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Not doing stupid shit is important, but what about not being afraid to make mistakes? Making mistakes is healthy and arguably one of the best ways to learn; if

Not doing stupid shit is important, but what about not being afraid to make mistakes? Making mistakes is healthy and arguably one of the best ways to learn; if your motto is 'don't do stupid shit', then I fear that you'll miss out on a lot of opportunities. Also, your definition of 'stupid' is going to change throughout the years. You shouldn't be afraid of trying something new now because you might realize in a couple years that what you were trying to do was stupid; doing it is what helped you become a smarter and more experienced person. I know this wasn't actually the point of the article, but it seems like the 'don't do stupid shit' motto could easily be taken too literally into this interpretation.

jacques_chester 15y ago
A better phrase would be: "Don't do stupid shit twice". Still better, in my opinion, is: "work on your weakness". My hobby is Olympic weightlifting. In Oly lifting brute strength can take you only so far, to succeed and progress you need to constantly work on technique. And the only way to improve technique is to identify something you're doing wrong at the moment and to break that habit. It takes time, effort and buckets of hard, horrible work; but at the end your performance has been consistently improved for good. If on the other hand you stick only to what you're good at, you will inevitably peak. I am very good at back squats. If I'm not consciously trying to work my weaknesses, I will do buckets of back squats and get strong at them. But what I ought to do instead is work on getting under the bar faster, or work on my second pull, or work on foot placement during the jerk, and so on. If I put the bulk of my effort into these, I will progress much faster and further overall than any amount of squatting will grant me.
tintin 15y ago
You can't do stupid things when you don't know they are stupid. But if you know something is stupid you already learned from it.

jacques_chester 15y ago

A better phrase would be: "Don't do stupid shit twice". Still better, in my opinion, is: "work on your weakness". My hobby is Olympic weightlifting. In Oly lifting brute strength can take you only so far, to succeed and progress you need to constantly work on technique. And the only way to improve technique is to identify something you're doing wrong at the moment and to break that habit. It takes time, effort and buckets of hard, horrible work; but at the end your performance has been consistently improved for good. If on the other hand you stick only to what you're good at, you will inevitably peak. I am very good at back squats. If I'm not consciously trying to work my weaknesses, I will do buckets of back squats and get strong at them. But what I ought to do instead is work on getting under the bar faster, or work on my second pull, or work on foot placement during the jerk, and so on. If I put the bulk of my effort into these, I will progress much faster and further overall than any amount of squatting will grant me.

tintin 15y ago

You can't do stupid things when you don't know they are stupid. But if you know something is stupid you already learned from it.