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Comment by wickoff | Hacker News Reader

I think that the standards the author is judging herself by are messed up and harmful.

She is healthy, married, is raising a child, is an educator, presumably has a good standing within her community. She checks like 9 out of 10 boxes you can judge a human by and yet it's still not enough. What the hell?

Does everybody have to excel now? Everybody has to be a millionaire, own a company, be a scientist, athlete or an entertainer. How is are those standards sustainable? If everybody excels the nobody does. If everyone is a boss then nobody has employees.

What effect does this drive for perfectionism has on brains that evolved to be satisfied with having enough food, having shelter and basic social approval. No wonder the rates of depression are rising among young people.

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This is a really good point I think a lot of people - not just young people - need to here. I've definitely had my own fight with anxiety over the past few years, mainly due to worry over whether or not I was doing enough. As stereotypical as it sounds, the ending of my last relationship really reframed my state of mind. Contentedness should be enough, and if we all got back to the mindset of being good members of the community making good contributions without killing ourselves with worry I think we all would be way better off for it.

> is an educator

> North America

Hardly a good box to tick, by most reports.

Your comment is grey and I don't think it should be.

People care so much about being "a good person" while also acknowledging corporate psychopathy and other "bad guys win" scenarios that are so normal to the human existence.

Meanwhile, if you ask an educator about their situation, I'm not sure they'd tick the box. The educators I know are fulfilled by their work, not their work environments.

Let's ask short order cooks if they are fulfilled by their work environments. They'll probably complain about coworkers, the hours, and say their feet hurt.

That's not to say teachers don't have the feelings they might have, but it's a pretty privileged position to be in to expect your work to fulfill you in some deep way.

I've been there (hospitality) and agree with you; #learntocode resonated and here we are.

My point is that a lot (most?) educators wouldn’t consider “being an educator” as a fabulous achievement - it’s a job, and a pretty stressful and financially unrewarding one at that, particularly for people with a significant amount of academic qualifications. So the parent poster going “what is she complainin’ for, she’s an educator!”, imho, is pretty out of order by most objective parameters.

I already understood your point. But I disagree that people, even university educated ones, are owed a stress free, lucrative, or personally fulfilling job.

It's a great thing to have, but it's a privilege to have one. And it's privileged thinking to expect one.

Lots of kids have parents who work as hard or harder for less money and respect. Of course people can complain about the treatment of teachers. Just don't be surprised if short order cooks aren't particularly moved.

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