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The Danger of Deep Procrastination [2009]

by hibernator149 on 1/12/22, 12:04 PM with 7 comments

• by rkhassen9 on 1/12/22, 4:33 PM

  This hit me in the gut. Especially the part where he describes the work (the work previously 'loved') feeling like an intrusion. How does it get to this and how to avoid it. Newport suggests it's a lack of knowing what we actually want to do. Perhaps that's true. We are asked to make major decisions, such as major or career well before we are ready to and think them final decisions rather than experiments or interests of a time period. (If I had to choose my career at age 5, I'd probably be working on Sesame Street!, and at 11, I'd be a BMX rider, so my choices at 17, 20, even 30 and 40 have changed and if I felt forced to finish in a direction that no longer suited me and did not consciously deal with, I could see being in big trouble.

  After seeing two promising classmates in high school completely burn out, it's been a mystery to me, a critical puzzle to be solved especially after I encountered it myself. When I've had lighter forms of burnt out, I just needed to do "something else" and sometimes found myself happy to return to that kind of work that previously burned me out later on, sometimes not. Which leads me to a tangential thought - DaVinci or Ben Franklin or Jefferson with their myriad of interests. I used to think the overwhelm from tracking so many interests an areas to be a detriment or a potential drain, but maybe having the freedom to experiment, to roam, and try things out can help on to tap into energy source in itself.

  And one other random thought - in farming there is a method to let a field run fallow. To let it be for a bit. Maybe sometimes the mind needs this as well rather than being over harvested and depleted.

  Looking forward to thoughts of others.

  Hoping for rays of hope, things that worked for others rather than the endless "I am burned out too" threads, which seem like pits of despair. Don't get me wrong, it's a problem and the support of each other, and being heard is very important has its place in a community such as HN, but it would be equally helpful to have threads that focus on what works as a way out of that out of that pit.

  I look to HN as a source of what the best minds in our field have collectively found to work, and would love to see more of that discussion on this subject. What really has worked not only to avoid/recover from burnout but to actually live with zest, bounce, verve?

• by ramoz on 1/13/22, 7:32 AM

  In sophomore year at uni, I had been acing two enjoyable & challenging courses. Comp Sci II and Cost Account.

  It all just became boring. I felt like I had already conquered whatever I was getting out of the courses. And I guess I lacked any incentive around my GPA or to finish the course through completion.

  I was more concerned with Rugby, partying, and trying to build my own software products.

  With A’s in both classes, I ended up skipping the comp sci final, and throwing the accounting final in the trash once the professor walked out and after I realized I stood no chance. Both professors emailed me to figure out a solution, I ghosted both of them. I’m pretty sure I failed both classes.

  The other A class was art history, which I enjoyed but also faltered in towards the end. The final wasnt as large of a portion of the grade and the test was manageable so I got by.

  My foreign language final was a hack at a live presentation that I scripted through Google translate.

• by DiggyJohnson on 1/12/22, 4:53 PM

  This hit hard for me. I was the weirdest student I know in college. Good marks, but at what cost?

  It hit especially hard my junior and senior years when I had already identified (and subsequently secured) a position at the company I want to work for (in an industry whose products I still am passionate about: aviation).

• by Apocryphon on 1/12/22, 4:45 PM

  This is one of my favorite concepts by Newport, but I think he only discusses it in maybe two other pieces besides this one.

  Could he actually be describing burnout? Are they one and the same?

• by froidpink on 1/12/22, 3:10 PM

  This hits close to home

• by kranke155 on 1/12/22, 3:31 PM

  lol math wiz wants to go into banking, he must be procrastinating. What?