pouët.net

Get a girlfriend (or a boyfriend, whatever you prefer)

dreadlocks aren't exactly what would fall under the term creative anymore

ROTFL

That's definitely not a real problem.

way to go! including the "just do it" sticker ;)

Don't forget to walk at least two hours each day.
Read one book each day during the next two months. Go to your local library.
Don't make more than a post in pouet each week.

Stop complain and make a megademo for Amstrad CPC now!

One book a day?!?! Jesus man, how!?

one book per day o.o;; waste of time i would go w/
1 lvl per day in ffxi which is more useful

Okkie: When I was on vacation this january I read 10 books in 14 days. Granted, at least half of those were under 400 pages, but still.

harry potter doesn't count as books ;)

Take paper and pencil and just doodle some shit. This is stress-free creativity.

optimus: get a lots of sleeping pills and a bottle of your favourite liquir. take all the pills and drink liquir and go to sleep

talk less do more

The trick is to be satisfied with life and integrate your scening activities in it.. If life is good your demoscene hobby is also good..

Next to this you have to plan more..
as you have less free time than in student years..

find your way into it and you will succes

good luck!

succes = succeed

optimus: you are thinking too much. you either want to do it and have the motivation, energy and time to do so. or you dont. i dont think there's any formula for inspiration.

eye/TRBS: wtf? and i doubt doodling pictures of shit is going to help much either

Thanks for the suggestions. I like some of the replies. They look at the problem from different angles. I will not start analyzing them right now because they'll tell I am an attention whore. Maybe I should write an article for Hugi :)

p.s. I will try the pills solution :P

Just found this one here



That's another problem, can't split the 5 hours evening in doing several things. Either I focus on programming or not :P

optimus, i'll translate that quote to normal english for you.

http://www.paulgraham.com/procrastination.html
http://www.paulgraham.com/hamming.html

my advice: start drinking

i completely disagree with this statement.
most of my demo coding is done in one hour sessions on the train or at lunchtime. it turns out that ~ 1 hour is exactly the right amount of time for me. it means you can think of a meaningful task beforehand, and focus hard and do it fast in this time, with no distractions, no web browser or msn etc.
if you have a longer slot than that your attention wanders - you cant concentrate constantly forever without a break - so you start to lose efficiency.
it is imo much more useful to have relatively short sessions of actual code, and time between to let ideas and solutions to problems work their way through. i bet it wont be news to games coders out there that you can do a late night for a deadline to fix a bug and get nowhere, then come in the next morning and nail it straight away - because it's worked its way through your mind.

btw, optimus: if you're really into coding demos, if you have that borderline obsession that it probably needs, you find the time to do it whatever, and if you dont have that interest or dedication you just wont find the time however much you have spare.
e.g. it takes a certain dedication to get up early and code on the demo before work rather than sleep in. or to stay in working on it at lunch time rather than going out for lunch with your colleagues. or avoiding the pub because you know the hangover'll waste your democoding weekend.
ask navis how he fitted in making lifeforce at the same time as dealing with work and a new born baby - now thats serious dedication. :) suddenly "only having 5 hours in the evening free" doesnt sound too little, does it? :)

I figure you're joking but I really don't know for sure. So, to state the obvious, don't do it.

smash, i don't completely agree. i, for instance, don't have that kind of borderline obsession (at all. in fact, i don't like graphics programming. i just want to make demos, the graphics coding is sortof a necessary evil). obviously, that's also the reason i don't get much done and it's not at all top notch, but i do make stuff every once in a while.

for me it's teamwork, partycoding and deadlines that do the trick (this is also the reason that i do much more partycoding than back in the days - while it seems that everybody used to partycode and now gets drunk at the demoparty, it's the opposite for me).

i can imagine that most people making the real cool demos have that borderline obsession you describe. i don't, and i'm sure many others don't either, but we still make demos. how can that be if what you say is true?

obviously, optimus doesnt have that obsession either - he'd not have this problem in that case. but there's no need to tell him it's not gonna work out of that's not the case.