back in school it felt automatic but now it’s way harder. I’ve tried apps and casual meetups but conversations die quickly than expected... how did u managed to build real friendships later in life, what worked for you and how did you get past the awkward stage??? thanks!

I'm in second year of industrial engineering, the first year was hell for me for my lack for attention and consistency, and i barely survived but idk if i will this year ... And I feel like it's already late to start improving my notes cuz the first four-month period is coming to and end soon and the exams period is very close, idk what to do and I was thinking about giving up but I went to this presentation of a guy who graduated from my uni and was in the same situation as me but worked harder and earned an scholarship in Germany and studied there for 6 months and now words for Mercedes and so and so and so , he didn't mention how he managed to improve his academic performance so I'm seeking for advice..

I hate leaving the classroom feeling like everyone understood everything except me

I’m 22(M) and I have a tendency of picking up hobbies that I seem to enjoy when I start but end up hating and I think it’s because I suck at being productive or remaining disciplined. I end up coming up with excuses to not do it .

I started off learning Dutch because it’s similar to English but thought I was wasting money as I’d never use it because it’s not a global language and I somehow stopped being consistent.

I then started Portuguese but all the methods like listening to videos and music put me off as I wasn’t enjoying hearing it now I’m stuck .

How do I do it ?

i have a pattern of on & off falling into chaos. When feeling overwhelmed i can shut down & completely stop making progress in things that matter to me & generally fall off responsibilities. not cleaning my space, unreliable communication with others & a desire to escape each moment.

During these times i have a hard time being with myself & i feel consumed with stressful thoughts. I know it doesn’t help that i have a habit of doomscrolling when i feel low which only propels me further into overstimulation.

All of this ultimately creates this sedated feeling. Mood swinging from to indifference towards bettering myself then anxious & existential that if i continue down this path i won’t get what i want in life. This entire cycle makes it hard to make significant progress towards my dreams.

How do you break free from this pattern & stay on track in life?

I used to think my problem was lack of motivation but I am starting to realize it is more about how I approach learning in the beginning. Every time I decide to learn something new I go all in at first. I collect resources watch beginners guides and try to understand the full roadmap before I even do the first small practice step. It feels productive in the moment but it always leads to burnout before I build any real skill.

I remember when I tried learning coding properly. I spent the first week watching long videos about how developers think and what languages I should choose instead of just writing simple code. When I finally tried to practice I felt lost and frustrated because my expectations were already too high. Instead of pushing through that awkward stage I would stop and restart the process again a few days later with a different course thinking that maybe this time it would feel easier.

The same pattern happened with other things like learning design and even fitness routines. I kept waiting for a version of myself that would feel ready and confident from the start. But that version never really showed up.

Now I want to break that cycle because I know I am capable of learning if I just stay with one thing long enough. I am trying to understand how other people deal with the uncomfortable early stage where nothing feels good and progress is slow. How do you stop yourself from quitting when you feel like a beginner for too long and actually stay consistent until things start to click naturally?

I would like to learn human echolocation.

The concept is so scary to me because people will be looking at me but I really need to start working out seriously. How do I not get scared of the idea of going? What should I even expect? Is there a time I should go Will people try to talk to me? What should I bring with me? I really have no idea what to expect and its really scary to me but I want to use weights which I don't have. How do you even get started?

For the longest time I thought my problem was that I just hadn’t found the right thing to learn. I would get excited about something new almost every few weeks. One week it was coding apps, another week it was graphic design, then I convinced myself I should learn video editing or even something like digital marketing because it all seemed useful in different ways.

At first everything felt really promising. I would watch beginner videos, save playlists, and tell myself that this time I was going to stick with it. I would learn for a few days and feel like I was finally making progress, but then I would hit a point where things stopped feeling easy and started feeling confusing. That’s usually when I would switch to something else instead of pushing through.

It started to bother me more when I realized I was spending more time starting things than actually getting better at anything. I wasn’t failing at learning, I was just never staying long enough in one place to actually improve. It felt like I was always resetting myself back to zero.

Recently I tried programming again because it felt like something that could actually build a future for me if I gave it enough time. But I noticed the same pattern starting to happen where I would overthink what language to choose, watch too many beginner guides, and then feel overwhelmed before even writing anything properly on my own.

This time I don’t want to repeat the same cycle. I don’t want to keep collecting half started skills that never turn into anything real. I want to learn how other people stay consistent when the excitement fades and everything starts feeling difficult instead of new.

I’m looking for advice from people who have been through this stage where you want to learn everything but end up committing to nothing. How did you choose your first real skill and how did you stop yourself from constantly switching paths when things got hard or confusing?

Hello, I am just someone who really enjoys learning stuff about computers. Given that I am 24 years old, I am not illiterate with computers necessarily since I’ve basically grew up in a very technological time. However, I don’t really know what the best resources are and the order to learn.

What I want to learn:
- How computers work (hardware, operating systems, file systems)

- Basic IT troubleshooting (PCs, phones, printers, TVs, smart devices)

- Networking fundamentals (WiFi, routers, IPs, DNS, home networks)

- Command line basics (Windows CMD/PowerShell + Linux terminal)

- Remote access tools and how they work

- Cybersecurity basics (malware, phishing, protection)

- Ethical hacking fundamentals (legal/ethical security learning)

- OSINT basics (open-source research techniques)

Goal:
- Be able to confidently fix common tech issues for family/friends

- Understand how devices, networks, and the internet connect

- Eventually build skills for IT/support or remote tech work

Thanks to everyone in advance! Majority of this is just for self interest/hobby when I learn to create a homelab

I want to get into business, but I honestly don't know what business or how. I'm starting to work for small business owners who are expanding their existing income, and it's definitely a step in the right process, but I also want to learn from those who really took a risk and have the ambition to do something bigger.

Problem is I have no idea how to find these people, and even if i do I don't know how to reach them. I've tried connecting with some of these people from linkedin but I never get accepted, just ghosted. I also don't have any connections, mainly because of my age and not knowing anyone in the scene.

Where do I start? Maybe in person events/meetups? Or should I slow down and work my way up from where I am now

Every time i've tried it was pretty disgusting honestly lol. i use recipes with all the spices but somehow it's still bad!! If anyone has some go-to recipes pls lmk!!!

I’m a really anxious person and I like to be ready for things. Most of my family lives in Poland near the Ukrainian border and between that, all the other wars in the world, climate change, and social tensions, I want to start preparing to be ready in case stuff goes wrong. I’m not talking about building a bunker under my house or hoarding food in my basement, just maybe put together the essentials and learn a few important skills. Where can I start?

So, I know how to play Chess but the only problem is I usually end up being the one Checkmated. I can capture some pieces but I end up losing. I want to learn how to win and get really good at Chess.

I’ve been living in the US for 8 years now, and while I think my English is pretty good, my accent still gives me away every time.

I’ve seen older posts asking something similar, but they’re years old so I figured I’d ask fresh. Is anyone here willing to practice with me or point me in the right direction?

Also genuinely curious — for someone living in America with daily exposure and consistent practice, how long does it realistically take to sound more natural?

Any tips, resources, or conversation partners welcome. Thanks in advance! 🙏

I don't fully understand what people mean when they say this is it just questioning everything or coming up with a solution.

How do I apply this in my life?

Thinking about a YouTube note-taking tool where the AI doesn't write your notes — it makes it easier for you to write them. Pacing, prompts, gap-fills. Would anyone use this?

I know for me, writing out my notes helps me learn but the tools out there that summarize YouTube videos into notes are also very helpful. I'm trying to find a nice middle ground

I always was interested in learning language. I know around 5 languages now but now I want to learn russian.

Inorder to do so I started with duolingo and I know it's not the best site for this but anyways. I even had a streak of around 250 days. Because of it I know how to identify characters and can read some what russian. But the issue is I have read various words during the course but can't seem to remember those words and I can hardly form 2 to 3 simple sentences but I want to learn such that I can understand it properly and speak it fluently. Inorder to do so I started watching sites that show English sentences and a say those same sentences in russian but that doesn't seem to work much even though it's hardly few days. I know the general advice like watch russian movies or series and something like that but I don't find them anywhere. So is there anyone with similar experience and now knows russian properly or some one native who can guide me??

30M. I am sorry, this is totally an over-spammed thread. I have been left by a girl who turned out wanting a casual thing (she told me a bit later). And now I am trying to date more women to not let my emotional base being around one person. I don't care about body count or stuff like that, I just want to do exposive therapy, in order to be more confident in dating.

I have the baseline, i have a job, a car, I go to the gym, i am doing martial arts and reading books about self-improving.. But I am doing the 90% of this stuff in order to be chosen. As for now I asked out a girl working in a bar, but we never actually dated as we rescheduled everytime. I went out with another girl, but I smell "I was doing this for friendship" in the air. I noticed a girl in my gym, but I don't want to seem too much in asking her out or asking for her contacts as I don't know her, i just think she is good looking; and I know that in gym people don't like being annoyed in talk while they are training so I don't know what to do. But this is just an example.

It's weird. My life is full but yet I feel I have nothing to talk about. I was told my life was boring so I would like to know how to make my life interesting

My life at the moment:

- Working 9-5 Monday to Friday: I work for my mom and we are involved with one of the biggest projects in the world. My goal is to fix our systemic issues within the company and have my mom finally retire.

- Living with my family: Because I like being around my family.

- Hanging out with family: My family is dysfunctional and I want to repair it. I was the youngest in my family growing up so I didn’t really have the chance to take care of someone else but now I do (baby cousins). So I hangout with various family members about 4 times a week including going out.

-Going out: We go out about once a week. When we go out we go to museums, libraries, galleries, explore nature, hang out with animals, etc. Growing up I was (a) Sheltered (b) Encouraged to sideline my ethnicity and ancestral homeland. I never went out regularly before so going out now and connecting with my ancestral homeland through its nature, history, art, etc is really important to me.

- Caring for my sprained ankle

- Learning my heritage language: Again, I was encouraged to sideline my ethnicity and this resulted in me not being able to speak my heritage language. So learning this language brings me closer to who I actually am.

- Dieting to lose weight: Diabetes runs in the family

- Growing out my hair: In my culture, there is a saying that goes “your hair is your pride”. Also, I feel a lot of peer pressure to add extensions to my hair so I am going out of my way to grow my hair and make a personal rule to NOT do that in order to fight this pressure.

- Taking care of my skin: Having nice skin is nice.

- Calling and texting various friends almost every day.

- Basic chores aside from that

I do not:

- Drink (uncommon for my age in my country)

- Consume international media (extremely uncommon for my age in my country)

- Partake in organised religion (EXTREMELY uncommon for my age in my country)

- Have friends in my city (they all moved out). I plan on making more but I feel there are some things I need to deal with family-wise first before I start expanding my social life.

I never run out of things to do and life is quite nice. But I don't like talking about work because I believe work should remain at work. I don't like talking about my other goals either because I feel like if I talk about them too much I can overthink, get upset that I haven't reached my goals yet, etc. I have found that it is best that I don't talk about them so I don't my feel consumed by such thoughts of the future. All my goals require that I stick to one disciplined monotonous routine or the other and there is only so much to talk about. Also, I don't talk about my goals because I don't believe they should define me. So then what do I talk about??? I was told that my life is quite boring so I would like to know what I can do to make it NOT boring.

Essentially, I am looking for books, YouTube recommendations, etc., that give a conceptual framework on how to understand how the world works. I want to focus on a people-oriented perspective and not a nature-based one. I know this is a big ask, but I don't know where to get started. I guess one way to understand my interests is that I want to basically know how every job works together or how every industry works together to make human civilization function.