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Ask HN: Does reading HN ever make you feel like shit?

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Re: Ask HN: Does reading HN ever make you feel like shit?

#41

Post by donw »

Terry_B wrote: post #20
pg wrote: post #3

You have to consider the number of users. HN now gets 60k unique visitors on weekdays. That's a decent sized stadium full of people. Of course they seem overwhelming collectively, but most individuals are only experts in a few areas. If it makes you feel any better, my biggest worry about this site is the opposite: that the median awesomeness is decreasing as the number of users increases. If you want to feel less ov…

My wife has the occasional habit of cherry picking the best bits of all of our friends/acquaintances lives, combining them into one and using that as the yardstick as to how we are doing. She'd be the first to admit this btw:)

Has she purchased any Old Spice for you recently, by chance...?

Re: Ask HN: Does reading HN ever make you feel like shit?

#42

Post by photon_off »

galois wrote: post #36
photon_off wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While writing, it occurred to me that this might be the primary effect. There appears to be some sort of counter in my head that counts awesome comments. There is no counter, however, for number of awesome users, or number non-awesome comments. I ignore them without effort. But due to this selection bias, the awesomeness counter gets to such a big number that it's quite overwhelming, and it feels that 100% of comment…

What makes you think you're talented? You say people have always told you you were a smart kid. Do you have any actual achievements to back this up? I come on here and find that the vast majority of people are well below my intelligence level. I find that this site is basically a bunch of talentless wantrepreneurial pundits. I come on here to test my patience with idiotic circlejerks - praise Apple, bash Facebook, on…

I cannot know whether or not you would qualify my abilities as "talent". The way you've constructed your response leads me to believe that if I told you I won the Nobel Prize in Javascript, you'd list stupid things that Nobel Prize winners have done.

Even if this site is mostly "talentless wantrepreneurial pundits," which has some truth to it, you're not the slightest bit overwhelmed at the amount of high quality information here?

Re: Ask HN: Does reading HN ever make you feel like shit?

#43

Post by thibaut_barrere »

Here's the fix: don't compare yourself to others - compare your today's self to your tomorrow's self (ie: grow your own abilites instead).

I really suggest reading "Nonviolent Communication" (http://www.amazon.com/Nonviolent-Communication-Language-Mars...), which gives a lot of insight on these topics.

Re: Ask HN: Does reading HN ever make you feel like shit?

#44

Post by ahoyhere »

Psychological research studies have shown that if you tell a kid that he's "smart," he's less likely to take risks because he's afraid of not succeeding & losing the "smart" label.

Sounds like you're suffering the grown-up version of that. You're worried about the "smart" label and not the, say, persistence, hard-worker, stick-to-it label.

If you are interested in finishing something, I highly recommend read the posts on http://www.justfuckingship.com/ - you'll probably find them right up your alley.

Take heart, by the way. Finishing and shipping is a skill, like any other, you have to do it a lot to get good at it, but it's totally learnable. As is entrepreneurship.

Oh, and take all these people here as a challenge, not a reason. You aren't competing with them. You're the only person who will ever be "you." Let their accomplishments at being the best of who they can be inspire you to be the best of who you can be.

Sounds a little woo, but it works.

Re: Ask HN: Does reading HN ever make you feel like shit?

#46

Post by sushrutbidwai »

pg wrote: post #3

You have to consider the number of users. HN now gets 60k unique visitors on weekdays. That's a decent sized stadium full of people. Of course they seem overwhelming collectively, but most individuals are only experts in a few areas. If it makes you feel any better, my biggest worry about this site is the opposite: that the median awesomeness is decreasing as the number of users increases. If you want to feel less ov…

Also to add to what pg said - http://sushrutbidwai.com/?p=232

Remember the tools that you had at your disposal and some one else. Dont get overwhelmed by what others have achieved or seems to have achieved.

Re: Ask HN: Does reading HN ever make you feel like shit?

#48

Post by lionhearted »

Good! This is a good thing! You're feeling sick to your stomach that you're not living up to your potential - good that you come here to post this. Most people fight this feeling down with distraction, intoxication, or otherwise tuning out.

You're doing something about it. This is fantastic. If you want, email me a reasonably short email and tell me what your goals and projects are, I'll recommend you some reading and give you some advice. Spend 5-10 minutes thinking about your core life goals before writing me, and feel free to put in a couple specific projects as well. I'd be happy to be of service, I admire people who confront themselves and reality.

I love when I get that sick to my stomach feeling, it means I'm about to do some great things. Don't fight it. Drop me a line if you like, my email is in my profile.

Re: Ask HN: Does reading HN ever make you feel like shit?

#49

Post by patrickk »

heresy wrote: post #31
neilk wrote: post #14

One of your problems is that you are judging yourself by your natural abilities. I think this a trap that a lot of smart people fall into, perhaps being used to being the kid who always gets the gold star. There are studies that show that children who are praised for being "smart" stop working hard, because that threatens their self-image. Children who are praised for working hard go on to greater successes. But back…

That's one problem with reading too much into people's commentary and ideas here. It's been through so many filters. Who knows how long they spent refining that comment? Seeing the end product is always more impressive than the beginning. At least personally, if something I did is "good", it's because its been through a couple of iterations, you can bet it was ugly as sin first time round. The problem is that you oft…

"Who knows how long they spent refining that comment?"

"The best writing is rewriting." - E. B. White

http://www.paulgraham.com/quo.html

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