141–150 of 213 posts
What every salary-person has to show for it: a life lived; bills paid; food on the table; health; a roof over your head; a body not ravaged and damaged by hard labor; the ability to relax and have some entertainment in the evening; a place to sleep; comfort; relative stability; the ability to make a living using mostly just your brain. Yes, perspective is important, and I’m not saying one should not strive to make mo…
I can’t enjoy my leisure when there is so much injustice around me
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I've witnessed how one person who couldn't keep it together harmed a family two generations down the line. Life is hard and if you can give your kids a decent childhood, you've done your bit.
Please don't take that as my personal opinion, just a point for a good argument. If you have a nice family, raised and supported kids well into their adulthood, that is all very nice on a personal level, but globally what have you done? I by no means expect everyone to be the next Henry Ford or Edison, but if you're just living your life, you're just consuming planet's limited resources. Animals have lived like that…
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Maybe some of us tend to mix up "a life lived" with overachieving. In other words, we only feel it worth if we produce something truly outstanding.
In other words, we only feel it worth if we produce something truly outstanding By this metric, most of humanity probably feels it worthless, isn't it? I understand this is HN and people here achieve more than the normal crowd - still, I don't get the obsession over being productive every second, the need to "produce something truly outstanding" etc. Whats wrong with just being happy, taking it easy, spreading happin…
It’s a struggle a lot of us have.
Thanks for writing this.
Then worked for a small company making money saving and useful services for them, but nothing extraordinary.
Then I tried again. And I failed again. I was disciplined. I planned and worked hard for half a year, having nothing to show for it in the end. To the point, when I just sat and said that I won't do anything code related until I understand where I lack understanding.
I've come to understand that my main problem is fear. Fear of rejection of things that I do. Fear that anything that I can share is of not enough quality to be shareable. Fear of being not appropriate to the people online, or expressing opinions that I have no right to express.
So, now I am working directly with fear. Will see where it will lead me.
Portfolio? I don't have a portfolio. My work is jealously guarded by the people who paid for it. I've been able to kick some stuff out as open source, but it mostly isn't mine or especially good. (The victory was overcoming the culture of fear.)
Of course, the form is for people who had just graduated recently. But it made me question myself.
And then it made me question whether I was wanting to study the right course. Were they open to having students who had more life experience than they did? People who have been in the field building real systems? Other stuff came up and I didn't end up finding out how it would go.
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Hannah Arendt draws a useful distinction between "labor" and "work." Labor is effort required to sustain life: catching food, finding water, plowing crops. Because living creatures need these things continually, labor never ends. Food is eaten or decays and new food must be grown. Work, on the other hand, has a defined start and endpoint. Ideally, it produces something enduring and unique. In ancient times, labor was…
You could be an Anarcho-Nativist and go back to living in tribal, hunter-gatherer societies and spend all day foraging for and hunting food just to survive and have nothing to show for it. But it's Capatilisms fault.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In other words, we only feel it worth if we produce something truly outstanding By this metric, most of humanity probably feels it worthless, isn't it? I understand this is HN and people here achieve more than the normal crowd - still, I don't get the obsession over being productive every second, the need to "produce something truly outstanding" etc. Whats wrong with just being happy, taking it easy, spreading happin…
:-) > By this metric, most of humanity probably feels it worthless, isn't it? Everyone can produce something outstanding. We often confuse that with the recognition that comes from that something becoming noticed by others. Do something you love, for the love of doing it. Of course, keep the family happy, fed, and housed, but never forget we are more than work and money and that our worth is not derived from how othe…
The reason why so many are depressed and unhappy no matter what they do.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've witnessed how one person who couldn't keep it together harmed a family two generations down the line. Life is hard and if you can give your kids a decent childhood, you've done your bit.
Please don't take that as my personal opinion, just a point for a good argument. If you have a nice family, raised and supported kids well into their adulthood, that is all very nice on a personal level, but globally what have you done? I by no means expect everyone to be the next Henry Ford or Edison, but if you're just living your life, you're just consuming planet's limited resources. Animals have lived like that…