Staying focused in a noisy environment is not easy. Our brains are finely attuned to detect even the subtlest distractions because this skill kept us alive throughout our evolutionary history. In primal times, a faint rustling sound in a bush or a strange silhouette in peripheral vision could be a venomous snake or some other … Read more
I am not a big fan of learning programming through books, at least not the high-level stuff that we use in our day to day life. I think it’s a good idea to start with a book on the fundamentals if you’re just starting out, because the basic concepts don’t change very much, but after … Read more
Does that sound familiar? You know you should be doing something important, something that benefits your life or helps you avoid a lot of trouble in the future. Maybe this task is difficult, but you know you could get it done if you would just focus on it for a while. But instead you spend … Read more
“Everybody in this country should learn how to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think.” This famous quote by Steve Jobs has a lot of truth to it. Coding certainly improves your ability to think logically and make more rational decisions. But nowadays you could also say: “Everybody in this country world should … Read more
Motivation is a tricky topic. There were some things in my life for which I had strong burning desire in the beginning, but after a couple of weeks my motivation completely plummeted and often I even ended up hating this particular task, hobby or project. This can easily happen when you invest a lot of time … Read more
Learning to code is basically just going from one problem to another. Some of these problems are solved easily, but there are also situations where you just feel lost and frustrated. In these moments you wish someone else would write your code for you, implement the thing you don’t understand and then hand over the … Read more
As I already explained in my Incremental Progress over Intense Sprints blog post, I think it is much better to make steady, incremental progress rather than going super hard for short periods of time and eventually burn out. If you can combine both, perfect, but don’t confuse the initial boost of motivation that you always … Read more
Let’s face it: Learning to code is hard and can be quite frustrating. It’s also very satisfying when something finally clicks or a piece of code works, but the next session of sitting in front of your PC with 10 tabs of different Google searches, Stackoverflow questions and documentation opened — while stressfully ripping your hair … Read more
As a fan of MMORPGs, I’ve been fascinated by the idea of approaching life like a game/RPG for years now. Just think about how much effort we voluntarily put into a game to make progress. I mean it’s literally hard work for hours on end over months. And not only that we don’t get any … Read more
Since I’ve discovered my motivation to achieve something in life rather than just wasting my time with leisure, bad nutrition and alcohol in my early 20s, I’ve always wanted to be one of those guys that say about themselves, that they work “really really hard”. You know, like Gary Vaynerchuk, Elon Musk or any other … Read more