[HN Gopher] "Become Abnormal": traits to cultivate for top perfo...
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"Become Abnormal": traits to cultivate for top performance
Author : jkuria
Score : 32 points
Date : 2020-05-16 20:43 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (capitalandgrowth.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (capitalandgrowth.org)
| chadlavi wrote:
| This reads like a very good example of how not to behave if you
| actually want to be happy
| goldenchrome wrote:
| Happiness is highly overrated and I doubt it even exists as a
| constant state of being. People thrive on different amounts of
| stress and many people need a certain amount of stress to
| remain sane.
| OneGuy123 wrote:
| You imply that what makes you happy makes others happy.
|
| A programmer who obsessively programms random side projects in
| his spare time is completely engaged with them and likes to do
| that because he enjoys it on some level.
|
| So if you think that this is worse than watching netflix or
| wasting time with mundant social interactions...well...I guess
| that doesn't make you bad.
|
| You're just average.
| foolmeonce wrote:
| If you are doing whatever makes you happy, what is this style
| of article for? If you are trying to alter what makes you
| happy to be successful then maybe that is a recipe for
| unhappiness.
| 0x262d wrote:
| Lol this comment is absurdly condescending. I think the issue
| is more with picking "abnormal" as a goal, from reading this
| book, and then trying to develop abnormal traits to get
| there; in contrast to being intrinsically motivated to work
| hard on and specialize in something, which is obviously fine.
|
| Additionally, one could argue that fixating on the "abnormal"
| language is a surface level reading of this and an unfair
| criticism, which I think is partially true. But if I were to
| rephrase "be abnormal" based on this article, it would just
| end up at "be unusually good", which isn't very insightful.
| dang wrote:
| Maybe so, but a better comment would explain why. Otherwise it
| just reads as a sort of "nuh-uh", which goes against the HN
| guideline against shallow dismissals:
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| 0x262d wrote:
| Yeah, this sounds like a slightly more demented, self help-ey
| version of Outliers. The actual bullet points here are less
| weird than than "be abnormal", they're more pretty standard
| entrepreneur-oriented self help fare.
| jressey wrote:
| "they channeled their thoughts toward the fundamental details of
| having a 'good at-bat.'"
|
| I'll pass.
|
| You can't just use tangential examples of the most successful
| people. This feels like pop-(pseudo) science.
| dlivingston wrote:
| Is there a non-pop-psych book that you would recommend in the
| same vein as this one?
| oneiftwo wrote:
| Never in my life have I found these totally generic advice
| collations useful.
|
| They're always vague, unfalsifiable, borderline platitudes. They
| "work" for the same reasons horoscopes work, and I think a
| sizable minority, if not majority, of people publishing such work
| are just sociopathic profiteers.
|
| This post is an advertisement, but sadly that seems to be the
| origin of most content on the internet now - at least the SEO
| optimized results that fill the first (1-10?) pages.
| stevenjohns wrote:
| As a counterpoint, I've found these books to be extremely
| useful and it has had profound positive impacts on my
| decisions.
|
| It's not telling you to wake up at 4am because that's what
| [unicorn startup ceo] does. The advice given here is how to
| step back and find solutions, which is great for people who
| have difficulty arriving at those points.
|
| Likening it to horoscopes because it doesn't work for you is
| like me dismissing books on dieting because I'm already slim.
|
| Lots of people don't have positive role models, good teachers,
| mentors, or even stable parents. So even things as simple as
| "don't be quick to anger, step back and think about the long
| term consequences" are lessons that many people have never been
| taught.
| bluedays wrote:
| Yeah, I get this a lot.
|
| I spend hours every day dedicated to doing things to improve my
| skills to become more valuable in IT. People think I'm crazy, but
| in the time frame I have begun to do this (since my daughter was
| born) I can now probably run circles around anyone else who would
| have started at the same time.
|
| Hours of dedication, every day, is not normal. It's probably not
| healthy either, but I got a late start and I need to catch up.
| realbarack wrote:
| I'm curious about the timing. Many people seem to find it more
| difficult to maintain this level of dedication after they have
| kids. What made things different in your case?
| afarrell wrote:
| > I got a late start and I need to catch up.
|
| I've found this mindset has led to some of my least healthy and
| least-disciplined decisions.
|
| Then again, I think of "discipline" as doing the work to tend
| to the garden that feeds you. Maybe in your life-situation, you
| need to pass up the opportunity to play with a child.
| Merrill wrote:
| In IT you need to average a few hours per week learning new
| things just to keep up, since the half life of what you already
| know is probably about 5 to 10 years. Other professionals also
| need continuing education, such as doctors, veterinarians, and
| lawyers, but IT probably requires more than other professions.
| austinl wrote:
| Curious about what you're doing. I also dedicate a good amount
| of time each day to learning, but am still pretty skeptical
| about the ROI for some of the things I'm doing. I spend a lot
| of time on Coursera, reading eng. blogs, watching WWDC videos
| (since I do iOS).
| the_arun wrote:
| Most of the successful abnormals have deep motivation to do
| things differently. They may even seem like rebels. If we are
| fearless & ready to take risks in life, we may be coined as
| abnormals & there is a chance of success as well.
| agustif wrote:
| Well I fit pretty well on those lines and are not successful by
| (ab)normal standards anyway
| bryanrasmussen wrote:
| who's a super successful normal person then? I nominate Henry
| Ford, for no particular reason.
|
| I sort of think people will find something abnormal about any
| super successful person, a great success implies greatness and
| strangeness beyond the success.
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(page generated 2020-05-18 23:00 UTC)