Jonathan Blow
3 HN mentions · mentioned in 3 months, 2017–2022
1:02:23 · 62K views · Oct 5, 2017
The question-and-answer session that followed Jonathan Blow's talk on dealing with lack of motivation, malaise and depression. It is hosted on YouTube as a mirror of a Twitch recording.
Mostly shared as a more reliable YouTube mirror, and cited as a related talk on motivation; one commenter criticizes Blow's comments on impostor syndrome.
3 comments from Hacker News
> in four decades of living on this planet I don't think I've ever come across anything that fits that bill. Keep looking! But also, it's possible at 40+ that you may have already found it. Perhaps you've not given that thing the chance it needed for you to fall in love with it — the days and weeks of exploration and the obsessive iteration mentioned in the GQ article that it takes to grok something and absorb it until it feels like it's yours . I'm almost your age and now rewinding my career path. I kept chasing different tech career paths hoping to find something that “fit the bill”, which only showed me that nothing was as interesting to me than what I started my career doing (game design/animation). It took a couple of changes to realise that: - Reflecting on how I spend my free time and time on social media, and the speakers and personalities I'm fascinated by and naturally drawn to. (They are mostly game designers and devs.) - Looking back at the work in the past that has made me happiest and most fulfilled. From there it was a case of having the discipline to commit to it — I spend most mornings and evenings skilling up and having fun with game design and development, although my day job is still in front-end right now. On the motivation side of things you mentioned, I don't think it's a case of “find the right thing and you'll find your motivation.” It's more a case of discipline, projecting your self now to your future self, and knowing a few psychological techniques
A bit of a tangent, but I lost quite a bit of respect for Jonathon Blow when he made comments about impostor syndrome: this video
Here's the YouTube mirror, since Twitch VODs often have janky buffering problems in my experience: [LINK] + this video