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How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | funtime_bobby: Have you thought about getting your GED? Maybe the reason why you're unmotivated by schoolwork is that it is useless to you.What types of activities do you find difficult to do? Cleaning toilets, doing math problems, writing reports?One technique that I use is stolen from PJE (http://dirtsimple.org/2006/... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | aagnihot: My friends used to come over my place. We used to sit together, discuss what/how to do it, have drinks and complete it. So we essentially converted "Boring task completion time" into "Socializing and fun time". |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | staunch: 1) Do the easiest/most fun part of whatever boring task there is to do first. Most things are not as boring or as excruciating as they seem to be, once you're actually doing them. Objects in motion...2) Only do the bare minimum work necessary to get passing grades in high school, unless you plan to attend coll... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | jlees: If the work that has to be done has a deadline, and you find yourself procrastinating right up until the deadline, whereby you work frantically on the boring work for far too little time but still manage to get it done - I wouldn't worry so much yet. In fact, if you can gauge your ability to get things done at t... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | jacktasia: High School is not hard. I just did enough to pass and get into my school of choice (standardized tests usually matter more here). I basically made a game of how little I could do and still get by...this is somewhat stupid and is really only advised if you are naturally smart...whatever that means.There will... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | jeromec: It sounds to me like you need a good hack. If you're truly the type "c" procrastinator PG talks about then let's visualize this. This means your intellect is running on a higher level than the mundane circumstances around you. Would Einstein flunk out of high school because his mind was in neutron land while s... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | Dilpil: Find something you actually want. There is almost a 100% chance you will need a high school degree to get it, but knowing specifically what it is will help greatly. |
Custom CD Store Middleman (like Cafepress) | ComputerGuru: I've found lulu.com (http://www.lulu.com/publish/cd_dvd/?cid=us_home_nav_disc) but they're crazy expensive, charging 4.50 a CD (for a bulk purchase of 1000, compared to 5.00 for up to 5 CDs).On the other hand, there's Kunaki which will press DVDs for a dollar a DVD complete with Jewel case and paper inser... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | bhousel: Sometimes when I'm feeling unmotivated or depressed, it helps to remind myself about some of the struggles that other people around the world are dealing with.For example, I'm sure the average teenager in Afghanistan or the Democratic Republic of Congo would love to trade places with you. Did you know that 80... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | mattjaynes: [Edit: Sorry - this probably won't apply to the OP's specific problem, but it will apply to others facing un-motivating work (assuming they have an hourly rate that will allow them to do this)]Answer: oDesk, eLance, etc...Seriously, my life and productivity have improved dramatically since I started outsour... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | grosales: moosecake, You need to ask yourself what motivates you. Why do you find some stuff more worthwhile than other stuff? When you work on something that is not worthwhile, can you find the bits that can be worthwhile to you?In my case, even the most mundane work has something to teach me. If it's not by doing it ... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | ramanujan: I run into this all the time and have two strategies.1) Pair programming. If you can find someone to work with you on this, it's much easier to get rolling and to stay on task.2) Overkill it. Approach the task as if it were Mount Everest. Assemble food, water, energy drinks. Go to a place like a library or c... |
Please name two of your most favorite books. | elmindreda: City by Clifford D. SimakTao Te Ching by Lao Tzu |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | raquo: "I have to do it. There is no way I can avoid doing it without unappealing consequences. I will do it now and then move on, do the interesting stuff." |
Please name two of your most favorite books. | Avenger42: Ender's Game by Orson Scott CardCryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson |
Health insurance in startups | larrykubin: I've taken a few approaches over the past few years.First approach: I had no health insurance at all. Most people will tell you this is a bad idea, and it probably is. I got a check up right before I quit my job. This was the first time I had been to a doctor since I was a little kid, so I wasn't too worrie... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | brandon272: "they just imply I'm going to be unhappy for the rest of my life if I keep doing this."Keep doing what? Finishing high school? That's going to make you unhappy for the rest of your life?The fact of the matter is that you lack discipline. Life will always have mundane or unpleasant tasks that need doing. It'... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | nearestneighbor: Coffee, if you need to power through a few hours of boring and tedious stuff. Works better if you are not a regular coffee drinker. |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | lanstein: I listen to Voodoo People by Prodigy on repeat. That was the only way I was able to write my papers in high school. |
Health insurance in startups | teej: Ask HN on Health Insurance: http://www.gabrielweinberg.com/startupswiki/Ask_YC_Archive#t... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | misterbwong: Wise words handed down to me: SUCK IT UP and take care of it.Yea HS busy work can be idiotic. Yea, you could be using the time for something more interesting/better/cooler/profitable. The simple fact is that the work needs to be done.If you must find motivation, use the fact that if it's not done, you wo... |
Health insurance in startups | veqon: Small businesses would be helped by the public option that congress is discussing. |
Living/working in Cupertino? | grellas: My office is in Cupertino and I live on the Peninsula. It is a great commute if you can take 280 (always against traffic) and it is about 30 minutes door-to-door (say, up to the Redwood City/San Carlos area).Anything in Cupertino will very likely be over $1M, mostly because it is a nice area and also because i... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | scotty79: Sometimes you have to pull off any dirty trick you can google on yourself.Strapping myself to chair with trouser belt worked for me once when I had to do work for customer but my brain constantly zoned out away from drudgery and was raising my body from the chair and sending it to kitchen to look for somethin... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | fuzzmeister: As a college freshman, here's my view on high school work: just do it. It's the only way to get into college. That has to be your sole motivation, as for most intelligent people, high school work in itself is not interesting in the slightest (although I was lucky to take a Constitutional Law class senior y... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | Mz: Google up Hoagies.com (Hoagies Gifted Page). You might find some helpful info there.If your parents are at all sympathetic, you could ask if you can start taking community college classes while in high school. Some folks drop out of high school to pursue college. You might find supporting info on Hoagies to pres... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | bkovitz: >
I've been having issues lately trying to motivate myself to do mundane, or at the very least "unappealing", work (namely, [high]school work). It's not that I'm lazy — actually I'm afraid I'm a workaholic sometimes — but that I always find myself giving priority to another project or hobby I enjoy doing and ... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | lionhearted: > The only two responses I've gotten to this question when I ask people this is either a.) you're always going to have to do work you don't want to do, or b.) you have to do it because you need to get good grades / graduate high-school / etc.High school:1. Some learning.2. A credential.3. Some socializing ... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | discojesus: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Dominique_BaubyThis man wrote a fucking BOOK by BLINKING HIS LEFT EYE.After reading his story, you might find it easier to do your homework. |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | wooster: I listen to repetitive, energetic music. Metal, techno, acid jazz, etc.That, and caffeine. |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | johnnybgoode: My guess is that there are a few underlying issues that could be causing this, and it's probably important not to "diagnose" this incorrectly. It sounds like you have thought about this for a while. Have you tried anything already to help with this, and how did it go?Also, the two responses you mention ar... |
Health insurance in startups | gte910h: individual plans HDHP with reimbursement once you start paying a salary |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | jraines: In high school I dealt with boring work by seeing how fast I could do it. After a while I'd usually be able to do it (if it wasn't, say, a term paper) at school, and not even sweat it at home. Not a good strategy if you're trying to be top of your class, but it did make me a good standardized test taker. Al... |
Why don't more people post their startup ideas on HN? | jacquesm: It depends on whether people want to profit from their ideas themselves (usually people that have no capability to actually execute are in this mode) or whether you'd be happy to see the idea realized at all, no matter whether you had a hand in it or not.People that have ideas and are good at executing them u... |
am I making progress or losing track? | mfalcon: I think you're going the right way. Learning only what you like/want to learn in order to use it in complex/interesting projects.About the new technologies, it's impossible to know about everything. |
Why don't more people post their startup ideas on HN? | Mz: I know for some people that talking too much about something is a means to avoid actually doing it. I know one individual who seems to feel no need to really accomplish anything as long as they are getting sufficient attention for whatever the heck they are doing. I don't think that is all that unusual. I mean if... |
Why don't more people post their startup ideas on HN? | nostrademons: People used to - we used to get "review my startup" posts every couple days, and for the first few months people would actually get really good feedback on them. Then more people started doing it, and the average startup became lamer and lamer, until eventually people just stopped reading & voting up "re... |
am I making progress or losing track? | elliottkember: > I'm learning a lot every dayI like it. Fundamentals are always useful, new technology comes and goes. The most important thing is that you sound like you're enjoying yourself. |
Please name two of your most favorite books. | jazzdev: The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling (non-fiction). Interesting history of hacking. |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | yesimahuman: We are the same exact person. I'm in my last year of college and I'm doing intro classes just to satisfy requirements. I hate it beyond belief, since I feel like it's a complete waste of time when I could be working on my startup. When I have to do homework or study, I spend hours doing anything but my ... |
How do you motivate yourself to do un-motivating work? | timf: Shit work is definitely less painful if you "just take care of it" and get it out of your consciousness faster. I think learning to let that "lesser of two evils" trade-off motivate you to action is something that will take many years and will always leave room for improvement...It works for me to have higher goa... |
What do you do to boost your creativity and/or productivity? | jazzdev: What motives me is what Dan Pink calls "purpose" or wanting to make a difference in the world.I spent 9 years building software to make the lives of telephone support workers better (by helping them create and re-use solutions to common problems).I've spent the last 8 years building software to make the lives ... |
Why don't more people post their startup ideas on HN? | DanielStraight: For me, there's a simpler reason: I don't have one. |
am I making progress or losing track? | keefe: Progress can only be measured in reference to a destination, which you don't discuss here. Is your goal to revolutionize some part of CS or some part of society or just to make enough to not have to work?As an aside, I followed the opposite path - math and CS in undergrad and grad, jobs to explore the parts of C... |
Please name two of your most favorite books. | joe_bleau: Dune.
The Soul of a New Machine. |
Is my college education worth my time? | RobGR: It's impossible for anyone to really answer that question for you. However, I think you are ahead of most college students in that you asked the question at all.You might look for ways to either better your school experience, or avoid the either/or choice. Perhaps find or start a club that meets regularly to d... |
Please name two of your most favorite books. | genieyclo: Thoughts in Prose and Sun Tzu's Art of War are great. To tell you the truth, I rarely read much these days, but back in my prime I would literally stay up for days on end and go years with my nose stuck in a book at every possible chance. |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | zaidf: I think if you just call it "food/housing for equity" it would be more accurate than calling it an incubator. Regardless of feedback, you should give it a shot! |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | JCThoughtscream: Hell, I'd be tempted with this kind of deal. The face-to-face networking opportunities alone would be worth it. |
Effective use of Twitter? | yan: effective use of twitter: http://twitter.com/shitmydadsaysedit: i'm serious. |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | dryicerx: Not stupid at all, Brilliant!I'd be very tempted, I am not location locked working on the current startup, broke, and definitely sounds like a interesting deal. |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | harpastum: (note/update: for this comment, I'm mostly considering the 23-unit building)If not for long-term, maybe for programming camps/meetups/etc? Something similar to Big Nerd Ranch[1], or many of the other teaching sessions.With a very low cost of room and board (and people often traveling to meetups anyway), you ... |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | wheels: I think the problem would be the isolation. It could end up as the blind leading the blind. The advantage of most of the "accelerators" is that they're run by successful entrepreneurs, bring in more to serve as mentors and provide a network of successful entrepreneurs on top of that. Since you'd be competing... |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | shortformblog: The Rust Belt needs ideas like this to stop being the Rust Belt.If it works, maybe you should consider expanding the idea over time – make it into something that can incubate the neighborhood and the town, not just the startup. I bet if you talked to city government, they'd jump all over this.You wouldn'... |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | rphlx: I would seriously consider this in a major socal city. |
Effective use of Twitter? | kakooljay: Check out Twitter API: Up and Running:
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596154622Chapter 1 has a great section called "Creative Uses of Twitter" (& a history of Twitter). Examples range from breaking news & games like Artwiculate to organizing protests & flash mobs. Also, Twitter is adding geotagging [http://w... |
am I making progress or losing track? | mpf62: I would say: keep focusing on fundamentals. Learning new technologies is pretty easy if you do understand the basic rules that they are all based on.For example: I you have no idea what the "De Casteljau"-algorithm is about, how could you implement a adequate solution for a given problem with any technology? But... |
Context-switching | bhousel: "I get started the minute I get out of bed, and I have all the context there in my head, so I'm productive immediately."Well there's your problem! Get some of it written down, on paper, Evernote, or wherever works for you. You will definitely improve your context switching if whenever you need to switch gear... |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | RevRal: Count me in for the hacker commune.I've seen so much work get done in similar sittings for musicians and writers.And it'd be great to have more people who "get it" physically around you. |
Effective use of Twitter? | chaosprophet: Effective use of twitter??? Keep it blocked. At the least when you're working on something. |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | akkartik: Just don't be too controlling. "Incubators tend to exert more control than VCs.." -- http://www.paulgraham.com/startupfunding.html, http://www.paulgraham.com/maybe.html |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | marcamillion: Just a thought...and this could be very crazy, however if you were able to pull 'camps' together, where each camp is 'hosted' by someone 'famous'.Just like Y Combinator is hosted by PG, etc., if you get the city behind it, then get a few noteworthy ex-entrepreneurs - and put them up in a building of their... |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | endtwist: Sheerly out of curiosity, how much is that 23-unit building going for?Edit: Also, you should put an email address in your profile. |
Effective use of Twitter? | seasoup: the best use of twitter I ever made was when i was listening to pandora and it stopped playing. I tried a few things, figured out it wasn't my network so i thought that maybe pandora was down. i went on twitter and searched #pandora... sure enough, 4 posts in the last few minutes that pandora was down. I ad... |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | rjett: In addition to the isolation that others have cited, there's quite an opportunity for moral hazard on behalf of the entrepreneurs you accept into your house. Not only would you have to be very good at selecting capable entrepreneurs, but you would also need to structure the incentives such that the entrepreneurs... |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | etherael: I'd be so into this idea if it were all physically practical, wish it were easier to find similar situations. |
Context-switching | bayareaguy: These days my work is split between developing new software, keeping various systems and databases humming along and helping out anyone on
our team on a wide variety of issues. My time is almost always in demand by someone and occasionally I get so many requests for help that days or even weeks go by befor... |
Health insurance in startups | DenisM: 1. Check with your doctor. He/she (or whoever deals with insurance in their practice) might be able to suggest a good plan that actually matches your health level and provides good coverage.2. Learn your local state laws. In WA it is illegal for an insurance company to reject treatment due to pre-existing condi... |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | mbrubeck: If you squint at it the right way, you could even call it a "university." |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | erikstarck: I've had a similar idea but more like a "startup farm" or house, but finding an entire small village suitable for this - I say go for it!This is actually an idea of the kind where I think "I could do this for the rest of my life". Considering I'm the kind of person with tonnes of ideas and too little time t... |
Health Effects of Night Owl | workhorse: I haven't found any bad effects on my end yet. I make sure to work out daily though, minimum 30 mins.I sleep from 5am until 10am, and then get back to it. Seems to work well for me. |
Health Effects of Night Owl | quizbiz: I worry that I only like the night because of the isolation it enduces. |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | lupin_sansei: Could you post the street view location for the neighbourhood? Here's the centre of the Richmond for example: http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&sourceid=navclient-... |
What's your dream career? | jacobb: I'd like to spend the rest of my life having sex with really hot girls -- a different one every night. That's a full time job. |
Evaluate my start-up idea - A new take on dating | inklesspen: Like you, I also read PG's list of startups he'd like to fund. The "dating" item ends with this: "So if you want to do a dating startup, don't focus on the novel take on dating that you're going to offer. That's the easy half. Focus on novel ways to get around the chicken and egg problem."I'm not seeing you... |
Health Effects of Night Owl | Shooter: Yes, some studies have suggested that working night owl shifts for a long period of time can shorten your life by a significant amount - possibly years. Loneliness, poor eating habits, and hormone changes were all cited as possible reasons why this might be true. Night shift workers also tend to exercise les... |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | l3db3tt3r: There are some great points, argument and counter-arguments. I would like to move forward with the "campus" style analogy.I think you could side step a lot of the problems, i.e. house squatting, housing discrimination, screening of less then ideal individuals...
if you made it into a vocational school, or c... |
Evaluate my start-up idea - A new take on dating | tristian: Hmmm. I don't think that a completely profile-less site would work. Users would be too worried about meeting a weirdo, someone they found deeply unattractive, or someone with highly different creed. Er, think of a strongly Christian person "dating" a staunch Atheist. Users would want at least some way of weed... |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | adrianwaj: Have a professional program that runs alongside the basic program.
When people apply, they have to offer something the place. Anything from a quiz, to a magazine, cooking, to lectures, to a strategy sharing night (where confidentiality agreements are signed and startups can reveal themselves to others).
Mayb... |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | keenerd: One huge issue: zoning.How many people per house? Unless it is zoned for apartments, you are going to have a rough time. Many places have rules against N unrelated people living in the same building. I think in my township it is 2, or some really low number.That said, there was once a block of cheap apartme... |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | frig: I don't think you can make your proposal work in a way that's a good use of your time (and other resources) as you've originally proposed.If I were you I'd tweak this around a bit.There might be an interesting niche for apartment-complex/executive-suite hybrids.Basically an apartment complex but with a reasonable... |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | kapauldo: First of all, your house if flippin' beautiful. And your blog is awesome. I think this is a great idea, and I think you should ignore all of the reasons not to do it. There are only a couple of things you need to be fairly certain of- 1) are there enough young entrepreneurs in the area to make this worthwh... |
What's your dream career? | chaosprophet: Commercial airline pilot. Especially one that keeps flying into disaster-prone areas and managing to touch down without incident. |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | whirlycott1: I can't imagine why anybody who is putting their heart into their work would take you up on this offer. It's easy enough to get a cheap place to live (i.e. rent a room) for a while, even in Boston, SF or NYC. Your offer of bandwidth of server space is probably worth $150/month, which is the cost of a che... |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | synnik: I've been thinking along the same lines, looking at properties that could work.
Ultimately, I foresee one major problem -- their bandwidth, servers, food, electricity, water, heat, etc. will cost you hard cash, while they live rent-free, with no incentive to change the status quo.My alternative would be to char... |
Evaluate my start-up idea - A new take on dating | cousin_it: Really good idea, but I'd be afraid of seeing nine other guys show up, so better replace "first come first served" with something else. |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | edw519: I think it's a great idea, but I would just do it for profit. Make it like a fraternity house, a reasonable month to month charge for room, board, & wifi. The only thing I'd be concerned about is access to customers. Richmond does seem like it's a little out of the way. |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | tkiley: +1 on the location. I currently live and work from an old renovated cotton mill in Dalton, GA. Only drawback is the limited population of local hackers and entrepreneurs. |
Evaluate my start-up idea - A new take on dating | roundsquare: I think its a really neat idea, but I think there is a security fear. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that with other websites, people generally get to know someone via email, IMs, etc... before going on a date so they can be relatively sure that the person won't be violent, etc... I don't see a g... |
Evaluate my start-up idea - A new take on dating | dsplittgerber: If I were dating, why would I potentially waste hours with getting ready for a date and going on the actual date, if I had no clue whatsoever who was going to come and if I liked them at all to begin with?I think there is a huge psychological barrier for people to go on such dates. The more 'successful' ... |
Please name two of your most favorite books. | newsdog: The Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
The Princess Bride by William GoldmanThe first is insanely superior. The second just really really good. |
what are the two best technical decisions you made for your startup? | mahmud: I get paid to make good technical decisions.Used web-service based architecture; small independent modules, each with a light json-rpc based API. |
what are the two best technical decisions you made for your startup? | trapper: 1. Puppet - being able to roll out a new server in a few minutes on either ec2, external networks connected to our vpn or locally is magic. Having our server definitions version controlled is seriously powerful.2. AWS - enough said. |
what are the two best technical decisions you made for your startup? | patio11: Rails: Two years ago I switched from the standard shareware five-page-HTML-brochure site to the same site written in Rails, with the immediate goal of not having to do templating by hand anymore. It has grown organically since that, now boasting a CMS, a full-fledged web app, an API which interacts with my de... |
Please name two of your most favorite books. | Kaizen: The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt and Jeff Cox
How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World by Harry BrowneEven though "The Goal" is a story about process improvement for a factory, I've also used the thinking from it (basically, lean manufacturing) for software development. |
what are the two best technical decisions you made for your startup? | dryicerx: * Using Protocol Buffers* Amazon Web Services |
What source code is worth studying? | avinashv: SQLite's source listing is great. I learned a lot about good C practices and documentation reading it. |
What source code is worth studying? | arthurk: If you're interested in literate programming: TeX |
Tell me why a room-and-board-and-bandwidth incubator is a stupid idea | masson: I don't know how good the fit is, but your suggestion reminded me of a start-up incubator based in Bloomington, IN called Sproutbox.com. Maybe there is some way they could assist the kind of organization you have in mind. |
What source code is worth studying? | jeduan: Anyone willing to recommend a Java project worth studying? |
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