project and other goals: staying on course

[sonuteklists]

This problem had bothered me forever. I am trying setup something which needs some investigation in a particualr field. I get a book for that. Half-way (or quarter-way) through the book, I realise that I lack some background/additional knowledge on some other thing. So I go and either get a book on that or go to some online tutorials. Sometimes, this continues until I lose the original focus, not to mention my motivation (which doesnt come that easily anyways). To make it short, I am never able to (at times!!) complete a book/project I started.

I referred to another thread "how to stay focused", but it didnt seem to answer my question. How do I stay focused, but at the same time, be able to acknowledge additional information required for the project.

What do I do. Do I need to see a shrink ??

Thanks.

 

[benlinkknilneb]

It sounds like you're reacting to things rather than being proactive.

Sometimes you won't be able to have all the answers in front of you, but the trick I've found is this: Don't dig too deep until you know more about the ground.

If you're learning a new language/skill/whatever by reading, establish a goal. For a new language, perhaps something like "Write a program that simulates the card game Blackjack". Once you've learned how to do that, establish a slightly more complicated goal: "Create a Casino program that has several games in it". Add in more stuff (Remembers users' stats, uses n decks of cards at a given table, has a banker that offers a credit line, etc). Start with a small, easy to accomplish project and gradually grow it up into something complex. That way you never feel overwhelmed. If you started learning your programming language with the entire casino project in mind, you'd probably get swamped. If you start simple and make milestones, it's pretty easy to keep going because the work is always just a "tweak" here and there.

Ben
The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't. - Douglas Adams

 

[grande]

Hell, if it's my very first introduction into a new language, I usually start out uber-simple.

"Hello, my name is [variable holding my name]. 2+2=[sum]."

Then I ask for the name, then I ask for the numbers, get them as text, and change them to numbers.

It seems very "high school," I know, but it helps greatly.

-------------------------
Just call me Captain Awesome.

 

[sonuteklists]

Thanks for the tips. Are you sure you are a programmer and not a phsycologist ??

Btw, could you tell me a few things,
- Is it normal to forget specifics of things if not used for say, 2 months. For example, if I absolutely never touch a firewall for 2 months, and after that I forget some specific, not-so-common-but-not-so-difficult-either commands, is it normal ?? Lets say now, that I followed you advice, wrote a basic program that simulates the card game Blackjack. Now I take a break for 2 months and come back and dont remember the specifics on how I wrote the code, what do I do. Do I start all the way from the beginning or brush up from there on. I guess the obvious answer is to brush up from there on. But heres the thing. When I am doing some networking porojects, I am required to know the specifics of protocols (TCP, UDP, ARP, ICMP, IP, the likes !!). I have to know the details of every field of every protocol. A brief layover and I seem to forget the some details of some fields of some protocols. At that time I am forced to go back to the basics of the required protocol stacks, etc. At that time, I feel that I might have forgotten the specifics of other protocols too as so I go back over them a few times.
So, to get started again, I lose a great deal of time and overtime I feel like I have accomplished nothing at all. Thats where the motivation goes and I actually feel a bit depressed for the lost time. Thats when I feel somethings wrong with me.

- I have been in the IT field a while (almost 6 years) and I can stand my own and do this and that. But not being tied to one-project/technology/task, I am required to keep learning new things everyday. Its like, the more I learn, I realize there is so much I dont know. Dont get me wrong. I love to read/learn though I can get a bit lazy at times. But, the realization that comes that there is so much more to learn bogs me. Those times, its really really hard to stay focused. Suddenly I have popped the pandora's box and I have to learn this and that .... So I read a bit of this and a bit of that. Let me give you a example by way of a project I am currently involved in right now. Its basically a Grid project, but this requires learning about a bunch of things, i2 specifications, CA/PKI, Shibboleth/SAML. Each are monsters that requires a lot of work/learning. What do I do then ??

Last note, I havent been in this forum at all. This is my first post here, but I truly appreciate everybody advice on issues, not just to my questions, but to others' questions as well. I did learn a lot from the other threads here. Truly a unique forum I have never seen anywhere else in my years of existense in the IT field.

Thanks a bunch to all.

 

[biglebowski]

Theres a book you can read for that

stay focused

That rug really tied the room together, did it not?

 

[LFI]

sonuteklists,

If you wrote yourself a sample program using the technologies/statements/shortcuts/etc. that you find helpful in your work... AND COMMENTED THE HELL OUT OF IT... then, whenever you needed to re-familiarize yourself with that particular language (or what-have-you), you need only read over this sample program that you wrote and you're back in the game!

Keep in mind, when you're reviewing the code the first time you need it and you realize the comments aren't complete or as detailed as you need, edit them so that they ARE what you would have needed. Now your "cheat-sheet" is complete.

Good luck!

--Dave


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
O Time, Strength, Cash, and Patience!

 

[benlinkknilneb]

Dave is right.

Incidentally, I was one class away from a psych minor. Didn't want a non-major lab in my senior year, so I didn't finish it.

If you document everything, it'll be like riding a bicycle. You just won't permanently forget how... you'll remember bits and pieces and it will get stronger as you use it again.

For your firewall example, anytime you do something that you think would be really easy to forget, make a note. Put it in a folder with all the other firewall tricks (or in a database, if you have something in Access or something like that). Then you've got a bunch of cheat sheets to help you remember where things are (I HATE going through a series of windows and menus trying to remember where the checkbox I need to check is located).

For the programming example, just what Dave said. Comment the thing until you think that your neighbor's dog could understand it. Then when you come back to it, oh gee, you left it there in plain English.

I'd never thought of just leaving sample programs in each language lying around. That's not a bad idea. With enough commenting, you'll have it all figured out in no time.

Be warned, it will feel like a ROYAL PITA when you're trying to write these comments, because you'll be thinking, "I could be spending this time adding another feature" or something like that... but when you come back, you'll thank yourself a thousand times over.

As for your situation where you find yourself tackling multiple monsters at once, my parents used to ask me the following question whenever I (as a child) felt overwhelmed about something:

"How do you eat an entire elephant?"
The answer is simple: One bite at a time.

(Geez, I sound like a fortune cookie!)

For huge learning projects, it usually helps to break it up. See if your books have "homework problems" at the end of a chapter or something, and work them all. You'll have a short-term goal (answer all the questions) and something to break up the project into smaller pieces.

Ben
The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't. - Douglas Adams

 

[sonuteklists]

Thanks a bunch, really !!

 

[wvajenm]

I have found that documenting everything works out for me when I might not touch something for a while. For example, I make changes to the firewall config, I make a notation of when, what I changed and why, then when something happens six months down the road, I'm not sitting there wondering, "What idiot made these changes and why would they do that?". It also helps if anyone else ever has to come in after you and try to figure out what you did. It's even helped me out to note wierd desktop problems that come up, because months later, I'm not sitting there going, "Oh yeah, I saw this before, but what did I do to fix it?

 

[hilfy]

Cheat Sheets" are wonderful things. I either print from help, copy a page out of a book, or put together my own. These are similar to documenting what you've done, but they're just common reference information.

I've used these for programming-specific things like the list of virtual key codes, definitions of format strings, etc. You could, for example, create a sheet or two with the basics of a specific protocol. Some of these get posted on the wall of my cube (the ones I use frequently) and some are in labelled folders so that I can find them easily.

This way I don't have to keep the info in my head (which is already overcrowded ) but I don't have to search Help or a book to find it because I know exactly where it's located.

-Dell

A computer only does what you actually told it to do - not what you thought you told it to do.

 

[juliane26]

Sonuteklists,

Just to answer your points: you are not allone, happens to me all the time as well.

The important point is not always to know everything but to know where to get the information. Where did I read that - whom can I ask - fine. Better than talking rubbish like some people do if they don't know better. Since nobody knows everything I also prefer a 'problem oriented approach' in learning (solve this or that) than trying to do all at once.

Once you wrote your 1st program in a new language, nothing is wrong with copying from it for the second if useful. And if you look at it after 2 month, may be you have to start over, but it takes only little time.



Juliane