Re:Ask HN: Getting depressed about money. How do I make a me...
by mcdoug on Wednesday July 22, 2020 @02:38PM
(#23920176)
It's possible I also just needed to rant about how tired I am of the rat race. You are right of course (though I might not 100% agree on your point #3; valuable connections often come out of spreading the word about your project and my motivation usually increases afterwards).
Some valuable pieces of advice I've heard:
1) Owning your work is important.
2) Because few people succeed the very first time, waiting for The Good Idea (TM) to come to you before getting started is foolish. The more effective strategy is to keep trying different things that play to your strengths and learn as much as you can from repeated failure.
3) Try to develop an internal motivation to complete projects and avoid talking to others about your projects for validation. The very act of mentioning your next Thing to your friends can have a powerful demotivating effect, because it tricks your brain into a dopamine response as if you actually already did the Thing [1]
[1] https://berkeleysciencereview.com/2013/04/when-telling-other...