As I get older, now I'm 36 I am realising that I am falling into an ADD trap.
You see my problem is this, and I hate it.
As most or all of you know that when you enthusiastically get into a new thing (arent they always new things :rolleyes: ) then your interest burns out and the hobby then becomes a chore and its dropped.
Here is what scares me, that I am catching on to my ways and I am afraid that I will avoid challenging things because I will quit before I master it.
I have been wanting to learn computer programming http://www.python.org/ but i feel the rush is on to get it set up to use it before I get too bored to bother before it is even set up.
Do I have the self discipline to learn this stuff? I guess the motivator would be to manipulate stuff, to create, like others do, 'Jeez, I want to do that!'
I want to be a Geek!
OK getting back to my point, any of you find that you avoid or are afraid that you will avoid projects that interest you because you know that 'It ain't gonna be followed through' anyway.
I find it bad enough that I don't master anything let alone fearing that I shouldn't bother with stuff of interest to begin with.
I just wish that for once in my life I could be a specialist instead of a generalist. To be really good at something instead of being a bit good with EVERYTHING.
Not just 'my current hobby of the week' :rolleyes:
I
could
go
on....

PS, I was formerly known as 'What?', well, nobody really knew me, but I was here before (or was I there?) well, here i am now.
Thanx for changing me Andrew, that's if I was even 'What?' here.
Huh?

I hear ya Andrew.

There are many things I would looove to start/try but I know that in a few years, I'll have spent a lot of money and want to quit.

The only thing I've hung on to recently is Kung Fu. 7 years this month. But now that I've had my black belt for a couple of years, I'm looking for something else. I could finish the whole shebang and become a Master but I'd be looking at another 16 years.

I could take up archery as that fascinates me as well...but then what do I do with my several hundreds of dollars worth of weapons and uniforms???

Sometimes you just gotta jump in and do it. Or just tell yourself, "Yeah...in another life I probably would try that."

Who knows...maybe I will dump Kung Fu for archery. Or maybe I'll just be known as the guy who does Kung Fu!

Eric

We know what you’re talking about. (grin…)

It’s entirely possible you’re growing wary of the appearance of something you never saw correctly.

We all have difficulty sustaining interest past a particular point, defined by one of two circumstances:

Sometimes we can’t get past the fact we’ve gotten what we needed out of whatever it is we’re doing, and can’t bring ourselves to commit resources to what then becomes an exercise in looking as if we intended to finish it all along, i.e., we’re normal.

And sometimes, we integrate as much as we can until we run into a different problem, and can’t go any further without working that one out first. Then we have the same difficulty, not being able to justify the effort required to merely look normal.

The reason we have these problems is related to the way we store information, which is different than the way normals do it in an important way. This difference is implicated in many ADDers experiences, especially in the classroom.

We (Tom and Kay == Stabile) have been studying these two different modes of logical modeling in the brain for a lot of years, and are reasonably certain that they are deeply implicated in most aspects of having/being AD/HD.

We do know that as we get older, we lose patience with the effort to appear normal. Some of that is purely human and natural, and some has to do with the nature of the way we store information. It’s expected, but that doesn’t make it feel any better, even to us, and we really do know better.

The best place to start, in our opinion, is by asking yourself what you really hoped to accomplish, stripped back to the essentials. Set up a Linux box and learn a little Python? Sure, but there are a thousand complex models involved in that process, and any subset of those could be what originally drove your desire to do it.

Whenever you feel that interest starting to fade, you’ve likely found the subset that fits what you wanted to know, or found that you need something else entirely to go on.

When in doubt it’s probably best to trust yourself, and look for the reason that you can’t see for why you’re through with something. And be nice to yourself, too, because being true is only going to keep you busy generating more of the same kind of problem, the appearance that we never finish anything.

It’s just not so. We’re only operating efficiently, and remember this, too: sometimes normals can’t even see what we’re trying to learn. In those cases, it wouldn’t do any good to try to justify dropping something before they think you’re done with it.

You can’t really afford to take the hit of stopping, or trying to hide it. That will really drive you crazy…

--T&K

This post really hits home for me. You could call me a programmer that doesn't have much to show for himself. I've been working on that aspect lately, though. I've been playing with programming on and off for a while (over about 11 years), but I have yet to actually finish a program without supervision (though there were a couple close misses).

Programming is a tool. A means to an end (though some may see it as an end in itself). As much as you can get sick of programming itself, you will probably get sick of the project that you are working on (the goal being acomplished by using programming) first.

I find that it is imperative to accomplish the most amount of work with the least amount of effort. Seeing your dream is what keeps you going. For me, programming a little at a time does not work. That is because it takes me so long to initate the task of programming itself. Once I get hooked on programming (hyperfocused on it), I program for as long as I can without looking back in order to see results. If I don't see results, I am likely to withdraw from the project. If I stop working on the project for an extended period of time, I am not likely to reengage, so I have to make the project a significant part of my life. Lately, I've literally tried to schedule programming into my life.

Have you planned on doing something specific with python? Or are you learning python for the sake of learning programming? It's important that the task you are trying to accomplish matches the tool that you are trying to use, mainly because of the quick feedback that we need to maintain something.

OK getting back to my point, any of you find that you avoid or are afraid that you will avoid projects that interest you because you know that 'It ain't gonna be followed through' anyway.


I think Stabile and Highfunctioning both have very valid points.


I would reverse the order because I am dyslexic any way....

First ask your self why you are interested in a subject???

Do you want to learn this as a potential profession???
Just curious????

If I want to do some thing professionally I need to check "returns" vs expenses!!!!
I need to check out the chances of getting a job that will pay me enough to live and pay back the loan....how long will obtaining a decent paying job reasonably take???


If I am just interested I limit my expense toward a said "hobby".....I spend no more than I can afford without the use of credit.....

Beginning a hobby and loosing interest isn't a big deal, so you have knowledge about six hobbies instead of being expert in only one...so you tried it and became board with it. At least you tried it.


I have made jewelry, started learning how to write HTML code, and martial arts, my hobby interest normally last three to five years..so what. I understand some HTML...which I took free courses on line and bought a $20.00 book. I tried HTML or XTML for three months learned it wasn't a dyslexia friendly activity. :o so what?????........Does that make me a failure because I am not an expert. I have found the information valuable on several occasions. I didn't go onto hock. My cost one book apx 90 hours.


I have been on this site as a "hobby" for slightly over a year.....okay and if change directions three years for now have I failed? Does it diminsh the assistance I have given and received??? Martial arts too has come in handy especially the basics of self defense.....the training I learned to think my way through situations has saved my life on more than one occasion. Breaking a hold of a stranger who tried to grab me and drag me/pull me didn't require me to be a seventh degree black belt for my reaction to break his hold successfully. While walking to my car in the dark a man tried to run up behind me and???? One side step/leg sweep had him on his face long enough for me to be like the wind g…o….n….e.....


Looking at why you want to begin a project, what do you hope to accomplish, what will it take / cost to accomplish and NOT trying to be interested in some thing just to "feel normal".....like Stabile suggested some times the craving is satisfied to the individual satisfaction because what was sought was obtained.....be you without comparing to others just double check your reasons...


By the way jewelry is a handy ability when one is broke and in need of a gift for another. I don't make jewelry as often as I used to but I still get in the mood from time to time, and just make stuff. I save the made stuff and give it away. Not having money to buy Christmas presents in Dec. 1997 is how I got into making jewelry to begin with.......I have improved drastically over the past nine years....

Define failure first then define success what is. Then ask if you are being reasonable within your self instead of comparing with what "you ought" to achieve......failure is never trying out of fear….or grand delusions thus investing grand expenses.

Toad (if that's your real name!),

I find I no longer take on any big dreams anymore, for fear of failure. But I do allow myself small hobbies. That's a recent discovery for me - doing something just because it pleases me and has no benefit for anyone else.
I love art, and although I'd prefer to do it by hand, I am teaching myself computer graphics. Only what I can handle, when I want. If I take it at a pace that's my own, stopping whenever it ceases to be fun, I find that I come back to it often, and have stuck with it much longer than I thought I would. I'm not very good yet, but I love learning it.
I'm the type that does this; I download some huge fancy graphics program that all I know of is the paragraph of descriptive praises I read above the "download" button. I don't read the directions (no way! The hobby would end RIGHT THERE if I had to do that!). I just jump right in and start pushing buttons and make a total mess of the program, decide it's far too advanced and confusing for me, and download another one.
I do it "baby style" with Microsoft Paint, PicMaster, etc. Pixel by pixel I create. I trash a lot of it. I abandon a lot of it to come back to later if I feel like it and start on another picture that holds my interest at the moment.
I also recently started taking digital photos, now I can tweak them in my graphics programs.
I make my kids look at the stuff I make. They "oooh" and "aaaah" over it out of kindness.
Before the graphics, it was pebbles. Yes, pebbles. I don't know why but I bought bags and bags of pebbles. Couldn't get enough of them. I sat and sorted them for hours and days and weeks and even months. Sorted them by size, then shapes, then colors. I don't know why. Now I have a houseful of pebbles and that is out of my system, for now.
Seashells came next. Same thing.
But I will only take baby bites of things now. No giant career changes for me.
So I sit surrounded by pebbles and seashells, moving miniscule pixels around a screen. Occasionally doing a tiny bit of work in my real job.
Maybe that's a good way to approach it? Only do it while it's fun? If it stops being fun, stop doing it until it sounds fun again?
And start however you want! I come at it all backwards!
But hey...I'm not one to give advice....
Maybe if you do the exact opposite of what I do, everything will turn out perfectly! Lol!

When I give it thought it seems to me that when I start a new thing, I give it my all and I try to learn it all yesterday. When I expect to understand and I don't. Perhaps that is where the chore part comes in. But it is also lack of new rewards, must I always be rewarded, stupid dopamine shortage :mad:

As far as being interested in computer programming is concerned, it has just been a desire just to be able to understand how to do it. I mean when I download somebody's free program I know they wrote it for fun and to share.
See, I'm a creator, I have a vivid imagination, I have exceptional spacial visual abstract reasoning skills (I did a test years ago and came in the 99%ile range, I read here that ADD people tend to score high in that area) and it goes to waste. I'd like to find a medium that can express that. I know there are things I can do that MOST people would find difficult. I don't mean to brag, I'm not one to crow about myself, hence I will put myself down and admit my faults just as readily, I'm not bragging.

I understand how the programming structure works, I just need to rememberize the language, hell, I could get my Bro to print some stuff out and I could study some code, at work even.

There are some things I never bore of
-Naked ladies
-computer

The naked ladies, well we must be hardwired to never get bored of sex related things. That's a good thing.
The computer, well it's just a wealth of info, I like to read about 2-4 hours a day, I never bore of learning, oh yeah, the computer has naked ladies on it too :)