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Comment by esafak | Hacker News Reader

He says: That taught me to let potential problems pile up. Listening the way I do leaves me with far more of them than I could possibly solve, and not all deserve action. Most don’t need to turn into projects the first time I hear about them; waiting can be a superpower.

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Yes. He also says: “How do you find problems worth working on?” a senior engineer I mentor asked me recently. My point is that I'm working in a whole different environment, and the challenge - to me - is never finding interesting problems to solve, but identifying the most important problem out of a large pool of known problems.

That still sounds like it chimes with the quote you shared. The question the senior engineer was asking may have been exactly your last sentence. As in, among the “pool of known problems,” how do I find the ones worth working on? “Worth” may not mean “interesting” but “of lasting value”

“Can be a superpower” is so empty. What does that mean outside of trying to proliferate some cliche?

Just means it can be powerful or useful technique that can feel “magical” when employed.

I wouldn’t overthink this.

Not overthinking can be a superpower, but writing eloquently can be a superpower, and not trailing cliches behind your pen can be a superpower.

Now everyone is a bloody writing critic and everything is a piece of master literature that needs to be criticised as such.

No, but I’m getting really tired of seeing things that took less effort to write than it does to read. People have to process this AI-influenced LinkedIn-influenced SEO-optimized Reddit-template dung heap of worthless content-style and get past it, because even though expectations may be low, it’s in bad taste to the point that it’s starting to embarrass on a cultural scale.

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