Ask HN: How to control computer science wanderlust?

6 points by rhipitr 7 years ago | 2 comments

I didn't really know a better way to phrase this, but I am curious if anyone has a system for, or advice on, controlling wanderlust when it comes to technology or computer science knowledge. For me, I feel like this is more pronounced when I read hacker news and discover new, interesting articles & free text books about topics I find interesting. I place them in my "queue" with a "plan" to investigate and read later, but I usually make little headway towards this goal. It's probably a personal issue, as I tend to do this with books I want to read, shows I want to watch, places I want to visit, etc., but I just thought I would ask and see if anyone has any ways that have worked for them when dealing with this issue.

AnimalMuppet 7 years ago |

There is more interesting stuff to read than you have time to read. No system is going to help with that, or is it really a problem to fix.

There are two problems that you do need to handle somehow:

1. Out of all the things that I can read/investigate/research, which are the ones that I most should spend my time on (defined by whatever metric you want). The problem here is, you often don't know until you read them, and you don't have time to read them all. I don't have a good answer here.

2. Keeping the list of things you'd like to read from eating up more time than it should. It can take time from your work, your marriage, or your kids - if you let it. This becomes a matter of not letting it become an addictive or obsessive behavior, or at least of recognizing when it becomes so and then stopping when you recognize it.

sgillen 7 years ago |

I agree with the other guy, there is way more interesting stuff to read than there is time to read it.

I find it helps to really have a goal when setting out to learn new stuff. Rather than just "I want to learn more about blah" Think "I want to make a grid based turn based strategy game" or whatever, and then figure out what you need to learn to make that happen.

I try to do this, I still have lots of interesting unrelated things I try to learn about too, but I find this overarching goal helps focus everything, even if that goal changes every few months and is not always achieved.