"There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself."
- Henry David Thoreau
Ask YC: In the hack of life, is it the people or the code?
11–20 of 61 posts
Re: Ask YC: In the hack of life, is it the people or the code?
#12Code? You kidding? First off, the answer really shouldn't be either-or like this. Second, I don't think it is normal to find happiness in code itself. That's like asking the poet, "is it about the people or the words?"
I know you're getting at something, but don't frame it so rigidly, so early.
Re: Ask YC: In the hack of life, is it the people or the code?
#13I've often felt that many News.YC-ers are more introspective than I am, but this goes above and beyond. Does the choice have to be so binary? People or code? News.yc/slashdot people or regular people? I program, but I don't filter my relationships through this one fact. I am who I am, I get along great with some people and can't stand other people. It doesn't have to be much more complicated than that.
You are right, the choice doesnt have to be so binary....
I come at this from the other perspective. I was a business guy who has learnt some hacking and got into the whole startup thing about 2 or so years ago. Nearly all my friends are non-hackers, they laugh at me when i receive tweets and think I am crazy and raise eyebrows when I make some programming joke.
But you know what, underneath it all they kind of envy me because I have a palpable passion which many of them lack. They see that for me, life is not something you endure its something you enjoy. I have recently made more hacker friends and have great conversations with them...
But ultimately the people i get on best with are the entrepreneurial types. They can be selling lemonade on the road or trying to do the next big web thing, they dont have to be hackers and so i would suggest you broaden your pallet. Look for those kind of people.
Mix and match and you will be happy. I am sure u can have friends who have little interest in internet startups but still get on well with. I just hope u have something more to you than internet startups.
Re: Ask YC: In the hack of life, is it the people or the code?
#14I've often felt that many News.YC-ers are more introspective than I am, but this goes above and beyond. Does the choice have to be so binary? People or code? News.yc/slashdot people or regular people? I program, but I don't filter my relationships through this one fact. I am who I am, I get along great with some people and can't stand other people. It doesn't have to be much more complicated than that.
Maslow wrote that those people who were most successful at life, who were self actualizing, had succeeded at overcoming either-or thinking and had reconciled seemingly contradictory qualities.
Re: Ask YC: In the hack of life, is it the people or the code?
#15It's sorta an unfortunate fact of life that you can't have it all. You have to make some tradeoffs. (And I don't understand all the people saying "You can have both." I've tried, and I couldn't - at least not while doing anything innovative. You can have both if you're doing niche projects to serve a particular community, but I'd imagine many of the folks here are more change-the-world-or-die-trying types.)
Anyway, I think that in the long run it's about the people. But I faced pretty much the same choice as you as a college senior. I thought about it a lot and decided that when I was old and gray, I wouldn't be happy unless I'd at least tried and saw what I could do if I concentrated fully on hacking. If it didn't amount to anything, then fine, at least I gave it an honest go and had a sense of my own limits. But I'd much rather do that then always wonder what I could've done, maybe.
So I figure I'll keep this up until I'm 30. If I succeed, great. If I don't, I can have a normal, fulfilled life, surrounded by interesting people, and I'll have full knowledge of what I'm passing up. The twenties are kinda a professional wasteland anyway, when nobody really knows who they are or what they want to do with their life.
Re: Ask YC: In the hack of life, is it the people or the code?
#16There's a bipolar rhythm of life and work that's easy to fall into, but it sounds like you need a break. There are very worthwhile projects that might take only 10 - 20 hours a week that, if you live simply, will be more than enough to get by. You can learn a lot from introspection in the remaining leisure time. Make sure you've got your necessities taken care of: shelter, learn to cook, get exercise, sunlight, make sure to hang out with friends or at least someone twice a week.
Sure enough you'll have the motivation to work on something again, maybe big, maybe small. People aren't built for leisure, but enjoyable work.
Re: Ask YC: In the hack of life, is it the people or the code?
#17I am not really into YC all that much and bottom line have to say just do what makes you happy and what you are possionate about and enjoy and don't worry about others.
In time you will find your own path and there is more to life than many introverted scenes we often find ourselves in. Expose yourself to a broad range of things and hopefully this will lead to balance and perspective in life. Involve yourself in just one area too much and although it can lead to great things often it is at the social cost and danger of becoming too introverted. Just my $0.02. :)
Re: Ask YC: In the hack of life, is it the people or the code?
#18"What matters is people. Which kinda sucks when you think about it."-- Hugh MacLeod
Re: Ask YC: In the hack of life, is it the people or the code?
#19dont try to hide your inner geek. be happy in who you are.
Re: Ask YC: In the hack of life, is it the people or the code?
#20As Don Knuth put it, "Life is binary search."