Great post! especially after the week-long PyCon rants on HN front-page.
The Positive Programmer
31–40 of 119 posts
Re: The Positive Programmer
#32I read that and felt that it was a negative post about negative posts.
Re: The Positive Programmer
#33> "Accept the behavior of others as it is, and don't allow yourself to project your desired behavior onto others."
If you could only read one sentence in TFA, this should be it.
To it, I would also just add: "Instead, show others how you would have them behave by behaving that way yourself."
Re: The Positive Programmer
#34> The first (and only) thing that immediately came to mind was that I wanted to be a better person: I wanted to be smarter, more successful, and happy. When I read this, the first thing I thought of is, "Well that's your problem." To me, based on my experiences and what I've read and observed from other people, many people find the most happiness from focusing less on oneself, and focusing more on others. What can I…
"...many people find the most happiness from focusing less on oneself, and focusing more on others."
My experience confirms this...
Reference: Wittgenstein, Tractatus 6.43, and below.
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/5740
and some quotes
Re: The Positive Programmer
#35I feel like most programmers have trained themselves to expect the worst. Pessimism forces you to write robust code. I'm not saying it's the only way to produce robust code, but it definitely helps. I think that's why a lot of HackerNews posts are pessimistic (negative).
Re: The Positive Programmer
#36There's a reason developers complain and fixate on things that are bad or broken. It's because, for the most part, developers (and designers and UX people and many others) are natural problem solvers. If something isn't broken, okay, great, no need to focus on it. But if something is broken, to a problem solver, this is inexcusable. Things that are wrong need to be fixed. So when you see people complaining about thin…
It is too easy to get caught up in the idea that "everything is bad" when all you focus on is negatives. It sets the tone for your day, and alters your overall opinion on things.
A better alternative would be to have a clear, accurate, and wholly representative understanding of the situation. This means focusing on the good just as equally as the bad.
I understand where you're coming from though. I used to think the same thing about not focusing on good, and only directing attention to the bad. It made me feel like I was selective, like I had good taste, and knew things that other people didn't. I even suspected I was a little like Steve Jobs must've been, because surely he had good taste. I got to the point where I was starting to be known as a grumpy guy, and so I took a step back and realized what the negativity was doing to me, my mood, and to those around me. And thats when I realized a complete picture is better than a purely negative one.
With a complete picture, I'm less negative. When I'm less negative, Im more likely to have positive thoughts running through my brain. When I have positive thoughts running through my brain, I'm happier. When I'm happier I'm more productive, people like me more, I talk more, and all of those things lead to me being more successful. It was an obvious choice for me!
Maybe you aren't there yet, and maybe you won't ever be. However, I imagine a lot of people are somewhere close, and I hope they find this comment useful.
Re: The Positive Programmer
#37> The first (and only) thing that immediately came to mind was that I wanted to be a better person: I wanted to be smarter, more successful, and happy. When I read this, the first thing I thought of is, "Well that's your problem." To me, based on my experiences and what I've read and observed from other people, many people find the most happiness from focusing less on oneself, and focusing more on others. What can I…
> What can I do to have a real impact on the well being of society? From my own experience, it is infinitely easier to make me better than to discover what I can do for society. I'd love to make products that help society, but damn it that's hard. Maybe if I just focus on myself I can make me happy. So far it's worked. I'm still looking for something I can do to help society. Until then, I'm working on things that he…
Just curious - why not jump on the grand ideas now? (I would assume the usual reasons.. financial, time, etc.)
Re: The Positive Programmer
#38> The first (and only) thing that immediately came to mind was that I wanted to be a better person: I wanted to be smarter, more successful, and happy. When I read this, the first thing I thought of is, "Well that's your problem." To me, based on my experiences and what I've read and observed from other people, many people find the most happiness from focusing less on oneself, and focusing more on others. What can I…
I agree but for that to work "others" need to be people that you believe need/deserve whatever it is you are doing.
That is hard to do if you actively dislike the company you work for.
Re: The Positive Programmer
#39There's a reason developers complain and fixate on things that are bad or broken. It's because, for the most part, developers (and designers and UX people and many others) are natural problem solvers. If something isn't broken, okay, great, no need to focus on it. But if something is broken, to a problem solver, this is inexcusable. Things that are wrong need to be fixed. So when you see people complaining about thin…
There was a spate of articles last yearish that talked about how people who were grumpy or melancholy were actually far better at perceiving reality accurately and were thus better equipped to address problems.
Re: The Positive Programmer
#40It's a culture thing, and mob mentality. A few leaders set the tone and then everyone runs with it, eager to make their mark. Every major event, especially those with strong emotional content, starts with a trigger post, followed by a deluge of "my take on X" posts, complete with 600+ thread comments, after which it slowly fades away, with only a few hardcore people shouting "why doesn't anyone care about X anymore!?"
That's human. That's culture. The negativity will eventually fade once the general startup mood improves from massive infusions of cheap money again, at which point the same fad cycle will continue to occur, but with a much rosier tint.