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Why I Procrastinate (2019)

425 pointsby InvisibleUpover 5 years ago

43 comments

kleborpover 5 years ago
The post linked within this post was really illuminating for me: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gekk.info&#x2F;articles&#x2F;adhd.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;gekk.info&#x2F;articles&#x2F;adhd.html</a><p>The section on why notecards and todo lists have never worked for him (and for me) was particularly salient:<p><i>&quot;The problem with &quot;systems&quot; is that they are authorities. They have to be. If you decide &quot;I&#x27;ll prioritize things with a stack of notecards&quot; then you are telling yourself the following:<p>&quot;The notecards replace my own brain. Everything that I do must be on a notecard. If it isn&#x27;t on a notecard, it can&#x27;t be done. If I want it done, it has to be on a notecard.&quot;<p>The problem is that when you have a crisis (a day full of emergencies) that forces you to break from this system you will lose all respect for its authority. Your brain will learn that it doesn&#x27;t have to respect the notecards, that they aren&#x27;t in charge, and this sense of freedom is addictive and will persist. Most ADHD sufferers have left a trail of systems - notecards, whiteboards, lists, post-its, apps, alarms - that worked great for [a month, a week, three days] but are now dead to them, scorched earth we can&#x27;t return to.&quot;</i>
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spawarottiover 5 years ago
TL;DR: &quot;Most people don&#x27;t have problems with procrastination&quot; &lt;CITATION NEEDED&gt;<p>I’ve read the article. I would caution against labeling yourself as having ADHD, IMO it is very dangerous. Every high-achieving person I know has <i>major</i> problem with procrastination. I was nodding while reading the article until the ADHD part. Does it mean we all have ADHD? Consider an alternative: our brains have to operate nonstop at near max capacity just to handle complexities of modern society with computers and Internet. They rebel and as a result we slap them with “defective, ADHD” labels. By analogy, if you would feed somebody ungodly amounts of cake day in, day out, it is no wonder if they develop diabetes. The problem is not that you are inherently defective; the problem is you (or rather – modern society) brought you to the brink and now you wonder why you are breaking down. Perhaps try to unplug for some months in the woods and see if the symptoms persist? If they do, I stand corrected.
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elliusover 5 years ago
A lot of people here are defending ADHD&#x2F;procrastination, and while I agree with a lot of the points (especially the one about industrialization being maladaptive), it&#x27;s worth considering the personal cost of not mitigating these behaviors. &quot;Rework&quot; ends with a good quote about inspiration being a diminishing resource. You might feel really passionate about some big project, but if you don&#x27;t have the skills to organize, plan, and implement the subtasks required to get it done, your enthusiasm will eventually wane and you&#x27;ll never bring it to life. This happened to me perpetually throughout my twenties and I&#x27;ve lost track of how many good ideas I had that died on the vine because I lacked the skill to bring them to life. Figuring out how to create a system that works for you and allows you to capture and make progress on your ideas is hugely valuable. I understand the concern about becoming a slave to a system, but letting your potential wither away is an equally unpleasant fate.
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erobbinsover 5 years ago
It&#x27;s like a brain dump from my head. I can 100% identify with everything this guy says. I&#x27;ve been fighting this since I can remember, certainly over 20 years. I thought I was the only one who never looked at grades&#x2F;feedback&#x2F;whatever.<p>I&#x27;d probably be a CTO or a successful startup founder by now if I&#x27;d had a solution early in life. As it is I&#x27;ve done OK but it&#x27;s always a struggle because work by its very nature is doing something you don&#x27;t want to do because they&#x27;re paying you... and doing something I don&#x27;t want to do is very VERY hard. Almost impossible at times.<p>If you&#x27;re a teenager or in your 20s, try and get some help now so you don&#x27;t toil in futility for the next 20 years. Trust me.
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rdiddlyover 5 years ago
Standard counterpoint objection here that I&#x27;m not sure I &quot;buy&quot; ADHD. How much of it is just &quot;being human&quot; (and in particular &quot;being a young human&quot;) in a world that&#x27;s inhuman? Is it a coincidence that the condition was first &quot;observed&quot; around the onset of industrialization a couple hundred years ago? There are numerous evolutionary advantages to <i>being tuned-in to your environment.</i> Certainly every tribe could&#x27;ve used at least a couple people like that. But in an industrialized world, with industrialized education &amp; work processes, where you&#x27;re called-upon to sit still for hours doing things that don&#x27;t matter (and that you hence, don&#x27;t care about), where subtly you tend to find more success the more you act like an automaton, it&#x27;s apparently maladaptive, a liability and an aberration. Because we&#x27;ve made it one. It&#x27;s industrialization itself that&#x27;s maladaptive.
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glofishover 5 years ago
I like these upvoted posts on procrastination. Feels like the HN community (like myself) struggles with this. Nowadays I embrace procrastination as necessary &quot;evil&quot;. Unlike the cited post, I don&#x27;t think one needs &quot;help&quot; with that - it might just backfire even more.<p>I have come to believe that procrastination is a healthy and necessary condition for outstanding productivity. It is like REM sleep or something :-)<p>I think that without some level of procrastination nothing amazing would ever be done.
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3minus1over 5 years ago
&gt; I&#x27;m really prone to letting my thoughts get off on the worst tangents, and it will take a while to get myself back on track<p>Sometimes I&#x27;ll be listening to an audiobook and I&#x27;ll start thinking about something else. By rewinding the audiobook I can figure out how long the distraction was (could be over a minute). It also amazes me how I have no recollection of the portions of the audiobook that were playing while I was distracted.
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rootusrootusover 5 years ago
It&#x27;s like this guy has been inside my head. Sometimes I feel exactly he same way, do the same things (well, not Twitter), with the same thoughts and results. There have been times when I refresh HN and say &quot;you&#x27;re not even enjoying this, why do you keep looking?&quot;
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curoover 5 years ago
Best advice I&#x27;ve ever gotten: don&#x27;t overthink it (procrastination, ADHD, productivity systems, etc). Trying to fight the mind with more concepts is like trying to fight the wind with a kite.
ncfaustiover 5 years ago
As a 33 year old who was just diagnosed with ADHD, a few minutes into reading this I knew exactly where it was going.<p>For me, it was when I watched Dr. Russell Barkley&#x27;s talk[1] and halfway through, it brought me to tears. No one before then had described exactly the way I felt on a daily basis.<p>Since going through a full day of neuropsychological testing and being diagnosed with ADHD-I and starting medication, I feel like the me I think I am, naturally curious, optimistic, and actually following through with the things that interest me. Planning and grad school assignments just click so effortlessly now, and my stress is way down, as I am completing things in a timely manner and not fighting myself at every step of the way.<p>If any of this resonates with you, please talk with a psychiatrist to see if this is something you&#x27;re unknowingly (and unnecessarily) struggling with.<p>Also,if you&#x27;re like me and like listening to audio books at 2 or 3x speed, check out Speechify, it allows you to listen to any kind of text including rough scans of books&#x2F;PDFs. It&#x27;s been incredibly helpful for required readings in classes.<p>edit: wrong video url<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;_tpB-B8BXk0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;_tpB-B8BXk0</a>
zackmorrisover 5 years ago
I just discovered yesterday that I suffer from task anxiety related to ADD&#x2F;ADHD, after a lifetime of struggling against falling into patterns of depression. It&#x27;s felt as almost a pain in my gut between my chest and belly whenever I go to start working on something I have to do. I just worked through this series of exercises and it really helped me identify what&#x27;s actually going on, with some solutions:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addandsomuchmore.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;01&#x2F;29&#x2F;taskmaster-getting-things-done&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addandsomuchmore.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;01&#x2F;29&#x2F;taskmaster-getting-t...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addandsomuchmore.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;02&#x2F;11&#x2F;task-anxiety-awareness&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addandsomuchmore.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;02&#x2F;11&#x2F;task-anxiety-awarene...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addandsomuchmore.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;02&#x2F;14&#x2F;virtue-not-own-reward&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addandsomuchmore.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;02&#x2F;14&#x2F;virtue-not-own-rewar...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addandsomuchmore.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;02&#x2F;16&#x2F;doling-out-the-cookies&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addandsomuchmore.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;02&#x2F;16&#x2F;doling-out-the-cooki...</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addandsomuchmore.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;02&#x2F;24&#x2F;when-the-game-is-rigged&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;addandsomuchmore.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;02&#x2F;24&#x2F;when-the-game-is-rig...</a><p>Some other keywords to look for are &quot;impossible task&quot; and &quot;executive dysfunction&quot;, both maladies being seen predominantly in millennials. I just happened to get them 10 or 20 years ahead of time by starting computers when I was 12 as a Gen Xer.
mynegationover 5 years ago
I have a theory that different things work for different people and not all things work for all people. Any particular book or blog post should not be taken as a gospel but rather a set of tools from which you can try and pick up what works for you.<p>What worked for me: (1) getting more sleep - counterintuitive, as one gets less time to be productive, but I find that sleep deprivation affects my mood, attention, and executive function big time (2) writing it down and drawing up my day hour by hour. Even if I do not follow the plan to the tee - it helps me visualize the day and find large chunk of times that are best for getting into the zone (3) batching up small but mundane tasks and sticking them into the short available chunks of time that would not be good for deep work, then focus on this list of tasks and racing to compete as many of them as possible, using the short rush of pleasure of completing one task as a burst of energy for the next one and create momentum.
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aexq36over 5 years ago
Like with all things, laziness&#x2F;conscientiousness exists on a spectrum, and it&#x27;s hard to tell where normal variation crosses over into pathology. I do have to wonder if self-proclaimed laziness among nerdy types comes from a tendency to set very high standards for ourselves and to compare ourselves with extraordinarily productive people. I think the average human being might be lazier than we give them credit for. The author complains about not being able to stop browsing reddit and get out of bed? Well, it seems that&#x27;s how a great many people choose to spend their time these days if given a choice, so can we really say that&#x27;s a sign of pathology? You feel like you&#x27;re not working hard enough on your personal coding&#x2F;science&#x2F;art&#x2F;whatever project? Well, most people don&#x27;t have <i>any</i> personal projects, they produce very little beyond what is required to make a living, and for the extra amount that they do produce they don&#x27;t hold themselves to very high standards and they don&#x27;t care if they ultimately abandon the project, so you&#x27;re already way ahead of the curve there.<p>I say all this as someone who has had severe problems with laziness and I empathize with the author of the article a lot, so I&#x27;m not trying to make light of the problem. I&#x27;m just suggesting an alternative perspective that may be useful.
yardshopover 5 years ago
I&#x27;m procrastinating so hard today that I don&#x27;t even feel like reading procrastination articles on HN!<p>Yesterday was decent, I started off a bit sluggish but okay, but by mid afternoon I really got going and got a bunch of good things done. I was actually on a productivity high!<p>Today I came in with that same good energy, and then an alert came in: &quot;user suchNsuch has been blocked due to high volume of suspicious emails sent!&quot; Damn! Total derail. I&#x27;ve been able to do the basics to mitigate that situation, but lost all of my enthusiasm for other projects.<p>Maybe getting out of the office for a second lunch will help! If I feel like reading these articles after, I will know some progress has been made.
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kitdover 5 years ago
All these procrastination articles are obviously finding their target audience here on HN!
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joshkleinover 5 years ago
I recommend “Procrastination” by Burka &amp; Yuen.<p>For the kind of person who frequents this site and endures suffering due to procrastination, even seeing their clinical definition of maladaptive perfectionism (and learning why procrastinating provides relief from it) could reduce your level of anxiety and self-flagellation, if not help you change your behavior.<p>The first section of their book provides a framework for understanding what is happening when you procrastinate, then orients your investigation into the underlying causes specific to you (or those not applicable to you). The book&#x27;s second section offers self-directed cognitive behavioral therapies.<p>&quot;Procrastination&quot; is based on decades of the authors’ clinical experience. The 25th anniversary edition pulls in updated academic research from as far afield as behavioral economics (future discounting) that didn&#x27;t exist when the book was first published.<p>[This comment is a reposted version of one of my own previous comments]
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shortoncashover 5 years ago
Calendars and to-do lists matter, but the unpleasant aspect of these things is that I become a human scheduler, similar to an operating system scheduler. The scheduling function consumes so much time on its own, and it&#x27;s psychologically uncomfortable.<p>Dare I say it: I don&#x27;t like context switches and would prefer first come first serve, until completion. The real world, however, is unforgiving on which scheduler I can choose.
carlisle_over 5 years ago
To try and provide feedback without being critical, the way you bold text from &quot;So What&#x27;s Up?&quot; and through &quot;Tips and Tricks&quot; is very distracting. Since you use bold text for titles and the list items in that &quot;So What&#x27;s Up?&quot; section, bold text is structural and serves a purpose to separate ideas. You overload it a bit by bolding long phrases you wish to draw the reader&#x27;s attention to.<p>You use bold text well before and after these sections, when you&#x27;re only bolding a few words at most at a time. Once you start bolding whole phrases your paragraphs start looking like striped lines. It was very distracting to try to follow your sentences when my attention is getting drawn to all the bolded text around me. It almost felt wrong at times to read the plain formatted text.<p>Your content was very engaging and I relate to it quite a bit. The illustrations are fantastic thanks for posting.
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keyanpover 5 years ago
<i>&quot;I find it extraordinarily difficult to just... relax. Sit on a bench and watch the clouds. [...] But even if I&#x27;m in that perfect scenario where there&#x27;s nothing to do... my brain will just fill the void with absurd daydreams and rabbithole trains of thought.</i>&quot;<p>This is the case for many (all?) people. I&#x27;ve found that you need to intentionally train your ability to not let your mind do this. I recommend this book for some exercises to help: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Happiness-Mindfulness-Thich-Nhat-Hanh&#x2F;dp&#x2F;1888375914" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Happiness-Mindfulness-Thich-Nhat-Hanh...</a>
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FullKirbyover 5 years ago
Thanks. I do recognize myself very much in what you described. I&#x27;ve been convinced that I have ADHD for quite a while already, but I always was against the idea of taking medication... I was still doing fine when I was younger, but I&#x27;m now somehow unable to focus to do homeworks, at all... I procrastinate, fall so much behind, get super stressed about it, and instead of being motivated like I used to (hello panic monster) I just &quot;crash&quot;, panic, give up everything and fail classes. Not great for self-esteem and general happiness.<p>I guess I&#x27;ll reconsider seeking professional help and medication
cryptozeusover 5 years ago
Procrastination articles start to appear on HN as we get close to end of January. There is a lesson in there somewhere.
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walkingpigeonover 5 years ago
I&#x27;ve seen this article coming up several times, I really want to finish reading it, yet I procrastinate.
techsin101over 5 years ago
What helped me:<p>- travelling and staying in a hotel for a month. Just job and hotel. All bookmarks, Todo lists, and everything else like that gone. Helped me forget it all and have a clear mind.<p>- brushing teeth twice. I saw study that linked gum disease to depression. Aka unhealthy mind. I feel keeping mouth clean keeps inflammation down. I feel really positive once I had dental cleaning and decided I want to continue feeling that.<p>- sleep apnea treatment with CPAP machine. It works I get tired 5 hours late now. before I&#x27;d be tired by 2pm, now I&#x27;m tired by 11 pm. I hate the mask I&#x27;m gonna get p10 that goes into nostrils I&#x27;ve nasal mask which sits under the noise and I feel it&#x27;s affecting my teeth by putting gradual pressure.<p>- accomplishing anything. I did an online course. Something different than my usual grind. And in world of evolving frameworks where you can never be good. It was refereshing to take the test and pass it many tests. Grow confidence.<p>- don&#x27;t mess your internal rythm. Just how blue light can alter your cycle so can eating very much. Infact there was a study by Harvard that to counter just lag and start waking up at certain time, fast almost a day then wake up at the time you wanna wake up daily and have big breakfast. It will instantly changes internal clock. So eating past 5-6pm is very bad. With Exception of milk.
crypticaover 5 years ago
Procrastination has a good return on investment. You invest nothing and you get nothing.<p>Unlike every other investment where you give up your time, your health, your optimism and you get nothing.
DocGover 5 years ago
I haven&#x27;t resonated with any article so much before as with this. I literally quit my job, because of these reasons.<p>I&#x27;ll sign myself up for a therapist now. Thanks.
speedplaneover 5 years ago
I don&#x27;t have a problem with procrastination, and I don&#x27;t feel guilty about it. I think it&#x27;s optimal.<p>Generally, try to find out the last day something is due, figure out if that&#x27;s a hard or soft deadline (if soft, get an extension), estimate how long it&#x27;ll take to do the work, and then start the work exactly within that time limit. Doing it any sooner means that you&#x27;re likely putting off even earlier deadlines.<p>Procrastinating is not a problem, submitting work late or low quality is.
hindsightbiasover 5 years ago
There really needs to be some test scale of procrastination since nearly everyone does it. Something like being 5 degrees from Da Vinci (the Mona Lisa took 16 years).<p>My feeling is that anyone w&#x2F;o an A average going into college should have a first term class in time&#x2F;study strategies, and register for no more than 4 classes (outside Loafers 101). Many people much brighter than I crashed and burned early in college and our vaunted centers of learning had nothing for them.
tempsyover 5 years ago
Doesn’t this contradict the other article that was upvoted on how procrastination is more emotional than anything else?<p>To say it is ADHD is to suggest it is neurological e.g. some chemical imbalance in the brain, but if it’s really an emotional response then saying you have ADHD is more like pointing out the symptom rather than the cause here.
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rhackerover 5 years ago
Something tells me these articles on procrastination are generally permanently relevant to the people that view HN during business hours (me included). I am curious if the number of hits per day has dropped as a result of posting them a lot this week!
taurathover 5 years ago
By the point that the author had come upon what was &quot;going on&quot; I was literally afraid for myself since they had described EXACTLY what I&#x27;ve been doing and going through for so much of my life.
makachover 5 years ago
I should really be working, but I am reading this article. Please send help.
shreyshreyover 5 years ago
I struggle with this as well. Now i prioritize all my tasks in my brain. Over the years tried quite a few systems: tiddly wiki, gtd, zero inbox and onenote. Nothing worked for me.
Thorentisover 5 years ago
tl;dr (but do read rest of comment!): give up social media, porn, and TV (including Netflix) for a couple of months. Take up some form of exercise (lifting, running, even pilates or something), and re-evaluate your attention span.<p>---<p>Not to be offensive to those diagnosed with ADHD or something related, but there is absolutely too much ADHD going around at the moment for it to be a coincidence.<p>My wife is a teacher, and the number of kids &quot;diagnosed&quot; with ADHD is insane. What do they do with their time instead of homework or listening in class? Playing video games for hours on end, browsing social media, sending Snaps, creating Tik Tok videos, watching porn, watching Netflix, and so on ...<p>See a pattern here? Sure, it is probably an old trope at this point, but the entertainment modern society has given us has drastically lowered our attention spans. Those of us in our mid to late 20s are on the border. We didn&#x27;t grow up with social media, but we&#x27;re young enough to have started using it fairly early (but not early enough - usually - for it to effect us &#x2F;too&#x2F; badly, though those using it too much have suffered from it). Those a bit younger (high school age, freshman age) are absolutely suffering from it, and God knows how badly the primary and middle schoolers will suffer.<p>In this article, the OP talks about what they do instead of study most of the time: lay in bed and browse Twitter and Reddit. Sorry but - and not to sound trite - but that there is a huge problem. It is not a symptom, it is a problem (not <i>the</i> problem, but it contributes) in and of itself. Cut it out.<p>Unfortunately, I find myself sucked back into social media after giving it up for any length of time, whether by friends, family, a new venture that needs a Facebook page, whatever. But when I do give it up (and I mean all of it: Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, HN, the lot) I am the most productive I have ever been. I get things done. It&#x27;s not a magic cure, and it must be combined with other stuff (exercise, reading, meditation), but honestly, our lazy modern lives are the cause of most &quot;ADHD&quot; and nothing else.
keyleover 5 years ago
1999 - the GTD method<p>2019 - everyone thinks they have ADHD on some level<p>Constant: you&#x27;re human and you are a fine human. Hormones and interests fluctuate throughout the weeks, months, years. Pursue what feels right. The human brain wasn&#x27;t designed to pursue long term goals, it takes an extraordinary interest in something for it to be a life goal. Nothing is ever finished, it&#x27;s just tabled for now. One day you&#x27;ll be old and leave all that crap behind for the next generation. It&#x27;s nature.
fnord77over 5 years ago
I have the exact symptoms and behavior as this person.<p>I found that 10mg of desipramine once a night obliterated most of the procrastination.
anon_dover 5 years ago
ADHD is your mind violently rebelling against the useless bullshit that you trying to force it to do.
rb808over 5 years ago
I could be ADHD, I hear a lot of stories about people diagnosed as adults. Surely everyone has trouble getting motivated for boring tasks. Surely everyone would benefit from stimulants though? I&#x27;m not sure how to tell the difference.
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asimjalisover 5 years ago
So how did you fix it? What was the solution?
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nehagupover 5 years ago
Level of procastinating - post 2019 posted in 2020
elfexecover 5 years ago
&quot;A brand new day and<p>A brand new HN post on<p>Procrastination&quot;<p>I&#x27;m starting to see a pattern here.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=22125883" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=22125883</a>
0xff00ffeeover 5 years ago
EDIT: My apologies. I was overcome with a bout of head-in-ass-syndrome.
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idclipover 5 years ago
Remember, idle hands are the devil’s playground.
alexashkaover 5 years ago
Procrastination is not a problem. Having to go to school and listen to dimwits recite largely useless information for 12 years and demand that you memorize it is demoralizing.<p>It should be demoralizing, because it&#x27;s bullshit and it&#x27;s not what you want to be doing.<p>The key takeaway is that if you don&#x27;t become excellent at something that society appreciates (will pay good money for), the remainder of your life will be spent with dimwits at work.<p>The solution to being in a shitty situation is seeing a clear path out, not pills and blog articles.