Ask HN: How do you accept your place in the world?

You think Pablo Picasso was the best artist of his time? Probably not. He was picked by a bunch of rich, powerful people... Had they chosen to spend millions of dollars on the works of a different artist, that other artist would now be famous and nobody would know who Picasso is. It's also why almost all famous artists knew each other or had some social connection; it's mostly about social networking with rich, powerful people - Talent is secondary. It's the same in every industry where the quality of output cannot be easily or objectively measured.

Unfortunately, software development ability is very hard to measure. It can take years to properly evaluate someone's ability. Also, to rub salt into the wound, coders who are good at solving puzzles and other short-term problems are often regarded as better than those who are able to solve long-term problems (e.g. through good software architecture)... Even though the second one is far more valuable economically. It just takes a lot more time to prove that someone is a good coder in the long run so this leaves more room for choosing winners arbitrarily (for example; arbitrarily using 'short-term puzzle-solving ability under time pressure' as the criteria for deciding who should get jobs).

So basically, don't beat yourself up if you're not 'chosen'. It could mean that you're mediocre but it could also mean that you're exceptional beyond the grasp of powerful incumbents. Think Galileo and the Catholic Church.

I used to compare myself to others all the time, thinking about who did what by what age etc., but in reality it's just useless and fake. It used to be that maybe you compared yourself to the other kid at school who was good at something. Now you compare yourself to somebody who made it famous on the internet who's like the "best in the world" at something. Makes comparisons like that horrible for your mental health. These days I'm just happy to have decently paying job so I can pay my taxes, which mostly contribute to many good things in my country, meaning I can still be a positive force.

As for successes of other people - the fact that they succeeded means success is possible, likely also to you. Learn from successful people by studying their stuff and the ways the go about things and see if you can apply those lessons to the domain you want to excel in.

All that being said, also remember this: its OK to be mediocre and most of us are. In the grand scheme of things, we are just a particular incrustation on some edge of a possibly infinite fractal structure... don't let this stop you from trying to be great, but also don't let the self-imposed pressure kill the everyday joy of doing stuff and just being a human. Good luck and have fun

The other thing is: no person is an island. The rust compiler is the work of an absurdly large amount of people, the most visible members of the community absolutely deserve their reputation, but you must not forget that rust is mostly people like you and I. People who may have contributed a tinny bit and do not get a wide recognition.

What you’re encountering is existential angst; we live in a world with over 7 billion people and the reality is that for 99.9999% of us, our existence will be forgotten entirely within a hundred years of our death. The only people we tend to remember culturally are the horrible ones. At best, you are a cog in a machine and at worst, you give in to the nihilism.

For me, the solution to this was not to focus pouring more of myself into work, but to focus on surrounding myself with people who make the day to day more bearable. The project of my life is not to produce more economic output, but to build the connections with the people I share my life with.

Life is long, and most of us are nobody. The people who can help make your life more bearable are probably also nobody. Surround yourself with family / community and don’t focus so much on “legacy”. Nobody is gonna build a statue of you.