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This perspective is bullshit. You can do anything you want, without real fear, no matter who you are. There's a panoply of literature to help you change your mi

by tern 8y ago

This perspective is bullshit. You can do anything you want, without real fear, no matter who you are. There's a panoply of literature to help you change your mindset. Seek it out. > They all have the money to do anything they want without any real fear, whereas I do not. I don't have their wide friend groups at my company, and the lifestyles of the people at my company are decidedly "normal" because of my peers' advanced ages and differing priorities (many have kids and didn't go to elite schools). This is an excuse. I am not anything like the friends you described, and I have a wide circle of friends, and do exactly what I want in life. So does everyone I call a close friend. They all come from completely different backgrounds. It took years of hard work to get here. Start now. Sorry for the off-topic post in this thread, but I think it's deeply important to refute this kind of thinking. Don't waste your life.

sadamznintern 8y ago
Well, for one thing they can do it at 22, with no constraints on the function they're optimizing. Their hard work was done in 4 years of undergrad and 4 years of high school. I thought I did OK - but apparently I didn't, and now I have another 8-12 years to even begin to be in the same position they're in right now. I'm way, way way behind.
- inteleng 8y ago
  Those things (USAMO, USACO, RSI, ISEF) don't matter.
- taybin 8y ago
  This is the sort of race where once you get to the end, you realize you were racing against yourself. Stop comparing your blooper reel to their highlight reel. It's not healthy. I guarantee there are people envious of your life.
- spicymaki 8y ago
  “Comparison is the death of joy.” (Mark Twain)
Viliam1234 8y ago
> This perspective is bullshit. You can do anything you want, without real fear, no matter who you are. Well, that perspective doesn't seem any more convincing. There are many factors to success: intelligence, character traits, hard work, money, luck. Each of them plays an important role. Each of them can, to some degree, be substituted by more of something else. There is a huge difference whether you have or don't have a safety net. You can of course simply take a risk, but that by definition works only for a subset of people who try it.

by tern 8y ago

sadamznintern 8y ago

Well, for one thing they can do it at 22, with no constraints on the function they're optimizing. Their hard work was done in 4 years of undergrad and 4 years of high school. I thought I did OK - but apparently I didn't, and now I have another 8-12 years to even begin to be in the same position they're in right now. I'm way, way way behind.

inteleng 8y ago
Those things (USAMO, USACO, RSI, ISEF) don't matter.
taybin 8y ago
This is the sort of race where once you get to the end, you realize you were racing against yourself. Stop comparing your blooper reel to their highlight reel. It's not healthy. I guarantee there are people envious of your life.
spicymaki 8y ago
“Comparison is the death of joy.” (Mark Twain)

Viliam1234 8y ago

> This perspective is bullshit. You can do anything you want, without real fear, no matter who you are. Well, that perspective doesn't seem any more convincing. There are many factors to success: intelligence, character traits, hard work, money, luck. Each of them plays an important role. Each of them can, to some degree, be substituted by more of something else. There is a huge difference whether you have or don't have a safety net. You can of course simply take a risk, but that by definition works only for a subset of people who try it.