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Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

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Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#231

Post by victorhn »

xiphias2 wrote: post #226
pedrosorio wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do IOI in high school, so one would expect you to hit the gym regularly at that point. Also going to the gym is pretty easy, so if you know “the path to happiness” why not just take it?

,,Also going to the gym is pretty easy, so if you know “the path to happiness” why not just take it?'' I'm doing it but I'm 40 and the gains are not the same...my girlfriend left me for a younger and much stronger guy (and no, just younger wasn't enough in itself). Also in the 90s whenever I asked a girl if she likes muscular guys, they usually answered ,,not that much''. They are much more open nowdays about what th…

You are smart, seems to be well off financially and still relatively young, so the future should not look that bad, probably you can get a younger girl too.

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#232

Post by deterministic »

carrolldunham wrote: post #222
mbrodersen wrote: post #220

Honest question: why do you care? What is it in your psychology that makes you want to do something that impresses the world? If you don’t like the struggle needed to achieve those things then accept that you deep down don’t really want what you think you want. Instead ask yourself: What makes you happy? What makes you be in the “zone” experiencing flow? That is what you really deep down care about.

>What is it in your psychology that makes you it seems like you missed the punchline >I'm bipolar schizoaffective and borderline.

I understand your comment but I don’t think it makes a difference. I could be wrong of course.

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#233

Post by mbrodersen »

mikaelsouza wrote: post #97

This is one of the best HN posts I've read in a while. It feels so close to home, and I think it's amazing that people are sharing their feeling about this topic. Sometimes I feel the same as OP, but then, when I encounter a post like this one, I remember that most people aren't going to do super-duper gigantic world-changing stuff and that's ok. Really! Don't beat yourself because you didn't create RCT using assembl…

Yep agree 100% I am slowly learning to accept that if I only want the results but don’t want to pay the price (thousands of hours working to accomplish the results) then I really don’t truly want it. You have to pick the struggle you want and the results will be the outcomes of that choice.

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#234

Post by blacksoil »

Mother Teresa is an inspiration for me. She wrote "You can do things I can't, I can do things you can't. Together we can do great things". I went to India once to volunteer at her place and my eyes were opened that there are so many things we can do for people. We don't need to be Einsten or somebody super smart/talented to be able to help people around us. We just need to find what sort of things we can see ourselves consistently doing for a long time that can help people around us. It doesn't necessarily need to be a big thing.

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#235

Post by Art9681 »

Time + Commitment = Improvement

You can improve in a few months what it takes another a few years depending on your circumstance. There are no shortcuts. Find ways to increase the amount of time you can devote to your dreams. This will compound. And if you stay the course, you greatly increase the odds of success, whatever that is. Being satisfied with your accomplishments.

I'm not saying it's easy. Everyone has things outside of their control that demand their time. But a lot of people don't make attempts at changing that circumstance. There are a ton of ways to optimize a bit here and there to gain time that compounds.

Use it wisely.

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#236

Post by johndevor »

paulpauper wrote: post #201
codegeek wrote: post #6

I know the feeling but I will leave you with this: "There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. ― Ernest Hemingway"

Maybe nothing noble about it, but it sure feels good to be the best at something or close to the best and respected and successful

I think that's the point Jordan Peterson has been making for a while, referencing increased serotonin released in lobsters who win fights against other lobsters, and a lowering in the ones who lose.

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#237

Post by mbrodersen »

dvh1990 wrote: post #94

Reading through the various comments, I wonder what happened to good old-fashioned ambition. Other than my post, all I can see are "it's ok, I feel the same way, don't change" replies. We used to admire our heroes and try to emulate them, and if fortunate enough, come as close to them as our talents and circumstances would allow. And we did that through hard work, through having lofty goals and working hard to achiev…

Nothing has changed. I admire lots of people but I don’t want to pay the price needed to achieve similar results. You have to love or at least tolerate the struggle to get results. So pick the struggles you want to have. Don’t pick the results you want to achieve and try to do the work needed. It won’t work.

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#239

Post by rfrey »

throway453sde wrote: post #224

Work on boring yet important problems, to maximize your impact. Super smart people will work on interesting problems. They don't care if something important or not and as a consequence don't make much money. Smart people work on interesting and important problems.

Boring vs. interesting seems subjective, therefore not a useful classifier since what you pick as boring somebody (perhaps much smarter) will pick as interesting.

"Important" seems impossible to determine except in hindsight.

Re: Ask HN: I feel so shallow and dumb when I see what other smart people are doing

#240

Post by incredibleheron »

This is incredibly hard for me as well.

Coming from a lower middle class family, I had to struggle a lot financially before finding a foothold. Even now the inadequacies plague me.

Unfortunately I don't have a solution, apologies OP.

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