People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige
bennettnotes.com
People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige
1–10 of 375 posts
Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige
#2Great article. The part that stands out to me:
> 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.
There’s a ridiculous amount of bro science in Silicon Valley tech. And this stuff doesn’t matter at all. All that matters is product-market fit.
Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige
#3I think i have a modified version of this where i abhor attention, rarely state opinions (except quasi anonymously) and definitely am happy for my contributions to go unrecognized, but i man do i get an endorphine rush when people come to me because they remember i fixed some tricky stuff for them before. Also i really try to get the younger people on my team to not follow on my footsteps here, it’s not the best way to build a career.
Also, Dave, given the subject matter i did sneak in a little chuckle that you were the one posting this to HN. I’m glad you did though, interesting view into the headspace.
Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige
#4Heh this is only a very mild version of status obsession. To a degree it's actually a good thing to want, so long as you stay committed to doing the actual work of getting successful.
What amuses me to no end is when I see a rich guy who wants to keep being in the news. As if to say "see, I actually deserve all this wealth". I've seen several of these people over the years. Somehow the media keep calling them to comment on all manner of things unrelated to their field of expertise. One guy I've seen has articles about how he's a great art lover. Then one about how his wife worked so hard to help him. Then commentary on how startups work. Then he buys a sports team. And another. And another. Everythings he does has to be in the news. Another guy is a little bit wiser about it, but also sticks his comments in where he really isn't an expert (economics, politics). Sprinkle in a bit of bragging about expensive wines and restuarants, and it just looks like an old child doing the "look at me" routine.
I really don't get it. I suppose that external validation is a huge factor for some people, something similar to substance addiction. People can't see it, but they are swapping dignity for attention.
Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige
#5Isn't this basically just what happens to some number of people when they 'train' their brains to get out of the hole everyone is in to begin with (the requirement to make a living)?
Status and prestige are more powerful multipliers than anything else. Even outside of business. You can be the best 'x' in the world, but winning the Olympic gold will multiply your earnings by probably an order of magnitude or more.
Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige
#6Thought-provoking article.
I got over my obsession with emulating others' success when I realized that a lot of supposedly successful people were successful primarily because they were also lucky. Once you accept that a big factor in whether you'll end up "successful" is just chance, it becomes easier to accept that it may not be entirely under your control and so there's no reason to obsess about it.
PG's advice, which in some ways is a restatement of the Bhagvad Gita's best-known verse, really speaks to me. Just focus on doing the best you can on the things that actually interest you. The rest will follow, and if it doesn't, that's okay. At least you'll have had fun doing your thing.
Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige
#7This 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 working on your startup idea? Do you even have a startup idea? Are you even trying?
It's absolutely not limited to new engineers. Take a look at the replies to the "Levels.fyi Annual Report" here on HN.
> You can't move to the US/SF/NYC? Good luck eeking out a living. You didn't get an offer from a FAANG? Well, you don't really belong in the bay area then. You got a FAANG offer but you didn't negotiate 400k+ total comp? Good luck ever getting a raise. You made it to the top of your salary band? Well, they'll never move you up, better plan your exit now.
The tech rat race mentality is very real and very pervasive.
Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige
#8I think i have a modified version of this where i abhor attention, rarely state opinions (except quasi anonymously) and definitely am happy for my contributions to go unrecognized, but i man do i get an endorphine rush when people come to me because they remember i fixed some tricky stuff for them before. Also i really try to get the younger people on my team to not follow on my footsteps here, it’s not the best way…
:) good catch
To be fair, he never claimed to have overcome his obsession. It was a very nice post to read, so I am glad he shared too.
Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige
#9> 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.
This is funny because I’ve been straight up told this by multiple people. It’s not neuroticism, it’s the simple fact that hierarchies exist.
Re: People Who Are Obsessed with Success and Prestige
#10This 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…
To be fair my calculation is if you’re not at near peak TC band when you enter top tech companies it’s hard to impossible to catch up, so the anxiety is warranted.