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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?

#191

Post by sr3d »

jakevoytko wrote: post #103

I'm late to this party, so I'll give you two quick pointers: "You and Your Research" by Richard Hamming [0], and "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" [1] Read both in their entirety. You will gain a new perspective on those who make great achievements. They experience the same self-doubt you do! Feynman notes in dismay that other researchers at Los Alamos effortlessly solved problems mentally after he'd spend days wo…

Thanks for the link to the "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" book. I just bought a used copy for $7. I'm running out of good stuff to read, and I love getting good book recommendations from people. Hopefully it'll be a great read.

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

#192

Post by photon_off »

malkia wrote: post #149
jonny_noog wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please come to the video game industry :) There is always need of someone that knows MySQL, LAMP, etc. That's actually news to me... interesting. So there's still a lot of demand for web sites/apps created in support of games, or are these technologies being used in less obvious and more embedded ways?

We use MySQL for example for logging a lot of stuff coming out of the game - for example texture usage, error messages, where people were shooting mostly, anything. Also MySQL, SQLIte are being used for the caching on the server, and caching locally of the converted data. PHP has been used for getting few internal sites, but I can't tell much. So these technologies are not used in the actual games (at least ours), bu…

Very interesting. Anything like this that you know is needed in NY?

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

#193

Post by Poiesis »

Look, here's the thing--we're not all your competitors. The existence of other bright people is more or less orthogonal to your success. Even then, they're probably a net positive because you have other people to learn from.

Your success or failure is up to your own actions. Worrying about other people is like learning a foreign language and worrying about all those native speakers out there. They're occasionally disheartening in their easy mastery but it's ultimately a completely pointless exercise.

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

#194

Post by 0bfusct3 »

People that have all this "talent" is nothing more than a drive for something - the talent in x, y, z is a side effect. My drive is for a distributed, vm based operating system and a language to go with it, subsequently I'm versed in mathematics, computer science, etc.

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

#195

Post by blaix »

Something I remember reading in the pragmatic programmer's "Practices of an Agile Developer" is that it's better to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. That way you are always learning and always striving to improve. The analogy they use is that you always want to be the "worst" player in a band. Once you're the best, it's time to move on so you don't become comfortable and stagnant. So my advice is to become comfortable with this feeling that so many people are better at something than you (I feel the same way!). That's a good thing! It should push you to keep learning and improving.

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

#196

Post by mian2zi3 »

phaedrus wrote: post #187
mian2zi3 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MathOverflow's explicit purpose is to discuss research-level mathematics. First sentence of the FAQ: "MathOverflow's primary goal is for users to ask and answer research level math questions, the sorts of questions you come across when you're writing or reading articles or graduate level books." The discussion is really geared towards people doing research, or trying to. I'm a math grad student, and I find much of it…

There is a need then for a stackoverflow-based site for practical or less research-level math, for questions like, "How do I do this Laplace transform?" or "How do I do this difficult integral?"

Agreed, if there isn't one already. artofproblemsolving.com might fit the bill, for example.

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

#197

Post by mian2zi3 »

binarymax wrote: post #84
mian2zi3 wrote: post #54

Yes, but for the opposite reason. I usually walk away wondering why I wasted my time here when I could have been learning something or, even better, creating something.

There is rarely a time when I walk away from HN without having learned something, which is why I continue to visit.

That's great, I'm genuinely happy for you.

This may very well be my own failing. I learn the most when either I sit down, alone, and struggle with a book, programming task, math problem, etc. or when I talk through something in person with someone else. Sometimes the links here occasion such engagement, but I've rarely found the discussion to.

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

#198

Post by jtheory »

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…

There's also that horrible effect that your own ideas, however creative, original and interesting, can start to feel trite, shallow and old after a little while. Because, guess what, they've been floating around your head longer than anyone's, and you keep seeing them, picking over them, looking for weak points.

Whereas someone else's idea that they've been knocking around for a few months will seem breathtakingly new and fresh, and as if it had popped forth fully formed from their head yesterday.

The difference here is simply whose head you're in.

This can be a very serious problem for writers -- if you spend years writing a novel, by the time it's finally coming together, you want to rewrite all of the early stuff just because it seems so overused by now....

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

#199

Post by decadentcactus »

JunkDNA wrote: post #92

My work evenly splits between biomedicine and software development. I have spent lots of time around really smart scientists who were trying to do things like develop cures for cancer or new antibiotics. One of the things I learned early on in science is to get used to feeling like the dumbest guy in the room. There is a whole world of information out there and no one person knows it all. You just can't. That said, w…

I like to go through some old stuff from when I first started, most of my 3 line Hello World stuff, or returning form contents. Then even though I'm not working at Google, I've come a long way.

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

#200

Post by shadowfox »

abp wrote: post #125
neilk wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you want to feel less overwhelmed, try reading the comments starting at the bottom of the page instead of the top This should be a preference. Ego-boosting sort.

Sort of anti-learning, pro-ego comment reading? :D

On some days you want to be the wind shield. on other days the bug ;)
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