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People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

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Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#291

Post by benhurmarcel »

cr0sh wrote: post #221
collyw wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate the idea that developers should have blogs. I see the advantage in using it to market yourself, but I write code for a living not blogs. There isn't that much information that I feel the need to share with the world, and for the things I do (that would be career related), I don't usually have the time and motivation to write them up properly.

> I hate the idea that developers should have blogs. I hate the reality that developers can't easily develop a portfolio of work because generally their work is owned lock, stock, and barrel by the companies they work for, and can't be legally shared outside of those places. So we have github, but even that is suspect and many potential employers don't look at it, unless you are some well known contributor or founder…

I think that is the reality for most professionals, not just developers and engineers.

Your HR technician, your barber, your baker, your supermarket team leader, aren't going to be able to show more than their CV either.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#292

Post by elbear »

This sounds a lot like the defectiveness and unrelenting standards lifetraps I mentioned in another comment. I encourage the author, and anyone else who recognizes themselves in his words, to go to therapy about this.

You can also read the book I mentioned in a previous comment. In the opened my eyes to the lifetraps that have been affecting me the most and how they're playing out.

I wish you success with overcoming this!

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#293

Post by sombremesa »

mywittyname wrote: post #148
lm28469 wrote: post #75

> Unfortunately, after a year of purposely trying, I was still not becoming Elon Musk nor any other “successful” person. Despite reading everyday, meditating, getting up early, taking cold showers, and many more things. But what makes these guys successful anyway? Their fame? Money? Contribution to society? And wearing grey t-shirts won't make you Zuckerberg [0]. You don't become a 0.00000001%er by mimicking the most…

Also, it's unlikely there will ever be another Musk or Zuckerberg in tech. Technology is a largely established industry and it's very unlikely that a single person is going to found and maintain control of another trillion dollar company. Zuck-a-bees need to get in on the ground floor of the next, next big thing, which barely exists right now.

What are you talking about? The next big thing after the wave FB rode already happened and Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp et al rode that wave.

And the next wave after that is already happening, but you'll have to figure that one out on your own.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#295

Post by cptnapalm »

ImaCake wrote: post #287
asdfman123 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed something about subreddits that focus on lifestyle design and center around advice: they all start to converge on fairly narrow groupthink. /r/personalfinance is all about super frugal living and passive investing. In /r/backpacking, the general advice is to go as light as possible and spend money reducing weight. /r/cscareerquestions is about the leetcode grind and getting into FAANG. /r/malefashionadvi…

>I've noticed something about subreddits that focus on lifestyle design and center around advice: they all start to converge on fairly narrow groupthink. To me, this is a novel insight, thanks :) I have been wondering what has been causing my frustration towards these kind of subreddits. But this makes it clear that the problem is a lack of actual discussion and no challenges made against the assumptions of the in-gr…

There are challenges to the groupthink. They are downvoted into oblivion.

For particular groups, where it is a place to discuss things amongst themselves, that's defensible, but in r/news, r/politics? Today, in r/technology of all places, there were some utterly disgusting hate being spewed because Ivanka Trump is going to CES for some reason.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#296

Post by akman »

csomar wrote: post #33

> Looking back, I also feel like I was frequently compared agaisnst other children. As a reminder that life is a competition, and you don’t want to be behind. I don't know how old you are but life is a competition. At the very fundamental level, all species are competing with each other for survival. Your mother was not mislead, she knows that in order to survive in this jungle, you need to be competitive. And given…

survival != (winning a competition || getting titles || getting awards)

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#297

Post by cptnapalm »

ImaCake wrote: post #288
tkjef wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

one of many great lessons in that book. happy to have finally read it after it came up on here a few times.

I have found it a real slog (challenge), and gave up after chapter 3. I think the lack of context made it a bit dull for me. Maybe I should try an annotated text to see if holds my attention better!

It's something to dip into. It's remarkable that it survived at all, seeing as it was just his personal "notebook".

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#298

Post by jimbokun »

Loughla wrote: post #232
thebean11 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure about that, at least in my workplace some of the people considered the smartest and best engineers are very quite, almost shy.

I have the opposite experience. I work in higher education, at an institution full of very smart, very talented people. There's a mix of both extroverted and introverted. The extroverts are all moving up the chain, while the (generally more talented) introverts stagnate earlier in their careers. I'm sure there's something there to study, but I'm also sure I don't know what it is.

So maybe the Gervais Principle applies beyond just corporations:

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-...

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#299

Post by glitchc »

asdfman123 wrote: post #94
astuyvenberg wrote: post #7

This post also resonated with me, especially the quote from /r/cscareerquestions > Got an awesome internship at an interesting company? Well, it wasn’t FAANG, so who cares? Got a FAANG internship? Well it wasn’t one of the good FAANGs, so if you really think about it, you really didn’t accomplish anything. Got into a “Good FAANG”? Well, the other intern works on his own startup idea when he goes home. Why aren’t you…

I've noticed something about subreddits that focus on lifestyle design and center around advice: they all start to converge on fairly narrow groupthink. /r/personalfinance is all about super frugal living and passive investing. In /r/backpacking, the general advice is to go as light as possible and spend money reducing weight. /r/cscareerquestions is about the leetcode grind and getting into FAANG. /r/malefashionadvi…

I find the Hacker News comments section depicts similar traits to the subreddits.

Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige

#300

Post by glitchc »

jacobwilliamroy wrote: post #155
astuyvenberg wrote: post #7

This post also resonated with me, especially the quote from /r/cscareerquestions > Got an awesome internship at an interesting company? Well, it wasn’t FAANG, so who cares? Got a FAANG internship? Well it wasn’t one of the good FAANGs, so if you really think about it, you really didn’t accomplish anything. Got into a “Good FAANG”? Well, the other intern works on his own startup idea when he goes home. Why aren’t you…

Fortunately, there are still some places to work without such drawbacks but shhhh - they're a secret.

Can forward your PM to my friend(s).
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