Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#761

Post by freepor » Thu, May 07, 2020, 6:05 PM UTC

lonelappde wrote: post #713

freepor wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with the question is that it reduces an infinite dimensional space (all the things you could have thought about the movie) into a single scalar value. Your mind is likely to be preoccupied with performing that projection which is fundamentally uninteresting. It’s like asking “Is the pharmaceutical industry good or bad?” vs. “How should the pharmaceutical industry participate in society over the next 20 ye…

It's ok to ask follow-up Why questions.

But the opening of a conversation influences the rest of it. It's like the old experiment about guessing the number of countries in Africa.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#762

Post by LouisSayers » Thu, May 07, 2020, 6:15 PM UTC

PodCurator wrote: post #566

LouisSayers wrote: post #512

My Grandmother once told me: "If you want to work at a company, dress like the people that work there. Because those are the people that the company hires." I've used this general philosophy in my life to pass courses at university, win competitions, and get through job interviews. I don't know if my grandmother meant this in a literal sense, or was hinting at the fact that (as Tony Robbins says) success leaves clues…

Wouldn't a counter argument be that the MOST successful people do not do what others do and define their own path. I.e. it's great if you're optimizing a game for a particular outcome but if you're creating a new game following what other people do may just leave to the average (of whatever group)?

I don’t see any conflict with pushing to do something extraordinary. If you’re going to do something out of the ordinary, you do what successful out of the ordinary people have done. You put on their uniform and put in the work.

It’s a simple strategy, but that’s not to say the process is at all easy.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#763

Post by akimball » Thu, May 07, 2020, 6:18 PM UTC

Mizza wrote: post #562

rsecora wrote: post #332

The concept of "Unknown Unknowns" changed my approach to life for better. I was one of those laughing to the famous speech [1] the very first time I heard it. After a few days, I begin to grasp the epistemological truth in it, making me humbler. Today in every system I work on, I know there will be risks unexpected and possible, and the system shall be resilient and with physical negative feedback in case control loo…

I've written about this before, but the thing that always gets overlooked about this quote is the "unknown-known" corner of the truth table: the things we take for granted, but do not ever think about. These are what we _really_ need to worry about. In the case of Rumsfeld, it was the prisoner abuse, the civilian casualties, the torture, the blowback, ISIS.. In our lives this can be structural inequalities, the way p…

under-rated comment.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#764

Post by charwalker » Thu, May 07, 2020, 6:21 PM UTC

The simplest version is my best choice is the one that, given your possible choice, provides me the greatest outcome or the basis of Game Theory. Everyone is working both together and against each other and taking other choices into account can educate your decisions and lead to better outcomes for all.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#765

Post by sdegutis » Thu, May 07, 2020, 6:34 PM UTC

kgin wrote: post #751

sdegutis wrote: post #497

The idea that maybe there really is a God after all, and that it's a cop out to assume that, just because it's unlikely for us to know for sure, therefore no breadcrumb trails about God or religion are really worth following. I'm unable to describe the magnitude of the amazingness of the world I found, simply by wanting to believe that God is real, and then finding out that the Resurrection actually did happen. Anyon…

> Anyone who does enough research on this topic and has a good and honest heart will eventually become Catholic This is a big claim. You're saying that anyone who isn't catholic either hasn't done enough research or doesn't have a good and honest heart?

There's a third option: that enough time hasn't passed. I said they will eventually become Catholic. A person generally can't understand multiplication until they understand addition.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#766

Post by akimball » Thu, May 07, 2020, 6:38 PM UTC

motiw wrote: post #112

My personal realization that Evolution is the other “theory of everything”, with the exception of the laws of physics, evolutionary processes are shaping everything, including progress in science, economy, history, politics, ideas, social, emotions, religion, etc.

One should not too quickly provide an exception for the laws of physics. The underlying axioms which make evolutionary dynamics deducible elsewhere do not obviously exclude physical law.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#767

Post by sdegutis » Thu, May 07, 2020, 6:50 PM UTC

kleer001 wrote: post #742

sdegutis wrote: post #503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Religion as a psychological tool is a very sad thing. But it's a very common thought, one I grew up with. In fact, I only started praying while still thinking it was all fake, but needing some kind of mental help past my problem in life at the time. So I understand that theory as well as anyone here. But not all religions are created equal. The Protestant religions are emasculated to some degree. Since they're based…

Not just psychological, but also economic (halal mortages and hawala), sociological (their biggest strength is gathering people IMHO), parasocial (all the little morality plays/stories in them), interpersonal (various golden rules), historical (often muddled with myth), sometimes physical (yogas), and on and on with all the different dimensions of the human experience. As I'm sure you understand every religion is (am…

That's not true of Christianity; this along with Judaism are historical religions. They exist not to pass on wisdom or ideas, but because of historical events, which they claim are the interventions of God in human history. In particular, Christianity exists as a result of the Resurrection, which it claims literally and historically happened. And there is significant proof that it really happened: https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12789a.htm

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#768

Post by fredsir » Thu, May 07, 2020, 6:57 PM UTC

kgin wrote: post #747

fredsir wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Elon Obviously, it's also a good advice to be born with wealth from the blood of an emerald empire. Hyper-rational, being born wealthy. Great advice! Kidding aside. I'm just sick of people putting people like Elon up on a pedestal. Look at all the rich, successful people out there. How many come from wealth, and how many come from dirt poor conditions and just worked themself up? Working hard is good advice, but it…

Most great chefs would be nothing without access to a grocery store, but that doesn't mean I can't learn more from that great chef than the 99% of the other people going to that grocery store who never learn to make amazing things.

I'm not saying everyone is the same as Elon, except for the money. I'm saying his inherited wealth, and being at the right place at the right time, and so on, has probably more to do with Elons success than anything else, so let's stop worshipping the guy, and everyone else like him. Our society favours the few, and that's not something we should celebrate.

> "I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.”

– Stephen Jay Gould

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#769

Post by [deleted] » Thu, May 07, 2020, 7:02 PM UTC

k4ch0w wrote: post #599

No one is thinking about you. That stupid thing you said in the meeting, the thing you did in middle school, that pimple on your face that feels huge. It's entirely in our mind and everyone else is too focused on themselves to ever see or think about the silly things you're embarassed about.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#770

Post by peguin3 » Thu, May 07, 2020, 7:03 PM UTC

Understand that failure is not the opposite of success. Failure is an essential part of success. Once you succeed, no one will remember your failures anyway. Microsoft wasn’t Bill Gates’ and Paul Allen’s first business venture. Who remembers that their original Traf-o-Data business was a flop? The actor Jim Carey was booed off many a stage while a young comedian. We have electric light bulbs because Thomas Edison refused to give up even after 10,000 failed experiments. If the word “failure” is anathema to you, then reframe it: You either succeed, or you have a learning experience.

--Steve Pavlina