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Comment by greenhatman | Hacker News Reader

There is no guarantee for anything. That is not a reason not to try.

There is literally nothing better to do with your life than try. So just try.

This is the same kind of "advice" depressed people get. "Have you tried getting better"? "You just need to be happy". "Try my coping mechanism". "See a standup comedian". "Just try".

I hope I don't have to go through all the reasons this is fundamentally disconnected from the problem described in the article now.

What's your alternative?

Professional therapy.

what if that doesn't work?

I'm not prepared for this hypothetical, who knows what I would do, I guess I might even launch a startup.

Thanks, but this gives me nothing actionable. What am I supposed to do with this? Just be depressed?

this comment is what a lifetime of philosophical thought, traveling, psychedelics, meditation, and experimentation has led me to as well.

"there is literally nothing better to do with your life than try. so just try."

The issue though is that a lot of the people mentioned in the original article don't think trying is worthwhile. So advice to "just try" is always going to fall short.

As advice it also ignores the structural issues that make trying easier and harder for various people. One way of encouraging people to try is to break down the real barriers that exists and make it harder for them than others.

Your advice is for a problem which is different from that in the article and the larger Macro scenario.

People ARE trying. Its not really a good strategy as it gets no where. Its only a better strategy than not trying, as not trying gets you to being a depressing statistic, like joblessness in erstwhile manufacturing hubs.

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