
I'm completely demotivated to work; what can I do? - iyra72
I&#x27;m two years before heading off to university, but I have no motivation to learn the things that are being taught at college. I chose to study the subjects that I thought I would enjoy, but sadly this isn&#x27;t true. I&#x27;m assuming that if I had made other choices for subjects, I&#x27;d be in a similar problem.
Maths is one of the subjects I&#x27;m studying, and although I enjoy maths itself, I&#x27;m not enjoying what I learn in school. I can&#x27;t be motivated to put the work in, so that I can get good results at the end of the year.
I spend my free time programming or researching instead, but I can&#x27;t continue doing this if I want to get the A-levels I need to enter a half-decent university.<p>Are there any ways by which I could motivate myself to study more?
======
bane
I'm going to say something that's a little tough but it's meant as advice
coming from years of mistakes before I finally got my head on the right way:
Part of growing up is learning to prioritize what you need to do, even if it
isn't fun, over what you like to do. This is how the real world works, and
it's what you'll spend the rest of your life doing. Learning to do it when
you're young, when mistakes are smaller, will make the rest of your life so
much better.

When you get your needs out of the way, the fun stuff you _can_ do is all the
better, and you'll know more about the fun stuff that you're doing enabling
you to open more worlds of enjoyment later that you'll never be able to
conceive of without putting in the hard work to start. Doors will be open to
you that you'll never even imagine if you put in the work to build the
foundation of your life right now. Digging the metaphorical ditches and laying
the metaphorical concrete for your foundation sucks, but that's how life is.
Lots of sucky boring shitty work, for a few profound moments of bliss.

I know this sounds just like words right now, but I wish this was a concept
that I had truly grokked much earlier in my life before I had to spend years
fixing all the bits and pieces I needed to do that I had deferred.

Nobody gets to do the fun stuff for long, without working out all the
dreadfully boring bits a head of time.

Want to be an explorer? Spend months raising money and building schedules and
looking at maps and buying equipment.

Want to be a rock star? Spend years learning to play an instrument, playing in
dive bars and making demo tapes. Get a break then play the same 4 hit songs
for 20 years.

Want to write awesome code and run an awesome business? Spend years learning
computational theory, business management and leadership, raising funds, and
last but not least, writing thousands of lines of boring boiler plate, edge
case handling and plumbing code.

Want to be an author? Spend a few years writing a couple hundred pages on your
topic then get rejected by 99 out of 100 publishers. Then do an endless book
tour where you read the same passage from your book 300 times.

Learning to do the boring, dreadfully dull, uninteresting stuff...learning to
just muscle through it...is _the_ most important life skill any human being
can learn. It's the marshmallow test magnified by a million.

~~~
greggman
I feel incredibly blessed that I never had to do any of this. I enjoyed
computer programming. I learned to do all the stuff because it was fun.
Learned to read and write files, learned to sort, learned to write languages,
etc etc.

All of it was almost always in pursuit of some goal. I want to create ABC I
needed to learn about DEF. etc.. Very little of it was just learning for the
sake of learning.

I can't remember ever doing a boring thing related to programming off the top
of my head. I can remember automating repetitive things but even that was fun.

I remember working lots of overtime but I don't remember disliking the work.

I don't know what to take from that. I've kind of assumed it's been the same
for all the programmers I respect. I see them code as a hobby just like me. I
assume they keep doing because they love it.

Maybe if you don't love it you're doing the wrong thing? Maybe if you don't
love anything then your advice is true?

~~~
lgieron
Do you code for a living? If so, I think your experience ("no boring task
ever") is pretty unique.

~~~
rudasn
I'm in a similar situation. I got into writing code because the things I
thought were cool required writing code to have; websites, irc bots, web apps,
etc.

I have been learning new things about code (and in the process software
engineering) for about 10 years and I find it more exciting than ever. I do
have a a lot of boring tasks to complete but I often play around with them a
bit, finding new ways to do an age old task and then it's cool again.

On a related note, I see qualified people my age working jobs they don't
really enjoy for peanuts and it really sucks. I consider my self very lucky
for having a full-time hobby that is rewarding and can pay the bills.

------
kirillzubovsky
Dude, whatever you choose to do, please do yourself a favor and ignore the
bullshit advice that starts with - "this is how the real world works..." That
nonsense only comes from people who had settled for the average.

Life works in any way that you want it to work.

Look, if you don't want to do the shit work, don't do it, but don't bitch and
moan and complain about it. Instead, find a way to still get shit done, while
not doing the work you don't want to do.

You don't like doing homework? Nobody does. It's a waste of time and you will
not use 90% of what you've learned.

Spend the bare minimum time you need to pass high-school on work that you have
to get done, devote the rest of your time to the work you want to get done. If
that means learning computer programming, do it. I had friends in high-school
who managed hosting companies, while at high-school. Guess what, while the
rest of us were solving stupid problems and learning history, those guys made
money. It's not a bad skill to learn.

Anyways, this discussion could go back and forth... Get off your ars, close HN
and just f'ing do something!

~~~
psc
Great post. This is the kind of perspective you want to have. This reminds me
of PG's high school essay:

"The important thing is to get out there and do stuff. Instead of waiting to
be taught, go out and learn." \- PG

Before I quote the whole thing, the OP (and anyone in the same position)
should read the whole essay:
[http://paulgraham.com/hs.html](http://paulgraham.com/hs.html)

If you want the real world to be (quoting from the other post) "lots of sucky
boring shitty work, for a few profound moments of bliss," that's fine. But if
you don't want to accept that, you don't have to. What Kirill said above is
totally right; life works how you want it to.

It's normal for someone in high school to feel like the OP, especially someone
who's a hacker at heart. School limits you in a lot of ways, but you don't
have to let it stop you. You just have to realize that the boundaries are self
imposed. You can do real things. So treat school like a day job, get it out of
the way, and do what's interesting to you.

------
billyjobob
So you don't like school work. You could get higher grades if only you were
more motivated...

i.e. you are exactly like every other 16 year old I ever knew.

Most of them because more motivated once they started university and were able
to focus on what they enjoyed studying. I'd be more worried if you _were_
motivated at 16, because then you'd probably burn out, or grow up to be an
obnoxious brain box.

Also, since you sound like you are in the UK, you should realise that grades
don't matter here. No-one will ever ask what you scored in your maths A-level.
Your success in life will mostly be determined by the connections your parents
have. The only thing you can do to improve your chances is network and make
some more connections of your own at university. Plenty of top jobs go to
those who graduated with the "gentleman's third" because they spent their time
networking rather than studying.

~~~
cjfont
> Your success in life will mostly be determined by the connections your
> parents have

Sorry but this statement doesn't ring true to me, because I know of several
cases where two brothers have had divergent success outcomes based on their
personalities and the choices they've made.

There's also MANY ways to forge your own connections in life.

~~~
coherentpony
You're completely right. It's not true. Your success in life will mostly be
determined by the connections _you_ make.

~~~
jwdunne
It's also likely you inherit the connections your parents make - provided you
maintain a good relationship with them. Everyone once in a while, I'll heard
about a guy by mum knows who needs some work done on his website. Since my mum
is an assistant in Tesco, these are not stupendous opportunities (though not
to discredit, I can use the money).

If my mum or dad was an investment banker and I was still a web developer, I
imagine they would still send leads my way. There just may be more in quantity
or monetary value or both.

------
DanBC
You have a temporary hurdle to jump over. Get good grades. The aim of getting
good grades is _only_ to get good grades. There's a bunch of stuff that you
can do with good grades, and if that motivates you it's great. But at the
moment you just need to get the good grades.

So, perhaps when you're studying you put in 30 minutes for school work, and 15
minutes for what you enjoy, then have a break. Then repeat that.

This allows you to get the good grades, and keeps you interested in the
subject.

You'll have a bit more freedom in Uni, and you'll so you can see your current
task (get good grades) as also being "learn some discipline".

There will be some people who want to get better grades than you. Thus, you
should get best grades you can just to stick one in the eye of those people.

~~~
marvin
This is very good advice. If you get nothing else out of high school, make
sure you learn the discipline it takes to study something that's not
immediately rewarding. Not only is it important right now in order to have
choices for the immediate future, it's a skill that will serve you well
throughout life.

------
allworknoplay
Fuck school, it has no intrinsic value. It's not an end in itself, and it's
not built for everyone. If it's not built for you, find something you DO like
and dive into it hard. You're on hacker news for some reason -- what is it
you're into? Learn how to do it yourself, get technical, build skills around
that. Also, make friends who are likewise into it. I promise you'll be a lot
more engaged.

Do the school work but do it with something else in mind.

Also: the guys suggesting drugs know nothing about you and are probably not
doctors. I love drugs, but I'd never suggest them without knowing more about
you. It's absurdly easy to build a serious amphetamine dependency that will
leave you feeling a lot worse than you do now.

------
nulagrithom
Do you have a job? Go push a mop for a couple years. It will motivate you to
do well in school and has the added benefit of giving you some money for
university.

~~~
jmtame
I actually second this. I worked a bunch of odd jobs starting at 15 years old
(you were supposed to be 16, so I had to get consent from the principal to
flip burgers). As I was taking the garbage out while working at a grocery
store, it just hit me: I can't do this for the rest of my life. I believe I
was around 18 years old, so maybe a little older than the OP. I joined the
local chamber of commerce and started consulting that summer and made more
money than the previous 3 summers, and I enjoyed the work I was doing.

It's good to work awful jobs. It builds healthy character and eventually it'll
probably hit you that you really want to be doing more intellectual things,
which conveniently pays more money than most physical labor.

------
ef4
> Are there any ways by which I could motivate myself to study more?

Probably not, if you're asking the question. But I don't think you should
study more. I think you should program more, since it's already something you
enjoy enough to do for fun. It's a question of playing to your strengths.

Put in the 10,000 hours of sustained effort that it takes to truly become
great at it. Prove your abilities through open source.

You will have no problem finding an interesting and well-paying career, _if_
you push yourself hard to always keep learning both about programming and
about the business of software.

If that sounds like a lot of hard work, well yeah, it is. There's no shortcut.
Either suck it up and do your homework and color inside the lines, or summon
the guts to blaze your own path. Or do neither and let the path of least
resistance take you where it wants.

Which path are you more likely to regret 40 years from now?

~~~
msutherl
I'm not sure it's advisable to encourage somebody not to do well on their
A-levels. It's not like the US where you can get low marks in secondary school
and be fine. He won't be able to attend a decent university, ever. Correct me
if I'm wrong.

~~~
ef4
The same logic applies in the US. You won't be going to a good college if you
have bad high school grades.

But my advice was to consider eschewing academia entirely. I've worked with
too many well-paid, respected developers without degrees to take the value of
credentialing very seriously.

It's not a panacea, of course. It takes a lot of sustained work and learning
whether you do it in school or not. Some people just find it easier to learn
outside of formal schooling.

~~~
msutherl
I think it's better to make that decision when you're 18, not 16. Always best
to keep your options open because you don't know how you or the world will
change, even in the near future.

------
yuxt
Open a map, close your eyes and point randomly. Pack you backpack, buy tickets
and go there without any reservation. Spend at least 1 month away from home,
comfort and routine.

When you are back you will know exactly what to do.

~~~
discostrings
> Open a map, close your eyes and point randomly. Pack you backpack, buy
> tickets and go there without any reservation. Spend at least 1 month away
> from home, comfort and routine.

This sounds like an interesting and exciting life-changing plan and
everything, but I don't think it's particularly actionable advice for most
sixteen-year-olds in today's world, and I don't think it's likely to help with
the question at hand. The submitter isn't asking /what to do/; the submitter
is asking /how can I be more motivated in what I'm doing/!

I think better advice is to focus on how the things you're learning relate to
the things you like to do. So try to focus on how math can improve your
programming, research, and other interests. Also, keep in mind that you're
building a foundation--things are more interesting once you get to the stage
where you're building on top of it. Even if you decide not to use it in a few
years, it's a really nice thing to have that will give you a lot of
flexibility.

~~~
scarecrowbob
I think we can abstract the advice you're commenting on to "if you don't feel
motivated to do what you're doing, do something else", which seems okay. It's
quite possible that continuing to do things you are not enthusiastic about
doing may be a bad idea.

I see your point that it's not a very actionable bit of real advice.
Pragmatically, if you told my 16 year old to pack a bag and leave, I'd want to
smack you :D

~~~
jotm
Sixteen is old enough - especially when he can always return. Being away from
_everything_ for a few months really puts things into perspective - why are
you doing what you're doing, why you were so afraid of some things, whether
you're on the right path, and more.

~~~
discostrings
The weakness of the advice isn't that it might not be helpful and mind-
expanding. It falls short in that most sixteen-year-olds probably don't really
have the option to do it:

1) The plan takes more than a trivial amount of money. Most sixteen-year-olds
cannot afford this sort of plan.

2) Many parents, if not most parents, are unlikely to support this idea.
There's of course a spectrum of what parents might do to stop it if they're
not supportive, but it's easier to just save up money and wait until you're
done with school.

3) It can only be done in the summer without causing a lot of problems, and
perhaps not even then.

It's a potentially helpful suggestion for someone who's over eighteen, but for
many sixteen-year-olds it's probably a pipe dream or something that may bring
more problems than benefits. The suggestion assumes a certain type of parents
and a certain level of privilege that I would estimate are the exception and
not the norm. I would have been extremely frustrated if someone gave me advice
that presented this as a serious option when I was sixteen.

Advice that makes these sort of assumptions may end up decreasing motivation.
I think more universal advice that addresses the actual question is a lot more
helpful.

------
mistercow
If you spend your free time programming or researching, and aren't motivated
by academics, then you might want to reconsider academic direction you're
going in.

For someone who has the motivation to learn programming on their own, I
seriously question the value of a formal education in anything like CS or
math. You already know you can learn that stuff more easily outside of a
classroom, so I would argue that taking that academic path is a waste of both
your time and money.

Instead, I would consider studying something totally different. Programming is
a wild card - you can play it to improve any hand you have. Keep honing those
skills, but go to university for something you _can 't_ so easily learn on
your own.

This is the advice I wish someone had given me before I went and wasted time
in college.

~~~
danpat
> Programming is a wild card - you can play it to improve any hand you have.

This is the truth. Every success I've had has been where I've applied my
computing skills to an environment where no-one with those skills had yet
appeared. The efficiency gains you can make to mundane, non-computing tasks by
applying a bit of programming knowledge will often knock the socks off people
who've been doing things the same old way for years.

------
dhughes
They way I think about it is you can work a dead end job for 80 hours per week
making $8 an hour to make enough to survive and not have any free time to
socialize, go to the gym or be with family. Or study for and try to get a
decent job you like that pays half decent so you don't have to become a human
eraser and wear yourself down doing the work of others. Having many skills to
fall back on is great but trying to learn everything losing focus and never
finishing anything isn't much help.

Or realize you need to focus and find a career that you like and is wanted by
employers. I recall years ago they mentioned "The fear" and it is a great
example of suddenly realizing shit I better start getting good at this life
thing, now!

Time is shorter than you think your health can suddenly rapidly fail, saving
for retirement is a constant worry. Time is so short it's as if nothing you do
can be done soon enough. Realizing that early in life is fantastic. A big part
of life I think is having mentors who are examples to follow it's good to have
a person who you can think "What would Bob do?" as an internal guide.

It's easy to say all that but hard to do, I haven't mastered that yet.

~~~
msutherl
I've found this fear to be my greatest motivator, but it has also lead me down
false paths. Truth is, your dichotomy is a fiction. There are plenty of people
who live fulfilling lives without ever having consciously focused on learning
skills and meeting qualifications wanted by employers. However, nobody gets
anywhere by being lazy – one then needs to find another motivator. One I have
in mind is: repulsion toward injustices in the world. Rather than fearing
drudgery, you can hold yourself personally accountable for evils and optimize
for effecting change. Of course this is also a fiction. An individual is most
likely incapable of effecting significant change in the world.

All motivations are irrational, but you still must have one. If you haven't
found one, keep looking. Watch documentaries, travel, read books. You will
find things to care about.

~~~
dhughes
I shouldn't say or at least didn't mean a lot of money is the only way to be
happy, yes finding something you love to do and your family is able to live a
good life is the goal.

Education is a great character builder I often see educated people in
stressful situations far more calm than someone who worked all their lives wit
no education other than high school. It's not a science it doesn't apply every
time but education gives you options, if you lose your job at a sawmill where
you worked since age 16 you're going to be stressed. Sooner or later we all
figure this out but it's better to discover that at age 18 than 49.

------
loceng
Exercise. Relatively new discovery that lactic acid, that comes from muscle
use, is a "pre-cursor" for motivation.

~~~
timmm
Counter-example: Me, I don't work out. I work 9-5 at a tech job and then spend
the weekend working on my own products. I don't struggle with motivation as I
literally enjoy what I do.

Always question advice that people like to rattle off - humans are very good
at perpetuating bad memes without a second thought. Like that running a
marathon (26 miles) in one go is somehow healthy, without ever questioning why
a healthy activity would make them shit their pants and nipples bleed.

In fact exercising would probably decrease the probability that I would be
productive as it would consume more of my time and energy.

My 0.02

------
JamilD
I know it seems like what you learn in school is boring, and perhaps even
trivial, but it provides an important foundation to what you'll learn in
University.

When I was in high school, I'd attempt to apply the stuff I was learning in
math to more interesting problems that I was actually interested in – for
example, using the simple calculus I was being taught to start to understand
some aspects of machine learning.

The truth is, a lot of high school math is rather fascinating – you just need
to find a place to apply what you're learning. I still use that technique now;
I find a lot of the electronics courses at university extremely dull, so I'll
write a program to solve, say, a diode circuit using the exponential model.
And I end up learning so much more than I would just studying.

So studying high school math and learning interesting things doesn't have to
be mutually exclusive :)

------
alexkus
Sounds just like me at 16. Wasn't very motivated despite studying the A-Levels
I wanted to (Maths, Physics, Computing). Spent all my spare time stealing
Internet access at the local University (this was back in 1992/1993). I got
decent grades (AAB) and got into my first choice University, but the
motivation to do well still wasn't there. Ended up getting a 2:2 where
everyone expected me to get a 1st. After that I was lucky and ended up in a
good job where degree result didn't matter.

Looking back I wish I'd talked to someone (not my parents) about it at the
time. So I'd recommend finding someone to talk to at your college; your form
tutor (depends, I didn't get on with mine), careers advisor, pastoral care
reps, etc. Just remember that they should be there to help you do your best,
not bollock you for not putting your full effort in.

------
Goladus
One way to overcome a lack of motivation is to ruthlessly eliminate
distractions. Tailor your environment and to be (and practice habits that are)
maximally conducive to studying. If you have a hard time "taking a step back"
to take an objective look at your habits and lifestyle, you might find yoga
and meditation helpful.

Exercise can also help keep your energy up, but in my experience exercise
doesn't magically solve motivation problems and sometimes gets in the way.
Working a hard labor can give you good experience but I think the motivation
that comes from that sort of work tends to be vastly overstated and wears off
very quickly.

Do you spend time programming because you're motivated to program? Have you
produced anything of value? What sort of research do you do? What motivates
you besides programming and research? Who is paying the bills right now?

------
Aqueous
It's nice to chip away at programming but if you don't have an academic basis
to guide your studies it is going to keep you out of a lot of jobs when you
get out. Take it from someone who knows - I've programmed useful things in
just about every language, but because I didn't major in Computer Science
(Physics/Philosophy instead) I'm unable to compete for the top tier of jobs.
Hopefully this isn't permanent, as I'm teaching myself computer science now,
but I could've saved myself a lot of work if I had just chosen a concentration
more suitable for the jobs I was interested in.

You may be a confident auto-didact but even auto-didacts tend to have large
blind spots. You don't know what you don't know, and school is there to tell
you.

~~~
matttheatheist
As a Computer ENGINEER, I can easily tell you that Computer SCIENCE is
essentially a liberal arts degree. Seriously, they don't know s __t about
technology, unless it comes safely wrapped in an API.

And by the way, studying Physics is orders of magnitude more difficult that
learning CS. And for that alone, I would hire a Physicist over a CS guy any
day of the week.

Ask any recruiter, and they'll tell you the same thing. Physics is a higher
pecking order than CS.

------
cognitiveben
Drop out and find something that motivates you. It's harder than the standard
path, but if you're bright and industrious it can be a much more interesting
ride. Also, university is always there later. I did the above, got bored in my
second successful career and am now finishing up a Ph.D. that I started, as an
undergrad, at the age of 27. I think I got more out of the program than my
younger counterparts, and thanks to a decade of making money and connections,
I did it in significantly better style. No regrets.

------
RivieraKid
I tried couple of anti-procrastination techniques and the only one I had
moderate success with is the "no internet mode". When I have some project to
finish, I make a decision that until it's finished, I won't use the internet
at all from the morning to 8pm (except for work-related things and email).
What's really important here is that you have to decide _firmly_. This usually
lasts couple of days but I'm thinking about doing this every day.

------
alecco
Some things that help me:

    
    
        Visualize goal: close your eyes, imagine your acceptance letters
        When stuck, go for a little walk or physical exercise
        Do goal-oriented studying (e.g. Pomodoro technique)
    

Understand the education system wants you to comply, this is wrong, but the
faster you get over it the faster you'll forget about it. It's better to keep
your mouth shut, don't complain or antagonize, they are not going to change
for you or anybody (they haven't in centuries). Give them the little self
importance they crave for and _get from them what you want_ (grades, diploma).
Of course, keep your mind critical but keep it to yourself until they give you
what you want.

Also don't overwork yourself, perhaps this is not the best time to spend many
hours doing unrelated programming or research. It can be a distraction to your
education goal. We have limited willpower, try to avoid depletion. Only when
you achieve your studying goals for the day you get to do your own thing.
Study in the mornings, play in the afternoons.

Modifying your routine takes a while, do it in baby steps. Remove all
temptations that might get in the way to your goals until you achieve them.
But keep a good chunk of the day to clean up your head.

Of course, YMMV.

~~~
alecco
It might help to go study to a special quiet and motivational place, a library
or your aunt's house.

------
sillysaurus2
Step back and ask yourself: What are my assumptions? Why do I believe these
assumptions to be true? What if they aren't true?

You have at least 50 years ahead of you. That's a long time. But the next 5
years will profoundly shape your next 50.

If that feels like too much pressure, then simply don't worry about it. It's
more important to relax than to optimize your life if you're the type of
person who doesn't react well to a lot of pressure.

------
gqvijay
Wow, you sound like me 20 years ago. And I am quiet surprised at "that's life,
shape up" responses.

Knowing what I know now, I wish someone would've told me: \- Try to get into
top schools like Stanford, Harvard, etc. \- If you don't have the financial
means or the grades or whatever, don't get discouraged one bit! \- Since you
enjoy "programming or researching", stop stressing over colleges. In my humble
opinion, most colleges are overrated. They are designed for drones and will
suck the passion out of what you are majoring in. (note: may not be true for
all) \- In my opinion, typical educational institutions in our country is
broken. \- Instead, start interning. Do small projects that you can showcase
on your passion. Join programming groups, meet ups that are related, etc. \-
In short, make a living in doing what you love (programming). When you find a
job and love what you do, you are no longer "working".

Finally, watch this:
[http://new.ted.com/talks/larry_smith_why_you_will_fail_to_ha...](http://new.ted.com/talks/larry_smith_why_you_will_fail_to_have_a_great_career)

------
zacinbusiness
Get a shit job. Get shot at by a thug. Clean up other peoples shit and piss
all day for minimum wage. That's what worked for me.

------
usablebytes
First thing - don't search for motivation or don't try to get yourself
motivated. You'll end up looking for things that will make you feel good which
will in-turn promote procrastination and thereby take you away from actions.
The truth is motivation doesn't last. It's a push mechanism. You'll have to
focus on things that pull you towards it.

If you keep going like the way you are currently, how would your life be?
Definitely you understand the problem with it and this post is the proof. But
ask yourself - "why do you want to get A-levels at school?". If programming
and researching keeps you going, by all means, you should focus on it. Make
sure you put the best possible efforts in it; the rest will follow
automatically.

------
linux_devil
Take it easy, there are lot of options available online if you are not
enjoying what is being taught in college but you have interest in particular
subject. For e.g.: When I was in college I felt my profs. are boring , so I
always used to take online courses , like algorithms , operating system
through ocw.mit.edu or stanford.edu or coursera , It helped me a lot to
maintain interest in subject , and at same time participate in discussions
online , there is always a big community somewhere which will be happy to help
you .

------
jahewson
I went through this phase of the British school system some 14 years ago, just
as the AS/A2 exams were being introduced. I'm a very technically minded
person, but I found school's treatment of these subjects to be intensely
boring. I found it hard to pay attention and not be distracted by some more
interesting or immediately rewarding passtime such as programming.

While much of the A-level material is presented in a tedious manner, there are
other books and sources available beyond your curriculum and I encourage you
to seek these out. Applied topics such as computer science and engineering
simply assume that you have a good grasp on the fundamentals. Books such as
The New Turing Omnibus give you a taste of lots of topics, find some you like
and dig deeper. Try and find some exciting, applied use of the boring school
math, or chemistry, or phyisics. Find books and resources which guide you
through learning rather than just reading Wikipedia.

In summary, try to find the cool things that can be accomplished with the
fundamentals you learn at school and you'll be more motivated to work through
the tedium. Don't be afraid of "degree level" texts. Try to stay away from any
programming that involves drudgery and focus on enlightened, mathematically-
inclined tasks: learn Haskell, implement fundamental algorithms, find hard
problems like SAT, fourier transforms, optimisation. Find something which
requires the skills you learn at school but which is exciting enough to hold
your attention. Do lots of little things.

------
lallysingh
It's not the material, it's not you. It's the rest of your life. You have to
find a way to recharge.

I didn't do that for too long, and my grades dropped. My GPA dropped by 50%. I
finally took a semester off. I traveled. I got out of the grind and away from
family and work and actually tried to explore life a bit.

<i-am-obviously-projecting> When you're young and out of high school, you're
mostly trying to figure out who you are independent of your parents and
upbringing. Sometimes being out of your folks' house for a while and not
figuring that out leaves you empty. </i-am-obviously-projecting>.

After that, I made recharging a normal part of my week. I gave myself a small
music budget (a new album a month, that can't be top-40), looked into other
activities (martial arts, motorcycling), and made a point to study different
sub-topics of computer science at different times.

The same classes that were boring me out, I read their textbooks on the train
to work.

------
forgottenpaswrd
"Are there any ways by which I could motivate myself to study more?"

You told us, the answer is no.

You already dedicate your time to programming, because you need it. I also
needed it when I was your age.

In my case I started programming while also studying engineering in Europe. I
made a company with the code I accumulated over this time, with the knowledge
of programming being really useful to manage other people(and identifying who
is really good or not at it and so on).

People consider me rich now(there is always someone else with more money, but
I have more than what my family needs), but I went through very hard times
before it(my family wanted me to get a good job instead of risking so much).

If you force yourself to study more, you will regret it.

My advice:

Focus on learning to study more efficiently, the idea is to use the time you
already use to study faster and get better grades while also giving time to
programming.

Learn from the masters, read the Audiobook "The Now habit", learn aabout
mindmaps and mnemonics, and always go for the best.

Use software for remembering stuff.

------
brador
Researching? Tell me you don't mean reading random wikipedia articles and
browsing the web here.

You're at the stage of life where you need to develop deep skills in subjects.
At the early stages of that process it can be hard to motivate yourself.
You're gonna have to power through and realise you're doing this for future
you not current you.

------
irremediable
Hey there! From the sound of it, you're about sixteen years old and live in
Britain. A few years ago, I was your age and in a similar position. What
grades are you getting at the minute? A-levels might be easier for you than
you realise.

As to how to motivate yourself to study for them... study the cool things you
can do with maths. Try to solve problems. Calculus, linear algebra and
statistics are the fundament of the maths curriculum, and they're all hugely
useful. Figure out how to prove things. Figure out how to solve mechanics
problems with calculus. Program some statistical analysis stuff.

Frankly, if you're a smart kid and enjoy maths/programming, I expect you'll do
fine at A-level. And if not, it doesn't mean much. Some of the best
programmers I know didn't bother going to university.

------
chegra
Ok let me play some mental games with you. Ask yourself would you rather pay
$10/$100/$1000 or study for 5 hours?

Find the amount where you rather do the studying then pledge to donate that
amount to charity. Do this everyday. I find this works for.

I estimate you are doing 4 a-levels. That's about 2000 pages of work. A 500 pg
book for each subject. If you study 20 pages a day and do all the exercises, I
guarantee you will get an A for whatever course(oh yea and do the past
papers).

In a hundred days or so you could be finished studying for A-levels.

Enjoy the days of where you have if/then reward structures. If you study hard
you get good grades then you go to a good university then you get a good job.
After this, there is hardly any guaranteed recipe for success. So, take the
success while you can.

------
unobliged
It sometimes helps to study the history of whatever subject you are working
towards in school. For example, the history of mathematics can provide a lot
of inspiration for what can be done with the knowledge. Focus on the outcomes
you want and see the schooling as a means to an end.

------
gmantastic
Being 16-18 and studying for your A-levels can be a horrible time - it was for
me. Relationships with your friends start to change as you grow up at
different rates (I don't know whether this applies to you), interests change,
and you have so little energy it feels like an effort to get out of bed before
noon. Some things that worked for me were hanging out with some different,
more studious people, and learning the course material from books in the order
I chose rather than following the course (I missed a lot of classes, but I
would't recommend that). Make a game out of getting the grades that will be
your ticket out of there! On a serious note, if you think you might be
depressed, talk to someone (a doctor or counsellor) about it.

------
reledi
> but I can't continue doing this if I want to get the A-levels I need to
> enter a half-decent university.

Not sure where you're from, but in Canada you don't need all A's to get into a
half-decent university. However, if you want to get into a top university,
you'll need good grades and more (e.g. extracurricular activities).

I'm sure any university you will get into will be just fine. During your time
at uni, you get out what you put in. Don't stress about getting into your
dream university. You'll do fine wherever as long you like what you do and you
get involved with stuff happening around you. Grades are just a means to an
end, don't focus on them too much.

------
betadreamer
University and school is very different. I was a B~C (even D & F) student in
high school because I hated what I was taught in school. I enjoy Math but
somehow was not motivated as well.

I went to the _okay_ university afterwards but things started to change.
Everything what I learn there somehow made sense and was not boring anymore.
It might be just the fact that university have better teacher but it was more
motivating. Somehow I turned my self from B~C student to a A dean list
student. I went to CMU for grad school after graduation.

The point i want to make is that university is different from school and you
can always climb up the ladder as long as you try hard at some point.

------
fit2rule
Get a job. Plain and simple, this the best way to motivate yourself to study
more.

Fact is though, you don't need to study more. You should work a lot more.
Working is the only really effective, motivating, way to take what you've
learned through your studies and apply it to the real world. Without actually
doing something for someone, a lot of what people learn in school is useless.

It isn't until you actually have a user that you become a developer.

------
brianbarker
I had a rough time getting through my Computer Science degree, despite loving
software. I still find things I hate. Currently, I've done web apps for a few
years and now I'm fucking sick of them. Time to move on to a new area of CS
that challenges me. That's pretty much how it goes. You'll do stuff you hate,
but you have to use that as a foundation to do the things you love.

------
WWKong
Yes. By changing your attitude that 100% of what you do should be "enjoyable".
Try and strike a balance. In real world you will find that most everyone puts
up with stuff for safety net around basic needs like house, car, raising
family etc. Right now I would enjoy 2 weeks off in Maldives. But I'm here
working on this presentation to make my boss look good.

------
mamuninfo
This is very common situation for most of the people and it is also general
for all fields. Many colleague around me who are also not interested about
their daily work. Mind set is important factor to do something. Just sharing a
video with you....

In youtube
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN34FNbOKXc](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pN34FNbOKXc)

~~~
romanovcode
Can't stop but think that title of this video sounds like some super-cheesy
self-improvement BS.

"The Power of Belief"

------
sosborn
> spend my free time programming

Sounds like you enjoy programming. Assuming this is a correct assumption, go
all in on it and start contributing to open source projects. If you have the
talent then you might be able to get a good job out of high school. At the
very least, you might want to look into Computer Science programs in
University.

------
bayesianhorse
Sounds a lot like an onsetting depression. Seeking medication now might save
you a lot of time and suffering.

It's very important to recognize that your judgement about what interests you
is probably distorted, currently. So think twice about making any rash
decisions that relate to emotions or relationships....

------
tobinharris
Keep programming and researching. Then use your skills to make cool things.
Then show them to potential employers. You'll do great.

Try and get to uni anyway. But take the pressure of yourself. If you're making
cool things and learning loads you're ahead of the pack.

------
romanovcode
If you want to be professional programmer you don't really need university. In
this profession recruitment doesn't lie when tell things like "BS in CS or
similar experience.".

Just go and work, then pick up and study something else, like Mathematics or
Physics.

------
ISeemToBeAVerb
Pick up a copy of Cal Newport's book "So Good They Can't Ignore You." Read
that book and then think about your situation some more. Cal brings up some
very interesting observations, and you're at the perfect point in your life to
read it.

------
poobrains
It could be depression. Google "depression test" to give you an idea about
it's symptoms. If you think you've got depression, get medical help ASAP.
There are some treatments that can make a big difference in your quality of
life.

------
undoware
Your soul is probably waking up. That's the black lung of coding.

You have three, maybe four choices. Visual arts, music, and writing, with
performing with an asterisk (it's not for everyone.) Get used to being a lot
poorer, but happier.

~~~
FLUX-YOU
Take it from someone who fucked up and went for arts:

You get demotivated there too. At least with math and programming jobs, you
have some money to fix things.

~~~
scarecrowbob
But, as someone who also went towards the arts (I'm a regularly gigging
musician) and letters (I have a BA in Philosophy and dumpped my PhD during my
dissertation), I can say that it wasn't super hard to get back into a
technical position coming from a high-school and early college education where
I learned a lot of logic, math, and programming skills... since leaving my PhD
program I've been consulting doing PHP-based development for the last 4 years,
and I'm on track career wise as I would have been if I was teaching at a
university somewhere.

This is wholly a un-based feeling, but I feel that it has been a lot easier to
pick up new and professionally useful technical skills in my 30s than it would
have been if I had done well in my 20s with a technical career and had to pick
up the useful philosophical and musical skills I enjoy using in my 30s.

------
wildpeaks
If you're a gamer, think of it as Skyrim: you have to craft a lot of iron
daggers before you can make dragon armors, but it's worth it :)

(that or install a mod, but I haven't found the editor for RealLife yet)

------
ehutch79
Wait, your two years from going to college? That makes you what, 16?

------
jbcurtin2
You're depressed, mate. I bike 10 miles a day( 4 - 6 times a week ) to keep
myself in the saddle. After that, I have no issue with this kind of stuff.
Eating right is huge, too.

------
briantakita
Adopt continous improvement for everything you do. This makes a game where you
can improve your thinking, skills, and processes.

It won't be boring because you can always do it better.

------
gte910h
Lots of people hit depression in college. See a doctor. You may not be
sleeping enough, drinking too much, sleeping irregularly, etc, all which can
cause depression

------
SixSigma
Go and visit your local big council estate. Poor futureless unfortunates
should give you some mojo. Or even just watch Benefits Street

------
Geee
You don't need motivation or inspiration, and most of the time you don't have
these. Just do what you have to do.

------
negamax
What do you seek? Minimizing pain, maximizing pleasure. That's what we all are
programmed to seek. You find that and associate it with the studies.

E.g.s

Maximizing pleasure:

\+ Do you want to work in another country/place. Your studies can get you
there.

\+ Want to have interesting conversation with people. Study.

\+ Want to understand and have a say about a topic. Study.

Minimizing Pain:

\- Don't set yourself for failure few years down the line or make it tough

\- Avoid getting into a meaningless job

\- (Works for Asians) Think of peers getting ahead of you.

~~~
timmm
> Minimizing pain, maximizing pleasure.

Too reductivist, so do I eat the ice cream sundae and get pleasure right now?
To the detriment of my long term health or do I eat the kale forfeiting short
term pleasure and gaining long term pleasure?

Your model has no predictive power.

------
orasis
Travel the world. Ignore these asshats that try to guilt trip you into working
through your slump.

------
clipityclapity
Here's my story.

Two years ago, I dropped out of a mathematically oriented master's. Let's say
I quit because I wanted to found a company. That's what I tell everybody. And
that's what I did.

I can get into the details of why it didn't work, but I'll tell you something
here, something which, until now, I have only written down in places nobody
would read it: I might have been running from reality. Using the company as a
hide-out. "Maybe this will give me a purpose?"

We pulled the plug when we were forced to realize that it was a dead end.

Pause six months. Rethink life. Winter, not a good time.

Moved to another country and tried again. It went better, but still not good
enough.

Again, six months of nothing. Winter.

Travel. Maybe languages are my thing? Different cultures? Get lost. Come back.

Winter.

This time, I'm not letting it steal six months. I'm trying for another project
(Show HN soon), I'm going on another travel, and I'll keep on looking, because
I know one thing: an office will be the death of me. Unfortunately,
programming is generally done in offices.

But there's always that doubt. Got some freelance jobs to make ends meet.
Flipping burgers, for programmers. Can't continue this way. Stability, future,
kids, wives, divorces.

So listen, I can't give you a straight advice. I still don't even know where I
went wrong exactly, or if I went wrong at all. I don't know if I would've been
happier in another place. I sometimes lovingly think back about academia, then
I see what happens there and I want to run even farther away than I already
am.

Motivation is still a problem for me, at times, but it's getting less. I have
no regrets (yet), just doubt. A shred of what I would've had, had I not tried
for that first company.

On the upside: I feel free. Every day. Alive. I can decide to drop everything
here and emigrate within a week. And I'm doing it. Because I can. Because it
feels like the right choice.

If you tell me where you live I can drop by if I'm ever around :)

Good luck with whatever path you choose. No matter what you do, do it with
pride, son. I believe in you, as long as you do.

Sorry I couldn't give you real advice.

Oh wait that's not true I totally do have some! Got so caught up in the
story.. listen if you really want to tackle this: TALK TO PEOPLE. In terms
they can understand. Don't say, "I have doubts." Say: "Can I study with you
next Friday? If you FORCE me to be there and do it, I will cook dinner for
you." Tell a girl, if she asks why explain here you have trouble concentrating
alone, joke that maybe she will make it worse but you're willing to try, and
tell her that it's definitely absolutely not a cunning ploy to get a date with
her (it's not). If she rejects you ask someone else until you have a girl.
Then choose a guy for a different subject (not a close friend, high risk of
fucking around), and somebody you really don't know for another one, and a
buddhist for the next, and an atheist, and and and make sure you surround your
study-self with as many different styles of living as possible. You will be
able to draw inspiration from them. Solitude is what's killing you. Your life
will mix with theirs and your energy will combine. I'm not even half joking
here; the energy you draw from linking your progress to someone else
("teamplay") can amaze you.

I'll be your first contact if you want, no problem. Drop me a line on Skype
and we can work / study for an hour every Thursday afternoon. (send me your
skype though, not leaving it here :P)

Peace out, stranger!

~~~
clipityclapity
Edit in a reply: And whoever else wants to join: feel free! We can make like a
Study / Work group session where nobody talks for an hour and we just work all
together in a video conference. Why, that would be just the ding-dang-diddly!

(how do I edit the original post? click "edit", append that paragraph, click
"update" button.. nothing happens; edit page reloads and I lose changes..
wut?)

------
Theodores
The problem with education is that it always has a different take on a subject
to what personally fascinates you about the subject. Subjects that might have
floated your boat personally for many years will be taught differently to what
you expect, killing your interest in a subject.

There is an adage about teaching - if you cannot do then teach, if you cannot
teach then teach Geography. If we take Geography as an example, you might
think of geography as being about places on a map, be able to name all U.S.
state capitals and know where Dhaka is and Dakar isn't. Then, in a geography
class, you might find that knowing where anywhere is does not matter in the
least. 'How flood plains are formed', 'how a volcano works' will be what is
taught, without any mention at all of physical places.

The geography example is an example of how expectations of a subject can be
wrong at the basic school level, you can live with a mis-match of expectations
in geography syllabus, however, go to university and it is another kettle of
fish. You might think politics would be a useful thing to study, be passionate
about the subject and be knowledgeable about current affairs. Again, none of
that would matter.

Computer science is another area of concern. You might be good at programming
and be up to date with whatever is on HN. Yet, at university you might get
taught languages and methodologies that are a world away. There might actually
be reasons why the university teach what they teach that are not readily
apparent. The military might have some link up that means that stuff that
matters to designing jet fighters gets taught. Clearly none of it - 'ADA' \-
for instance - might have no relevance in the real world.

Returning to your subject of maths, in the real world you are doing pretty
well if you have problems that require secondary school stuff - trigonometry,
calculating prices with tax, differential equations. Actually you could
probably go a long way on getting a man on the moon with secondary school
maths, yet there is a whole world of maths beyond that. Triple integrations,
anyone? Even if you do find a real world use - electronics with Gauss's
theorem - there aren't many uses for that real world use. It is all too
convenient for maths to be taught in such a way that it is abstract and not
practical, e.g. teaching a program to do it for you, or working on a large
dataset in a computationally efficient way. Even reading the data in is not
something that would be taught. It is a bit like how you can do a degree in
electronics and never touch a soldering iron or know how to fix a fuse.

So my suggestion is to not head off to university so hastily. Work somewhere
for a little while then go to university because you know why you are going.
You can actually learn useful stuff at university rather than go there to just
get a bit of paper.

------
Codhisattva
Exercise. Lots of it.

------
winstonx
> I'm two years before heading off to university, but I have no motivation to
> learn the things that are being taught at college.

Personally, that was a really tough time for me in my life.

> I chose to study the subjects that I thought I would enjoy, but sadly this
> isn't true.

That happened to me too.

> I'm assuming that if I had made other choices for subjects, I'd be in a
> similar problem.

Maybe; it's hard to know where other paths would have led.

> Maths is one of the subjects I'm studying, and although I enjoy maths
> itself, I'm not enjoying what I learn in school.

I had that same experience. That's why I studied maths on my own, outside of
school (I consider programming a subset of maths.)

> I can't be motivated to put the work in, so that I can get good results at
> the end of the year.

Same thing happened to me.

> I spend my free time programming or researching instead,

That's also what I did. Studying philosophy also helped alot :-)

> but I can't continue doing this if I want to get the A-levels I need to
> enter a half-decent university.

I found my high school to be very oppressive, so instead I went on academic
strike and programmed for fun. I almost flunked out of high school, and only
got into one university that has a tradition of accepting everyone.

It was all for the best. I'm not saying __you __should do that. But, it was
the path I needed to take. You can live a wonderful life regardless of what
academic success you achieve or fail to achieve.

Older people have a bad habit of advising younger people they need to do very
specific actions in order to achieve very specific goals.

In this ancient tradition, I will now offer you very specific advice ;-)

(1) Ask yourself: do you desire the goals you are told to desire. What are
__your __goals? What do __you __actually want from life?

(2) Once you have your goals in mind, your advisors will usually be
__conservative __. That is, their advice usually describes __one path __to
your goal --- not the only path. For example, if you want to go to a half-
decent university and an advisor tells you, "you should try to get straight
A's" \--- then your advisor is being conservative. Yes, if you get straight
A's it will be easier to get into a half-decent university. But it's not the
only way. Furthermore, younger people are often more creative in finding ways
to sidestep tradition.

(3) Ask for lots of advice, but only listen to advice skeptically.

(4) Don't be afraid to "Go ahead and fail."
[http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-20/go-ahead-let-
your-k...](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-20/go-ahead-let-your-kids-
fail.html)

> Are there any ways by which I could motivate myself to study more?

I would caution against trying to coerce yourself into being more motivated.
Follow your own path. When people give you advice it's up to you to take it or
leave it. Even this advice.

------
rando289
Endeavor to make these things a habit. Every day or 5 days a week etc.

Write down some realistic things you want to do today that you might avoid. Do
this as early in the day as possible.

Before you make a decision which will avoid doing one of those things you
wrote down, stop, think about it for 60+ seconds. Usually these decisions are
done just like instincts without thinking: "hit next episode on netflix",
"read this HN link", etc.

In that 60+ seconds, suggestions:

1\. Decide to start on the thing you'd rather avoid for just 5 minutes, then
you can quit if you want.

2\. Imagine your future self looking back on your decisions.

3\. Remember how this thing ties into long term goals.

4\. Plan a reward for yourself if you do the thing.

5\. When negative thoughts or feelings happen, accept them, don't believe them
or give them any more power, see them from the outside.

~~~
timmm
Sorry but little tricks and magic bullets like this do nothing in the long
term to alleviate the issue. Primarily because you won't stick to the habit.

OP you will have to decide whether doing work and being productive is
something you want for yourself, you will not be able to fein an answer for
any substantial amount of time. Your answer is also subject to change.

My guess is if you completely gave in to your de-motivated mentality you would
quickly realize how bankrupt it is and be driven back to working.

------
aaron695
People seem to be misreading your question.

You seem fully aware that the subjects you're studying are very important and
you need to do well at them.

As someone once told me most motivational speakers just lend you motivation.
Once you've left the room pumped you quickly go back to square one.

So it's hard to know what works, there's a lot of crap out there.

I've had moderate success with the Pomodoro Technique
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique)

But if it doesn't work for you, or as often happens it only works for a while,
make sure you go on to something else.

------
almosnow
There are none, if you don't feel it then it's not there.

Or you could follow the advice other people had leave here... and eventually
you will come back to this same situation but when you are 50 and tired...

Seriously dude, my advice, if you don't feel it leave it; and if you don't
feel nothing anywhere then do nothing, many cool things happen when you are
"doing nothing".

------
nemathode
Aniracetam (or Oxiracetam, if Aniracetam doesn't work for you) + DMAE. Don't
forget to balance your blood pressure, use venous or arterial drugs to enhance
whole body blood flow (don't use drugs that work only locally). If you don't
want to use blood-related drugs, then just exercise regularly (try to focus
only on resistance-oriented exercises). Try to sleep on a hard bed without any
pillows. Also, increase your metabolism and energy by drinking a cup or three
of coffee in first half of day and eating a big (300+ grams) portion of boiled
grains + a good piece of meat, but with small amounts of fat. And don't forget
to eat a lot of fruits - primarily oranges, apples, bananas and pears.

~~~
WizzleKake
If we are suggesting drugs, may as well throw in a suggestion for
amphetamines.

But personally, I would recommend intense and sustained cardiovascular
exercise.

~~~
frodopwns
Adderall would make anything fun.

~~~
910138391
modafinil. your solution, for dire needs ofcourse

