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Do you have any examples of a people who have pushed “beyond limits” and ended up in a bad place in the end? Not trying to be cheeky but honestly curious. I al

by hallqv 6y ago

Do you have any examples of a people who have pushed “beyond limits” and ended up in a bad place in the end? Not trying to be cheeky but honestly curious. I always hear this argument of survivorship bias, and it sounds very reasonable at first. But then when I think some more and pair it with my real world experience, I can think of very few people who have pursued ambitious goal over a sustained period of time and truly ended up in a bad places in the end. Sure they might fail to reach a specific goal, but it seems that in the pursuit of that goal (if it’s something ambitious & useful) it is hard not to pick up knowledge, skills and other assets that you can leverage in some way in the end. On the contrary I can think of of countless of people who have done “normal things” and have ended up in really bad places. Not that they have dropped dead all of a sudden but just seem really discontented and depressed with their lives.

hope125 6y ago
While I can't say anyone I know has ended up in a particularly bad place in the end, there are two people I personally know: One is headed back to college to finish up his degree at almost 30; sure it's not a bad place, but his peers are far more financially secure and much further in their careers. Another was left scrambling for any job after his startup went under as COVID layoffs settled in, unclear how he's doing now (he needs a job for his visa, given how many years he spent trying to do the startup, he is highly unlikely to get into a good PhD program now which was something he had wanted to do). These are two people that I have immense respect for and who I'm sure did everything 'right'; it just doesn't work out for everyone. I think your personal sample depends on the people you know. I honestly can't think of anyone in a worse place than friend #2 above (except for one international student with a visa problem but this would have arisen whether or not they did normal things or started a company). This is likely because the only people I know here are from the university I went to though.

by hallqv 6y ago

hope125 6y ago

While I can't say anyone I know has ended up in a particularly bad place in the end, there are two people I personally know: One is headed back to college to finish up his degree at almost 30; sure it's not a bad place, but his peers are far more financially secure and much further in their careers. Another was left scrambling for any job after his startup went under as COVID layoffs settled in, unclear how he's doing now (he needs a job for his visa, given how many years he spent trying to do the startup, he is highly unlikely to get into a good PhD program now which was something he had wanted to do). These are two people that I have immense respect for and who I'm sure did everything 'right'; it just doesn't work out for everyone. I think your personal sample depends on the people you know. I honestly can't think of anyone in a worse place than friend #2 above (except for one international student with a visa problem but this would have arisen whether or not they did normal things or started a company). This is likely because the only people I know here are from the university I went to though.