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What "Follow Your Dreams" Misses [video]
- gnicholas 2y agoI happened to see someone wearing a 3Blue1Brown t-shirt today and decided to buy one myself to (modestly) support the channel. In addition to shirts, there are also socks and stuffed animals, apparently: https://store.dftba.com/collections/3blue1brown https://store.dftba.com/collections/3blue1brown
- paradox242 2y agoMy son is 4 and saw me watching one of his videos with the colorful Pi characters and was intrigued. After multiple repeated requests to watch "Pi friends" we ended up getting him one of the plush Pi creatures which he still loves.
- smarm52 2y ago[flagged]
- refset 2y agoWhatever the motivations (and FWIW it does seem like a channel very worthy of support), I can confirm it is at least the official 'Store' linked to from the official website: https://www.3blue1brown.com/ https://www.3blue1brown.com/
- gnicholas 2y agoYou're suspicious my comment is an ad, or the original post? I have zero affiliation with the channel, have never emailed with the creator or anyone on their team, and am not even subscribed to the youtube channel. I just saw a guy wearing one of the shirts at the Palo Alto farmer's market and was intrigued. My first reaction was "is that the guy who runs the channel?" and then I realized he probably had a shop and probably didn't go around wearing his own swag.
- smarm52 2y agoApologies, still finding my footing here at HN. I have a lot "reddit reflexes" for lack of a better word, and this was probably a product of that.
- gnicholas 2y agoYou might check someone's account age or history first. Typically people won't accumulate many thousands of karma points if they are shilling for brands.
- goles 2y ago"Never underestimate just how much influence you can have on others, especially the ones who are younger than you are." 3B1B
- smarm52 2y agoI have this method of checking for information sources to trust. I check for their reputation, and find evidence that they can be trusted. I should probably take my own advice ... but I have to figure how to do it first. 1st day. Thanks for the tip.
- InfiniteLoup 2y ago[flagged]
- gnicholas 2y agoI've been active here for over a decade. If I did that so I could start shilling for brands in my 40s, that'd be a hell of a long con. Also, I pointed out that it's useful to check users' histories. A few seconds with my comment history would reveal that I'm more of a grump than a shill.
- moi2388 2y agoWelcome! Pretty much the only ads here are paywall links. For some reason they’re allowed, but usually somebody posts an archive link
- one-punch 2y agoReminds me of the “Chase your reality” commencement speech by Christopher Nolan at Princeton in 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoWEhQlS9yY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoWEhQlS9yY
- fnordian_slip 2y agoHe already had me at his mention of survivorship bias (something that I feel is ignored a bit too often in this space), but the whole speech was great! I'm generally on the other end of the spectrum (playing it safe instead of following my dreams), but somehow this motivated me to go a bit further into trying something new.
- yuy910616 2y agoRefreshing take on "Follow your dreams"! It's quite surprising to me that this tired genre can still deliver something new.
- thomasahle 2y agoThe ironical thing about the "Follow what creates value for other people" advice - for math graduates in particular - is that most of modern math doesn't seem to be motivated this. I'd probably agree that research math also doesn't come from a goal of "self growth", but maybe it should be something like "follow your curiosity".
- j2kun 2y ago> for math graduates in particular I don't think it's ironic at all. The vast majority of math graduates don't do pure math research after graduation. And modern pure mathematicians dramatically undercut how much of their research was, in relatively recent history, driven mainly by practical value.
- aleph_minus_one 2y ago> The ironical thing about the "Follow what creates value for other people" advice - for math graduates in particular - is that most of modern math doesn't seem to be motivated this. I do believe that the results of math research (even the pure one) create an insane value for other people, but that we live in a world full of ignorant people who don't see this insane value (yet). Thus, the modern math research may not be motivated by this criterion, but in most cases nearly tautologically creates a lot of value for other people.
- mitthrowaway2 2y agoI agree. You can still make a great living just by sifting through the nuggets unearthed by people like Gauss, Euler, and Laplace, which continue to pay dividends centuries later, let alone inventing new math.
- chii 2y agoalso, creating value is different from capturing value. You can create value but not capture it (or don't have the ability to capture it). But somebody tends to capture the value, and if it's not you, it's probably going to be your boss (or their boss, etc).
- 2y ago
- sabrina_ramonov 2y agoI find it more useful to "follow my curiosity" ... I feel the concept of "dreams" has too much weight and seriousness attached to it nowadays
- klondike_klive 2y agoI like this. It also allows me to change my mind, something I do with dismaying regularity!
- sabrina_ramonov 2y agoyep exactly. In contrast, with "Dreams" -- if you change your mind or stop pursuing them or take a break from pursuing them... the implication is "failure". It's unnecessary, distracting pressure.
- mihaic 2y agoI find it very ironic that Americans seem to understand better as a culture that they need to diversity their investment portfolio, but at the same time seem to ignore that concept in their personal life more than almost any European. It seems like the concept that there probably shouldn't be any single goal or purpose in life that needs to be maxed, and that life is a basket is foreign to most.
- tennisflyi 2y agoIt’s always had the subtext of “follow your (reasonable) dreams.”
- m463 2y agoI always think of crazy vs eccentric depending on if you're rich or not. It seemed to work with Elon Musk and mars/climate change/EVs/brain interfaces...
- kuekacang 2y agoAnother missed mark is that "dream" needs knowledge. If you don't ever know/experience what's possible, you may not be able to dream about it.
- em-bee 2y agothis is an important point. i remember while in school we were sent into a library that had documentation on the various apprentice and training programs that existed, detailing the regulations and requirements for each. but i also remember it being a grey wall of shelves with folders all looking the same, totally uninspiring. i was able to look up the things that i was already interested in but i did not get any inspiration for what else i could be doing. we did two internships, one in 9th grade and one in 10th. we had to find those internships ourselves, go to the companies, ask and apply. (as a practice how to apply for jobs) i had no idea what i wanted to do. the first internship i did at a bike shop because i had built my own bike before so i casually asked, and then they accepted me before i was even sure that this is what i wanted to do myself. i was to unsure of myself to tell them that i had not even decided myself. it was a wasted opportunity because i already knew a lot about bikes, so i barely learned anything new. at best i learned about dealing with bosses and managers, but even that hardly registered. the second internship was better, at a company designing ship propulsion systems. i got introduced to CAD on paper and on the computer and to work in a machine shop to create machine parts. not something i wanted to do, but it gave me insights into that industry that i still find valuable today. long story short, the problem was that i had no idea what i wanted to do. the one dream job (ships captain) was kind of out of reach because the training on the ship would have meant to stop wearing my braces which required monthly dentist visits. or at least so i thought. because the real problem was that there was noone to talk to about these concerns. so i just stumbled into IT. i mean, sure, i was the kid who spent their afternoons after class alone in the computerlab in school. (even got locked in once because the cleaners didn't realize i was in there) but then i did an internship at a friends software company and decided that working in an office all day was not for me. but i went on to study computer science anyways. again, because i lacked inspiration to study anything else. i was always picking stuff i was already familiar with. i was traveling a lot by myself in the school holidays, but i never even considered what kind of jobs might be available in that space. so yeah, i was one of those kids without a dream or with a dream that i believed was out of reach. and my career development was a sequence of coincidences. i eventually realized that programming was fun, thanks to roxen and pike, despite that office internship experience. and the relative higher pay afforded me some freedoms and the ability to take risks i would not have been able to otherwise. my affinity for travel opened up jobs all across the world, and so in the end despite struggling to find work now, i am pretty happy with where i ended up. it is difficult to say what would have helped to develop more ideas for potential work i could be doing. more internships would probably have been good as well as other opportunities to get an insight into various jobs and industries. individual career counseling that really tries to work out potential interests. are there books or movies that could be inspiring?
- paulpauper 2y ago"being a successful entrepreneur means selling something people want to buy" this sounds like a vast oversimplification.
- pineaux 2y agoIts the one thing that really needs to be true. I've met many entrepreneurs and although chaos is usually something that impedes a company it's not always true. I know people with decades old multi million dollar profit companies and you see behind the curtain and its literally a mess. I know companies that do zero advertisement and are doing year over year growth. I see companies that are extremely unfriendly to their customers but deliver a product that they cant get somewhere else... The only real thing that connects all these companies is that they are selling something people want.
- jstrebel 2y agoI tend to agree - just look at large parts of the Venture Capital / Start-Up scene. Chasing the coveted product/market-fit is a purpose in itself there (at least in the early stages). I guess it depends on what you define as "successful"...
- winternett 2y agoFollowing your dreams is directly linked to your ability to obtain funding. This world has major problems in grasping different perspectives of others than the ones we're born with. When I do speeches for younger audiences, I always remind them to consider perspectives other than the ones they were raised in. It's baffling how many people walk around thinking that their perspective is fair to impose on everyone. I think a lot of our current problems, especially wealth inequality, racism, and wars are driven by dreamers that only see their own personal vision, while also being driven by total blindness to the other perspectives affected around them. I personally learned over many years and setbacks to live like a fisherman, not investing fully into any one category, just casting my reel in different spots and seeing if anything "bites"... If success bites, I fish in that area more, hoping that I will find enough success. So far, I've mostly found success in embracing all the things I don't enjoy doing in order to fund the things I do enjoy... From my experience, most people (those not born into wealth & priviledge) don't earn great money unless they dive into doing things they don't enjoy... I think it's important to be practical about it all.
- P_I_Staker 2y agoWhat you're talking about is a stunning inability to empathize with different circumstances that is a trademark human trait. We have limited ability to empathize beyond: self -> people just like us -> family -> friends As soon as you leave self it gets tricky, and only harder the more different and detached. It is shocking to see in light of modern morals. In fairness the idea of empathizing with differing peoples is a relatively new virtue; at least to place a high value on this is new. Honestly, these types of things cause me existential dread. It's just so disheartening to see smart and caring people constantly turn into psychopaths over the slightest difference. Every time you think they've figured it out, only to be let down later. It's one thing not to SEE it, but they never understand, even after explanation. You practically have to get them to take a college course before they "get it" (poorly, but they sorta understand now).
- cambaceres 2y agoHow do you connect racism to people following their own personal vision? Wouldn't that imply that all human phenomena result from individuals pursuing their personal visions?