We lead boring lives while hanging around people who lead interesting lives | Hacker News Reader

We lead boring lives while hanging around people who lead interesting lives

wfu.edu

8 pointsjaspertheghost2 comments

Well I've got bad news for you. I'm not that rich and I'm not that successful. But I have been around successful people. You see I'm a journalist. If you go to a stadium and you see the crowd doing the wave, there are some people who just sit there watching. Those people are journalists. We lead boring lives while hanging around people who lead interesting lives.

And I've observed a few things about the few really great people I've had a chance to meet and cover. First, they tend to have really big heads. As someone once said, what they have doesn't look like a head. It looks like a container for a head. They also can't sit still. They need to be around people. You and I require sleep. They require people

People who talk to the dead want to feel connection to this procession through the ages. They need to feel in their bones where they have come from, and what ultimately they will leave behind

Open articleView on HN

"Merely famous people have pictures of themselves on the wall. Really great people have pictures of dead people on the wall, and on their desks. It's one of the first things I look for when I go into somebody's office."

I think the point about connecting to the past is a good one. I'm not completely sure why, but great people and projects certainly seem to have a sense that they are connected to a long line of predecessors.

(Go Deacons!!)

Love this as well:

"Well I've got bad news for you. I'm not that rich and I'm not that successful. But I have been around successful people. You see I'm a journalist. If you go to a stadium and you see the crowd doing the wave, there are some people who just sit there watching. Those people are journalists. We lead boring lives while hanging around people who lead interesting lives.

And I've observed a few things about the few really great people I've had a chance to meet and cover. First, they tend to have really big heads. As someone once said, what they have doesn't look like a head. It looks like a container for a head. They also can't sit still. They need to be around people. You and I require sleep. They require people."

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