4 ms·

Ask HN: Share encouraging advice

25 points by faramarz 16y ago

The great John Maeda once said; "When you're younger, think less and do more; when you're older, do less and think more." ... "I see a lot of (especially young) people get frozen by the paralysis of indecision. Just start making stuff until something catches." ~Jonathan Harris

samh 16y ago
The thoughts of others were light and fleeting, of lovers meeting or luck or fame, mine were of trouble and mine were steady, and I was ready when trouble came. - Houseman
samh 16y ago
"Decide what you would be and then do what you have to do"
samh 16y ago
"There is 0 value in fear and anxiety"
samh 16y ago
"The simplest way to get what you want is to deserve it" "Deliver to world what you would buy if you were on the other end of the deal" "Have lots of assiduity. That means you sit down on your ass and do it until it's done" All Charlie Munger
quickpost 16y ago
"It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy" -- Steve Jobs
samh 16y ago
Just do it - Nike
blender 16y ago
“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” - Jack London
chriskelley 16y ago
"A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages." - Tennessee Williams
wmeredith 16y ago
"If you're going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill "There are no right and wrong decisions. Make a decision and then [work hard enough to] make sure it was the right one." -My Mom Both of these have gotten me through some dark days, both career-wise and personally.
chriskelley 16y ago
Too often we are scared. Scared of what we might not be able to do. Scared of what people might think if we tried. We let our fears stand in the way of our hopes. We say no when we want to say yes. We sit quietly when we want to scream. And we shout with the others, when we should keep our mouths shut. Why? After all, we do only go around once. There's really no time to be afraid. So stop. Try something you've never tried. Risk it. Enter a triathlon. Write a letter to the editor. Demand a raise. Call winners at the toughest court. Throw away your television. Bicycle across the United States. Try bobsledding. Try anything. Speak out against the designated hitter. Travel to a country where you don't speak the language. Patent something. Call her. You have nothing to lose and everything everything everything to gain. JUST DO IT. (http://joshpremuda.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Barry-Sanders-Nike-Ad.jpg http://joshpremuda.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Barry-Sand...)
Mankhool 16y ago
Do you want to go to your grave saying, "I wish I had . . ."?
dstorrs 16y ago
"You are what you choose." "No one ever lay on their deathbed saying 'I wish I'd watched more TV.'"
samh 16y ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEkz1XK75XE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEkz1XK75XE
jseifer 16y ago
"At any moment that you find yourself hesitating, or if at any moment you find yourself putting off until tomorrow trying some new piece of behavior that you could do today, or doing something you’ve done before, then all you need to do is glance over your left shoulder, and there will be a fleeting shadow. That shadow represents your death, and at any moment it might step forward, place its hand on your shoulder and take you. So that the act that you are presently engaged in might be your very last act and therefore fully representative of you as your last act on this planet." - Carlos Castaneda, Don Juan
samh 16y ago
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison
blizkreeg 16y ago
"Maximize your serendipity." - Nassim Taleb "No matter how much faculty of idle seeing a man has, the step from knowing to doing is rarely taken." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "A regular paycheck and crack cocaine have a lot in common." - Felix Dennis "Not the lowest hanging fruit. You want the highest RoI fruit." - Me =)
sgoraya 16y ago
If you continue to do what you do, you will continue to get what you get. --Anon, Chinese proverb
- DenisM 16y ago
  And that's really the most important thing a startup founder needs to know.
jacquesm 16y ago
"Do something that scares you, every day" From the 'sunscreen' speech. The whole thing is worth listening to or reading. http://www.google.com/search?q=sunscreen+speech http://www.google.com/search?q=sunscreen+speech
nekopa 16y ago
"The infinite possibilities each day holds should stagger the mind. The sheer number of experiences I could have is uncountable, breathtaking, and I'm sitting here refreshing my inbox. We live trapped in loops, reliving a few days over and over, and we envision only a handful of paths laid out before us. We see the same things every day, we respond the same way, we think the same thoughts, each day a slight variation on the last, every moment smoothly following the gentle curves of societal norms. We act like if we just get through today, tomorrow our dreams will come back to us. And no, I don't have all the answers. I don't know how to jolt myself into seeing what each moment could become. But I do know one thing: the solution doesn't involve watering down my every little idea and creative impulse for the sake of some day easing my fit into a mold. It doesn't involve tempering my life to better fit someone's expectations. It doesn't involve constantly holding back for fear of shaking things up. This is very important, so I want to say it as clearly as I can: FUCK. THAT. SHIT." xkcd
pmjoyce 16y ago
Theodore Roosevelt's The Man in the Arena: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_Arena http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_Arena
paulsb 16y ago
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." -- Mark Twain "So I wanted to project myself forward to age 80 and say, 'Okay, now I’m looking back on my life. I want to have minimized the number of regrets I have.' I knew that when I was 80 I was not going to regret having tried this. I was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the Internet that I thought was going to be a really big deal. I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried. I knew that that would haunt me every day, and so when I thought about it that way it was an incredibly easy decision. And I think that’s very good." -- Jeff Bezos, Regret Minimization Framework (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwG_qR6XmDQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwG_qR6XmDQ)
themullet 16y ago
Nice quote there. Few of my favourites. mark twain: "Dance like nobody’s watching; Love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; Live like it’s heaven on earth." Einstein: "imagination is more important than knowledge" Programmers quote:"I find that most people get upset by mistakes. I generally don't. I have always thought that the reason is that I am trained to accept that there will be mistakes, because compilation errors are a norm. When they happen, you fix them, and move on with your life. If you get upset over compilation errors, you won't last in this biz" trotsky: "those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable" "always end on a quote"

25 points by faramarz 16y ago

samh 16y ago

The thoughts of others were light and fleeting, of lovers meeting or luck or fame, mine were of trouble and mine were steady, and I was ready when trouble came. - Houseman

samh 16y ago

"Decide what you would be and then do what you have to do"

samh 16y ago

"There is 0 value in fear and anxiety"

samh 16y ago

"The simplest way to get what you want is to deserve it" "Deliver to world what you would buy if you were on the other end of the deal" "Have lots of assiduity. That means you sit down on your ass and do it until it's done" All Charlie Munger

quickpost 16y ago

"It's better to be a pirate than to join the Navy" -- Steve Jobs

samh 16y ago

Just do it - Nike

blender 16y ago

“You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” - Jack London

chriskelley 16y ago

"A prayer for the wild at heart, kept in cages." - Tennessee Williams

wmeredith 16y ago

"If you're going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill "There are no right and wrong decisions. Make a decision and then [work hard enough to] make sure it was the right one." -My Mom Both of these have gotten me through some dark days, both career-wise and personally.

chriskelley 16y ago

Too often we are scared. Scared of what we might not be able to do. Scared of what people might think if we tried. We let our fears stand in the way of our hopes. We say no when we want to say yes. We sit quietly when we want to scream. And we shout with the others, when we should keep our mouths shut. Why? After all, we do only go around once. There's really no time to be afraid. So stop. Try something you've never tried. Risk it. Enter a triathlon. Write a letter to the editor. Demand a raise. Call winners at the toughest court. Throw away your television. Bicycle across the United States. Try bobsledding. Try anything. Speak out against the designated hitter. Travel to a country where you don't speak the language. Patent something. Call her. You have nothing to lose and everything everything everything to gain. JUST DO IT. (http://joshpremuda.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Barry-Sanders-Nike-Ad.jpg http://joshpremuda.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Barry-Sand...)

Mankhool 16y ago

Do you want to go to your grave saying, "I wish I had . . ."?

dstorrs 16y ago

"You are what you choose." "No one ever lay on their deathbed saying 'I wish I'd watched more TV.'"

samh 16y ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEkz1XK75XE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEkz1XK75XE

jseifer 16y ago

"At any moment that you find yourself hesitating, or if at any moment you find yourself putting off until tomorrow trying some new piece of behavior that you could do today, or doing something you’ve done before, then all you need to do is glance over your left shoulder, and there will be a fleeting shadow. That shadow represents your death, and at any moment it might step forward, place its hand on your shoulder and take you. So that the act that you are presently engaged in might be your very last act and therefore fully representative of you as your last act on this planet." - Carlos Castaneda, Don Juan

samh 16y ago

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Edison

blizkreeg 16y ago

"Maximize your serendipity." - Nassim Taleb "No matter how much faculty of idle seeing a man has, the step from knowing to doing is rarely taken." - Ralph Waldo Emerson "A regular paycheck and crack cocaine have a lot in common." - Felix Dennis "Not the lowest hanging fruit. You want the highest RoI fruit." - Me =)

sgoraya 16y ago

If you continue to do what you do, you will continue to get what you get. --Anon, Chinese proverb

DenisM 16y ago
And that's really the most important thing a startup founder needs to know.

jacquesm 16y ago

"Do something that scares you, every day" From the 'sunscreen' speech. The whole thing is worth listening to or reading. http://www.google.com/search?q=sunscreen+speech http://www.google.com/search?q=sunscreen+speech

nekopa 16y ago

"The infinite possibilities each day holds should stagger the mind. The sheer number of experiences I could have is uncountable, breathtaking, and I'm sitting here refreshing my inbox. We live trapped in loops, reliving a few days over and over, and we envision only a handful of paths laid out before us. We see the same things every day, we respond the same way, we think the same thoughts, each day a slight variation on the last, every moment smoothly following the gentle curves of societal norms. We act like if we just get through today, tomorrow our dreams will come back to us. And no, I don't have all the answers. I don't know how to jolt myself into seeing what each moment could become. But I do know one thing: the solution doesn't involve watering down my every little idea and creative impulse for the sake of some day easing my fit into a mold. It doesn't involve tempering my life to better fit someone's expectations. It doesn't involve constantly holding back for fear of shaking things up. This is very important, so I want to say it as clearly as I can: FUCK. THAT. SHIT." xkcd

pmjoyce 16y ago

Theodore Roosevelt's The Man in the Arena: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_Arena http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_in_the_Arena

paulsb 16y ago

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." -- Mark Twain "So I wanted to project myself forward to age 80 and say, 'Okay, now I’m looking back on my life. I want to have minimized the number of regrets I have.' I knew that when I was 80 I was not going to regret having tried this. I was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the Internet that I thought was going to be a really big deal. I knew that if I failed I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried. I knew that that would haunt me every day, and so when I thought about it that way it was an incredibly easy decision. And I think that’s very good." -- Jeff Bezos, Regret Minimization Framework (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwG_qR6XmDQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwG_qR6XmDQ)

themullet 16y ago

Nice quote there. Few of my favourites. mark twain: "Dance like nobody’s watching; Love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; Live like it’s heaven on earth." Einstein: "imagination is more important than knowledge" Programmers quote:"I find that most people get upset by mistakes. I generally don't. I have always thought that the reason is that I am trained to accept that there will be mistakes, because compilation errors are a norm. When they happen, you fix them, and move on with your life. If you get upset over compilation errors, you won't last in this biz" trotsky: "those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable" "always end on a quote"