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Comment by qplex | Hacker News Reader

I'm not suggesting to change any goals; just to have a break from any singular activity for a while.

But whatever myth you think there is for goals that require delayed gratification simply does not exist (at least for most people).

The journey is more important than the destination and all that. Reaching some arbitrary goal doesn't bring you lasting happiness.

No ones born knowing to code, but learning to code can also be fun. Like many other things. The worst thing you can say to somebody learning anything is that "this is very hard to learn".

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No, the absolute worst thing you can say is "It's fine to give up as soon as it gets hard."

If you have a pile of cash you can lead a life of not much. But lottery winners and multimillionaires almost invariably seem to get bored by constant holidays, permanent no-destination travel, and other kinds of freewheeling.

Most people need a goal and a focus. And as soon as you have one you're going to frustrate yourself by definition, because you don't have the skills or the character to reach your goal immediately.

Which means work is involved. And that's going to suck in at least some ways at least some of the time, because work does - even if you're financially self-sufficient and are doing it for passion not money.

I'm only saying one should not have to continually withstand frustration or bad circumstances. Sometimes giving up (and doing something else) is the right thing to do. Sometimes you need a break to be able to continue. And so on.

In any case you should never prime for difficulty, it only decreases performance and motivation.

And since very few things are actually really, really necessary, I find it's very hard to pass morality about "the need to do more".

What I don't agree with is that everyone needs strong goal-oriented thinking and psychology to accomplish things.

Perhaps in the strictest sense everybody has goals but being goal-oriented is another thing.

If you push yourself enough you get stronger, fail to push and you get weaker. Accumulate enough weakness and everything in life becomes really hard. Truly terrifyingly hard to the point it just gets bizare. Running a marathon is easier for some people than walking to the car is for others. If you build up enough strength you can also accomplish things that take a lot of effort and time. The satisfaction you get from that cant be compared to instant gratification. But more importantly, you feel fantastic when you have the energy and know you can do hard challenging things right when you decide to go for it. Not next week, right now!

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