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Comment by californiaguy | Hacker News Reader

Set lofty goals. Attain them. Repeat.

Right now you're living a mediocre life. You live in an apartment, you program web sites and haven't finished college. What's so special about that? Why do you need to be incredibly sharp for that? You don't. Do something you need to be sharp to do and you will become sharp.

My best advice for you is to not worry about this shit until you're 25 and have a normal young adulthood in the meantime. When you're 25 you'll know exactly what you have to do to become sharp. Right now you're probably still overwhelmed by actually having a life of your own and a girl that wants you around.

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I never purported that my life was special - I only stated facts relevant to the discussion that I was attempting to create.

Believe it or not, I am acutely aware of the fact that I lead a mediocre (albeit enjoyable) life, and I'm trying to prevent myself from falling into a rut of ignorant bliss.

However, I'd rather try and do that in a way that doesn't require me to drop the girlfriend, ditch friendships that have lasted for over 15 years and quit my job.

Maybe I am too young (23) to even care about this right now. Maybe not. That's part of what I'm trying to figure out.

Note: since the comment I'm replying to has been modified a few times, my above comment doesn't make much sense.

Wow this is some bad advice. And with an arrogant/demeaning attitude to match.

I'm not sure the advice is all that bad. The attitude isn't great, but setting lofty goals is a pretty good way to keep sharp. And ultimately you do have to prioritise what you want to get out of your life, so it's worth thinking about.

> bad advice

Most reality-based advice is hard to listen to and sounds arrogant and demeaning. Too often HN is just a circle jerk session of smart people telling each other what they want to hear ... possibly on a thread about how the ignorant unwashed masses are so easily tricked by confirmation bias.

The advice is welcome. The attitude sucks. Stick around and find some good experiences here at HN; maybe that'll lighten you up.

i don't know if you know, but there is a great quote concerning at least a partial aspect of the argument:

The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. --michelangelo

I have a pet interest in cuckoo quotes: lines that sound good that get falsely attributed to a famous person. (For example, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=678282)

As an experiment, I'm going to say that this sounds like one of those to me. It feels too much like a modern species, not something from the Renaissance. Now I'm going to go check and report back. :)

Edit: here's what I found. Wikiquote lists it as "unsourced". Google Books shows the phrase as appearing in a few dozen recent inspirational and self-help books (Marry Your Baby Daddy, anyone?), but no scholarly or historical ones (http://books.google.com/books?q=%22greater+danger+for+most+o...). Google web search comes up only with reams of those awful junky quotation sites. It's possible that the wording is a modern translation of an authentic quote, but in general, if 5-10 minutes of Googling doesn't come up with an original source for a famous quote by a famous genius, the odds are against it.

It's still a great line.

hi there,

thanks for all the work; i came across the quote a couple of years ago (i believe google was not even "big" then) and never bothered to check back (for this post i just googled and found a couple of attributes, just for reassurance--obviously i should have been more careful)

nevertheless, i think it's a great quote, too. (i find myself citing it from time to time, about twice a year or so...)

ps: i know a couple of italians, probably they will be able to clarify on etymological issues...

Not really. A slap in the face is sometimes a good thing. It's very easy to get comfortable when you have a job and a decent apartment and a girlfriend -- enough of a life that you're no longer as "hungry" for more. You can coast like this for 5 - 10 years pretty easily then suddenly realize you've let a lot of time go by.

Better to go for the goals now, before you have a mortgage and marriage and kids and other responsibilities which while not bad things, definitely complicate decisions about what to do with your life.

The advice was "do something worth being sharp." The attitude communicated was relevant. It was good advice.

It was: "don't be such a pussy." It works. If it didn't, then athletic and military leaders wouldn't use it.

If I were to talk to him directly I would tell him to either drop out of school and be hardcore at his work, or drop out of work and be hardcore with school. At this point in his life he hasn't actually finished or built a damn thing, academically or professionally, and he's wondering why he's going soft.

Like he was some kind of superstar and now he's past the prime of his life? LOL.

I mean I realize I'm being kind of an asshole here, but geeez.

You're being slightly presumptious about me not having 'actually finished or built a damn thing, academically or professionally', regardless of whether or not that claim is true.

I never once stated that I was disappointed with my accomplishments (whatever they may be), only that I wished to retain (or increase) the level of mental acuity that I have manged to gain so far. For you to derive anything from a conclusion that you have arrived at based on your own personal inference is misguided, at best.

Moreover, the ad hominem attack about me thinking I 'was some kind of superstar and now [..] past [his] prime' is uncalled for, and not necessary to prove your point.

Nonetheless, I appreciate the advice, heavy-handed and flawed though it may seem.

I'll never understand the people who ask for opinions on a public forum and then get upset at the people who post their opinions.

Not to be rude or anything, but you asked for advice.

if you wanted better advice you should have provided more background, 'californiaguy' may not have been politically correct but that does not detract from the fact that he spent some time answering you.

If you have finished or built things academically or professionally you could point to them, which would give a more solid base for this whole discussion.

You are asking for inference, some of that inference is going to be on the spot, some of it will be wildly off the mark, if you supply more information you can guide the bandwidth of the results you will receive.

The last line of his post pretty clearly indicates that he realizes that he may be off in his estimate because he feels like coming across as an asshole. (I won't debate that point...).

Advice - any advice - is worth what you paid for it.

Before you mod this, bear in mind the original grandparent poster removed a rather crass sentence from his post about a girlfriend holding you back in life. I would vote his comment up as it is now, but it was not like that when I modded it down.

This is actually excellent advice, although may or may not be harshly presented depending on your perspective. Setting goals are probably the single best way to learn anything and get sharp in the process.

I am a CS grad and am 30 now and have tried to learn several things in the past that have interested me in a variety of areas. I remember a few examples where I would learn/pickup/read something fast and think that I understand it but I would truly understand it only when I took up an ambitious project that involved learning and applying something. And your mind is automatically focussed/sharp in picking up stuff when there is a goal in front. Otherwise, it may just feel like cramming. Getting sharp should be a by-product of doing something worthy and ambitious that is aligned with your interests.

Also, don't worry about mediocrity just as yet since you're just starting out. But I've seen a lot of guys getting cozy in a couple of years after they graduate and get a job. So, do keep lofty and aligned goals in mind all the time. You will surprised. And that will take you way above mediocrity while keeping you sharp and vibrant as a person.

Your advice is sound. The first requirement is 'desire'. One must desire mental acuity.

(Time will tell if he will regret giving up physics and mathematics for the ephemeral ego boost of having his "work" viewed by n people.)

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