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> I am accountable for myself and that if I want my circumstances to change, it starts with me. Anyone with a minimum of intellectual honesty will accept that
by hnarn 7y ago
> I am accountable for myself and that if I want my circumstances to change, it starts with me.
Anyone with a minimum of intellectual honesty will accept that this is only partly true. Any circumstance that you find yourself in is a combination of many factors, it can never be naively boiled down to the single factor of "you". There are many variables that go into putting you, the reader, and myself, in the exact situations we are in now. That our actions have influenced it is beyond discussion, but that it has the potential to uniquely shape it, regardless of external factors, is absurd.
So, you may say: "Sure, external factors will affect you, but where you go from here is completely up to you" -- but this apparent truism does not hold up to scrutiny. If your life so far could not have been shaped exclusively and purely by your own initiative, how can the rest of your life?
The church of individual performance and the cult of myself is so intimately tied into our current zeitgeist or hegemony that nobody even seems to question it. I really wish more people did, if nothing else it would make for more interesting philosophy, possibly something that felt a little less like "The Secret".
- lazyant 7y agoYes, sounds a bit like the Fish! book.
- d-d 7y agoOne example might be the growing homeless population in California. Many of these individuals are responsible and hard working, but without an advocate they're trapped in a downward spiral with zero chance of reentry to society.
- rlonn 7y agoExternal factors always have a huge influence on outcomes, but they are also often not under your control. Focusing on the things you do have control over is vastly better than using uncontrollable things as an excuse not to bother at all. This means that if a person needs to pretend it's all about themselves, in order to be motivated enough to try and control the controllable, then that's the best strategy.
- hnarn 7y ago> if a person needs to pretend it's all about themselves, in order to be motivated enough to try and control the controllable, then that's the best strategy. It might be the best strategy for your own individual performance, but I question how it affects your view of other peoples' struggles.
- rowanG077 7y agoIt's not about disregarding that external factors can and do significantly interfere with anyone's life. It's about recognizing that the most significant contribution to your well being is in fact your own actions in the vast majority of cases and especially on longer time scales. It makes no sense to worry about the external factors that affect an individuals life since there is no way to affect those to a significant degree.
- pete762 7y agoA few days ago on HN the letter-to-shareholders by Howard Marks was posted, where he says investing is like Blackjack or Backgammon (it involves luck and skill) and how a good decision doesn't necessarily bring a good result and vice versa. I think this applies to life itself. Everything you do is a bet where only part of the information is available, and all you can do is to have a good decision process, which can still lead to unfavourable outcomes.