I think it's best to listen to advice from people with the results you want. Moreover, it's best to understand the rationale behind successful people's processes rather than copy them outright.
Ask HN: What advice messed up your life?
241–248 of 248 posts
Re: Ask HN: What advice messed up your life?
#242Listening to any advice that wasn't what I truly believed.
I believe the only valuable advice you can give to someone is along the lines of "Do what you feel is the right thing for you to do."
Re: Ask HN: What advice messed up your life?
#243You only take as you've given, and now your hope is all but gone - though you lost your way (Now is not forever). But I know your pain. We all fall sometimes you're not the first !
But I know it hurts. In the end you'll find what you deserve, still I know it hurts.
Re: Ask HN: What advice messed up your life?
#244Going to University.
Even though I had a great time, got two great degrees and actually found a really good job in the City I cannot help but feel why I couldn't have gone straight to work skipped all this debt and invested even more money/time in other endeavours like getting solid operational experience in a company. For instance, my head of opts at my firm built the biggest mutual fund in the UK around the age of 20.
Re: Ask HN: What advice messed up your life?
#245"There is nothing unfixable but death". Bullshit, mom.
Re: Ask HN: What advice messed up your life?
#246Stuff they tell you in Sunday school which is impossible/undesirable in practical terms yet leaves a lingering sense of unworthiness about one's own character and a lack of healthy ambition: - love thy neighbour - don't be selfish - don't care about money/possessions - don't judge Oh, and also: install OpenOffice.org
I wonder if you've listened to this story:
http://storycorps.org/listen/stories/julio-diaz/
I don't know this man's beliefs, but I can think of no better example of loving thy neighbor, being selfless, being unconcerned about possessions, and not judging. I think this is what Jesus would do.
Taking this story as an example of what it means to follow Jesus, I don't see how following him could leave a sense of unworthiness about one's character or lack of healthy ambition.
Re: Ask HN: What advice messed up your life?
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
You bifurcate "I" and "me" implying the former can reliably create such a state in the latter; if this is the case, then what's actually at work in forming your "me"?
I used two different terms to aid the reader, but I and me are just pointers to self and like a ruby class running metaprogramming on self, one can rewrite oneself. The new code still comes from the self, though.
not felicitous to say the least. you're ignoring my point that your self is formed by something which also has a form that you're ignoring since you're so in love with its ability to change.
Re: Ask HN: What advice messed up your life?
#248"You're smart." It took me five years of coasting on that presumption before I realized that being "smart" isn't nearly enough. I'm still working (after a few more years) to develop the habits that would have come from hearing "you're a hard worker."
I hate to say me too, but definitely me too. I'm convinced that I procrastinate more because of being told how smart I was as a kid, as opposed to being petrified of not working hard enough.