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Comment by barrenko | Hacker News Reader

Had a similar epiphany. Worked really hard on it and while it kinda changed my life, I eventually realized I'm simply not a builder type person.

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What other types are there? Genuine question.

Talking about me: I'm very much abstract and academic and do not really care about practical applications. I went into Physics and realized how much I hated the lab and the more experimental oriented subjects: I love the Math sequences, love Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics, loved Special and General Relativity but hated Laser and Optics, hated Electrical Circuits, hated Nuclear Physics (prof was an experimentalist who talked endlessly about detectors).[1]

Nowadays the tendency remains: I love study Philosophy, Theology (even if I'm not religious), History, Math, Theoretical Physics and I love speculative or fantastical literature like Sci-fi, Fantasy, Occult, Conspiracy Theories... not because I believe them but because let me explore my own thinking.

Sometimes I wish I were more building oriented: it would help me in the working world. Projects, results, metrics, outcomes are all so tiresome.

[1]Thinking about it I should have done Math instead of Physics.

That’s interesting. I began as a Physics major, and loved Laser and Optics, Electrical Circuits, Mechanics, all the labs really. But then I got to upper division Quantum Mechanics and I hated it. I was pushing around Schroedinger equations all day to get the correct answers but I never had a firm mental model on what was actually going on behind the math. I ended up switching my major to Mechanical Engineering. In hind sight I should have jus stuck it out because I ended writing software for a living anyway :)

Leaders - good at organizing others to get things done.

Helpers - may not have a vision of their own, but good at contributing to projects they enjoy.

Fixers - good at identifying and solving problems in existing projects.

Lots more, I imagine.

Teachers

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