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Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

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Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#91

Post by stereoradonc »

deebosong wrote: post #56
lostgame wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for sharing this. Calvin and Hobbes is one of the more influential works of art I've ever held dear to my heart. I love hearing this from him.

Bill Watterson was influential for me to not go into NFT art. It's not something to be proud of, but I wrestled with joining or not. And at the time I was wrestling with making art in and for that space, I recalled a story about him where Spielberg and others approached him for movie rights for Calvin & Hobbes, and he refused, because it would ruin the soul of what he was trying to explore & do with those characters.…

This is a beautiful perspective-greatness doesn't come through shortcuts. Sweat, Tears, Failures, Rejections are all part of the process. To those who embrace this without falling for the bling are truly destined for greatness.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#92

Post by imgabe »

dQw4w9WgXcQ wrote: post #88
dougmwne wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a great counterpoint quote from Edward Abbey: "One final paragraph of advice: do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am - a reluctant enthusiast....a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it’s still here. So get out there and hunt an…

> hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space I like to keep in mind this romantic i MaDe tRaVeLinG a LifEstYle BS is enabled by the folks who are typically working the…

If you had a job that paid well enough for you to take off and travel and enjoy your life, then you just opened up one more well paying job for someone else (who might be stepping up from one of those shit jobs).

The greedier thing would be to stay on and suck up more and more resources that you don't need and don't even make you happy.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#93

Post by dQw4w9WgXcQ »

imgabe wrote: post #92
dQw4w9WgXcQ wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, the lovely, mysterious, and awesome space I like to keep in mind this romantic i MaDe tRaVeLinG a LifEstYle BS is enabled by the folks who are typically working the…

If you had a job that paid well enough for you to take off and travel and enjoy your life, then you just opened up one more well paying job for someone else (who might be stepping up from one of those shit jobs). The greedier thing would be to stay on and suck up more and more resources that you don't need and don't even make you happy.

> you just opened up one more well paying job

> stay on and suck up more and more resources

As opposed to creating more value and enabling the company to hire 5-7 more team members? Maybe you view yourself as a zero-sum resource-suck, but I typically multiply what my company does through new ideas and creative pursuits.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#94

Post by oxff »

> The body requires a lot of maintenance and has limited energy

Weight training 3x week takes around 270 minutes. Add rowing / swimming 2-3 week for some 30 to 60 minutes. That's ~330 minutes a week, nothing.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#95

Post by fuzzfactor »

version_five wrote: post #7

Do you know the song "Simple kind of man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd? I think your dilemma is roughly what that song is about, but I also don't think you get to choose. I've had a few cushy jobs that would have set me for life with good money and work life balance, and I quit them because I was bored af and felt like I was wasting my life. I don't regret it at all, but I'm definitely "behind" lots of my peers who have been ha…

>What are your thoughts?

Another song from the 1970's comes to mind, The Pretender:

Jackson Browne - Soundstage 1976 - The Pretender

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayOOKrynixQ

May 2021 last year:

Jackson Browne "The Pretender" (Live from Home)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf-rrgiKwCE

this one with full text lyrics ending with the final verse:

>I'm going to be a happy idiot

>And struggle for the legal tender

>Where the ads take aim and lay their claim

>To the heart and the soul of the spender

>And believe in whatever may lie

>In those things that money can buy

>Though true love could have been a contender

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#96

Post by mbg721 »

You need to make a living somehow. If you trust supply-and-demand, the things that people are willing to pay for are either going to be so novel that few people have thought of them, so boring or icky that few people want to do them, or so difficult that few people are capable of doing them. Most high-paying white-collar professions are a combination of 2 and 3, with degrees and post-college credentials used as a difficulty test. Professional athletes are the extreme case of 3. Running a business on your own can be 1, 2, and 3.

To be happy as a person, your best bet is arbitrage. If you can figure out where your talents and training can make 1, 2, or 3 easier than they are for the average bear in the long term, (sometimes far easier), then you've alleviated the biggest burden and can spend more time on what you truly care about at that time. Alternatively, you can have the difficult part of your day-job also address something that you care about personally, and then you're meeting other emotional needs through work in a way that most people don't.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#97

Post by imgabe »

dQw4w9WgXcQ wrote: post #93
imgabe wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you had a job that paid well enough for you to take off and travel and enjoy your life, then you just opened up one more well paying job for someone else (who might be stepping up from one of those shit jobs). The greedier thing would be to stay on and suck up more and more resources that you don't need and don't even make you happy.

> you just opened up one more well paying job > stay on and suck up more and more resources As opposed to creating more value and enabling the company to hire 5-7 more team members? Maybe you view yourself as a zero-sum resource-suck, but I typically multiply what my company does through new ideas and creative pursuits.

You don't need the permission of some company to create value, have new ideas, or pursue creativity.

Corporate profits are not necessarily the same thing as value. Showing ads 0.1% more effectively is not making the world a better place.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#98

Post by matt_heimer »

Don't worry about being entrepreneurial, just find challenges you enjoy. They can be work problems, learning new technologies, new physical goals, creating a startup, learning a new hobby, etc.

Have easy days without challenges. Find the ratio that works for you.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#99

Post by falsemove »

The way I see it, don’t get bored. Do things so you’re not bored. Having purpose helps tremendously, as well as being loved / part of a group and creating value for people / a group.

You’ll probably change intensities of focus on various things throughout life, I think we all do so don’t think there will just be one path and that’s it.

Anyway, yea, anything impactful usually takes time. I don’t know people who conquered the world overnight. Maybe you tried startups / big ideas and they didn’t pan out the way you imagined so you’re giving up on that a bit. If so you failed and learned what not to do that’s good - you tried. And in the end, trying lots of things keeps life not boring - especially when you « fail » and then try harder newly gained experience and hypothesis. Big ideas, relationships, hobbies - just try new things and don’t stay bored and I’m sure you’ll subconsciously guide yourself to where you need to be.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#100

Post by muzani »

bckr wrote: post #89
muzani wrote: post #75

Well, if you had 100 million dollars, what would you do? For me, I would build something. A certain thing. And I realized that it's easier to get a job and get paid doing that instead of building/buying a team. I can be a billionaire later, but I won't necessarily be able to do what I really want to do. Another angle is that I won't have the energy to be a developer when I'm old, but I can always do (senior) manageme…

> Well, if you had 100 million dollars, what would you do I would write, interview people for my YouTube channel, and finally learn to make great music. I would buy a house and throw parties where I'd dress up in wizard robes and read ancient Sumerian texts to my friends with incense burning over delicious offerings. I'd get people together to play summer camp games on the weekends. I'd help my siblings and cousins d…

Yeah, I don't think any of that needs much money, or even financial freedom. Nor does it sound boring. So I'd say you're on the right path.
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