Unemployed Boredom - saturday 2002-09-14 0453 last modified 2006-01-29 0354
Categories: Nerdy, Daily Grind
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Yeah, I'm definitely bored. I was observing to Ed today how I don't feel like doing anything, but if I had a job, I'd be all over doing those things I've been wanting but waiting to do because of my thesis (including but not limited to: kung fu lessons, learning cello, bass, electric guitar, refreshing piano, doing more cooking and baking, buying a GameCube). Partly it would be because those things all cost money, in the hundreds of dollars. Partly it's because it would be a lot more fun to do any of those with someone else. Mostly it's because I'm just plain unmotivated, which anybody who reads this with any degree of regularity might notice - I only write once or twice a week instead of the daily notes I had before.

I think once my mind gets stagnant from lack of required work, it gets lazy and won't do any unrequired work and will avoid fun without company to indulge in it with. It's kind of sad. I could probably get a lot of work on ryanlee.org done in this downtime (subliminal message: you want to hire me, I can do good things), but I've only recently begun to actually look at ryanlee.org.

Blah blah, just repeating my last entries basically. This must be boring for you. Ha, my boredom rubs off on others. I guess I'll pick something that needs doing on ryanlee.org and do it. Hm, eenie meenie... I'll finish Newswire. Tomorrow afternoon. If I finish that, I'll start the uninstalling process for remaining useless modules. But I think I'll sleep now.

Comments

i suffer from ...

i suffer from the same affliction. i have no useful tips of any sort.

Matt Libby on September 16, 2002 01:42 PM

I wonder if MI...

I wonder if MIT had anything to do with it. Did MIT cause it, or was there something more basic which afflicts us and also happened to drive us into MIT?

Ryan Lee on September 16, 2002 08:44 PM

i think it's j...

i think it's just laziness, pure and simple... which can hardly have anything to do with going to (or staying at) MIT. so we're both just terribly multi-faceted, huh?

just kidding, of course. commence w/ the serious, non-flippant discussion.

first, with regard to "the syndrome" (regardless of MIT), i think it comes from basic personality traits (at least in our cases, yours & mine). dare i guess that you, too, are an INTP? that would indicate a creative, idea-generating (and project-generating) thought life that has a hard time deciding what to do next (or, more accurately, prefers to leave things open-ended).

with regard to MIT, then, i'm not sure... i dare say that you'd find plenty of people (of a certain type) from all walks of life who are going through the same thing, i.e. the "lots of nerdy things i'd love to do and no motivation to get started" thing. but they'd have to be the type of person who actually comes up with ideas of nerdy things things they'd love to do (w/ some serious intent to actually do them), and that kind of thing is actually a little unusual in the population at large, i think. it goes back to personality.

[side-note on nerdiness, for all those non-MIT folks reading this (right...): it doesn't have to be computer-related, either... it has to be "nerdy", which (in the MIT tradition) describes any reasonably intellectual pursuit undertaken (mostly) for the pleasure thereof (and for bragging rights).]

[you should enlarge the "Comment" text area on the "Edit comment" page... it's hard to write lengthy comments when viewing only five 50-character lines at a time. maybe you're trying to discourage wordy comments on your journal?]

Matt Libby on September 20, 2002 10:59 PM

Nature, yes, b...

Nature, yes, but nurture too? I don't know that I would have extended myself into several different kinds of projects before coming to MIT. Perhaps because in my sense of the word 'nerd,' I wasn't much of a computer person until the year before I left home. So for me, perhaps there's a component of training and environment from Ye Olde MIT.

Rant begin: in regards to personality test results - I wouldn't know, I've never taken Meyers-Brigg's test (is that Meyers and Brigg, or Mr(s). Meyers-Brigg?). I know there's something to be said for understanding someone according to their personality type, but I refuse to be pigeonholed by four letters, which is why I've never taken the test and don't care to. I also don't care to know how to interpret the letters, lest I pigeonhole someone else. Should I compare someone to some of the famous persons listed as their type, i.e., "Hey, you're just like Hitler!" Anyways. Rant end.

Comment box expanded. One of those things I was eventually going to do... Lengthy comments are welcome.

Ryan Lee on September 27, 2002 10:05 PM

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