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Hang Around with People who Get Shit Done

254 points by jaxn 14y ago

CharlesPal 14y ago
Solid advice
hackNightly 14y ago
This is so true. Surrounding yourself with people who are making things happen is a sure fire way to get motivated. Not to mention, these are definitely the type of people you want to have around you when building a team. Very good post.
ams6110 14y ago
And the converse: avoid spending time with slackers.
- jaxn 14y ago
  I tend to agree. I think we measure ourselves against our peer group and the more slackers we hang around the more mediocrity seems like success.
- brd 14y ago
  Depends on your definition of slacker... The original article says "Getting air on a 10 foot tall ramp with a skateboard? Also cool." yet most people would describe a skateboarder as a slacker. I think being around people that aren't necessarily "productive" is perfectly fine. It's being around people who do NOTHING that is bad but I find that if you are the kind of person who does things then you will find yourself around inactive people less and less over time. Couch potatoes seem to attract one another and repel everyone else.
  - _delirium 14y ago
    It does seem to be a fairly context-dependent term. A lot of people here are one kind: the kind of person who has enough time to accumulate thousands of posts on HN is, at least in some people's minds, a kind of slacker, the 2010s version of the 1990s posting-from-work Slashdotter. :) It even takes a certain kind of slacking, in a sense, to read lots of random Wikipedia articles, keep up with current events, browse arXiv papers not directly on the topic of your current work, keep up with recent music, etc. Arguably reading a lot is not really slacking. But maybe keeping up with recent musical trends is? Seems all quite subjective, unless you literally are doing nothing. I tend to see it more as different thought/work styles along several axes. For example, on a question of dabbling in side projects, for some people it'd be good advice to suggest laying off and concentrating more on one thing, while for others, encouraging a bunch of side projects is exactly the right advice. Some people need to do less random-walk reading, while maybe others need to do more...
- delive 14y ago
  I actually had the opposite situation growing up and it seemed to help me. I was certainly surrounded by slackers, with a few really motivated people sprinkled in-between. I'd say seeing mediocrity motivated me to differentiate myself and do some really cool things.
T_S_ 14y ago
I learned this a long time ago: "If you want to get something done ask a busy person to do it."
- ctdonath 14y ago
  And better is to decide to be a busy person. My wife keeps asking where I get the energy to do so much. Answer: I don't, it's not about having the energy, it's about just doing what needs to be done.
  - run4yourlives 14y ago
    Just remember that life is what is happening while you are busy getting shit done.
jpwagner 14y ago
Clearly good advice, but I'll add two cents. Hang around people who are passionate about things and try to make your circle include people passionate about very different things.
yawgmoth 14y ago
Also surround yourself with slackers. Surround yourself with people every type you can. Learn from them all. Even the lazy ones can teach you things.
- nswanberg 14y ago
  "Surround yourself with everyone" isn't really actionable advice. It'd be sort of like hanging out at the mall or the quad of a large univerity. Maybe instead spend some time with the niches and factions of life. To continue the university analogy: stop by the chess club, hang out with some rowers, say "hi" to the debate team, show up at the stoners' party.
  - pashamur 14y ago
    As a chess-playing collegiate rower who likes engage in random debates with people, I think I've done all of the above :) Variety is definitely important to keep things interesting - I think getting stuck in one "niche" circle is fairly alienating - even if that niche group gets shit done. You start filtering people based on some common preconceptions. Being part of several different groups with differing viewpoints, on the other hand, should make you value individuality more and be a more rounded/easier person to be around. Just my $0.02
ZanderEarth32 14y ago
While this advice is sound, it borders on extreme. I'd tell my kids (I don't have any, and don't plan on it btw) to hang around good people. Some of those good people will 'get shit done', others won't but there is something to gain from being around good people. Valuing people on their amount of output seems to cheapen their existence. I know a lot of people who don't 'get shit done' but are great people who I value, and I am happy to have in my life. I don't blame my lack of productivity on those around me.
- citricsquid 14y ago
  I'd guess the best way to summarise the type of people you mean are "positive" people. Positive in their outlook, attitude and output.
  - ZanderEarth32 14y ago
    Yes, 'positive' is a better way to describe the people I am referring to.
- vijayr 14y ago
  This is very true. Just curious - aren't we all judged every single day, by how much 'useful' or 'productive' we are? At work, among friends, while trying to find a mate..heck, even within families.
  - ZanderEarth32 14y ago
    Yes, completely. And I don't believe it's healthy or beneficial. Developing a culture where only those who 'produce' or 'build cool shit' or 'get shit done' are valued can breed feelings of inadequecies in people who feel like they 'aren't keeping up'. This doesn't really apply to the work place, where those who produce should be valued over those who don't but outside of work, in 'real life', everything shouldn't be about how much you've done, or are doing. Sometimes, just being positive, or not doing anything harmful is good enough. Every moment of you life shouldn't be devoted to doing stuff, unless you want it to. I find moments when I am not doing anything, or maybe watching TV, just as important to my personal development as when I am building stuff (trying in my case). It's about a holistic approach. 'Getting shit done' should be taken with moderation as should 'not getting shit done'.
nswanberg 14y ago
This advice generalizes well: if you want to lose weight or be fit, join a running club.
- jaxn 14y ago
  Part of the inspiration for the post actually :)
knowtheory 14y ago
Dude totally buries the lede. You gain respect from others who get shit done by getting shit done. It's not just important to hang around folks who do things, you need to participate in the community by doing things yourself. The advice "hang around people who do things" and "dump people who don't do things" is very much losing the forest for the trees.
- jaxn 14y ago
  To me, that means it is a feedback loop. Hang around people who do things, do things, more people who do things hang around, etc. Thanks for the feedback.
  - nik_0_0 14y ago
    It is a feedback loop, but how can you hang around people who do things in the first place? Someone in your group has to be the one who initially does things, so why not make that you!
- matwood 14y ago
  It's not just important to hang around folks who do things, you need to participate in the community by doing things yourself. I would think this is obvious. To me the biggest part about hanging out with people who get stuff done is seeing what it takes to get stuff done, and then doing that.
- cema 14y ago
  You gain respect from others who get shit done by getting shit done. I have often found it ("getting shit done") contagious. Somehow it feels right to roll up the sleeves when people around you do the same.
  - ktizo 14y ago
    Getting shit done is contagious. Be very careful to work out what kind of shit the people who get shit done are doing before you start hanging out with people who get shit done. A whole lot of shit might happen. You might get done. Or everyone could end up in shit. Alternatively, cool shit might get done. I'd say hang around with people who want to do cool shit and kick their arses into getting shit done if necessary.
EricDeb 14y ago
Nowadays I think a viable substitute is simply exposure to such people through a technical medium. A lot of my friends don't accomplish anything, yet I associate through technology with people and energy that inspires me to accomplish more. I also think this advice can have negative repercussions. I have friends who think "I can only be disciplined and accomplish anything if I am around inspiring people," and use it as an excuse to accomplish nothing on their own and be an emotional leech when they are around successful people.
moron 14y ago
I would've thought people who get shit done don't do much hanging around, on account of all the shit they're getting done.
- spaghetti 14y ago
  It's true. People who get stuff done are rare. Hence finding other people to hang around can be difficult.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
eykanal 14y ago
In the realm of "productivity", there are many different personality types: - People with vision, who can recognize potential in a concept or idea - People who, given an idea, can conceptualize all the use cases and rare exceptions - People who can initiate projects and provide good momentum for all those involved - People who take a task, buckle, down and get their part done - People who carefully examine other folks' work to check for mistakes - People who can take a languishing project and bring it through to completion - People who play constructive devil's advocate, helping you consider all the possible risks - People with all sorts of other skills that I didn't think of right now - People who slack When building a team, you'll need almost all of these personality types (you could probably leave out the slacker, though). Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater by only looking for the "manager" types or the "coder" types.
- pault 14y ago
  Even the slackers?
  - eykanal 14y ago
    Dang, I deleted a sentence. Thanks for point that out. Edited to amend. Slackers are fun to hang out with, though...
    - fferen 14y ago
      "Morale-boosters".
  - run4yourlives 14y ago
    It's been my experience that slackers are often demoralized visionaries. When you tell someone that they have nothing to add for long enough, eventually they start believing it.
    - wtracy 14y ago
      Sometimes. Then there's the guy I knew in college who spent hours of every day playing Runescape and who once told me that his math teacher had said to him: "You are the smartest student I have ever had fail this class."
CubicleNinjas 14y ago
Everyone believes they 'Get Shit Done'. Its just that everyone places value in different shit.
neutronicus 14y ago
As someone who does a pretty middling amount of shit in the grand scheme of things, articles like this make me sad.
ByteMuse 14y ago
This is great advice - I would like to add a bit of philosophy that someone once gave me: Experience is more important than achievement.
efnx 14y ago
I totally agree with the poster, but at the same time it feels a little pretentious. I think people might have more fun if they just hung out with people that make them feel good, which may include 'people who get shit done' or 'people who are not overly judgmental' or 'people who really like playing magic'. It's easy to get caught up in constant productivity. There is merit to the phrase 'stopping to smell the flowers'. 2cents.
- ctdonath 14y ago
  http://www.xkcd.com/863/ http://www.xkcd.com/863/
- ZanderEarth32 14y ago
  Exactly. I hang out with my friends because we don't do shit together. We hang out, talking about random stuff, watch TV, play video games, etc. Most of the best times of my life have been when my friends and I aren't doing shit. Separately, we're all very productive, but our friendships aren't based on that.
wilhow 14y ago
As the saying goes "show me your friends and I'll show you your future"
brlewis 14y ago
Anybody have a twitter list of people who always tweet about things they get done? I hardly use twitter, but would if I had such a list. Related: Show HN posts: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4053427 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4053427
- amcintyre 14y ago
  I'm going to guess that a non-trivial fraction of people that get things done don't bother tweeting about it.
prisonguard 14y ago
well i don't have kids but the one thing i'll teach my kids when i get them is the pomodoro. The fact that you can be insanely productive in short bursts of time while taking breaks in between should not be underestimated. you certainly don't need to be around productive people to be productive.
- keithpeter 14y ago
  I have been using a much simplified version of the Pomodoro Method to encourage teenagers to do homework/work individually without distractions in class. Modest progress; I'll push it earlier next year
chexton 14y ago
I interpret this in the sense that your environment is a key driver of your actions. For me this is most evident when observing where I (/ my friends) live. If you live with people who drink four nights a week, guess what...you probably will too. If you live with people who cook healthy food and go running three times a week there is a much greater chance you will too. Obviously you can rise above your surroundings but if you have a goal then you should put yourself in an environment conducive to getting there.
cbp 14y ago
People like to throw around this kind of advice often. Hanging around people who "get shit done" is a privilege that not everyone has. What happens when you go to a cheap college in Mexico where none of the computer science teachers have ever worked in a large scale application and most haven't even written one in their lives? How do you apply this advice when 90% of your classmates can't read a sentence of english and learning something unusual like python and deploying a toy app on some server not only puts you ahead by miles of the rest of your class but also of the rest of your entire generation? Some communities don't have this kind of people. Is someone in this position supposed to ditch everyone around him/her?
- nswanberg 14y ago
  Is this a hypothetical question or based on your experience?
- aurelianito 14y ago
  If you have internet access, hang around on-line communities that get shit done that interests you. Open source projects are the trivial example, but there are other options too. For instance, I do participate in flashmobs organized via Facebook and I didn't know anyone there the first time I went. Some friends are the core group of a well known latin-american mailing list dedicated to crack software (and most of them learned how to use cracking tools by hanging around in the list). These friends are from small towns around Argentina (where usually there are very few interesting people). Also, lots of charities and political parties are open for people who want to do things and organize via internet.
chrisennis 14y ago
nice job bro...
bking 14y ago
There is no way to keep up close rlationships with everyone you meet so it is important to give preference to people with the qualities that you most admire and desire to replicate. Driven, Creative, Intelligent, professional, and Open-minded are a couple of my general "qualifications" I use when deciding where I should put my effort. It might sound cold and calculating, but that is because I am trying to put no bias into it. I promis I am not that ruthless and cold.
run4yourlives 14y ago
This is - frankly - bad advice. Especially for a young child. It's a bad idea to pigeon hole yourself into "hanging around" one type of person or one people who are dominant in one type of trait. The whole reason people build teams is to maximize differing traits to gain the most value from each. You'll gain the most from life from leaning to recognize this as early as possible. In this case, people that "get things done" at youth levels are generally those with strong implementation skills - the "doers" of the world if it were. But implementers are only part of the picture. There are several other personality types that are just as beneficial to outcomes, and by excluding them you exclude many strengths in the name of pure productivity. eykanal leads into this in his comment but I'd like to expand on it a bit. Stereotyping examples here for ease of explanation: People with strong vision and ideas tend to be able to see 10 steps ahead of others. However these people also tend to be horrible at getting things done on their own. Their joy is looking forward, not being in the moment. Without these people however, we cannot move forward. These people will be the ones that think it would be neat to build an Eiffel Tower out of toothpicks in the first place. People with an eye for detail tend to be strong editors/coaches etc. These people might not dream up new approaches or work hard to see them to completion, but they are experts at critique and can notice, for instance, that the toothpick Eiffel Tower could be 3 feet higher if you simply adjusted the angle at which you glued the toothpicks together by 5 degrees. People who "get shit done" often tend to be implementers. They may have seen that toothpick Eiffel Tower in a book or heard about it from a friend, but they went out and got the resources and started putting things together. My entire point: None of these people are more or less valuable than any other. It isn't the skill-set that is the important variable, but the degree at which the person employs their talents that matters. Suggesting your child should "hang around" the implementers while discarding others is basically teaching them that only certain key talents are valuable and the rest are garbage. That type of thinking actually reduces their long term chances of success, because like it or not, no one person can be outstandingly good at every viable human talent. People who realize what they aren't good at will team up with others who excel in that talent and will get much further ahead overall. Accept and reject individuals. Don't evaluate personality types. Some of the most profound thinkers in history were slackers. Some of the best coaches of elite athletes suck at the sports they teach.
- 14y ago
xd 14y ago
As a dad-to-be I find this "advice" to be awfully elitist and wouldn't entertain it with my child in the slightest. Judging your friends on there abilities is sad .. friendships are not made this way.
- jaxn 14y ago
  I think we all try to teach our kids to avoid the mistakes that we made and to grow from the successes that we have had. Your lessons will likely be different from mine.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
allardschip 14y ago
I would not teach my children to hang out with people to get things done per se. Just start getting stuff done regardless of others and as a nice side-effect you will find yourself hanging out with others who get stuff done.
lbraasch 14y ago
To quote a previous HN article: "You are the average of your 3 closest friends" Pick your friends wisely.
pyoung 14y ago
Reminds me of this: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/health/25iht-fat.4.6830240.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/health/25iht-fat.4.6830240... While the results of this study are fairly intuitive, they also are fairly profound. When I take step back and look at my core group of friends and how we have evolved over the years, it is frightening to notice the similarities in our evolution (if you can call it that).

254 points by jaxn 14y ago

Solid advice

This is so true. Surrounding yourself with people who are making things happen is a sure fire way to get motivated. Not to mention, these are definitely the type of people you want to have around you when building a team. Very good post.

ams6110 14y ago

And the converse: avoid spending time with slackers.

jaxn 14y ago
I tend to agree. I think we measure ourselves against our peer group and the more slackers we hang around the more mediocrity seems like success.
brd 14y ago
Depends on your definition of slacker... The original article says "Getting air on a 10 foot tall ramp with a skateboard? Also cool." yet most people would describe a skateboarder as a slacker. I think being around people that aren't necessarily "productive" is perfectly fine. It's being around people who do NOTHING that is bad but I find that if you are the kind of person who does things then you will find yourself around inactive people less and less over time. Couch potatoes seem to attract one another and repel everyone else.
- _delirium 14y ago
  It does seem to be a fairly context-dependent term. A lot of people here are one kind: the kind of person who has enough time to accumulate thousands of posts on HN is, at least in some people's minds, a kind of slacker, the 2010s version of the 1990s posting-from-work Slashdotter. :) It even takes a certain kind of slacking, in a sense, to read lots of random Wikipedia articles, keep up with current events, browse arXiv papers not directly on the topic of your current work, keep up with recent music, etc. Arguably reading a lot is not really slacking. But maybe keeping up with recent musical trends is? Seems all quite subjective, unless you literally are doing nothing. I tend to see it more as different thought/work styles along several axes. For example, on a question of dabbling in side projects, for some people it'd be good advice to suggest laying off and concentrating more on one thing, while for others, encouraging a bunch of side projects is exactly the right advice. Some people need to do less random-walk reading, while maybe others need to do more...
delive 14y ago
I actually had the opposite situation growing up and it seemed to help me. I was certainly surrounded by slackers, with a few really motivated people sprinkled in-between. I'd say seeing mediocrity motivated me to differentiate myself and do some really cool things.

T_S_ 14y ago

I learned this a long time ago: "If you want to get something done ask a busy person to do it."

ctdonath 14y ago
And better is to decide to be a busy person. My wife keeps asking where I get the energy to do so much. Answer: I don't, it's not about having the energy, it's about just doing what needs to be done.
- run4yourlives 14y ago
  Just remember that life is what is happening while you are busy getting shit done.

jpwagner 14y ago

Clearly good advice, but I'll add two cents. Hang around people who are passionate about things and try to make your circle include people passionate about very different things.

yawgmoth 14y ago

Also surround yourself with slackers. Surround yourself with people every type you can. Learn from them all. Even the lazy ones can teach you things.

nswanberg 14y ago
"Surround yourself with everyone" isn't really actionable advice. It'd be sort of like hanging out at the mall or the quad of a large univerity. Maybe instead spend some time with the niches and factions of life. To continue the university analogy: stop by the chess club, hang out with some rowers, say "hi" to the debate team, show up at the stoners' party.
- pashamur 14y ago
  As a chess-playing collegiate rower who likes engage in random debates with people, I think I've done all of the above :) Variety is definitely important to keep things interesting - I think getting stuck in one "niche" circle is fairly alienating - even if that niche group gets shit done. You start filtering people based on some common preconceptions. Being part of several different groups with differing viewpoints, on the other hand, should make you value individuality more and be a more rounded/easier person to be around. Just my $0.02

ZanderEarth32 14y ago

While this advice is sound, it borders on extreme. I'd tell my kids (I don't have any, and don't plan on it btw) to hang around good people. Some of those good people will 'get shit done', others won't but there is something to gain from being around good people. Valuing people on their amount of output seems to cheapen their existence. I know a lot of people who don't 'get shit done' but are great people who I value, and I am happy to have in my life. I don't blame my lack of productivity on those around me.

citricsquid 14y ago
I'd guess the best way to summarise the type of people you mean are "positive" people. Positive in their outlook, attitude and output.
- ZanderEarth32 14y ago
  Yes, 'positive' is a better way to describe the people I am referring to.
vijayr 14y ago
This is very true. Just curious - aren't we all judged every single day, by how much 'useful' or 'productive' we are? At work, among friends, while trying to find a mate..heck, even within families.
- ZanderEarth32 14y ago
  Yes, completely. And I don't believe it's healthy or beneficial. Developing a culture where only those who 'produce' or 'build cool shit' or 'get shit done' are valued can breed feelings of inadequecies in people who feel like they 'aren't keeping up'. This doesn't really apply to the work place, where those who produce should be valued over those who don't but outside of work, in 'real life', everything shouldn't be about how much you've done, or are doing. Sometimes, just being positive, or not doing anything harmful is good enough. Every moment of you life shouldn't be devoted to doing stuff, unless you want it to. I find moments when I am not doing anything, or maybe watching TV, just as important to my personal development as when I am building stuff (trying in my case). It's about a holistic approach. 'Getting shit done' should be taken with moderation as should 'not getting shit done'.

nswanberg 14y ago

This advice generalizes well: if you want to lose weight or be fit, join a running club.

jaxn 14y ago
Part of the inspiration for the post actually :)

knowtheory 14y ago

Dude totally buries the lede. You gain respect from others who get shit done by getting shit done. It's not just important to hang around folks who do things, you need to participate in the community by doing things yourself. The advice "hang around people who do things" and "dump people who don't do things" is very much losing the forest for the trees.

jaxn 14y ago
To me, that means it is a feedback loop. Hang around people who do things, do things, more people who do things hang around, etc. Thanks for the feedback.
- nik_0_0 14y ago
  It is a feedback loop, but how can you hang around people who do things in the first place? Someone in your group has to be the one who initially does things, so why not make that you!
matwood 14y ago
It's not just important to hang around folks who do things, you need to participate in the community by doing things yourself. I would think this is obvious. To me the biggest part about hanging out with people who get stuff done is seeing what it takes to get stuff done, and then doing that.
cema 14y ago
You gain respect from others who get shit done by getting shit done. I have often found it ("getting shit done") contagious. Somehow it feels right to roll up the sleeves when people around you do the same.
- ktizo 14y ago
  Getting shit done is contagious. Be very careful to work out what kind of shit the people who get shit done are doing before you start hanging out with people who get shit done. A whole lot of shit might happen. You might get done. Or everyone could end up in shit. Alternatively, cool shit might get done. I'd say hang around with people who want to do cool shit and kick their arses into getting shit done if necessary.

EricDeb 14y ago

Nowadays I think a viable substitute is simply exposure to such people through a technical medium. A lot of my friends don't accomplish anything, yet I associate through technology with people and energy that inspires me to accomplish more. I also think this advice can have negative repercussions. I have friends who think "I can only be disciplined and accomplish anything if I am around inspiring people," and use it as an excuse to accomplish nothing on their own and be an emotional leech when they are around successful people.

moron 14y ago

I would've thought people who get shit done don't do much hanging around, on account of all the shit they're getting done.

spaghetti 14y ago
It's true. People who get stuff done are rare. Hence finding other people to hang around can be difficult.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

eykanal 14y ago

In the realm of "productivity", there are many different personality types: - People with vision, who can recognize potential in a concept or idea - People who, given an idea, can conceptualize all the use cases and rare exceptions - People who can initiate projects and provide good momentum for all those involved - People who take a task, buckle, down and get their part done - People who carefully examine other folks' work to check for mistakes - People who can take a languishing project and bring it through to completion - People who play constructive devil's advocate, helping you consider all the possible risks - People with all sorts of other skills that I didn't think of right now - People who slack When building a team, you'll need almost all of these personality types (you could probably leave out the slacker, though). Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater by only looking for the "manager" types or the "coder" types.

pault 14y ago
Even the slackers?
- eykanal 14y ago
  Dang, I deleted a sentence. Thanks for point that out. Edited to amend. Slackers are fun to hang out with, though...
  - fferen 14y ago
    "Morale-boosters".
- run4yourlives 14y ago
  It's been my experience that slackers are often demoralized visionaries. When you tell someone that they have nothing to add for long enough, eventually they start believing it.
  - wtracy 14y ago
    Sometimes. Then there's the guy I knew in college who spent hours of every day playing Runescape and who once told me that his math teacher had said to him: "You are the smartest student I have ever had fail this class."

CubicleNinjas 14y ago

Everyone believes they 'Get Shit Done'. Its just that everyone places value in different shit.

neutronicus 14y ago

As someone who does a pretty middling amount of shit in the grand scheme of things, articles like this make me sad.

ByteMuse 14y ago

This is great advice - I would like to add a bit of philosophy that someone once gave me: Experience is more important than achievement.

efnx 14y ago

I totally agree with the poster, but at the same time it feels a little pretentious. I think people might have more fun if they just hung out with people that make them feel good, which may include 'people who get shit done' or 'people who are not overly judgmental' or 'people who really like playing magic'. It's easy to get caught up in constant productivity. There is merit to the phrase 'stopping to smell the flowers'. 2cents.

ctdonath 14y ago
http://www.xkcd.com/863/ http://www.xkcd.com/863/
ZanderEarth32 14y ago
Exactly. I hang out with my friends because we don't do shit together. We hang out, talking about random stuff, watch TV, play video games, etc. Most of the best times of my life have been when my friends and I aren't doing shit. Separately, we're all very productive, but our friendships aren't based on that.

wilhow 14y ago

As the saying goes "show me your friends and I'll show you your future"

brlewis 14y ago

Anybody have a twitter list of people who always tweet about things they get done? I hardly use twitter, but would if I had such a list. Related: Show HN posts: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4053427 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4053427

amcintyre 14y ago
I'm going to guess that a non-trivial fraction of people that get things done don't bother tweeting about it.

prisonguard 14y ago

well i don't have kids but the one thing i'll teach my kids when i get them is the pomodoro. The fact that you can be insanely productive in short bursts of time while taking breaks in between should not be underestimated. you certainly don't need to be around productive people to be productive.

keithpeter 14y ago
I have been using a much simplified version of the Pomodoro Method to encourage teenagers to do homework/work individually without distractions in class. Modest progress; I'll push it earlier next year

chexton 14y ago

I interpret this in the sense that your environment is a key driver of your actions. For me this is most evident when observing where I (/ my friends) live. If you live with people who drink four nights a week, guess what...you probably will too. If you live with people who cook healthy food and go running three times a week there is a much greater chance you will too. Obviously you can rise above your surroundings but if you have a goal then you should put yourself in an environment conducive to getting there.

cbp 14y ago

People like to throw around this kind of advice often. Hanging around people who "get shit done" is a privilege that not everyone has. What happens when you go to a cheap college in Mexico where none of the computer science teachers have ever worked in a large scale application and most haven't even written one in their lives? How do you apply this advice when 90% of your classmates can't read a sentence of english and learning something unusual like python and deploying a toy app on some server not only puts you ahead by miles of the rest of your class but also of the rest of your entire generation? Some communities don't have this kind of people. Is someone in this position supposed to ditch everyone around him/her?

nswanberg 14y ago
Is this a hypothetical question or based on your experience?
aurelianito 14y ago
If you have internet access, hang around on-line communities that get shit done that interests you. Open source projects are the trivial example, but there are other options too. For instance, I do participate in flashmobs organized via Facebook and I didn't know anyone there the first time I went. Some friends are the core group of a well known latin-american mailing list dedicated to crack software (and most of them learned how to use cracking tools by hanging around in the list). These friends are from small towns around Argentina (where usually there are very few interesting people). Also, lots of charities and political parties are open for people who want to do things and organize via internet.

chrisennis 14y ago

nice job bro...

bking 14y ago

There is no way to keep up close rlationships with everyone you meet so it is important to give preference to people with the qualities that you most admire and desire to replicate. Driven, Creative, Intelligent, professional, and Open-minded are a couple of my general "qualifications" I use when deciding where I should put my effort. It might sound cold and calculating, but that is because I am trying to put no bias into it. I promis I am not that ruthless and cold.

run4yourlives 14y ago

This is - frankly - bad advice. Especially for a young child. It's a bad idea to pigeon hole yourself into "hanging around" one type of person or one people who are dominant in one type of trait. The whole reason people build teams is to maximize differing traits to gain the most value from each. You'll gain the most from life from leaning to recognize this as early as possible. In this case, people that "get things done" at youth levels are generally those with strong implementation skills - the "doers" of the world if it were. But implementers are only part of the picture. There are several other personality types that are just as beneficial to outcomes, and by excluding them you exclude many strengths in the name of pure productivity. eykanal leads into this in his comment but I'd like to expand on it a bit. Stereotyping examples here for ease of explanation: People with strong vision and ideas tend to be able to see 10 steps ahead of others. However these people also tend to be horrible at getting things done on their own. Their joy is looking forward, not being in the moment. Without these people however, we cannot move forward. These people will be the ones that think it would be neat to build an Eiffel Tower out of toothpicks in the first place. People with an eye for detail tend to be strong editors/coaches etc. These people might not dream up new approaches or work hard to see them to completion, but they are experts at critique and can notice, for instance, that the toothpick Eiffel Tower could be 3 feet higher if you simply adjusted the angle at which you glued the toothpicks together by 5 degrees. People who "get shit done" often tend to be implementers. They may have seen that toothpick Eiffel Tower in a book or heard about it from a friend, but they went out and got the resources and started putting things together. My entire point: None of these people are more or less valuable than any other. It isn't the skill-set that is the important variable, but the degree at which the person employs their talents that matters. Suggesting your child should "hang around" the implementers while discarding others is basically teaching them that only certain key talents are valuable and the rest are garbage. That type of thinking actually reduces their long term chances of success, because like it or not, no one person can be outstandingly good at every viable human talent. People who realize what they aren't good at will team up with others who excel in that talent and will get much further ahead overall. Accept and reject individuals. Don't evaluate personality types. Some of the most profound thinkers in history were slackers. Some of the best coaches of elite athletes suck at the sports they teach.

14y ago

xd 14y ago

As a dad-to-be I find this "advice" to be awfully elitist and wouldn't entertain it with my child in the slightest. Judging your friends on there abilities is sad .. friendships are not made this way.

jaxn 14y ago
I think we all try to teach our kids to avoid the mistakes that we made and to grow from the successes that we have had. Your lessons will likely be different from mine.
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allardschip 14y ago

I would not teach my children to hang out with people to get things done per se. Just start getting stuff done regardless of others and as a nice side-effect you will find yourself hanging out with others who get stuff done.

lbraasch 14y ago

To quote a previous HN article: "You are the average of your 3 closest friends" Pick your friends wisely.

pyoung 14y ago

Reminds me of this: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/health/25iht-fat.4.6830240.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/health/25iht-fat.4.6830240... While the results of this study are fairly intuitive, they also are fairly profound. When I take step back and look at my core group of friends and how we have evolved over the years, it is frightening to notice the similarities in our evolution (if you can call it that).