Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Finding Your Swagger

kevinyien.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 92 posts

Re: Finding Your Swagger

#81

Post by jimbokun »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #11

I appreciate the honesty of the post. For myself, I don’t think having “swagger” is particularly constructive. Ego is a mind-killer. It is selling smoke. I’m quite good at what I do. In some things, I am very good; but at many, many other things, I still have a lot to learn, and in other areas, it’s best I stay out of the kitchen, entirely. In the areas in which I excel, I often exude great confidence, which is somet…

> In the areas in which I excel, I often exude great confidence, which is sometimes mistaken for arrogance.

Isn't that how the article defines swagger?

Re: Finding Your Swagger

#82

Post by oliv__ »

I appreciated the honesty in this piece but something in the way the author places all blame on himself struck me as inappropriate (at least if I were putting myself in his shoes):

"I thought about my best moments. I thought about my worst moments. I derived the behaviors and attributes that led to each. I wrote a list of personal values"

I don't think it's right or even helpful to try to quantify and reduce a human being to a list of values and pluses or minuses. Saying that you "lost yourself" and need to find it back sounds like agreeing with the premise that you fit in this neat mold that the CEO and COO have defined for you and puts you in danger of "losing your shape" whenever those people decide so.

It sounds like a very externally-oriented appraisal of one's self.

Re: Finding Your Swagger

#83

Post by crnkofe »

One day you're family, next day you're on the street. Never treat company too intimately. If money is tight everyone becomes a waste product. I'm pretty sure the writer did the best he could but in the end it wasn't good enough for some reason. I don't think his ability or performance had much to do with it. I felt kind of similar when at some point I got fired and got told management made a mistake in calculating some financials. ** happens. Take a walk, make an attempt to travel, procrastinate a bit. Everyone's got an agenda so don't treat those exit interviews and last final words too much to heart.

Re: Finding Your Swagger

#84

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

SavantIdiot wrote: post #72
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't think you understand what ego is. Be kind. I thought we weren't supposed to do this stuff, 'round these parts; but I'm often wrong. Actually, I know about the Freud stuff, and the scientific meaning of "ego." Basically, the meaning that almost no one actually ever attributes to the word. Words tend to adapt to the meaning that is most often applied to them. Dictionary be damned. It's how people actually use…

> Be kind. Would "I think you might be misunderstanding ego" have been a better way to phrase it? > are traits to be admired Oh I agree, I am not making a claim about what HN-types revere, I was addressing how two very distinct psychological terms are often misused. Like, for example, if I kept calling C an interpreted language; or claimed there's no difference between TCP or UDP; that's the same as equating assertiv…

> Would "I think you might be misunderstanding ego" have been a better way to phrase it?

No.

"The way that I understand the word 'ego,' is thus..."

If you really can't live without applying a slap, may I suggest:

"I feel that this word is often misused. The way that I understand the word is ... If it is applied in the way that I understand it, then ..."

I'm a fairly decent chap. I have some experience and knowledge, relevant to the OP. I'm not at all interested in being a bloviatasaurus, and, if presented with corrections, or alternative points of view, I'm always more than willing to concede the point. I'm not really interested in being a foil to someone's strawman.

Re: Finding Your Swagger

#85

Post by xutopia »

Your performance at a job is not limited to solely your behavior but that of the team. If the team is not leveraging your skills and sideline you then of course you're going to feel bad... just like you think it's not healthy to blame them... it's not healthy to blame yourself. Sometimes it's simply not the team you're going to be doing your best work with.

Re: Finding Your Swagger

#86

Post by sangnoir »

Bhilai wrote: post #59

> [6] Fortunately, the company agreed to provide COBRA which would cover our insurance costs for the delivery. This is so crazy and why employer based insurance cannot be a safety net in the case you end up needing an expensive treatment while also losing your job.

If we're in a one-sided class war, insurance and share-based 401k's are the capital-classes trojan horses.

Re: Finding Your Swagger

#87

Post by notreallyserio »

djur wrote: post #67
notreallyserio wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the other hand it could have been the COO trying to give Kevin a chance to show he's on board with the product direction, and the whiteboarding showed otherwise. Who knows?

"Who knows?" is exactly the problem here. No transparency.

Sure, but it's a blog post. I don't think we can expect to get both sides of the story here.

Re: Finding Your Swagger

#88

Post by 5754797 »

This is the cycle at all companies.

People join, politics gets played out, people leave or are fired, those in power consolidate their position.

I’ve never lacked swagger but I’ve been the powerful and I’ve also been the fired.

Indeed having confidence is just another reason to get fired …. If you’re smarter than someone else then they don’t want you there …. it’s just politics it means nothing.

It’s not personal, it’s politics. Just find somewhere else that you fit better.

Also, if you plan to be in any level of management, read “The Prince”.

Re: Finding Your Swagger

#89

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

jimbokun wrote: post #81
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #11

I appreciate the honesty of the post. For myself, I don’t think having “swagger” is particularly constructive. Ego is a mind-killer. It is selling smoke. I’m quite good at what I do. In some things, I am very good; but at many, many other things, I still have a lot to learn, and in other areas, it’s best I stay out of the kitchen, entirely. In the areas in which I excel, I often exude great confidence, which is somet…

> In the areas in which I excel, I often exude great confidence, which is sometimes mistaken for arrogance. Isn't that how the article defines swagger?

Yup. I just don't like the word "swagger," but I dug the tone of the article.

Re: Finding Your Swagger

#90

Post by atoav »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #24
atoav wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> “Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment.” And if you are clever you also get your experience from bad judgment others make.

Yup. Another favorite aphorism: "A fool never learns. A smart man learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others." One problem that I have with people being given huge responsibility, before getting much experience, is that we haven’t had time to see others make mistakes. One key reason that I was a good manager, was that I had many bad managers, and learned what not to do.

I think a lot of that has to do with the ability or experience to actually observe when something presents itself.

Not sure where this comes from, but I realized at some point that not everybody makes use of this ability.

Post reply on HN