The only time that you have to look into the plate of another person its to see if it has enough.
Ask HN: How do you deal with professional jealousy and getting older?
11–20 of 426 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with professional jealousy and getting older?
#12Don't look back at where you've been . . .
There are lots of people in their 30s and 40s working on their first startup/business idea. You're ahead of them.
Focus on where you're going.
26 is young, just make the most of your at bats, keep on top of your procrastination and 'make it happen'.
Don't look back, focus, go get it.
If you'd have started at 25 (that was a year ago), 21 you were enjoying university life, 19 you were a kid still.
26 is the perfect launching point, go get it.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with professional jealousy and getting older?
#13Stop beating yourself up and start working as you have wished. Work when it is time to work but don't forget to live. You will never get that time back but are still young.
Don't be afraid to fail. Push ahead and you'll see failure is temporary.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with professional jealousy and getting older?
#14I'm 29 and have exactly the same problem.
I think visiting sites like HN although interesting, don't help too much with this since you see everyday new projects and ideas, and it makes you feel like you are doing nothing with your time.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with professional jealousy and getting older?
#15I'm 40, started working as a programmer only about 10 years ago, so I definitely have more lost opportunities that you. But I don't care. I manage to make a good living, enjoy what I do and get the appreciation of my clients for the work I do, and that's what I wanted when I went my own way.
I can understand though, and I think part of the problem is actually HN. When I started reading it I was suddenly informed of many new (to me, at least) programming languages and other technologies. I felt behind and thought I needed to learn, or at least understand, them all, but I didn't have the time -- I had much work to do during the day, and then no will power to learn anything new in the evenings after I had finished working for the day. So then I felt guilty about it -- how do other people manage to both work and learn all those things at once? I don't know. I just stopped feeling bad about it since (as stated above) I make a good living, enjoy myself doing this and get appreciated for my work, and that's what important to me.
There are two things that I do that might help you though:
1. I only read NH when I'm not working (i.e. mornings or evenings). That means I can focus on my work rather than get involved with something else.
2. When I read about a new exciting technology, unless it's relevant to what I am working on at the moment, I bookmark the page, in case it becomes relevant in the future. In the process I realised a lot of it is trends. People on HN get excited about something and a year later they're excited about something new, and then the old gets criticised. So basically, I saved myself a few hours learning something that wasn't so important to know after all.
Edit: formatting
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with professional jealousy and getting older?
#16I'm 45, and have about 60 unfinished side protects in my /Dev folder. I've also just reached the feature complete milestone on my first side project that will actually ship. After working on it, or a variation of it for SEVEN YEARS.
Your question made me smile. Are you having fun? I'm having lots of fun, and have had throughout my career. There was a time in my 20's where I felt exactly the way you do.
Don't sweat it. Live life, and it will come to you. Focus instead on making memories that will make you smile when you're 80.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with professional jealousy and getting older?
#17I'm not famous or "accomplished" enough that you will ever hear about me, but I'm extremely successful by the metrics/goal I have chosen. My goal was simply to be happy . What separates us from (other) animals, is our ability to alter our environment. Use your big brain to figure our some combination of the parameters in your life (work/environment/free time/etc.) that makes you happy and change your environment to o…
Good piece of wisdom. I somewhat have the same opinion but could not put it into words.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with professional jealousy and getting older?
#18"But the thing that got me through that moment, and any other time that I’ve felt stuck, is to remind myself that it’s about the work. Because if you’re worrying about yourself — if you’re thinking: ‘Am I succeeding? Am I in the right position? Am I being appreciated?’ — then you’re going to end up feeling frustrated and stuck. But if you can keep it about the work, you’ll always have a path. There’s always something to be done."
- Barack Obama
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with professional jealousy and getting older?
#19I keep this Reddit post handy whenever I feel the way you do right now. I strongly recommend you read it, and would love to hear your thoughts :)
http://www.reddit.com/r/Frugal/comments/1cv2gr/payed_off_210...
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with professional jealousy and getting older?
#20I think one of the key points would be to stop comparing yourself to others. You're you, they are not.
Set manageable goals for yourself and strive to achieve those. Over time you'll hit those goals and be able to set yourself another. They can be short term goals (wake up every morning at 6:00) and long term (learn x language), but the main thing is that you focus on them and strive to achieving them rather than comparing yourself to others.