Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

How to Be Successful

blog.samaltman.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 326 posts

Re: How to Be Successful

#191

Post by spyckie2 »

porpoisely wrote: post #92

I find these types of articles/blogs to be relatively pointless because the market/economy/country/etc has room for a select few successes. Imagine if Obama wrote "How to Be a Successful Presidential Candidate" and every 2016 candidate read it and adopted it to a tee. We'd still have dozens of failures and only 1 success. If success were really a formula, then we'd all be successful. We can't all get into harvard, we…

I'm from the US but currently living in Asia. I observe that in many places outside the US, the cultural context of many stories, themes, and values is scarcity, whereas in the US it is opportunity.

For example, in many Asian novels, power, wealth and opportunity is seen as an often vicious 0 sum game. Clans only have enough resources to put into 1 person. The throne of the kingdom only has enough space for 1 king, and it's a vicious fight to the top. There's only 1 space left for the exam and there's millions of people applying.

In the US, there is always the theme of you can find something better out there. Just move west. Opportunity is out there. You can pull yourself up by your bootstraps.

One thing Americans take for granted is the vast number of undeveloped resources and new opportunities America has had for the past 300 years that has shaped their thinking to be the way it is. Opportunity and exploration was abundant every century of US history - 1700s with the pilgrims, 1800s with the move west, 1900s with the reset of the world economy due to both world wars. You can make a claim that the least opportunistic time of the US is the modern era, which might be why we currently have so much complaints and unrest.

In contrast, I think China's relatively well developed historical and social maturity (it's at least 5000 year rich history) has embedded the thought of the 0 sum game into it's culture. Western Europe also seems to have similar themes. Would love if people from those backgrounds could share their perspective.

Re: How to Be Successful

#193

Post by rb808 »

drugme wrote: post #15
aphextron wrote: post #11

1. Be born to a wealthy middle class family and go to an elite school.

A far from incidental detail. But is there sourced information available about his parents' actual income level? We do have this quote from the Esquire interview in 2014, which is rather telling: For my eighth birthday, my parents got me a Mac LC2. And, you know, it was like… It was, like, $2,200 in 1993 dollars. It was, like, this horrifically expensive thing, that was not that good. 40 MB hard drive. And then we pu…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Altman does list his high school, which is very expensive.

Re: How to Be Successful

#194

Post by spyckie2 »

telesilla wrote: post #10

It's also very successful, if you have built a stable business and a way of supporting yourself and a few others around you. Being successful doesn't always mean having a 1BN valuation. But sure, it's nice to think that one day, it could happen. I'm just grateful every day that what I've got now - stability and plenty of resources - was a result of pretty much what Sam said. Believing in ourselves and not giving up,…

Agree. The title hurts discussion and I think it could be less clickbaity and a bit more accurate to topic.

The topic is more about attributes of people who do large scale endeavors. Success should not be used in this context.

Re: How to Be Successful

#195

Post by mbrodersen »

The idea that there is only one way to be successful, and that we are all in some grand competition to make as much money as possible, is beyond stupid. Financial success does not in any way shape or form have anything to do with achieving happiness.

Re: How to Be Successful

#196

Post by anonymous5133 »

throwaway8451 wrote: post #99
rguzman wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

not disputing that privilege is a thing, but don't you think that if this were true, all people who are born into a middle-class wealthy family and go to a nice school would achieve outlier success? it could be that the privilege is a pre-req to outlier success, but there are counter-examples. and then, if you observe that both groups (the counter-examples and the people who satisfy the pre-req and achieve outlier su…

Am I the only one who finds the concept of privilege resentful? It is shifting the reference point downwards, defining being disadvantaged as the standard and everything above as privileged. In my opinion that's a terrible idea as striving to become better has to be good and not something that you eventually should feel bad about.

It just plays into the classic class warfare theory that seems to be common these days.

It basically boils down to essentially being if you are successful then it directly because of your privileged class...not from your hard work or skill. If you are unsuccessful or poor then it is because the privileged class is holding you down and preventing you from being successful.

In the end though it only hurts those who believe in it because those who believe in it also believe that it is a waste of time to work hard, be innovative etc because it will only lead to failure. So they never try. People also use it as a way to justify why they are poor or unsuccessful...not their fault...it is the privileged that made them poor! Their other political views will mainly focus on "economic justice" like more regulations on successful businesses, higher taxes for the rich, welfare programs for the poor (basic income basically a dream come true in their eyes) and so on.

Seems to be a very popular view these days among young people.

Re: How to Be Successful

#197

Post by muse900 »

telesilla wrote: post #10

It's also very successful, if you have built a stable business and a way of supporting yourself and a few others around you. Being successful doesn't always mean having a 1BN valuation. But sure, it's nice to think that one day, it could happen. I'm just grateful every day that what I've got now - stability and plenty of resources - was a result of pretty much what Sam said. Believing in ourselves and not giving up,…

Yep I agree, the meaning of success is very subjective. Imho success shouldn't be numbered in $ or PhDs.

I've met simple people, with not much money or education, although they are successful to me cause they managed to create a nice family and have a happy life. Something that usually its hard for people working towards their careers 24/7.

Hesiod once wrote 'Moderation in all things'. That personally is my moto. I don't have to have done something that is out of this world to be successful. I can be successful enough by valuing my own time, raising my kids in a proper manner and generally being happy. If I am happy, I am successful.

Re: How to Be Successful

#198

Post by anonymous5133 »

porpoisely wrote: post #140
anonymous5133 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your mentality is the mentality of failure...as in why bother trying because the odds are stacked against you. I see this very common among peers and ultimately...it only leads to failure. So why even bother having this mentality? You are better off having optimism that success can be achieved. In regards to Sam's advice. His advice is correct but people are interpreting it too strictly. Sam's advice is basically the…

Of course the odds are stacked against you. That's what makes success a wonderful thing. And I disagree with your sentiment. When people think that X, Y and Z will lead to success and they do X, Y and Z and they fail, that produces a mentality of failure and frustration and why people give up. Understanding what success really is and how hard work, contacts and luck play a role in it actually frees people to take ris…

Like I said, it is the baseline rules not an absolute. There will always be exceptions to every rule but the baseline rules still hold true. Most people who are successful have the traits that sam is talking about.

Also lets think about where sam even got these ideas from...he basically sits down with a bunch of other YC partners to discuss what they've notice as being "success traits". I don't think sam is just pulling these ideas out of his head so he can write a best selling "success in a box" type of book.

I've read a lot of Sam's work and I think he is 100% spot on and honestly I would consider him to be one of the few people giving advice on startups that is just the straight up truth about how to be successful. You need to have a genuinely good idea, convert that idea into a product that people love and monetize it (eventually). Execution on this is hard of course but if you do manage to do it then you will be successful.

Re: How to Be Successful

#199

Post by anonymous5133 »

beckler wrote: post #134
apsec112 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A presidential election is zero-sum, since there can only be one winner. There is no fixed number of millionaires; every middle-class American is very rich compared to what Romans or Persians or Carolingians expected.

hyperinflation can easily make everyone a millionaire!

Millionaire...Zimbabwe made me an overnight trillionaire!

Re: How to Be Successful

#200

Post by apl002 »

core-questions wrote: post #77
eanzenberg wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What basic income will most likely do is send vast swaths of average people to entertainment and drugs. It's already happening, as social nets get bigger and wider.

This is a huge concern. I have known several people who, when they lose their seasonal jobs, coast on unemployment insurance until the very last minute, sometimes even going as far as welfare and couch surfing before a new job finds them (they won't go looking for it themselves). All they want is beer, weed, porn, and video games. They don't seem to want relationships, work, friendships beyond smoking buddies... it's…

this is my little brother :(
Post reply on HN