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You are seemingly only permitted to be positive. This is the case not only for entrepreneurs but true for anyone: job seekers, execs, managers, you name it. Ha
by hkmurakami 14y ago
You are seemingly only permitted to be positive. This is the case not only for entrepreneurs but true for anyone: job seekers, execs, managers, you name it.
Having doubts or problems is an inescapable part of life, yet our public lives aren't permitted to reflect this reality. We need to masquerade: happy, motivated, fearless. I myself have agonized over this regarding my blog. As a participant it the job market, I can't shake the fear that saying anything negative will hurt my prospects in whatever path I may choose.
This dissonance with reality, the need to deceive not only others but yourself is at best tiring and at worst torturous.
- yuhong 14y agoReminds me of this: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2545823 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2545823
- hkmurakami 14y agoLoved reading the article (thanks!) but even this article flips the the lack of mastery on its head by expressing the author's enthusiasm for progress, his implied conviction of future growth, and a supporting cast that will help him get there. The negativity serves as a literary element to highlight his positive attitude and optimism. What if he felt truly overwhelmed and hopeless, having lost key team members to a freak accident or freak legal issues? Would he be able to post expressing his purely hopeless despair? I doubt it :(
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- rachelbythebay 14y agoPeople dig the truth, and the truth can be rather damning and quite negative at times. Some of my posts which get the most attention are from that general perspective. 'Google's "free food" is not free' got a lot of responses right here on HN, and that was a post about exposing something which happens in the recruitment pipeline. People have come to me offering jobs and seeking custom work as a direct result of reading my posts. I just don't see the connection.