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Comment by cydonian_monk | Hacker News Reader

This post and discussion reminds me of the David Foster Wallace quote: "[If you] worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out."

[Edit: Beaten to it by goblgobl....]

My mind always dredges that quote up when I start to question my abilities. (Which I've been doing a bit of lately, coding for a nearly 15 year old Windows NT system. Relearning things I haven't seen since the '90s....)

Certainly we all have moments where we question our abilities. Small crises of faith, where our self confidence withers away. It's just part of life. Part of the checks and balances of our brain.

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It's an amazing quote.

Also, I can imagine if someone is extremely talented/gifted in one domain, its extremely alluring to measure the world against that attribute. It can be self-affirming 95% of the time, because you're better than most people. But the other side of that coin is the 5% who are better than you, make you question your talents and create insecurity.

The whole Kenyon speech is good material. The kind of commencement speech everyone wishes they'd had. (I don't recall word one that Raymond Lane said at mine.)

The parts of it about traffic come to mind /every day/ I'm on the way home. Especially: "In this traffic, all these vehicles stuck and idling in my way: It's not impossible... that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe being driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick in the seat next to him, and he's trying to rush to the hospital, and he's in a way bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am -- it is actually I who am in his way."

Thanks for posting that quote, the speech transcript is one of the most touching works I've ever read.

If anyone's interested in reading more, it's available online here: http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/david-foster-wallace-in...

Or printed: http://www.amazon.com/This-Water-Delivered-Significant-Compa...

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