2025-01-26
Don’t be static, do something about it.
My problems usually fall into two categories: the ones I can influence with a lot of effort, and the ones I can’t do anything about.
For the ones that need a lot of effort it happens very often that I feel overwhelmed. My solution is to take the smallest step possible in that direction.
For the ones I can’t influence at all I just busy myself with consciously doing something positive. I can do extra chores for my family, help a colleague, anything that is useful. Most of the time I forget all about the problem, and can get back to work.
For me it’s mostly the problems that need a lot of effort. At least more effort than I originally anticipated.
Being proactive is all fun and games at first, but then you realize that in order to do anything of value you really have to put in the work.
My brain is very hungry for dopamine. Whenever something is new I get excited. Like getting a great idea for an app, I get pumped-up and the dopamine goes through the roof.
The next step, which leads to the actual problem of feeling overwhelmed, has to do with reality. If something is new, you really have to put in the effort to get the result.
And then the dopamine crash starts: I do some research > I don’t understand something > I have to go on MANY side-quests to understand > the frustration kicks in > the disappointment kicks in > I feel overwhelmed.
Let me give you an example.
Here is a problem I have: whenever I talk to support teams I can’t differentiate the first name from the last, how you pronounce it, are they male or female, etc. Solution: build an App with claude code which does exactly this.
For my name it would be:
Input: Dragos Josan
Output:
- First name (90%): Dragos
- Last name (100%): Josan
- Country of origin (70%): Romania
- Male (100%)Well, after doing my research, I found out that of course this is a very complex problem, and you have to find either the right tech-stack: libraries, name datasets to train your own ML model, etc. And here comes the part where all the fun goes away and reality kicks in. This was not a four hour project. This is a complex machine learning topic, with social and racial implications. I don’t want any of that, but I already started.
What should I do now?
A good friend of mine always said: stop starting and start finishing!
Why is that? Because your brain energy is limited, and every new project drains that energy pool. So if you already have three projects going on and you start the fourth one, the first three will definitely keep draining energy from that pool until you close them.
What does “finishing” a project mean? You prioritize: either you finish it, or delete it forever and be determined about it.
I always liked this expression from Jocko Willink: prioritize and execute.
Counterintuitive, but starting new projects will drain you of energy, even if in the beginning you feel all pumped-up. This YouTube video explains the logic behind it.
You can avoid feeling overwhelmed if you do something about it. Doing something about it also includes closing old projects, if they don’t make sense anymore.
Finishing existing projects is more rewarding and you also learn something in the process.