> It is kind of childish, but I still need the "beating-the-system"-incentive to learn complex stuff.
I can relate. I had a few experiences like that in college.
I once got a bit depressed and skipped a lot of classes; when I finally dragged myself to a numerical methods class I was told that I might be unlikely to pass it at all given all my absence. For some reason this made me so interested in the topic itself that I spent ton of time learning and internalizing the concepts, aced all the assignments and in the end I put the PhD that taught our lab classes in a very awkward position - he wanted to give me the best possible mark but he couldn't given my initial absence and the established rules (he actually did stick to the rules he set and gave me a reduced grade, for which I highly respected him and later choose him as my BSc advisor). Funnily, the momentum I gained actually transferred to other classes so I pretty much aced everything that year.
I had a lot of other situations of the kind of "what do you mean this language doesn't even have functions? I'll hack it until it gains them." leading to the most crazy final project submitted; or "what do you mean I can't ace this class? I still have 24 hours left to do a project!". As long as I was feeling that I'm beating the system in a most overkill way possible, taking the doomsday scenario and sticking it back to the faces of naysayers, no task seemed like a chore. I was in perfect state of flow.
Sadly nowdays it's very rare that I find myself in such scenarios. But when I do, I literally don't need to sleep at night.
I can relate. I had a few experiences like that in college.
I once got a bit depressed and skipped a lot of classes; when I finally dragged myself to a numerical methods class I was told that I might be unlikely to pass it at all given all my absence. For some reason this made me so interested in the topic itself that I spent ton of time learning and internalizing the concepts, aced all the assignments and in the end I put the PhD that taught our lab classes in a very awkward position - he wanted to give me the best possible mark but he couldn't given my initial absence and the established rules (he actually did stick to the rules he set and gave me a reduced grade, for which I highly respected him and later choose him as my BSc advisor). Funnily, the momentum I gained actually transferred to other classes so I pretty much aced everything that year.
I had a lot of other situations of the kind of "what do you mean this language doesn't even have functions? I'll hack it until it gains them." leading to the most crazy final project submitted; or "what do you mean I can't ace this class? I still have 24 hours left to do a project!". As long as I was feeling that I'm beating the system in a most overkill way possible, taking the doomsday scenario and sticking it back to the faces of naysayers, no task seemed like a chore. I was in perfect state of flow.
Sadly nowdays it's very rare that I find myself in such scenarios. But when I do, I literally don't need to sleep at night.