[hackermailman]

If you can't concentrate then you don't know why you are doing it. You have to write down what overall goal you want that you are very interested in then break that up into weekly research tasks where now you recognize that doing those tasks is necessary for said goal.

The only time I really used leetcode was to practice a basic linear algebra course. I had the idea to identify every non-linear problem on leetcode then see if I could use the course I was doing to practice writing linear approximations as solutions then leetcode was interesting to me otherwise yeah I can't just sit there and do it hours per day without a reason either.

Try briefly auditing some advanced open courses and see if anything there is interesting to you that now require self-directed research so you can figure out what's going on. Erik Demaine has a bunch online.

Find an open source project that is interesting and become a contributor now you have to teach yourself the codebase and whatever it is they're doing. Find a technical podcast then make a YouTube video animating in some software visuals to describe what they're talking about. Whatever you choose it should be something you really want to do everyday and then discipline isn't a problem

[165iq]

> "what overall goal you want that you are very interested in"

When I am really interested in learning something, researching and solving isn't a problem. But that doesn’t last beyond at most 2-3 weeks, right? Working really hard for some hours to two weeks isn't my problem.

If I don't really need something in my daily life or job or some philosophical answer that I am seeking, should I not try to learn that? If I am looking really long term, and don't have any concrete need for something, should I forgo that, in your opinion?

Say, I don't need Julia for my job, but I want to learn it to the level of contributing to open source libraries. I need to spend some weeks of my (little) free time, right? I get lost after 2-3 days and something shinier comes along.

So, when I don't have any concrete need present, should I forgo them? Like, I am not a web developer, but wanted to learn Elixir and Phoenix. Never could continue beyond 2 days straight. If my goal simply is: "broaden my horizon" or something similar and vague and really long term, I shouldn’t really pursue them?

I do okay when I can sporadically spend some time now and then and solve a hard problem. But if it requires sitting down everyday for some months straight for something broad and vague, I fail every time.

Something that has helped is group study. People look up to my sessions when it is my turn to present, I prepare and study really hard, and polish my presentation really well and understand things deeply to answer possible questions. But here extrinsic motivation of impressing people is present.

I have thought about making YT videos before and I am going to, soon.

I have some famous open source contributions, and I can get an interview at Google according to a PM I know. I want to prepare for that. But haven't set a date.

Big Tech isn't ideal for me but I don't come from money and FAANG salary could turn my life around.

I flunked another surprise and immediate technical interview because I took too much time. I solved the problem, and communicated well (according to them), but took too much time. Only if I Leetcoded regularly, I could land that 6 figure job. I passed 3/5 rounds and got rejected after the the 4th.

If I start doing any course by Erik, I will lose interest after day 2 because that won't immediately give me fruits.

Sorry for the wall of text. :/

[hackermailman]

You could try writing down actual goals where you want to be at 1 month, at 1 year, in 5 years. Then unravel into tasks from there. Without a plan I end up doing nothing.

Like Julia has sciml youtube lectures showing the guy doing all kinds of optimization to improve the libraries for HPC but he had a specific goal why he's doing that, he runs a startup pumas.ai

For me it was basic competency at Y subject I was very interested as first goal, find a mentor and work beside them for Y subject (second goal) finally become an expert at Y to freelance and I wrote all that down years ago because I too was just aimless and dabbling then giving up.

To find a mentor I had to impress them first to make it worth their time so that was motivating to slog through all the fundamentals in the beginning. Normally I would've given up here because who on earth wants to deep dive logical relations unless there's a good reason. Working was then a motivator too because I was given tasks to figure out with deadlines so there was urgency and focus so the person I chose as a mentor would actually keep teaching me.

Before that I would take interesting thing, that thing goes into the weeds to teach foundations and I gave up bored chasing new thing and repeat with no direction at all.

[165iq]

Finding a mentor is a good idea and as it involves loss of face on getting derailed, it keeps you motivated to remain disciplined- or at least keep working. I get that.

Also, something that I want to do has to align well with someone else's career path. I can think of 2-3 people like that. I will consider getting in touch with them and ask them to mentor me.

[165iq]

> If you can't concentrate then you don't know why you are doing it.

I can concentrate alright, but cannot continue beyond some days.