

The Hacker Lifecycle - benjaminasmith
http://www.benjaminasmith.com/blog/2013/04/12/continuing-education/

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thatthatis
The first and most important thing in living an extraordinary life is being
able to describe things as they are without guilt or moralizing. For most of
us there is a seldom considered disconnect between who we are, who we think we
should be, who we want to become, and who we can become. You're already
farther down the path of seeing yourself as you are than most people.

Is this excitement and burnout cycle innate to who you are or part of how you
are now? What advantages does this cycle have? What does it say about you that
you're uncomfortable admitting? Is this behavior leading to progress against
your goals and values? If the cycle is innate, how can it be harnessed,
trained and controlled? Can you cycle on a weekly instead of a yearly basis?

I'd posit that to make a real dent in financial independence you'll have to
learn to work through the boredom phase, or choose bigger problems at the
start.

I relate to a lot of what youre saying. The hardest thing for me personally is
choosing only one thing for prolonged, multiple year, commitments of time.

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mwfunk
I think a lot of people have experienced the situation where you spend like 10
hours staring at the same code trying to figure out why it's not working, then
come back to it the next day and see the problem within minutes. It's like the
brain gets stuck in repetitive cycles and you need to flush your cache to get
a fresh perspective.

What the author's describing almost sounds like an equivalent to this with
regard to inspiration- if you're in a creative state where you're constantly
hacking away at something, it helps to step away from it all for a few
weeks/months/whatever to let your creativity and inspiration rejuvenate.

Also, sometimes people get burned out without realizing it- this helps that
too. For an unrelated example, sometimes I'll get really into some video game
and obsess over it for several weeks. I'll get into the habit of playing it
for a certain amount of time every day. At some point, I burn out on it and
it's not as fun anymore, but it seems like it takes me a long time to realize
that. I keep doing it because that's the thing that I do, but there's a lag
where I'm not getting as much out of it and just keep doing it from inertia
and habit. People's work habits can be very similar and I think there's a
parallel with this article.

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dave_sullivan
Sure, I think it's a common enough cycle. Of course, most people don't work a
job where they can make six figures working part time--if they had the option,
I'm sure they'd LOVE to live that lifestyle. You are really lucky to have that
option. But you already strive for continued education and to improve your
skills, so luck is only part of it. My point is--enjoy the good times.

That said, it depends on what you want. If you do a bit of freelance
consulting work and sell it right, you can be pretty financially independent
without a big commitment. If you want to start a "real" business, it requires
a lot of commitment and a pretty high tolerance for abuse (although maybe
that's just me!) I guess I compress your cycle more--I do something until I
feel myself getting overloaded, then I take a break and come back later. But
after a couple days, I'm usually ready to get back to it--it helps to really
enjoy and believe in what you do.

So again, you've got to make the decision yourself, but fwiw, you might try to
compress each cycle--maintaining momentum is important too.

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flipcoder
I have a similar work behavior and I structured my work time in a way that
helps me keep focused and not get off track: I usually work on a single
project for 2 or 3-day periods, rotating between ALL of my current projects
depending on what I feel could use my time the most. I generally try to keep
projects interesting by incorporating new things I've recently learned into
either the project itself or the tools I'm using. The trick I've found is to
never let anything get boring, by constantly rethinking and improving things
that have gone stale, instead of starting new projects whenever you get
another train of thought.

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davidroberts
I think there are cycles in cycles. Having lived for a while, I've seen
similar cycles in my own life where each phase lasted several years, even as a
yearly cycle like the OP described continued within them. The year cycle
itself contains cycles that play out over a day, week, or month.

Human beings appear to be naturally cyclical beings who live in a cyclical
universe. So it makes sense, and it's very healthy to realize it and plan
accordingly. The phenomenon seems particularly pronounced in creative,
innovative people who have some measure of control over their daily
activities.

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tgflynn
_Unfortunately, the short time spent on each project due to a lack of interest
means that the magnitude of the income is far lower than I had hoped for – and
realistically, lower than could have been achieved with persistent effort._

Wouldn't an obvious way to break the cycle be instead of starting a completely
new project on the next phase 1 to go back and spend time improving one of
these previous income generating projects ?

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jt2190
The author seems trapped in a sort of cognitive dissonance: For years he's
stated that he wants financial independence, yet for years he's failed to
reach that goal, for the same reason. I'm reminded of a quote:

    
    
      > The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over
      > and over again and expecting different results.
    

Perhaps he'd be happier if he did a reality check on his goals.

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goric
While I don't totally disagree, I interpret the "same thing" referred to in
your quote and the "same reason" he's failing as two different levels of the
concept of sameness. In my mind the insanity quote applies to a much stricter
sense of repetitiveness (e.g. trying and failing on the same project/idea
while using the same approach over and over) than repeatedly attempting to
reach financial independence via different side projects.

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dsowers
I go through the same exact cycle. I think it's necessary to have a burnout
phase to recharge your batteries and get you excited again. For example,
sometimes I will go camping for a few days and have no internet around. When I
get back to the computer everything is so colorful and exciting. HN is
thrilling.

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timothybone
When I don't want to get real work done because i've entered a motivational
recession I fire up Max/Msp. A visual programming languge is an extremely fun
break/video game I find.

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michaelochurch
I don't think you should conflate motivational recession (which is healthy and
normal; almost everyone gets that once every few months) with "burnout".
They're two different things.

Motivation fluctuates and that's fine. There's nothing wrong with picking up a
new video game. In fact, I think there's something healing about narrative
that is especially relevant to creative people. We need to get into a novel or
TV serial or '90s JRPG every now and then.

Burnout is something else entirely that I hope you don't experience. It's
severe and it sucks. There's a state at which you get too depressed to work
and it can last for months. You get sick a lot, feel weak, can't focus or get
anything done. It doesn't sound like you've been there, and I hope you never
get there. Burnout usually isn't caused by long working hours or even by
project failures alone; it usually involves long hours _and_ negative
conditions (especially subordination).

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tatituta
Sounds like I'm going through a burn-out. I'm in my last academic year at uni,
and for the past 6 months I worked almost continuously (with satisfying
outcomes). However, what is left is preparing several exams and a couple of
courseworks in less than a month, and right now I feel completely depleted.
Can you, or somebody else, provide any advice?

Edit: As an invitation to discussion on the margin of the blog post, what
happens when this lifecycle puts you in a position like mine? (i.e, the 4th
phase occurs when critical responsibilities need to be fulfilled.) Wouldn't
this be a problem with this lifecycle?

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sstarr
When I've gone through periods like that I've found that something as simple
as going for a walk every day really helps to lift my mood and increase my
productivity.

Sometimes I feel like there's so much to do and so much pressure that I
couldn't possibly spare half an hour away from it but I can guarantee that
I'll get less done and feel less happy on the days that I don't go out for
some fresh air and exercise.

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tatituta
Hi, thanks. Also, it seems fruits help a lot. Fruit juices are great, and
along similar lines, soups too.

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brenfrow
This sounds just like me! Way to generalize and fit me like a glove.

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drifting
I do much the same, rock on man!

