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I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

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Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#181

Post by tonyarkles »

robotnikman wrote: post #168
tonyarkles wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've started to make a conscious effort to post about my failures on Twitter specifically to help address that a bit, especially when they're hilariously bad (e.g. crashing a model airplane 3 seconds into its flight). Naturally, I've been failing at doing this consistently :)

I'm starting to find that people making posts about their failures offer me more value than people who post about their success. Reading them usually helps me be less hard on myself, and also sometimes provide insights into how to avoid such pitfalls myself in the future

That is 100% what I'm going after! I screw up all the time, figure out what I did wrong, and iterate. No one ever sees the 37 steps that went wrong before the successful outcome.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#182

Post by to11mtm »

ric2b wrote: post #139
unreal37 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think there is as much business opportunity in Western Europe due to taxes and regulations. This is why the US has given birth to the majority of big businesses in the world in the last 20 years. A lot of startups that started elsewhere, moved to the US to continue their growth. Europe might have some quality of life elements such as health care, vacation time, and regulations to protect citizens and workers.…

But in his thought experiment what you're trying to avoid is being massively disadvantaged by where you were born. If you're born in Scandinavia you'll have very good education and healthcare no matter what family you're born into. Maybe starting a business is harder, so what? You can move to the US later in life if that's your goal, you'll still be better off by having no student debt.

In the past this was a murkier trade-off as the cost of immigration vs the cost of student loans was much closer.

Nowadays, however, I'd say that it's possibly the better route to take from a debt standpoint, but there is still the reality that being able to move to the US (or most other countries) is not a guarantee normally.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#183

Post by DobryMorozov »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #169
oska wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think his claim to be a beneficial 'allocator of capital' is bogus. He tends to invest in established exploitative companies. His investments have been made on an almost exclusive basis of growing wealth, which in the end is a very sterile end to aim for. > I'll tell you why I like the cigarette business. It costs a penny to make. Sell it for a dollar. It's addictive. And there's fantastic brand loyalty. — Buffett,…

>I think his claim to be a beneficial 'allocator of capital' is bogus. He tends to invest in established exploitative companies. His investments have been made on an almost exclusive basis of growing wealth, which in the end is a very sterile end to aim for. How do you separate this from a more general critique of capitalism? How should capital allocation work?

The majority of Warren's investments are in the secondary market. These transactions are effectively just transferring ownership and don't actually make cash infusions into the companies at all. He makes some primary market investments and allocates capital between his fully owned subsidiaries. But I think many people naturally wonder the value to society of getting rich by buying and selling things in a secondary market. No products or services are produced and his gains(over the market return) come from a zero sum game between buyers and sellers.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#184

Post by adrianmonk »

fs111 wrote: post #35

It is not important to work hard, it is important to be happy. Stop glorifying the act of working, please.

It is debatable whether hard work should be an end unto itself. Certainly you shouldn't idolize hard work uncritically because, for example, someone told you that you are a worthless person if you don't work as hard as possible at everything. (I definitely think there are people who were psychologically programmed this way and never question it.)

However, there are many things which are important and which require hard work. Cultivating the discipline of hard work can thus be indirectly beneficial in a lot of ways.

And it's a sign as well: if you rarely find yourself doing hard work, then unless your life is exceptionally easy, you're probably missing out on something important.

And since hard work is a necessity, it's preferable to come to terms with it and develop the ability to enjoy it rather than hating it. For that it helps to draw satisfaction from doing it, which isn't quite the same thing as glorification, but it's still a way of putting it in a positive light.

Ultimately, if you define your own goals and do things for your own reasons, then hard work can fit in well with that. Just make sure your hard work is serving you instead of you serving hard work.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#185

Post by rebuilder »

ardit33 wrote: post #8

It is impossible to be really good at everything.... when I optimized for work, my fitness goals went through the window. When I optimized to get a project done, my reading (books) went down as well. When I optimized for fitness (working out and soccer), my work and side projects started progressing slower. It is very hard to work on your project at home, when you are in a intense bulking, or 'cutting' phase, and onc…

I've had pretty good results fitting both physical training and work, at least, into the day. 1 hour a day, 6 days a week, of training. Every other day is submaximal strength training with an undulating periodization model, every other day is conditioning. The latter workouts rarely take more than 30 minutes, so there's time for some body maintenance.

I do pretty much the same type of thing each weekday, with a set progression plan that I review every 6 weeks. I don't need to fret about what I'm going to be doing each day, I just go and do it when it's time, and then it's done. This is new because I definitely used to have a hard time getting serious about anything other than training. I think learning to program in such a way that I don't actively dread the workouts, and that I'm still functional the next day, has been key here.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#186

Post by danans »

tengbretson wrote: post #166
fs111 wrote: post #35

It is not important to work hard, it is important to be happy. Stop glorifying the act of working, please.

> It is not important to work hard, it is important to be happy There's a reason that none of the major religions or ancient philosophers share this outlook. It's because a society that elevates the personal happiness of the individual above all else necessarily becomes self destructive.

> none of the major religions or ancient philosophers share this outlook.

That's because the major religions of history, especially the major organized religions, are part and parcel with their adjacent governmental power structure, and basically share it's interests, which mostly have to do with extracting value from the populace.

Plenty of philosophers, however, have spoken counter to this, from the Epicurians, to the Lokayatas, to Omar Khayyam.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#187

Post by metal13 »

xwdv wrote: post #124
ardit33 wrote: post #8

It is impossible to be really good at everything.... when I optimized for work, my fitness goals went through the window. When I optimized to get a project done, my reading (books) went down as well. When I optimized for fitness (working out and soccer), my work and side projects started progressing slower. It is very hard to work on your project at home, when you are in a intense bulking, or 'cutting' phase, and onc…

> It is very hard to work on your project at home, when you are in a intense bulking, or 'cutting' phase, and once you come home form the gym you just want to chill.... Zero excuse for this IMO. A work out of 1 hour is good enough and it’s only 4% of a day. Muscle growth happens when you sleep, so allocate 7 hours. Eating meals to bulk up isn’t hard. Drink 30g protein shake with each meal, on top of the protein you g…

OP said bulking or cutting. Bulking is easier from an energy standpoint (compared to cutting), but it's not trivial. Your body is still tired. Your capacity for problem solving is still limited. And eating (and buying, and prepping) the amount of food needed for bulking is time consuming.

And cutting is even worse. You feel drained. And you sleep more when cutting then you did when bulking.

Both are hard enough that it makes me wonder if you've done either for a decent period of time. If you had, it'd be pretty easy to see OP's point without a flippant answer that ignores what they're saying.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#188

Post by xwdv »

metal13 wrote: post #187
xwdv wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is very hard to work on your project at home, when you are in a intense bulking, or 'cutting' phase, and once you come home form the gym you just want to chill.... Zero excuse for this IMO. A work out of 1 hour is good enough and it’s only 4% of a day. Muscle growth happens when you sleep, so allocate 7 hours. Eating meals to bulk up isn’t hard. Drink 30g protein shake with each meal, on top of the protein you g…

OP said bulking or cutting. Bulking is easier from an energy standpoint (compared to cutting), but it's not trivial. Your body is still tired. Your capacity for problem solving is still limited. And eating (and buying, and prepping) the amount of food needed for bulking is time consuming. And cutting is even worse. You feel drained. And you sleep more when cutting then you did when bulking. Both are hard enough that…

I consulted a nutritionist and had most meals prepped and delivered, so I eliminated wasted time.

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#189

Post by metal13 »

xwdv wrote: post #188
metal13 wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP said bulking or cutting. Bulking is easier from an energy standpoint (compared to cutting), but it's not trivial. Your body is still tired. Your capacity for problem solving is still limited. And eating (and buying, and prepping) the amount of food needed for bulking is time consuming. And cutting is even worse. You feel drained. And you sleep more when cutting then you did when bulking. Both are hard enough that…

I consulted a nutritionist and had most meals prepped and delivered, so I eliminated wasted time.

I mean, good for you to have that ability.

> "Zero excuse for this IMO."

So, zero excuse, as long you have the money to pay someone to do all the thinking/planning for you. And as long as you have the money (and live in the right locations) to have someone do all the actual work of cooking for you.

I also suggest you go read the commenting guidelines, especially the "assume good faith" piece: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: I was tricked into thinking I had “grit”

#190

Post by zarkov99 »

It is true that its much easier to stick with and get good at things you love. But life does not always oblige our preferences. There are times when you have to buckle up and do things you very much rather not and the ability to do this without complaining is very valuable over time.
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