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Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by ratsimihah on Saturday January 19, 2019 @07:37PM (#18950200)
Maybe some of us tend to mix up "a life lived" with overachieving. In other words, we only feel it worth if we produce something truly outstanding.
Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by justaguyhere on Sunday January 20, 2019 @09:01AM (#18953058)
In other words, we only feel it worth if we produce something truly outstanding

By this metric, most of humanity probably feels it worthless, isn't it?

I understand this is HN and people here achieve more than the normal crowd - still, I don't get the obsession over being productive every second, the need to "produce something truly outstanding" etc. Whats wrong with just being happy, taking it easy, spreading happiness around us and just living a simple life? Instead of optimizing every waking second and moving the goal post until the day we die?

Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by abledon on Sunday January 20, 2019 @11:09AM (#18953631)
i think when people focus on optimizing code they slip into a frame of mind where they try to 'optimize' their lives like they are a machine. the road to hell is paved with good intentions
Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by tomc1985 on Sunday January 20, 2019 @02:05PM (#18954870)
> the road to hell is paved with good intentions

This, right here, is the summary of all technology now. Millions of people with millions of (mostly bad) ideas, flooding the world with unprecedented ease and access. Yay convenience...

Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by derangedHorse on Sunday January 20, 2019 @12:34PM (#18954233)
Not really. For some people having a child counts as producing "something truly outstanding."

What I believe the quoted commentor was trying to get at was that some people have goals for happiness that are harder to achieve, but also can't be replaced for something else.

Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by collyw on Monday January 21, 2019 @11:11AM (#18961271)
>For some people having a child counts as producing "something truly outstanding."

Despite the fact that everyone's parents managed to do it.

Each to their own though.

Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by rbanffy on Sunday January 20, 2019 @09:28AM (#18953171)
:-)

> By this metric, most of humanity probably feels it worthless, isn't it?

Everyone can produce something outstanding. We often confuse that with the recognition that comes from that something becoming noticed by others.

Do something you love, for the love of doing it. Of course, keep the family happy, fed, and housed, but never forget we are more than work and money and that our worth is not derived from how others see us.

We HN'ers like to do a lot and we often get recognition from that, but really makes us who we are is what we love doing. The rest are side-effects not goals.

Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by pojzon on Sunday January 20, 2019 @10:27AM (#18953435)
Majority of ppl dont really know what they want from life and need someone to tell them that.

The reason why so many are depressed and unhappy no matter what they do.

Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by mac01021 on Sunday January 20, 2019 @02:14PM (#18954933)
Sadly, you can't tell them by telling them. You have to be subliminal.
Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by rbanffy on Sunday January 20, 2019 @03:53PM (#18955511)
You may even figure out what they want, but they still will need to find it out by themselves.
Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by ratsimihah on Sunday January 20, 2019 @01:48PM (#18954755)
By "some of us " I did refer to a subset of HN, and not most of humanity.
Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by fizwhiz on Sunday January 20, 2019 @03:53PM (#18955508)
> I understand this is HN and people here achieve more than the normal crowd

Citation needed?

Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by forinti on Sunday January 20, 2019 @05:44AM (#18952388)
I've witnessed how one person who couldn't keep it together harmed a family two generations down the line. Life is hard and if you can give your kids a decent childhood, you've done your bit.
Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by xchaotic on Sunday January 20, 2019 @08:20AM (#18952915)
Please don't take that as my personal opinion, just a point for a good argument. If you have a nice family, raised and supported kids well into their adulthood, that is all very nice on a personal level, but globally what have you done? I by no means expect everyone to be the next Henry Ford or Edison, but if you're just living your life, you're just consuming planet's limited resources. Animals have lived like that for millions of years, sustainably, in a self balancing act. But I feel that humans are savvy enough to strive for more than just the daily grind and consumption, so that the world they leave behind is a better place, not worse.
Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by coldtea on Sunday January 20, 2019 @10:48AM (#18953516)
>Please don't take that as my personal opinion, just a point for a good argument. If you have a nice family, raised and supported kids well into their adulthood, that is all very nice on a personal level, but globally what have you done?

You don't have to do anything "globally". We're not pop culture superheroes out to save the world. The obsession with "making a dent"-porn has to stop.

If more people were "very nice on a personal level" we'd already be paradise.

Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by chrisbennet on Sunday January 20, 2019 @10:37AM (#18953467)
I think you underestimate the sacrifices that are made to achieve “supporting kids into adulthood” for one thing.
Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by normal_man on Monday January 21, 2019 @01:35PM (#18962371)
I think we'd be a lot better off if some of the people obsessed with doing something "globally" had instead lived a quiet life at home.
Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by Dudemann on Sunday January 20, 2019 @09:33AM (#18953200)
globally what has xchaotic done?
Re:25 years of coding, and I'm just beginning by ameyv on Sunday January 20, 2019 @04:20AM (#18952115)
True..I feel like this...Sometimes, I don't know how to deal with this..it somehow make me incompetent as programmer.. I see really good projects and then I get depressed :(