How to Get Things Done When You Don't Feel Like It - <AUTHOR> https://queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=3280677 <comment><USER3> I've seen these tips before, but unlike most people here I've tried them without any long term success. Breaking tasks down and gamification sounds beautiful in theory, but usually I don't have the discipline to do that.

In case someone else feels the same way, what worked for me is to talk to my coworkers. I usually go out for coffee or long walks and let my mind wander. I'd talk about work, politics, our families, and usually the conversation wanders back to work and what we are doing.

Many scenarios usually come up from those talks. Sometimes I'll find what my coworkers working on pretty interesting and get involved (which sometimes makes coming back to my work easier). Sometimes I ended up talking about my work (explaining my problems to others helps me clarify and solidify what I needed to do). Sometimes I realize that another team has already done the work and all I have to do is ask them for a library. Once I realize that my work was meaningless and purely a political play and I left the company soon after.

So going out for long walks and just talking with different people in my company has worked out really well for me.

<comment><USER4> Sometimes, brain function is actually to blame for procrastination, and not attitude or perception of the work before you. When I'd slept too little, or am going through caffeine withdrawal, my procrastination goes through the roof. I'd just rather sleep than do anything productive then. My anti- procrastination toolkit is:

\- Like you said, going for a walk (activates beneficial genes, helps circadian rhythm)

\- Stop caffeine as soon and often as you can. Sometimes situations force me to use a pick-me-up, but I try and stop the day after.

\- Go to bed early (10PM ideally)

\- Vitamin D, Magnesium, etc. also check out near infrared therapy to improve mitochondrial function

\- Moderate exercise (overtraining has a bad net effect on nearly everything, so stop if working out makes you feel worse; if you have a heart rate variability monitor, you can use that as a metric for overtraining)

\- Small talk (works for me to "wake the brain up")

But really, 90% of the time I just have to sleep more. The others are just hacks to keep me going if I can't get enough sleep (sometimes not easy with 2 kids).

<comment><USER5> > 90% of the time I just have to sleep more

I don't know about a lot of the rest of your post, but this bit is key. If you aren't getting enough sleep, _nothing_ will help. The legends of politicians and executives who sleep 3 hours a day are either outliers for whom 3 hours genuinely _is_ enough, or speed-freaks, or often enough both.

<comment><USER6> I _can_ function on 3 hours a day -- if the only thing I have to do is _talking and reacting to incoming stimuli_. Which is precisely what high- flying politicians and execs do: talk, talk, talk, with some occasional reasoning thrown in. They don't have to break down complex problems or create complex artefacts, there are aides doing it for them. They just go through briefing after briefing and react to what is thrown at them.

Actual creative workers and engineers require a different set of brain functionality, which requires deeper concentration, and hence need more sleep.

<comment><USER7> Great distinction that doesn't get brought up enough. At the same time, we also want politicians and CEOs making optimal decisions rather than just surface level ones.

<comment><USER8> That is often a function of having good (or convincing) reports available to them.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Couple tricks on getting started:

\- Use the 15 minute rule to get started, only agree to do 15-20 minutes of work to see if you are flowing in that project, most of the time once you get started and loaded up the project in your mental space you can easily flow on it. Pomodoro is nice as well, but the 15 minute get started rule has less commitment needed and usually works, or just plan to do at least one tomato and you end up doing many.

\- Leave a currently solved code part partially done or leave a compile issue on the area you were working on, then wake up the next day, finish that part and you can flow right into other work because the domain is in your mind.

\- Multiple projects and work on another project during procrastination or a thinking spot of the current project. Have main work projects, side projects, fun projects, some are more fun, more work or just tedious/rote that you can use depending on your productivity or work style of the day.

\- Motivators and triggers: music (usually a playlist that is used during work to make it more regular), coffee/gum/work food, focus by turning off distractions except for breaks, stand up regularly and walk around when stuck on any issues that need to be done, and visualize shipping.

\- Creative Open/Focused Closed state: do creative work in the open state, block out time and explore, do must be done work in the closed state, minimize distractions and exploration [1].

\- Start the day right, work on something simple or one check in for instance before reddit/HN/news or distractions, sometimes the first thing you do in the morning can influence your whole day, reward yourself with distractions but base yourself in production at least 2 to 1 productivity to fun/distraction.

Ultimately be a pro, a pro can start working to a high level even when they don't want to, sometimes you need to jump start or get a rolling start but you can develop a habit to get moving and ship.

[1] [https://genius.com/John-cleese-lecture-on-creativity- annotat...](https://genius.com/John-cleese-lecture-on-creativity-annotated)

<comment><USER10> Some additions to this I find useful:

> \- Use the 15 minute rule to get started

I like to take this a step further, and I think I read it in a Brian Tracey book once. If I have a list of things that need doing that I am not especially excited about, I'll go through them doing five minutes max on each. This normally sufficiently unsticks each, but if it doesn't, then do a round of 10m on each.

> \- Leave a currently solved code part partially done or leave a compile > issue on the area you were working on

One way I handle this is by forcing myself to keep and update a "Next Work" list (in an outliner) that keeps a very current todo list for each project. Generally I'll update it each morning and break down the immediate next work into tasks that only take a minute or two to get that momentum going

> \- Motivators and triggers

I'm only slightly ashamed to admit I make heavy use of:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6OwnNe9nMU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6OwnNe9nMU) (usually while walking, or very very first thing in the morning -- I downloaded the audio only)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjZ0KbJcav0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjZ0KbJcav0)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmkNKEHC8Pg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmkNKEHC8Pg)

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjP9r-HU4fk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjP9r-HU4fk)

and Apple's Think Different advert

I also really like writing out the answer to "What'll be different in a week's/month's time due to what you're about to do?"

> \- Start the day right, work on something simple or one check in for > instance before reddit/HN/news or distractions

Phone goes on airplane mode overnight, and comes out of airplane mode once I've completed my morning ritual, which takes about an hour and a half.

<comment><USER11> > Phone goes on airplane mode overnight, and comes out of airplane mode once > I've completed my morning ritual, which takes about an hour and a half

Yeah, no. How are people going to contact in case of an emergency?

<comment><USER12> This will not work for everyone as I do the same with airplane mode. I figure if it is that much of an emergency, a police officer will show to my door with terrible news.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> If you have really serious procrastination issues, not only in your work, but in your life in general, if you lose your keys or phone a lot, have trouble keeping up with bills, forget appointments, if you're late to things constantly, zone out at meetings, forget things people say to you almost immediately, concentrate better when either tired or stimulated, have a bad habit of interrupting people cause you'll forget what you wanted to say otherwise, if your house is a constant mess...

Do yourself a huge favor and see a psych who specializes in ADHD. You might be undiagnosed, and treatment could make a significant difference in your life.

If you were smart enough to coast through schooling as a child, and have the inattentive-type ADHD, it's quite likely your ADHD was missed as a child. It's not something you "grow out of" as an adult.

Even if you aren't ready for the psych step yet (it took me years of suspecting I was ADHD before I took that leap), read up on Adult ADHD. If you see yourself in everything you read, see a psych. It's worth it, even just to know you're not "broken" you just have ADHD. Once you know, you can get treatment, and find strategies that work for your brain.

<comment><USER14> I am this exact way. I've come to the conclusion that I seem to be addicted to stress, and my mind purposefully avoids important tasks until almost no time is left, and then it is so much more easy for my brain to concentrate on the task and I achieve a level of focus that honestly produces much better work than when I've deliberately tried to work on a task in a timely manner. I have no idea what to do about this, and my family would be incredibly dismissive and judgmental if I ever tried to seriously see my doctor about this. Any time I have mentioned the potential for ADD I am scoffed at and called lazy. I am not lazy at all, I actually can't stand being unbusy and will find something to do to always be busy. I just have a huge problem focusing on what I actually should be focusing on until the last minute, and my brain is often somewhere else which causes me to forget where I put things all the time. Yet I am the person people seem to trust most if they need help with a critical decision

Does this sound like it could be an issue? I am on Kaiser and I hear they have a TERRIBLE program for psych stuff in general. I hear I would need family to be interviewed or asked if they feel I have issues which, again, they will just say Im lazy and have no problems. Is there a place I can identify a doctor in my area that is either reasonably priced or does not require visits frequently? Even a web based doctor that you visit infrequently?

<comment><USER15> >and my mind purposefully avoids important tasks until almost no time is left, and then it is so much more easy for my brain to concentrate on the task and I achieve a level of focus that honestly produces much better work than when I've deliberately tried to work on a task in a timely manner

This was high school for me. I would have weeks to finish a significant paper. I would inadvertently wait until the night before, stay up all night working on it, and generally I would get a good grade, often an A. It was like the time and effort I would have spent on it was concentrated into a single 12-hour rush where the deadline pressure squeezed my best efforts out of me.

At no point did I think "I should work on this paper, but, nah". In my head I was always getting around to it, but never did. Same was true for homework. I would be trying to finish first period's assignment on the school bus, next period's assignment in homeroom, another assignment in study hall, another assignment at lunch, etc. A lot of copying people's work.

Also I have crippling ADHD and can barely hold a job.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Below are two questions that I ask myself, when I need to do a task I do not feel like. My experience has always been that the impedance is higher at only start of the task, and if the answer to any of below two questions is Yes, then the value of outcome would supersede my initial uneasiness.

1\. Would the value created by this task reduce over time? In other words, is it better to do this task today than in future?

2\. Does the effort required by the task increase (or remain same), if delayed? In other words, is it easier for me to do this task today than in future?

<comment><USER17> That's a good strategy. What if the answer is no to both questions?

<comment><USER16> In the case, where answer is No to both the questions, I have come to terms with being comfortable with procrastinating on that task. If I cannot convince myself of value added vs effort required today vs in future, it is okay to delay the task.

Also, choosing not to do a task now and procrastinate can be a powerful and useful tactic.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER18> Strangely, the one thing that worked for me doesn't appear to be on this list:

 _The resistance to starting a task is geometrically proportional to the SIZE of the task._

So I try to break everything down into tasks that take no more than a few minutes. I wouldn't have tasks like "Write FooBar architecture document", but rather "Write FooBar intro", or "sketch connection diagram on paper" or "copy connection diagram to Visio/Draw.io".

<comment><USER19> The article does mention your trick:

> My solution was to approach a project by turning it into as many tiny steps > as possible. That way I could get a few really easy wins under my belt. For > example, each step would be a task such as "Search for ______ on Google" or > "Have a conversation with ______." Crossing things off your to-do list gives > your brain a happy little dopamine hit, even if the tasks are tiny—it keeps > your motivation up and your excuses down.

<comment><USER18> You're right. I think one of my other tricks failed me: reading paragraph headings, following by the minimum number of sentences per heading required to get its gist.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> I have procrastination problems. I have a theory that I haven't heard other people that seems to work for me - its that my brain works too quickly for coding and gets frustrated then moves onto "more interesting distractions". I find I am most productive when I get tired at night, or I'm not feeling well, or I have a few beers.

I love coding and getting in flow state but it just seems much coding is too boring a process.

Could this be true? Or maybe I'm just a classic procrastinator on HN again.

<comment><USER21> You are describing attention deficit disorder.

<comment><USER22> Agreed. I was recently (6 months) diagnosed as an adult with ADHD. The experiences of the parent are in line with mine.

<comment><USER13> Yep, just diagnosed a week ago at age 38. If you did well enough in school, and have the inattentive-type ADHD, it's really easy for it to get missed in childhood.

If you were smart enough to coast through school despite your procrastination and attention issues, definitely go see a psych for an evaluation.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER23> When I find myself procrastinating, it's usually because the problem feels to me like some combination of unclear and overwhelming, in the sense that it will take a lot of mental energy to even get started and then I'll have to maintain focus for a long time after that.

What helps me a lot in that case is to break the problem down into simpler pieces. Then the first piece doesn't seem so bad, and then I'm rolling.

</comment><comment><USER24> You can't do a thing you don't feel like doing. Ask David Hume, or ask any depressed person.

In reality our ideas about what we should be doing _co-evolve_ with our feelings about doing those things.

<comment><USER25> I dunno, sounds slightly circular, prone to the "If you did it you must have felt like doing it" kind of response.

<comment><USER26> > "If you did it you must have felt like doing it"

That's exactly correct. Every action you took voluntarily was your choice.

You are always doing whatever you want to do. You may tell yourself many stories in your head, and we can dispute free will, but as long as we assume it for the purpose of this discussion, what you do is your choice.

So to me the biggest step in fighting procrastination seems to be deciding what do you really want to be doing with your life and eliminating wishful thinking (i.e. thinking that you can get foo without doing bar in case where that is not possible)

<comment><USER27> > That's exactly correct. Every action you took voluntarily was your choice.

> You are always doing whatever you want to do. You may tell yourself many > stories in your head, and we can dispute free will, but as long as we assume > it for the purpose of this discussion, what you do is your choice.

I understand what you are getting at, and I agree with the basic fundamental idea within a certain context. However, we have to be careful with how we extrapolate and attempt to re-interpret words and phrases such as "choice", "want", "feel like doing [x]", "deciding" , and so on.

The part quoted above basically makes those words meaningless. Regardless of what one thinks about free will, those words have great utility and fulfill roles in the human experience for which there isn't really any replacement.

You yourself demonstrate this quite plainly in your last sentence, when you say we should "decide" what we really "want" to be doing with our life.

<comment><USER26> That's a fair point. I think we inevitably end up in a discussion about free will if we try to pin those words down. That part of the last sentence could have been written as "thinking what values are important to you".

But yes it's just rephrasing. I explained myself in a bit more detail here: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17524210](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17524210)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER28> Something which I have found helps me when I'm in one of those motivation funks which last longer than a day and which I can't seem to shake is to spend a bit of time consuming impressive work that other people have done in fields outside of software development.

There's something about spending time in an art gallery, a library or even taking a walk around the central business district of a major city checking out the more impressive buildings and absorbing the pace and atmosphere that seems to wake up what I would almost call a competitiveness (in the sense of "shit, all of these people are doing such amazing, focused, long-term and brilliant things. I should get back to work", but truly without any elements of self-pity that might be read into that if I don't spell it out) on top of the other more general inspiration which these things give me.

For whatever reason, it seems to be more effective if these works are outside of software development.

</comment><comment><USER29> I'm going to share my tip which has worked excellently for me in the past few months (this is after years of iterating to find a solution).

I have a note book, and I write timestamped logs into it as I go along. The emotions I feel when I take some extra time to do a tiny task because I got distracted by HN or something else is quite strong. I feel like this has had a very positive effect on self accountability. I can't bear to look at a log where it's written:

10:12 - Discovered that a file is missing locally. Which one is it? (extra note of file name)

10:14 - Going to check github to see if the file exists still and if not, when it got removed.

10:50 - (Insert expletive). Got distracted with Twitter. Back now. Checked file. It was removed in the last commit.

There are lots of other little elements I've included in my workflow like regular reflections and end of day planning for next day. But I feel like the physical logging activity is the element that actually makes it all work.

Happy to share more details on this workflow if anyone is interested. My build just finished so it's back to work before I become embarrassed by my log ;).

Edit - I was in a hurry to write this because of a build about to finish. I've got another build going and wanted to add that one other important effect of this process is forcing myself to think of the next step _without_ the burden of keeping the previous contexts in my head. That's all written down so I can always pick up where I left off even in the case of an interruption.

<comment><USER30> I presume you don't log when you're in flow. To clarify, you only begin logging your actions when you notice you're procrastinating?

<comment><USER29> Good question. No. I log during every stage. To clarify how it works, it's not a minute by minute logging. It's logging at every stage that one might normally pause and think. "Hmm.. ok that step is done, now on to the next.. which is..." . So when I'm in the flow which happens rarely, it'll be like:

11:47 - Alright. Time to implement the functionality to read the JWT token and store it and cache it for future requests.

11:52 - Test has been setup and is failing as expected. Let's pass this!

12:20 - Phew. Finally got that working. Making the function testable was a little harder than expected. Had trouble mocking the call to requests so that I don't actually get a token from the service for each test. Any way, that's done. Now I need to test if it actually works when running. How should I do that though?

12:26 - I have an idea! <there's be a flow chart diagram here and a bullet point list>

12:40 - NICE! It worked!

Does that help clarify how I might go about logging? I find that the flow doesn't come all that often and most tasks I'm working on requires me to pause and think often. And the maximum time of work to pause is usually 20-25 minutes.

<comment><USER31> I have a notification with a timer set at every n:15 time of the working day, e.g. 9:15, 10:15, 11:15. This is because I find meetings rarely fall on to this time at my current place of work. The notification works well and constantly reminds you to keep an active journal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER32> My best tip is to get more sleep. It is way easier to complete stuff and do stuff you don't want to with a well rested mind.

When I am sleep deprived, I procrastinate a lot. When I get about 8 hours I don't.

</comment><comment><USER33> Something I've found very helpful at breaking the habit of going to HN/Reddit/whatever when I start waiting for something to finish running - <USER2> up a cronjob that checks what time it is, and if it's within working hours, it adds a bunch of sites to my hosts file, pointed to a server I control. It also grabs my current todo text file, and formats/pastes that into the index page of that server. The page also does some light shaming. Outside of work hours, it removes those host file items automatically. It helps in those cases where you reflexively visit a time waster without really meaning to.

<comment><USER34> Having todo on replaced website is a great idea, thanks!

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> One thing that I didn't realize until I was in a work environment that prevented it - I need procrastination or I can't get things done. Without multiple irons in the fire - not that there can't be too many - I can't keep myself in the interesting part of work, and if I can't batch administrative stuff the interrupt time dwarfs the actual effect of what I'm doing.

</comment><comment><USER36> To help 'gamify' getting things done, I recently added the ability to set the timer in Lanes ([https://lanes.io](https://lanes.io)) to sync with any Youtube video.

So instead of tidying for 10 minutes, for example, you can tidy for the length of your favorite track - the timer will match the length of the video, the audio will play and the time will be logged. If you have routine tasks this turns out to be a pretty effective way of breezing through them.

How it looks: [https://gfycat.com/HonoredHatefulIndianelephant](https://gfycat.com/HonoredHatefulIndianelephant)

<comment><USER37> What's the rationale behind Lanes using a round radio button in todolists, where you'd expect to see a square checkbox? I know it's a trivial thing, but for some reason it jumped at me.

<comment><USER36> Aesthetics mainly. Circles feel neater.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER38> Listening to ambient music somehow seems to makes me seek other distractions less, allowing me to actually get started with or focuns on the task at hand.

<comment><USER39> I find this to be the case too. I prefer listening to rain ambient, like A Soft Murmur [1] or lofi hip hop beats.

Apparently, there's even some research that shows that ambient music which isn't at a high volume level can boost creativity [2], and that it can also improve performance in performing repetitive tasks.

 _Edit: Also found a reference to a 2005 study which is said to show that music can increase performance in software developers. [3]_

[1] [https://asoftmurmur.com/](https://asoftmurmur.com/)

[2] Mehta, Ravi, et al. "Is Noise Always Bad? Exploring the Effects of Ambient Noise On Creative Cognition." Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 39, no. 4, 2012, pp. 784–799. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/665048.

 _Edit: [3][http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0305735605050650](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0305735605050650) _

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> It might sound a bit more extreme, but I just think of not having any money, me and my family being thrown out of our house, and my kids thinking I'm a failure. That usually sorts it out.

</comment><comment><USER41> Although I don't think it's an extraordinarily novel concept, something about the framing of "Gumption Traps" [1] in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance resonated with me strongly, and sensitivity to them has helped me get a lot more done.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumption_trap](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumption_trap)

</comment><comment><USER42> Worthwhile reading, IMHO. Every idea is one that has worked for me at one time or another. I haven't seen them all together in a single article before.

I especially like the explanation that taking a break to successfully complete some other straightforward task (e.g. sweeping the floor) creates dopamine which gives rise to more creative thinking which can help you reach a break through on the original task.

Well done.

</comment><comment><USER43> What works best for me is to meditate during the inevitable downtimes - compiling, training, uploading, downloading... Find beauty in the scrolling logs. Take a look outside. Before you know it, you'll be excited about the next important thing you can do while waiting on the first. Also makes for a much happier work day!

</comment><comment><USER44> When it comes to project work, more so in a corporate or team environment, I also like to consider the people involved as a motivating factor: by not doing the work involved, you impact the people around you. Ultimately everything we do, have done, or ever will do is all about people and society.

Who are you hurting by not doing the work?

</comment><comment><USER45> "Get other people involved" has been really helping me over the last few weeks. I have a new customer who needs a new feature, and they've basically been my temporary co-founder while I'm working on it. I'm a solo founder, so it's been really helpful to listen to their feature requests, and they're helping me with a lot of QA.

I didn't really feel a lot of motivation to work on this feature before, because I had many other things to do. But once I started, I really got into it, and now I'm excited about launching it. It should make a huge difference to my company.

</comment><comment><USER46> How to procrastinate: Read an article about procrastination

</comment><comment><USER47> Build your projects in such a way that the difficulty of diving back in is easy as possible. Nothing enables my procrastination quite as much as not remembering how to get back to working.

</comment><comment><USER48> One strategy that has consistently worked for me when there's something I need to do that I really don't want to face: set aside some time to work on it, and then start casually _thinking_ about it _before_ that time arrives while I'm doing something else. That seems to help a lot with "swapping in" the mental state for the task, and when I actually sit down to work I find I'm a lot more productive than if I have not pre-loaded my mental caches this way.

</comment><comment><USER49> "Talk about it to others" may seem intuitive, but apparently there is some study to the contrary:

[http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009...](http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02336.x)

So, as the article suggest, the talking should be with regards to problems you have during a project, not so much your intentions to complete your tasks.

</comment><comment><USER50> I like Adam Savage's approach: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVnoTrJNAtc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVnoTrJNAtc) which can be summarised as "future me is really happy when past me takes care of their crap."

Thinking about what the future will be like when this task is done (and done properly) almost seems to bring some of the gratification/reward into the present.

</comment><comment><USER51> And here I am reading HN instead of doing the work I don't feel like doing ;-)

</comment><comment><USER52> Take up running. Running is about learning the power of decisions, because it's one long, agonizing decision to better yourself. With every step your body tells you to stop, and it's up to you to choose not to stop.

That's what worked for me. I was terrible at procrastination until I took up running. Now I just apply the lesson I learned from running:

Every moment is a choice.

</comment><comment><USER53> Mirror: [https://archive.is/MVT4y](https://archive.is/MVT4y)

</comment><comment><USER54> Good tips... setting timers really helps me. It's mini-accountability.

Start a timer and say "I'll finish this task in 30 minutes". It helps my brain skip the random "new tab twitter.com" behavior.

</comment><comment><USER55> On HN stories (ie here, not the article itself), I can get a "readable" version on mobile firefox (ie the icon left of the tab square). All but this one. Weird.

EDIT and now, an hour later, I can. Also weird.

</comment><comment><USER56> We have evolved mechanisms that direct attention and make most efficient use of our energy. When the brain turns its attention away from a task don't fight it, go with it. Listen to your intuition and you'll find there's something else that needs attention. Once that's been addressed, the motivation to complete the task at hand will naturally renew. You might think you can simply do what you want when you want, but life's not like that: you can't have what you want when you want it.

</comment><comment><USER57> What works for me is being able to toggle between a few different projects that requires slightly different skills and tasks. If I get stuck or tired of one, I can toggle to another project and still accomplish something.

Something else that works for me is letting go the guilt when I don't feel like something something (that's not urgent or time sensitive). If I'm not in the mood, I take a long break and allow myself to properly enjoy it without the guilt. This usually restores my motivation.

</comment><comment><USER58> One thing I like to do to motivate myself and get stuff done is mini- hackathons. Its essentially a mixture of setting time aside and gamyfication. Essentially you have a task and you challenge yourself to get a workable solution complete within a short period of time, say 15 min or an hour, or maybe even a day... really depends on the task. Basically a hackathon but for a shorter period of time and maybe smaller predefined task.

<comment><USER59> Back in university, I rewarded myself with one attempt at 3-ball juggling after 30 minutes of studying. So, my hackathons were throwathons :-) Worked great, and I learned to juggle within a week.

Somewhere else I read that someone did push-ups, squats or planks during breaks. That would be a great tip for me nowadays. Pushathons?

</comment></comment><comment><USER60> "procrastination is a bad thing. It comes from a fear of getting started"

Is it really from fear?

I believe it comes from a basic human need for constant changes, or often called 'news value'.

<comment><USER61> I see it as a fear for sure. "I can't do this thing", "if I do this thing it won't be any good anyway", that sort of thing.

<comment><USER37> I feel sources of procrastination need to be discussed somewhat separately. I know a fear like yours is frequently reported to be one. But myself, I don't have such fear for the tasks I procrastinate the most on. Hell, I'm usually _overconfident_ about doing them (that's why I agreed to do them in the first place). For me it's closer to "news value", but it really boils down to sudden anxiety attacks and desperate need to do _something else, anything else_ whenever I face a task I actually should be doing.

So, different people, different flavours of procrastination.

<comment><USER60> I feel the same way. By being overconfident I mean that I am sure I can plan every aspect in my head, and the work boils down to 'boring todo'. When I first start I find new ascpects that I believe give me the necessary news- value/flow to continue the task, as long as there is such a value when you work on it.. basic routine work is the worst and I often find my self want to automate the task, even if it is faster to do it manually.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER62> We always make the best decisions we can with the information we have at the time. The more time you have to make a decision the more information you will acquire to make it. Procrastinate and use it to build and balance a healthy anxiety before you start your work. Sharpen that axe until you really need to start cutting and the task will seem significantly easier with the right informational tools to perform it.

</comment><comment><USER63> I work remotely, and being allowed by a friendly tech company (for whom I also occasionally do work) to use their offices as a working hub has transformed my procrastination tendencies. The context just takes over: there is nothing else to do there, but work, so I get on with it. It's maybe a different argument than the OP discusses, but I think for a lot of us, it's a related one.

</comment><comment><USER64> Regarding accountability, I've found Focusmate to be indispensable: [https://www.focusmate.com](https://www.focusmate.com)

I often enjoy it even more then being accountable to a co-worker because it frees you to be a bit more honest with the challenges you're facing and how you're genuinely feeling.

</comment><comment><USER65> You could use consequential thinking strategies. In other words, motivate yourself by reminding yourself of the consequences of not taking certain actions. Really imagine the bad things that will happen if you don't take action.

</comment><comment><USER66> Of the suggestions on this list, only the "precrastination" one makes any kind of sense to me. In fact, most of the others are anti-productive for me and I have tried them.

When I was young I read a quote that basically said, "you aren't ever going to feel like it." This struck me immediately as true: given any list of tasks, basically, there is always a fraction you won't want to do or which some form of constructive procrastination will prevent you from doing _even if you are otherwise productive_. This realization has been incredibly helpful for me in my career.

Later on, years ago but years after I was already pretty senior, I ran into the blog that Robert Hodgin used to have where he made a point that just plotting the first pixel was the hardest part of any of his projects.

So .. plot the first pixel, write the first line of code, write the first sentence, do the first set of squats, walk down the driveway, ... forcing these simple first steps make it substantially easier to do the next steps.

TL;DR: the most valuable solution to getting things done when you don't feel like it is to _start_.

</comment><comment><USER67> I often find that when I'm tired I'm much more effective and less prone to procrastinate. I've always wondered how to achieve this effect while not messing with my sleep.

</comment><comment><USER68> TLDR;

\- break task in to tiny steps

\- allocate time on calendar

\- buddy up with someone

\- Talk about it to others

\- just relax and something else you want

This article is not deep study but just someone's opinion.

</comment><comment><USER69> In my opinion this article misses the two most important points: having a clear long term purpose and learning how to be present and love your life.

</comment><comment><USER70> This is daily life at work, though... you just divide your job in smaller tasks and keep going one by one up to the nearest milestone.

</comment><comment><USER71> i think the author mentions divide and conquer (not by name), breaking things down to the smallest scope.

it's harder for me to keep track of all my things to do, for work, home, etc, i've actually created a tool to use for this, there's an iphone app if anyone's interested:

[https://getsdone.xyz](https://getsdone.xyz)

</comment><comment><USER72> I've had great success with a pomodoro timer that forces set breaks, and an actionable todo list for the day.

</comment><comment><USER73> FAO all procrastinators: read "the Now Habit".

</comment><comment><USER74> This feels like someone discovered that multitasking doesn't really work (some studies show it causes brain damage). I've grown to hate multitasking. Do not try to design your project while building it. Do not try to understand what it is supposed to do while debugging it. Separate all things, focus on them individually. I've found without effort it is easy to find yourself working on several tasks at the same time that would each be completed much faster if focused on one at a time.

<comment><USER75> > some studies show it causes brain damage

What? That can't be true, are you sure?

<comment><USER76> This is what I can gather from skimming some articles in a lazy research attempt:

* Almost all evidence shows multitasking is not actually possible

* Some evidence shows attempting to do so anyway results in IQ reduction and loss of ability to focus

* Some evidence shows this reduction lasts even after you are done

* Some evidence shows this reduction is due to permanent physiological changes in the brain

'Brain damage' might be going to far.

<comment><USER77> I can have a conversation with someone while driving a car. Is that not multitasking?

To anticipate an objection, I would agree that the competence of both tasks diminishes somewhat. However the overall competence of both is sufficient.

My brain also seems capable of detecting when more attention is required, and automatically stopping the lower priority task. For example, if I had to quickly merge across many lanes on a busy freeway, then I would likely cease conversation during that maneuver. I don't have to think too much about this consciously. The brain understands that driving is paramount and it will automatically preempt anything lower priority when more cognitive attention is required.

I would be interested to know what the research says about phenomena like that. There must be research like this supporting aviation, space flight, and nautical activities.

It seems easiest to multitask across different modes, e.g., I can work with my hands or drive a car while listening to an audiobook. I can have a social conversation with friends over voice chat while playing a video game.

Maybe the degree to which you can multitask depends upon the type of task and to what extent your brain can perform it automatically. The rote tasks involved in driving for example require very little attention to perform safely and correctly.

<comment><USER76> Yes, I had a lot of similar questions. Maybe 'task' is a misnomer? Maybe it's context switching that is the issue. Like talking and driving and having music playing in the background all exist in the same context of operating a vehicle. Just like using a calculator, reading a textbook and writing in a notebook are all different tasks you switch between to study, but are all in the same context of studying.

Side note, Wikipedia claims you can multitask between tasks you are already highly proficient at.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER78> I'm terrible at "tricking" myself into doing things. It's like trying to tickle myself, it just doesn't work that way. If I don't want to do something it's simply very difficult to motivate myself to do it. Maybe imagining the repercussions of not doing the thing, if they are sufficiently grave, but that's all I can think of.

</comment><comment><USER79> This is horrible advice.

If you have the discipline to do that, you have the discipline to complete the task.

</comment><comment><USER80> These tricks work sometimes but ultimate solution is to control your brain, through mediation.

Then you will be one who is in control, not the other way around.

</comment><comment><USER81> Heavy doses of atomoxetine, clonidine, mirtazapine and procrastination. WFM.

<comment><USER82> To translate: alleviate ADHD > reduce BP + alleviate ADHD > antidepressant > but there's always tomorrow > sounds good to me :)

But did you find the mirtazapine really does counteract any side effects of the atomoxetine that crop up?

<comment><USER83> I also took terazosin for a couple of weeks due to insane sweating (secondary hyperhydrosis; cold sweating) and goosebumps response (shiver) when not cold.

Overall, the effects of atomoxetine (80 mg/day) are slight (IME) but helpful: reducing by an order or two the magnitude of tracks my mind wants to wander in.

CBD (10 mg 4x/day) has been the biggest help.

Also, I take heavy doses (~200 mg/day ER in the morning) of propranolol.

Mirtazapine (60 mg/day at night)

Clonidine (0.1 mg/day at night)

I would avoid SSRI's at all costs (Maslow's hierarchy of need habits optimization: exercise, sleep, diet, caffeine (which is a mild anticholinergic) elimination, CBT, regular socializing, etc.) because the vestibular and discontinuation side-effects are horrendous and possibly permanently-damaging.</comment></comment></comment>


Good marketing books with more substance than Seth Godin's? - <AUTHOR> https://capitalandgrowth.org/questions/1392/what-are-some-good-marketing-books-with-more-subst.html <comment><USER2> I'm a Seth Godin fan, and usually recommend several of his books to people who are interested in marketing. But outside of his material, my list of marketing books would include:

1\. _Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind_ by Al Ries, Jack Trout and Philip Kotler

2\. _The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk!_ by Al Ries and Jack Trout

3\. _Re-Positioning: Marketing in an Era of Competition, Change and Crisis_ by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin

4\. _The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding_ by Al Ries and Laura Ries

5\. _Differentiate or Die: Survival in Our Era of Killer Competition_ by Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin

6\. _Marketing High Technology_ by William H. Davidow

7\. _Marketing Warfare_ by Al Ries

8\. _The Discipline of Market Leaders_ by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema

9\. _Crossing The Chasm_ by Geoffrey Moore</comment>


Show HN: RSS/Atom Feed Reader in Go - <AUTHOR> https://github.com/Lallassu/gorss <comment><USER2> Looks like this feed reader is a CLI application. OP, you might want to mention that in the title to attract the greybeards.

<comment><AUTHOR> True, can't change that now though :/

</comment></comment><comment><AUTHOR> Just a quick update, I've fixed a lot of small issues and also added support for XDG configuration/data storage and support for importing OPML XML files to feed list.

</comment><comment><USER3> No MacOS app? I can't imagine myself using it, really. But I have to say, existing readers are mostly annoying and clumsy.

<comment><USER4> > But there exists prebuilt binaries for Linux and OSX.

What more do you need?</comment></comment>


The Bitcoin Standard – a critical review - <AUTHOR> http://www.coppolacomment.com/2018/04/the-bitcoin-standard-critical-review.html <comment><USER2> I stopped reading when the author blamed US currency on the recent global financial crisis.

The same things happened when the world used gold and silver.

<comment><USER3> No?

Fractional Reserve Banking is less than 100 years old. We didnt have fluctuating interest rates among the working class.

When the world used gold and silver you would have trade deficits causing economic troubles.

These are vastly different problems, still problems though.

<comment><USER4> > Fractional Reserve Banking is less than 100 years old.

Fractional reserve banking is centuries old, and originally involved deposits of gold and silver (first at goldsmiths, but as early as the 1660s at banks). Europe's first bank run happened in 1664, when people tried to redeem bank notes for the underlying reserves.

> We didnt have fluctuating interest rates among the working class

Interest rates fluctuated, and the working class were deeply exposed to the impacts.

> When the world used gold and silver you would have trade deficits causing > economic troubles.

Global financial crises were routine during the era of metal-backed currencies and did _not_ only (or mainly) relate to trade deficits. See, eg, the panics of 1819, 1825, 1837, 1847, 1857, 1866, 1873, 1884, 1890, 1893, and 1896. (And that's just focusing on US and UK history during the 19th century; the list could be much longer!)

> These are vastly different problems

Citation very much needed.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Not surprising: Keynesian economist doesn't like Austrian economics explanations.

Surprising: Bitcoin part is largely left uncriticized.

I would say the author of this article is clearly biased against the Austrian view that make Bitcoin attractive to the libertarian types so the criticism is largely unsurprising.

What we do see is that the author of the critique and the author of the book can't be both right, especially about history. The success of Bitcoin does seem to favor the Austrian interpretation, though I'm sure many will disagree. Whatever the case, the experiment that is Bitcoin will continue and give us more data to make the case ourselves.

<comment><USER6> > Not surprising: Keynesian economist doesn't like Austrian economics > explanations.

When an Austrian economics fan says "Keynesian economist", it's like a creationist calling any sort of scientist who disagrees with them "evolutionary".

Coppola's assertions on history are reality-based. If you have particular objections, you'll need to go into more detail than just saying "Keynesian".

> Surprising: Bitcoin part is largely left uncriticized.

This was largely left to my review: [https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2018/04/07/saifedean- am...](https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2018/04/07/saifedean-ammous-the- bitcoin-standard-the-austrian-case-for-bitcoin/) He makes a lot of assertions about Bitcoin that are simply _factually untrue_ in plain English, and would only be barely true even being generous in assuming particular jargon.

To Ammous' credit, he appears to know more about the Bitcoin sphere than about ... basic economic history.</comment></comment>


Dilbert: "I Found A Clever Way To Write My Application Code in One Hour" - <AUTHOR> http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/dilbert-20071014.html <comment><USER2> It's meant to be funny and it was funny, but in reality, this this dude wouldn't keep working for that manager unless he had severe self-esteem issues. I've managed to write some functionality that was scheduled to take a month in a weekend (I'd figure most programmers have at some point), and it definitely didn't come back to bite me in the ass at all. If this is what happens, get another job. Someone else will be more than happy to hire you.

<comment><USER3> > It's meant to be funny and it was funny

Really? I don't believe that you said that with much conviction. I agree with your other comments. I thought the comic sucked. I rarely find Dilbertian cynicism to be funny.

<comment><USER3> > I agree with your other comments.

Oh, that didn't make sense. I meant to say, "I agree with the rest of your comment".

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I once had a user complaining how long a batch job took. After much research, I found a "SLEEP 10" command (sleep for 10 seconds) inside a loop. I commented it out and the run time went from 2 hours down to 6 minutes.

At the next meeting, my PHB asked why Joe User was gushing with so many compliments about me. I explained what I did.

"Idiot!" he said, "You should have changed it to SLEEP 5 so the next time he complains we have something else to give him."

<comment><USER5> Reminds me of the Daily WTF one where a customer complained about the length of time a batch data processing operation was taking, so they optimised the hell out of the routine and did the same job in 1/100th the time, and charged them $x.

The customer decided that, obviously, something must be wrong since something that is doing so little work can't be accurate, how can they trust it? etc. So they added a delay 5, charged them an extra $x/4, and everybody was happy.

I'd try to find the link, but pretty much every Daily WTF article contains the same search terms...

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> I often do work on an hourly basis. Suppose I charge $500/hour and write a function in one hour that a less skilled programmer charging half my rate does in four hours. Guess who gets paid the most.

John.

<comment><USER7> Presumably you, because if you are that good, you will be in no short supply for work. Thus, while the less skilled programmer is still hacking away at the function, you are writing new functionality and earning twice as much while doing so.

Also, the less skilled programmer is going to have a hard time winning projects when his proposals are double the budget and four times the schedule length of yours.

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Dilbert: Just like reality

</comment><comment><USER9> How true.</comment>


Fifteen-year-old Nigerian builds small scale construction machines [video] - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-48141248/fifteen-year-old-nigerian-builds-small-scale-construction-machines <comment><USER2> Even if they are not his original creation he has talent and he deserves to be in an environment where he can be nurtured and grow. Sadly I fear that won't happen for him but I wish him the best.

<comment><USER3> This is the same in India too. Even if you have the resources, people are discouraged from anything that isn't academic.

<comment><USER4> Yeah, the harsh truth.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Pretty amazing he got so far with such limited resources. Obviously a born engineer.

Wish the video included some way to donate materials.

<comment><USER6> No he didn't, this is common knowledge in Nigeria. Kids have been building such machines as toys for 30+ years. He learned it from other kids.

<comment><USER7> We produced some pretty awesome wire cars back in the day, but they tended not to be powered. Mind you, I suppose getting the bits and pieces for that is easier these days.

Kids ...

<comment><USER8> The kid's machines are indeed impressive. We also used to spend hours building wire cars. We had a whole factory line. The younger lads did the straightening of the wires, some were good at using the smaller wire (often coloured wire or copper) to tie the pieces together. There were the designers who could bend the big piece of wire into the frame of the car you wanted. We then used empty polish tins for the wheels. Some of the cars had gears (none functional). It was pretty labour intensive but loads of fun. I realize now that this is why most of us had no low muscle tone or issues with our coordination. Your fingers needed to be nifty to make wire cars.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Used laptop batteries deemed "dead" are usually only bad in one or two cells. A SoCal guy named Jehu Garcia went through charging and discharging thousands of used laptop battery cells individually to recover 18650's to build custom packs for a DIY EV VW bus.

Btw, it reminds me of the Joule Thief circuit (often used in solar outdoor lights), that can recover and fully-discharge a battery over a much larger range than most consumer devices.

</comment><comment><USER10> Nigerian here.

What this kid is doing is pretty impressive especially when you consider the dismal state of public school education in Nigeria (private school isn't so bad)

</comment><comment><USER7> The video includes subtitles, but the boy's diction is clear.

<comment><USER11> I really get irritated with this pattern: a lot of times, people will add subtitles due to a 100% understandable foreign accent. It feels like it's being disrespectful to the speakers.

On the other hand in the age of "auto-play-with-mute" videos on social media, a lot of people just add subtitles to every type of online video. And as a sibling comment points out, there are hearing impaired people out there.

<comment><USER12> > I really get irritated with this pattern: a lot of times, people will add > subtitles due to a 100% understandable foreign accent. It feels like it's > being disrespectful to the speakers.

Hearing impaired people, non-English speakers, content indexing, machine learning, etc. There are many good reasons, don't make victims where there are none.

<comment><USER11> By the same token, don't assume I am victimizing! At least read the 2nd paragraph where I am saying a similar thing to your rebuttal.

HN is one of those places where I have seen the concept of "violent agreement" at work. "Wait wait! You still need to consider ... this thing you thought you already said."

<comment><USER13> Pro tip: If you don't want to come off as negative, don't start your post with the words "I get really irritated" ;) I'm still confused about what you really meant, since your first and second paragraphs really were at odds with each other.

As a non native, but still fluent English speaker I always use subtitles when I can. It just helps to fill in the odd word I miss due to local noise or unexpected pronunciation (English has a _lot_ of dialects!).

FWIW, I tend to do this for content in my native language as well. Turns out ~ten million people is enough to produce a lot of incomprehensible dialects as well...

<comment><USER11> Maybe next time I will say I get "positively irritated".

The thing is, two statements can be seemingly at odds in sentiment and also simultaneously true. The "aggressive subtitles for foreign accent" phenomenon is real. I wanted to acknowledge I had seen the same in other places. It is irritating when it happens. It is disrespectful where it occurs. But the second paragraph establishes that it is _not always the reason_. I did not think it was here.

<comment><USER14> I have been in the same room with other people, listening to a person speak in English with a heavy accent from wherever, and I will be the only person who understood what was said.

"What did they about X, I couldn't understand the accent?"

I have also seen native English speakers, turn on subs on English movies, with the volume at a perfectly normal level to understand things.

The only thing going on is that people really like their subtitles.

<comment><USER11> Sometimes there will be a movie or TV program where nobody is subbed, except the one person with a completely understandable foreign accent. That is a phenomenon I have seen. Usually in media for an American audience, from what I've seen. (A lot of Americans have trouble even with native speakers from the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, etc. We as a nation seem to have very little patience or habituation for accents.)

It's the broadcast equivalent of your first scenario.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> I feel like this is exactly the kind of person our intellectual property system keeps intellectually impoverished. Does anyone else feel like intellectual property is digital imperialism? I wish people all over the world could share in the knowledge we keep locked up in most of the business world.

<comment><USER16> How? I'd love to see an actual example. Everyone is stealing IPs, enforcement is pretty hard.

<comment><USER15> You're asking how intellectual property law keeps information from spreading? I feel like that is self evident. But also I forget if it was the world bank or the IMF but the US and other wealthy nations have made it a requirement that countries adopt our intellectual property laws if they want to receive benefits from the (IMF or World Bank, I forget).

So we enforce intellectual property law here which prevents lower cost clones from being made and also prevents industry from investing more in reverse engineering. The monopoly on ideas raises costs compared to a market with clones, and poorer communities and countries suffer with IP versus an alternative world with more abundant cheap clones. Some would say the innovation would not have occurred without IP law in the first place, which obviously in some cases is true (certain business models require the monopoly on ideas to exist). However I think it's absurd to suggest that there would be no incentive to innovate in a world with no IP law, and the damage done by IP law is too great to ignore. As someone who believes we have a moral responsibility to help people less privileged than us, I see it as grotesque that we lock up information that could help feed hungry people all over the world.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER17> I dimly remember reading on Reddit that these machines were not the boy's invention.

<comment><USER18> If the machines came as kits sold in stores with prefabricated parts most kids his age either wouldn't be interested or wouldn't be able to build them.

<comment><USER19> the point isnt that he's not exceptional, the point is he's not frontpage news exceptional.

<comment><USER18> Hopefully the extra attention gets him a ticket out of there and into a good college.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> A 15-year old makes model trucks. Neither shocking nor surprising... unless white audiences have a low opinion of the intellect of Africans/Blacks.

Go to Nigeria. The place is full of construction, engineers, inventors, mechanics, etc. This video -- to a Nigerian -- would receive this response: "Big fucking deal... if the kid was really smart he'd be using motors and gears by now." The response of a white liberal, on the other hand: "Oh how precious... I didn't know that those people even knew how to write! Someone should give him a scholarship!"

<comment><USER21> The boy himself says: "When people see me on the street operating my excavator and tipper, they are usually surprised." I don't imagine he's flying to Beverly Hills to demo his projects and then flying back to Nigeria, but I guess that's a possibility.

The environment the boy was filmed in suggests that he doesn't have a lot to work with. Maybe that's BBC going for the sensationalist angle, but I doubt it given that the article was originally produced for _BBC News Pidgin_ :

[https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-48130271](https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/tori-48130271)

The initiative to actually implement his designs with limited resources is the hallmark of a hacker, and he belongs on the front page of this site.

His young age makes it that much more interesting. I have worked with 15 year- olds before and let me tell you that there's a _wide_ spectrum of abilities. In particular, the ability to reduce plans into an implementable format quantitatively (i.e., measuring and cutting accurately) is extremely rare even in the US.

Very few wealthy US students could do what this boy has done.

<comment><USER20> Using syringes for hydraulics has been around forever. I remember instructions for making a 'hydraulic' backhoe in a Cub Scout booklet nearly 40 years ago.

Go to youtube and search for 'syringe hydraulic.'

I'm not knocking the kid, but the adulation over his accomplishment -- copying a DIY project off YouTube most likely -- is absurd.

<comment><USER21> And I have patiently explained to multiple teens in great detail how to turn a simple design into a drawing and that into a 3D artifact. 95% of them can't do it.

If this kid figured it all out from YouTube, he's still way ahead of the rest of his peers around the world.

The point for me isn't the syringes. It's the initiative and determination it takes to start with the idea and actually finish it, particularly among this age group.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> And a model 9/11! (Not a joke, he really made a model of a plane crashing into the WTC but I can't find the pic now)

</comment><comment><USER23> I hope someone at caterpillar is taking notice and offers a scholarship to Hope. This reminds me of the story of Srinivasa Ramanujuan: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan)

Could you imagine a future where these massive machines are controlled by remote operators running green, all electric energy sources?

<comment><USER24> Funny this reminds me of Ahmed Mohamed Clock Incident, where the kid exploits his popularity to get internship at twitter, google and a trip to nasa and white house. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Mohamed_clock_incident](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmed_Mohamed_clock_incident)

<comment><USER25> Maybe I'm reading too much into your comment, but I really dislike the implication of the words "exploits his popularity".

This is a 14yo which was gratuitously accused of being a terrorist _by his teachers_ \- the very people that we as a society tell kids to trust and look up to.

He was handcuffed and arrested, he went through a detention intake process, mugshot and all.

The word exploit really does not sound right.

<comment><USER26> the kid assembled a "suitcase bomb" prop and kept showing it off to his friends during class. His teacher told him to stop, he didn't and kept being disruptive. Obviously calling the cops on his bad behaviour is overkill, but the he is no wunderkind as portrayed by the media (and even the WH).

<comment><USER27> Yeah, gotta nip that counterculture in the bud.

<comment><USER28> his teacher was trying to do him a favor.

he literally said something like 'that's nice but it looks like a bomb. don't show anyone else.' \-- it doesn't seem to me to be unsupportive, just worried. I don't think a teacher would say something like that in confidence with a student unless that student had a certain rapport with the teacher.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER29> In other news, the cargo cult has now spawned the infrastructure cult. Build models of construction machines, and maybe someone will start developing real actual infrastructure within the country...</comment>


Google Wave video leaked internal data at 33min43s - <AUTHOR> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_UyVmITiYQ#t=33m43s

<comment><AUTHOR> Machine ressources

* Frontends: 5 machines per x users

* User DB : 30 machines per x users

* Conversation DB : 10 machines per x users

* Backend servers : 5 machines per x users

* GFS storage : 100 machines per x users

Total 150 machines per x users

</comment><comment><USER2> I think that might have been intentional, since no real data got leaked (you have no clue what x is, so its useless).

<comment><AUTHOR> I don't think. There is also data about how many peolple is working on it. See this pic : <http://twitpic.com/69s1t/full>

40.5 SEs, 2 UI, 3 PM, 5 TEST, 5 SRES, 2 managers

SE : System engineer, PM : Product Manager. Don't know what is SRES.

</comment></comment><comment><USER3> Document is titled 'Google Wave Overview' ?</comment>


A Computer Chip Based on Probability Not Binary - <AUTHOR> http://singularityhub.com/2010/09/04/a-computer-chip-based-on-probability-not-binary-video/

<comment><USER2> Previous submissions on the same subject:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1617924>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1617639>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1614085>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1611663>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1610900></comment>


Ask HN:  Did someone from HN put my idea to use? - <AUTHOR>

About a month ago, I made a post on HN titled "Taking a Chance - Free Startup idea" ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2499308 ).  While browsing engadget today I noticed an article that looked surprisingly similar to my idea called  Bronze ( http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/31/bronze-makes-your-music-collection-sound-downright-lazy/ ).
I was wondering if anyone here knew the creator and if he, in fact, did bring my idea to fruition.
The Bronze website is: http://bronzeformat.com/
If so, that would be awesome.  I put the idea out there with no expectations, and it would be great to see what other people think of it now that someone has built it. <comment><AUTHOR> clickables: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2499308>

[http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/31/bronze-makes-your- music-c...](http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/31/bronze-makes-your-music- collection-sound-downright-lazy/)

<http://bronzeformat.com/></comment>


Does a VC's brand matter? - <AUTHOR> http://cdixon.org/?p=2079

<comment><USER2> Well known VCs also matter in doing deals. Big companies will now return your calls.

<comment><USER3> I've heard this phenomenon mentioned many times, but I've never seen any convincing explanation for why this happens. When you phone a big company, do they look you up on crunchbase to see who invested in you? Do they simply respond more to startups which have had the large amount of media attention which comes with being funded by a high profile VC? Do they have their arms twisted behind the scenes by said high profile VCs? All of the above?

I'm sure this is something you've thought about, so I'd love to hear what explanations you've come up with.

<comment><USER4> \- the vc's themselves will have large person networks if they're working at a top tier VC. more often than not, if you need a deal done with company X they'll have a personal connection to someone there. this isn't a vc-specific value-add

\- top tier vc's don't hold just young startup investments. they'll have mature companies, who have likely done deals with some of the big companies you're looking to do deals with. again leveraging their network.

\- if a top tier vc has invested in you, most big company execs will assume you're not going out of business anytime soon (right or wrong that's their mindset - it's amazing how corporate types grab for blue chip names/brands at every opportunity) making them more comfortable doing business with you and not big company Y

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> VCs are market makers; they facilitate their LPs investing into their portfolio companies. Brand is applied in two directions; upstream to their LPs (who are upstream of them in the capital supply chain) and to prospective investment opportunities (who are downstream of them in the capital supply chain).

From Upstream: Yes, brand matters. Having good returns is important. Many LPs also have LPs themselves; being an investor in a good fund makes explaining things that much easier. The "Nobody got fired for buying IBM," issue exists everywhere in capital supply chains. Dozens of LPs enjoy casually dropping, "We invested in Google."

For Downstream: VCs manufacture capital returns for their investors. They source inputs, private companies, in which they invest, oversee operations, and assist in the creation of exits. Having a lower cost of private company acquisitions is similar to any manufacturer who has a lower COGs, or an IT group who is able to design and build more efficiently. So, yes, brand matters there too.

In a community that has experience with VCs, brand matters less, just as it matters less in any community that is more focused on results rather than karma. The role of brands in VC, regardless of the directionality in which it is being evaluated, is similar to any other marketplace. The complexity comes in realizing that brand flows in two directions.

I wrote a longer comment on upstream / downstream capital flows here: [[http://web.mac.com/flybrand/fredlybrand/Blog/Entries/2008/9/...](http://web.mac.com/flybrand/fredlybrand/Blog/Entries/2008/9/30_Operational_Template_for_PE_Firms.html)]

</comment><comment><USER6> This question could be posed "Does a x's brand matter?" All else being equal, yes. However, in the case of an example like Sequoia, their brand isn't some magical thing achieved through advertising. The brand recognition is a result of having kicked ass early on. If you end up investing in the next Apple, Google, or Youtube, you will also end up having a good "brand."

I find this distinction important. If you're looking for investment, follow the same strategy. Kick ass first, then find a good VC. If you're a musician, play good music, then get a record deal (or skip them altogether).

</comment><comment><USER7> There's probably a good correlation between their brand and what they can do. Sequoia, Kleiner, Accel, NEA, and Benchmark have a hell of a brand. That brand correlates to their network and capabilities. The same can be said on the angel + seed stage side: Ron Conway has a name brand and the connections to go with it. Same with USV + First Round.

</comment><comment> obj-c-guy Getting early adopting customers might be easier if you are funded by a big VC and your target customer profile is quite SV centric.</comment>


The ethereum world is now obsessed with breeding cartoon cats - <AUTHOR> https://qz.com/1144169/the-ethereum-world-is-now-obsessed-with-breeding-cartoon-cats/ <comment><USER2> I'm kind of imagining a future waterworld scenario where Earth's ice caps have melted completely and humanity looks back at electronic cat breeding as one of the gross excesses of our civilization that ultimately led to its destruction.

They're pretty cute though.</comment>


NASA's 3D view of methane tracks sources and movement around the world - <AUTHOR> https://nuadox.com/post/613498584117182464/nasa-3d-view-methane <comment><USER2> Plagiarized blogspam of

[https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/new-3d-view-of- met...](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/new-3d-view-of-methane- tracks-sources-and-movement-around-the-globe)

Actual author is Ellen Gray. The original link also has numerous, well-done graphics.</comment>


Ask HN: What is the secret sauce for voting on HN? - <AUTHOR>

Interested to hear perspective on how HN differs from digg in its approach to voting & the crowd choice for what is hot v. what is not. <comment><AUTHOR> Apparently I did not hit on it here, b/c this has been up for 6hrs w/o a single comment, vote or even a spit wad...</comment>


Ask HN: Looking for a Development Agency - <AUTHOR> Background: building a live video application with $20k available funding<p>Can people recommend solid mobile development agencies (open to any county) <comment><USER2> www.prettyneat.io :)</comment>