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As someone who never 'made it' and whose CV is a complete joke, feeling like I've contributed to the occasional discussion here has been good for my mental heal

As someone who never 'made it' and whose CV is a complete joke, feeling like I've contributed to the occasional discussion here has been good for my mental health, and moderation seems to be quite sufficient. Apologies for the grandiosity, but the oft-denigrated "words on the internet" may be the most significant trace left of the existence of myself and many others long after everyone here is dead. If technology and civilization survive, future data anthropologists have their work cut out for them. The thought of historians combing through ancient threads and trying to piece together a narrative - only, maybe, for a moment perhaps with something I wrote - gives me a glimmer of warmth, like a fireplace on a cold day.

cgriswald 6y ago
That's funny, because I'd just-as-soon historians never spent so much as a CPU cycle analyzing my posts. I've said some intelligent things, some popular things, some uncomfortable-but-I-suspect-true things, some well-reasoned things, etc.. I've certainly had an impact on the people in my real-life sphere and maybe something I've said online has helped a stranger, too. (Comments here on HN have certainly helped me.) But by-and-large, past-me is an idiot and I have no reason to believe future-me won't feel that way about me, too. Edit: Clarity.
- bartread 6y ago
  > But by-and-large, past-me is an idiot and I have no reason to believe future-me won't feel that way about me, too. I suspect you're probably doing yourself a disservice but I can certainly think of numerous instances of my own idiocy. I should particularly have learned by now not to browse and contribute to internet forums whilst drunk, for example, because this tends to magnify my idiocy[0]. [0] To be clear, I'm not drunk now.
- qchris 6y ago
  > But by-and-large, past-me is an idiot and I have no reason to believe future-me won't feel that way about me, too. Every now and then, I come across something phrased in such a way that it makes something in my brain click. This is one of them, and I'm really leaving this comment so I can find it easily again in the future and maybe get it put on my coffee mug or something.

cgriswald 6y ago

That's funny, because I'd just-as-soon historians never spent so much as a CPU cycle analyzing my posts. I've said some intelligent things, some popular things, some uncomfortable-but-I-suspect-true things, some well-reasoned things, etc.. I've certainly had an impact on the people in my real-life sphere and maybe something I've said online has helped a stranger, too. (Comments here on HN have certainly helped me.) But by-and-large, past-me is an idiot and I have no reason to believe future-me won't feel that way about me, too. Edit: Clarity.

bartread 6y ago
> But by-and-large, past-me is an idiot and I have no reason to believe future-me won't feel that way about me, too. I suspect you're probably doing yourself a disservice but I can certainly think of numerous instances of my own idiocy. I should particularly have learned by now not to browse and contribute to internet forums whilst drunk, for example, because this tends to magnify my idiocy[0]. [0] To be clear, I'm not drunk now.
qchris 6y ago
> But by-and-large, past-me is an idiot and I have no reason to believe future-me won't feel that way about me, too. Every now and then, I come across something phrased in such a way that it makes something in my brain click. This is one of them, and I'm really leaving this comment so I can find it easily again in the future and maybe get it put on my coffee mug or something.