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My life experiences don't match your mental model, sadly. Maybe it has to do with where and how one grows up? For example, I know with certainty that my parents
by afpx 6y ago
My life experiences don't match your mental model, sadly. Maybe it has to do with where and how one grows up? For example, I know with certainty that my parents, teachers, and first bosses were enemies.
A lot of people on HN seem to have grown up in safe, nurturing, loving environments. But, remember that most of the world's people didn't. I don't mean to call you out - just saying that I would love to have had your experiences.
- ignoramous 6y agoSad reality, adequately explained by game theory: https://ncase.me/trust/ https://ncase.me/trust/
- zeroerrorraghav 6y agoWhoa. Excellent website. Thank you so much.
- jeegsy 6y agoExcellent find!!
- weeksie 6y agoThis mirrors my experience in many ways. People with legitimate ill intention were a lot more common in my youth and when I was in a lower socio-economic position. Now I live in a world very similar to the one described by the GP. It took me quite a while to adjust, and I still have my moments.
- darkerside 6y agoMost people grew up with parents who love them. They might not know how to show it, and I'm sure there are exceptions, but love for offspring is about as close as it gets to universal human experience. Parents may not express that love all the time, and may even harm their children in spite of it. And they will probably hate themselves after the fact for it. I was oversimplifying, of course. You can certainly end up with enemies. But your boss didn't start out hiring you because he wanted an enemy. He hired you to do a job.
- p410n3 6y agoI know for a fact my mom loved me and only wanted my best when beating the crap out of me. Intentions don't even matter in such cases. The end result does
- loafer-project 6y agoI normally do not comment here, but I feel like I have to say this. My mom also was beating the crap out of me for most of my childhood and when my sister killed herself, I blamed my mom for it. But after living with all this hate and anger in my life for years, I started to realize that I can only truly be in peace if I learn to let go of these feelings. It definitely wasn't easy and I still find it very hard to trust her from time to time, but recently I hugged her for the first time in many years and to my surprise that actually felt good. I helped me a lot to imagine how she grew up and how she must have felt to be pushed to such extreme measures. I don't say it's easy and I don't say you have to forgive your mother or anything like that. I just wanted to share that trying to forgive my mother actually made me feel better in the long run. I hope you will be able to sort this out some day. I wish you all the best.
- astura 6y agoI tried for decades to let go of the (completely justified) hatred I have for my parents and tried so hard to have a semi-normal relationship with them,or at least one of them. Nope, didn't work, they are just horrible people nobody sane gets anything positive from being around. My husband pointed out that they were a huge negative in my life with no positives and why was I doing that to myself? I let go and stopped contact with them and it's been one of the best things I've ever done for my overall well-being.
- p410n3 6y agoThanks for the kind words! I am in a much better place now and apart from some long term effects such as general trust issues with people, I am mostly fine now. Thank you!
- astura 6y ago
- owlninja 6y agoMost? Based on what?
- kgin 6y agoI guess maybe it’s worth remembering that even if someone is an enemy it is in conflict with you, nobody thinks they are “the bad guy”. If you want to understand why someone does what they do, you can’t chalk it up just to “they’re evil” or “they’re crazy”. There’s some reason why they’re doing what they do and to them, they feel like they’re on the right side.
- beagle3 6y agoIndeed. I don’t know the origin, but I’ve heard it phrased as “no one is the villain in the movie that is their life”, or “no person is the villain in that person’s autobiography”