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I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

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Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#171

Post by bognition »

Draiken wrote: post #163
randomsearch wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's the point of it? Live for others. You (and I) are incredibly fortunate. We have our basic needs taken care of. We have more than that. There are many, many, people in the world who have problems that you can help solve. That could be - spending time with a lonely elderly person, volunteering with the homeless, building a website for a charity that can't afford to pay for a great one, building a startup that…

It's noble, but for me it's once again... pointless. I don't have the money or power to enact any meaningful change. I can give my time or some money to others, but I'm not really fixing anything. I'm just drying ice. Maybe I'm not selfless enough? I've never tried anything like that, so that's at least something new. Might give it a try

Is it possible you’re setting your threshold for meaningful change to high?

I have friends that have made it their life’s work to get their city to install more bike lanes. They’ve been pushing for a decade and the city has installed a few lanes in particularly dangerous places. They have likely saved a bikers life.

I have friends that volunteer at a crisis center and all they do is talk with people who need help. They aren’t making big changes but are positively impacting the lives of people around them.

There are so many meaningful ways to improve the world around you that don’t require you to have millions of dollars or to go into politics.

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#172

Post by mjg59 »

goatherders wrote: post #162
mjg59 wrote: post #106

Growing up, the idea of a career in computing was implausible. The only computing course my school offered was scheduled against doing a full science course, and they had nothing for the 16-18 range. The local night school programming class I signed up for was cancelled because I was the only person who signed up for it. My parents made it extremely clear that the idea that I could ever make money writing software wa…

I recognize that this is largely a tech forum, but I find it interesting that you choose being a founder or CEO of Google as your benchmarks as opposed to walking on the moon, curing cancer, or something else. Not a critique, just an observation.

Having spent time in biology, being CEO of Google is a way more realistic goal than curing cancer. As far as the moon, I grew up on Star Trek and the idea of spending my life in space and seeing new things was absolutely what I wanted. But once I found that Earth contained a lot of utterly fascinating people, being able to meet them mattered more to me than spending a shitload of time getting as far away from them as possible to do a fairly small amount of rock collection - I'm going to be exposed to more new ideas staying here than I am up there.

But it's a fair point! Our aspirational goals are influenced by what we believe is possible, and that's amazingly contextual. What we're lead to believe is possible changes what we believe should be possible for us, and that changes the standards we set for ourselves.

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#173

Post by lallysingh »

xwdv wrote: post #145
JKCalhoun wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No kids, huh?

Having kids is the last straw that breaks your dreams. By that point you’ve committed to the parent lifestyle and your life as it has been is over. You now spend the rest of your days providing for your family and viewing everything through the lens of a parent.

It's funny you say that today, I was just thinking about it. Family provides a ton of emotional cushion, perspective, and motivation. They're a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. It's far easier to motivate yourself into working hard for them than your own material desires. And you don't lose your dreams to them in the process, they become part of them.

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#174

Post by kuntau »

Draiken wrote: post #157
JKCalhoun wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No kids, huh?

(GP) I actually have a 21 year old. When I married he was 7, so I probably lost the craziness of the early years. However I raised him as my son the best way I could. I don't particularly like the idea of having more kids though. Put them on this world? Ugh... I know, I'm a bit too pessimistic

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Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#176

Post by GuardianCaveman »

Draiken wrote: post #135

This is always a tough subject for me because everyone seems to have at least an idea of what they want to achieve. When I was younger I had these silly dreams of moving to another country, getting married, becoming a programmer to make games, have my own company and get rich (haha). I did become a programmer and got married, but never left the country or became rich. Now on my 30s I know how limited my options are.…

What the point? Exceed your potential. Set goals like becoming rich, climb a mountain, start your company, fail many times if it takes it. Take 6 months off for around the world travel. You said you dont have the drive as before. That’s your choice. Drive is something we can choose and cultivate. If you’re happy the way you are then that’s one thing but I for one am not going to lean on my insignificance when compared to the universe to justify why I don’t do things. If you want it, go for it!

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#177

Post by robertlagrant »

djaychela wrote: post #38

I was expecting to resonate more with this article, but found that the writer really hadn't been doing much. I often complain to my girlfriend that I've got nothing done, and then she asks what I've done... and it turns out I've actually done a lot. I'm currently splitting my days between regular contract work producing videos (first two hours of the day, 7am-9am), and then after a short break I spend the rest of the…

If you can DIY things that would cost someone else tens of thousands of £s/$s then imagine how much you'd need to earn to get that money after tax, and then add that total amount to your salary. That's the equivalent of what you're earning.

One reason why I don't like using salary as a comparison is it doesn't reflect people's life circumstances, except at the extremes. It's just easy to measure.

And good luck with the roof!

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#178

Post by p0d »

I read a two thousand year old book this morning that said we shouldn't measure our life by our wealth.

I just watched the news article about the dinosaur, extinction event, find.

And still, many will make wealth their goal and waste their time pursuing success. I wasted enough headspace on it myself. Work hard, be grateful for what you have, enjoy what you have while you have the health.

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#179

Post by sheerun »

FabHK wrote: post #62
anyfactor wrote: post #55

I found my zen when I was told that, "always know you are the best". No matter what, you are better than everyone by some metric. I also figured out quite recently that, never compare yourself to anyone because there is always going to be someone far better than you. Far luckier than you. I was binge watching a YouTube channel called "Geoguesser". Self explanatory. I was mesmerized by how skilled he was. Even if he w…

Not sure I understand - it seems to me that your first two paragraphs contradict each other (and the second (pessimistic) one is correct, not the first).

you miss the aspect of time. life is not a theorem, it's a process

Re: I thought I’d have accomplished a lot more today and also before I was 35 (2020)

#180

Post by kerrsclyde »

garrickvanburen wrote: post #152
xwdv wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having kids is the last straw that breaks your dreams. By that point you’ve committed to the parent lifestyle and your life as it has been is over. You now spend the rest of your days providing for your family and viewing everything through the lens of a parent.

Hard disagree. I wasted a lot of time before kids. All of the things I’m most proud of I’ve done since having kids.

Second this. I kicked about and achieved hardly anything before I had children.
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