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Comment by Ilasky | Hacker News Reader

I actually got mine from "Rocketman" (I watched it a bit late):

"You gotta kill the person you were born to be to become the person you want to be."

There's a lot wrapped in it: discomfort, uneasiness, and determination. It's made impact from the day-to-day life level (trying new things I wouldn't have before) to the large life-scale (quitting my job to pursue my startup).

Ultimately, you just gotta go for it.

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Someone else told me to be myself, now you're telling me to be someone else... this thread is about as helpful as one can expect a general advice thread to be.

It depends on what your definition of "being yourself" is.

No conflicts in the advices. Many (most?) people live their life with default settings, simply going along with and never questioning expectations from the world around them (the life they were born to live). They're simply the instrument of a self-fulfilling prophecy. To be who you want to be, you need to be willing to change those default settings, even if that runs counter the predictions.

The act of aspiration necessarily includes being willing to be a different person by the time you accomplish the goal you are aspiring to.

If you are happy being what you are, don't change, and just be yourself.

But sometimes whatever you are happens to be something like being overweight, or unmotivated etc. That's when 'being yourself' isn't very helpful.

Why does this have to be true?

My experience with life has been different.

I took some elements from the person I was born to be. Only some elements of careful choice.

This made me a better person, a better human in the long run.

In the short term, it made me fit well, and also reduced unnecessary friction, which non-trivially helped in becoming the person I wanted to be.

Killing is kinda like burning bridges.

Depends on where you're at, and where you want to be. I'm also an incrementalist, however there are some people who are stuck in a rut and would benefit from "taking the leap", whatever that leap may be.

Allot of people who experience major weight-loss often prescribe part of their success to "killing their previous self". I guess if you truly are unhappy with who you are as a person, then breaking yourself down to rebuild yourself makes sense

Love that quote (and hadn't considered media as advice), but in that vein, the TV show Severance absolutely shifted how I perceive work and my separation from it.

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