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All high achievement types are like this, because high achievement[a] requires selfishness. Compare the law firm partner who works until midnight everyday while

by ipnon 5y ago

All high achievement types are like this, because high achievement[a] requires selfishness. Compare the law firm partner who works until midnight everyday while his wife and children languish at home, with the priest who volunteers at the food kitchen and adopts orphans. Both add some value to society, arguably, but one of them lives in a mansion and one in subsidized housing. Highly prosocial behavior is not always incentivized in American society[a]. This gives us benefits like iPhones and Amazon Prime, and detriments like homelessness and deaths of despair. [a] In a material sense, excluding moral and ethical achievements. "Mad Men"-style success, not Buddha-style success. [b] Although Americans on average are extraordinarily charitable in terms of dollars donated

ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
"High Achievement" is probably in the eye of the beholder. I've written a fairly massive infrastructure system that is used throughout the world, and has, undoubtedly, saved lives. It will probably continue to do so, in some form or another, long after I take my dirt nap. It has formed the nucleus of an entire Service structure; not just one application. Did I do it to be considered a "hero"? Did I do it for financial reward? The answer to both is "No." I have stepped away from the project, and it has taken on a life of its own. I developed the system over a period of a couple of years, at first, and refined it for a decade, before finding a team willing to take the reins. That required that I step away from the project, and cede total control: technical, IP, legal, etc., to the new team. Before long, I'll be nothing more than a footnote in the historical record. Thousands of people, around the world, use the system, every day. During the COVID impact on the users, it was rapidly adapted to serve a very new environment. It has always been completely localizable, and has a simple, powerful semantic interface that allowed all sorts of cool adapters that I only vaguely predicted, in 2008, when I started it. I never charged a dime for it. In fact, it cost me thousands to maintain and evangelize it. I'll probably never get credit for most of the work and planning that I did, and I'm fine with that. I consider that "high achievement." I did a lot of it, because I needed to keep my tech chops up, and saw a need that could be filled. I enjoyed the process of envisioning the project's lifecycle, planning its genesis, and implementing it. It allowed me to do stuff that my employers would not let me do. It wasn't because I'm some kind of saint, or martyr. In fact, a lot of folks, during its early years, thought that I was a cantankerous, dictatorial, controlling bastard. I needed to keep the project on task, and in focus. That often meant being a real dick (I'm good at that). When I finally encountered some tech people that were qualified to handle it, and take it to the next level, it was important for me to turn it over completely, and get the hell out of the way. By that time, I was sick of it. I wanted to learn new tech, and work on different stuff. I basically slowed down the car, pushed it out onto the sidewalk, and went screeching off into the distance. Most of the work that I've done, in the last four years, has been stuff that I wanted to do, for fun. I had a number of theories about developing high-quality software, I wanted to really get down and dirty with Swift, I wanted to develop applications that made me proud, and I wanted to work my ass off. I like working. You won't find me on a golf course. The coroner is gonna have to rub "YTREWQ" off my cheek, because I'll faceplant on my keyboard, when I pop my clogs. I'm no saint, but I also consider myself to have a very high degree of Integrity. I have absolutely no desire at all to sacrifice that for money.
- ipnon 5y ago
  Yes, I included the footnote because I am defining high achievement as dominance of the social hierarchy.
- Dracophoenix 5y ago
  Your screed reminds me of a scene from Justice League Unlimited[1] in which Luthor is questioned about why he continues to strive for great heights (or, in the view of the Justice League, nadirs) despite, on a conventional scale, having already achieved the high status of being rich and powerful and ,on a cosmic scale, being bound by a relatively meager existence that will eventually pass on as a forgotten footnote. All said and done, what you describe is another type of high achievement and one that isn't necessarily opposed to massive earnings (at least as a means); that of the skilled artisan. Even if you have helped millions of people in lieu of lucre, the pursuit of high achievement of any kind still required selfishness on your part. You still decided how everything was run and as well as the standards under which it should be run following your departure. In that sense you're a hero of a sort. Even if you don't see it. It takes heroic effort to scaffold one's integrity, vision, and time into a project with the goal that said project will improve itself years down the line. All of what you've worked on is ,directly or indirectly, a product of your choices. [1]https://youtube.com/watch?v=K4TC1xMyZDI https://youtube.com/watch?v=K4TC1xMyZDI
  - ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
    That was fun. Thanks! Off to shave my head...

by ipnon 5y ago

ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago

"High Achievement" is probably in the eye of the beholder. I've written a fairly massive infrastructure system that is used throughout the world, and has, undoubtedly, saved lives. It will probably continue to do so, in some form or another, long after I take my dirt nap. It has formed the nucleus of an entire Service structure; not just one application. Did I do it to be considered a "hero"? Did I do it for financial reward? The answer to both is "No." I have stepped away from the project, and it has taken on a life of its own. I developed the system over a period of a couple of years, at first, and refined it for a decade, before finding a team willing to take the reins. That required that I step away from the project, and cede total control: technical, IP, legal, etc., to the new team. Before long, I'll be nothing more than a footnote in the historical record. Thousands of people, around the world, use the system, every day. During the COVID impact on the users, it was rapidly adapted to serve a very new environment. It has always been completely localizable, and has a simple, powerful semantic interface that allowed all sorts of cool adapters that I only vaguely predicted, in 2008, when I started it. I never charged a dime for it. In fact, it cost me thousands to maintain and evangelize it. I'll probably never get credit for most of the work and planning that I did, and I'm fine with that. I consider that "high achievement." I did a lot of it, because I needed to keep my tech chops up, and saw a need that could be filled. I enjoyed the process of envisioning the project's lifecycle, planning its genesis, and implementing it. It allowed me to do stuff that my employers would not let me do. It wasn't because I'm some kind of saint, or martyr. In fact, a lot of folks, during its early years, thought that I was a cantankerous, dictatorial, controlling bastard. I needed to keep the project on task, and in focus. That often meant being a real dick (I'm good at that). When I finally encountered some tech people that were qualified to handle it, and take it to the next level, it was important for me to turn it over completely, and get the hell out of the way. By that time, I was sick of it. I wanted to learn new tech, and work on different stuff. I basically slowed down the car, pushed it out onto the sidewalk, and went screeching off into the distance. Most of the work that I've done, in the last four years, has been stuff that I wanted to do, for fun. I had a number of theories about developing high-quality software, I wanted to really get down and dirty with Swift, I wanted to develop applications that made me proud, and I wanted to work my ass off. I like working. You won't find me on a golf course. The coroner is gonna have to rub "YTREWQ" off my cheek, because I'll faceplant on my keyboard, when I pop my clogs. I'm no saint, but I also consider myself to have a very high degree of Integrity. I have absolutely no desire at all to sacrifice that for money.

ipnon 5y ago
Yes, I included the footnote because I am defining high achievement as dominance of the social hierarchy.
Dracophoenix 5y ago
Your screed reminds me of a scene from Justice League Unlimited[1] in which Luthor is questioned about why he continues to strive for great heights (or, in the view of the Justice League, nadirs) despite, on a conventional scale, having already achieved the high status of being rich and powerful and ,on a cosmic scale, being bound by a relatively meager existence that will eventually pass on as a forgotten footnote. All said and done, what you describe is another type of high achievement and one that isn't necessarily opposed to massive earnings (at least as a means); that of the skilled artisan. Even if you have helped millions of people in lieu of lucre, the pursuit of high achievement of any kind still required selfishness on your part. You still decided how everything was run and as well as the standards under which it should be run following your departure. In that sense you're a hero of a sort. Even if you don't see it. It takes heroic effort to scaffold one's integrity, vision, and time into a project with the goal that said project will improve itself years down the line. All of what you've worked on is ,directly or indirectly, a product of your choices. [1]https://youtube.com/watch?v=K4TC1xMyZDI https://youtube.com/watch?v=K4TC1xMyZDI
- ChrisMarshallNY 5y ago
  That was fun. Thanks! Off to shave my head...