Ask HN: What are you biggest mental / relational challenges? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What are you biggest mental / relational challenges?

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Research shows the biggest reason projects fail is the mental and relational health of the founders. Curious what challenges folks are facing as well as resources people are using or general comments on this subject.

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Slightly off topic but related: one of the biggest epiphanies of my life was when I (20-something techie) realized tech is useless if it’s not used. In other words, tech only exists to help people. People, and their problems, are what matter, not the technology. That changed a lot about how I looked at software development.

Can you give an example?

Bipolar disorder. Feels like I have manic episodes every few days now. Combined with a 2 year gap in employment history, SSDI benefits might be my best move forward in life.

What feels like the biggest obstacles with those things?

Racing thoughts that feel like a lack of control on daily repeat, and that's with medication.

Are there feelings beneath the thoughts? Or is that feeling of being out of control?

Mostly that feeling of being out of control, resulting in thoughts that are out of control. Not necessarily myself, I act as passive observer to the thoughts and feelings being out of control.

Being on the spectrum and ADHD.

How does that impact you day to day?

Not a founder, but I'm impacted by a couple of mental issues:

- Getting frustrated really easily sometimes

- Getting burned out from side projects really easily

How does that impact your life day to day?

motivation / realistic purpose / coming up with ideas

Two things I’ve never understood:

1) Boredom 2) Not having ideas

Which I guess are directly connected. I’m never bored, never lacking in ideas, but it’s an endless struggle to pick which ones to execute on and decide on relative priority.

Yea I guess I have the opposite problem, I always feel bored even though there are endless things that I could be doing, but I'm also lazy so that kinda cancels it out.

And I couldn't come up with a good idea for a new project to save my life... so I just write code for other people instead of myself.

I get really into new projects. I spend way too much time researching and building, and forget to take enough rest.

Totally can relate to that.

You people sit in front of a computer all day and sometimes make good money out of it. Bullied as kids and fell in love with being in control of something... at least you have something to do! Consider it a blessing over being a roughneck on the oil patch.

Have you read The Comfort Crisis? You might enjoy it. Essentially says our ancestors were all pro athlete level fitness, moving 25-50 miles a day, essentially fasting all the time. And that is what our mind is optimized for.

Personally, I put myself into the wilderness every quarter for 3+ days of no phone, fasting and sleeping on a tarp to reset dopamine. Everything is better whenI return.

Humans are emotional animals, not rational animals, so it would make sense that people who grew up without power would seek out things that empower themselves. However, power corrupts, and we’re seeing a lot of that in tech these days, where the tech is being used to disempower others. That needs to change.

What a weird comment. I think you're projecting a little

Tech is the golf of jobs.

If you're saying its easy street, then yeah, no arguments here. Jealous?

I get anxiety from understanding all the work I have to do.

Does that lead to motivation? Procrastination? Something else?

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