How to Be Successful • Hacker News Board

Re: How to Be Successful

#281

Post by distant_hat » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 9:18 AM UTC

ngngngng wrote: post #180

distant_hat wrote: post #70

All such articles should be preceded by huge blink tags with 'Warning: survivorship bias ahead'.

I think 99% of the time bringing up survivorship bias adds nothing to the conversation. If I tell you how I ran a marathon, you could shout "survivorship bias!" But that fact still stands that I hadn't successfully run a marathon before I did those things.

No, it is to distinguish activities that worked versus activities that are inconsequential. That way you can identify how to get the most bang for your time and energy.

Re: How to Be Successful

#282

Post by distant_hat » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 9:19 AM UTC

whttheuuu wrote: post #192

distant_hat wrote: post #70

All such articles should be preceded by huge blink tags with 'Warning: survivorship bias ahead'.

loser mentality

No, just a scientist mentality.

Re: How to Be Successful

#283

Post by rawoke083600 » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 9:28 AM UTC

Success for most people (yes there are outliers but you probably are not one of them) is like a "good marriage" - you have to work at it every day!! *disclaimer: neither married nor really that successful

Re: How to Be Successful

#284

Post by abalone » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 9:32 AM UTC

> It’s not entirely clear to me why working hard has become a Bad Thing in certain parts of the US

What is this a reference to? What parts of the US? It's not backed up by a citation.

This is not the first time Altman has dropped a not so subtle cultural/political jab without any data to back it up.[1]

[1] "It seems easier to accidentally speak heresies in San Francisco every year." http://blog.samaltman.com/e-pur-si-muove

Re: How to Be Successful

#285

Post by qrybam » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 9:34 AM UTC

avip wrote: post #32

This post embodies everything I dislike about success fluff. I look up to people I admire - Tesla, Nick Drake, Mingus, My highschool Chemistry teacher - they meet maybe 0-3 of the list. Creation of value is such a delicate thing, we should not flatten it that way. As a side effect, if we widen our view of success, there will be more place up in the 99.9%...

FWIW, here’s a success/failure/success sandwich...

My dad is extremely successful in his field of expertise, one of the top experts in the world, but he hasn’t been able to turn that into financial success for his family. At the same time, he’s an incredible husband and father.

In many ways he’s inspirational, a great source of wisdom and a role model for me. If he was able to turn his talents into wealth it would have acted as a multiplier for him, his family and those around him.

Looking at his bank balance, he’s a total failure. But knowing him, and the person he is, how dependable, persistent and stoic he is, he embodies a lot of what I think leads to success in the broader sense.

[edit] a word

Re: How to Be Successful

#286

Post by mooreds » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 9:38 AM UTC

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,…

I was expecting to read: "know yourself and know that you want" as there are, as you point out, many definitions of success.

Re: How to Be Successful

#287

Post by polony » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 10:22 AM UTC

"You don't want to be in a career where people who have been doing it for two years can be as effective as people who have been doing it for twenty"

Do you think programming is like this?

Re: How to Be Successful

#288

Post by zimpenfish » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 10:30 AM UTC

kochikame wrote: post #244

CPLX wrote: post #125

I clicked on this expecting to hate-read it and then post something snarky, but it's actually pretty reasonable, assuming you read the title as "How To Be Sucessful In Business" With that said I think it's missing a hugely important area -- which is mental and emotional health. One of the things I've noticed in friends who have incredible business success, and have noticed in myself during periods of greatest product…

I think you're right. The first big step in Emotional Intelligence is being able to understand and regulate your own emotions, and it's the first step for a reason. Kids who passed the famous marshmallow test (were able to resist the impulse to eat the marshmallow when unsupervised) were far more successful in later life I have two brothers who occasionally get very angry, cut off relationships on whims and sabotage…

> I have two brothers who occasionally get very angry, cut off relationships on whims and sabotage themselves through acts of defiance and misplaced protest, and neither of them is very 'successful'

On the other hand, becoming the POTUS is presumed to be the definition of "successful" (cf some comments on here yesterday) and Trump is all of those ^ things and more.

Re: How to Be Successful

#289

Post by stu432 » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 10:32 AM UTC

aphextron wrote: post #181

LouisSayers wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For sure - you have connections to money which can help fund your startup. The funny thing tho is that creating a successful startup actually involves for the most part actually being good at doing it, and following the right process. I once interviewed at a startup which was created by a rich kid and he couldn’t even explain what the company did... I’ve also worked at a startup run by an ex big company CEO where she…

>I could tell pretty quickly that both these companies were going to fail. They are going to spend a lot of their money and a lot of their connections money and waste a lot of people’s time... This is what really gets to me. Those companies will go bankrupt, the investors will lose out, the employees will get laid off, and the founder will have paid himself $300k/yr for those 5 years of fiddling around with nonsense…

Don't get hung up on the investors, aside from the f&f's class (who should know better to never lend money you can't afford to lose). Most investors know the risks, spread it appropriately and get tax advantages so that a loss results in a financial hit equal to small proportion of that loss. If anyone feel sorry for the tax payer, but then again you're paying for job creation, so swings and roundabouts.

Re: How to Be Successful

#290

Post by bb101 » Fri, Jan 25, 2019, 10:36 AM UTC

Having read the title of the post, and browsed its contents, I went and ordered an autobiography of Gandhi with the hope of reminding myself what real success is.