Being a Programmer that Travels - My Attemps at Being Productive

Travelling is fun. Travelling is cool. Travelling is apparently how you obtain culture(yoghurt's another way). But it's also a giant distraction when you're in the middle of doing work and you're loving what you're doing at that time. It's stupid to think this way - but I'm sometimes not fussed about checking out the sights and scenes when I'm overtly excited over this knowledge that I'm about to obtain. That is, unless, I'm all burnt out and need to recuperate

Ever Heard of 'Fun'?

As you might've guessed from the title, not everyone feels that way, and that's totally fine! But I'm the kind of person that loves to focus and learn some new things, except that I've identified that I have a very narrow set of means of learning that I want to learn from. Computers, and the other computers attached on the other ends. Servers can join in the learning tunnel too. 

Somehow, in my head, learning is only valid if it's through the internet. Which makes sense considering how gigantic the fucking thing is, which makes me anxious because there are so many rabbit holes I want to go down. Like more coding patterns, new graphene structures and mushrooms that create economic policies without the need for a brain. I want more, and to do that I need to get the fuck off this thing and find a faster way of learning. And sometimes that's by being my physical self. 

It's partially why I decided to jump back on steemit and write every couple of days. To be a little more human. Even while I'm overseas, I still don't get the wow factor from travelling. I just want to learn more and understand more. So how am I doing this learning stuff? People are actually an amazing start. They're like walking servers with heaps of knowledge. I know! They have knowledge! Not everyone is a giant walking chewing machine!

 I decided to step back and just let people converse with me and bask in whatever shit they're spouting. It's been working well so far, I've learned so much.

I am in this introverted mindset at the moment. I'm able to switch into a shadow of my former self for a short while before needing a little time to recharge, but it does take some time to recharge. 

Being around people outside of what you do really has opened my world view far more than travel ever could. Or maybe it's the fact that I'm travelling which makes me want to socialise more? Nah, I'm from a very multicultural city. I know how to socialise with many different types of people. 

All this socialising has given me two different views on my productivity though - am I being productive, or am I procrastinating?

I think that I've been more productive because I've given my brain something new to workout. This new workout has really invigorated me as I get more and more excited to complete projects. I tend to infer things in a more programmatic sense even when it's not related in the slightest to the topic that I'm discussing with someone. It's also great when someone is talking about an unrelated topic and the stuff that they're spouting actually gives you that 'AHA!' moment that you've been waiting for. 

If I were to talk to new programmers, I'd tell them to make friends with people outside their circle. You know that ol' phrase 'surround yourself with friends who think like you'? Don't listen to that shit. Give yourself turmoil. Find that person who argues with you even though they've got no substantiated evidence, find yourself that great person with so much knowledge that you just go 'ooft'. It keeps your perspectives and your world views open, and therefore your likelihood of solving problems quickly. And - if anything else - you're far more entertained than if you only had a bunch of people teasing others over the structure of your question on StackOverflow