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In the past I've lambasted some of these collections of wisdom. There is a certain point in a man's life where he feels he wants to write down a collection of hard-learned thoughts and experiences. These often appear on HN. Most often they are pretentious. For whatever reason, I liked this one. I can't say it is a better collection than others that I have pretty harshly criticized. I can't say it is better written. I…
This is burned in my mind and doesn't anchor enough of my judgement of what to engage with on the internet yet, but I've never yet been steered wrong by it.
EDIT - This is equally applicable to realms outside of the internet. You have to be really right to be remembered as the person who was right about something in your friend group or coworkers. Like, you have to prevent someone from dying levels of correct. Otherwise you're just the person who kept talking about something until everyone gave in. And either way, they'll still remember you as that person who argues about things.
In the past I've lambasted some of these collections of wisdom. There is a certain point in a man's life where he feels he wants to write down a collection of hard-learned thoughts and experiences. These often appear on HN. Most often they are pretentious. For whatever reason, I liked this one. I can't say it is a better collection than others that I have pretty harshly criticized. I can't say it is better written. I…
Merlin is probably one of the least pretentious people I’ve come across online.
Merlin's podcasts, particularly Roderick on the Line and the amazing Reconcilable Differences with John Siracusa, are amongst my favourite things to listen to.
> Frequently ask yourself: do I want to be right, or do I want to be happy? I always felt that people giving this advice assume the latter is preferable. Is there something defective about me if I prefer the former?
It's instant vs. delayed gratification. Being right is seductive, and immediately rewarding. You are perfectly normal.
> Frequently ask yourself: do I want to be right, or do I want to be happy? I always felt that people giving this advice assume the latter is preferable. Is there something defective about me if I prefer the former?
Who?
It's like a name that seems sorta familiar but dunno if it just sounds like someone else from tech or something.
Interesting a quick HN search shows a bunch of shares posts that got any traction but they're all like 14-15 years ago?
Was Merlin Mann more of a thing a decade+ ago?
Who?
Was wondering if everyone was supposed to know who this was....read some of the comments that mention these kinds of wisdom lists ending up on HN here and there... It's like a name that seems sorta familiar but dunno if it just sounds like someone else from tech or something. Interesting a quick HN search shows a bunch of shares posts that got any traction but they're all like 14-15 years ago? Was Merlin Mann more of…
I'm not out of the loop here generally... I just now realized I hadn't heard the name in a good while. Of course back in a certain era of blogging and stuff mid-00s now it's coming back but shrug!
Who?
Was wondering if everyone was supposed to know who this was....read some of the comments that mention these kinds of wisdom lists ending up on HN here and there... It's like a name that seems sorta familiar but dunno if it just sounds like someone else from tech or something. Interesting a quick HN search shows a bunch of shares posts that got any traction but they're all like 14-15 years ago? Was Merlin Mann more of…