Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring” • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#111

Post by paulcole » Thu, May 19, 2022, 3:47 AM UTC

bckr wrote: post #81

paulcole wrote: post #17

> A mentor has advised me not to become "boring" and wants me to try to stay entrepreneurial. Your mentor wishes they weren’t boring. Nearly everybody’s boring (myself included). Don’t sweat it.

> Your mentor wishes they weren’t boring Good observation. He is insecure about being "average". He's far from average, but has clearly risen to a place where he doesn't feel more successful/intelligent than his peers.

It’s an easy observation to make. Make it about everyone you meet and you’ll be right nearly every time.

Whether boring is a bad thing is a matter of perspective.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#112

Post by balaji1 » Thu, May 19, 2022, 3:49 AM UTC

PotatoPancakes wrote: post #14

If you want to be "exciting" (the opposite of boring) you'll always feel like you aren't living up to your potential; just like how power lifters always think their muscles are small and anorexic instagram models don't think they're skinny enough. Balance is much more rewarding. Do good work, work that pays, that you're good at, that you can be proud of. Then go home. Switch off, and enjoy your hobbies. Learn an inst…

> Do good work, work that pays, that you're good at, that you can be proud of. Then go home. Switch off...

Do good work. But if not switch off, and if you are young, it might be better to get another boring job. There is so much distraction, huge marketing machines pumping out ads manipulating our psyche and FOMO inducing content on Instagram. People could easily focus on a second job and be forced to avoid all this.

I wonder if there are software engineers doing 2 boring jobs.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#113

Post by muzani » Thu, May 19, 2022, 3:53 AM UTC

karmanyaahm wrote: post #76

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…

> After that, you can go and chase material stuff. Many new careers start at 50. A lot involve family. An option is semi-retiring at 25 and then really get into hustling and stuff at 50, once you have the resources, skills, and connections. As someone who is 17, from my (perhaps naive) perspective, do you know if you will even be alive at 50? Or will you have the energy/health to make an impact? A family now is good…

I think if you don't have the burning desire for change, the ability, or the opportunity, the odds of failure are very high.

If you do have all these conditions, then go for it. But otherwise, it might be best to wait, as age doesn't really diminish them.

Also if you are raising kids, then the hedge is that you've probably raised multiple people who can bring the same impact or more. In many cultures, family companies like Samsung are quite common. Samsung did trading and only entered electronics when the founder was 50. But it was with Lee's children that Samsung became a major power.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#114

Post by mbg721 » Thu, May 19, 2022, 4:22 AM UTC

balaji1 wrote: post #106

mbg721 wrote: post #96

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 dif…

I also thought of job security when I saw the OP question - what will guarantee work and pay for a few years. Once you commit to a job with job security, manage time to get it done efficiently. Then manage distractions to spend time on something else. What do you mean arbitrage here tho?

What I mean is that you as an engineering major might be really good at something that's difficult in a mathy way, or you as a business career-changer might be really good at something that's difficult in a "they asked that, but y department would understand it if you just framed it like z" way.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#115

Post by monkeydreams » Thu, May 19, 2022, 5:02 AM UTC

The one thing that strikes me about "boring" people is how seldom they are actually bored. They are finely tuned organs of consumption, able to discern the finest differences between states and measures, and are endlessly fascinated (and driven) by this consumption to consume more and more at finer and finer levels. They are the sensitive instruments by which the universe discovers itself.

Claiming that being boring (as opposed to inflicting boredom) is a negative characteristic is like judging a scalpel on its ability to crush boulders.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#116

Post by kalimanzaro » Thu, May 19, 2022, 5:03 AM UTC

maroonblazer wrote: post #72

xeromal wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same. Maybe they just used counterpoint incorrectly? Misunderstanding?

Or maybe they're a musician, and are using the musical definition of 'counterpoint', where a melody is played with another melody and together they harmonize.

Or maybe they are a continental European, who, of American writings, appreciate mostly the rustic type-- and be stranger to usages of "kontrapunkt" outside of a high art context

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#117

Post by asxd » Thu, May 19, 2022, 5:15 AM UTC

imgabe wrote: post #109

dQw4w9WgXcQ wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Corporate profits are not necessarily the same thing as value. Showing ads 0.1% more effectively... Of course not, but when a project idea I architect & develop results in a bunch of new team member hires that 1) I get to train and mentor and 2) are all putting food on the fucking dinner table for their families and getting to enjoy their lives through productive labor and 3) make the lives of our customers a littl…

I never said it was a negative thing. It's also not a negative thing to step back from that and add value to the world in other ways, maybe raising your kids, tending a garden, or stimulating the economy of some other places by traveling there. For someone who's so happy and joyful about all the value you get to create, you sure are bitter that anyone else might not choose to do exactly what you're doing. People who…

> People who take time off to travel or otherwise enjoy their life don't do it based on the charity of working people as you seem to assume. They already worked, created value, saved some of that value, then spend their stored value as they please. Why does that make you so angry?

Exactly. Odd that the parent commenter is bitter about the idea of people enjoying their money. You earned the money, and if you wish to spend it traveling/any other old thing... well why not?

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#118

Post by mmphosis » Thu, May 19, 2022, 5:27 AM UTC

“The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been before.

Creativity in living is not without its attendant difficulties, for peculiarity breeds contempt. And the unfortunate thing about being ahead of your time is that when people finally realize you were right, they’ll say it was obvious all along. You have two choices in your life; you can dissolve into the mainstream, or you can be distinct. To be distinct, you must be different. To be different, you must strive to be what no one else but you can be . . .”

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#119

Post by HellDunkel » Thu, May 19, 2022, 5:33 AM UTC

silencedogood3 wrote: post #37

getoj wrote: post #25

From Bill Watterson's commencement speech at Kenyon College in 1990. I was lucky to read this when I was graduating and it changed my whole career path. I am now very happy and very boring: "Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. In a culture that relentlessly promotes avarice and excess as the good life, a person happy doing his own work is usually considered an ecce…

Great comment! I find it even more moving in waterson style comic form: https://www.gocomics.com/zen-pencils/2014/06/23

Haha- ok. I love how he is nerding out on the dinosaur and next we see his girlfriend. This is not what happens in real life.

Re: Ask HN: Thoughts on being “boring”

#120

Post by annyeonghada » Thu, May 19, 2022, 5:35 AM UTC

widjit wrote: post #34

PotatoPancakes wrote: post #14

If you want to be "exciting" (the opposite of boring) you'll always feel like you aren't living up to your potential; just like how power lifters always think their muscles are small and anorexic instagram models don't think they're skinny enough. Balance is much more rewarding. Do good work, work that pays, that you're good at, that you can be proud of. Then go home. Switch off, and enjoy your hobbies. Learn an inst…

Really? Most of the entrepreneurs I've met have had to do a lot of work, but none of them (this is my personal experience) regret striking out on their own. Advocating for a resigned alienation from one's work is advocating for living one's life for other people. I don't buy it.

>but none of them (this is my personal experience) regret striking out on their own.

This is like having children: nobody would say they regret it even if they do and when pressed they will rationalize with a mental gymnastic the flexibility of which would be a yogi to shame.