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The Ultimate Guide To Getting Nowhere In Life

garyharan.com

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Re: The Ultimate Guide To Getting Nowhere In Life

#81

Post by LiveTheDream »

Qz wrote: post #71
cookiecaper wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's because they started out that way! Of course, almost any skill or desire can be learned, but everyone is born into this world with their own unique set of aptitudes and weaknesses. The unique amalgamation found in each person lends its owner to certain roles and stations in life where excellence is easier to achieve. Some people are perfectly OK working for someone else. They enjoy the labor of it, they…

Some people are perfectly OK working for someone else. They enjoy the labor of it, they enjoy the pay, they enjoy the company, they enjoy the security and relative comfort and anonymity. It doesn't really bother them that someone else is making 3x more off of the work performed than they are. These people seem almost mythical... I've never met anyone like that. There's all kinds of people who are OK with this idea, t…

These people seem almost mythical... I've never met anyone like that.

There are tons of people like this! I'm sure these people are mythical/rare on HN, but in the big company 9-5 world they are definitely real. Maybe these people are the NNPs of the world who are happy with obscurity because it hides that fact that they aren't adding value, and are just riding on the coattails of a company that's big enough to support them.

Re: The Ultimate Guide To Getting Nowhere In Life

#82

Post by Psyonic »

jrockway wrote: post #47

I read a lot of books (and sometimes even write them), but I don't see a lot of value in reading over watching TV. I treat both as something to do when I don't feel like doing anything that requires thinking. If you like TV, watch TV. If you like reading, read. Or do both.

If you are talking about escapist fiction, I would agree with you, but some books definitely require thinking. That said, I think some TV does as well.

Re: The Ultimate Guide To Getting Nowhere In Life

#83

Post by Tycho »

_bfhp wrote: post #15
araneae wrote: post #7

I think his offhand implication that reading books is superior to TV is wrong. Most fiction has exactly the same purpose and function on TV, which is to entertain. Yes, reading some books makes you "cultured" but so does TV; just to a different culture. I consider watching all the latest sci fi to be just as "culturing" as reading all the latest sci fi.

Theodore Roosevelt read two books a day and could recite quotations from them years later. The average TV in the US is on 6 hours per day. Would you rather be the average American or Theodore Roosevelt?

Two books a day? How's that possible?

Say each book is 300 pages and he reads 30 pages an hour (generous). It would typically take 20 hours to finish two books. That leaves 4 hours to sleep, eat, wash, and do his job.

Oh but he read really fast? That's just about as useful as watching a movie in fast-forward.

Re: The Ultimate Guide To Getting Nowhere In Life

#84

Post by ssouth »

KirinDave wrote: post #16

So, if I'm reading it correctly, it seems like his guide says: if you're rich and educated, you'll have more opportunities and be less stressed. That's pretty insightful. You'd think someone would have realized that by now.

The author's point is precisely that this sort of freedom is available to more than just a wealthy elite. After all, it's not the "rich and educated" living paycheque-to-paycheque and wasting away in dead-end jobs.

Re: The Ultimate Guide To Getting Nowhere In Life

#85

Post by cookiecaper »

Qz wrote: post #71
cookiecaper wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's because they started out that way! Of course, almost any skill or desire can be learned, but everyone is born into this world with their own unique set of aptitudes and weaknesses. The unique amalgamation found in each person lends its owner to certain roles and stations in life where excellence is easier to achieve. Some people are perfectly OK working for someone else. They enjoy the labor of it, they…

Some people are perfectly OK working for someone else. They enjoy the labor of it, they enjoy the pay, they enjoy the company, they enjoy the security and relative comfort and anonymity. It doesn't really bother them that someone else is making 3x more off of the work performed than they are. These people seem almost mythical... I've never met anyone like that. There's all kinds of people who are OK with this idea, t…

>These people seem almost mythical... I've never met anyone like that.

Almost all of my associates from corporate jobs are like this. Most people have no problem at all with a standard employee relationship given good conditions and circumstances, and it is nicer in general if you can stand it. There's much less to worry about, there's consistent flow of guaranteed pay, there's a lot of people to interact with and meet, etc. The majority of people are perfectly OK with this, even with the knowledge that corporate is making a lot more money off of their efforts than they are.

It is okay to be content with that if everything else is good. One of my old managers just wanted to be that, but was forced into a leadership role by happenstance, and it was horrible for him and everyone under him. He cared much more about remaining non-confrontational and diplomatic than he did about being effective. This is bad; it led me to quit.

Of course, not all 9-5 employees are like him, and some are great leaders. But they're content with the money and the situation so they stay with it.

Some people have a hard time tolerating that, which people often become entrepreneurs. These people are good and important too.

If no one was content with employment, we'd be full of one-man shops and our efficiency would be majorly decreased. Employees are important. Founders can't really get rich independently (i.e. without an acquisition) without employees; there's just no way they could do enough work on their own.

Most employees understand what's going on and they're fine with it. You'd be surprised how many people stick with a "good-paying job" as their ideal. It's weird to me too, but most people are fine with it.

Re: The Ultimate Guide To Getting Nowhere In Life

#86

Post by bmcleod »

Tycho wrote: post #83
_bfhp wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Theodore Roosevelt read two books a day and could recite quotations from them years later. The average TV in the US is on 6 hours per day. Would you rather be the average American or Theodore Roosevelt?

Two books a day? How's that possible? Say each book is 300 pages and he reads 30 pages an hour (generous). It would typically take 20 hours to finish two books. That leaves 4 hours to sleep, eat, wash, and do his job. Oh but he read really fast? That's just about as useful as watching a movie in fast-forward.

Reading is something you get significantly faster at by doing it a lot. You recognise words you are familiar with much faster etc.

Expect anyone who reads a lot to go at at least a page per minute with full comprehension. Speed Readers often read with reasonable comprehension at 3 times that rate.

Things that pop out as being quotable are generally pretty apparent if you read a lot simply because they'll be new and somehow interesting.

Re: The Ultimate Guide To Getting Nowhere In Life

#88

Post by patience »

wow - this is basically a not-so-thinly-veiled Horatio Alger rehash with a condescending sense of humor. Life is so simple when you mistake other people's problems as errors in judgment. Thanks, Superman - you've saved the day once again. but what do you expect from a guy who, according to his bio, "[brings] wines to the market in bold new ways." No thanks. A lá Gang of Four, I'll get drunk on cheap wine instead.

Plus, it's a flawed analysis because on the one hand he's critiquing a particular aspect of capitalism (the consumerist side - what did he think was going to happen with all those advertisements and credit cards), while still maintaining that as a whole it works (he proudly states he's an "entrepreneur," who can balance work and family (subtext: so why shouldn't you?)). What's more, his arrogance turns into hypocrisy, because as an entrepreneur, whether he wants to admit it or not, he profits off of the backs of other people, the same kind of people that make poor decisions regarding long-term financial matters. As a matter of style, his flippancy which lacks the slightest modicum of decorum is insulting, while his failure to call into question the root, systemic causes to the problems he outlines is inexcusable.

Re: The Ultimate Guide To Getting Nowhere In Life

#89

Post by cdr »

foenix wrote: post #76
cdr wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank goodness for LeechBlock: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4476 It's like noprocrast for everything. (Although I wish they hadn't mangled the UI in the last update.)

The nice thing about leechblock is that it lets you set up a set amount of time per hour on particular sites. Unfortunately, this means I get cut off mid-sen

I take it that might be a joke, but it's not the case for me.

When the timer runs out it doesn't lock me out until I navigate away from the page, and it even allows a POST so I can submit the comment.

Re: The Ultimate Guide To Getting Nowhere In Life

#90

Post by Tycho »

bmcleod wrote: post #86
Tycho wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two books a day? How's that possible? Say each book is 300 pages and he reads 30 pages an hour (generous). It would typically take 20 hours to finish two books. That leaves 4 hours to sleep, eat, wash, and do his job. Oh but he read really fast? That's just about as useful as watching a movie in fast-forward.

Reading is something you get significantly faster at by doing it a lot. You recognise words you are familiar with much faster etc. Expect anyone who reads a lot to go at at least a page per minute with full comprehension. Speed Readers often read with reasonable comprehension at 3 times that rate. Things that pop out as being quotable are generally pretty apparent if you read a lot simply because they'll be new and s…

It just strikes me as a terrible way to read. To continue the analogy, I could watch a movie in fast forward and still work out what was going on and what the notable scenes were ("gosh, they're chasing him through the sewers of Vienna!"). But I wouldn't have experienced the art of the film whatsoever. Reading faster is more difficult, but similarly unhelpful. I realized a long time ago that there was literally no point trying to speed up my reading pace, and nothing to be gained from speed reading. You need to give your imagination time to explore the detail and connotations of the descriptions, not merely the meaning of the words. Otherwise you're just as well reading the cliff-notes.
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