I’m developing a personal opinion that being on a phone all the time is like being high all the time.
Eventually you look back and see thousands of hours you could have spent building something or learning an instrument or whatnot.
Instead you just kinda pissed it away on gossip and getting anxious about events you have no control of.
My most productive time on this phone is when I’m learning new stuff here on HN. But even that can probably be curbed a lot.
I’m thinking about how I break this cycle. One main issue is that I want to create using a laptop. But I have young kids who rightfully demand my attention often. That’s why social media fills the thousand little gaps so well.
I’m thinking I need to learn how to write code in short segments of as little as 15 minutes. At work I need to build up context and state in my mind. But I can’t do that in such short bursts. So I need to learn how to do “stateless programming” per se.
This leads me to wondering: if I had the memory of a goldfish, how would I go about writing an application? Some way to spend 15 minutes breaking a big problem into self contained 15 minute tasks. I’m convinced the software architecture will reflect this and as a result I’ll discover different paradigms for how to write software.
Perhaps just to shatter the illusion that one will instantly become an enlightened productive person, this is what I did when I got rid of screens and books[^]:
* Sat around philosophising about what to do with my life
* Walked around philosophising about what to do with my life
* Walked around discovering abandoned places in the city
* Played instruments (which I already did when I had screens)
That's about it. It's not a bad way to live, but I didn't get any great projects done, or create anything, or build anything.
Instead, I've made the most progress in life by setting myself up with social environments that force me to get things done. Joining bands and sketch comedy groups has essentially peer pressured me into writing and producing a shitload of songs and screenplays. I've played more times live than I can count.
I achieved not through ridding myself of the drug of the internet, but by supplementing it with the drug of social belonging.
Hypothetically, most of our motivation for creating or building things comes from wanting to be valuable to our tribe. If we have weak social ties, or our tribe doesn't really value what we want to do, then motivation will be very difficult to find. (I think some people are exceptions to this, where they create endlessly in their splendid isolation, but it may be worth being honest and asking whether you are one of these exceptions, or whether you fit the rule like most of us.)
[^]: Failing to get rid of books meant I just sat around reading books all day
There was a time I was productive working on a side project in mostly odd segments of time after work, or in moments I was waiting for my girlfriend to get ready. There were some factors that I see as critical to allowing me to stay productive in 15-30 min windows.
- my side project was a game with very few dependencies. No other people or large libraries that would complicate things.
- I already had a solid foundation laid and had already invested sufficient time to the project. I wasn’t starting from scratch.
- New features had to fit within my mental model of my foundation. I couldn’t afford any redesign or experimentation of my foundation.
- Faith that many small incremental improvements would yield a bigger resul
- I was very familiar with all the tech involved
- I had a good set of simple gamedev design patterns that I cultivated and experimented with over the years
It was a really worthwhile experience and gave me a different perspective on how I approach productivity.
> I need to learn how to write code in short segments of as little as 15 minutes.
This, i.e. short cycle time, is one of the effects which TDD reportedly has. Write a tiny bit of test – write a tiny bit of code – test passes – refactor while all tests still pass – repeat.
Eventually you look back and see thousands of hours you could have spent building something or learning an instrument or whatnot.
Instead you just kinda pissed it away on gossip and getting anxious about events you have no control of.
My most productive time on this phone is when I’m learning new stuff here on HN. But even that can probably be curbed a lot.
I’m thinking about how I break this cycle. One main issue is that I want to create using a laptop. But I have young kids who rightfully demand my attention often. That’s why social media fills the thousand little gaps so well.
I’m thinking I need to learn how to write code in short segments of as little as 15 minutes. At work I need to build up context and state in my mind. But I can’t do that in such short bursts. So I need to learn how to do “stateless programming” per se.
This leads me to wondering: if I had the memory of a goldfish, how would I go about writing an application? Some way to spend 15 minutes breaking a big problem into self contained 15 minute tasks. I’m convinced the software architecture will reflect this and as a result I’ll discover different paradigms for how to write software.