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What's up with freaking programmers of all the people in the world thinking they're in a position to give far-reaching life like this? Of course my perception i

What's up with freaking programmers of all the people in the world thinking they're in a position to give far-reaching life like this? Of course my perception is biased because this profession is overrepresented here but these kinds of posts keep popping up from time to time and reading advice on how to live your life from someone who spends all their time in front of a computer screen is so cringe. Even the wikipedia (lol) source he cited on "Ego depletion" has an entire section questioning the external validity and reproducibility of that concept. From https://oliveremberton.com/about/ https://oliveremberton.com/about/ > Not naturally in tune with people’s feelings and reactions Yeah dude, I wonder why. Go write a blog post about it. https://oliveremberton.com/2013/how-do-i-figure-out-what-to-do-in-life/ https://oliveremberton.com/2013/how-do-i-figure-out-what-to-... That photoshopped picture of Bill Gates holding a potato is genuinely funny though, lol.

hermannj314 4y ago
I think advice of how to live a life well can come from anyone. You don't have to accept everything, but people with lives and personalities you don't entirely mirror can offer amazing insights into your own.
doix 4y ago
Anyone can publish anything online, that's the beauty of the internet. There's nothing controversial in the writing, tl;dr where you spend your time has an effect on how your life turns out and some examples. You never know the effect your writing will have on someone. Someone might read that post, something in the way it's written will cause an epiphany and that person's life will get better. There's no reason to be so negative :).
xwdv 4y ago
It’s worse than taking life advice from another common kind of source: a victim. Victims are the worst, they become wholly engulfed by their personal tragedy and shape their world view and strategy for life around it, producing a twisted, pessimistic interpretation of how to live a decent life. And people listen to victims, because with time they get better and better at perfecting their backstory so that it hits all the right emotions and amplifies their victimhood. They are naturally viral. Being the victim thus becomes their security blanket, their shield from any criticism about anything else they do in life. It’s intoxicating. But also exhausting, because a victim will feel compelled to lash out at anyone who may call their motives into question, or simply doesn’t agree with their perspective. And some people are victims, and they don’t even know it. I see such victims, all the time.
- hermannj314 4y ago
  “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” -Viktor Frankl
  - sogen 4y ago
    This.
  - hackthrow3626 4y ago
    Contra: lobotomy. Frankl was a hack.
  - zeroonetwothree 4y ago
    Radical freedom a la Sarte
- digitailor 4y ago
  You’ve clearly been a victim of victims before. Your detailed analysis of these harms they’ve performed against you, and your warning not to listen to victims, is very concise, detailed, and clearly derived from experience. I think you’re right, I won’t take advice from someone trapped in a victimhood mentality Edit: The current HN bio of this user amazes me. "Used to have close to 1000 karma, got destroyed over time by hackernews cancel culture and a change in downvote algorithms." This user is literally the victim who doesn't know that they're a victim that they "see all the time." This makes perfect sense, assuming they own mirrors Now, if I had a victimhood mentality, I would be decrying the fact that this comment was downvoted. But I won't, because the downvoting is a positive that helps prove my point. Thank you for the downvote, unknown victim of victims, I am eternally grateful to you and your kind
yamrzou 4y ago
Could you comment on what you find bothering in the content of the article itself instead of the focusing on the author?
- sdwr 4y ago
  Some writing excludes the author. It might be dispassionate + precise, or observational, or hazy + removed. This is not that. It's opinionated life advice. Engaging seriously with the content requires asking "Who are you, and why should I follow?"
kortilla 4y ago
> Even the wikipedia (lol) 2008 called, it wants it ad hominem attacks back.
ngc248 4y ago
>>> What's up with freaking programmers of all the people in the world thinking they're in a position to give far-reaching life like this? As if programmers are not people. All Programmers are not rich and privileged, there are all kinds of programmers, rich ones, middle class and poor ones too.
blitz_skull 4y ago
Well.. he did start a fairly successful business which requires at least an average understanding of human nature. And lots of other folks I respect way more than this guy, tend to agree with the sentiment that life is a game.
ianai 4y ago
I’ve had people of all walks of life and professional backgrounds profess world their views as a guide. It’s not programmer specific. But programmers are more inclined to think algorithmically.
fellowmartian 4y ago
I also stopped reading on the ego depletion bit. Unless you’re CEO or something, you probably need to make more decisions, not less.
hnburnsy 4y ago
Your comment feels ad hominem-ish, maybe address the points and how the writer's background could make them invalid.
Mistletoe 4y ago
> Mega rich. Start your own business. It’s almost impossible to get rich working for someone else. Riches do not come from work alone, they come from owning things – assets – that pay back more than they cost, and your own company is a powerful asset you can create from scratch. I raise issue with this assertion. > I’m the founder of Silktide and possibly the most unashamedly ambitious person you know. And now you see why he has it. Like the post the other day said, an entrepreneur giving life advice is like someone telling you what numbers they picked to win the lottery. My own experience in the past few years is that starting a company was a great way to make much less money per year compared to my old job while having lots more worry about taxes, health insurance, bookkeeping, etc. I lost out on a lot of extra money I would have been able to invest in that interim and worked 2-4x as hard as with my old job in science that had a wonderful reliable paycheck every month and no worries ever. Luckily this realization hit after three years and I start a new even cushier science job in two weeks.
- zeroonetwothree 4y ago
  Just ask LeBron James how to get rich and he will have a different suggestion…
  - checkyoursudo 4y ago
    Just gotta work hard and be like 8 feet tall and you too can get rich.
WXLCKNO 4y ago
Every time I've found a way to improve my life drastically, I've wanted to share it with people. I didn't always do it but it's nice to inspire people and see them succeed. This person may be in a good spot in their life and feel like if they share their world view or advice, someone else could find their happiness through it. That person obviously isn't you. Nonetheless, I think it's less about being pretentious or thinking that your words are so precious and wise they must be read by others than it is about what I said before.
sdwr 4y ago
What gets my goat is all the self-aggrandizement. Drinking bad, coding good? As a non-drinking coder, that sounds hella gay. I like the impulse of "do things, improve" and the positive attitude, but it overpromises and is light on personal experience. Overall stinks of wishful thinking.
- lytefm 4y ago
  Didn't seem to me at all like "self grandeur", more like "here are some funny examples based on my background". The overall game metaphor is quite nice and useful, also in relation to what the author writes about "fairness" [1]. [1]: https://oliveremberton.com/2014/the-problem-isnt-that-life-is-unfair-its-your-broken-idea-of-fairness/ https://oliveremberton.com/2014/the-problem-isnt-that-life-i...

hermannj314 4y ago

I think advice of how to live a life well can come from anyone. You don't have to accept everything, but people with lives and personalities you don't entirely mirror can offer amazing insights into your own.

doix 4y ago

Anyone can publish anything online, that's the beauty of the internet. There's nothing controversial in the writing, tl;dr where you spend your time has an effect on how your life turns out and some examples. You never know the effect your writing will have on someone. Someone might read that post, something in the way it's written will cause an epiphany and that person's life will get better. There's no reason to be so negative :).

xwdv 4y ago

It’s worse than taking life advice from another common kind of source: a victim. Victims are the worst, they become wholly engulfed by their personal tragedy and shape their world view and strategy for life around it, producing a twisted, pessimistic interpretation of how to live a decent life. And people listen to victims, because with time they get better and better at perfecting their backstory so that it hits all the right emotions and amplifies their victimhood. They are naturally viral. Being the victim thus becomes their security blanket, their shield from any criticism about anything else they do in life. It’s intoxicating. But also exhausting, because a victim will feel compelled to lash out at anyone who may call their motives into question, or simply doesn’t agree with their perspective. And some people are victims, and they don’t even know it. I see such victims, all the time.

hermannj314 4y ago
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” -Viktor Frankl
- sogen 4y ago
  This.
- hackthrow3626 4y ago
  Contra: lobotomy. Frankl was a hack.
- zeroonetwothree 4y ago
  Radical freedom a la Sarte
digitailor 4y ago
You’ve clearly been a victim of victims before. Your detailed analysis of these harms they’ve performed against you, and your warning not to listen to victims, is very concise, detailed, and clearly derived from experience. I think you’re right, I won’t take advice from someone trapped in a victimhood mentality Edit: The current HN bio of this user amazes me. "Used to have close to 1000 karma, got destroyed over time by hackernews cancel culture and a change in downvote algorithms." This user is literally the victim who doesn't know that they're a victim that they "see all the time." This makes perfect sense, assuming they own mirrors Now, if I had a victimhood mentality, I would be decrying the fact that this comment was downvoted. But I won't, because the downvoting is a positive that helps prove my point. Thank you for the downvote, unknown victim of victims, I am eternally grateful to you and your kind

yamrzou 4y ago

Could you comment on what you find bothering in the content of the article itself instead of the focusing on the author?

sdwr 4y ago
Some writing excludes the author. It might be dispassionate + precise, or observational, or hazy + removed. This is not that. It's opinionated life advice. Engaging seriously with the content requires asking "Who are you, and why should I follow?"

kortilla 4y ago

> Even the wikipedia (lol) 2008 called, it wants it ad hominem attacks back.

ngc248 4y ago

>>> What's up with freaking programmers of all the people in the world thinking they're in a position to give far-reaching life like this? As if programmers are not people. All Programmers are not rich and privileged, there are all kinds of programmers, rich ones, middle class and poor ones too.

blitz_skull 4y ago

Well.. he did start a fairly successful business which requires at least an average understanding of human nature. And lots of other folks I respect way more than this guy, tend to agree with the sentiment that life is a game.

ianai 4y ago

I’ve had people of all walks of life and professional backgrounds profess world their views as a guide. It’s not programmer specific. But programmers are more inclined to think algorithmically.

fellowmartian 4y ago

I also stopped reading on the ego depletion bit. Unless you’re CEO or something, you probably need to make more decisions, not less.

hnburnsy 4y ago

Your comment feels ad hominem-ish, maybe address the points and how the writer's background could make them invalid.

Mistletoe 4y ago

> Mega rich. Start your own business. It’s almost impossible to get rich working for someone else. Riches do not come from work alone, they come from owning things – assets – that pay back more than they cost, and your own company is a powerful asset you can create from scratch. I raise issue with this assertion. > I’m the founder of Silktide and possibly the most unashamedly ambitious person you know. And now you see why he has it. Like the post the other day said, an entrepreneur giving life advice is like someone telling you what numbers they picked to win the lottery. My own experience in the past few years is that starting a company was a great way to make much less money per year compared to my old job while having lots more worry about taxes, health insurance, bookkeeping, etc. I lost out on a lot of extra money I would have been able to invest in that interim and worked 2-4x as hard as with my old job in science that had a wonderful reliable paycheck every month and no worries ever. Luckily this realization hit after three years and I start a new even cushier science job in two weeks.

zeroonetwothree 4y ago
Just ask LeBron James how to get rich and he will have a different suggestion…
- checkyoursudo 4y ago
  Just gotta work hard and be like 8 feet tall and you too can get rich.

WXLCKNO 4y ago

Every time I've found a way to improve my life drastically, I've wanted to share it with people. I didn't always do it but it's nice to inspire people and see them succeed. This person may be in a good spot in their life and feel like if they share their world view or advice, someone else could find their happiness through it. That person obviously isn't you. Nonetheless, I think it's less about being pretentious or thinking that your words are so precious and wise they must be read by others than it is about what I said before.

sdwr 4y ago

What gets my goat is all the self-aggrandizement. Drinking bad, coding good? As a non-drinking coder, that sounds hella gay. I like the impulse of "do things, improve" and the positive attitude, but it overpromises and is light on personal experience. Overall stinks of wishful thinking.

lytefm 4y ago
Didn't seem to me at all like "self grandeur", more like "here are some funny examples based on my background". The overall game metaphor is quite nice and useful, also in relation to what the author writes about "fairness" [1]. [1]: https://oliveremberton.com/2014/the-problem-isnt-that-life-is-unfair-its-your-broken-idea-of-fairness/ https://oliveremberton.com/2014/the-problem-isnt-that-life-i...