
Steady yourself, those world-changing thoughts are not productive - joelg87
http://joel.is/post/3271058182/world-changing-thoughts-not-productive
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DanielBMarkham
This is the one thing that I constantly struggle with. I'm glad it's not just
me.

One of the most difficult things I faced when moving from commercial
programmer to startup guy was the completely different attitude. In the
commercial world, it's caffeine-fueled, high-impact, change-the-world,
deadline-driven coding.

In the startup world, it's slow-and-easy, strip out everything you possibly
can. stop thinking about changing-the-world, little baby steps, and you are
never done. The work is just as hard, but it's a different kind of work.

It's just a totally different frame of mind. As much as I read about startups,
I never really got that part. I don't know why.

I'm also interested in what people do to fight this, as I find myself
constantly drifting off thinking about how such-and-such a product might
change everything. Such thoughts haven't done a damn thing for me but distract
me from what I need to do right now. They also make me think of each little
step as some huge thing that it probably isn't. Maybe after this big blog
article the product will finally get huge traffic! Maybe this next feature
will finally spin the product up into the stratosphere! Maybe I'll get
accepted by YC and that will be the game-changer!

Then when the next big even happens (or not) and nothing huge really changes?
It's this huge build up and let down. Makes for a very bad emotional roller-
coaster ride.

Thanks for the article.

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Tycho
This guy is talking about thinking about further down the line for a current
project/business, but sometimes my productivity is cramped by these really
annoying 'meta' thoughts that aren't even remotely helpful. Like I'll be
trying to concentrate, then I'll start analysing how well I'm concentrating,
then thinking about things that would affect my brain, and then before you
know it I'll be toying with ideas of how consciousness could be manifested in
an AI. Totally ridiculous but happens quite a lot.

~~~
Detrus
AI is extremely distracting for me. I can't wait until it can handle my drudge
work, so I don't take those tasks very seriously. And believing progress in
that field will be very noticeable in 10-20 years can influence a lot of plans
and priorities.

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brackin
Interesting post. I'm very ambitious, it's in my nature and I think most of
the time it feels like an advantage as it gives me motivation through the
rougher times. I feel that maybe having a set ideal to what success you want
to achieve may push you off course, sometimes you ignore important
opportunities which may not fit perfectly into your plan even though they
could be very rewarding. I've had this before and realised afterwards. It can
also stop you from taking on the little opportunities which could be more
powerful to you than the big goals you have in mind for a project. This is
just my experience, i'm interested in others. I do feel that ambitious is a
great thing and more people should think big, out of the tech world. Big, in
relative terms to what they are doing.

~~~
joelg87
Great point about how being ambitious can keep you going through rougher
times. I'm also very ambitious, and I definitely agree it has helped in those
situations.

I guess it is always a balance - I certainly agree that not thinking big
enough can be detrimental, but what I've found recently is that the small
successes I'm having are triggering off some thoughts that are months or years
away if they even ever happen, and I think taking too long to think about
things like that is not productive - it almost certainly won't happen the way
you're thinking it will, and it is time you are spending when you could be
doing valuable customer or product development.

Love your point about not having your idea of success set in stone. I agree
it's very good to be open-minded so you can take advantages of opportunities
you might not have seen coming. That could well be another reason not to think
too much about your own ambitious thoughts, since the more you think about
them the more likely you are to have your mind set on that "success" and not
grab other opportunities when they arise.

A very interesting subject overall I think - overall a balance is required. I
think it's perhaps a continual flip-flop of thinking ambitiously too much and
not enough until you find a nice medium which suits your own personality and
allows you to be productive whilst still staying motivated by where you could
get to.

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Wolf_Larsen
Yes, well put.

It helps me to act like a robot. I put the Machinarium soundtrack on and treat
those oncoming emotions as voltage spikes and work at a steady level with my
hands shaking and a maniacal grin fighting it's way to visibility.

Another real problem with the spikes of excitement (besides the authors point
that it wastes time) is that the spike has to level out. Instead of working on
the project with a steady force, you sprint and crash which is ineffiecent for
our brains.

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saadshamim
Glad to see I'm not alone in my "self defeating" thoughts

