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>...breaking up with my college boyfriend. He was brilliant, good looking, respected, and everyone loved him — I even loved him — but he wasn’t the one. I'm no

by nahname 13y ago

>...breaking up with my college boyfriend. He was brilliant, good looking, respected, and everyone loved him — I even loved him — but he wasn’t the one. I'm not even thirty yet, but I feel like most people within my generation are just spoiled children. It's like we need another world war so people can learn to properly appreciate what they have, again.

doyoulikeworms 13y ago
Yeah! Everyone, especially young people, should just learn how to settle.
- nahname 13y ago
  There is a difference between settling and never being happy.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - vehementi 13y ago
    Yeah it kind of depends on what the root cause of the feeling that he wasn't The One is. Would she have felt that way about him now, after throwing away all that was causing her feelings of inauthenticity? Did she misinterpret some other problem in her life and project it on her relationship and then talk herself into thinking she "opened doors" by leaving that relationship? Etc.
smtddr 13y ago
...or they all need to visit a few other countries like Norway, Finland or Sweden to see how much their own can improve.
ams6110 13y ago
Thanks, I'm giad I wasn't the only one who read that and thought it was the most self absorbed, narcissistic things I'd read in quite a while.
msutherl 13y ago
What struck me more is how somebody can get that far in life without properly examining themselves and their relationship with the world. Isn't she aware of the stereotype that corporations are full of drones that will suddenly realize that they've wasted their life when they're forty? Hasn't she picked up a copy of Be Here Now on a coffee table somewhere? Was that really the first time that she's gazed at the stars and felt like she could do anything – doesn't everybody do that when they're 15? I suppose not everybody has hippy parents, not everybody is allowed to go to bonfire parties in their teens, not everybody takes LSD before their first corporate job. It's like we need another world war and then another 60's and 70's, but then no 80's to erase all the lessons we learned. Most people that I know who are in my generation (millennial) are incredibly self-aware and make life choices according to what they want out of life first and foremost. Sadly that often leaves them stuck without the skills to make a significant impact on the world and on the lives of those around them.
- vehementi 13y ago
  It's not hard to reason yourself into that situation... part it is that as a software dev in a corporation, you have a "better" life than 99+% of humans currently alive, or who have ever lived. You are unfathomably lucky. To even be in a position to contemplate "Oh, this career isn't spiritually fulfilling enough" necessitates an unbelievable amount of privilege (not using the word with any negative connotation). We are having this discussion right now between a bunch of other incredibly lucky and privileged people. If we included an average spectrum of 100 people in this discussion, we would have 50 starving people begging for an apple, 40 McDonalds workers pulling extra shifts to pay for their food tonight, etc. and our complaints would be absolutely ridiculous. Our discussion here within the HN community is like people in the yacht club lamenting that their yacht is aging and isn't made from the most prestigious woods. That is the kind of perspective your favorite drug can impart...

by nahname 13y ago

doyoulikeworms 13y ago

Yeah! Everyone, especially young people, should just learn how to settle.

nahname 13y ago
There is a difference between settling and never being happy.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- vehementi 13y ago
  Yeah it kind of depends on what the root cause of the feeling that he wasn't The One is. Would she have felt that way about him now, after throwing away all that was causing her feelings of inauthenticity? Did she misinterpret some other problem in her life and project it on her relationship and then talk herself into thinking she "opened doors" by leaving that relationship? Etc.

smtddr 13y ago

...or they all need to visit a few other countries like Norway, Finland or Sweden to see how much their own can improve.

ams6110 13y ago

Thanks, I'm giad I wasn't the only one who read that and thought it was the most self absorbed, narcissistic things I'd read in quite a while.

msutherl 13y ago

What struck me more is how somebody can get that far in life without properly examining themselves and their relationship with the world. Isn't she aware of the stereotype that corporations are full of drones that will suddenly realize that they've wasted their life when they're forty? Hasn't she picked up a copy of Be Here Now on a coffee table somewhere? Was that really the first time that she's gazed at the stars and felt like she could do anything – doesn't everybody do that when they're 15? I suppose not everybody has hippy parents, not everybody is allowed to go to bonfire parties in their teens, not everybody takes LSD before their first corporate job. It's like we need another world war and then another 60's and 70's, but then no 80's to erase all the lessons we learned. Most people that I know who are in my generation (millennial) are incredibly self-aware and make life choices according to what they want out of life first and foremost. Sadly that often leaves them stuck without the skills to make a significant impact on the world and on the lives of those around them.

vehementi 13y ago
It's not hard to reason yourself into that situation... part it is that as a software dev in a corporation, you have a "better" life than 99+% of humans currently alive, or who have ever lived. You are unfathomably lucky. To even be in a position to contemplate "Oh, this career isn't spiritually fulfilling enough" necessitates an unbelievable amount of privilege (not using the word with any negative connotation). We are having this discussion right now between a bunch of other incredibly lucky and privileged people. If we included an average spectrum of 100 people in this discussion, we would have 50 starving people begging for an apple, 40 McDonalds workers pulling extra shifts to pay for their food tonight, etc. and our complaints would be absolutely ridiculous. Our discussion here within the HN community is like people in the yacht club lamenting that their yacht is aging and isn't made from the most prestigious woods. That is the kind of perspective your favorite drug can impart...