Ask HN: How does one overcome the need for instant gratification?
...in the context of programming and problem solving. For me, it becomes intensely boring and border line ADHD while pondering over a complex problem that requires some dedicated attention without worrying about the end result. Instead, I end up taking the easiest solution that may solve the problem only partially, just for the instant gratification it gives. Needless to say, this is harmful for important decisions.
I believe this has come from years of INSTANT dopamine rushes from social media and Hacker News.
How do you avoid it?
138 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 201 ms ] threadthat is what the idiom "put your nose to the grindstone" is about.
if you dont know/aware that the journey is long or even how long , time will fly.
you put one leg in front of the other , until you realise you finished something.
Perhaps this isn't a risk for you, but it is a problem when employees overthink or over solve a problem (e.g. bikeshedding, premature optimization, etc). At the least, maybe your current inclinations aren't a net negative to your employer. What kind of problems do you try to solve that aren't work-related, and do you find that you have that same kind of ADHD as at work?
Many years of submerging my own will has resulted in the realization that the company does not get any gratification from me, either. A quick and dirty solution that produces the expected results is completely acceptable to them, and making an extraordinary effort to produce a deliberate and solid solution was likely a waste of effort.
If you want to write code that won't make you cringe after a six month hiatus, start a side project at home in your leisure time, or launch your own company. Don't think of the rapid and sloppy fix as instant gratification, but as cost-effective development effort. In general, companies don't want the well-considered, "correct" solution, but the one that represents the lowest costs or the greatest profits. And they don't often consider technical debt in those calculations.
If they cared at all about code quality, they would have a person whose job is to monitor and improve it, with the authority to institute procedures for the other developers. If you don't have a boss (or pseudo-boss) nagging you about code reviews or test coverage or metrics, your company doesn't care. Just fix the problem in front of you with as little effort as possible. Take the instant dopamine hit, if you still get one from solving your company's stupid problems with a scant twitch of your brain.
The real challenge in an office environment is to build personal relationships and trust networks, not the actual work you are assigned. In a way, all of your assigned tasks are a distraction from that.
If this seems wrong in your gut, this is a direct result of the current management culture.
Your question contains a second part: The question for motivation to continue training despite having no internal motivation. I'm not good enough in that department to give a short, precise answer yet.
It's called an aversion, and aversion therapy was a common method of habit cessation through the mid 90s. Check out this study on how >50% of 2-pack a day smokers quit smoking after just 6 sessions:
https://www.schickshadel.com/documents/Commercial_Stop_Smoki...
Joke aside, a successful aversion therapy will also train another habit additionally to the addiction habit, that just has the opposite reaction, and the hope is that it becomes stronger than the original habit. So it's more of a method of application rather than a counter argument. Wouldn't you say?
- There could be an underlying medical problem. Mild depression often has low willpower as the most noticeable effect. If it's not too much of a hassle, maybe get your thyroid checked. And whatever works for depression should usually work for your problem as well, exercise unfortunately being the most effective
- If what you're doing really doesn't interest you, it doesn't make much sense to see a pathology where everything is working as intended. Try something new (as a hobby maybe) that requires similar levels of engagement, and see if the problem persists. If not, it's time for tough decisions.
- There's a theory that willpower works much like a muscle. There's a book about that phenomenon, but it really doesn't have much more content than the last sentence. It's one of those results that I don't completely trust, but trying it out doesn't cost much: do anything that requires willpower regularly, and see if you improve. The examples from the book were really small interventions, such as brushing your teeth with the non-dominant hand. After three weeks or so, people were significantly more likely to successfully stop smoking, compared to the control group. That's a rather big effect.
- Try reducing your work hours. Being "always on" just drains your resources. Start with restricting your daily work hours to something like 3h or even less, and only expand again if you're productive in those hours.
- Somehow get your hands on ADHD meds (or, you know, the generic alternatives that fuel the bitcoin boom). You'll be as focussed as you ever wanted to be, and even a one-time experience can be helpful, by reminding you what it actually feels like to be "in the zone".
Are you a qualified medical doctor?
You don't need an MD to know that stimulants increase focus.
"Oh, okay. Sorry."
?
I find that whenever I am unfocused but have a big problem to solve doing the paper exercise for 30 min to 1 hour greatly help me focus throughout the rest of the day.
ymmv
This isn't necessarily bad. "YAGNI", after all.
In a work programming context, if you're trying to work up the motivation to do it properly rather than hack it, can I suggest a variant on "rubber duck debugging"? Simply find a more diligent co-worker and discuss the short and long solutions. When they say you should do the long one, agree with them.
Bang! Now you're socially committed to the non-instant solution. It's like having a running buddy. Or the old joke about why are mountaineers roped together: to stop the sensible ones going home.
I've found the opposite to be true unfortunately. I can work on a project for hours and hours but the moment I say something about it to a friend, coworker, spouse the motivation to complete it just dies. Very odd effect and sucks when you're trying to release a product MVP
Deep work as mentioned by other poster is also another good resource for focus related topics.
- Do not grab phone/computer etc. and mindlessly browse first thing in the morning. (Or before bed. Or at any time really.) But doing it first thing really starts your day on the wrong foot.
- When seeking to relax, do not mindlessly browse the internet/social-media/tv. Read an enjoyable book. This is an order of magnitude more fulfilling and beneficial to you. And genuinely more relaxing: screens are stimulating, and might let you 'relax' in the sense that you can momentarily be completely absorbed in something 'other', and forget your day to day life; but they don't relax you in the sense of being calm and contemplative (in general, in my experience).
- Reduce instant gratification from as many areas as possible. Do things that are rewarding longer term. Like reading, cooking, growing plants, hiking, etc.
- Cut video games.
- Block facebook + reddit + sites you waste a lot of time on, from main computer. Maybe have a secondary device you use to access these sites, for a set period each day (I recommend this mainly because it can be quite difficult to maintain a social life without facebook, (which is a terrible state of affairs)). Have days where you don't go onto these sites at all.
- Spend as little time on screens as is possible -> if you can work on paper do so
- have a regular exercise regime. eg. swim/run. Doing first thing in the morning really helps set your day on the right track, you have already exerted a good amount of self discipline, and achieved something, and this makes it easier to continue being disciplined.
- I recommend reading 'The Power of Habit'.
...what? Is there any evidence that self discipline needs to warm up?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anecdotal_evidence
I got this from reading a few books and articles and it might be wrong, but it's my impression.
Now I know they were just more evolved than I was :-)
Now that it was in my face it wasn't about working around myself, bit rather deciding if I actually wanted and had the will power to do what I had claimed I wanted to do.
So, if you really want to reduce mindless browsing and find you can't and little strategies end up being ineffective, perhaps the opposite might be a worthwhile strategy.
All the best.
When the object is out of common sight, you only encounter your self-defining vice moments when you're at your most vulnerable (because you willfully sought the thing out).
When you bring yourself into more frequent contact, you provide yourself with more training opportunities when your willpower is greater (because maybe you're already busy, or happy, etc).
Thus, even if you fall victim to the poor choices you're trying to avoid the same number of absolute times, you've drastically increased the number of times you make good choices. And the percentage of times you choose good choices over bad.
Counterintuitive, but I like it!
When I was 18, I worked at a produce clerk at a middling grocery store. Day after day of stocking fresh fruits and vegetables while watching the same customers (and even my co-workers!) come in and eat the same horrid prepared slop really motivated me to lose weight.
I lost 50 pounds in 2 months.
And also, speaking from experience, please, never attempt to lose 50 pounds in 2 months; my lung popped. Fortunately, I survived.
to my mind, an effective blocker is extremely important and far superior to using willpower to resist your bad side. the fact is that when gratification is impossible or really difficult, you don't need to spend any willpower at all, you can just count on your other bad side, i.e. your 'lazy' self, to kill off the social media impulse. when a little person inside you says "go check out facebook!", previously you yourself have to step in and say "no, f* off*!" but now you can just sit back and watch with quite amusement as another little person (your lazy self) steps up and say "nah man, it's too much trouble" —— and bam! the impulse is gone.
the ego depetion theory in psychology may have turned out to be less empirically well-founded than people think, but personally i found it to be very useful. avoid using willpower as much as possible. instead, cleverly design your environment and play the little bad people inside your against one another to your advantage.
Just don't look under the hood of how it works - anyone reading this and familiar with the app please don't comment saying how to circumvent it).
Expanding on this... Don't use mindless browsing as a filler at all. Ever.
If your build is gonna take a minute, don't reflexively switch over to Facebook/email. Sit there and think/meditate. Stand up or do some pushups.
Browsing Facebook is fine when that's the activity you're doing. Set aside some Facebook browsing time, timebox it, and stick to that.
"multitasking" is the devil. Don't do it. Better to be blank and let your mind rest for a moment instead of trying to timeslice something in. Focus on each thing separately and you'll end up more productive and efficient and also feel more personally gratified after accomplishing specific tasks one by one vs. a mishmash of "multitasking" where you're not really sure what you even did at the end of the day.
Same applies if you read a tutorial post while you wait your build to finish ?
Why are you on Hacker News?
Reading and in particular commenting which is an instant gratification activity (quick post, many likes paired with non-stop checking of the thread).
Is this not against your advice or is it the end of the work day in your time zone?
If you are constantly non-stop checking for responses and your scores, that doesn't match what I do. I tend to comment, then come back a couple days later, and see what discussion ensued.
https://vimeo.com/69662330
That helps with the instant gratification problem for me.
This is Water - David Foster Wallace Commencement Speech.
I watch this from time to time for a similar reasons.
After all - as Foster states education never really ends - considering the immense time and commitment we give our employer I think their reinvestment in our skills and mental well being will reap dividends for both parties.
2) Also, if you can choose language to work with, you can try languages that allow you to work in the REPL. That way you can have instant feedback loop and feel satisfied even when you get some small functions working.
3) Pomodoro technique.
https://paleoleap.com/10-reasons-why-fructose-is-bad/
And if you do want to go by research, please read the works and watch videos of "Robert Lustig" (http://profiles.ucsf.edu/robert.lustig )
Like plutonium?
The difference is, that fruit tends to contain a lot of fiber, which makes the fructose harder and slower to absorb. So fruit is okayish.
However, fruit juice is just sugar water worse for you than Coke, so keep that in mind.
It's when you refine the fruit (e.g. juice it) that you separate the fiber away and therefore loose the counterbalance. The fiber and relative inconvenience in consuming the fruit also help to regulate the intake. Contrast a tall glass of orange juice, which is about 4-5 oranges minus their fiber, with manually pealing and eating that same number of oranges. One can be gulped under a minute, or maybe a few minutes if you drink it slowly, the other will take quite a while to eat and leave you with a feeling of being full.
That's why if I'm offered juice, I try to sip it slowly.
Thirded. Read his book. Do what he says.
I'm skeptical of most "self-help" and business books but Deep Work was helpful for me and I come back to the book any time I feel myself slipping. I admit I may be biased towards his work since he is a theoretical CS professor [1] who happens to write books about work and productivity.
[0] https://soundcloud.com/panoply/cal-newport-on-doing-deep-wor...
[1] https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=EhodjeAAAAAJ&hl=en
A key tip from the book is to practice building resistance to caving. Set a time limit for the next time you will check. However short that limit needs to be is fine; the key is to build resistance and extend it. The book argues you need to maintain this ability to resist during off hours, too. It's fine to have long sessions of surfing online and do it more often than during work, but continuing to set limits and resist the urge to just grab it and check is important for not losing everything you may have built up during the day or week.
There is a whole section and recurring theme on the finite, depletable nature of willpower and the end to set up a routine to build habits to protect your willpower reserves. It's very tactical.
I found the many examples of real people applying the principles to their personal situations inspirational, such as from the author himself, professor colleagues, Carl Jung, Don Knuth, and various business and tech folks he interviewed.
1) Divide the complex problem into small yet challenging chunks of problems.
2) Totally forget about the large/complex problem.
3) Focus/Solve one problem at a time, the way you already do.
4) In the end, ask someone else to weave the individual solutions to solve the original problem. (or DIY if you prefer to!)
A regular meditation practice helps with impulse control (sitting still for X minutes requires exercising self control) and that will help with resisting the urge to do tasks which are immediately gratifying, which will free up time and energy for activities which lead to long term growth.
Two things really helped me with meditation: setting a timer, and meditating every day.
Insight Timer (not affiliated) helped with both of these, keeping track of how many days in a row you've meditated, and allows you to set daily reminders.
There are also guided meditations available (in the app or YouTube if you prefer) if you are just starting out.
Best wishes!
I would pray a lot and it was a great way to run through things I was both thankful for and the people in my (pray for) list who I needed to reach out to and make sure they were OK. I cut it because I stopped thinking it had an affect on the external world, but should have kept it because of how it affected me internally.
I also miss the community, but you can get that elsewhere it's just harder for me personally.
Highly recommended.