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Ask HN: How can I stop obsessively trying to learn new programming concepts?

2 points by Capricorn2481 ↗ HN
I have been professionally coding for 5+ few years now and I have enjoyed it in the past. Lately, I feel like I'm doing anything except my job. I spend all day learning a new framework or niche language. Could be LISP/Clojure or Ada or a framework like Laravel, but I don't ever build anything with them.

I think learning is great, but definitely has diminishing returns. This could be symptoms of either stress or undiagnosed ADHD. It feels like I'm looking for some productivity "superpower" instead of actually programming, and the more I don't work, the more stressed I am about it. Then I avoid it. I wind up doing 12 hour nights on the weekend to catch up on work.

I really need to break out of this cycle because it's not healthy, but it's been extremely hard. My fiancee is aware I'm in this cycle and is sympathetic to it, but also annoyed I can't get a hold of it.

3 comments

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xlii
Stumbled upon your post as I’m scouring for Clojure related content.

It feels very ADHD related and I’d recommend checking yourself out. Procrastination/catch up loop is very common.

And if this IS ADHD often there are no other ways than getting on the treatment train, cause trying to fight it is just as effective as fighting gravity.

Good luck!

kazinator
I have no idea what you're talking about; I'm effectively fighting gravity just by sitting in this chair.
bitwize
Frickin' build something, man. A JSON parser. A web server. A language implementation. Something. Anything. Read the article by that lady who advocated writing useless programs[0] for more ideas. Pick a language and just go. Avoid new and shiny; the idea here is to choose the language you're most comfortable in, so it's likely to be something you've years of experience writing. Is that Java? Go nuts in Java.

The idea behind picking your coziest language is so that as you build the thing you're building, any snags you identify are more likely to be issues with you rather than the environment or your lack of proficiency in it. Do you get frustrated and procrastinate? Does your coding style make your code more needlessly complex or error-prone? As you work you will notice these issues. And, at a minimum, you will have a sense of where you can improve, so that the next thing you build, you can build faster, more easily, and more robustly.

I like working in Lisp because Lisp comes with frickin' productivity turbojets attached. No other language lets me turn my thoughts into code more quickly or easily. But even working in Lisp... I find that there's friction working on a complex or unfamiliar problem and my urge to quit, or at least put it off and play video games, starts to rise. I'm still working on fighting that.

[0] https://ntietz.com/blog/write-more-useless-software/