What I learned from six months of being stupid on purpose
wvez.org
wvez.org
I definitely relate to the crux of the article though:
> I realized getting to a point where you reap the benefits from what you’re hoping to learn requires you to do it yourself and fail. A lot.
I also had to work hard to shift from the fixed mindset: "I'm smart therefore I need to be good at this. If I'm not good at this, then I'm dumb" to "I'm going to put the effort it and give myself the grace that learning takes a long time". Almost nobody is smart enough to get it right away, and truly, nobody starts out knowing everything.
I learned this most clearly from running, where I had no expectations to live up to, no "I should". I put in the work for years, and ran faster and further than I ever thought I would. I'm never ashamed to say "today was a crappy run" or "I didn't do very well, better sleep it off". Then why was I afraid to say "I don't get this complex idea yet, I better spend some time reading it 12 more times until it starts making sense"?
This reminds me of the meme "If I can't get this barbell off my chest, I'm gay and my whole family dies"
Which got me more gains than any other time in my life
I'm taking an evening class right now in computer science at a local university. Without mincing words, I am getting my ass kicked by it. Absolutely handed to me. It's proofs-based, and I don't have much of a background in this (even during my time in college back in the day, I didn't take these types of courses).
I'm getting stuck all the time, finding it hard to understand the lectures, and then avoiding studying altogether because it's not "clicking" for me. But if I'm being honest, what I'm doing above all is avoiding studying because of how painful it feels, and how much of my own identity as a "smart" person comes into question. I've never really had trouble with coursework, and would even say a lot of it came naturally to me, so from that I built up a little castle wall of an identity wherein I'm a "smart person who learns things easily."
Yet here I am unable to learn this easily at all. I'm discovering that I need to tweak my mindset and keep my identity smaller. Why do I have to be a smart person? Why can't I just be a person who wants to learn something that he's finding challenging? Is it helping me to belittle myself by telling myself that I "should" understand this quickly? Or is it just leading me to running away from the whole thing altogether, thereby worsening the situation?
Sorry for the rant / writeup. I'm processing all of this in real-time myself, and trying to get myself back to studying...
Those are rookie numbers.
I've been doing that for 40 years
What I learned spending a lifetime making the world a little bit worse for everyone else for fun and profit.
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Their entire mindset seems to be, "how can I take advantage of other people making mistakes to make a few dollars here and there? and how can I induce them to make even more mistakes in my realm of influence so it is even easier to profit from them?"
This is why he is always chasing the latest fad—"dropshipping massage guns, rug tufting, rainbow-loom bracelets, you name it"—people who follow fads are less likely to do their research and more likely to click buy on the overpriced TikTok ad. AI just empowers him to do more of this.
The only skill he seems to work on is his "taking advantage of others" skill. It's astounding that he got to this age without knowing even the basics of programming... and he only learned those basics once it became relevant to taking advantage of others. Rather than trying to create something new, or create a better version of something old, he just wants to disrupt efficient commerce so he can skim off the top.
I'm sure he makes a ton of money doing this. I wish that weren't possible.
I think it comes down to some pretty fundamental views about human autonomy and meaning.
E.g. if you respect someone's desire to buy a rainbow bracelet, or think you know better and they should be treated like a child.
I think this underappreciates that value added by having multiple sellers/retailers competing and advertising. I dont think the world where everything must be bought from a manufacturer or small set of retailers is better.
FTFY. Do not conflate all competition as good for the consumer.
[0]https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/186837.How_I_Became_S...
I got distracted by the shiny dangly thing and it took a little while to figure out it was a pull chain.
I commend him for trying to learn new skills. no one needs to know this shit. It's not instagram.
And for seeing what’s possible with a skill. But this can be very overwhelming as well. When you watch the masters doing what looks really easy and after that start with your first steps - and fail - it’s way more discouraging than starting without having seen this and being proud of small achievements.
Yeah, ok… Not for me.
Alan Sugar was right when he told off a contestant on The Apprentice UK for doing it - it's not meant to be something you call yourself, it's something others call you as a means of recognising your success if you've earned it. Pity that doesn't appear to be the dominant viewpoint.
It's also noticeable how the vast majority of well-known people are described on Wikipedia as either an entrepreneur or a businessperson. The rationale is sometimes as simple as "their management team sells merchandise with their name and image"! I've read that it's a very deliberate attempt by their marketing people, who push their ideas via Wikipedia etc, to give them more credibility than they supposedly get from things like sports or acting, by jumping on this fashion.
Young Americans can see the direction in which the wind is blowing. They believe less and less in the idea of a "comfortable middle class lifestyle with a steady career" and more and more in the idea that you have to be some some kind of entrepreneur or hustler if you want to have hope for a decent living and a decent amount of personal freedom in the current system, given economic trends and trends in AI.
I think this is also part of the reason why socialism has returned as a viable force in American politics. The alternative to becoming an entrepreneur or hustler in the current system is to change the current system.
He got very upset with me about that question. He went on about how everyone around here is so focused on their work and not living life (this was in a very corporate office tower part of town, so...yeah). Everyone only cares about what you produce, not with how you live. It turns out he had also been laid off earlier that day as well. We discussed this a good bit, and in the end had a good night hanging out at the bar. I never met him again, but I think about that conversation often.
That interaction made me decide not to ask that question going forward. These days, instead of asking "what do you do?", I ask things like "what keeps you busy in life?" Because ultimately that's closer to what I'm really wondering.
That's just human psychology being dumb again. Just make multiple social media accounts and use one to make posts and have the other ones come along to call the first a great entrepreneur. Won't magically make you Warren Buffett but if it gets people to buy the product the first one is selling so you can pay for food/rent so you don't starve, who cares?
Why not just have GenAI create you a custom tool to perform the automation?
I think it is fine for prototyping if someone prefers a GUI.
What a vile, vile thing.
I build a software vs I build some software.
In my house, software will always be an uncountable noun.