Information overload and procrastination
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testing a text editor called the “Dark room”
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wow. what a great concept. feels like i am actually all alone with my mind. especially with ‘frozen twilight’ by God is an Astronaut playing at the background. lol.
anyway….
i think i am addicted to knowledge. not exactly “obtaining” knowledge, but rather “collecting” knowledge.
i love the internet because it’s so easy to get practically ANY information i want. and i can get them NOW.
i could go from one subject to another, just browsing around and downloading stuff to my computer for ‘later viewing’ because i don’t have an always-on internet connection.
But what i said to be ‘later viewing’ most probably means ‘never’. lol.
I will end up with a huge pile of files that I probably can never finish reading for the rest of my life.
I only collect stuff on subjects that interest me. Unfortunately (naah.. can’t really say it. i enjoy it very much), what i like is internet and technology-related material.
and those are ABUNDANT here on the web. not to mention the constant growth and innovation that are just yummy for geeks’ adrenaline.
and it’s addicting.
One sample:
i was in the middle of coding a web project when I decided that I am going to implement a specific feature. i jumped online to get some inspiration, best practices and common issues attached to the feature.
I also browse for reusable codes for me to adapt to my project. Perhaps from some open source projects repositories or similar projects where i can guess and adapt the algorithm / method to my project.
I am just lazy, thinking:
“heck, why should i solve and code something from scratch just because i can? there MUST be someone out there who had thought of the same problem and solved it into some type of elegant and reusable code. If I’m lucky, I can even get some friendly advice and reference on the feature.”
One problem leads to the other, one code snippet refers to another, one blog post links to 10 other, i will find myself ’stuck’ online, browsing and harvesting delicious solutions — solutions for problems i don’t actually have at the first place, the one that led me online.
I used to like to think of it as a learning curve, saying things like ‘well, at least now I know what to do when THAT happens’, or “these stuff will be useful someday, good to learn them now”
But it is _distracting_ and i ended up losing focus on the main project. Then, another day has passed.
self-discipline, come here will ya?