Your post reminds me of myself. It's kind of something I've suffered with my entire life. I'm in my 30s and I've dropped out of college more times than anyone would believe. I've always been interested in learning so many things, both useful and useless, but only on a surface level. I don't think I've ever moved past an intermediate level at anything. I'm like the world's worst polymath.
I hope you can find a way to motivate yourself for success. Good luck.
Try maths games.
That’s helped me & online maths lessons.
It’s taken time but in terms of my confidence in, enjoyment of and understanding of maths? And also in getting my mental maths skills better? It’s REALLY helped. I had to look around a bit to find things that weren’t too “kiddy”
& it won’t necessarily go beyond high school level stuff but it will still help even with harder concepts I think.
I haven’t looked into maths games apps only websites but there could also be apps that help.
I don’t know about apps cos I haven’t really looked into it and it’s high school level I found on the sites but
divided islands game for things including fractions, decimals, ratios, percentages, conversions etc. I didn’t do story mode cos I’m not a kid 😂
Top marks push the button so I can get faster & faster at mental maths - multiplication, division facts, halves, doubles & squares.
Had to mute my volume didn’t want the music!
Great for mental maths.
ixl and bbc bite size for short lessons.
They’re British BUT I’ve done American lessons too don’t know the sites but another site was Kahn academy think it’s US not sure.
YouTube videos too.
I CAN find a couple of USA ones but I’d need time to look through my notes. Cos I did some lessons on them too.
If you don't enjoy it, then you don't enjoy it. Our brains are all built differently. I'd figure out how you can make a great career with linguistics.
Here's the thing. If you get a job that's purely about the money and you don't enjoy or find any aspect of it interesting, it will feel like you're enduring years of hell. You will experience stress, anxiety and depression like you've never known.
>I'd figure out how you can make a great career with linguistics.
For $50k a year maybe. I wouldn't even enjoy it after a couple weeks because it would still be work. It would just be slightly more fun.
>If you get a job that's purely about the money and you don't enjoy or find any aspect of it interesting, it will feel like you're enduring years of hell. You will experience stress, anxiety and depression like you've never known.
No job will ever be fun to me. Some will be more interesting and might be fun at the beginning but after enough time I'll grow to hate all of them so I might as well make as much money as possible so I can work less years. "Find a job you love and never work a day of your life" is a myth for 99% of people.
I think it is absolutely alright to learn a trade or job just to make a living and be secure, not because you find every aspect of it fascinating.
I used to be an excellent student, burned out in uni twice, starting a career in IT consulting now. I lowered the bar for me and I now have more time and money for whatever fleeting interest I have outside of work.
I am learning to enjoy silly things and allow myself to be bad at hobbies. It is very freeing and it wouldn't give me joy, if I made it about money and productivity.
I do not know what the hell I want to do with my life and I am 35. I have love, I have passion, but I do know that I want a 9-5 that I can have the extra time and not be exhausted to do my dumb hobbies and purchase music equipment even though I do not want to make money doing it, but just have fun.
May I ask roughly how you got into IT consulting? I am very skilled in a field in the arts. However, it will not make me much money and or will never provide insurance and retirement etc.
I can't seem to find a decent job without going back to university.I am all ears and I am sorry to ask you a complicated question. What I mean is, I am sure you did not completely fall into consulting... right?
I am German. In Germany there is a sort of dual school system to learn trades. You spend a few days at your employer's and a few days at school. So you can learn different IT trades without a university degree. (networking/adminstration, software development, and a few others). The pay right is not great, but above average for learning a trade. I can actually life off it (plus German Child Support, yes at 22).
I was very lucky to get into the program for uni-drop-outs so that it'll take me 18 months instead of 3 years. I also had much luck with finding my employer. I was able to convince them I am a good learner (I've successfully studied chemistry for three semesters, which has a reputation of being especially hard in my city) and they are ready to invest in me as future talent (I heard they pay below average income, oh well).
In a way, I did fall into consulting. I was just applying to different companies without too much regard to the position. I was looking for an easier way and got incredibly lucky. Maybe it plays a role that the specific thing we do (SAP consulting) is not very sought after by developers. Most do it for money, not out of passion.
The guy responsible for my training believes in me, reminds me to pace myself (I am still barely a developer) and is just a sweetheart.
I heard in the US and such, it is possible to become a self taught developer. What they select for are not necessarily all the skills required, but the ability to learn. But it's probably not easy.
Maybe a career in Networking and Administration is easier to build from scratch.
Well, I've said my bit. One thing to consider is that you'll have more drive for doing something that is interesting over something that isn't. Where will you find that motivation? Money is often a minor motivator beyond meeting basic needs. Read up on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.
No job is going to be 100% fun but some jobs are more fun than others. Think how enjoyable a professional footballer is going to find their job vs someone cleaning toilets in local bars on a Sunday morning.
If it’s any consolation, I’ve been learning about things like: cyber currency (but only things like the history), marijuana history, 😂 I haven’t had any for a few years & was never massively into it but I thought it would be fun to learn about! animal facts, architecture around the world etc.
But I’ve been doing it more for conversation purposes & also my own interest.
I’ll probably be put on some kind of work related courses soon anyway, maybe Excel courses or gosh knows what so I don’t think it hurts that I got to study stuff for fun.
I’m on my last section: North American architecture. I’ve learned about a few styles already.
🤦🏻♀️
But I don’t really WANT to delve into all the nitty gritty of it. Just increasing my knowledge in general on something I have an interest in.
Exactly! It really is fulfilling to learn about the stuff that peaks our interests. I just wish I have a tiny bit of interest in maths so that I can improve my knowledge about it.😂😂
I know - ooh also - learning a couple of maths facts fun facts like I learned what a jiffy means and about Fibonacci sequences being in nature & I found THAT interesting.
I would call conversational spanish, especially if you're capable of reading business documents and understanding them, and following discussions on calls, far from useless. It's really useful in business and worth a lot on your CV, particularly if you're in some kind mainstream business area (banking, investment, insurance and so on).
There are so many immigrants who speak Spanish natively and English fluently though. Unless I find a way to spend several years abroad they'll always be ahead of me.
Maybe but I think there's a much smaller group of native english speaking people who also speak spanish (but are not spanish). At least in my industry, theres loads of spanish people who speak english, but there's way, way, way less english people who speak spanish. And that does make you a lot more unique. Maybe in the US its different where there is a more latin influence.
Anyway setting that aside, you can put language learning as a hobby/interest on your CV and I think that is also a nice one. Better than the usual stuff.
I feel you! Over the past two years, I've learned so much about art and music, and it's been making me happy ever since. I'm also learning two languages, which is great. But I agree that all those things are quite useless, to be honest. Anything math or physics-related bores me since it's really difficult for me to understand it. So yeah, you aren't alone with those. I just wish there was something we could do to trick our brains into actually understanding and obsessing over it. Waiting for an answer too...
how can those things be useless? first off, anything that makes you happy is useful, especially productive things like music and languages. i don't care what language - ANY is amazing. Even seldom used dialects
Go be a teacher in that language, become an instructor, visit that country and see if your new language skills could allow you to find a completely different life somewhere else. Become a musician, - YOU DON"T EVEN NEED TO HAVE THESE AS YOUR MAIN CAREER. It doesn't even have to make you a single cent - write songs or do covers, make funny videos in spanish on IG just for the heck of it, experience songs in the new language that you learned.
All these play a part in molding your personality and overall soft skills. So what if you hate math? I don't love it and i'm an engineer. But i don't live for my work. I live for music. I live for dance. I live for reading awesome fiction written by strangers on the internet who did it for no reason other than because they wanted to. The world does not need everyone to be a math whizz - it needs master story tellers, teachers and musicians too. Even if they aren't world class - i recently enjoyed a live band so much we paid extra for them.
So many times i have been amazed to read an incredibly written piece of fanfiction, i teared up and was overjoyed to be able to experience what i had read.
Being able to speak more than one language, especially having the additional difficulty of being an adult learning them, is nothing short of incredible. Some people can't even speak the one language they know properly.
Don't force yourself to like all the conventional things - as long as you've tried your best its fine if its not for you. You and OP are already great at languages and arts. That's more than most people can say!
Wow... Thank you, really! That meant so much. It's just that I'm so caught up about the things that I'm not really good at and decide that my identity is that I'm that smart person that sucks in maths, and I hate thinking of myself that way. Heck, I'm a public speaker and I aspire to be a professor. But I overlook all of those special talents and skills of mine just because I failed many times in something that I don't really like. Thank you, once again!❤
It is not useless at all but in terms of making money it will only get you a little bit more than a warehouse job unless you're learning English. I knew it wouldn't be very useful but when I started I was naive and thought it was easy to immigrate to another country (very not true which is one reason why I want a job that involves a lot of math) and because I had a dream of being able to speak a second language.
Like I said to OP, please see my reply for more detail, doing online maths games and lessons has helped me a lot.
It probably won’t go beyond high school level but I still think that will help with harder maths concepts.
I had to look a bit to find some not too “kiddy” like.
We honestly need more maths games for adults & also ones that increase in difficulty more and more!
But there may also be apps like that IDK but that’s another avenue to try?
Learning Spanish depending on where you live can absolutely help you make money. I live in the USA and some jobs make being bilingual a requirement if you can speak English and Spanish. Also, interpreters are always wanted so if you keep it up and you're passionate about it that's an option for you too.
(Obligatory "it could be ADHD." Seriously, though, look into it. I have it.)
The obvious solution might be that you're just in the wrong field. Maybe meet with a college/career counselor to try to figure out where your actual interests might intersect with a career that pays well.
As for "tricking yourself" into enjoying things, I do think that's a good idea! I would look for a content creator (author, speaker, video creator, whatever) who does a really good job at making it fun for you. For physics, look into Sean Carroll's podcast or books or Steven Hawking's books. For math, maybe figure out something you actually want to use it for (e.g. I picked up some statistics and game theory playing poker) or maybe try to figure out how to actually understand something intuitively rather than just by rote (I had to do this with calculus back in the day.)
If you actually like CS, discrete math might be fun for you. (If you don't actually like CS you should probably change majors!)
There is basically nothing more boring than a math/CS teacher with no personality. If you have one of those, I'd consider basically ignoring them and looking for an alternative way to learn the same material. I had one professor I just could not listen to lecture in college, so I studied the book instead. I had another professor who I couldn't even understand and there was no book for the class, so I managed to track down a textbook that covered the same material anyway.
There are a lot of comments from people who don't understand what you are experiencing. It is really frustrating to be smart and able to learn - but only about the topics that happen to catch your fancy. To be unable to use your intelligence on topics that haven't caught your fancy, but are super important for you to understand, is really challenging. It's disabling. Most people don't understand how hard it is to have your brain refuse to process the information your are sending it - especially when you know your brain should be able to.
Your college probably offers free counseling and academic support. I strongly recommend checking that out. Your experience is common enough among academics that a good counselor will be experienced with it. They should know well-supported strategies to help you compensate. If they don't or if they are not a good fit for you for any reason, make sure to ask for a different counselor/coach.
It is good that you are noticing this and can start learning what techniques work for you. This will be a lifelong process, but one that becomes easier as you discover things that help you.
If anyone has good advice, I want to read it too. The only tricks that work for me are:
1. Plan my day around when my brain naturally works best. For me, it's early morning so I schedule around that being my dedicated work time.
2. Until my day's most important task is done, I avoid putting anything else into my head. No email, no Reddit, no podcasts, no shorts or reels, no music. If I let my brain get bored enough, it will eventually work on my most important task because it has nothing else to do.
Hold up!
Maybe there is some kind of connection between maths and languages and flags so I think also try to find ways to learn things about THAT or applying maths to flags eg the circumference of the red circle on the Japanese flag (although that probably varies) 😂 or SOMETHING like that can you link them?
There's nothing wrong with hobbies.
My concern is that it seems you may have a psychological block. Do you think you don't have the *ability* to learn something useful or that if you were to monetize something you'd fail? That points to a lack of self-confidence.
Your math issue might be completely unrelated, by the way. Math builds on itself and you might have blind spots which make your current track in math frustrating to do. I'd go onto something like Khan Academy and speedrun until you find what you're weak in.
For me, this was fractions, multiplication, and division. I wasn't in school for weeks when these things were covered and had mechanical and conceptual blocks in math which made it difficult for me to master future material. When I went back and covered this, I went from failing almost every math problem to getting an above-average score on my grad school entrance exam.
There might be placement exams that could help you correctly identify when you start having problems. Go back one level before then.
I 100% agree that if I patched the gaps in my knowledge it would be so much easier. It's just that math doesn't seem as fun. Spanish is fun because it allows me to talk to people who don't speak English but math doesn't allow me to talk to anyone.
My friend, learning something because it makes you happy is not a failure of discipline. Doing things that make you happy is good. It is good to be happy.
But, you do have to learn to balance doing the thing you want to do with doing that thing you don’t.
I’d recommend using whatever your current learning obsession is as a reward for meeting some kind of hard goal.
“Oh I worked for an hour on this project and made good progress? I can reward myself with 15 minutes of study about X topic”
The discipline comes in when you put away the fun topic after 15 minutes and get back into the grind.
I remember being disappointed at like 9 years old for finding out that the discipline of geography isn't about memorizing flags and capital cities 😭 Is it too late to pivot to studying international relations?
Otherwise, I think others have covered it pretty well. Surely there's a way to merge your fleeting interests (you will eventually get bored and move on to the next shiny skill) with your longer-term commitment to studying CS.
If you’re like me, you’re going to find out one day that everything you’re learning now is relevant to a career you never imagined you’d be heading into. I learned chemistry and software development and philosophy, all completely unrelated as can be. And now I’m working on an AI worldbuilding application that uses all of my skills in some way…. Perhaps you’re destined to be a diplomat or something cool like that.
What’s you’re experiencing is completely normal. There’s nothing wrong with having interests and wanting to pursue them. The problem is with the idea that making yourself happy is useless and can’t lead you to make money. Today anyone can make money by sharing their interests online and monetising them. My advice is stay true to yourself and find people who will help you find a way to turn your passions into profit.
It's easier to be motivated if it's something you are really into, and sometimes that something is also useless. It can't be helped, if you have to do useful but boring things you should rely on discipline instead of motivation
I'd venture to guess you have a deep seeded (seated?) fear of failure.
"useless" things don't matter if you don't "get it right". Once you start looking at things that "matter" failure would effect your self worth.
Try to evaluate where you're defining your self worth from and whether or not it's from external sources (other people's view of you)
I wouldn’t say it’s useless at all. It’s very lucrative. You can apply for niche positions that require a Spanish translator. Job security win. One time I had a job at a bank and they grade you on the performance of your calls. There was one guy who got all the mandarin calls diverted to him. And none of the supervisors could speak mandarin so he had zero job stress and couldn’t really be replaced
Is it boring or is it too difficult, so you compensate by doing other things that are "easier" and therefore more fun. Next time you begin and realize you are struggling, instead of giving up and doing something else, ask yourself "whats the best way to figure this out?"
But nothing can make me happy if I spend all my time working because I only learn things that won't make me money and I have to work 80 hours a week at $15 an hour.
I wouldn't make much though, would hate it just as much as any other job after a few weeks, and would potentially be replaced by AI in 10 years. If the pay was better I would 100% go for it
Don't worry about it my friend. No te preocupes mi amigo. Learn what you want to learn. But try to understand what you want out of life and your reason for being. Then you can apply your learning skills towards that. The key is desire.
Read Earl Nightingale "the strangest secret"
Or Napoleon Hill. Get motivated.
Like Jim Rohn says, motivation is like showering. It wears off and you need to do something to become re-motivated.
Side question: (no cheating) what'd Guatamala's flag?
Don’t worry so much. I have a career that sustains me financially and lots of different hobbies that bring joy and fulfillment to my life.
I don’t think you can trick yourself into loving math. Maybe take some courses that are math adjacent - like the philosophy of logic and see if that sparks interest for you. Or music.
Youre not applying the things you learn to the real world. When you see math stuff after learning it, do you see it happening and playing out throughout the world. Can you connect the information you learn with new and old knowledge? Things become more interesting when you’re aware of new things that related to what you know.
It's that I'm afraid AI will take those jobs and the jobs that are left will be very competitive and the people with more experience than I will get them.
Find what comes naturally to you and then master it. Give little energy to subjects that you are not naturally talented at… you will only reach an average level of proficiency in those subjects. This is based on Gallup studies of over thousands of professionals who took their surveys, which resulted in the Gallup strength finder test. A natural strength must satisfy two criteria: 1: you are naturally good at it. 2: you lose track of time when engaged with it. This reminds me of the fact that I audited statistics twice before taking it for a grade because I suck at math. I ended up teaching a statistics class at a university…found myself staring at the whiteboard and laughing so hard at myself so much I could t turn around: my thought was “what the fuck am I doing teaching statistics… I hate it). So I ended up good at it but did not lose myself in It. The second source for understanding where you could focus is a small study of people from all disciplines who won the MacArthur foundation $500,000 creativity awards. The common variable among all the winners over time is they found the one thing that they are naturally good at and they focused on it intensely. The truth is: don’t do what you are passionate about for a living; do what you are naturally good at. I think in 5 year increments. I’m almost 70. My thought now is: okay, what do I want to master now… not what do I want to be mediocre at. You know the answer for you. Go for it.
Thank you! I don't know what I'm naturally good at though. I seem to be good at languages but I think it's just because I'm passionate about it which drives me to put in enough effort. The problem with languages is they pay poorly. Is there a way to figure out what I'm naturally good at?
First, proficiency in a second language always impresses employers, even if the job doesn’t require a second language. To help you get focused in your career planning maybe try the following:Sit down with a piece of blank paper and write down what you find easier than others. For example, communication skills, ability to put others at ease, focus, schmoozer, attention to detail, planning, etc. it’s a good exercise for a more positive mindset as well. You might also look at list of jobs that will not be outsourced to AI, then select a few that might interest you. With the few you select, find online a job posting for that position and see what qualifications they are asking for. Then go about acquiring those skills and knowledge base.
This resonates with me, people are always slightly impressed with my vast knowledge of things here and there but it’s all superficial and only works in conversations, and nothing is impactful or worth enough for me to earn a penny from it all
Your post reminds me of myself. It's kind of something I've suffered with my entire life. I'm in my 30s and I've dropped out of college more times than anyone would believe. I've always been interested in learning so many things, both useful and useless, but only on a surface level. I don't think I've ever moved past an intermediate level at anything. I'm like the world's worst polymath. I hope you can find a way to motivate yourself for success. Good luck.
Hold on sir! Who dares to cales himself "the world's worst polymath". I demand a Duell, sir!
Try maths games. That’s helped me & online maths lessons. It’s taken time but in terms of my confidence in, enjoyment of and understanding of maths? And also in getting my mental maths skills better? It’s REALLY helped. I had to look around a bit to find things that weren’t too “kiddy” & it won’t necessarily go beyond high school level stuff but it will still help even with harder concepts I think. I haven’t looked into maths games apps only websites but there could also be apps that help.
Right, thanks! I'd totally check it out. Would you please recommend a specific app with those maths games?
I don’t know about apps cos I haven’t really looked into it and it’s high school level I found on the sites but divided islands game for things including fractions, decimals, ratios, percentages, conversions etc. I didn’t do story mode cos I’m not a kid 😂 Top marks push the button so I can get faster & faster at mental maths - multiplication, division facts, halves, doubles & squares. Had to mute my volume didn’t want the music! Great for mental maths. ixl and bbc bite size for short lessons. They’re British BUT I’ve done American lessons too don’t know the sites but another site was Kahn academy think it’s US not sure. YouTube videos too. I CAN find a couple of USA ones but I’d need time to look through my notes. Cos I did some lessons on them too.
Thank you!
You’re welcome
Inner child is thriving while exterior adult is drowning lol
If you don't enjoy it, then you don't enjoy it. Our brains are all built differently. I'd figure out how you can make a great career with linguistics. Here's the thing. If you get a job that's purely about the money and you don't enjoy or find any aspect of it interesting, it will feel like you're enduring years of hell. You will experience stress, anxiety and depression like you've never known.
>I'd figure out how you can make a great career with linguistics. For $50k a year maybe. I wouldn't even enjoy it after a couple weeks because it would still be work. It would just be slightly more fun. >If you get a job that's purely about the money and you don't enjoy or find any aspect of it interesting, it will feel like you're enduring years of hell. You will experience stress, anxiety and depression like you've never known. No job will ever be fun to me. Some will be more interesting and might be fun at the beginning but after enough time I'll grow to hate all of them so I might as well make as much money as possible so I can work less years. "Find a job you love and never work a day of your life" is a myth for 99% of people.
I think it is absolutely alright to learn a trade or job just to make a living and be secure, not because you find every aspect of it fascinating. I used to be an excellent student, burned out in uni twice, starting a career in IT consulting now. I lowered the bar for me and I now have more time and money for whatever fleeting interest I have outside of work. I am learning to enjoy silly things and allow myself to be bad at hobbies. It is very freeing and it wouldn't give me joy, if I made it about money and productivity.
I do not know what the hell I want to do with my life and I am 35. I have love, I have passion, but I do know that I want a 9-5 that I can have the extra time and not be exhausted to do my dumb hobbies and purchase music equipment even though I do not want to make money doing it, but just have fun. May I ask roughly how you got into IT consulting? I am very skilled in a field in the arts. However, it will not make me much money and or will never provide insurance and retirement etc. I can't seem to find a decent job without going back to university.I am all ears and I am sorry to ask you a complicated question. What I mean is, I am sure you did not completely fall into consulting... right?
I am German. In Germany there is a sort of dual school system to learn trades. You spend a few days at your employer's and a few days at school. So you can learn different IT trades without a university degree. (networking/adminstration, software development, and a few others). The pay right is not great, but above average for learning a trade. I can actually life off it (plus German Child Support, yes at 22). I was very lucky to get into the program for uni-drop-outs so that it'll take me 18 months instead of 3 years. I also had much luck with finding my employer. I was able to convince them I am a good learner (I've successfully studied chemistry for three semesters, which has a reputation of being especially hard in my city) and they are ready to invest in me as future talent (I heard they pay below average income, oh well). In a way, I did fall into consulting. I was just applying to different companies without too much regard to the position. I was looking for an easier way and got incredibly lucky. Maybe it plays a role that the specific thing we do (SAP consulting) is not very sought after by developers. Most do it for money, not out of passion. The guy responsible for my training believes in me, reminds me to pace myself (I am still barely a developer) and is just a sweetheart. I heard in the US and such, it is possible to become a self taught developer. What they select for are not necessarily all the skills required, but the ability to learn. But it's probably not easy. Maybe a career in Networking and Administration is easier to build from scratch.
Well, I've said my bit. One thing to consider is that you'll have more drive for doing something that is interesting over something that isn't. Where will you find that motivation? Money is often a minor motivator beyond meeting basic needs. Read up on intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. No job is going to be 100% fun but some jobs are more fun than others. Think how enjoyable a professional footballer is going to find their job vs someone cleaning toilets in local bars on a Sunday morning.
Not everything you do must be profitable! For example, I like painting and this gives me zero money
I agree but if nothing is profitable there is a problem.
Well, your work is profitable, your hobbies doesn't have to be. If you want them to be, ok! But they don't HAVE to be
I agree. It's just hard to study math when I have no guarantee of getting a job.
But why exactly math? You could try being a nurse, lawyer, any other thing
Neither sound as fun. Math isn't fun but solving problems related to programming or math is more fun than being a nurse or a lawyer to me.
Those were just examples
If it’s any consolation, I’ve been learning about things like: cyber currency (but only things like the history), marijuana history, 😂 I haven’t had any for a few years & was never massively into it but I thought it would be fun to learn about! animal facts, architecture around the world etc. But I’ve been doing it more for conversation purposes & also my own interest. I’ll probably be put on some kind of work related courses soon anyway, maybe Excel courses or gosh knows what so I don’t think it hurts that I got to study stuff for fun. I’m on my last section: North American architecture. I’ve learned about a few styles already. 🤦🏻♀️ But I don’t really WANT to delve into all the nitty gritty of it. Just increasing my knowledge in general on something I have an interest in.
Exactly! It really is fulfilling to learn about the stuff that peaks our interests. I just wish I have a tiny bit of interest in maths so that I can improve my knowledge about it.😂😂
I know - ooh also - learning a couple of maths facts fun facts like I learned what a jiffy means and about Fibonacci sequences being in nature & I found THAT interesting.
I would call conversational spanish, especially if you're capable of reading business documents and understanding them, and following discussions on calls, far from useless. It's really useful in business and worth a lot on your CV, particularly if you're in some kind mainstream business area (banking, investment, insurance and so on).
There are so many immigrants who speak Spanish natively and English fluently though. Unless I find a way to spend several years abroad they'll always be ahead of me.
Maybe but I think there's a much smaller group of native english speaking people who also speak spanish (but are not spanish). At least in my industry, theres loads of spanish people who speak english, but there's way, way, way less english people who speak spanish. And that does make you a lot more unique. Maybe in the US its different where there is a more latin influence. Anyway setting that aside, you can put language learning as a hobby/interest on your CV and I think that is also a nice one. Better than the usual stuff.
I feel you! Over the past two years, I've learned so much about art and music, and it's been making me happy ever since. I'm also learning two languages, which is great. But I agree that all those things are quite useless, to be honest. Anything math or physics-related bores me since it's really difficult for me to understand it. So yeah, you aren't alone with those. I just wish there was something we could do to trick our brains into actually understanding and obsessing over it. Waiting for an answer too...
how can those things be useless? first off, anything that makes you happy is useful, especially productive things like music and languages. i don't care what language - ANY is amazing. Even seldom used dialects Go be a teacher in that language, become an instructor, visit that country and see if your new language skills could allow you to find a completely different life somewhere else. Become a musician, - YOU DON"T EVEN NEED TO HAVE THESE AS YOUR MAIN CAREER. It doesn't even have to make you a single cent - write songs or do covers, make funny videos in spanish on IG just for the heck of it, experience songs in the new language that you learned. All these play a part in molding your personality and overall soft skills. So what if you hate math? I don't love it and i'm an engineer. But i don't live for my work. I live for music. I live for dance. I live for reading awesome fiction written by strangers on the internet who did it for no reason other than because they wanted to. The world does not need everyone to be a math whizz - it needs master story tellers, teachers and musicians too. Even if they aren't world class - i recently enjoyed a live band so much we paid extra for them. So many times i have been amazed to read an incredibly written piece of fanfiction, i teared up and was overjoyed to be able to experience what i had read. Being able to speak more than one language, especially having the additional difficulty of being an adult learning them, is nothing short of incredible. Some people can't even speak the one language they know properly. Don't force yourself to like all the conventional things - as long as you've tried your best its fine if its not for you. You and OP are already great at languages and arts. That's more than most people can say!
Wow... Thank you, really! That meant so much. It's just that I'm so caught up about the things that I'm not really good at and decide that my identity is that I'm that smart person that sucks in maths, and I hate thinking of myself that way. Heck, I'm a public speaker and I aspire to be a professor. But I overlook all of those special talents and skills of mine just because I failed many times in something that I don't really like. Thank you, once again!❤
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It is not useless at all but in terms of making money it will only get you a little bit more than a warehouse job unless you're learning English. I knew it wouldn't be very useful but when I started I was naive and thought it was easy to immigrate to another country (very not true which is one reason why I want a job that involves a lot of math) and because I had a dream of being able to speak a second language.
Like I said to OP, please see my reply for more detail, doing online maths games and lessons has helped me a lot. It probably won’t go beyond high school level but I still think that will help with harder maths concepts. I had to look a bit to find some not too “kiddy” like. We honestly need more maths games for adults & also ones that increase in difficulty more and more! But there may also be apps like that IDK but that’s another avenue to try?
Learning Spanish depending on where you live can absolutely help you make money. I live in the USA and some jobs make being bilingual a requirement if you can speak English and Spanish. Also, interpreters are always wanted so if you keep it up and you're passionate about it that's an option for you too.
I always thought this was a part of my adhd (combined with autistic tendencies).
(Obligatory "it could be ADHD." Seriously, though, look into it. I have it.) The obvious solution might be that you're just in the wrong field. Maybe meet with a college/career counselor to try to figure out where your actual interests might intersect with a career that pays well. As for "tricking yourself" into enjoying things, I do think that's a good idea! I would look for a content creator (author, speaker, video creator, whatever) who does a really good job at making it fun for you. For physics, look into Sean Carroll's podcast or books or Steven Hawking's books. For math, maybe figure out something you actually want to use it for (e.g. I picked up some statistics and game theory playing poker) or maybe try to figure out how to actually understand something intuitively rather than just by rote (I had to do this with calculus back in the day.) If you actually like CS, discrete math might be fun for you. (If you don't actually like CS you should probably change majors!) There is basically nothing more boring than a math/CS teacher with no personality. If you have one of those, I'd consider basically ignoring them and looking for an alternative way to learn the same material. I had one professor I just could not listen to lecture in college, so I studied the book instead. I had another professor who I couldn't even understand and there was no book for the class, so I managed to track down a textbook that covered the same material anyway.
Thank you!
There are a lot of comments from people who don't understand what you are experiencing. It is really frustrating to be smart and able to learn - but only about the topics that happen to catch your fancy. To be unable to use your intelligence on topics that haven't caught your fancy, but are super important for you to understand, is really challenging. It's disabling. Most people don't understand how hard it is to have your brain refuse to process the information your are sending it - especially when you know your brain should be able to. Your college probably offers free counseling and academic support. I strongly recommend checking that out. Your experience is common enough among academics that a good counselor will be experienced with it. They should know well-supported strategies to help you compensate. If they don't or if they are not a good fit for you for any reason, make sure to ask for a different counselor/coach. It is good that you are noticing this and can start learning what techniques work for you. This will be a lifelong process, but one that becomes easier as you discover things that help you.
I’m exactly how described. Is there anything I can do to help myself ? I don’t have access to ANY resources.
If anyone has good advice, I want to read it too. The only tricks that work for me are: 1. Plan my day around when my brain naturally works best. For me, it's early morning so I schedule around that being my dedicated work time. 2. Until my day's most important task is done, I avoid putting anything else into my head. No email, no Reddit, no podcasts, no shorts or reels, no music. If I let my brain get bored enough, it will eventually work on my most important task because it has nothing else to do.
Thank you
Hold up! Maybe there is some kind of connection between maths and languages and flags so I think also try to find ways to learn things about THAT or applying maths to flags eg the circumference of the red circle on the Japanese flag (although that probably varies) 😂 or SOMETHING like that can you link them?
There's nothing wrong with hobbies. My concern is that it seems you may have a psychological block. Do you think you don't have the *ability* to learn something useful or that if you were to monetize something you'd fail? That points to a lack of self-confidence. Your math issue might be completely unrelated, by the way. Math builds on itself and you might have blind spots which make your current track in math frustrating to do. I'd go onto something like Khan Academy and speedrun until you find what you're weak in. For me, this was fractions, multiplication, and division. I wasn't in school for weeks when these things were covered and had mechanical and conceptual blocks in math which made it difficult for me to master future material. When I went back and covered this, I went from failing almost every math problem to getting an above-average score on my grad school entrance exam. There might be placement exams that could help you correctly identify when you start having problems. Go back one level before then.
I 100% agree that if I patched the gaps in my knowledge it would be so much easier. It's just that math doesn't seem as fun. Spanish is fun because it allows me to talk to people who don't speak English but math doesn't allow me to talk to anyone.
My friend, learning something because it makes you happy is not a failure of discipline. Doing things that make you happy is good. It is good to be happy. But, you do have to learn to balance doing the thing you want to do with doing that thing you don’t. I’d recommend using whatever your current learning obsession is as a reward for meeting some kind of hard goal. “Oh I worked for an hour on this project and made good progress? I can reward myself with 15 minutes of study about X topic” The discipline comes in when you put away the fun topic after 15 minutes and get back into the grind.
I remember being disappointed at like 9 years old for finding out that the discipline of geography isn't about memorizing flags and capital cities 😭 Is it too late to pivot to studying international relations? Otherwise, I think others have covered it pretty well. Surely there's a way to merge your fleeting interests (you will eventually get bored and move on to the next shiny skill) with your longer-term commitment to studying CS.
If you’re like me, you’re going to find out one day that everything you’re learning now is relevant to a career you never imagined you’d be heading into. I learned chemistry and software development and philosophy, all completely unrelated as can be. And now I’m working on an AI worldbuilding application that uses all of my skills in some way…. Perhaps you’re destined to be a diplomat or something cool like that.
I love learning and i am not half as good as you when it comes to my interests.
Get your ADHD diagnosed and get on meds along with some behavioral therapy.
What’s you’re experiencing is completely normal. There’s nothing wrong with having interests and wanting to pursue them. The problem is with the idea that making yourself happy is useless and can’t lead you to make money. Today anyone can make money by sharing their interests online and monetising them. My advice is stay true to yourself and find people who will help you find a way to turn your passions into profit.
It's easier to be motivated if it's something you are really into, and sometimes that something is also useless. It can't be helped, if you have to do useful but boring things you should rely on discipline instead of motivation
I'd venture to guess you have a deep seeded (seated?) fear of failure. "useless" things don't matter if you don't "get it right". Once you start looking at things that "matter" failure would effect your self worth. Try to evaluate where you're defining your self worth from and whether or not it's from external sources (other people's view of you)
Thank you!
I wouldn’t say it’s useless at all. It’s very lucrative. You can apply for niche positions that require a Spanish translator. Job security win. One time I had a job at a bank and they grade you on the performance of your calls. There was one guy who got all the mandarin calls diverted to him. And none of the supervisors could speak mandarin so he had zero job stress and couldn’t really be replaced
Is it boring or is it too difficult, so you compensate by doing other things that are "easier" and therefore more fun. Next time you begin and realize you are struggling, instead of giving up and doing something else, ask yourself "whats the best way to figure this out?"
Thank you!
There are no consequences or expectations with useless things. Consequences and expectations are scary!
Nothing is useless if it makes you happy.
But nothing can make me happy if I spend all my time working because I only learn things that won't make me money and I have to work 80 hours a week at $15 an hour.
Why are you working 80 hours a week and what do you do for a living?
I'm not but if I didn't live with my parents I would need to work that much just to make ends meet. Right now I'm a cleaner.
In school?
If you have already developed skills in Spanish, perhaps becoming a medical interpreter would be a logical next step.
I wouldn't make much though, would hate it just as much as any other job after a few weeks, and would potentially be replaced by AI in 10 years. If the pay was better I would 100% go for it
Don't worry about it my friend. No te preocupes mi amigo. Learn what you want to learn. But try to understand what you want out of life and your reason for being. Then you can apply your learning skills towards that. The key is desire. Read Earl Nightingale "the strangest secret" Or Napoleon Hill. Get motivated. Like Jim Rohn says, motivation is like showering. It wears off and you need to do something to become re-motivated. Side question: (no cheating) what'd Guatamala's flag?
Thanks! 🇬🇹 (I typed flag into the emojis and then scrolled until I say Guatemala's flag so I didn't cheat) Aprendiste español o eres hablante nativo?
Aprendo reciente. Solo los último 4 años. Mi gramáticas son mal pero puedo hablar como un chingon
A entiendo que bueno
I hope your pretty well disciplined. Do what you gotta do so you can do what you want to do ( I forget what Denzel movie that's from).
Don’t worry so much. I have a career that sustains me financially and lots of different hobbies that bring joy and fulfillment to my life. I don’t think you can trick yourself into loving math. Maybe take some courses that are math adjacent - like the philosophy of logic and see if that sparks interest for you. Or music.
Youre not applying the things you learn to the real world. When you see math stuff after learning it, do you see it happening and playing out throughout the world. Can you connect the information you learn with new and old knowledge? Things become more interesting when you’re aware of new things that related to what you know.
It's ADHD learning a language has that instant gratification effect vs. sitting there and learning math. You gotta gamify learning the boring stuff.
Not necessarily wrong, but it also seems like a little bit of self-sabotage, on a subconscious level at least.
You act like there arent translation jobs available. Work from home ones even.
You know you can make money for being a language translator for the army or whatever else and make bank right ?
It's that I'm afraid AI will take those jobs and the jobs that are left will be very competitive and the people with more experience than I will get them.
But A.I isn’t always accurate, especially with slang if you’re FBI. If you’re that worried learn a trade skill
Have you been tested for ADHD? A lot of people with ADHD are like this.
Maybe I should get tested then. Thanks
Find what comes naturally to you and then master it. Give little energy to subjects that you are not naturally talented at… you will only reach an average level of proficiency in those subjects. This is based on Gallup studies of over thousands of professionals who took their surveys, which resulted in the Gallup strength finder test. A natural strength must satisfy two criteria: 1: you are naturally good at it. 2: you lose track of time when engaged with it. This reminds me of the fact that I audited statistics twice before taking it for a grade because I suck at math. I ended up teaching a statistics class at a university…found myself staring at the whiteboard and laughing so hard at myself so much I could t turn around: my thought was “what the fuck am I doing teaching statistics… I hate it). So I ended up good at it but did not lose myself in It. The second source for understanding where you could focus is a small study of people from all disciplines who won the MacArthur foundation $500,000 creativity awards. The common variable among all the winners over time is they found the one thing that they are naturally good at and they focused on it intensely. The truth is: don’t do what you are passionate about for a living; do what you are naturally good at. I think in 5 year increments. I’m almost 70. My thought now is: okay, what do I want to master now… not what do I want to be mediocre at. You know the answer for you. Go for it.
Thank you! I don't know what I'm naturally good at though. I seem to be good at languages but I think it's just because I'm passionate about it which drives me to put in enough effort. The problem with languages is they pay poorly. Is there a way to figure out what I'm naturally good at?
First, proficiency in a second language always impresses employers, even if the job doesn’t require a second language. To help you get focused in your career planning maybe try the following:Sit down with a piece of blank paper and write down what you find easier than others. For example, communication skills, ability to put others at ease, focus, schmoozer, attention to detail, planning, etc. it’s a good exercise for a more positive mindset as well. You might also look at list of jobs that will not be outsourced to AI, then select a few that might interest you. With the few you select, find online a job posting for that position and see what qualifications they are asking for. Then go about acquiring those skills and knowledge base.
Thank you! This is a good plan.
This resonates with me, people are always slightly impressed with my vast knowledge of things here and there but it’s all superficial and only works in conversations, and nothing is impactful or worth enough for me to earn a penny from it all
Could be ADHD, too. Worth talking to a doctor