4 ms·

After reading such an article it is easy to see this pattern everywhere. And, sadly, it is also easy to see all the areas where I am in the group of people who

by cJ0th 9y ago

After reading such an article it is easy to see this pattern everywhere. And, sadly, it is also easy to see all the areas where I am in the group of people who come in close second. With the article in mind it would seem rational to quit endeavors of those kind cold turkey. In reality, it's not so easy. Maybe you don't want to give up b/c of all the time you've invested or b/c you're really passionate about what you're doing or maybe some fellow people still keep encouraging you and don't want you to stop... This makes me wonder whether there is a good general exit strategy for those situations. That is, a method to reorientate as quickly, painlessly and promising as possible. I worry that's a too abstract way to think about it, though.

ianai 9y ago
Find the next best alternative. Maybe a so/so programmer makes for a well informed security consultant.
simonh 9y ago
The other way to look at it is that, in many situations in life, by improving your competitiveness by only a few percent you can often reap much bigger rewards. In the Olympics that's really tough, but in most people's lives the bar you're trying to beat is just that set by the environment you happen to be in. Being a bit better prepared, paying a bit more attention, working a bit harder can over time have outsized cumulative effects. We don't live in a perfect world, but how prepared we are to do well in it is up to us.
pdimitar 9y ago
Something I do more and more often in the last one year is to have a more ruthless and cold approach -- if something doesn't work well enough in a deadline I set myself, I just abandon it. There's always a risk of never going far enough to actually become the best there is in something. That's an undeniable fact. But it gives you (1) a priceless experience, and (2) teaches you to prioritize. I am definitely not the wisest man -- quite the contrary, I am pretty flawed -- but I learned that holding on too much is much worse than letting go and maybe trying again one day. The past is a very poor decider of whether you should persist. There are a lot more factors which are much more important.

by cJ0th 9y ago

ianai 9y ago

Find the next best alternative. Maybe a so/so programmer makes for a well informed security consultant.

simonh 9y ago

The other way to look at it is that, in many situations in life, by improving your competitiveness by only a few percent you can often reap much bigger rewards. In the Olympics that's really tough, but in most people's lives the bar you're trying to beat is just that set by the environment you happen to be in. Being a bit better prepared, paying a bit more attention, working a bit harder can over time have outsized cumulative effects. We don't live in a perfect world, but how prepared we are to do well in it is up to us.

pdimitar 9y ago

Something I do more and more often in the last one year is to have a more ruthless and cold approach -- if something doesn't work well enough in a deadline I set myself, I just abandon it. There's always a risk of never going far enough to actually become the best there is in something. That's an undeniable fact. But it gives you (1) a priceless experience, and (2) teaches you to prioritize. I am definitely not the wisest man -- quite the contrary, I am pretty flawed -- but I learned that holding on too much is much worse than letting go and maybe trying again one day. The past is a very poor decider of whether you should persist. There are a lot more factors which are much more important.