Gabriel comments on Public Service Announcement Collection - Less Wrong

37 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 27 June 2013 05:20PM

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Comment author: MixedNuts 27 June 2013 09:57:48PM 1 point [-]

I assume this means close to, if slightly below, the level of the average pro

No, just very haphazard. I know how to do many things, but I don't know how to do many other, often easier, things, and I seem to have become oddly unable to learn. Of course nobody wants a CSS whiz who never learnt HTML5.

Comment author: Gabriel 27 June 2013 11:47:26PM 4 points [-]

Utterly random hypothesis: your odd inability to learn is caused by the tension between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. You got into programming and learned stuff because it was fun in itself, but when you started thinking that you should use your skills to earn money and started analyzing every programming-related action in terms of its money-earning potential, it stopped being fun and became ugh.

Comment author: Halfwit 28 June 2013 01:18:39AM *  2 points [-]

Hmm, one way to maybe get around this would be to start an intrinsically motivating project but limit oneself to the tools one has to learn for extrinsic reasons.