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Ask HN: I want to be an expert in many things but my lifetime won't be enough

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Re: Ask HN: I want to be an expert in many things but my lifetime won't be enough

#131

Post by pfkurtz »

mattlondon wrote: post #80
pfkurtz wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol. Read my first line. I'm a software engineer posting on Hacker news. I know how to learn a skill. This is something else, that you can have, if you read lots of books and learn more languages. Becoming smart is, in part, about being exposed to lots of others thoughts, and lots of facts, and discussing those things and thinking through them yourself.

I think you are conflating knowledge with being "smart"/intelligent. One does not beget the other.

Not even close.

Re: Ask HN: I want to be an expert in many things but my lifetime won't be enough

#132

Post by rubslopes »

jodrellblank wrote: post #90

If that idea of your lifetime not being enough is stressing you out, Dr David Burns' work on cognitive behavioural therapy might help. Saying you want to be an expert in many things because you are interested in many things could be papering over some deeper anxiety-driven motivations around 'not being good enough' or 'not being worthy of respect' or 'needing to prove yourself to someone' or 'not wanting to be a nobo…

+1 for Dr. David Burns work. His book "Feeling Good" was the start of the cure of my anxiety; it was immensely helpful.

Re: Ask HN: I want to be an expert in many things but my lifetime won't be enough

#133

Post by dahart »

komadori wrote: post #12

In that case, first become an expert in life-span extension!

Are there any experts in life-span extension? Or, maybe what you meant was longevity extension - are there any experts in longevity extension? (Life-span extension means avoiding early death, longevity means being able to live longer than any humans have ever lived, say, 200 years or whatever.)

I’ve read a bunch of pseudo-science and heard about so-called “experts” claiming it’s possible and coming, but the field seems to attract charlatans promising immortality…

Re: Ask HN: I want to be an expert in many things but my lifetime won't be enough

#134

Post by chillpenguin »

I would say you should work on things that will have a bigger impact. Some things might be fun/interesting but the impact will be extremely low (or none at all).

Another tip is to vigilantly avoid time wasting traps like instagram, facebook, video games, pointless youtube videos, etc. This will give you a LOT more time to pursue other things.

But yeah, this is a tough burden for us to bear. I mean, it is literally the oldest problem in human existence: our short time on this earth. It reminds me of a song from ancient Greece (literally the oldest surviving complete musical composition)[1]:

  While you live, shine
  have no grief at all
  life exists only for a short while
  and Time demands his due.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seikilos_epitaph

Re: Ask HN: I want to be an expert in many things but my lifetime won't be enough

#135

Post by vasco »

abvdasker wrote: post #114
jodrellblank wrote: post #90

If that idea of your lifetime not being enough is stressing you out, Dr David Burns' work on cognitive behavioural therapy might help. Saying you want to be an expert in many things because you are interested in many things could be papering over some deeper anxiety-driven motivations around 'not being good enough' or 'not being worthy of respect' or 'needing to prove yourself to someone' or 'not wanting to be a nobo…

What a great and thoughtful response. I really believe too many people — some very ambitious and successful — are being driven by unexamined pathology. I've seen too many examples of people who achieve their goals in terms of money or career or prestige or knowledge and remain miserable because they never took the time to ask themselves these questions.

As opposed to the rest that are miserable without getting the prestige? Everyone is motivated by fears, insecurities, wanting respect of peers, etc. Painting this all as mental illness is a bit stretched.

People do stuff and then they die, so try to have fun, do stuff that you want to do and don't worry so much about what mysterious voodoo motivates what you do, who cares?

If you make 10 people's lives better throughout your life, and you did that because of some childhood trauma that motivates you to be a savior or to get approval, who gives a shit? You still helped them.

Re: Ask HN: I want to be an expert in many things but my lifetime won't be enough

#136

Post by pdntspa »

Victerius wrote: post #23
gduzan wrote: post #6

First, have you asked yourself why you want to be an expert in many things? If it is just to know things, then it doesn't matter; just keep learning until you can't anymore. If it is to apply the knowledge to something, then you can use that fact to determine how much utility over time the knowledge of each thing would have, and focus on the greatest first.

> First, have you asked yourself why you want to be an expert in many things? Not the OP, but here's my answer. I want to be able to win arguments. If I debate the merits of an economic proposal with you, and you say, "Sure, and what are your qualifications, exactly? Do you have a PhD in economics?", I want to be able to say, "Yes, I do have a PhD in economics, actually", or "I have read over 490 books about economic…

That is an awful lot of effort just to be able to prove a point, which may or may not actually come up. Choose wisely!

Re: Ask HN: I want to be an expert in many things but my lifetime won't be enough

#137

Post by animesh »

saulpw wrote: post #85
Centigonal wrote: post #29

Four Thousand Weeks is a good book that touches on this. It begins with the premise that most people have infinite desires, and all people have finite time, and it's unlikely you will accomplish even 1% of all of your dreams in your finite life. It then talks about how that's okay, because what we choose to spend our time and attention on is what makes us unique and interesting, and explores some ways to prioritize t…

Humans have the appetites of gods and the stomachs of mortals.

Great quote, where is this from? Certainly true for me, it seems so far.

Re: Ask HN: I want to be an expert in many things but my lifetime won't be enough

#138

Post by pdntspa »

Victerius wrote: post #84
sockaddr wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Realistically a lot of people who you'd otherwise learn from will avoid discussing things with you because of this behavior. Meanwhile those willing to listen and who aren't as concerned with winning arguments will learn much more than you. EDIT: to expand on this, the smartest person I ever knew (the late Justin Corwin. Maybe someone here also knew him) would sit quietly during arguments until someone asked his opin…

> his knowledge went deeper than you could explore with mere discussion. Another principle of mine: There are no oracles. There is no individual, past, present, or future, who cannot be surpassed. No one is a knowledge god. If I learned everything Justin knew, and that wouldn't be too difficult, I imagine, then I, too, could gain a level of knowledge that goes deeper than one could explore with mere discussion, accor…

Ok but... why?

Re: Ask HN: I want to be an expert in many things but my lifetime won't be enough

#139

Post by rcornea »

jodrellblank wrote: post #90

If that idea of your lifetime not being enough is stressing you out, Dr David Burns' work on cognitive behavioural therapy might help. Saying you want to be an expert in many things because you are interested in many things could be papering over some deeper anxiety-driven motivations around 'not being good enough' or 'not being worthy of respect' or 'needing to prove yourself to someone' or 'not wanting to be a nobo…

Indeed, I am feeling that my lifetime may not be enough to learn all the things I am required to. The general feeling I have is that if I do not do this effort of gaining expertise, I am not fit for life.

As a bit of context, I have been applying for work for about a year now as a software developer in the DACH (german-speaking EU), to be able to eke out a proper living and so far, every job inquiry, every human contact I have made boils down to "me not being good enough" in some respect. Even though I am sure to perform well, given standard compensation and a reasonable work environment.

Everything starting from my education, my life, to my work experience has come under scrutiny and has become more fragmented and harder to coagulate as a coherent story as a result of this constant requirement for me needing "higher expertise to qualify".

Over the course of my life, I have encountered hundreds of situations where as a result of my own lack of expertise in some domain, I was oblivious and even sometimes happy to accept completely unacceptable results, bad products/workmanship or horrible relationships. As a result of bad experiences thereafter, I found myself studying how to manage things on my own, as consistently endangering my very own life didn't appeal to me.

So I feel myself pressured into studying more JS frameworks, more foreign languages, more programming languages, more engineering, more medicine, more chemistry, more psychology, more design science, more product science, more construction science, more everything until I achieve a level of reliable expertise.

At the same time, I am painfully aware of the fact that on my deathbed I will heavily resent the fact I had to spend all this time on personal expertise when probably "we could have had nice things" instead. To be honest, I feel resentment over the fact right now.

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