You are not 'behind' • Hacker News Board

Re: You are not 'behind'

#121

Post by kentt » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 1:53 AM UTC

corey_moncure wrote: post #89

foobarbecue wrote: post #19

Reading this made me realize that my regret usually targets the previous hours or day. Generally, if I look at the last month or year or decade, I'm impressed with what I've accomplished. And yet I'm always disappointed with my immediate past. I think this short-term regret may be the reaction mass I'm igniting to propel me forward. To borrow a phrase from finnthehuman above, this short-term regret is the fire lit un…

I didn't have any regrets until I sat and watched cryptocoin for 6 years and did nothing about it.

meh, I got in 2012 and still regret not putting in more, spending too much time mining (rather than just investing), not having enough resources to make as much of a difference to my future, getting into Ethereum only this year, keeping other weirdo coins that are worth nothing now, etc.

If you got in 6 years ago, you might just have a different set of regrets and blessings.

Re: You are not 'behind'

#122

Post by jaggederest » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 1:53 AM UTC

pitaj wrote: post #116

neuland wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The ones who are slower will teach the next batch of students Could you expand on the reasoning behind this? Presumably, they are not teaching material that they are still struggling with. Are they teaching the previous material, which they have understood? If you are having students teach each other, I would have thought that quicker-to-learn students would be better candidates to teach the material.

The best teachers are the ones who had to learn the most. People who just "get it" are bad teachers because they didn't have to go through a process to understand.

I think, from a different perspective, teaching things can help you to understand them more deeply - so if there are areas they are still unclear on, the next set of students can help ask the right questions so they can learn.

I notice this myself when I'm teaching people things - in many cases I erroneously come off as "the expert" in things even when I mostly gained expertise in it by responding to the very questions that people are asking.

Re: You are not 'behind'

#123

Post by theoh » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 1:59 AM UTC

pitaj wrote: post #116

neuland wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The ones who are slower will teach the next batch of students Could you expand on the reasoning behind this? Presumably, they are not teaching material that they are still struggling with. Are they teaching the previous material, which they have understood? If you are having students teach each other, I would have thought that quicker-to-learn students would be better candidates to teach the material.

The best teachers are the ones who had to learn the most. People who just "get it" are bad teachers because they didn't have to go through a process to understand.

That's not always the case, but the notion of "unconscious competence" is relevant here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_stages_of_competence

"Unconscious competence" is particularly rife in the functional programming community. An inability to explain does not necessarily mean you just "got it", but if you've understood it, you can't necessarily explain it.

Re: You are not 'behind'

#124

Post by burnt1ce » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 2:04 AM UTC

HN needs more posts and conversations like this one. I'm grateful to each person that contributed to it.

Re: You are not 'behind'

#125

Post by rytill » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 2:22 AM UTC

anvandare wrote: post #63

sandcastles wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you just make up the sand castle analogy?

To the best of my knowledge, yes. It's possible I once overheard/read it somewhere, and have forgotten the source, but it lingered in my brain somewhere. In addition, with 100 billion+ people existing throughout the entirety of the human race, it's unlikely I was the first to think of anything I've ever thought.

(100 billion people) * (the amount of thoughts a person has their life) is quite large, but I think nowhere near the amount of permutations of thoughts and emotions to go with them someone can reasonably have. I bet your thoughts are more unique than you think.

Re: You are not 'behind'

#126

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 2:25 AM UTC

songzme wrote: post #110

In April I left google to teach people how to code. I teach for free and I focus primarily on low income adults who are making less than 30k / year in the bay area. Throughout their lives, my students have felt that they were 'behind' and they are not good enough. This mindset creates adults with low self esteem, which then prevents them from learning. Many times, they nod their head in understanding when they really…

[deleted]

Re: You are not 'behind'

#127

Post by robot197 » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 2:31 AM UTC

jondubois wrote: post #8

For the past 10 years, I only spent about 4 to 8 hours per week on entertainment - All the rest of my time was divided between work and sleep (I only sleep 5 hours per day on weekdays). Financially, I have nothing to show for it unfortunately so I really feel like I'm behind and that I've missed the boat on many things. What makes it particularly difficult is that I was working really hard the whole time - When I rea…

Are you sure that your self reported data is right ? I tried for the past 3 years to focus just on my work, I cut down fun, relationships, friendships completely to focus on my work alone. And I have almost nothing much to show for it. Looking back on those 3 years, I did some work for the first year, but later on I was just depressed and even though I was "working" all the time, it was not intense work. I was mostly feeling sad / bitter and that affected my productivity.

I think a balance is important. It makes logical sense to cut down on fun and emotions to get more work done, but the human brain needs social relationships and fun to produce peak output. At least that is how my brain works

May be being a bit more lazy will help you be more creative and make the stars line up better for you. I am not being snarky here, be a bit more lazy, the brain needs fun and emotions.

Re: You are not 'behind'

#128

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 2:36 AM UTC

jaggederest wrote: post #103

rublev wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm going to the doctor. Most days I wake up with so much to do and my mind just crashes and burns. When I am in the zone (couple times a month) I get more done in that zone time than the entire month.

If you ever need advice, commiseration, or just to vent, hit me up, email in my profile here. That goes for anyone reading this, as well.

[deleted]

Re: You are not 'behind'

#129

Post by zeta0134 » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 2:39 AM UTC

songzme wrote: post #110

In April I left google to teach people how to code. I teach for free and I focus primarily on low income adults who are making less than 30k / year in the bay area. Throughout their lives, my students have felt that they were 'behind' and they are not good enough. This mindset creates adults with low self esteem, which then prevents them from learning. Many times, they nod their head in understanding when they really…

It's interesting that you bring up learning pace as such a strong signal. Most of the material I've read focusing on learning types and effectiveness seems to gloss over the speed that one learns (which I imagine must vary with material) and a great deal of coursework is very rigid with regards to schedules.

I wonder, ignoring for a moment the practicalities of this, if a freeform educational system, allowing students to "rank up" at their own pace, might be worth persuing. What's the benefit of forcing slower students to rush through their work, and requiring that faster students move only as fast as the rest of their class allows?

Re: You are not 'behind'

#130

Post by solarengineer » Mon, Sep 04, 2017, 3:17 AM UTC

dominotw wrote: post #96

Maro wrote: post #21

Personally (I'm 36) I like the 'pressure' I receive all the time, from all over the place, like the ones mentioned in the article: why don't I have a six-pack, why am I not more 'perfect' with my g/f, why am I not working on my startup, why haven't I made a billion yet, why is Elon Musk so f---ing more productive, and so on. It shows me that more can be done, I could do more, it pushes me to do more. I realize it wou…

Sure you can ignore 'six pack' but you can't really igore is looming obsolesce in IT once you hit you 40's and 50's, you can't ignore is dwindling (biological) motivation and drive to learn and innovate. Ageism is real. Thats what really worries me, sure I like coding and learning now but what happens to me in my late 40's and 50's when I have to care for my parents and kids at the same time while tying to not become…

I'll turn 40 next year and I've worked for about 23 years in IT. I've figured out that getting some fundamentals in place has served me well so far, and I have been fortunate to play many roles in the IT space (including some non-technical ones like sales). I intend to keep learning more fundamentals and learning new things.