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Comment by Crabber | Hacker News Reader

What a toxic mindset.

You might be in the top 1%, but 99% of people aren't. Not everyone is able to compete globally against 3 billion other people. Most people are unexceptional and average. And that's okay. Those are the workers keep the world moving forward.

It is perfectly okay to just be the best person at something in your town or local area. Telling people "you should feel pretty terrible about your ability if you aren't one of the best people in the world" is telling 99.99% of the population they should feel forever worthless.

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> Telling people "you should feel pretty terrible about your ability if you aren't one of the best people in the world" is telling 99.99% of the population they should feel forever worthless.

but he did not say this at all. not even literally.

you merely think he implied it, which is still a leap, since all this person described to you was how they personally internalize their work.

your disdain for competition makes it harder to read.

I appreciate this reply and most definitely do not think I’m in the 1% if anything, let alone the talent pool. I come from a town that wasn’t a tech center growing up (and still isn’t, though we have some logos now), and am largely self-taught. I just like playing with computers and am lucky to have made a job doing that, and am glad to live in a time where I can do something I love, somewhere I love, but for companies not necessarily here. My only point was that if my best qualification was proximity, I’d feel pretty unaccomplished, but the flip side of that is that I welcome the challenge to apply for jobs that are far more challenging than I’d otherwise have access to.

You're not competing against the best of the best for every single job. Only 1% of people are in the 1%, and they'll largely be employed in high-wage, high-visibility positions at high-budget employers. In an idealized global market you'd be competing against other people for jobs with desirability commensurate with your own ability.

It's true that if in an absolute sense you're in the bottom rung of the labor pool then a global market will be more likely to sort you into a job with low desirability. I sympathize; I'm from Cincinnati, and if my employer were in the Bay Area (and paying Bay Area wages) it would have been harder for me to get a job there. But I'm not that sympathetic, because a global market means someone with a better fit but no local options can find a job. It means that if the market for data scientists in Cincinnati dries up I still have a chance.

Celebrating mediocrity while being privileged enough to make lots of $$$ is the definition of toxic mindset.

IMO, if a person somewhere in the world is better qualified for the job than me - it's ok. They worked hard to get where they are and their work should be compensated fairly.

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