Can't get motivated to learn programming

[SpyderTL]

As much as I don't like, or am not comfortable with socializing with people for more than a few minutes at a time, most of my hobbies and interests, including programming, were introduced to me by hanging out with other people. So if you are depressed or lack motivation, try spending time with other people and trying out some of their activities. You may find that you just haven't discovered the thing that really holds your interest, yet.

And I think it's perfectly normal to be depressed most of the time nowadays. The world has been, for decades, addicted to borrowing money to live better and better lives, without paying for any of it. And now it appears that is about to end, and a lot of people are going to have a real hard time adjusting to the new reality.

I recommend learning how to farm.

[Schol-R-LEA]

And I think it's perfectly normal to be depressed most of the time nowadays.

That was always true. It's just that in the past, few people had the luxury of spending much time thinking about that (or anything at all, really), so they either got through it or died young.

Want to know why there are so many kids with autism these days, or asthma, or cerebral palsy, or any number of diseases that were rare or unrecognized in the past? It's simple: until medicine and sanitation improved in the early-mid 20th century, most children with those conditions didn't survive to term, or died at birth, and those who did live a little longer died of childhood illnesses or poor parental care before they got much older. The overwhelming majority of 'new' diseases are only new in the sense that people aren't dying of other diseases first, and are traveling around enough for previously localized diseases (e.g., HIV, which which existed in the Rift Valley in a less virulent form since before hominins became hominids, for most of its history was passed mother to child during pregnancy, and would usually be latent for 40-50 years, so few of the people with the infection would live long enough for it develop into AIDS) are finding new regions that they can spread into, with large enough populations that a more virulent mutation won't be self-limiting.

As for farming, well, that's a good idea on the surface, but surviving the initial fight over the remaining arable land - and keep in mind, most of the areas that we are growing food on today would not be suitable for agriculture without long-distance powered irrigation, internal-combustion powered tillers, plows, and combine harvesters, and petroleum-based fertilizers - is likely to be a matter of pure chance, and only about 1 person in 100,000 is likely to survive when the current society collapses - and that's not the figure for the US, that's world-wide, so we're looking at a total survivor population of less than 1 million. Also, since we've pretty much exhausted the easily reached resources already, we're in the Motie scenario - it really is a case of "the stars or bust", because we aren't going to get another chance.

(And yes, I know of the allegorical interpretation of A Mote in God's Eye as Yellow Peril scaremongering about the re-emergence of the PRC into international politics after the death of Mao and the end of Cultural Revolution. The point about the exhaustion of resources by industrialized societies is still valid.)

[Ketsuban]

(e.g., HIV, which which existed in the Rift Valley in a less virulent form since before hominins became hominids, for most of its history was passed mother to child during pregnancy, and would usually be latent for 40-50 years, so few of the people with the infection would live long enough for it develop into AIDS)

This isn't believed to be the case; analysis of HIV strains suggests it arose no earlier than the early 20th century. The practice of eating bushmeat allows simian immunodeficiency viruses to infect humans, but it's a weak virus on its own so multiple reinfections in a short period are needed for it to take hold; colonial Africa's rampant unprotected sex and prevalence of ulcerous diseases like syphilis provided the ideal environment for it to spread and get better at spreading.

overpopulation, Malthusian catastrophe, Moties

This argument rests on an assumption that there will never be any further advances in agricultural science or technology, which I think is short-sighted—people were making the same argument a few decades ago, and Norman Borlaug proved them all totally wrong.

[Schol-R-LEA]

overpopulation, Malthusian catastrophe, Moties

This argument rests on an assumption that there will never be any further advances in agricultural science or technology, which I think is short-sighted—people were making the same argument a few decades ago, and Norman Borlaug proved them all totally wrong.

If you look again, that's more or less what I said was needed - that without such developments, and soon, we are in serious trouble. I guess I wasn't clear; the depression can color my thinking that way.

However, my real argument was (as usual) just me flogging SMIILE again, same as I have done for decades. Yeah, I'm a space cadet, what can I say?

[Solar]

Oh, this is a bad western habit of being life-time drag addict. Your will and nothing more can help you.

Well, actually, no.

Depression is not just a lack of will. Depression is real, and telling the affected that they should just "cheer up", or worse, "man up", is not only not helping, it is actively harmful. If the person could just "cheer up", he wouldn't suffer from depression. You are telling someone with very real symptoms -- like a flu with high fever -- who is feeling bad for a reason, and usually suffers from severe anxiety and feelings of inadequacy, to "not be a wimp". Don't do that.

But for the will to rise you there (may be) should be somebody who can increase your motivation. And apparently - it's not the psychiatrist.

It is obvious at this point that you don't have a clue what depression is, how it works, and how to therapy it. I suggest you read up on the matter. You are not helping. The next time it might be a good friend in actual depression that you are just pushing deeper into it. Why not learn how to actually help someone depressed?

[gerryg400]

Oh, this is a bad western habit of being life-time drag addict. Your will and nothing more can help you.

Well, actually, no.

Depression is not just a lack of will. Depression is real, and telling the affected that they should just "cheer up", or worse, "man up", is not only not helping, it is actively harmful. If the person could just "cheer up", he wouldn't suffer from depression. You are telling someone with very real symptoms -- like a flu with high fever -- who is feeling bad for a reason, and usually suffers from severe anxiety and feelings of inadequacy, to "not be a wimp". Don't do that.

But for the will to rise you there (may be) should be somebody who can increase your motivation. And apparently - it's not the psychiatrist.

It is obviously at this point that you don't have a clue what depression is, how it works, and how to therapy it. I suggest you read up on the matter. You are not helping. The next time it might be a good friend in actual depression that you are just pushing deeper into it. Why not learn how to actually help someone depressed?

Thanks for this post Solar.

[Schol-R-LEA]

I'm seeing that a lot of what I thought were unrelated problems are actually deeply entwined with each other, and that I need to deal with all of them together. It's frightening - admitting that your public persona has been a flat-out lie for forty-seven years is not easy - but this is an opportunity I cannot ignore.

It's a reason to start new life. New public person after a complete overhaul. Cheer it with the traditional "let's do it!"

You know, I don't think I have ever been so glad to see someone completely misinterpret what I have said before. Given what you'd said earlier in that post I'm actually quite thrilled to see that you've entirely missed the subtext of that paragraph.

At this point, I have probably already said more than I should have. That particular identity crisis isn't really appropriate for a tech forum, so it's best if I leave it at that.

[SpyderTL]

Getting back to the original topic ("Can't get motivated to learn programming"), I thought that I'd mention that "programming" is a pretty broad term, and there are lots of different types of "programming" that you can "learn".

You normally don't start with wanting to learn a programming language. That would be like saying "I want to learn how to use a crescent wrench". Programming languages are tools to help you create a system that performs some desired functionality. Some tools are better at certain tasks than others, and some programming languages are better suited for certain tasks. ASM and C are better suited for OS development than, say, javascript. However, no one in their right mind would even attempt to create a web page using ASM or C.

So, you should probably figure out what it is that you want to accomplish, first, and then research and find the right tools to reach that goal. If you want to do 2D/3D gaming, look at C# and XNA (or monogame or SharpDX or OpenGL). If you want to create a boot loader that prints "Hello, World!" to the screen, then look at ASM for whatever platform/CPU you want to target. If you want to create a console utility, look at C or C++ or C# or Java, or even Python. If you want to create a web page, look at Ruby and JavaScript. If you want to create a desktop application, look at C# or Java.

But picking a goal is more important than learning a specific language, as it will somewhat dictate which tools you will need to learn.

[Roman]

XNA

Isn't it dead?

[SpyderTL]

XNA

Isn't it dead?

It's dead-ish.

http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-US/

You can still download the VS2010 expansion, which allows you to write XNA applications for windows, and run them. The code is very similar to SharpDX, so you can easily transition from one to the other. The XNA tools and integration with VS2010 is a little better than SharpDX, however, so I'd still consider using it if you are just getting started.

http://xbox.create.msdn.com/en-us/resources/downloads

[jojo]

However, no one in their right mind would even attempt to create a web page using ASM or C.

https://kore.io/

[mac]

Now I know I was making a mistake in the past by approaching programming with "learning to program to learn programming" what the hell was I thinking? What motivates me now is focusing on learning a project and going for it.

[embryo2]

Now I know I was making a mistake in the past by approaching programming with "learning to program to learn programming" what the hell was I thinking? What motivates me now is focusing on learning a project and going for it.

Good advance!

[jojo]

I'm so glad to hear that, Sean, after having heard how down on yourself you've been.

It's about having fun!