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Calling Yourself ‘Humbled’ Doesn’t Sound as Humble as It Used To
- lhnz 10y agoMost egregious example are the 'status' updates by young entrepreneurs on how humbled they are to appear within Forbes 30 under 30, etc. Always written as if they are congratulating their peers (the future world leaders). It's the opposite of being humbled. It's amusing (and a little disturbing) that it can be dressed up the way it is.
- freddyc 10y agoThe emergence of these '30 Under 30' lists is troubling in and of itself!
- babygoat 10y agoOh come on! The number of people on the list is greater than the number of years any of those people have been alive. Doesn't that amuse you?
- w1ntermute 10y agoLook up one of the lists from 10 years ago. How many of the people listed are still relevant?
- irpapakons 10y agoOften it's the exact opposite: a way to brag and draw attention to things that people would otherwise not much care about or consider admirable. Pretending to be humbled is basically lying about the amount of recognition you receive in the hopes that new people will be tricked to really consider you important. Perhaps similar to tagging everything with #blessed on instagram. "I'm so humbled and honored and surprised to be/serve as X and I want to thank my parents / offer mentoring to the less fortunate of you" often after aggressive pursuit, self-nomination or unacknowledged massive help / connections to get whatever the thing was.
- JangoSteve 10y agoI had this exact thought once getting an award. I actually opened my acceptance speech with, "This is when I'm supposed to get up here and tell you how humbled I am by this award. But that's the exact opposite of how I feel. According to you, I'm awesome! In fact, I should probably apologize now to my co-workers for how much more difficult I'm going to be to work with after tonight." EDIT: messed up some grammar... this mistake has humbled me.
- amirmc 10y agoI love this! If I'm ever in a position to accept an award I'm going to steal this opening. It's certainly more entertaining than the affected humility we see. Of course, even this approach will have its own shelf life — meaning that, if used widely, it will also become a parody of itself.
- brangalina4eva 10y agoModesty is my best quality.
- lordnacho 10y agoThere's nobody more humble than me.
- midgetjones 10y agoOveruse has killed the actual meaning of a lot of words. Don't even get me started on 'genius'.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoOr 'hacking'.
- cmdrfred 10y ago"Literally" really gets on my nerves.
- semi-extrinsic 10y ago"... What happens next will literally blow your mind" In general I'm literally grateful that the frequently used form of "literally" does not apply literally.
- noxToken 10y agoWe geniuses at Bitely are literally hacking the gourmet food space. It's essentially a Tinder for your Tastebuds.
- throwanem 10y agoDid it ever sound humble? Complimenting oneself publicly on one's supposedly exceptional humility has always seemed an unintentional sarcasm to me.
- midgetjones 10y agoI think there's a difference between saying something was "a humbling experience" and "I am exceptionally humble".
- open_bear 10y agoThere is now even a word for that: humblebragging.
- andmarios 10y agoI am humble but it is just one of my numerous merits. :p
- linkergames 10y agoWith the risk of feeling the power of the ban hammer, here is the obligatory reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzUKcXxbU4U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzUKcXxbU4U
- brlewis 10y agoFor those of you looking for a tl;dr version, here's a quote that gives you the general tone: We live in a rabidly anti-elitist society that is also in slack-jawed, slavish thrall to elites, and it’s no joke to try to maintain homeostasis between “Look at me!” and “Who, me?” I'm trying to remember who it was that once talked about judging a community by two things: its actual behavior, and what it holds up as ideal behavior. I think it's actually a good thing that society started to hold up as an ideal the idea of being humbled by success. I found the superior, smug tone of the article annoying. Some attempt at sounding more humble would have produced a better article.
- mlnhd 10y agoYou think you're really righteous? You think you're pure at heart? Well, I know I'm a million times as humble as thou art.
- pc86 10y agoNever thought I'd see a Weird Al quote on HN.
- TeMPOraL 10y agoMy favourite line from that song is "On my knees day and night scorin' points for the afterlife".
- aaronchall 10y agoAnother apropos line: "So don't be vain, and don't be whiny, or my brother I might have to get medieval on your hiney!"
- pimlottc 10y agoAlso reminds me of a great classic from The Onion [0] about the winner of the yoga championship: “I am the serenest!” Bikram shouted to the estimated crowd of 20,000 yoga fans, vigorously pumping his fists. “No one is serener than Sri Dhananjai Bikram—I am the greatest monk of all time!” 0: http://www.theonion.com/article/monk-gloats-over-yoga-championship-20224 http://www.theonion.com/article/monk-gloats-over-yoga-champi...
- RodericDay 10y agoReminds me of that classic article "On Smarm" http://gawker.com/on-smarm-1476594977 http://gawker.com/on-smarm-1476594977
- strider12 10y agoWhen an athlete says they are humbled, it's the most genuine use -- because to perform at a top level, you have to 'go back to your roots' - the lonely/early/late days that got you there. So they say it simply to remind themselves that the basics that got them there, is not forgotten and has to be implemented everyday.
- untilHellbanned 10y agoAlso physical performance for most sports is objective and earned, whereas most other scenarios it was a subjective process decided by other humans.
- rangibaby 10y agoUntil every sport adopts the powerlifting or MMA model where there are drugs and non-drug competitions there is no way of knowing. There's a Lance Armstrong in every sport.
- jlebrech 10y agoi'm ever so humble
- rejectedstone 10y agoThis goes back pretty far: "Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth." Num 12:3 - Written by Moses
- hashkb 10y agoAwesome. Whoever wrote the Bible was setting up today's assholes for a "I'm basically Moses"
- rangibaby 10y agoThe Bible and other religious texts have a lot of accumulated wisdom in them. I think of them as the Wikipedias of their time, edited by everyone, partly useful information, partly full of shit, accepted uncritically by the more naive
- 3minus1 10y agoInteresting but I disagree. Basically the entire Old Testament is edited and to enforce a certain interpretation of the Israelites' history, namely that turning away from God caused bad things to happen. It has a fairly consistent and coherent agenda.
- rangibaby 10y agoI would love to talk about that more. It's been a long time since I have read the Old Testament. I meant to buy the "Five Books of Moses" translation a few years back.
- 3minus1 10y agoHi, it's something I learned about when I took this class: https://www.coursera.org/learn/bible-history https://www.coursera.org/learn/bible-history It looks like it's actually being offered again, and just started this week if you're interested.
- 10y ago
- nradov 10y agoSonia Sotomayor said that she was "very humbled" when President Obama nominated her for the Supreme Court. I'm sure it's really humbling when the President calls you up and tells you that you're the best judge in the country. ;-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Sotomayor_Supreme_Court_nomination#Day_1_.28July_13.29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Sotomayor_Supreme_Court_...
- hashkb 10y agoYeah but saying it is tacky, even if true. Just BE humble, and SAY "thank you" and then put your money where your mouth is.
- Chris2048 10y agoReminds me of notes labelled "polite note"...
- 3dk 10y agoA more appropriate word would be "honored".
- labster 10y agoI prefer to go with "proud" myself.
- hashkb 10y agoI had a bit when I was 10 or so where I'd go to great lengths to explain the magnitude of my humility. If 10-year-old me was cynical enough to develop a routine about it... how has it ever worked? Humility, grace, rudeness, attractiveness... these are all judgments that can't be made about yourself, only by/about others.
- sametmax 10y agoOne good example of this bullshit is the last years of Bill Gates PR. People "spontaneously" coming to social networks to state how great and humble he is. E.G this fantastic piece of "interview": http://imgur.com/gallery/DTDsH0P http://imgur.com/gallery/DTDsH0P I still wonder how it can remotely work. But it does. Read the comments below the pictures, it's crazy. It's like in big announcements when people are jumping around saying they are all "so excited". I usually stop listening after somebody used those 2 worlds, there are people finding this is a demonstration of enthusiasm.
- WhitneyLand 10y agoWhy do you think he's not humble? Of all the billionaires I've seen talk he appears to be a pretty decent and grounded person.
- sametmax 10y agoHave you read the same interview ? It's like you try to get a job and the ask "what's you biggest weakness ?" and you answer "I can't say, but people usually say I'm too invested in my work". Why do I even have to explain that ? Gates PR works so well I even have to rewrite the list of all the horrible stuff he's responsible for in the 90's because people keep forgetting. This is terrible, and a reason politicians and big companies manage to get away again and again with bad behavior.
- digler999 10y agoI'll excuse all his technical and business misdeeds from 20-30 years ago if he cures malaria. Or even if he scrapes a double-digit percentage gain against the disease. The world has much bigger problems than some dickhead breaking a standard to get a leg-up on his competition. Or buying a competitor and preventing some bullshit technology from budding as early as it otherwise would have.
- sametmax 10y agoCorrupting governments is not misdeeds. And by the way, I got malaria. While working for the Gates foundation in Africa.
- mindcrime 10y agoI am awe-inspiringly great at being humble! Nobody does humble like I do. Call in the next 10 minutes and get my "Awesome Humility in 40 days" starter kit for half off!
- rokhayakebe 10y agoTest this, next time someone offers you a compliment answer "I think you are right, Thank You," or "I agree, Thank You."
- kj01a 10y agoSomebody's been listening to the Hello Internet podcast.
- siculars 10y agoHere's another overused word: passion.
- jschwartzi 10y agoWhich in a more literal sense means you have amorous feelings toward the thing you're passionate about.
- scolfax 10y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R42mFx3_ss https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1R42mFx3_ss
- umberway 10y agoI'm more humble than they are!
- warent 10y agoIf you're looking for an easy drop-in word, I recommend "privileged" It's certainly a privilege... I'm privileged to be a part of... etc It seems to be an effective device for communicating your feelings without coming across as arrogant
- pimlottc 10y agoI generally agree, although the term has started to become somewhat politically overloaded these days - white privilege, check your privilege, etc. Using it in the way you suggest should be rather uncontroversial but I would make sure to consider your audience.
- bjacokes 10y agoOne phrase that I've noticed (over)used in NFL broadcasts is "give credit". After a win, a star player will often "give credit" to the other team, their defense, lesser-known players, etc. It seems to be a decent way to act humble when you're the center of attention, without saying "humbled".
- jogjayr 10y agoI agree. In current usage "humbled" just seems to mean "I'm staying humble despite my achievement" rather than what the word actually means. Even if it's over-used, it shows class to give credit to the people around you. Everyone helped at least a little.
- Mikeb85 10y agoAh, the 'ol humble brag. If you call yourself humble, you're basically saying other people think you're awesome. I don't bother anymore, I just accept compliments, and if people ask me if I think I'm awesome, I say yes, even though I'm aware of my own failures (to be fair, everyone has them, so it doesn't detract from one's awesomeness).
- teh_klev 10y agoHeh, the next article I read on HN after this one was: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13487175 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13487175 http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/01/19/army-picks-sig-sauer-replace-m9-service-pistol.html http://www.military.com/daily-news/2017/01/19/army-picks-sig... Within a few sentences I read: "We are both humbled and proud that the P320 was selected by the U.S. Army as its weapon of choice," Ron Cohen, chief executive officer of Sig Sauer, said in a statement to Military.com"
- woliveirajr 10y ago> "We are living in humbling times. People are humbled all over the place. Lately it’s pro forma (...) for politicians, athletes, celebrities and other public figures to be vocally and vigorously humbled by every honor awarded, prize won, job offered, record broken, pound lost, shout-out received, “like” copped and thumb upped. Everything that becomes a commonplace looses it's strength. Be it "honored", "humble", "didn't expect", "didn't think I would deserve it" and so on.