Ask HN: Trying to pursue my own vision, how to deal with all the challenges?

Self-motivation is much harder than people give credit. I believe that we’re mostly not cut out to work alone. Our motivation comes from other people — either leading, following, or serving them.

If I’m right, you’ll probably find that the more you pursue this vision alone, the harder it will feel.

The dilemma you‘ll face, and the compromise you’ll ultimately have to find — is that the vision will never truly be yours if you let other people in, but it will ultimately never be meaningful if you keep them out.

Totally agree.

It's better now that HN has been giving some really great feedback, either on the specific work itself, or mostly from answering all my other questions surrounding it. This exchange of thought and ideas and different perspectives has been super helpful in getting myself to move forward.

With regards to the vision itself, my belief has been that, when I'm able to communicate my ideas enough to get others on board, will only be when I am done writing the essay itself! As in, the content of the work itself explains all the reasons why the work exists. If that makes sense.

But so far, I think having some people roughly get my idea has already been really helpful, so I don't feel nearly as isolated about it as a few months ago!

You didn’t tell us what your vision is, and maybe the reasons why (which I agree can be or at least feel very justified) indicate what is so challenging and isolating.

If you are worried about people stealing your idea, but it took 2 solid years to flesh out and is a relatively unrecognized problem, then you might relax knowing that even if you inspire someone else to pursue your vision, you will be their de facto leader and teacher, not their victim of theft.

Of course maybe you don’t mention the vision because you are tired of getting shot down. I’m not going to say that that somehow means your idea must be flawed; I think most people’s conception of big issues is flawed, but if the issue you are tackling is uncommon and complicated, and tempts ridicule, then you have an unholy triad of poor feedback. How do you personally form priorities if this is true?

All in all it sounds like you could use some quality, thoughtful feedback, or even just someone to listen intently, but uncritically to your conceptions.

As for the other, more generic problems: If you can inspire others with your vision and allow them to hold you accountable to make progress then motivation, passion and meaning can come much more easily.

Hey thanks for the reply and insights. FYI I did link my vision with a footnote at the bottom of the post. It's a long read, that's why I didn't just state it outright.

Oh right my bad. Hopefully I still provided something helpful.

Yes it was great! In fact I did for a long time want to keep my vision a "secret", for exactly all the reasons you've stated! And even now, many of those points are still relevant.

> even if you inspire someone else to pursue your vision, you will be their de facto leader and teacher

This is good reassurance and encouragement. :)

> most people’s conception of big issues is flawed, but if the issue you are tackling is uncommon and complicated, and tempts ridicule, then you have an unholy triad of poor feedback. How do you personally form priorities if this is true?

Are you able to expand on this? I'm not sure if I'm completely understanding it. You mean "uncommon and complicated and tempts ridicule" as in if the idea itself isn't good right? I would say my vision is more a "big issue" type, but it's a bit in-between: some more critical-thinking people may dismiss it as "obvious", while less-critical people would think it's irrelevant or don't understand it.

I think right now, I'm going to work on better articulating my vision, so that hopefully I can get more constructive feedback on it.

Thank you so much for your feedback so far! If you have more after taking a look at my previous post, I would love to hear it! But it's a long read so I would understand if you don't. :)

An excerpt from that previous post here for context:

> Ultimately, my vision is to inspire cultural change that is grounded in a firm understanding of some basic principles (outline below). And to be clear, I don't expect these changes to take place within several years; rather, they will likely take decades if not generations to fully realize (if ever).

> The structure isn't entirely set yet, but the essays with rough descriptions are as follows:

1. Unpacking Complexity (introducing the abstract concepts of complexity and uncertainty, context, implications, the process of inquiry and understanding, critical thinking, nuance and language)

2. Reconstructing Reality (applying complexity to the real world, challenging ideals like truth and objectivity, discussing the implications of "rigid science")

3. Discovering Diversity (introducing the idea that we are all living in our own perceptions of how humans and the world works, that humans are more diverse than we'd ever imagine, introduce various personality theories/frameworks, generational differences, etc.)

4. Explaining Humans (seeing humans through the lens of our needs, reframing human nature as something more dynamic rather than static, seeing the lasting effects of our upbringing and our experiences in general)

5. Confronting Ourselves (illustrating the complicated nature of genuine personal growth, the role of the ego, challenging simplistic ideals such as "empathy" and "authenticity", discussing ways to move towards genuine love)

> Taken together, these essays will collectively be called The Beginnings of Understanding. The central thesis being that the process of understanding can and should be expanded upon to cover all of the areas above, and that understanding isn't merely an intellectual exercise, but an emotional and almost visceral one.

I have a lot of thoughts that I'll try to organize constructively.

The scope is immense. The top priority should be writing an elevator pitch summary of the vision. Each of the 5 areas listed are being worked on my many in each field and what's lacking is how these come together that makes it cohesive. Being unable to express it could be a sign that it's not as clear-cut 'a thing' as envisioned.

Being able to distill all these ideas into a summary has been elusive. It could be approached like a startup, produce an MVP and iterate keeping what works and refining others that don't convey it well. Like an MVP be ruthless in cutting scope to only the bare minimum that form a kernel of the new concept/idea, rather than piling on supporting ideas that only dilute into murkiness.

Now here's some cautionary notes. I'm picking up the distinct characterization of a perfect project that has yet to be executed. Very much like a project in the garage that's perfect 'in mind' before any physical form is produced. To think that it's been 10+ years with 2+ years of refinement, and yet there's no actual text. Hand-wavy descriptions which are too terse to refute maintains the perfection of a vision. It's sort of like string theory but without the math.

There was a point that writing "Book One" hopefully wouldn't take 10 years. I think that should be re-estimated based on past velocity. If any person could write a compelling cohesive book covering this scope in a lifetime, that would be a great achievement. This situation is not unlike perhaps many would-be authors working to publish their first book. The stakes seem raised to the highest levels though. Normally the consequence is that a work of fiction didn't get published or it did but wasn't well received. Here is the belief that there was a great vision that didn't get communicated.

Normally I would dismiss anything that isn't clearly communicated as feelings and ruminations. That might be insensitive or not well received given the time spent. I would suggest actively and objectively working to make sure that you're not in a 'thought bubble'. What might be some ways of doing these 'self checks'?

There was mention of removing ego in this work. Be more strict on this. Don't use 'I/my/mine', whenever writing or even thinking about it. Also think of it as 'a vision' giving yourself leeway to adapt it.

Other notes I didn't know where to say them:

> staying true to my vision, while making sure to be open-minded to feedback

Presuming the former means not actually doing the latter as it is entertained but not impactful. If the vision was greater than yourself then it could/should be a shared vision that is the product of many incorporating any/all ideas and contributors.

> feeling isolated/alone because no one else really understands what I'm trying to do

This has a 'No true Scotsman' ring to it in that the 'what' having not being defined can always be mutated into something that's not falsifiable.

Also check that you're not self-isolating by being too possessive with ownership. A thought experiment is if you could produce the book where no one could know that you created it, how great would that be for the world and you? If you don't get great satisfaction in that thought, perhaps it's more personal and not about the vision.

I wish I had more/better self-checks to offer. I hope you make good use of your time in a way you don't later regret. That's all any of us can hope for.

Thank you so much for the thoughtful feedback!!

> Each of the 5 areas listed are being worked on my many in each field and what's lacking is how these come together that makes it cohesive.

This is a really great point. Often people look at it and think I'm simply doing a mix of self-help or other existing stuff, rather than the "elusive" synthesis that I'm going for.

Definitely need to work on my elevator pitch. In fact I've been wanting to, but often I would tell myself to not work on this, because supposedly it's wise to "write the introduction last". I know it's not written in stone, and I also know that it can be helpful to go back and forth, try writing but move on if it's stuck. I think with your push here I have a better sense of what I'm trying to do with this introduction/pitch. Even if it won't be the "final version", it'll be helpful in distilling this synthesis and like you said, to check to make sure it's even a real thing.

There's so much insight and points for reflection in everything you've said. Thank you so much!! This is all really good feedback, it really helps me to get going and put out more drafts and hopefully get more feedback as I go. :)