Ask HN: How can I keep focused? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How can I keep focused?

I´m at a point in my life where I know that I want to pursue a programming related future but I cannot seem to focus on keeping on the same track.

I have been following the tech community and been around computers my whole life and even though I have some experience programming every time I choose to start learning X language (i.e. not creating simple programs but to reach a point where I would be able to consider myself a proficient developer) I soon change my mind because Y seems to be more fun/efficient/demanded/functional/whatever reason and start procrastinating one more time.

Have you been in a similar situation? If so I´d love to hear some recommendations as I truly believe this is what I want to do for a living.

Thank you.

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I've been there. Especially in the beginning of this year. I forced my self to finish a JavaScript and Jquery book without stopping to change. Great, now I can make better (or slower) web pages and know JS - big deal. The purpose was to sit, and really learn all the core aspects of a given language.

This is mainly a matter of self discipline. This term I'm taking a C++ course at college. Skimming the book for the class, I already feel far more confident with the material knowing another language.

After learning one language I would suggest using that new skill set to reproduce some traditional software applications (Calendar, Calculator, Text Editor, ...). Additionally it would be wise to test how well you can read other peoples code in that language. It took me about 2.5 months to be able to work with JavaScript and the DOM effectively.

Also consider that compilation, weak/strong typing, data types, variable assignment, for and while loops, if statements and logical/comparison operators, and OOP exist in most languages. I found the key is understanding these topics in one language. Beyond that it's a matter of adjusting to the syntax in other languages.

Overall, find a strongly rated book on language ______ thoroughly complete the material, make sure you understand it. Write some applications with it. Make the time to do all of this. A line of code a day, or 20... Read about the language with the bias towards learning. Drive yourself towards self learning all the time. If all this seems like shitty chore most of the time, re-think choosing programming as your career. Oh, and you have to love fixing broken logic all the time.

Best of luck to you! Let me know how it all works out @nickersfpdx

I know exactly how you feel. It started when I devoted a bunch of time to learning Fireworks (before Adobe got it) because it was a web tool, whereas Photoshop was a photo tool. Well lo and behold PS became the industry standard for "web design" :smh:

Then I started to try to get serious about programming and took a course on what was sure to be the next big language: Adobe Flex. "What?" you may ask... Exactly.

So I understand your fear man, because I've done it. Unless you're programming for fun and friends, I'm going to assume it's for making money.

With that aim in mind I started doing a bunch of searches across employment and freelance sites comparing number of programmers in X language VS number of Jobs for programmers in X language.

You'll see a few rise to the top really fast. For me, Javascript is my baby at the moment. Seems like the way of the future (even though its super old in internet years) but who knows...

I'd look at the job boards and get a feel not just for what's hot and rising, but what has staying power, a need, and a decent pay scale.

That's my two cents. Have fun!

I've been there and often am there. The problem for me is that I consume too much irrelevant and useless content. Browsing reddit, HN and other sites, reading many news stories and blog posts, all of this impacts how much actual work I can do and how much I can learn that is really relevant to my work. So to be more productive you have to select what you think is important to read and realize you can only read so much in a day until your brain says "stop".

But to achieve productivity you have to learn discipline. Motivation doesn't last and there are no "tricks" or shortcuts to being productive if you want long-term benefits. As Jim Rohn said "suffer the pain of discipline or suffer the pain of regret".

Yes, I've gone through this transition, as have several colleagues. 1) Start blocking tech news sites you visit during the day (TechCrunch, hacker news, etc). View these once per a day or preferably once a week. You'll find you're able to concentrate on what you're working on and will stop being distracted by the newest shiny language, library, framework etc. Next find done real world use for your programming. It may be hard to grasp some concepts until they're grounded with a problem you're facing.

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