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7 Motivation Problems

Demotivation comes from distractions. Pre-distractions happen before the task: imposter syndrome, entertainment, analysis paralysis. Mid-distractions happen when doing the task: burnout, context switching, perfectionism. Post-distractions happen after the task: negative criticism.

Imposter Syndrome

Imposter syndrome comes from comparing ourselves to others. The more skills we learn, the more unique we become. It's hard to feel like an imposter at this point, because no one is comparable to us.

For example, if 1 in 100 people are good in a skill, then being good at 3 skills makes us 1 in a million. America has 330 million people, so 330 Americans have the same 3 skills. We would be somewhere between rank 1 and 330.

Entertainment

Take notes after watching

After learning about a fundamental topic in our chosen skill. Try to see how they are implemented in entertainment media we are enjoying. After watching a TV episode, we might skim through it again and take notes on our favorite scenes. We can do this for movies, comics, YouTube videos, games, etc.

Use remixes to focus our studies

A remix is when we take pieces of an existing art, and incorporate it into our new art. Using that piece saves us time, because we can skip building it from scratch. Remixes are useful for studying. We want to study A, but need to build B first. To skip B, we just borrow it from another art piece.

If we're an artist that wants to experiment with colors, then tracing an image lets us skip shape design. If we're a composer that wants to focus on a minor melody, then we can use the chords of a track that is already in minor. If we're an animator that wants to focus on facial animation, then we can download a rigged face.

Analysis Paralysis

Write down best practices

After about 2000 hours of practice and study, we probably have many workflows. What steps can be improved, removed, merged, or delayed?

Pick long-term goals with guaranteed benefits.

Who wants to spend 4 years, and $20 k on something just to find out it is useless? If we are unsure of a long-term goal, our commitment constantly waivers, so the chance of failure increases. Guaranteed benefits, reduces this self doubt.

Common examples

To find other proven, long-term goals, look at history to see what has stood the test of time. For example, monetary inflation is guaranteed. Nature loves the path of least resistance. Water, electricity, and fire flow to the easiest path. Usability reduces the path of resistance. Learning a foreign language grants us access to another culture.

Prioritize short-term goals that serve long-term ones

I define design as the process of mixing/ blending/ harmonizing different ideas to create a product that is unique, elegant, and beautiful. Designing a product can be our long-term goal.

A game designer is trying to make unique, elegant, and beautiful gameplay. Gameplay involves some character doing an activity. Most games have environmental exploration, and combat activities.

These can be worked on after the main gameplay is established: QA, UI, inventory, world map, lore, rebinding keys, localization, character creator, SFX, VFX, shaders, soundtrack, voice acting, cutscene, game trailer/ gif.

Burnout

Work on another skill

If I get stuck on a problem for a few days, I'll switch to another feature that uses a different skill. For example, if I get bored of coding, I'll work on art

Fantasize about the next project

I will fantasize about making games in other genres. It would be too expensive to make 2 games at the same time, so my fantasies revolve around information collecting: theory crafting, watching and reading reviews, collecting references, sketching ideas, outlining a story. Game developers like to call this pre-production.

This idea is similar to new game+, prestige in Call of Duty, smurfing in a MOBA, or creating a new class in an RPG. It is fun to do beginner activities that used to give us a lot of trouble, and crush them easily.

Remake

The standard answer to burnout is taking a long vacation. This can feel unproductive, so I prefer remakes. A remake, remaster, or study is a copy of an older art work using modern techniques. I mainly use it as a quick anti-depressing tool, because I can compare my old work with my remade version, and say, "See, I'm growing, and not wasting my time".

Context Switching

Have the ingredients ready before cooking

Many skills require us to reference documents. An artist might reference a photo. A romance writer might look at romance scenes in movies. Collecting references is slow. By periodically stopping to collect references, we are slowing ourselves down and breaking our concentration. Having the references/ ingredients ready beforehand eliminates this slowdown.

Work on one specialization a day

If I have to write, draw, and make music in a day, then I have to gather references for all 3 tasks. Again, gathering references is slow. Switching tasks also slows us down. Say I finish the writing task first, and then move on to the art task. What if I realize I made an error in the writing task? I would have to close all the art reference files, and open up the writing reference files.

Perfectionism

Get feedback

A perfectionist might seek out easy tasks, because they can do them well, while avoiding the important tasks, because they cannot do them well. This can cause them to obsess over minor details, and miss deadlines.

Getting feedback fixes this problem, because people will point out how lack luster the important parts are. We will realize that people can only appreciate the minor details after the major details are good.

Incremental upgrades

A perfectionist might avoid learning new skills, because it takes a long time to reach the quality they are aiming for. We don't have to learn the whole skill. Pick parts that interest us the most.

A 2D character artist might want to learn how to model characters, but does not want to learn 3D because it would take a long time to reach the fidelity they are use to in 2D. They can start sculpting just the face, then render it as an image. They can load the image to their favorite program and paint over it, and draw the body like they normally would.

Negative Criticism

I'm not famous enough to have experience with this. A celebrity might have 100 k fans. If 1% of them are haters, then that is 1000 people. This is enough people to make it feel like you are being attacked every hour of the day.

It might feel like you have to be perfect as any minor mistake will be attacked. In real life, you can walk away from negative strangers. I think most social media has a walk way button called ban, block, or ignore.

References