I heard the term information paralysis the other day and realized that it describes me perfectly . I get so overwhelmed with new information on something I might want to actually learn that I just stop trying to learn it. I’m pushing 50 I have no savings, live paycheck to paycheck and I see these young adults 30 years younger just making bank investing and AI day trading and would love to try it, I just can’t start because I get overwhelmed on stuff I know nothing about.
My memory is shit I have to read stuff over and over ago before it clicks which builds the frustration
I loved computers as a kid in the late 80s unfortunately everyone in my life, parents teachers said nobody will ever make a living so I just lost touch with that part of me. I’m still a gamer but as far as operating computers well, webpages etc. or how any of it operates I don’t have a clue. I didn’t see a webpage until the day before I graduated highschool
I don’t have any revolutionary advice to give to you my friend. I’m quite a bit younger than you and I already am feeling the creep of losing touch with the speed of new technology. I think to a certain extent that is inevitable. I will say that there is a tremendous amount of survivorship bias in the videos of young people making racks off of day trading. These videos are designed to get people hooked on what is functionally gambling. No offense meant whatsoever, but if you’re living paycheck to paycheck it’s the exact type of slippery slope that can turn a bad financial situation into a ruinous one. I hope you find something that you like though and wish you the best of luck in whatever you do!
I think the sense of losing touch with the speed of new tech is unavoidable in our current state of over-reliance on it. In this sense, if you feel you aren’t losing touch with it, you’re probably misunderstanding the scale/depth of our rapidly accelerating situation imho
I don’t have any serious answers, but I do know that it’s important not to let good be the enemy of ‘perfect’. And it’s also important to remember that we will always make choices with incomplete information, but our choices (like our lives) are time-constraint, so eventually we have to pick a path regardless. Are you sure you wanna do AI trading? It’s basically gambling with more steps, right? Or at the very least a bit ‘esoteric’, certainly not a clear way into financial stability. Maybe a trade would be better? Idk. Good luck, friend. 🙏
don’t let good be the enemy of perfect
This is a beautiful expression, and certainly one I needed to hear today
Many thanks comrade!
I’m dealing with a different field that is probably even more complex, and often overwhelming.
I think what you probably need to focus on is not learning new information, but making sense of the information you already know (even if only partially). Understanding where you are now will help you figure out where you want to be next.
One of the simplest tools that is effective is lists. Write lists of different types of things. E.g. things you already understand (this one is a bit of a confidence boost), things you want to learn (you could then prioritise these, and write sub lists for each one as you do it), information sources, ideas, whatever.
Preferably use a pen and paper, because it slows you down and makes it more deliberate and considered.
“Sense-making” is the broader set of ideas and techniques that attempt to help with this, but which ones will work for you is dependent on your domain and ways of thinking/working.
Knowledge is naturally paranoiac
I’d recommend watching the Learning how to learn videos, and then doing the Anki. It’s how the brain learns, and it’s literally changed my life.
I’ve told so many people about it, and only 1 friend did it, and thanked me so much, and now he, too, recommends it to everyone.
As someone else mentioned, do the Pomodoro method for the course.
Unless you want to rely on luck, investing is all about starting early. You simply can’t catch up to someone who began in their early twenties unless you have a spare $500,000 to start with. On top of that, you’d need a wage and lifestyle that allow you to consistently invest several hundred dollars every month for decades. It’s never too late to start - but unfortunately, in your case, it’s too late to “make a bank” unless you’re willing to take a gamble.
Make a default plan. Before you learn everything, just say in 20 minutes I’m going to do x unless I know better. Then do all the research you want for 20 minutes, then if you don’t know better, do x.
You can obviously modify this for longer time frames, deeper research etc. Just have a default plan that you will do by a time, rather than waiting for perfect information.
This is really good for executive function, and for emergencies, if you don’t know better, you do the default.
Are you ADHD by chance?
This was my first thought as well. OP sounds like myself before I was diagnosed with ADHD (type combined) and started learning how to address my symptoms.
As soon as I saw, “… Reading over and over…” In OPs post my mind jumped to ADHD. I, and so many others with ADHD, have to re-read a paragraph, heck sometimes a sentence before our brains wake up and realize that we should store this info in short term memory.
A therapist who specializes in ADHD in adults (it used to be believed that children diagnosed with ADHD would “grow” out of their ADHD as they got older. Thankfully this belief is rapidly changing as our understanding of ADHD gets better). They can help you start to re-work your life to be complimentary to your ADHD instead of feeling like you’re trying to cram a square peg in a round hole.
ADHD isnt the root cause for everything, but it definitely influences all aspects of your life in varying degrees.
Information or decision paralysis is also an ADHD trait. Also the inferred inability to self-motivate or get better jobs, and of course like you said, the re-reading with inability to get things to stick.
Yeah, it may not be ADHD, but OP’s symptoms rhyme with it. And they definitely don’t get better with age, you just get better at masking some of them.
Pick something. Spend 20 minutes a day on that thing. If you don’t know where to begin spend the 20 minutes researching how to begin.
You only have to commit 20 mins then you can go back to mindless scrolling. If you are having fun you can go over 20 minutes.
If you can’t choose something, choose 5 things and spend your 20 minutes narrowing down which you’d like to learn.
Realize learning itself is the activity. The joy itself. There is no goal. No pressure. No ego conception of where you must be in x amount of time.
