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Comment by imp | Hacker News Reader

I tend to alternate between two extremes. One extreme is "get shit done anyway you know how ASAP!" The other is "learn, explore, take your time, and do things right." I let my own ambitions determine which zone I'm in, and they last from a couple weeks to months. What I learn while I'm in the "take it slow" zone always helps me be more productive in the "do it now" zone. And the do it now zone helps keep me motivated to learn more stuff, and the cycle repeats :)

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Are you doing anything to nurture these two extremes? Or do they just come naturally to you?

Your comment reminds me of a discussion I had with my cofounder long time ago (yes I have tried the startup path multiple times). We were discussing how this pattern of wildness, of strong desire to produce things follows an almost relaxing, reflecting period. The discussion arose while we were learning about the coding and refactoring cycle during the extreme programming days in Karlsruhe, Germany where I used to study.

No, not anything in particular. It's mostly natural because if I spend too much time in the "just work hard" extreme I get burned out eventually. I'm also too antsy to spend a lot of time in the learning extreme because I like to see concrete results eventually. Since I'm comfortable with my long-run track record of learning and producing, I never let myself feel guilty for doing either extreme.

The only other factor is time of year. I tend to learn during Christmas because when I was in college I used that time for reading and reflecting between semesters. I still get the urge to just sit and read and explore around that time of year.

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