I'm not sure the advice is all that bad. The attitude isn't great, but setting lofty goals is a pretty good way to keep sharp. And ultimately you do have to prioritise what you want to get out of your life, so it's worth thinking about.

The advice was "do something worth being sharp." The attitude communicated was relevant. It was good advice.

It was: "don't be such a pussy." It works. If it didn't, then athletic and military leaders wouldn't use it.

If I were to talk to him directly I would tell him to either drop out of school and be hardcore at his work, or drop out of work and be hardcore with school. At this point in his life he hasn't actually finished or built a damn thing, academically or professionally, and he's wondering why he's going soft.

Like he was some kind of superstar and now he's past the prime of his life? LOL.

I mean I realize I'm being kind of an asshole here, but geeez.

You're being slightly presumptious about me not having 'actually finished or built a damn thing, academically or professionally', regardless of whether or not that claim is true.

I never once stated that I was disappointed with my accomplishments (whatever they may be), only that I wished to retain (or increase) the level of mental acuity that I have manged to gain so far. For you to derive anything from a conclusion that you have arrived at based on your own personal inference is misguided, at best.

Moreover, the ad hominem attack about me thinking I 'was some kind of superstar and now [..] past [his] prime' is uncalled for, and not necessary to prove your point.

Nonetheless, I appreciate the advice, heavy-handed and flawed though it may seem.

Not to be rude or anything, but you asked for advice.

if you wanted better advice you should have provided more background, 'californiaguy' may not have been politically correct but that does not detract from the fact that he spent some time answering you.

If you have finished or built things academically or professionally you could point to them, which would give a more solid base for this whole discussion.

You are asking for inference, some of that inference is going to be on the spot, some of it will be wildly off the mark, if you supply more information you can guide the bandwidth of the results you will receive.

The last line of his post pretty clearly indicates that he realizes that he may be off in his estimate because he feels like coming across as an asshole. (I won't debate that point...).

Advice - any advice - is worth what you paid for it.

I'll never understand the people who ask for opinions on a public forum and then get upset at the people who post their opinions.

Not really. A slap in the face is sometimes a good thing. It's very easy to get comfortable when you have a job and a decent apartment and a girlfriend -- enough of a life that you're no longer as "hungry" for more. You can coast like this for 5 - 10 years pretty easily then suddenly realize you've let a lot of time go by.

Better to go for the goals now, before you have a mortgage and marriage and kids and other responsibilities which while not bad things, definitely complicate decisions about what to do with your life.

i don't know if you know, but there is a great quote concerning at least a partial aspect of the argument:

The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it. --michelangelo

I have a pet interest in cuckoo quotes: lines that sound good that get falsely attributed to a famous person. (For example, http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=678282)

As an experiment, I'm going to say that this sounds like one of those to me. It feels too much like a modern species, not something from the Renaissance. Now I'm going to go check and report back. :)

Edit: here's what I found. Wikiquote lists it as "unsourced". Google Books shows the phrase as appearing in a few dozen recent inspirational and self-help books (Marry Your Baby Daddy, anyone?), but no scholarly or historical ones (http://books.google.com/books?q=%22greater+danger+for+most+o...). Google web search comes up only with reams of those awful junky quotation sites. It's possible that the wording is a modern translation of an authentic quote, but in general, if 5-10 minutes of Googling doesn't come up with an original source for a famous quote by a famous genius, the odds are against it.

It's still a great line.

hi there,

thanks for all the work; i came across the quote a couple of years ago (i believe google was not even "big" then) and never bothered to check back (for this post i just googled and found a couple of attributes, just for reassurance--obviously i should have been more careful)

nevertheless, i think it's a great quote, too. (i find myself citing it from time to time, about twice a year or so...)

ps: i know a couple of italians, probably they will be able to clarify on etymological issues...

Before you mod this, bear in mind the original grandparent poster removed a rather crass sentence from his post about a girlfriend holding you back in life. I would vote his comment up as it is now, but it was not like that when I modded it down.

> bad advice

Most reality-based advice is hard to listen to and sounds arrogant and demeaning. Too often HN is just a circle jerk session of smart people telling each other what they want to hear ... possibly on a thread about how the ignorant unwashed masses are so easily tricked by confirmation bias.

The advice is welcome. The attitude sucks. Stick around and find some good experiences here at HN; maybe that'll lighten you up.