I can't do it anymore

Hello /prog/

I want to program, but I can't. I have no ideas which I feel are suited to my skill level. Everything I read about is either too easy or too complex, and everything that I want to work on is far too complex for me to work on.

I want to improve myself and work on the things I am really interested in, but I can't improve myself if I don't work on intermediate projects, and I have no idea what to work on to get my skills to that level.

It's depressing. It has got to the point where I haven't seriously written a line of code in a few months. I want to do something, but I always find excuses to not do it.

How do you guys deal with crushing laziness and ineptitude? How do you improve yourself? How do you motivate yourself to realize your programming dreams?
How do I become the Master Programmer?

Have you read your SICP?

>>2
No, I have not.
I read the beginning parts of the first chapter, and I really enjoyed it, but I somehow lost the will to continue, just like everything else I've done.

I can't finish projects, I can't complete books, I can't work my way through something to do myself any good.

I suppose my question is:
How do you motivate yourself to do things? I enjoy doing things, but still am not motivated to do them. How can I fix myself? How do I program the things I want to and push myself to finish what I started?

When I feel a need to have to motivate myself I smoke weed until it goes away.

>>4
Thanks for your post, but I want to really motivate myself instead of suppressing that feeling.
I just don't know what steps I should take to actualize motivation.

Are you unable to find motivation for other things in your life or is this just about programming?

>>1
Write something you like like a AI, a reworder, a bot, or work on a video game or other project. For me it is composing MIDI when I am not working on projects.

>>2
Also, get tested for depression and treatments. Mines is porn. I wiff one after a good productive day.

>>6
Now that you mention it, I seem to have problems with anything connected to self-study, but somehow I have a bigger problem with programming than other things. I want to expand my programming skills, but I am not motivated to learn more on my own. If, however, I want to learn to draw and cook, or repair my car, it's easier to learn about those things on my own than programming, even though I'm really more interested in programming.

>>7
So I should just find something I enjoy and jump into it?
What if I find out that a project is far more difficult than I anticipated, and I can't finish what I started? Should I stick with one-day projects and ease myself into longer projects once I've started programming every day?

I'll keep the depression idea in mind, but I would really like to avoid any pills or "treatments" as much as possible. I beat off far too often, maybe 4+ times/day. Perhaps that has something to do with my motivation.

install gentoo

Perhaps you should change your field of study. The best cure is to change your environment and behavior. CTRL+W, nothing in the world but working. Take small breaks to refresh and think, of course.

>>8
Have you never had a personal itch to scratch? Making your own to-do list or anime tracking program shouldn't be hard to do and you should stay motivated to finish it if you're not satisfied by any of the existing SOLUTIONS.

I've noticed that using a very high-level language that shows results fast like FIOC is a great way of reinforcing your feedback loop and getting motivated easier. That's if you're willing to put up with FIOC's bullshit, of course.

>>10
I'll try my best, thanks.
Why do you suggest I should change my field of study though?

>>11
I have a few ideas, but they are all over my head in terms of my current programming knowledge and skills, as well as knowledge of CS and AI concepts.

I like that anime-tracking program idea though, I'll try that out. I have tried to do most of my projects in sepples, but I'll try out python as well, thanks.

Remember that programming is nothing more than a tool. Domain knowledge is much more important. Any reasonably smart person can be taught to effectively program.

This is why you have hordes of computer science 'experts' uselessly recreating extremely trivial programs in esoteric languages.

>>14

Remember that programming is nothing more than a tool

wrong

Domain knowledge is much more important

Only if you're doing it as a job in the software industry but that's only for the job aspect.

This is why you have hordes of computer science 'experts' uselessly recreating extremely trivial programs in esoteric languages.

retard

>>8
Ok, seriously, get treatment.

So I should just find something I enjoy and jump into it?

Yes. Nothing works without motivation. You need to reward yourself that programming is a way to achieve those rewards. Usually a project like a game or screen scrapper keeps me motivated to keep on programming. Find your thing, and make it programming related. Reward yourself every hour. But take 1 hour cycles.

What if I find out that a project is far more difficult than I anticipated, and I can't finish what I started?

Doing a project keeps you focused to try something new you've never tried because it posed the challenge in way. It works as a stepping stone to enlightenment.

Should I stick with one-day projects and ease myself into longer projects once I've started programming every day?

Correct, but things you like. Like any addiction, slow and steady progressions, until you master yourself.

I'll keep the depression idea in mind, but I would really like to avoid any pills or "treatments" as much as possible.

No seriously do. Most treatments are not pill related, like jogging, playing music, writing a book, etc..

I beat off far too often, maybe 4+ times/day.

There's your reason for depression. You body has little energy to continue programming since you waste it all jacking. I jog and swim, make myself /fit/, then MIDI, then wiff, then cook. But between them all, programming.

Perhaps that has something to do with my motivation.

No shit Sherlock.

>>16
What the fuck does wiff mean?

>>17
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Wiff&defid=1609376

I suggested you consider changing your field of study because there are people who love to program and create things, who have a drive to learn more and use their knowledge. I can't tell much about you, but if you're uninspired about programming then there's a chance that it just isn't what you love, and if that's true, it's fine. Just act accordingly, I suppose.

So many people diving into CS like a gold rush, to become mindless appers for a paycheck, so many people who think they're IT / CS prodigies because illiterates have raised them saying

:wow this guy is a real computer wiz he knows things I could never figah out in a million years this kid!

when they perform basic tasks like tweak windows or put together a computer.

>>16
Alright, thank you so much for your help. I'll certainly look into finding small projects to work on, exercising, and masturbating less.

>>19
I don't know about that

I am still really interested in programming, and I like to understand the theory behind what I'm doing, but when I can't do it, it's not because I don't want to, it's because I somehow can't compel myself to do it.

When I was a bit younger, I had a huge drive for programming and learning about CS, and I pumped out small, unpolished programs and ideas on a very regular basis, as well as spent lots of time reading relevant books. Now, after being "out of the game" for a while, I want to bring myself back to that level of creativity and quickness, but I can't do it, and need help to figure out how I should go about doing it.

I understand that there is a lot of money in CS, and I would love to make it big at some point in my life, but the main reason I want to go into this field is because I have been interested in this for a very long time now, and I feel that I will be able to start practicing on a regular basis again with some help, and that is what I made this thread for.

>>20
Are you sure there's a lot of money in CS? what with all the faggot coders

>>20
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt_NwowMTcg

>>21
I'm fairly sure that I could compete with them, but even if I couldn't make lots of money in CS, I can't really think of anything else I would really enjoy doing, other than professional ice-cream tasting perhaps.

>>22

Thanks for the link; it looks interesting, and I'll look at it in more detail later.

>>23

I'll look at it in more detail later.

Terrible!

If you have to force yourself then you aren't cut out to be a programmer. Find a new fucking hobby.

>>25
I want to not have to force myself to program, so I'll be practicing instead of quitting.

>>22

Nicholas Carr

Is this Jew is confused or perhaps tries to confuse? Because human brain doesn't work the way he imagines. Brain is just a big markov chain. Brain does have attention span and sampling rate, but brain cant run out of memory or lost efficiency, unless get considerable physical damage to some area of brain.

>>27
All I read was ``retard''.

>>28
Shalom, Hymie!

watch the SICP lecture videos

seriously

i watched them all last summer

it'll be largely effortless for you (except for the 'learning the difficult concepts' part) but it'll enlighten you about how beautiful and skillful (and whatever) programming can be.

>>27
No shit, in his preamble, he stated this was all his experience, not the status quo.

>>27

Brain is just a big markov chain

Brains have memory, meganigger.

>>32
You're both pseudo-intellectual retards equating trivial computer concepts to things you don't know about.

>>33
I thought I told you to go fuck a snail, Yannick.

A Markov chain (discrete-time Markov chain or DTMC[1]) named after Andrey Markov, is a mathematical system that undergoes transitions from one state to another on a state space. It is a random process usually characterized as memoryless: the next state depends only on the current state and not on the sequence of events that preceded it

I'm the one saying >>27-nigger is the stupid one because I know what a Markov chain is. Take that shotgun out of your ass and shave that disgusting moustache, fucking french faggot le connard i speako like le mexican with a dick'e in my c'mouth le enculer my boyfriend is le jacques.

>>34
Now I'm confused, is >>33 serious when he makes those posts? I thought he was just doing Kodak's thing in a different form.

>>35
My hypothesis is that he's being serious but now tries to use Kodak's terms to avoid being mocked for his (ab)use of the ``pseudo-intellectual retard'' insult.

That said, I think some people here would fit wonderfully on lesswrong, the kike site made by kikes for kikes.

>>32

That memory is hardwired to sample specific parts of brain. I.e. visual cortex memory reacts to optic nerve outputs. And it isn't the memory the von neumann's sense, because it also does processing, which basically predicts what follows from input (i.e. a markov chain to predict next state).

>>37

And when one references "distraction", "losing attention" or "breaking concentration", he means that something disturbs him from following a markov chain to produce hypotheses about future. Learning basically involves training these chains, but as soon as you learn something, you will find future encounters with it boring and lose interest. So there is no danger of people being addicted to specific activity, unless it produces some dopamine feedback loop.

>>38

Corollary: all guesses are educated guesses, because they depend on real world experience of a person making them.

>>22

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Advanced_Study#Criticism
When I was at Princeton in the 1940s I could see what happened to those great minds at the Institute for Advanced Study, who had been specially selected for their tremendous brains and were now given this opportunity to sit in this lovely house by the woods there, with no classes to teach, with no obligations whatsoever. These poor bastards could now sit and think clearly all by themselves, OK? So they don't get any ideas for a while: They have every opportunity to do something, and they're not getting any ideas. I believe that in a situation like this a kind of guilt or depression worms inside of you, and you begin to worry about not getting any ideas. And nothing happens. Still no ideas come. Nothing happens because there's not enough real activity and challenge: You're not in contact with the experimental guys. You don't have to think how to answer questions from the students. Nothing!