Comment by kbutler | Hacker News Reader

Comment by kbutler | Hacker News Reader

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Most things that are fun, and almost everything that is amazing, require periods of not-fun to get there.

Practicing a musical instrument, falling while snowboarding, getting up early to be on the mountain for the sunrise.

The original poster is asking for ideas to help build enough discipline to power through the tough spots of a learning curve to get to where the proficiency pays off in enjoyment or other benefits.

We have so many easy diversions, that it's easy to train one's self to not do hard things.

I can study/practice/work for a future benefit, or I can play a video game (or browse hn) for fun now!

Training yourself to do hard things is harder. Maintaining a vision of the goal, getting satisfaction from expending effort, having empathy for your future self, denying yourself of immediate distractions/pleasures can each play a role.

> Practicing a musical instrument

This is not fun?

STE-PING-UP. STE-PING-DOWN. THEN. A. SKIP

C D E E D C D E C

Practicing a musical instrument is not fun. Playing a musical instrument is fun. Practicing is mostly repeating scales and other patterns.

someone told me that the way they learned to play the violin was that had to love being bad at it. Love the experience of _not_ being able to do it, of it not coming naturally, of trying and failing, of being overwhelmed by it, and of slowly and painfully getting better.

If you can enjoy that, you can enjoy it the whole way through. If you see it as a gauntlet of pain you have to cross before you get to the good stuff, you won’t get there.

When you know a piece and play it, it can be fun. But the way there can be frustrating and tedious. You'll make mistakes. You'll learn slower than you'd like. You might repeat the same section a hundred times before you feel satisfied. Some days you'll even feel like you've forgotten how to play certain parts properly. But you do it anyways because you know it's rewarding and satisfying at the end of the day (and with a certain level of discipline), not because it's fun moment-to-moment.

Maybe I’m doing it wrong then.

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