[markus_zhang]

I kinda realize that the most important factor for personal success (whatever kind of success you want) is mental stability.

Like, John Carmack said that he NEVER burned out, never went into a dark corner (verbatim from his interview), and everyone agrees that he works like a machine. And I don't think he actually spent a lot of mental training to achieve that stability, because, he has been like that from a young age. This is THE best thing you can have in the world, if you want to achieve something, anything. If you don't have the mental toughness, you won't be able to make through that 10,000 hours (cliche, I know). I guess that's also why many self-help book talk about being consistent -- to be consistent, is to have mental stability. And I think there is a whole difference, between someone who trains his mental to stay stable for 6 months, then collapse, from someone who actually doesn't need to train and just be stable somehow.

This also leads me to realize that good sleep is one of the fundamentals of a stable mind. As a parent, I actually don't remember when was the last time I had a good sleep, and my definition of a night of good sleep is perhaps just trivial for someone else. At the same time, I consider myself lucky, because at least I don't suffer from serious mental issues. I still have a job and a house, and that's better than many out there.

This then leads me to despise the human body. It is a machine so delicate that you have to be very lucky to be super productive, whatever your definition of being productive is. It seems to ignore the input in short term (e.g. you can eat garbage food for a month and nothing really happens, or, you can sleep 4-6 hours every day for the last 6 years and still function normally), but once the long term shows up it is very hard to reverse. And there are so many theories focused on it that we have no idea which one is best for the individual. You might as well spend years doing A/B test on yourself and still have no idea what the hell is going on. Or you need to be super rich to have some medical team monitor you 7/24 to figure out what the hell is going on.

[nickjj]

Carmack always seemed to have a really strong idea on what was important for him to work on. How much of that is mental toughness vs having a believable purpose?

Believable is important because you have to internally 100% without a doubt believe that what you're doing is the right thing to be doing now.

As soon as the "what ifs" starts to creep in for the big picture items or goals, that can destroy everything. I'm not talking about running into technical implementation problems along the way (those can be fun), it's more like "did I pick the right language for this?" level of questions that sit in the back of your mind.

Personally when I find something to work on that I like and will have what I think is a favorable outcome, it's easy to put in 8-10 real 100% laser focused hours into a task every day, even if it spans weeks or months. I'd like to think most people can do this too, the hard part (for me at least) is having these things to work on.

[grvdrm]

You are spot on. I see all this in me, too. Very interesting to encounter your take.

I try to turn what-ifs into actions. Instead of a what if rumination it is a small task, or a small trial of something, or a move in general forward rather than not. Not even remotely close to doing this well all the time, but I notice an overall boost in mood and productivity when I reorient my mint to progress rather searching in the uncertainty space.

[markus_zhang]

I half-agree with you. I agree with you because I kinda had that experience from time to time. I'd focus on a certain learning project for about 4-6 months, usually without much break, all done after-work. I disagree because I usually burn out myself so much after that 4-6 month period, that I usually don't do anything related for another 4-6 months.

This shows up in my github repo contribution chart, but more importantly I retain very little whatever I learned -- concepts maybe, not nothing else. That's why I so admire Carmack's machine-like consistency.

Maybe I don't really believe in the course as strong as he did. Maybe I'm more tuned to burn out early. Whichever the reason it is, you could imagine that I'd very much love to improve.

[gchamonlive]

> Like, John Carmack said that he NEVER burned out, never went into a dark corner (verbatim from his interview), and everyone agrees that he works like a machine.

> https://x.com/ID_AA_Carmack/status/2069799283369345247

That's because he was the one burning people out while he was there living out his hobbies.

[markus_zhang]

Maybe that's what people with strong ideas do. They execute and they kinda push each other around.

[gchamonlive]

Not sure about that, what I'm sure is that J.C. did it and he obviously regrets this, so maybe people with strong ideas should take notes from someone that knows better. Maybe their ideas work not because but despite grinding people down.

[AyanamiKaine]

I sometimes think about the same. Its a sad truth that if you bad days those days may be at the worst moment. Sleep definitly helps for a good mind but also exercise!

[willhay]

struggled and still struggle with a lot of health problems and lack of motivation. too much data, too little time. really hard to manage. been building something to help with all of this and it's been working pretty well for me, curious if you're interested in checking it out? nbd if not. biggest advice I have is get some social accountability

[annzabelle]

I would also argue for regular exercise as a fundamental of a stable mind. I've always been an anxious person, but since I started running 3-4 days a week consistently, my baseline neuroticism has significantly dropped.

The deep post-exercise sleep doesn't hurt.

[markus_zhang]

I think it helps a bit, but no longer makes a big difference. Guess that's because I'm "old" (40+).

But again, maybe it helps more than I thought, because I haven't done any A/B test on myself -- I'm kinda getting used to exercise now.