How to be consistent

The anecdote about reading a 3000 page manual looking for exploits is something I realized a couple of years ago.<p>Almost everything takes that level of dedication to be really good at, so there&#x27;s no point in forcing yourself into something you hate. You have to invest an enormous amount of time and it doesn&#x27;t get any easier.<p>The whole &quot;I go home every night after work, pour myself a glass of wine and read the case law&quot; is an interesting point as well. I quickly realized that despite a lot of techies being very loud about WLB, that&#x27;s not how it works with exceptional people.<p>They are so interested in what they do that WLB is not really a thing. Or at the very least, it wasn&#x27;t at some point in their life.<p>---<p>To that effect, I think consistency is overrated for skill acquisition.<p>1) A couple of months of intense learning can progress you the same as a couple of <i>years</i> of passive learning (Sidenote: this is why I think YOE requirements are stupid, it&#x27;s measured in passive time)<p>2) Skill progression is very non-linear in my experience. At some point a bunch of knowledge clicks together and you&#x27;re suddenly way more effective despite not having gained much extra explicit knowledge (Though you may have gained tacit knowledge!)<p>The main reason I&#x27;m trying to improve my consistency is actually for other people, not myself. I prefer to work in bursts, alternating between prospecting and intense work. But that makes it hard for other people to work with you because your output isn&#x27;t predictable.<p>Good article though :).

I&#x27;m a highly consistent person. I&#x27;m sure many of us here are. I guess I agree that some base level of motivation is necessary but it&#x27;s a bit of a chicken and egg problem. Motivation is controlled by the dopamine pathway in the brain. If you have no motivation, and you don&#x27;t do anything, your dopamine pathway will remain in a weak state, and you will not gain motivation.<p>You need a higher level motivation (ie: I want to achieve X). And then you have to be driven by that factor far more than the day to day motivational factors (ie: I crave Y).<p>Turning up the volume on the higher level motivation and turning down the volume on the cravings requires discipline. But it&#x27;s also a feedback loop. Once you train your dopamine cycle, you will feel more rewarded by things that move you toward your higher level goals. And you won&#x27;t experience as strong of cravings.

Ha, runs directly contrary to this blogpost [0] that&#x27;s done well on HN a few times.<p>&gt; <i>At its core, chasing motivation is insistence on the infantile fantasy that we should only be doing things we feel like doing. The problem is then framed thus: “How do I get myself to feel like doing what I have rationally decided to do?”. Bad. The proper question is “How do I make my feelings inconsequential and do the things I consciously want to do without being a little bitch about it?”.</i><p>Just goes to show you shouldn&#x27;t take these pop psych self-help lessons too seriously. The one I cited more aligns with how I tick, but I doubt there&#x27;s a one size fits all optimal approach to habit-forming&#x2F;productivity -- even at such a meta level.<p>[0] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wisdomination.com&#x2F;screw-motivation-what-you-need-is-discipline&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wisdomination.com&#x2F;screw-motivation-what-you-need...</a>

Another motivational success story built around a character who overcame obstacles which serves as an example we can hold in our minds: &quot;I too can be an Omar!&quot;<p>I&#x27;d like to see some analysis of failure, some stories about people who worked hard and gave it their all but just didn&#x27;t get anywhere, or who got derailed by one thing or another and lost their motivation. Of course, who would want to be that example?<p>In the world of mountaineering there&#x27;s a famous archive of accident data, Accidents in North American Mountaineering, that&#x27;s a must-read for anyone contemplating getting into climbing mountains with any seriousness. The stories are many - bad judgment, bad luck, lack of preparation, exceeding one&#x27;s capabilities, etc. but they&#x27;re all very informative.<p>There are many ways to go wrong, and maybe that information is more valuable than examples where everything goes right.

At one place, I gave the strongest possible recommendation of a hiring candidate, even though they barely had the senior-level track record on paper that we wanted, because (in addition to signs that they already grokked real-world team software engineering like a smart senior) <i>it seemed clear they cared about the craft, were already skilled and wise about it, and would keep learning.</i><p>I advocated for the candidate, and also gave HR a heads-up that, if the other interviewers didn&#x27;t agree to leveling the candidate at senior, we needed some promotion path with clear criteria that we could communicate, to distinguish us from the candidate&#x27;s current company.<p>(Unfortunately, I was splitting that job req. with another team, who had some work before the hire would move fully to my team. The other team lead gave the candidate a CS-student Leetcode gatekeeping, which the candidate didn&#x27;t do well at. These &quot;coding&quot; interviews need to end before they started, IMHO. It blocks some of the best people, and reinforces the counterproductive thinking among new grads that team software engineering is anything like school homework assignments or interview performance art.)

I have a different experience than the author.<p>Sure, underlying motivation is important, but you keep moving on through discipline.<p>Motivation is only a reminder for <i>why</i> you&#x27;re doing it, but it also comes and goes, discipline is what makes you go even when motivation is no longer there in those millions of specific moments.<p>Author found someone who&#x27;s motivation was very high, but was also naturally and mentally inclined to be disciplined through his very harsh routine.

&gt; What&#x27;s important is also hard, but simple:<p>1. Motivation: be honest with yourself about how much you have, how much you need, how it changes over time and how you might capitalize on it when it&#x27;s there.<p>2. Effortlessness: emphasize positive feedback loops that you enjoy and that help you achieve a flow state, even if they&#x27;re not strictly &quot;optimal&quot; for achieving your goal.<p>3. Belief: be confident that if you have enough motivation and positive feedback loops, consistency will pay off!<p>The conclusion is a paraphrase of my personal recipe that I refer to as 3P rule: passion, perseverance and patience.<p>No matter what words you use in the end the idea is that you have the <i>internal</i> source of constant life energy that makes your heart beat, you just do what you need to do no matter what and lastly, you do not think about time and interrupt yourself by “is it ready yet?&#x2F;Wann sind wir da?”[0]<p>[0] - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=huTDPAc7lqk">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;m.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=huTDPAc7lqk</a>

When does Omar do laundry or make lunch for his kids? Spend time with his wife or friends?

This simple phrase really stood out to me:<p>&gt; Do more of what feels effortless

On effortlessness: I have found that the opposite of hard is not easy but instead, fun.

Consistency &gt; Intensity<p>&#x27;Tis better to consistently put in a moderate amount of effort over time, rather than putting in a lot of effort sporadically.

As someone with ADHD<p>It means I dream about the problem and work on it - then try and remember to pay attention to my family&#x2F; eat&#x2F; crap &#x2F; etc<p>otherwise if I&#x27;m not commited to the idea, I think about the money, procrastinate then at the last possible moment (incl using your excuses) do the above.<p>Does that make me consistant?

The article says that &quot;Omar&quot; would read papers.<p>I&#x27;ve never read papers out of uni assignments. Do you have suggestions for great papers &quot;everyone&quot; should read or how to find interesting papers to read?

This is one of the best articles I’ve ever seen linked here. Nitpick on this and that aspect of it, sure. But the ideas are simple.<p>Figure out what you want to achieve and keep practicing. Keep showing up. And figure out what you’re motivated to do to get you there… even if that thing isn’t quite the optimal path. It won’t matter because you’re motivated and will stick with it.<p>Of course it’s not easy. If theres anything that shows the difference between simple and easy this is it. But figure it out and the rewards - well the clip from the BJJ black belt speaks for itself.

Anyone else tired of passive aggressive self-help drivel?

The advice here is one of the more practical articles on getting yourself to work better. Finding an effortless path makes it a bit easier but as humans you have 50 variables that can throw a wrench into that and lose some motivation, so expect lots of grind regardless, but make it easy on yourself as the article says

Some Taoist philosophy right here. Be water my friend!

As a self-taught developer, I&#x27;ve found that networking and community involvement have been crucial in my growth and success. Through attending meetups, conferences, and joining online communities, I&#x27;ve been able to learn from others and expand my knowledge in various areas of development.<p>As the founder and organizer of GDG Cloud Philly, I have had the opportunity to collaborate and network with other like-minded individuals. Through this community, I have not only gained knowledge on new topics but also honed my leadership and organizational skills, which have proven valuable in my professional career.