Yes, doing the reading is good. In fact, I recommend the author do far more reading, so as not to buy into the false dichotomy of "main characters" vs "NPCs". People are far more complicated than that.
The Dead Planet Theory
21–30 of 86 posts
Re: The Dead Planet Theory
#22There are multiple points in the article, each of them probably deserving its own article. I want to focus on the two. One is the peer effect. Who you surround yourself with absolutely matters. This applies to the content consumption, and this applies to your surroundings too. This can be as simple as going to the library, having surrounded by other people working and researching is great, even if it's just schoolwor…
My godson wants to be a storyteller of some kind, either video, or music, and he was fretting about not being good enough. My advice to him was, "look, if you just sit and THINK about what you're going to do before you do it, you're going to be better than 80% of the people out there".
That's about what I've run into in my life. Most people do things on autopilot and don't think about what they're doing, or don't consider it worth thinking about. If you want to do something and be good at it, wanting to be good at it is enough to move you past most people, as long as you have a growth mindset.
Re: The Dead Planet Theory
#23I do the reading, but now I have a problem of finding the best reading too, and the whole rabbit hole is reading about what could be the best reading.
I have been actively working on it, and sticking to one thing and just starting, but i am a creature of habit and love hoarding and finding resources.
Re: The Dead Planet Theory
#24One of my strongest recommendations to people on social networks is to engage down-thread. Talk to other people, not just the top post. Get beyond your glancing para-social relationship, and expand your Metcalfe-factor by commenting and liking other people's engagement. Especially for new or young networks, a lot of people are truly starved for engagement & don't see the pattern of being engaged with . Engagement has…
What sucks about HN in particular for this is that as soon as you start engaging with a thread you are very interested in, getting a lot of replies, etc, you are locked out of commenting due to the flame war rules. Then whenever you are unlocked again later in the day perhaps, you've forgotten all about that discussion and have moved on. Whatever potential discourse that was there nipped in the bud.
Re: The Dead Planet Theory
#25If you post a comment on hackernews, you're already in the top 5% of people who visit hackernews. If you attain enough karma to actually downvote other people, you will probably be in the top 1%.
I comment a lot, mostly to acknowledge the lofty brilliance of some people. ( Like you ), but I do not know what my karma is or how to downvote, but no matter. I have no idea what percentile I am in... I am absolutely sure someone is tracking/ranking it, because if I were actually training and AI, I would absolutely start at this large collection of bainiacs - but first I would ask permission, which I would guess wou…
Your karma is in the top right. You need around 300 to downvote, 800 to flag. Your downvote by clicking the down arrow beside every comment and submission.
Re: The Dead Planet Theory
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
I comment a lot, mostly to acknowledge the lofty brilliance of some people. ( Like you ), but I do not know what my karma is or how to downvote, but no matter. I have no idea what percentile I am in... I am absolutely sure someone is tracking/ranking it, because if I were actually training and AI, I would absolutely start at this large collection of bainiacs - but first I would ask permission, which I would guess wou…
I do not post, so my karma must be non-existent.
It's 501, it's right there in the top right and in your profile page.
Re: The Dead Planet Theory
#27One of my strongest recommendations to people on social networks is to engage down-thread. Talk to other people, not just the top post. Get beyond your glancing para-social relationship, and expand your Metcalfe-factor by commenting and liking other people's engagement. Especially for new or young networks, a lot of people are truly starved for engagement & don't see the pattern of being engaged with . Engagement has…
Is it worth the effort for any individual poster though?
The unreachable segment (read only, doesn't comment) which already makes up the vast majority of audience is practically un-engageable.
Among commenters, there's the blend of low-effort 'this'-type posts, soliloquizers (though possible therapeutic for the poster), and lizardman-constant/flame type reactions.
It seems that in most venues, the effort to read through all comments and find anything valuable to engage with has a low social ROI.
Re: The Dead Planet Theory
#28Experience taught me doing anything will make you a target. You WILL suffer.
Re: The Dead Planet Theory
#29There are multiple points in the article, each of them probably deserving its own article. I want to focus on the two. One is the peer effect. Who you surround yourself with absolutely matters. This applies to the content consumption, and this applies to your surroundings too. This can be as simple as going to the library, having surrounded by other people working and researching is great, even if it's just schoolwor…
My godson wants to be a storyteller of some kind, either video, or music, and he was fretting about not being good enough. My advice to him was, "look, if you just sit and THINK about what you're going to do before you do it, you're going to be better than 80% of the people out there". That's about what I've run into in my life. Most people do things on autopilot and don't think about what they're doing, or don't con…
It is obvious to me that there are two types of thinking: there's planning, which only goes so far, and there's ongoing introspection into the work you're doing, which is what most people really need.
I'm trying to write fiction at the moment. It's far, far harder than technical writing, programming, writing a reply on HN, or anything else that's remotely similar. I'm not used to it, at all. My brain suggests things that just aren't good ideas, and then I spend time eliminating those bad ideas, and then my brain suggests more things, and I find one good one, and so we continue. I have to work in ten minute stretches and then go for a walk to clear my head.
I think this is how most skills are learnt. You try something ("write the first chapter of a novella"), you analyse what went well and what went poorly ("I felt my writing was boring, and I noticed that nothing really happened because all I wrote was description and exposition"), you deliberately practice ("I read through the first chapter of some books I enjoy and tried rewriting my first chapter with similar interactions and events"), and then you go back to the base task and get a little further ("the first chapter was compelling but I didn't leave any story hooks and don't know where to go for a second").
Re: The Dead Planet Theory
#30Experience taught me doing anything will make you a target. You WILL suffer.
Very jaded take with no context. I'm sorry that was your outcome, but it is not good advice.