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"You should quit your lofty goals and revert to those more practical in nature.", said no-one who ever accomplished something great
by Dowwie 9y ago
"You should quit your lofty goals and revert to those more practical in nature.", said no-one who ever accomplished something great
- freech 9y agoNo tragic failure ever said that either.
- choudharism 9y agoConsequently, "You should quit your lofty goals and revert to those more practical in nature." should've been said to a lot of people who didn't accomplish anything. That's how selection bias works. I think the nature of this debate is such that we'll always settle on the idea that "one ideology fits all" has never worked and will never work. A few people doing great is important for the world, and so is a lot of people doing okay-to-good. Which one is more important can be your personal POV, but it's easy to see that neither is worth discarding.
- AznHisoka 9y agoExactly. Which is why I really can't stand life advice from very successful people.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- owebmaster 9y agoAdvices from very unsuccesful people don't help either.
- Apocryphon 9y agoMaybe all advice in general is not very useful?
- NTDF9 9y agoAdvice from people about their own failures and people who acknowledge their luck usually works.
- bisRepetita 9y agoExamples, data points are useful, advice a lot less in my mind. "This is my situation and what I've done about it, what worked and did not work for me." Then it is up to the listener to learn something from it, possibly transpose, or not.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- cousin_it 9y agoA few years ago I wrote a very detailed response to arguments like that: http://lesswrong.com/lw/ksy/follow_your_dreams_as_a_case_study_in_incorrect/ http://lesswrong.com/lw/ksy/follow_your_dreams_as_a_case_stu...
- dublinclontarf 9y agoI suppose Hitler did accomplish a...thing. Not the thing he wanted but, a thing.
- Apocryphon 9y agoOdd place for a Godwin.
- BeetleB 9y ago>"You should quit your lofty goals and revert to those more practical in nature.", said no-one who ever accomplished something great "Never quit on your dreams," said most people who never achieve anything.
- Applejinx 9y agoIndeed. The most difficult part of creating stuff is derailing and track-changing. Goals and dreams outside the context of reality and the world, are often pretty dumb and shallow compared to what you can do when you fail and re-evaluate. Or are we suddenly supposed to not ever fail, and attempt only things that work the first time?
- shubb 9y agoI'm going to dig the biggest hole ever. Is a lofty goal, or at least a deep one. You might sit and plan and talk to people and make a buisness plan involving dump trucks and stay at your day job planning for ever. You might make viable plans for digging a large hole, but they don't quite fill the great pit of your vision. Or you might pick digging as big a hole as possible as a direction, and do the next thing. Dig with a space until you get tired then hire a digger and learn to drive it. End up with a big pile of mud to get rid of and find out you could sell it. Who knew selling mud could pay for more diggers. Hire good diggers and drivers because you've done it yourself and know how it's done. Do the next thing, do the next thing. Until one day out have a really big hole. Not the biggest, but pretty big.
- ForRealsies 9y agoSystems > goals