The internet[1] being the major one, occasionally video games or books. Somewhat unpleasantly I seem wired to seek new distractions whenever I don't have one currently occupying my mind.
I've been thinking of forcing myself to spend half an hour each day without stimulus, just thinking and writing on a paper notepad to get around this.
[1] I find posting on the internet much more distracting than surfing, because there's the constant desire to check back and see what responses you got.
This is good. If you find a cafe with the right ambiance for you, that's a great way of doing it. Then you make that place your "thinking cafe" - I travel a lot, and that's one of the first things I look for if I'm getting stuck or distracted at my apartment or hotel. Change of environment, for whatever reason, changes my thinking quite a lot. It's trial and error to find the right sort of environment for your thinking, but very useful when you find it.
i find i do my best thinking in the shower. nice hot water and no distractions.
- Thinking too much how great you are
- Worrying too much about the progress of other people
- Ignore the original sources and look always for second hand solutions
- Ignoring the "lazy" part of your brain
- Being too lazy
- Thing that books are only for people that do not act
- Dream day and night of how to make more money
- Never stop for a second to think out of the box
I too am 31, changing careers, and building space into my day job to do interesting things.
Of course, the Adderal prescription helps.
Nice quote although my habits were much better when I was 30 than they are now.
To answer the poster's question however, I'd have to say my creativity is stunted by the myriad of distractions in my life. Within eye-shot right now I see 5 screens. 3 of them are turned on. If I were in my office, double it.
Sure I can control these distractions, but I choose not to because I think I'm addicted to constant info and visual overload, white noise, and a desperate need to be entertained every second of my life. Just being honest.
Relational schema diagram notation is useful. You pick up some along the way, like "mind maps". UML is very heavy, and I don't know anyone who uses that for flow. So for most things, each person invents their own method of capturing ideas.
I've got a couple of tricks that do work for me. But the notations I use are unsophisticated compared to what could be done if this issue - smart ways to develop ideas - was a meme that lots of people were working on.
The two biggest obstacles to me getting more done are my job and my ongoing efforts to get well. They both take up a lot of my time and frequently leave me too tired, both mentally and physically, to spend the kind of time I would like to spend on other things. If I am 'mindlessly' surfing the web or something, it is because I am not together enough to do something more productive. Still, looking back, little by little, some things gradually make forward progress anyway, in spite of my constant lament that "I never get anything done!!"
To answer the question: Probably beliefs that act as rules. It's written somewhere in a PG essay that it's best to not know what is "impossible." To generalize, if I believe that Google owns search and it's not possible to enter that market, then I'll subconsciously prune any ideas stemming from "search".
This is bittersweet for obvious reasons.
Btw: check out thehackedbrain.com for similar discussions.
It's irritating to see so many grown men hunched over a joy-stick. No one ever changed the world playing a game.
I would need to plow a field with my bare hands before I can justify a weekend of mindless gaming.
Let's face it, countless people, often at the prime of their age, devote substantial amount of their time moving simple geometric objects around a screen. Their entire being under the control of a switch statement.
Instead of playing games, MAKE THEM. Code demos. Crack DRM. Build your own console and sell it as kits. Open your own gaming cafe, etc. But sitting down for 5 hour stretches is unacceptable.
Who are you to declare whether or not 5 hours of gaming is unacceptable? If that's what someone chooses to do it's pretty arrogant to think they are lesser than you because they don't do what you would do in that situation.
There are plenty of things I probably like that you don't. Should I criticize you, because you choose to do other things than what I'd do?
Don't criticize others for spending their free time differently from you. The same arguements you posed for HN work just as well for video games.
We live in a world of scarce resources. You need to create at least as much value for others as you consume, but beyond that point you can choose to do whatever you want that doesn't infringe on the law or other people (well, you only need to worry about the law, but ethically you should think of others too). Some people just don't care about the things you value. Why is that such a problem for you?
Some people take it too far, but that's true of pretty much every recreational activity.
How could I have accomplished those things shredding sprites?
It may not be possible to accomplish all of the things you’ve got on HN while playing video games themselves. But it is when you have a chance to meet other creators that share a passion for this hobby and how can you have the passion to create if you don’t consume a little? I’ve met my share of talented creatives and entrepreneurs through my hobby, which have lead to business acquaintances, contract work and also hiring other ”losers” to help me create.
I assume you’ve done the same thing I’ve done through gaming, by having a genuine interest in startups/creating and sharing that interest with others here.
In your case, you work for a game company, hardly a typical gamer. My experience with gamers, usually friends, roommates and acquaintances is not that flattering.
I am sure there are "functional gamers", but let's not confuse being functional despite of something, for being functional because of it.
patio11, on his business.
So having to deal with mathematicians'/scientists'/engineers' egos, hearing the light snickering every time I ask anything less than a brilliant question, is extremely disheartening. At times I want to turn around and explain stern-facedly to please contribute or keep silent, this is the closest thing I have to a religion. But I lack the ability to deploy such a rebuke that would not detract overall from the learning environment, so I take the jibes. I swear, college isn't that different from high school. (it's been a while since high school, so maybe that's an exaggeration. but the social interaction has a real and discouraging potential for immaturity.)
Also, the strict time schedule around classes screws up my natural creative rhythm, and I'm still working on the concept of a school that addresses my kind of temporal sensibilities.
But yeah, I hear you.
GAMING.
I prefer to be the kid I am (I am 19) and free in thoughts - careless. That's what keeps my creativity up.
Make your question more specific?