NGL, that table’s pretty awesome 😮 I’m ADHD, and my primary coping method is to rotate through a bunch of tasks so that, while it takes me more calendar time to complete one particular project, I complete the same number of projects overall as a NT does in a longer time span. And I try to fit at least one project into the rotation that’s new to me I. Part to keep me interested in life generally, but also to keep my from getting overwhelmed by the new thing.
My son is still young but we are really running into authority issues. He tests every boundary, *extensively*. I come from a family where all the men are engineers, have issues with authority, and are prone to addiction. My wife and I are currently on the theory that it is connected. The drive to engineer and innovate and create, really hinges on those urges to rebel, question, and obsess over the unknown. I think is just our place in the tribe to be that guy.
Chris Fox! I was thinking of you a few days ago. Why? You are one of my favorite writers of all time. Why your books on writing made me a better person! Thank you sir!
Thanks, Chris. This makes so much sense. I'm currently so bored with what I'm writing that I am "flirting" with other genres. I do need new interests regularly. I'm a knitter and always get excited about a new project even if it's something I've made before because I can change up the yarn or try something slightly different. Now I understand why I get so jazzed up about it. Now to apply that to my books. That table is awesome!
Thanks Chris. I’m also on book 6 and dying inside. It’s very hard to stay motivated. I’ve decided to do some standalone reads next as I can’t face another series yet.
As a couch psychologist myself, I'd recommend you look into ADHD. The quickly getting bored and needing constant new experiences is one of its hallmarks. Many of the ADHD specific tips have helped me, even if the tip seems counterintuitive. Like, always work on several projects at once (my sweet spot seems to be 3) so I always have a choice what I'll be working on. Does it take me longer to finish one thing? Yes. But I finish 3 things more quickly :)
I appreciate the advice, but I do not suffer from ADHD,. I can manage deep focus for many, many hours at a time, and only want to work on one thing obsessively for months. A very good friend of mine, Nora, used to go to me every Monday to Toastmasters. She had ADHD and we had so many fascinating conversations about it. It sounds very challenging to manage!
@@ChrisFoxWrites I wasn't trying to diagnose you, but to say that some ADHD tips can help all sorts of people. That being said, easily getting into deep focus is also one of the ADHD symptoms (ADHD is a spectrum on multiple axis).
I was thinking the same thing on both of your comments, and as I watched the vid. It's totally a spectrum and there's more than just one type. The ability to hyperfocus is very much a hallmark. (I ought to know. :D )
I would also add that the idea of “suffering” from ADHD is a limited way of seeing the ADHD experience. ADHD is actually a misnomer for this neurotype, as it’s really not an attention deficit issue, but an attention regulation one. ADHDers can pay attention and achieve deep focus when their environment is set up for it. However, we need to care about the task at hand a great deal or see some form of challenge or thrill in the process of executing it, which supports the point you’re making in your video, actually. And like the comment OP said, things that work for ADHD brains are also great strategies for the rest of the population. We all have crappy brain days in which we struggle with executive functioning, after all. :) When disabilities are accommodated, everybody benefits.
@@ChrisFoxWrites a lot of people, women and girls mostly but some men too, have been missed with ADHD diagnosis because of the idea that people with ADHD can't focus on tasks for long periods of time. It's less that you can't focus but more that you can't control what you focus on. In many people, they seem like high-achieving go-getters, but if you dig into their personal life you realize that they have doom piles everywhere and can't manage simple tasks. I'm not saying that's you, I'm just clarifying this misconception.
I think it's a difference in personality types. Some people get great comfort from repetition, structure, and routines, others need more freedom, space, and new things to stimulate them.
Thank you for your insight, Chris. Your openness and honesty are a global treasure to us all. FWIW, I get bored with things when I finally decide I'm never going to master them, and / or when I realize I'm never going to become successful in "the business." This usually takes years of in-depth effort and substantial expense before I get bored and move on. Surgical pathology and cytopathology were the only exceptions. These were too stressful to continue beyond a 25 year career, but rarely did they bore me.
My brain just could not come up with anything fresh for my space opera, until I started learning to animate it as a short film in Unreal Engine. Now, it's on FIRE.
I strongly relate to getting bored more easily than those around me, but also more easily excited by new ideas and activities than others. So, I also struggle with launching into a new genre like a rocket only to really badly struggle a few years in to keep going given that there's no more unexpected challenges to overcome. My thought is simply that we require a higher level of stimulus than the average person. I need to take large risks to have that feeling of aliveness, I tend to respond well to bright, oversaturated colors that would stress others out to look at, and I have a problem with listening to my music too loudly, such that I'll probably lose my hearing a few years earlier than otherwise. Oh, and I also abruptly dropped a growing career in tech to self publish with only a small amount of money saved up (and it was the greatest dopamine rush of my life!) I'm curious, Chris, if you'd consider yourself risk-addicted?
Fascinating post. God no on the risk addiction. My need for challenges can be scratched by an MMO. I can play a video game in the safety of my garage taking precisely zero risks for years at a time, and be fine with it. I listen to music very quietly, and try to minimize the people I interact with. I have zero desire to travel or see new things any more, either. At the same time I need to be exploring something. Welding. Writing. Speaking. I wonder if my self-esteem is tied up in in? Whatever my situation I am grateful I am not risk-addicted. That route sounds like it leads to greatness, but at this point even thinking about it exhausts me.
My writing background has been in writing articles. Honestly, I never get bored with writing them. Each one is different. Now, I will say, I love the same video games over and over, although I will take a break from one, but then come back and enjoy it again. Even if I’ve played it a million times. Heck, I recently discovered the original Civilization from Sid Meyer. It was cool to play it and remember all the goofy cheats I learned.
I had the first Civ boardgame in the 90s and could never find anyone to play with. I've played all the video games. Civ 6 is awesome. Just one more turn before bed!
This makes SO much sense. I hopped into writing contemporary and my brain is like 'Yaaayyyy shiny and new!' And when I'm struggling with a current story I get distracted by other ideas that are newer and feel 'easier' probably just because they're an interesting new puzzle. Thanks for the discussion and the tips for overcoming this.
Great Video, as always. Excitement is important for humans to progress. When you write a new article or discover a new scientific discovery or build a table, it gives you satisfaction. If you were to then write another 10 articles on the same subject without any new information or discuss the same scientific discovery without progression or build the exact same table, your mind would lose its excitement. Writers run into this problem often. For some people it's the book they are writing, for others it's the series they've written for the past 5-10 years. How can someone deal with this issue? If you take the case of your wife still enjoying your first video game(s), or you still wanting to get back to your D&D games, you might find that things that gave us a huge excitement for a while, they last. Many people have a hard time re-watching TV shows or films, but if they enjoyed it as a child or at a time that it was new and exciting, they can and will enjoy a re-watch from time to time. When writing a book or a series, one must find a way to reapply the excitement, if it is lost. For some walking away from a project for a few weeks/months helps reignite their passion for it, while for others even that does not work. If writing a series and towards the end (or at any point really) you feel under-excited and letting it sit does not reignite the passion, here are some possible solutions - 1. If the problem is that the series and ending have been in the mind for too long, work on changing the ending (not if it ruins the story), this may excite or ignite, as the unknown path leads to new discoveries. 2. Reread the first book. Sometimes the passion has died because one has forgotten what made this story/world exciting for them in the first place. Rereading the first book or the original notes may change that. 3. Kill off a major character. This does not have to be an actual death, but it must feel like one (for the writer/reader), it can help one see how one BIG change alters the whole world, seeing it for the first time with new eyes. There are many other options. Keeping one excited is important for anything in life. Marriage, raising children, studying, writing, working. Stay excited and as always, very enjoyable when I come and find a new video from you. Thank you.
I am very much like this lol. And in am VERY jealous of your table. I've been wanting to learn DnD for ages but I can't find anyone local who plays 😅 was really hoping I'd find an in person group
If you build it they will come! There are a sea of lonely gamers in your area all hoping someone will step up and run a game! Since you're here you're likely a writer, and I can think of no better training tool that running D&D =) The table has been amazing, though it has reduced the number of videos I've posted lol. Been playing a ton of Warhammer and D&D.
Interestingly I have my own weird scenario (although I'm sure there are others like this as well). I created my own scifi universe that has several novels and a table-top miniatures game. What I find odd is that when I am working for clients so often I just want to think of that universe and building it out and all of these awesome ideas. However, when it comes time to just work on that brand I sometimes have to really focus myself from evading it and just scrolling through content or some other meaningless activity. It drives me nuts because I know I WANT to be productive, but I am regularly having to battle my own attention to stay on the proper task. Side question: Are those Battletech novels behind you on the middle shelf?
Yes, yes they are. I hear you on the productivity side. I'm getting my discipline back, but it's taken time and effort, and I still feel slower than I should be. At least I'm getting something done every day now, like I should be. Side question...what is mini production like? I'm thinking about it for the first time, especially now that I've used the table in a live D&D game. So much fun.
@@ChrisFoxWrites As a long time Battletech fan I thought I recognized the font even if I couldn't read it clearly. I was very diligent about writing but lost all of that momentum a few years ago. Now I am trying to get back on the horse but for whatever reason I can feel a pocket of my mind wanting to fight it. For me, I want to write in my universe. There are tons of primary and side stories to tell but I can't help but measure by how sales/ community growth is. So my mind As a small studio, we have fully embraced 3d printing (both on our own to sell physical models and the .stls so players can print at home) so our production method is very smooth. Without 3d printing someone like me wouldn't even stand a chance of being able to do what I do. If you have other questions feel free to ask. There aren't a lot of resources out there of really how to get into game/ printing creation so I try to pass on what I know as I can.
Chris, awesome video! I’m a Middle Grade fantasy author, and I feel this pull toward boredom too. TTRPGs are my outlet to keep things fresh. I think we are kindred spirits in that!
I pick up things quickly and get bored quickly but I think I have ADD, subtype inattentive. It makes my perforrmance erratic. I've come both top of the class and at the bottom through school and uni. Doing something that requires daily commitment to achieve is my hardest challenge and the one thing that I have never moved on from - wanting to be a writer. It's hard.
This is something I've pondered a bit. It seems like just when I'm reaching a level of competency in something (so after 2 or so years) I seem to drop things suddenly and move on - even half way through a book. I spent a couple of years writing and releasing 7 novels, but now I haven't written anything for over 18 months. Same with video games - I don't quite understand how someone can pour 2000+ hours into a game; I just move on too fast for that. I don't think I could ever be a full-time author because I'm just too temperamental when it comes to writing. I'm rather cautious of using a too-mechanistic explanation for this phenomenon. Trying to reduce it into "mere" biology or "nothing but" a psychological mechanism strikes me as an impoverished explanation (nothing against your video, it's just an observation from my reading of existential psychology!). In any case, it definitely rebukes the homeostasis principle regarding human nature/motivation. But now I'm just rambling.
A wise person once told me, "Find a job doing something you love, and you'll never work another day in your life", another wise person once told me, "Never make your hobby your job, you'll quickly lose your love for it."
Another interesting brain thing is that the memory "records more frames" when you're doing some new, interesting, or dangerous - time actually perceptually slows down for you in stressful situations as your perception of time is essentially the number of "frames" you're remembering for any particular period. When you're doing something repetitve the brain just sort of records it as "just another one of those times" (a reference to a sort of memory schemata - like a semi-hardcoded subroutine in the brain) which is why you end up not remembering anything about your regular drive to work except that one moment when another car cut across you. Have a Google of "Time Perception" for some details on this - I find this sort of thing fascinating.
I think the answer is whether you see time spent on something as an investment, and therefore doing something different negates the investment of time you spent on it. This is why those daft little games on Facebook are so popular ... if you've spent 10 hours playing it, going to do something else would mean you'd wasted those 10 hours and you hate waste ...
Perfect timing! I'd just begun to get bored.
Now that's a table
Groovy table!
Dude, I love it so much! I'm also playing Warhammer on it in addition to D&D. Need to get some videos up haha
And I'm super jealous of the TABLE! SO COOL! 😮😲
NGL, that table’s pretty awesome 😮
I’m ADHD, and my primary coping method is to rotate through a bunch of tasks so that, while it takes me more calendar time to complete one particular project, I complete the same number of projects overall as a NT does in a longer time span. And I try to fit at least one project into the rotation that’s new to me I. Part to keep me interested in life generally, but also to keep my from getting overwhelmed by the new thing.
My son is still young but we are really running into authority issues. He tests every boundary, *extensively*. I come from a family where all the men are engineers, have issues with authority, and are prone to addiction. My wife and I are currently on the theory that it is connected. The drive to engineer and innovate and create, really hinges on those urges to rebel, question, and obsess over the unknown. I think is just our place in the tribe to be that guy.
Lol you are just a nerd like the rest of us. That table is awesome. Very creative
Guilty as charged lol. I'll live and die a total nerd!
Your table is friggin' awesome! OMG!
That table is wicked! Great job, man.
That table is so cool! I can't believe Kelyn is in school. I remember when he was born.
Chris Fox! I was thinking of you a few days ago.
Why?
You are one of my favorite writers of all time.
Why your books on writing made me a better person!
Thank you sir!
Thanks, Chris. This makes so much sense. I'm currently so bored with what I'm writing that I am "flirting" with other genres. I do need new interests regularly. I'm a knitter and always get excited about a new project even if it's something I've made before because I can change up the yarn or try something slightly different. Now I understand why I get so jazzed up about it. Now to apply that to my books. That table is awesome!
Thanks Chris. I’m also on book 6 and dying inside. It’s very hard to stay motivated. I’ve decided to do some standalone reads next as I can’t face another series yet.
As a couch psychologist myself, I'd recommend you look into ADHD. The quickly getting bored and needing constant new experiences is one of its hallmarks. Many of the ADHD specific tips have helped me, even if the tip seems counterintuitive. Like, always work on several projects at once (my sweet spot seems to be 3) so I always have a choice what I'll be working on. Does it take me longer to finish one thing? Yes. But I finish 3 things more quickly :)
I appreciate the advice, but I do not suffer from ADHD,. I can manage deep focus for many, many hours at a time, and only want to work on one thing obsessively for months.
A very good friend of mine, Nora, used to go to me every Monday to Toastmasters. She had ADHD and we had so many fascinating conversations about it. It sounds very challenging to manage!
@@ChrisFoxWrites I wasn't trying to diagnose you, but to say that some ADHD tips can help all sorts of people. That being said, easily getting into deep focus is also one of the ADHD symptoms (ADHD is a spectrum on multiple axis).
I was thinking the same thing on both of your comments, and as I watched the vid. It's totally a spectrum and there's more than just one type. The ability to hyperfocus is very much a hallmark. (I ought to know. :D )
I would also add that the idea of “suffering” from ADHD is a limited way of seeing the ADHD experience. ADHD is actually a misnomer for this neurotype, as it’s really not an attention deficit issue, but an attention regulation one. ADHDers can pay attention and achieve deep focus when their environment is set up for it. However, we need to care about the task at hand a great deal or see some form of challenge or thrill in the process of executing it, which supports the point you’re making in your video, actually.
And like the comment OP said, things that work for ADHD brains are also great strategies for the rest of the population. We all have crappy brain days in which we struggle with executive functioning, after all. :) When disabilities are accommodated, everybody benefits.
@@ChrisFoxWrites a lot of people, women and girls mostly but some men too, have been missed with ADHD diagnosis because of the idea that people with ADHD can't focus on tasks for long periods of time. It's less that you can't focus but more that you can't control what you focus on. In many people, they seem like high-achieving go-getters, but if you dig into their personal life you realize that they have doom piles everywhere and can't manage simple tasks.
I'm not saying that's you, I'm just clarifying this misconception.
Thanks for this, and cool table!
I think it's a difference in personality types. Some people get great comfort from repetition, structure, and routines, others need more freedom, space, and new things to stimulate them.
First I've ever heard of the Ventral Striatum and that it could talk.
Chris Fox's Ventral Striatum: "Hey, Chris, go get some more dopamine."
😂
Thank you for your insight, Chris. Your openness and honesty are a global treasure to us all. FWIW, I get bored with things when I finally decide I'm never going to master them, and / or when I realize I'm never going to become successful in "the business." This usually takes years of in-depth effort and substantial expense before I get bored and move on. Surgical pathology and cytopathology were the only exceptions. These were too stressful to continue beyond a 25 year career, but rarely did they bore me.
My brain just could not come up with anything fresh for my space opera, until I started learning to animate it as a short film in Unreal Engine. Now, it's on FIRE.
You're just a big kid! Nice table!
I strongly relate to getting bored more easily than those around me, but also more easily excited by new ideas and activities than others. So, I also struggle with launching into a new genre like a rocket only to really badly struggle a few years in to keep going given that there's no more unexpected challenges to overcome. My thought is simply that we require a higher level of stimulus than the average person. I need to take large risks to have that feeling of aliveness, I tend to respond well to bright, oversaturated colors that would stress others out to look at, and I have a problem with listening to my music too loudly, such that I'll probably lose my hearing a few years earlier than otherwise. Oh, and I also abruptly dropped a growing career in tech to self publish with only a small amount of money saved up (and it was the greatest dopamine rush of my life!) I'm curious, Chris, if you'd consider yourself risk-addicted?
Fascinating post. God no on the risk addiction. My need for challenges can be scratched by an MMO. I can play a video game in the safety of my garage taking precisely zero risks for years at a time, and be fine with it. I listen to music very quietly, and try to minimize the people I interact with. I have zero desire to travel or see new things any more, either.
At the same time I need to be exploring something. Welding. Writing. Speaking. I wonder if my self-esteem is tied up in in?
Whatever my situation I am grateful I am not risk-addicted. That route sounds like it leads to greatness, but at this point even thinking about it exhausts me.
My writing background has been in writing articles. Honestly, I never get bored with writing them. Each one is different. Now, I will say, I love the same video games over and over, although I will take a break from one, but then come back and enjoy it again. Even if I’ve played it a million times. Heck, I recently discovered the original Civilization from Sid Meyer. It was cool to play it and remember all the goofy cheats I learned.
I had the first Civ boardgame in the 90s and could never find anyone to play with. I've played all the video games. Civ 6 is awesome. Just one more turn before bed!
I do need to upgrade.
This makes SO much sense. I hopped into writing contemporary and my brain is like 'Yaaayyyy shiny and new!' And when I'm struggling with a current story I get distracted by other ideas that are newer and feel 'easier' probably just because they're an interesting new puzzle. Thanks for the discussion and the tips for overcoming this.
Heyyyy second post!! But seriously I get this and feel it in my soul. I am curious to see how this works with ADD/ADHD and disregarded dopamine ...
Great Video, as always.
Excitement is important for humans to progress. When you write a new article or discover a new scientific discovery or build a table, it gives you satisfaction. If you were to then write another 10 articles on the same subject without any new information or discuss the same scientific discovery without progression or build the exact same table, your mind would lose its excitement.
Writers run into this problem often. For some people it's the book they are writing, for others it's the series they've written for the past 5-10 years.
How can someone deal with this issue? If you take the case of your wife still enjoying your first video game(s), or you still wanting to get back to your D&D games, you might find that things that gave us a huge excitement for a while, they last. Many people have a hard time re-watching TV shows or films, but if they enjoyed it as a child or at a time that it was new and exciting, they can and will enjoy a re-watch from time to time.
When writing a book or a series, one must find a way to reapply the excitement, if it is lost. For some walking away from a project for a few weeks/months helps reignite their passion for it, while for others even that does not work. If writing a series and towards the end (or at any point really) you feel under-excited and letting it sit does not reignite the passion, here are some possible solutions -
1. If the problem is that the series and ending have been in the mind for too long, work on changing the ending (not if it ruins the story), this may excite or ignite, as the unknown path leads to new discoveries.
2. Reread the first book. Sometimes the passion has died because one has forgotten what made this story/world exciting for them in the first place. Rereading the first book or the original notes may change that.
3. Kill off a major character. This does not have to be an actual death, but it must feel like one (for the writer/reader), it can help one see how one BIG change alters the whole world, seeing it for the first time with new eyes.
There are many other options. Keeping one excited is important for anything in life. Marriage, raising children, studying, writing, working. Stay excited and as always, very enjoyable when I come and find a new video from you. Thank you.
I am very much like this lol. And in am VERY jealous of your table. I've been wanting to learn DnD for ages but I can't find anyone local who plays 😅 was really hoping I'd find an in person group
If you build it they will come! There are a sea of lonely gamers in your area all hoping someone will step up and run a game!
Since you're here you're likely a writer, and I can think of no better training tool that running D&D =)
The table has been amazing, though it has reduced the number of videos I've posted lol. Been playing a ton of Warhammer and D&D.
Interestingly I have my own weird scenario (although I'm sure there are others like this as well). I created my own scifi universe that has several novels and a table-top miniatures game. What I find odd is that when I am working for clients so often I just want to think of that universe and building it out and all of these awesome ideas. However, when it comes time to just work on that brand I sometimes have to really focus myself from evading it and just scrolling through content or some other meaningless activity. It drives me nuts because I know I WANT to be productive, but I am regularly having to battle my own attention to stay on the proper task.
Side question: Are those Battletech novels behind you on the middle shelf?
Yes, yes they are. I hear you on the productivity side. I'm getting my discipline back, but it's taken time and effort, and I still feel slower than I should be. At least I'm getting something done every day now, like I should be.
Side question...what is mini production like? I'm thinking about it for the first time, especially now that I've used the table in a live D&D game. So much fun.
@@ChrisFoxWrites As a long time Battletech fan I thought I recognized the font even if I couldn't read it clearly.
I was very diligent about writing but lost all of that momentum a few years ago. Now I am trying to get back on the horse but for whatever reason I can feel a pocket of my mind wanting to fight it. For me, I want to write in my universe. There are tons of primary and side stories to tell but I can't help but measure by how sales/ community growth is. So my mind
As a small studio, we have fully embraced 3d printing (both on our own to sell physical models and the .stls so players can print at home) so our production method is very smooth. Without 3d printing someone like me wouldn't even stand a chance of being able to do what I do. If you have other questions feel free to ask. There aren't a lot of resources out there of really how to get into game/ printing creation so I try to pass on what I know as I can.
Chris, awesome video! I’m a Middle Grade fantasy author, and I feel this pull toward boredom too. TTRPGs are my outlet to keep things fresh. I think we are kindred spirits in that!
The table is worth it. lol
I pick up things quickly and get bored quickly but I think I have ADD, subtype inattentive. It makes my perforrmance erratic. I've come both top of the class and at the bottom through school and uni. Doing something that requires daily commitment to achieve is my hardest challenge and the one thing that I have never moved on from - wanting to be a writer. It's hard.
This is something I've pondered a bit. It seems like just when I'm reaching a level of competency in something (so after 2 or so years) I seem to drop things suddenly and move on - even half way through a book. I spent a couple of years writing and releasing 7 novels, but now I haven't written anything for over 18 months. Same with video games - I don't quite understand how someone can pour 2000+ hours into a game; I just move on too fast for that. I don't think I could ever be a full-time author because I'm just too temperamental when it comes to writing.
I'm rather cautious of using a too-mechanistic explanation for this phenomenon. Trying to reduce it into "mere" biology or "nothing but" a psychological mechanism strikes me as an impoverished explanation (nothing against your video, it's just an observation from my reading of existential psychology!). In any case, it definitely rebukes the homeostasis principle regarding human nature/motivation. But now I'm just rambling.
A wise person once told me, "Find a job doing something you love, and you'll never work another day in your life", another wise person once told me, "Never make your hobby your job, you'll quickly lose your love for it."
Another interesting brain thing is that the memory "records more frames" when you're doing some new, interesting, or dangerous - time actually perceptually slows down for you in stressful situations as your perception of time is essentially the number of "frames" you're remembering for any particular period. When you're doing something repetitve the brain just sort of records it as "just another one of those times" (a reference to a sort of memory schemata - like a semi-hardcoded subroutine in the brain) which is why you end up not remembering anything about your regular drive to work except that one moment when another car cut across you. Have a Google of "Time Perception" for some details on this - I find this sort of thing fascinating.
I think the answer is whether you see time spent on something as an investment, and therefore doing something different negates the investment of time you spent on it. This is why those daft little games on Facebook are so popular ... if you've spent 10 hours playing it, going to do something else would mean you'd wasted those 10 hours and you hate waste ...
idk. need brain reset activities. but theres no new games, or fun activities.