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Ask HN: Does anybody else feel overwhelmed while reading HN?

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Re: Ask HN: Does anybody else feel overwhelmed while reading HN?

#91

Post by eric_h »

yodsanklai wrote: post #78

A few comments come to mind. Yes, there's so much to learn that you'll never have time for it, even if specializing in a small area. It reminds me of a Chomsky interview. He said that he has so many books left to read in his office alone that a lifetime wouldn't be enough. You're in good company. It may sound obvious but don't forget that HN isn't one person. The guy that knows about particle physics is usually not t…

> It may sound obvious but don't forget that HN isn't one person.

Honestly I think the total absence of avatars can make it quite easy to forget that HN isn't one person. "That person with their name in little grey letters is a frickin' genius, jack of all trades"

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody else feel overwhelmed while reading HN?

#92

Post by skylark »

yodsanklai wrote: post #78

A few comments come to mind. Yes, there's so much to learn that you'll never have time for it, even if specializing in a small area. It reminds me of a Chomsky interview. He said that he has so many books left to read in his office alone that a lifetime wouldn't be enough. You're in good company. It may sound obvious but don't forget that HN isn't one person. The guy that knows about particle physics is usually not t…

This applies to social media as well. It's so easy to compare your own social life to the lives of all of your friends and acquaintances put together. In reality most people live rather boring lives punctuated by a few interesting things here and there.

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody else feel overwhelmed while reading HN?

#93

Post by alexashka »

groby_b wrote: post #21

Here's the dirty secret: You'll always feel that way. I'm in this for 30+ years now. (Yikes!). My resume is somewhat nice. I've got a deep store of knowledge and experiences. A large group of people considers me somebody you ask for advice. And yet, every day, I still learn something new. Sometimes because it's a new paper cycling about. Sometimes an HN article. Sometimes because some other senior person shares from…

Imagine you are going for surgery and the doctor tells you 'yeah, I have no idea what I'm doing, really'.

You'd be very interested in knowing whether it's 'I just graduated from med school, I'm barely competent', or 'I've been doing this 30 years, the more you know, the more you realize how much you don't know'.

Those are not the same.

Insecurity is there for a reason - to let you know you should tread carefully and learn more.

The feeling of insecurity will go away when you're competent. The feeling of wonder and curiosity hopefully remains until you die - the author's problem is not the feeling of wonder that the parent is referring to :)

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody else feel overwhelmed while reading HN?

#94

Post by dek0de »

alexashka wrote: post #93
groby_b wrote: post #21

Here's the dirty secret: You'll always feel that way. I'm in this for 30+ years now. (Yikes!). My resume is somewhat nice. I've got a deep store of knowledge and experiences. A large group of people considers me somebody you ask for advice. And yet, every day, I still learn something new. Sometimes because it's a new paper cycling about. Sometimes an HN article. Sometimes because some other senior person shares from…

Imagine you are going for surgery and the doctor tells you 'yeah, I have no idea what I'm doing, really'. You'd be very interested in knowing whether it's 'I just graduated from med school, I'm barely competent', or 'I've been doing this 30 years, the more you know, the more you realize how much you don't know'. Those are not the same. Insecurity is there for a reason - to let you know you should tread carefully and…

I know you used surgery/medicine as a parable, but I would argue that competency is probably a little easier to objectively gauge in those fields than in Computer Science, for instance.

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody else feel overwhelmed while reading HN?

#96

Post by jacquesm »

codyb wrote: post #28
bingo_cannon wrote: post #7

I was overwhelmed at first. Every time a Show HN would pop up, I was amazed at how individuals could deliver on so much alone. So I accepted these things: - There will always be people who are better than you, in any field. I see it as a positive and a great learning opportunity. - There will never be time to learn everything you want to learn. The question I try to answer is: Am I doing the best I can at the moment?…

And then you need to realize that if you spend a bit of time every day doing a little something, you'll be able to deliver some pretty big things over time. The hardest part, I find, is starting. But once I do, boy is it a lot of fun to keep that ball rolling! There's nothing so enjoyable as hacking away at something and seeing those incremental changes fall into place.

> The hardest part, I find, is starting.

To me the hardest part is finishing. To start stuff is very easy for me but to actually grind away at something day after day until it is finally done is very hard.

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody else feel overwhelmed while reading HN?

#97

Post by ryfm »

inputcoffee wrote: post #39

Oh, you will feel much better once you have mastered: 1. Programming chips in binary, machine code, and C. You need a variety of chips. Try to learn at least 5 from each manufacturer. 2. Learn at least 37 Javascript frameworks, as evenly divided between front-end and server side as you can. (Good news: angular 1 and 2 count as 2 frameworks). 3. Learn Scala, Rust, Haskell, C, C#, Java. (Python and Ruby go without sayi…

add network, linux kernel debugging, also containers.

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody else feel overwhelmed while reading HN?

#98

Post by inputcoffee »

emiliobumachar wrote: post #89
inputcoffee wrote: post #39

Oh, you will feel much better once you have mastered: 1. Programming chips in binary, machine code, and C. You need a variety of chips. Try to learn at least 5 from each manufacturer. 2. Learn at least 37 Javascript frameworks, as evenly divided between front-end and server side as you can. (Good news: angular 1 and 2 count as 2 frameworks). 3. Learn Scala, Rust, Haskell, C, C#, Java. (Python and Ruby go without sayi…

I don't normally downvote good jokes like this one, but I'm making an exception. Imagine if this rises to top (it's #2 now), and either the OP or someone in the same situation see it first, and fail to notice the irony.

Never thought of that. Phew, close call. You might have saved them.

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody else feel overwhelmed while reading HN?

#99

Post by gothrowaway »

Workplaces over-intellectualize what they do.

It's an epidemic.

Go to school to learn all this data structures and do these fancy whiteboard tests at Microsoft.

Your day-to-day? Meetings. Maintaining some tiny element of code.

Even scientists. The schooling they have is sophisticated. Really intricate thoughts. Then they're just using lab equipment. Paperwork. Convention.

They're not on the cusp of single-handedly unlocking unsolved mysteries in physics. Their whole role as a spoke in the wheel depends on using bullshit to obfuscate 90% of the trade could be done by technicians.

Don't be fooled. Everybody is a cog in the system, and until they've actually shown bona fides they've invented something practical themselves, there's no reason to assume that stranger is as brilliant as they make themselves out to be.

Re: Ask HN: Does anybody else feel overwhelmed while reading HN?

#100

Post by rblion »

Yes and no.

Yes that I realize I have a lot to learn and I should keep removing distractions/bad habits and toxic people/situations out of my life. Yes that I realize there are Ivy Leaguers in here and also people who work at the world's largest companies.

No also because there is also a fair amount of hubris here. There are also a lot of people who miss the forest for the trees. There is still a lot of room for innovation in certain markets and the means of fulfilling human needs are ever evolving even if the needs themselves are still the same.

I take breaks from time to time. Also I've recently deactivated my facebook and unfollowed a lot of people on Twitter/Quora/Instagram. Feels great.

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