Earlier quoted context omitted.
What about clean water? and vaccinations? and no more famine?
Are these all from the profit seeking entrepreneur?
Lack of famine certainly is. Probably the greatest advance ever.
Do success stories cause false beliefs about success?
191–200 of 265 posts
Re: Do success stories cause false beliefs about success?
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's not like they had an OS product. Gates had a plan to get one, though. > networking Want to improve your odds? Go to tech conferences. I met and talked with Gates at one in the 80s. Nothing came of it, but I didn't really try to engage him. I spent a half hour talking to Allen, too. He offered me a job. I turned it down. My mom didn't open these doors. I did.
> My mom didn't open these doors. I did. I'm pretty sure that your success story will be missing some facts too if you write it. Perhaps just because you don't consider them important. My one significant career enhancing event happened because I knew the right person. Not a parent, just another programmer friend who brought me into a job, but still.
The point is, position yourself so luck can find you. A might not find you, but B would, or C would or D would.
Stay in your basement playing video games, and you won't have any luck.
Re: Do success stories cause false beliefs about success?
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
Healthy competition is the best motivator. Challenging each other does work but both parties have to give a shit. Another great motivator is being told you will never be able to do something, which gives fuel to the motivation in the form of spite.
That approach is problematic for some people. The depressive pile has already been mentioned, but we also have to consider that some people are less competitive than others. Some people are teachers or nurses until the day they retire. It isn't because they don't have what it takes to be principals or hospital administrators. A good many do so because that's where they see themselves doing the most good. In other cas…
My problem is that is has always been extremely difficult to find a competitive partner. Most people that are willing to compete for motivation fall into the three below categories.
1. Are already so far ahead that they just like having people to push the "I win" button on and there is no way to beat them. You can see how online games are ruined by cheaters to get a feel how many people do this.
2.People that are so unhealthy hyper competitive that they will ruin their life to "win" against you. Going as far as to sacrifice personal health/finance and general life balance just to game whatever the competition is.
3.Say they want to compete then do nothing.
There is also the initial problem of finding someone that is roughly at the same place in life as you to compete with for motivation. People have various differences that can make huge handicaps, health,money, kids, pets, parents, education, career, housing.
Re: Do success stories cause false beliefs about success?
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It's not like they had an OS product. Gates had a plan to get one, though. > networking Want to improve your odds? Go to tech conferences. I met and talked with Gates at one in the 80s. Nothing came of it, but I didn't really try to engage him. I spent a half hour talking to Allen, too. He offered me a job. I turned it down. My mom didn't open these doors. I did.
"My mom" is short for you are not alone in your success. How can you describe that in a sane way when you know that just one small variable led to this specific outcome. Tech conferences did not get us Linux, it was just an idea that failed many times before and since. For me networking has been vital because I've gotten to do so much fun, but it has been a massive waste of time for the most part.
It's still been vital to you.
Who knows who you're going to meet the next time you go to a conference. The last one I went to (Handmade Seattle) I happened to meet and have a great conversation with the creator of Zig. I met lots of others, too.
Never would have happened if I didn't go attend it.
Re: Do success stories cause false beliefs about success?
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even the simple act of trying will improve your odds of success. Some basic strategies: 1. stay in school 2. don't do drugs 3. don't do crimes If you want to be a pro basketball player, your odds will improve if you practice playing basketball. Want to be a guitar god? Get a guitar and start practicing. Every guitar god I've heard of have one thing in common - they played a lot , for many many years, before breaking…
Many guitar gods use drugs, Walt Disney and Bill Gates did not stay in school, and people like Mike Tyson and Kevin Mitnick were successful after comitting crimes. There's just too many variables in life that make success more about luck than following general guidelines.
> Many guitar gods use drugs
After becoming guitar gods, yes.
These responses just make me laugh. Do you really think you're going to improve your odds of success by failing to complete high school? from prison? desperately searching for your next drug fix?
Re: Do success stories cause false beliefs about success?
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 1. they are rarely stupid I know at least 5 people who are fairly stupid but were at the right place, the right evening, the right dinner and spoke with the right people. They all retired at 35 with tens of millions after taxes. They can coast on these savings for 10 years if they live lavishly and if they close all their businesses tomorrow. They weren't stupid in 2-3 regards, yeah. For everything else that I chat…
Successful people often need less sleep than what’s considered the norm. 5 hours for them is 8 hours for most people. Same with stress, stress tolerance is above the norm. They’ve won the genetic lottery. Not every successful person has these traits of course. But enough to see a pattern.
Bezos famously sleeps 8 hours a night. Personally I like getting good rest but I also find my most productive moments are when sleep deprived or in the midst of insomnia.
Re: Do success stories cause false beliefs about success?
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even the simple act of trying will improve your odds of success. Some basic strategies: 1. stay in school 2. don't do drugs 3. don't do crimes If you want to be a pro basketball player, your odds will improve if you practice playing basketball. Want to be a guitar god? Get a guitar and start practicing. Every guitar god I've heard of have one thing in common - they played a lot , for many many years, before breaking…
You sound like a American entitled boomer. Just work hard and it will be fine. Which if you look was never true. > Get a guitar and start practicing. Every guitar god I've heard of have one thing in common - they played a lot, for many many years, before breaking through. Sure but they also got talent and were the exception and your view is biased. The ods of becoming a guitar god are very low and of course they are…
> Just work hard and it will be fine.
I didn't say work hard. Nor did I say it will be fine. I said it IMPROVES THE ODDS OF SUCCESS.
> they also got talent
I don't buy that. When I was younger, I enjoyed competitive ballroom dancing. I was terrible at it, but I kept at it for years, and finally was able to get on the floor in a competition with the good dancers. I'd get complimented on my "talent". What a laugh. Talent is good for about 1%. The other 99% comes from working at it.
> doing something is usually better. But just doing something will not bring you closer to success.
You just contradicted yourself.
> Not doing crimes is such an odd thing to mention here
Considering the number of people in jail who thought it was a good idea, it seems an obvious thing to mention.
Dropping out and doing drugs is a choice. Odds of being a success dim considerably if you take that route.
But it isn't my definition of a loser. If you read my posts consistently, a loser is a person who believes he does not have agency in his life. They drift along, never trying, always making excuses, always blaming bad luck. Their journey through life is predictable.
You can always tell the winners, too. He may be poor, middle class, or wealthy. But he's always excited to face the next day, always has ideas he's working on, always fun to talk to, never dwells on past failures, and most importantly, takes responsibility for his life - the good and the bad.
Re: Do success stories cause false beliefs about success?
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Some basic strategies: > 1. stay in school > 2. don't do drugs > 3. don't do crimes You forgot: 4. be born to rich parents That probably has a greater influence on chances of success than most others.
Actually location is the most important indicative of success in life. So if you were born in the USA you already won such a lottery that it completely dwarfs the rest of influences on your chances of success. As to rich parents - that can't be an important indicator, just by considering how many more rich people are in the current generation compared to the previous one: who helped them?!
I am indeed talking about living in a free country, like the USA. Communist societies actively destroy anyone who is successful.
Re: Do success stories cause false beliefs about success?
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is simply not true. There are countless angel, pre-seed, seed and VC funds begging founders to apply and funding any idea with the slightest chance of success. We are rather living boom times in funding, both in US and EU. What we are lacking is entrepreneurs: people willing try to work and prove ideas.
Could that be due to the increasingly severe consequences of failure?
What "severe consequences" are you talking about?! With increased funding founders are paid better and better during startup years. And with a blossoming employment market, failed founders will easily find themselves jobs which will quite appreciate the earned experience.
I believe it's more about the comfort of regular employment which is more and more cozy and attractive (including from a financial perspective). Startups are risky and intense and for a lot of people the extra stress just isn't worth it. They can be happy with a regular 9-5 job and more free time for fun and hobbies.
Culture is another thing. Society does not value success as it used to be, the self-made rich are reviled while luck, conformity and integration in society held in high regards. Unfortunately this comes exactly as future's challenges can only by solved with courage and entrepreneurship...
Re: Do success stories cause false beliefs about success?
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you explain a little bit more? What odds? What part of that successful people do? What do you mean by loser?
Well it seems that most people do end up the average of their friends.
That's an astute observation. Choosing winners for friends, and cutting loose the losers, will increase your odds of success.
For example, if you want to be good at skiing, hang out with people who are good at skiing.