4 ms·

First sort out the emotional issues. Please please please seek help ASAP. If you work as an engineer at a Big 4 company, you have no business feeling even remot

by sp527 10y ago

First sort out the emotional issues. Please please please seek help ASAP. If you work as an engineer at a Big 4 company, you have no business feeling even remotely inadequate. But know also that you're far from alone in how you feel. I've worked at two of the big 4 and still occasionally feel this way. The problem for people such as myself, a lot of others in the HN community, and perhaps even you is that we have a flawed perception of what it means to create value. You have to expand your thinking. Who you are and what you're worth goes well beyond what you do for a living. Do you make people laugh? Smile? Do you do kind things for others? Do you contribute valuable ideas and thoughts? Do you maybe even have a creative hobby? Are you a good husband? A good friend? It's great (and important too) to be an economically productive agent in society, but that's only a statistic that's as truly bland as it sounds. We have so much opportunity to add value to this world that feeling miserable about it is silly. Get out there and be a better you. Focus on impacting the lives of others (doesn't even have to be a lot of people or 'scale up') in as positive a way as you can and you'll discover existential clarity, as opposed to the myopia in which you presently find yourself mired.

eyelidlessness 10y ago
> If you work as an engineer at a Big 4 company, you have no business feeling even remotely inadequate. I know you meant well by this, but you might want to consider how the wording can be received. Someone feeling vulnerable might perceive this as suggesting that their feelings are invalid, and may respond by retreating from seeking help for fear of judgment.
- sp527 10y ago
  I can totally see how that may be the case and I agree. Unfortunately I can't edit the original, but hopefully my intention was clear enough in the following sentences - that these feelings do arise but are not warranted on the basis of even a cursory inspection of the facts. We judge ourselves relative to our usual context and environment (which in SV means knowledge work with a lot of super smart people) so it's easy to miss the macro view. But my point in addition to that was that intelligence shouldn't be how we measure ourselves anyway.

by sp527 10y ago

eyelidlessness 10y ago

> If you work as an engineer at a Big 4 company, you have no business feeling even remotely inadequate. I know you meant well by this, but you might want to consider how the wording can be received. Someone feeling vulnerable might perceive this as suggesting that their feelings are invalid, and may respond by retreating from seeking help for fear of judgment.

sp527 10y ago
I can totally see how that may be the case and I agree. Unfortunately I can't edit the original, but hopefully my intention was clear enough in the following sentences - that these feelings do arise but are not warranted on the basis of even a cursory inspection of the facts. We judge ourselves relative to our usual context and environment (which in SV means knowledge work with a lot of super smart people) so it's easy to miss the macro view. But my point in addition to that was that intelligence shouldn't be how we measure ourselves anyway.