..on doing things
It’s easy to get anxious just from scrolling. Too much noise, too many people doing things, showing progress, achievements. It gives the illusion that everyone’s moving fast while you’re just there, watching.
Mattis Dovier
Complexity?
Most of the fear comes from complexity. Complex things look scary from far away, equations in a paper, code, someone’s setup, someone’s work. The brain just shuts down and says I’ll never get there, but once the first step is done, once something actually starts, it’s never that complicated. It just looked that way.
“An idiot admires complexity, a genius admires simplicity, a physicist tries to make it simple. For an idiot, the more complicated something is, the more he will admire it. If you make something so clusterfucked he can’t understand it, he’s gonna think you’re a god because you made it so complicated nobody can understand it. That’s how they write journals in academics, they try to make it so complicated people think you’re a genius.”
Terry Davis
I like this quote from Terry Davis. Sometimes it’s just you being an idiot because you don’t have enough knowledge. Sometimes it’s certain people making things so complicated that you think they’re smart.
The quiet truth is that most people don’t really do things. The bar is lower than it seems, in almost every field. Everything that looks impossible is usually just a matter of starting, of not stopping at the fear stage.
Start
What helps is starting small, without overthinking the process. Pick a book and read just enough to understand the basics, then stop before it turns into endless theory. It’s not about finishing the book, it’s about reaching the point where you can actually try something. That’s where things start to make sense.
Here is a list of resources. If you can’t afford the books, you can find them on Libgen.
I will update the list; feel free to send me resources to add.
If you don’t yet understand what kind of project you want to do, that’s fine and part of the process. You’ll know what to do once you’ve gained enough knowledge.
Spend some time around people who actually build things. Follow them on X, read their stuff, try to understand how they think. Check GitHub, look at random repos, read the code, test small things, reimplement papers. At some point you’ll want to make something of your own, and that’s where real progress starts.
No Start
If you still can’t start, it might not be about motivation at all. Sometimes it’s your environment or your mental state. When you stay too long in the same place, surrounded by the same things, your brain starts to rot a bit. Everything feels dull and repetitive, like time isn’t moving. I saw many people trying to get out of this circle with journaling, trying pills, reading inspiring books.. one year later they’re still stuck..
IMO Changing your environment helps. Clean your room, open the windows, change the light, throw away useless stuff. Make it a place where it feels possible to work. Add something nice, something that makes you want to sit there. Go outside more often, walk, listen to music, let your mind drift a bit. Sometimes ideas come when you stop trying to force them.
You also have to ask if the direction you’re taking even makes sense, if the kid version of you would be proud. That question hurts a bit, but it’s useful, because it brings you back to what mattered before all the noise.
And if nothing changes, maybe the issue is deeper: exhaustion, depression, burnout, or just being stuck for too long. In that case, the best move is to step away. Travel if you can, or just leave for a few days. Even a small shift breaks the loop. Don’t forget your brain’s tricking you. Just do things. We see losers making it every day, no reason you or me can’t.
I hope this helps a few people. If it does, maybe just do something good with that energy, send a nice message, support someone on X, make it go somewhere useful.
