Comment by henning | Hacker News Reader

Comment by henning | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I just need to optimize my life and my brain. Then I will get the job I want, the partner I want, the life I want, and I will truly be happy when I have those things. The emptiness within me will go away. There is a solution to all my problems: work harder and be better. If I just figure out the right notetaking system, I can stop forgetting the important parts of all these books I'm reading (I read 80 last year, but I'm on track to do 120 this year). The problem isn't that deeply understanding a complex subject takes a lifetime and every domain of human knowledge has limits beyond which no one really has any answers, it's that I'm not "learning actively enough." If I take notes, then I will be learning actively and I will actually be thinking better, thanks to my second brain I've built in Roam Research/Org Mode/whatever. Fitter, happier, more productive.

Struggling to understand whether this comment is serious or sarcastic. Maybe that was the point.

It’s (imo very obvious) satire. It’s pointing at the implicit belief that one can solve the deep problems in one’s life through the process of time, through becoming more productive/efficient/etc. I think it’s an implicit belief set that’s familiar to many of us here.

https://youtu.be/xK0njkATf84

That's a great sendup, but it looks different when juxtaposed against the alternatives.

- "I haven't created anything I'm proud of, but that's because my nerve cells aren't folding the proteins that do that. I'm not happy with my life, but I can't change the laws of organic chemistry. I'm watching Netflix right now because of, uhh, alleles."

- "I'm smart and I'm great and everything comes naturally to me. It's lame to try hard because only people who aren't gifted have to. That's why we call them 'tryhards.'"

- "I believe one of the above, but I express it in other words because I'm aware of how bad they sound when set right out there."

Among them all, the one you're satirizing is really the hero.

None of them is 'the' hero.

Bravo!

Such an attractive trap.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com