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

13•ada1981•5mo ago

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.

Comments

ferguess_k•5mo ago

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

ada1981•5mo ago

How does that impact your life day to day?

ranger_danger•5mo ago

motivation / realistic purpose / coming up with ideas

AaronAPU•5mo ago

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.

ranger_danger•5mo ago

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.

BaudouinVH•5mo ago

Being on the spectrum and ADHD.

ada1981•5mo ago

How does that impact you day to day?

autotune•5mo ago

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.

ada1981•5mo ago

What feels like the biggest obstacles with those things?

autotune•5mo ago

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

ada1981•5mo ago

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

autotune•5mo ago

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.

moi2388•5mo ago

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

ada1981•5mo ago

Totally can relate to that.

jf22•5mo ago

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

ada1981•5mo ago

Does that lead to motivation? Procrastination? Something else?

theyknowitsxmas•5mo ago

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.

DontchaKnowit•5mo ago

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

theyknowitsxmas•5mo ago

Tech is the golf of jobs.

DontchaKnowit•5mo ago

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

deepfriedchokes•5mo ago

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.

ada1981•5mo ago

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.

DougN7•5mo ago

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.

ada1981•5mo ago

Can you give an example?

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Tiny Clippy – A native Office Assistant built in Rust and egui

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

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