This will sound lame but for me it's always been routine. Being able to work a full day when my personal life feels like it's falling apart has done wonders in distracting me to when my emotions calm down to the point where I can make more mature decisions later on when I feel cooled off.
Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?
91–100 of 243 posts
Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?
#92Guys, nobody in this thread has given the advice to give up! If you were a scientist who travelled back in time in an accident from 2117 when humanity created a black hole, and you have a solid physics degree and don't really have anything to do except 1) become rich and influential and 2), make sure that a certain very specific experiment isn't repeated, or, for example, personally finance that it first be tried on…
The moral of the story seems to be to stick in your core competencies and de-serendipitous discovery for a couple decades.
If you're a theoretical physicist in 2117 you have a pretty good idea of what was figured out in 2020 and you can front that and collect your Nobel prize in physics and most importantly its funding.
Meanwhile most of the modern world is built out of creative concepts. Huh we can create seemingly arbitrary organic chemicals what happens when ones with free double bonds get triggered into single bonding with neighbors, nobody never thought of anything that crazy and its a bazillion dollar industry now. Uranium, well, it turns glass artistically yellow otherwise pretty boring. Silicon, well, it makes a nice metallurgical addition to steel and aluminum and is "easily" purified to ridiculous levels but otherwise not terribly noteworthy. And then there's things that don't amount to anything, multiverse, strings, skip all that stuff to gain progress. Electric cars were not a "thing" for their first century, but their second is looking pretty interesting.
Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?
#93I get past these kinds of things by knowing that change is always out there. Nothing stays the same so eventually it gets better.
Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?
#94I realized a while ago that inspiration isn't very helpful for getting you through adversity. Inspiration gets you going, but grit and discipline ultimately help you push through. I'm going to go against the grain of most of what's being said in this thread and say that the best way to get through adversity is to discard a goal-based mentality entirely, in favor of a system-based mentality. Figure out the stuff you h…
There is also video version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJVxkr9eE9A
And a book! _How to Fail at Everything and Still Win Big_ [1]. It's an easy, mostly funny read, with "discipline > motivation" at the center of it.
[1] https://www.amazon.com/How-Fail-Almost-Everything-Still/dp/1...
Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?
#95A learning mindset.
When you treat each experience in life as a learning experience, it becomes much easier to persevere.
Another very useful skill, it not running away from pain or failure. This is not to say 'learn from your failures', but 'let the pain and anguish sink in'. Remember this pain, realize it is there and what caused it. Next time you encounter fear or hardships, the intuitive memory of the past pain - the one you didn't run away from or tried to suppress - will help you. I know it helped (and helps) me many, many times.
Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?
#96I found the information in the book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, by Mark Manson, to be quite useful in overcoming adversity.
While the title is a bit on the nose, Manson's premise is basically that we need to identify what is important in our life, and then eliminate our worrying about all the trivial things we run into every day.
For me, this was my family and religion (yes, religion). I realized that as long as my wife and kids were there, and I had someplace to dump my personal issues (religion), my job really didn't matter much, since my skills are transferable elsewhere. I didn't quit my job, but I certainly don't rank it in the top-ten important things to worry about, like I used to.
Seeing as my job is about 90% of the adversity I face in life, just making that mental change resulted in a tremendous amount of joy and satisfaction.
Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?
#97I realized a while ago that inspiration isn't very helpful for getting you through adversity. Inspiration gets you going, but grit and discipline ultimately help you push through. I'm going to go against the grain of most of what's being said in this thread and say that the best way to get through adversity is to discard a goal-based mentality entirely, in favor of a system-based mentality. Figure out the stuff you h…
I'll echo the same. I decided some time ago that I disliked some aspects of my personality, especially shyness and sadness. I made a choice to systematically practice the habits of someone who was outgoing and happy. Now I am, mostly. Sometimes I still need to remind myself that change is possible.
Medication like Zoloft helped a ton for me with these things
Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well the very first one was literally just 'make your bed as soon as you get up'. I read that idea somewhere else as a way to get a small win right away which I really needed because my startup wasn't doing so great - so I tried it and it worked. This had surprisingly large benefits. I didn't get up and start scrolling through my social media right away. I had a nice neat bed to get into at the end of the day. I coul…
You mentioned grad school. It's even more of a struggle to keep those habits after you start working. With some kinds of jobs, anyway. Stay strong.
Having been between work and grad school and back, my personal experience is that systems are easier to maintain during work. Grad schools is automatically less structured and easier to get into a funk if you don't focus right.
Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll echo the same. I decided some time ago that I disliked some aspects of my personality, especially shyness and sadness. I made a choice to systematically practice the habits of someone who was outgoing and happy. Now I am, mostly. Sometimes I still need to remind myself that change is possible.
Medication like Zoloft helped a ton for me with these things
As a Brit, such statements just blow my mind. Giving a random stranger on the internet medical advice - and for a branded drug at that.
"you may want to see a doctor, sometimes these things need medicated" seems like reasonable, responsible advice. But handing out specific drug recommendations - WTF?!
I experienced the same thing when my American cousins were over last summer. Unsolicited and highly dangerous medical advice tossed out like a TV show recommendation.
EDIT: I realise I do not actually know the nationality of the previous poster, and that their statement referred solely to themselves, yet I still feel it is dangerous and will leave the original message intact.
Re: Ask HN: What inspires you to persevere through adversity?
#100My parents worked their nuts off to pay for my education and provide security for the family - my dear old late dad woke up at 4am EVERY SINGLE DAY of the year, except Christmas Day, to work for me, basically. There's no way I'm giving up on anything.
I have a ridiculously easy life compared to them, and because of them. That's my main motivation, apart from my own young family.
And I surround myself mostly with talented friends who work their nuts off too. Failures are no big deal, unless you don't learn something.