The Anatomy of Determination • Hacker News Board

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#91

Post by Tichy » Sun, Sep 06, 2009, 10:50 PM UTC

timwiseman wrote: post #60

harshavr wrote: post #33

As a grad student in math, i would say that determination still plays a important role. For me, there have often been periods where you lose motivation and dont see why you are doing what you are doing, and then sometimes there are moments of clarity. (someone aptly compared this to mountain climbing). I imagine this happens in lots of other fields,(music, to pick a random example) where there is a prequisite of lear…

I certainly hope you are right. I am just starting my own graduate studies in math, but having limited apparant innate abilities in mathematics I am counting on practice and study to correct that deficiency.

"limited apparant innate abilities"

How does that manifest for you? What do you consider those abilities to be?

I think in maths everybody is kind of stupid. Meaning, nobody is really good at maths.

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#92

Post by jrcole » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 2:26 AM UTC

"...one of the best ways to help a society generally is to create events and institutions that bring ambitious people together."

in that I'd include the internet and things like social media sites

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#93

Post by jrcole » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 2:35 AM UTC

I'd say that sense of moral obligation to achieve -- tied in with making things better or removing an evil -- can play a large part in ambition and determination.

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#94

Post by ananthrk » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 9:28 AM UTC

bigmac wrote: post #66

This essay seems to be somewhat at odds with http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html from January 2005. Now, PG argues that discipline is an important component of determination. For startups, determination is called "the most important predictor of success." In the earlier essay, these comments were made: Now I know a number of people who do great work, and it's the same with all of them. They have little discipline. They…

Chanced upon this comment from PG made long ago.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=179201

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#95

Post by jacoblyles » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 7:00 PM UTC

gaius wrote: post #74

jacoblyles wrote: post #42

Can anyone suggest a method or example for improving self-discipline?

Sign up for a Marathon.

ew.

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#96

Post by lutorm » Mon, Sep 07, 2009, 9:08 PM UTC

nico wrote: post #29

In highschool there was this guy who used to study a lot. Everybody said he was studying too much, and that he needed to study that much because he wasn't that smart. Finally he graduated with one of the best averages in our class. Then he got into the best engineering school in Chile, and I remember thinking that maybe he wouldn't be able to make it, or that he wouldn't have such good grades. Well, I was wrong. He g…

"Everybody said ... that he needed to study that much because he wasn't that smart."

That's a dead giveaway for a "fixed mindset" about intelligence. Studies show that people that think that effort is an indication of lack of ability will avoid effort to not look stupid, leading them to perform less well over time than those that don't have this mindset. See research by Carol Dweck et al.

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#97

Post by nico » Tue, Sep 08, 2009, 12:22 AM UTC

lutorm wrote: post #96

nico wrote: post #29

In highschool there was this guy who used to study a lot. Everybody said he was studying too much, and that he needed to study that much because he wasn't that smart. Finally he graduated with one of the best averages in our class. Then he got into the best engineering school in Chile, and I remember thinking that maybe he wouldn't be able to make it, or that he wouldn't have such good grades. Well, I was wrong. He g…

"Everybody said ... that he needed to study that much because he wasn't that smart." That's a dead giveaway for a "fixed mindset" about intelligence. Studies show that people that think that effort is an indication of lack of ability will avoid effort to not look stupid, leading them to perform less well over time than those that don't have this mindset. See research by Carol Dweck et al.

This is a very common thing around here indeed, people don't like to admit to making an effort, at least regarding school, so lots just won't push harder, whereas others will just lie, saying they didn't study very much. Nobody wants to look like they made a great effort and then got an awful grade (fail).

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#98

Post by logicalmind » Wed, Sep 09, 2009, 9:05 PM UTC

abalashov wrote: post #14

rw wrote: post #3

Very true in my experience: "When you take people like this and put them together with other ambitious people, they bloom like dying plants given water. Probably most ambitious people are starved for the sort of encouragement they'd get from ambitious peers, whatever their age."

I've had the opposite experience, depending on what kinds of personalities are involved. Sometimes when you put several ambitious people together, they all destructively interfere with each other with the strength they radiate, particularly if they're young and inexperienced. Ambitious people are almost always more granular and more preoccupied control freaks than people who are less ambitious. That can be a problem…

This has been my experience as well. Their ambitions must align, at least somewhat. If ambitious person A wants to go one direction and ambitious person B wants to go another direction, it probably won't work. But being around other ambitious people at least gives you the opportunity to meet someone with ambition and goals that align with your goals.

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#99

Post by gcheong » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 9:09 PM UTC

anigbrowl wrote: post #56

_3ex7 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dont even have 5 friends.

You're not the only one. This isn't bad, not everyone is cut out to be gregarious...then again being a hermit isn't necessarily a winning business trait.

Maybe he is gregarious but also highly selective.

Re: The Anatomy of Determination

#100

Post by gcheong » Thu, Sep 10, 2009, 10:32 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #86

bigmac wrote: post #66

This essay seems to be somewhat at odds with http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html from January 2005. Now, PG argues that discipline is an important component of determination. For startups, determination is called "the most important predictor of success." In the earlier essay, these comments were made: Now I know a number of people who do great work, and it's the same with all of them. They have little discipline. They…

I talk about this in the last two paragraphs. You need more discipline in a startup, because you have to work on what other people need rather than what you want.

If we assume the best case is when what you want to do also solves a need for other people and the worst case is when a need is solved for other people but is something you have no desire to do, where do you see most startups falling on this spectrum?