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- Hacker News
- What a bunch of crap.
If you spend your life running to and fro and never commit to anything in the end, then arguably you've frittered your life away.
But maybe, just maybe, what you've really been doing this whole time is building up a wealth of diverse experiences, which in turn give you a broad understanding of the world and the ability to bring a unique and wonderful perspective to life. One that is completely your own, and special and important and infinitely valuable precisely because of the long period of exploration that you committed your early life to.
I recommend this book endlessly. Anybody who reads this stupid poem and gets a sinking feeling in their chest should pick up a copy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range:_Why_Generalists_Triumph...
by afry1 - Are you saying that it’s impossible for the lack of persistence or focus to be problematic in someone’s life?by dgoodell
- Woof
This cuts me to the bone
Was this really written in 1911?
I guess things never really change, humans are still humans
- fwiw, 100 years is a like a drop in ocean for human emotions.by whateverboat
- Do you believe," said Martin, "that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?" "Yes, without doubt," said Candide. "Well, then," said Martin, "if hawks have always had the same character why should you imagine that men may have changed theirs?by barrenko
- when I look at myself, I dispair, when I look at the competition, I rejoice.by metalman
- Meh most people accomplish nothing. The trick is to be satisfied with whatever one's circunstances.by a34729t
- Accomplishments are what we make of them. Every person to ever live accomplishes nothing at the end, and everything in passing.by mathgeek
- I've always said that having a goal is the first step towards failure.by dosisking
- This is me. Has anyone broken this curse before it's too late?by dingaling911
- Yeah me too. In mid 30s, suffering.by WeakSpeller
- Me too. In my mid 30s and afraid it's too late.by busymom0
- Yeah, this poem deeply resonated with me.
In my case it turned out that all my discontent and not fitting in was a blessing rather than a curse. Kept me untethered so when I finally hit my breaking point I could look inside until I found peace.
Took almost 40 years to reach my breaking point, but I've pretty much done a factory reset on my internal OS in the past year and a bit, been wonderful.
by snayan - Is it really a curse? This poem takes as axiomatic the ideas that life is a race, that winning matters, that winning involves a specific destination, and that this destination is more or less the same for everyone: but none of those premises strike me as being particularly defensible. What we are seeing in this poem is not the rambling man as he experiences his own life, but as he is seen through the eyes of a person with a very different value system.by marssaxman
- Start a meetup for one of your own passions. Then you’re not the one that has to fit in.
My passion is retro shmup, beat’em up, and run n’ gun games — basically designed either directly for the arcade or with that style in mind for modern games. I live in a small city but I noticed a steady stream of these kinds of games coming into the hock shop where I scooped them up for my collection. Figured there must be at least a few people that like these kinds of games if they are circulating locally.
Started a meetup with barely any solo marketing in local Facebook groups. I rented a small space, and lo and behold a handful of people showed up. We had some snacks and played some games. Made a couple new friends.
Tangentially related: things like this is why Sony discontinuing physical games is a horrible move and a massive blow to gaming culture. Never would’ve had this idea if I never was able to pick up a used copy of Battle Garegga at my local hock shop.
- It sounds like he had ADHD. Some people (and I'm using that term to include all genders here) cannot handle discomfort, and my speculation is that this is caused by chemicals in the brain.by ilteris
- Handling discomfort is a skill we must all learn, and different skills are required to manage different kinds of discomfort. Because we all vary in our degrees of sensitivity to different unpleasantnesses, and because our life paths give us more or less exposure to the experiences which cause them, some people get quite far into adulthood without learning to manage forms of discomfort others have been handling since childhood: but it is not necessarily the case that they cannot cope with those discomforts, in some ultimate sense, just that they have not yet learned the trick of it. Often there is some habitual pattern of avoidance which must be unlearned before that can happen.by marssaxman
- Service called his work "verse, not poetry", I just learned. I consider myself singularly unendowed in the whole "understanding poetry" thing, and here is a poem that I can actually understand, and relate to its, and enjoy in its simple musicality. Thanksby jdelfuego
- Service's life story is quite the read, and lovely context IMHO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_W._Serviceby mathgeek
- I'd be curious to know the average salary in 1911 versus cost to purchase a house in 1911. If you can plod along for 15 years and buy a house with cash (i don't think credit/mortgages existed in 1911?). Makes plodding seems like the right choice.by CrimsonCape
- Show me a successful "steady, quiet, plodding" person from the outside, and I'll show you someone who "doesn't know how to rest" and continually makes "fresh mistakes" on the inside.by akkartik
- How do you know?by dingaling911
- Copied from: THE SPELL OF THE YUKON AND OTHER VERSES by Robert Serviceby oidar
- I studied "The Cremation of Sam McGee" in elementary school and it was a favourite of my grandmother. It's well-known in Canada, as far as poetry goes, though the poem most Canadians know by heart (at least partially) is "In Flanders Fields", which is recited solemnly on Remembrance Day.by Rendello