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Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

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Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#391

Post by nosianu »

czbond wrote: post #365
xwdv wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This advice used to work years ago but user expectations have risen massively and you can no longer get away with a shitty cookie cutter MVP. You must do the big work upfront and come out very polished out of the gate, or else users will sense you don’t really have much skin in the game and not bother investing time in your niche project. This often means you must leverage the latest and greatest tech to get an edge,…

If the value proposition is common, then yes it is hard. If it is novel, then no. Agree design is much more important than before. But you can still pay a designer $1k or less and it looks pretty nice. Maybe not "uniquely different", but nice. Agree the days of "simply put it up and get users" is probably gone. One has to work it, which is what distinguishes a project from a business. Developers may be good at one, b…

The problem with this advice is the same as with most advice for how to get ahead: It just does not scale, not even a little. It only works for a few. If more people follow it, it's just more stressful and/or expensive for everyone.

I mean, if this is the kind of society that any poster of such advice has in mind than I won't complain. Who am I to dictate what the end goal is? If people want a society for winners, so be it. I just wish that advice givers were aware of that and would show it. As it usually sounds like such advice is given without any thought for scalability.

Or you subscribe to the idea that a huge number of people could indeed have this 0.1% super idea. I can't really disprove that this would be possible I admit, a huge number of people suddenly having crazy good ideas all at once, and all or most not requiring a lot of resources (which they would compete over, and with all the old industries).

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#392

Post by sapientiae3 »

0F wrote: post #214

Reading these comments is forehead slap inducing. People think that just because something is mental that it has to do with your mindset, your parents, your this your that. When a dude can run faster than other people, it’s written off as genetics. When someone is resilient to depression, it’s anything other than genetics. Both cases are the same: it’s just biological. I’ve been suffering super hard with depression r…

I once heard someone say that depression is a spiritual problem, as in the cause lies with your relationship (or lack there of) with a higher power.

I just had a thought - what if there is a biological or evolutionary quirk that believing in a higher power results in more happiness? It would certainly explain why some people who seem to have a supernatural outlook are so happy dispite what seems like terrible suffering.

E.g. Carlo Acutis [1] was known for his cheerfulness despite suffering and dying from leukaemia.

[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlo_Acutis

Edit: spelling

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#393

Post by RangerScience »

hyperman1 wrote: post #128

I had the chance to work with a few people I'd consider genius level. While I'm pretty smart myself, they all have something I don't always have: The ability to be happy in any situation and interested in everything. For example, we were walking trough a hallway. On a wall is an old, damaged, ugly map of my country, half covered with graffiti. I'd walked past it almost every day for half a year. He checks it out, and…

> I learned a lot from him, and try to follow this example, but I still can't do this today and am humiliated (in a positive way) by this way of living.

Can confirm. Had a friend for awhile (she and her husband moved to NZ, and I barely hear from them now) who had this same "wonder at everything / happy with anything" aspect, and her entire life is practically magic; her father is similar, both in success and vibe.

> am humiliated (in a positive way)

I think the word you're looking for is "humbled"?

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#394

Post by testcase_delta »

k8sToGo wrote: post #328
testcase_delta wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Steven Pinker's book Enlightenment Now made a compelling case that the world now has basically never been better. You'd be crazy to wish be born in to any other time period. I find that comforting. There's good reasons to be glad you weren't born in the past, and the same reasons to be hopeful for the future. Perhaps that's not comforting if you're suffering. But if the cause of your suffering is that you thi…

> You'd be crazy to wish be born in to any other time period. I feel like this is way too general. It really depends on as who you would have been born...

For sure, you're right. I'm talking about base rates. The curve of human experience has shifted dramatically in a positive direction over time. So if a genie said to your unborn self, pick and era to be born into and I'll randomly assign you a person from the era, you'd be crazy to choose any time but now.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#395

Post by mrtranscendence »

spookthesunset wrote: post #341
pyb wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You make a good point. Are people successful because they are happy, or vice versa?

What is “be successful” other than being content with your life? Dudes who make bank almost always have to work really hard to get there. Or at least make a lot of sacrifices (for example trade most of your social life / relationships / etc for work). Personally I just want to make enough to enable me to buy shit for my hobbies and personal projects. I’d like to do that while maintaining the ability to take lots of t…

> I’d trade a lot for time off…

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the moment my company comes to me and says "would you be interested in taking a 50% pay cut to work 20 hours a week?" I'm taking it. Even though I'd get the short end of the deal by doing more than 50% of what I'm doing now.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#396

Post by matheusmoreira »

jl2718 wrote: post #389
fxtentacle wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's the curiosity. I know one guy who rushed through bachelor, master, and a PhD in mathematics in like half the regular time without ever breaking a sweat. Sometimes, you'd meet him in the cafeteria reading research papers for fun. You could mention any topic, and he'd know something related that one time he was super curious about and he spent an evening reading through Wikipedia. He's like a sponge who so…

What if you’re exactly like this guy, but with a small fraction of his raw intelligence? Does that work out or just annoy people? Asking for a friend…

I'd like to know too...

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#397

Post by adwn »

988747 wrote: post #388
adwn wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Governments will respond to economic factors that diminish purchasing power in order to maintain the effectiveness of UBI, as a part of UBI. How? Using which political, economic, and financial tools? And what will be the side effects of those policies? That's exactly the point I was making: UBI proponents assume a downright utopian best-case scenario where everything works as planned (even though those plans are va…

>> How? Using which political, economic, and financial tools? And what will be the side effects of those policies? There's a simple answer for that: please look at communist Poland 1980-1989 - trying to counter raising prices with government intervention leads to supply crisis (since production is not economically viable anymore). Imagine all stores having nothing to sell, literally empty shelves, forcing common peop…

That reminds me of a German joke about the German Democratic Republic ("East Germany"):

Ein Mann geht in ein Kaufhaus in der DDR. Er fragt den Verkäufer: "Gibt's hier keine Socken?" – "Nein, hier gibt's keine Hosen. Keine Socken gibt's in der zweiten Etage."

Translated (roughly): A man visits a department store in East Germany. He asks the shop assistant: "Do you have no socks here?" – "No, we have no trousers. No socks are on the second floor."

(The joke relies on the word order of German syntax; properly translated, the dialog would be:

"Don't you have any socks?" – "No, we don't have any trousers. No socks are on the second floor"

But then the joke doesn't really make sense anymore.)

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#398

Post by jklinger410 »

988747 wrote: post #388
adwn wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Governments will respond to economic factors that diminish purchasing power in order to maintain the effectiveness of UBI, as a part of UBI. How? Using which political, economic, and financial tools? And what will be the side effects of those policies? That's exactly the point I was making: UBI proponents assume a downright utopian best-case scenario where everything works as planned (even though those plans are va…

>> How? Using which political, economic, and financial tools? And what will be the side effects of those policies? There's a simple answer for that: please look at communist Poland 1980-1989 - trying to counter raising prices with government intervention leads to supply crisis (since production is not economically viable anymore). Imagine all stores having nothing to sell, literally empty shelves, forcing common peop…

Oh really? So when the United States subsidizes our otherwise non competitive corn industry, it leads to economic collapse?

When we control oil prices by using reserves and trading agreements, does that cause people to fight for scraps?

How about when we subsidize silicon chip manufacturing? Did that collapse society?

You cannot, in a serious conversation, compare Soviet Union economic policies to modern socialist ideas. It's just silly.

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#399

Post by mrtranscendence »

raxxorrax wrote: post #209
hyperman1 wrote: post #128

I had the chance to work with a few people I'd consider genius level. While I'm pretty smart myself, they all have something I don't always have: The ability to be happy in any situation and interested in everything. For example, we were walking trough a hallway. On a wall is an old, damaged, ugly map of my country, half covered with graffiti. I'd walked past it almost every day for half a year. He checks it out, and…

Cannot really confirm this from my experience. Have worked with a lot of very unhappy geniuses. Perhaps not really unhappy, but not particularly happy either. But performance can mean something different. I think the study source is questionable as well. Perhaps the soldiers were happier because they got acknowledgement for their work? Most intellectuals don't get noticed because they are positively beaming, even if…

> Have worked with a lot of very unhappy geniuses.

I haven't worked with a lot of very obvious geniuses, strictly speaking, but I've known plenty of very smart people who weren't particularly happy. And I've known several people that I absolutely would not consider geniuses who were nevertheless brimming with curiosity, successful, and quite outwardly cheerful (though at least one suffered from anxiety and depression).

Heck, going by IQ I'm only, what, 15 points off from genius and I'm not particularly happy either. Nor am I that smart for values of "smart" that people would traditionally associate with genius, but maybe that makes all the difference? I can barely do tips in my head ...

Re: Top Performers Have a Superpower: Happiness

#400

Post by honkycat »

You wouldn't know it from my grouchy hacker-news persona, but I am actually a pretty bubbly and happy person in real life. And let me tell you, it takes work!

A few years ago I started going to therapy. And I found that a really positive outlet. I wasn't depressed, or angry, or anything like that. I just wanted to do more and be better.

And I've now adopted the motto: "Your friends and family are not your therapist" and it is true!! They should be supportive, of course, that is what they are for.

But your therapist is someone you pay to tolerate you at your worst and whiniest and to help you plan a path out of where you are.

And it worked for me! That is why I advocate for it.

I also recently started taking medication, and it has been PHENOMENAL. I am so much more productive!!!

---

It can be a bit of a double-edged sword though. I am a bubbly person, but some people find that very annoying. Or they see it as weakness or fae.

I feel like people don't realize that it takes me a lot of work to be how I am. It doesn't come naturally, it is a series of decisions I made:

1. To realize I have a problem

2. to seek help

3. To decide take medication

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