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I lost a second button off my coat. I managed to retrieve both buttons with the intention of sewing them back on, but the sewing kit lay untouched on my desk for a week.
I am very much a creature of habit. I do certain things, I don't do things that I don't usually do. I'm not used to sewing buttons, so the prospect of doing so struck me as terribly onerous.
Even so, it's still cold here in the Pacific NorthLeft. Leaving my jacket unbuttoned was not only cold, it permitted my shirt to get rained on.
When I got out of bed tonight I was completely overcome with self doubt with respect to my next consulting gig. I wrote an email to two of the client's people to tell them so, but that I had done lots of projects that were far more difficult. That is, my self-doubt does not make sense.
I went out for coffee and started to feel better.
When I came home I was determined to sew those buttons, dammit, and I did.
It wasn't hard at all.
This is a problem I have: the prospect of doing many kinds of work strikes me - ahead of time - as far more difficult than it really is when I'm doing it. So I put off starting it.
I worked an entire quarter at AMCC without doing a damn thing, then checked myself into a psychiatric hospital where they told me I had Attention Deficit Disorder.
I have no lack of attention, but I don't do well at volitionally directing it. If I can get started at a task I have no problem carrying on, but I have a hard time getting started.
That I know this is the case doesn't make it go away.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday February 18 2017, @06:05AM
Both of them told me not to be concerned. Their regular programmer said he'd spend some time with me to teach me about the chip I'm going to program.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday February 18 2017, @05:01PM
My problem is self doubt as well: once I get started I'm fine, but I procrastinate: I don't have time, I don't have the knowledge, I might say the wrong thing/might not ask the right question/my autism might keep me from reading the situation correctly (which is why I hate phones: it's hard enough to read people face to face).
Glad it's turning out well for you. :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Saturday February 18 2017, @05:04PM
And button coats as FAR better than those stupid plastic zipper coats.... You just can't FIX those damn things, lol.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Saturday February 18 2017, @05:37PM
Hah, I do the exact same thing.
Making the decision to put it off seems to increase the resistance to doing the task too. So, before I know it I've had something dumb and easy to do on my todo list for months!
I think it's fairly normal, kind of a reverse confirmation bias.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 19 2017, @01:34AM
Agree this is normal, i have many bottonless shirts/jackets.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by hendrikboom on Sunday February 19 2017, @02:23AM
I've often thought that the problem with so-called attention deficit isn't an inability to pay attention -- it's a inability to control what one pays attention to.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @03:19PM
There is a Korean proverb about this: 시작이 반이다 "Starting is half the job". Starting is the hardest part, so once you've begun a task you're already half finished.