You are comparing yourself to the entire HN community: a young man against thousands of years of collective experience. I suspect the reason why you do this is

You are comparing yourself to the entire HN community: a young man against thousands of years of collective experience. I suspect the reason why you do this is because you give your "talent" more value than you should. You wrote this: > HN shows me all these people and ideas that are succeeding. It used to be inspirational, but now it's frightening. > I've always been told I'm a smart kid, and that I'll be a millionaire some day, and all of that shit. You can snap out of it, but you need to change your mindset about intelligence, learning, and mastering a trade. Please consider reading this essay of mine. I think it may be helpful: http://programmingzen.com/2010/07/04/the-pursuit-of-excellence-in-programming/ http://programmingzen.com/2010/07/04/the-pursuit-of-excellen...