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Ask HN: What is the best piece of advice someone has told you?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the best piece of advice someone has told you?

#41

Post by DoreenMichele »

halpert wrote: post #12
mindcrime wrote: post #11

"Always be the smartest (eg, 'most well informed' or 'best educated') person in the room - ON SOMETHING". Or to paraphrase slightly "Have a thing that is your speciality, to the point that you are almost always the most knowledgeable person in the room w/r/t that topic." I think this is a valuable idea to keep in mind, even if it remains forever an aspiration (which it probably will if interpreted in the strictest se…

That’s the opposite of advice I’d give to someone. If you’re the smartest in the room, then you’re in the wrong room.

That's a completely different idea from having a specialization where you are the go-to answer man.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best piece of advice someone has told you?

#43

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

jameslk wrote: post #26

"It's not what you know, it's who you know" Probably not a popular tip for many on HN who enjoy tinkering, but its truth has served me well in my entrepreneurial endeavors, where as my nerdiness less so. One cannot know everything and we all are bound by finite time, but if you learn the skills and build the network to bring many talents together, you can accomplish greater things than doing it all on your own. Simil…

It's not what you know, it's what you can prove.

- Denzel Washington in Training Day

Re: Ask HN: What is the best piece of advice someone has told you?

#44

Post by DoreenMichele »

jameslk wrote: post #26

"It's not what you know, it's who you know" Probably not a popular tip for many on HN who enjoy tinkering, but its truth has served me well in my entrepreneurial endeavors, where as my nerdiness less so. One cannot know everything and we all are bound by finite time, but if you learn the skills and build the network to bring many talents together, you can accomplish greater things than doing it all on your own. Simil…

I think you need both, really. If your entire game is "I've got connections" then you've got no game. Your entire game can readily fall apart if people decide to stop backing you.

If you have knowledge/skills but no connections, you've still got no game.

I think you need some of both to really get anywhere.

So this kind of ends up being good advice for people who err in a particular direction and could stand to beef up the part they are missing.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best piece of advice someone has told you?

#45

Post by iancmceachern »

throwaway81523 wrote: post #28
iancmceachern wrote: post #20

From this Ted talk on making tough decisions. https://www.ted.com/talks/ruth_chang_how_to_make_hard_choice... If your making a tough decision, you have already determined that both options are equally attractive and equally good decisions. If this wasn't the case, it would be an easy choice. So if you are choosing between two seemingly equally good decisions, your choice doesn't matter. They are both equally good opt…

What we usually think of as "tough decision" is that there is an easy and attractive choice vs. a choice that requires sacrifice without immediate benefits. Or it puts conflicting choices in opposition with each other. Typically in that one, the decider has a conflict of interest. E.g. mask mandates in a covid-stricken region probably save a lot of lives and are probably supported by a majority, but get the politicia…

In your example there is one clearly right decision and one clearly wrong decision. It's not a difficult decision, it's a moral one (right vs wrong), which isn't a difficult decision at all. Just because thr outcome may be difficult for the decider doesn't mean the decision itself is difficult.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best piece of advice someone has told you?

#46

Post by lowkey_ »

supperburg wrote: post #40
walterbell wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask a psych major.

No I literally don’t know. Is it a way to be cooler and more accepted? A way to avoid the stress of a project? What?

I really appreciated this advice. It's vague enough that if it relates to your life, you'll probably see how when you hear it.

I think I can apply it to both my work life, thinking about times where I overworked myself at a company where nobody else cared enough, and to my personal life, thinking about times where I invested myself fully into relationships where it wasn't certain to be requited.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best piece of advice someone has told you?

#47

Post by walterbell »

supperburg wrote: post #40
walterbell wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ask a psych major.

No I literally don’t know. Is it a way to be cooler and more accepted? A way to avoid the stress of a project? What?

Detachment, objectivity, negotiation, game theory.

WSJ Oct 2021, "Burned Out? Maybe You Should Care Less About Your Job", https://archive.md/2fsRi

Re: Ask HN: What is the best piece of advice someone has told you?

#49

Post by tomhoward »

Learn to be OK being misunderstood. If everything you're working on or doing is easily understood by most people, it's probably not very valuable.

Related: if you can't find anyone to fund you to work on what you think are the most important projects, just take the work that people will pay you to do but that allows you enough free time to work on the stuff you think is the most important.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best piece of advice someone has told you?

#50

Post by kbrannigan »

drakonka wrote: post #4

Don't tell people your goals. I heard this in a TED talk years ago[0]. Telling people what you plan to do can evoke the same emotions as actually doing that thing, lowering the drive to do the work to accomplish the goal because you got your emotional reward already. Being a serial starter, I retroactively noticed this pattern in myself when I heard this. Now, when I want to do something new, I shut up about it until…

> shut up about it until I either complete it or have enough momentum in the project to have reached critical mass.

That's the key! It's about validating the goal by yourself first. Having support from people is amazing.

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