I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials and got my PhD

Re:I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials ... by doctorpangloss on Sunday March 26, 2017 @01:48PM (#13961990)

Narcissism, I would argue, is a far more dangerous thing than TV. The author's narcissism lets her celebrate all these unlikable cliches: being a fitness guru, being an "aspiring writer," being an academic overachiever, having a perfect husband and incoming baby or whatever. Then the style: preachy, written in the first person, chronologically. As though the only way to write about yourself is like an upbeat propaganda travel log.

The beautiful thing about a show like Friends is that it takes broken people and makes them likeable. Girls does a great job at mocking a character like the author, and arguably does more to encourage people to do good for themselves than the author does.

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Re:I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials ... by fred_is_fred on Sunday March 26, 2017 @01:56PM (#13962056)

I agree with you here. This is written in the preachy way that people post to Facebook and then say "#blessed" at the end. The whole purpose of this is to say how their lives are better than yours.

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Re:I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials ... by romanovcode on Monday March 27, 2017 @03:57AM (#13965890)

Isn't this the main purpose of FB anyway - to boast how much your life is better then everyone's else?

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Re:I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials ... by j7ake on Sunday March 26, 2017 @01:59PM (#13962082)

Yes I agree. There are countless number of people who get their PhDs and also are good athletes... I don't see why her story is remarkable. There was nothing about what her thesis was about or what kind of book she was writing...It's not clear what her contribution to science or literature was actually.

The article did not have much content beyond success related words such as PhD, writing and marathon. Someone might as well write an article about their 200k salary.

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Re:I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials ... by erikpukinskis on Sunday March 26, 2017 @02:11PM (#13962143)

> It's not clear what her contribution to science or literature was actually.

Her dissertation is here: https://repository.library.georgetown.edu/handle/10822/70983...

Title is "A Novel Role for Fyn in ApoER2 Regulation"

I can't help but wonder whether you have questioned her contribution to science if she was a man and wrote the same article. I'll let you say whether you think you would though, as I could only speculate.

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Re:I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials ... by j7ake on Sunday March 26, 2017 @03:07PM (#13962491)

Thanks for the link. I didn't pick up from the article that she was a neuroscientist. When I read the article I wasn't even sure if she was in biology or physics or math or sociology. I don't know why her gender would affect whether or not I think the person should have written about their contribution to science and literature rather than just associating herself with words related to success.

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Re:I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials ... by warrshrike on Sunday March 26, 2017 @02:00PM (#13962087)

I agree completely. Couldn't have put it better myself. It's written in that oh-so-common upbeat and preachy style so common to the web these days.

Articles on Medium, blogs about 'giving it all up' and backpacking etc. Barf.

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Re:I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials ... by thesmallestcat on Sunday March 26, 2017 @01:52PM (#13962033)

Depression has a nasty way of driving us to cut down other people with self-esteem.

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Re:I gave up TV, then qualified for Olympic marathon trials ... by threatofrain on Sunday March 26, 2017 @02:26PM (#13962238)

I think it's good to depart your self-esteem from immediate social stimuli. People will strut, so let them, and don't react with low latency.

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