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Comment by araneae | Hacker News Reader

I'm really tired of seeing this stuff.

Now granted, this one is from a 12 year old, so it's no surprise that it's just a bunch of trite self-help nonsense.

But I've been seeing a lot of this "believe in yourself!" "work hard and you'll be successful!" "all you have to do is want it bad enough" from adults who should really know better.

I would like some content, please.

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I liked the article because it conveys the message that most self-help drivel is at the level of a 12 year old. Although I'm not sure that is what the author intended to point out.

... from adults who should really know better.

I do agree that adults should know better, but I disagree that reminders such as these have no use, because people are human. There are ups and downs, and the downs can often be enough to bring people within inches of quitting. People want to believe, but oftentimes doubt begins to creep in when bad news or setbacks hits from all sides; it's in these instances that clinging to something, anything positive, even if it's corny, can be the only thing that keeps one going. When balancing all the complexities which often have to be dealt with I think it's surprisingly easy to forget basics sometimes. As I said, we're human. I say use what works, whatever it is, be it motivational quotes/advice, inspirational stories or whatever.

I must be a robot then. -_-

Hey, if you can take on a challenge under circumstances with the odds clearly stacked against you, no guarantees, no end in sight, and wake up every day with a conquer the world mentality, over a course of years regardless of failures and adversity more power to you. I think that's rare rather than common, and people like that have a high chance of eventual success IMO.

The point of my comment, which was perhaps too subtle, is that I don't see how meaningless trite words like these could have any effect on an intelligent person. Does this disqualify me for human-hood?

At no point did I imply that I can take on challenges with the odds stacked against me and still cheerful about it. I mean, I can, but I didn't imply that anywhere. And I don't see how this crap would help me even if I weren't a superhero.

I understand your desire for more content that you find useful. But keep in mind that this is a post on a personal blog. The goal of the post is not to conform to your taste in content but rather it's a spot for the author to deposit a thought. If you should happen to read the post and find it useful then that's a great outcome for you but not necessarily the intended one.

I think the grandparent is an entreaty to HN readers, not to the blogger.

If that is the case I would think that the voting system would be sufficient for handling any such discontent for posts such as these. If you don't like it don't vote for it, and if the rest of HN agrees the submission will see no votes and the submitter will hopefully get the hint.

Hey, I hear ya. There's a lot of self help nonsense going around (mixed in with a bit of erlang and adblocking). I'm just as sick of it :-). Determination though is a really important part of doing a startup, so I felt this would be useful to everyone here. Though content is important, the comments are really what make HN the place that it is. Maybe you could go about saying the same thing in such a way that isn't so smug please? Not for the sake of my post. I could care less. Moreso for the sake of this place. That I care about.

I personally like the grumpy naysayers of HN. For instance, I like myself. And it's nice that you care, but dude, it's text on a page stored on a server somewhere. It's not like I punched your mother.

So what were you expecting when you clicked a story that read "Advice From My 12 Year Old Self"?

I was hoping to see something that was better than what I would expect from a 12 year old.

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