-to-blog-about/
[+] [-] bbor|1 year ago|reply
We all agree that are limits to self control, otherwise people would force themselves to work all the time, or not be depressed/anxious, or snap out of ADHD - or, hell, not to feel grief. “Encouraging”, “welcoming”, and “promoting” the defeat of perfectionism-based procrastination seems more helpful in the aggregate, IMHO
[+] [-] bluecoconut|1 year ago|reply
The article just says they pushed through and “put it aside”, but that has never seemed to quite work for me. I can push through once or twice, not enough to build a daily habit/obsession like I want.
Anyone have any tips that worked for getting over this hurdle?
[+] [-] sshine|1 year ago|reply
Since nobody suggested this:
Write for yourself, locally. This removed my writer's block.
After writing for myself for about a year, I blogged consistently for two years.
I've since lost the kadence and want to get back to it, but now priorities have come in the way.
Now I usually write for my local tech community.
I know there's a dozen people who like to learn things if there's an easy way. That motivates me a lot
There's another hurdle of having a clear idea of the target audience; when you're the target audience, it gets a little fuzzy. So it has helped me to think of either "what I'd like to read 6 months from now if I had to learn this after partially forgetting it". Or someone else concrete I'm not actually obligated to share my writing with. Just so I can aim my writing better.
[+] [-] bee_rider|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] mfscholar|1 year ago|reply
1. Find a cue that will remind you to start writing, e.g. having your morning coffee
2. Write any amount of time; say 30min or so
3. Reward yourself. I just have a little snack, but it could be anything
Works great for me, and I found once I changed some small habits, it was also easier to do better overall. This advice is from the book "The power of habit" by Charles Dhuigg
[+] [-] matwood|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] mips_avatar|1 year ago|reply
Now a hacker news comment can only contain so much, so sharing your truth a little broader might require some additional medium (graphics, code example, video) but you can clearly articulate yourself well in a HN comment, so maybe think of the blogs as just a little more than a HN comment?
[+] [-] deathtrader666|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] hinkley|1 year ago|reply
Other writers have talked about being compelled to write to get an idea out of their head that’s stuck there. I think they’re much the same thing. You’re essentially leaving yourself in that obsessed state until you can sit down again.
If you try to sit down with just a long term goal in mind you’re torturing yourself. And likely creating negative reinforcement of future stuckness. Write the bit in front of you, pause when you have an idea what’s next, not when you run out of steam.
[+] [-] mch82|1 year ago|reply
X, HN, and other socials are far less important. You have no control over whether the algorithm decides to amplify your content. Most work that’s foundational to society isn’t popular on socials today and won’t ever be. There’s a lottery chance you’ll get picked for amplification. Winning that lottery is great, but playing the lottery is not investing in your future.
[+] [-] dartos|1 year ago|reply
What changed for me was accepting that my posts aren’t going to be polished and it’s okay if they don’t front page HN.
I just jot down notes, organize them in an outline and publish it.
I figure eventually, as I feel more comfortable with it, I’ll polish up my posts more and more.
[+] [-] lancesells|1 year ago|reply
The act and the process of creating art is what I enjoy. The outcome of that work and sense of accomplishment is fleeting, not that important, and a little out of my hands.
Once I realized this I just make more things, take more chances, and find myself making "better" work than I ever have. So just spend your time doing the thing you like doing. If you don't actually enjoy the process then you probably aren't meant to do it, regardless of the outcome or the accolades.
[+] [-] tame3902|1 year ago|reply
- There are lots of blog posts and youtube videos about this topic. Try whether any will help you.
- If you post, go down the rabbit hole of your thoughts. What will happen? Keep going with "and then" as far as possible. Then replace negative thoughts with more positive ones. Those have to be believable and not just blindly positive. E.g. replacing "everybody will hate this" with "a lot of people will hate this, but some will really enjoy it" is already progress.
- As a child, did you have a caregiver or teacher that gave you the feeling that if you make mistakes, they will stop loving you? Make it clear to your adult self that you are deserving of love no matter what.
- Do you have types of writing which are easy for you? No matter the answer, why is that?
- Create something intentionally bad without publishing it, and sit with your bad feelings for a while. Usually that reduces the anxiety.
- If you post something, explore your feelings. Is that like nervousness before an exam, general anxiety or something completely different. This might give you a clue, why you struggle.
- Imagine a friend would come to you with this problem. What advice would you give them? How would you react to something you posted if somebody else wrote it?
- Be kind to yourself. Changing this is a long journey.
[+] [-] luckydata|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] caseyy|1 year ago|reply
This might give you something to work with: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42102050. Maybe you're confusing natural and reasonable behaviour with self-sabotage? They look the same from some perspectives (such as perfectionism and people-pleasing).
[+] [-] hop_n_bop|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] e1gen-v|1 year ago|reply
Because for me I’ve realized there’s a difference between enjoying actually doing a hobby versus just fantasizing about what it would be like to be good at it.
Maybe that’s not what you’re experiencing, but I’ve tried to get into hobbies and have run into the feeling you describe. Eventually I would drop the hobby because I just didn’t enjoy doing it.
Ps congrats on writing online :)
[+] [-] almatabata|1 year ago|reply
I will produce bad articles because to become good you have to start with your current skill level which probably sucks if you are average. To become good you have to write. Nothing beats actually doing it. But knowing that everyone published something stupid at some point helps me accept that I will also go through that process as well. Everyone failed, everyone will fail and it is fine to fail.
And no matter how good you become you will still fail from time to time. You never graduate from it. Look at the famous movie directors, writers and journalists. Are all their works great? Is each of their work always better than the previous ones? Of course not. Some works will be amazing and insightful, some might be mediocre. Even the very best will have their ups and downs, so why not you?
Each time I publish a post I already accept it might be subpar.
[+] [-] phito|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] Sparkyte|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] protoman3000|1 year ago|reply
Forget about trying to change this from the perspective of thoughts. Cognitively understanding that you should "just" stop worrying about what other people think about your work might not bring you far.
Instead, realize that anxiety is a bodily phenomenon and as such needs to be addressed with the body. That means: Breathing techniques, exercise etc.
[+] [-] ordu|1 year ago|reply
It is not a bodily thing, just there is a bodily feedback loop: you feel anxious, it leads to a bodily reaction, your senses register it, you feel more anxious. Sometimes dealing with the body and breaking the feedback loop is enough, but for me personally it works for 10 minutes or so. If I hadn't overcome the psychological reasons of my anxiety, I feel myself anxious.
> Cognitively understanding that you should "just" stop worrying about what other people think about your work might not bring you far.
May not bring or may bring. It depends... People are different, so different methods are best for them. I deal with things mostly in a psychological ways. My general method for anxiety is to make my anxiety into a fear, by finding the thing that makes me anxious (this step is standard way of psychotherapists to deal with anxiety). Then I imagine that the thing happened and how will I adapt. Mostly I find out that this thing is not as bad as I perceive it, it cannot kill me, it cannot hurt me physically, I can deal with associated social costs, or if I cannot... For example sometimes I can reframe the situation: my goal is not to send the rocket to the Moon (with 10% chance of a success), but rather to do a test launch, to find out how my rocket perform (here we get ~100% chance of a success).
I need to accept the possibility of a failure, and understand that the possible failure is not terminal, it is just possible and acceptable setback. People tend to dramatize and say that some failures are not acceptable, but if people really had a possibility of an unacceptable outcome (lets say it is a painful death for all involved and their families) then the most rational thing to do would be to stop the activity that could lead to this outcome. When I allow myself to buy the dramatization I face anxiety issues.
[+] [-] srid|1 year ago|reply
In regards to anxiety, this is what works best for me: https://actualism.app/
[+] [-] JumpinJack_Cash|1 year ago|reply
It also means alcohol, drugs, shrooms, ketamine, MDMA, Research Chemicals, uppers, downers, amplifier substances , smoothering substances, focus enhancers, dissociatives...
I mean the modern society seems like coming up with some trends such as the war on drugs, the vice taxes and all the patronizing BS, only to discover that there is a reason why those things exist and we indulged in them for as long as we have been around in the first place
[+] [-] mattfrommars|1 year ago|reply
It is frustrating. One recent mindset change I have adopted that reduces the feeling of overwhelming is:
1. Say it out loud, "I have plenty of time" and breathe deeply
2. "I have to work within constraint for which I do not have control of"
3. Can things be a lot more worse then they are? Fortunately, the answer to this has been 100% yes. Things can be worse in terms of developing complicated medical condition to family complication.
4. There always be be 'noise', work on reducing it and accept the 'distractions' are noise. Since distraction is noise, ignore it instead of giving into it.
[+] [-] irjustin|1 year ago|reply
I used to have the exact same ambitions, blocks and difficulties writing (you can see on my blog).
Turns out, I just don't like writing. It's something that many smart minds extol as a great practice, which I 100% agreed, but once I gave it a serious go for myself, just didn't really enjoy the journey, product nor the outcome.
Usually, you need to like one of those elements otherwise there's a good chance you're not doing the thing for yourself, but because someone else is giving you the reason.
Do try though, because you won't know until you do.
[+] [-] redbell|1 year ago|reply
I believe this belongs under the term Perfectionist Dilemma, as defined by Adam Miller [1]:
> When I read articles on Hacker News about people doing incredible things and writing brilliantly about them, it’s hard not to feel overwhelmed.I totally agree with this. I believe it's an instinct feeling, so I'm accepting it as it is.
_________________________
1. https://medium.com/@thatadammiller/the-perfectionist-dilemma...
[+] [-] pessimizer|1 year ago|reply
If the substance of the bad review hurts, it means you've communicated something clearly enough that it was easy to pick apart. If you understand and accept the criticism about how you were wrong, now you have a better chance of being right.
This is Hillary Rettig's specialty; she largely focuses on being kind to yourself, and getting out of your own ass. The world isn't ending when you fail.
https://hillaryrettigproductivity.com/the-seven-secrets-of-t...
[+] [-] michael-online|1 year ago|reply
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wLP0izeJE
[+] [-] dexwiz|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] ilidur|1 year ago|reply
Opinion: having seen this with many friends I think the author does good to acknowledge it, but the main thing to figure out is why they're writing. To be prolific at writing does not need to imply prolific at publishing.
I've actually started to write these review style comments because far too often the articles posted here don't have substance and interesting debates happen around bad data. So I wanted to see a change and critique the content not just the general concepts behind it. I now write more without having to accept my contributions are significant. But also create a network effect where friends read my reviews instead of being swayed by the upvotes and comment sizes, or worse the algorithm.
[+] [-] SoftTalker|1 year ago|reply
Don't worry about being good enough or what other people will think. The truth is almost nobody even cares.
[+] [-] Liquix|1 year ago|reply
"The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind." - Albert Einstein
"If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that." - Stephen King
In other words unplugging, making time to read books, and allowing yourself to be bored are all good ways to stimulate the creative mind.
[+] [-] codemogul|1 year ago|reply
When everything seems like a elephant... start with small bites.
And get a good way into the elephant before you start measuring how well you are doing the eating.
[+] [-] amonith|1 year ago|reply
The solution might be to use the internet less and enjoy the offline life some more, not to "overcome the hurdle".
[+] [-] comatoast|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] kmod|1 year ago|reply
He's one of the few people I've seen address what I think is the key difficulty with this sort of stuff: that you can think think that you're addressing procrastination/perfectionism when actually you are engaging in it (with a target of fixing your procrastination/perfectionism). It's a difficult situation to break out of, because it seems like any effort to break-out would necessarily have this sort of grasping, but I think he (and Buddhist meditation) talk a lot about that key challenge.