So you're saying to be more humble, or is there more?
Humility breeds a state of mind which evidences itself through action. There's not really more, except that actual humility isn't something you can measure directly. So the advice "be more humble" isn't actionable. "Work to pay back the debt you owe" is.
Humility like arrogance are both wrong. Humility is unearned guilt, unearned self-doubt, and arrogance is unearned confidence, unearned pride. It's best to have a sober assessment of one self and act accordingly.
I am a maker, I am self-made, I am not indebted, and my job is damn sexy. The fact that I stand in the shoulders of giants does not mean that I am not self-made. We all make our choices given the opportunities available, some of us choose some things, some of us choose others. Given that we make our choices and everybody around us is free to make their own choices, we are not indebted to anybody. We might be generous…
Which should be the #1 comment for this article that's based on the currently popular of guilt, and pride in feeling guilty.
We build on own success - each one of us. Being successful is not making a debt to someone - and even more so to society. And being successful is sexy!
You got at least my mod point, and hopefully more will come, but IMHO we should be very worried that such misconceptions are getting so popular :-(
I did, and generally agree that humility about achievement leads to the best results, a sense of entitlement to the worst. My only beef was 'our parents understood this'. WW2/depression generation, maybe, boomers, no way. The comment I was responding to seemed to take serious offense at the OP, and I don't.
I don't take serious offense, I just disagree with the article. Taken at face value it seems to be warning makers not to feel to good about themselves. As a personal belief system about making, it sounds like a negative, unhealthy one. The tagline "Sexiness is vanity" gives that away. Imagine telling your daughter, "Don't feel sexy, that's narcissism that is. Exalts the individual and such. People who feel sexy are vain. Sexiness is poison, it's toxic; if you start to feel it, resist it." That's about half of what this article is trying to drive home, and I think it says as much at the OP as anything. That's ok though, it's a very personal post.
"We dig in the dirt so that out of the muck we can construct something we ourselves can find worthwhile, all the time knowing in our true hearts that we’re likely to be the only ones to ever find it beautiful" ... That's one of the reasons why being a maker is sexy. Plenty of startups have probably started this way...out of the muck, against all odds, against disbelief from the rest of the world, you can take something and make it work. Makers are pursued by a lot of companies. That's sexy...
I am a maker, I am self-made, I am not indebted, and my job is damn sexy. The fact that I stand in the shoulders of giants does not mean that I am not self-made. We all make our choices given the opportunities available, some of us choose some things, some of us choose others. Given that we make our choices and everybody around us is free to make their own choices, we are not indebted to anybody. We might be generous…
Which should be the #1 comment for this article that's based on the currently popular of guilt, and pride in feeling guilty. We build on own success - each one of us. Being successful is not making a debt to someone - and even more so to society. And being successful is sexy! You got at least my mod point, and hopefully more will come, but IMHO we should be very worried that such misconceptions are getting so popular…
Thanks for the mod point, I completely agree with you. I find it very worrisome that such ideas are getting popular among developers. If you want to destroy a people, destroy their self esteem first. I for one, do not welcome my unearned guilt dispensing overlords.