Be On Fire • Hacker News Board

Re: Be On Fire

#11

Post by ChuckMcM » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 5:19 PM UTC

I think Nike's "Just Do It" campaign was a bit more effective. There is a huge difference between being 'on fire' (does that make you the Burninator?) and 'out of touch.'

Fakegrimlock here implies that you run really hard at your ideas, and you hit the wall (fail) on the stupid ones really fast, so that you can get to the good one (win) more quickly. If you're someone whose fire is "I want to change the world" but you don't actually have a particular change in mind, this strategy will literally kill you.

Steve Bourne (yes that Steve Bourne) once advised me that I needed to have 'an agenda' which was code for that thing that one cared deeply enough about that they would be willing to commit their time/energy/soul to making it come to pass.

You can tell when a passionate person has an agenda because all of their activities are either contributing to, or attacking blockers of, that agenda. In this regard Steve was absolutely correct. Just like you can't walk a straight line for long distances without picking a point on the horizon, you can't get anything major done without having a direction picked out ahead of time.

Re: Be On Fire

#12

Post by fedd » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 6:14 PM UTC

> PERSON ON FIRE ... NOT CARE ABOUT MONEY

the best for them to invest in and make money on.

signed: BURNT OUT

Re: Be On Fire

#13

Post by nanijoe » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 6:18 PM UTC

fedd wrote: post #12

> PERSON ON FIRE ... NOT CARE ABOUT MONEY the best for them to invest in and make money on. signed: BURNT OUT

..Then Person on fire must not have wife and kids, or rent or need to eat, or need to take subway etc. Everyone has to care about money on some level...whether or not they are on fire.

Re: Be On Fire

#14

Post by pabloPXL » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 7:01 PM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #11

I think Nike's "Just Do It" campaign was a bit more effective. There is a huge difference between being 'on fire' (does that make you the Burninator?) and 'out of touch.' Fakegrimlock here implies that you run really hard at your ideas, and you hit the wall (fail) on the stupid ones really fast, so that you can get to the good one (win) more quickly. If you're someone whose fire is "I want to change the world" but yo…

The problem of having 1 master plan is that you don't know whether you will ultimately succeed or not. Burning out quick ideas on the other side will improve your ability to decide correctly on your next ones. To be clear I agree with your interpretation of our fellow dinosaur's idea, but not with having an agenda that can be a single point of failure.

Re: Be On Fire

#15

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 7:07 PM UTC

mechanical_fish wrote: post #5

My god I dislike onswipe. Slow on the iPad 1.0, brutally ugly short columns in landscape mode, ugly rerendering when flipping to portrait, and did it break the flow of the images or was that something else? Cannot wait for web designers to come up with something better. Please.

[deleted]

Re: Be On Fire

#16

Post by zargath » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 8:25 PM UTC

--- Bruce Lee quote -- Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves.

Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water my friend.

Re: Be On Fire

#17

Post by hammock » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 8:57 PM UTC

My favorite part:

WIN IS SMOKE [image of a man on fire running forward, behind him a trail of smoke]. ON FIRE NOT CARE ABOUT WIN. NOT CARE ABOUT MONEY, FAME. WIN HAPPEN WHEN BUSY DO THINGS THAT MATTER. THINGS ON FIRE.

Re: Be On Fire

#18

Post by hammock » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 8:59 PM UTC

hammock wrote: post #17

My favorite part: WIN IS SMOKE [image of a man on fire running forward, behind him a trail of smoke]. ON FIRE NOT CARE ABOUT WIN. NOT CARE ABOUT MONEY, FAME. WIN HAPPEN WHEN BUSY DO THINGS THAT MATTER. THINGS ON FIRE.

Reminds me of Jack Welch (GE CEO) who said "Strictly speaking, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world. Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy."

Re: Be On Fire

#19

Post by fredwilson » Tue, Oct 25, 2011, 11:39 PM UTC

mechanical_fish wrote: post #5

My god I dislike onswipe. Slow on the iPad 1.0, brutally ugly short columns in landscape mode, ugly rerendering when flipping to portrait, and did it break the flow of the images or was that something else? Cannot wait for web designers to come up with something better. Please.

^2

Re: Be On Fire

#20

Post by OpenTrader » Wed, Oct 26, 2011, 7:29 AM UTC

OpenTrader wrote: post #6

Posted this over in feld.com, but I'll put it in here too cuz I actually saw the article here on Hacker News. Thanks for Posting. Absolutely love it!... People have often criticized me for my fire. When I was young it was: "You're too competitive, can't you just take it easy?". When I set out to chase my dream of becoming a world-class independent stock trader it was: "Your ambition will end up costing you big". When…

Someone on feld.com thought that my comment was arrogant. Of course fire is often confused with arrogance too :) But I thought I'd clarify anyways since I wasn't so clear at first:

Making a bunch of money trading was not at all what it was about for me. That was only a validating result. In truth I was deeply passionate about trading, lived and breathed it, and did it for its own sake. I quit my job and moved half way across the world to chase my dream of becoming a trader. I left my family and friends and lived 2 years without income to do it. All that fueled me was the fire of my passion for the activity. The same fire that an athlete or musician feels for their art. Those guys may not change the world, but the fire is nonetheless the same fire.

Did my trading change the world? no. But it did change ME through a journey of self-discovery where I had to reach to the depth of my soul to survive and succeed in an endeavor where 95% fail. But I also did have a yearning to change the world in some way. And that's why I ultimately gave up trading and started a new tech company who's goal is to bring transparency to the retail trading and investing industry and thereby improve it as a whole.

It's the same fire that fuels this new desire as the one that fueled the seemingly less noble desire of making money trading. But ultimately, if it hadn't been for that previous pursuit and all the self-growth I experienced through it, I wouldn't be trying to change the world now.