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by wheresmyusern
3034 days ago
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worrying about success is unmitigated idiocy. everyone gets caught up in this herd mentality of wanting to have the best image on instagram and etc. when i was in college, 90 percent of the other people in the cs program were blatant zuckerberg wanna-bes. they all carried around a silent, bulging arrogance because they thought they were going to be rich. they also felt anxiety about being successful and their response was to double down on computer science. instead of questioning the anxiety itself -- the basics -- they embark on a long, demented journey of trying to become rich and look good on instagram at the cost of everything else in their lives. one day the waves of time will wash over the stories of these peoples lives, leaving behind the rational and impersonal perspective that is only ever widely endorsed in retrospect. and those people who agonize over how successful they look in this time of instagram will be considered idiots. you got bent over by the sentiment of the herd. you allowed your life to be made miserable for no reason. and the ultimate precipice of irony is that this success mentality and social media posturing goes completely against everything that the founders of computer science believed -- their culture. here is my advice to you. take care of your financial needs. engineer your life so that you are stable financially while maintaining the most modest life-style that is comfortable. in other words, get yourself to a point where the practical aspects of life no longer are a problem. no, i never said it was easy. after that, pursue the tangible aspects of success, or pursue anything you want to, without worry. i say that almost nobody said on their death-bed that they regretted not working harder or that they regretted spending too much time enjoying nature, traveling or spending time with the people they loved. use that fact as a guide-line for choosing what to do. |
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Take a look at Maslow’s hierarchy from time to time, and think about this success treadmill you’ve signed up for, success is nowhere in that triangle. Neither is power.
What are you planning to use success and power for? Are you trying to spend your way into esteem? Belonging? Force them to respect you? Do you think self actualization requires ordering people around? Do you think if you are powerful enough that the love of your life can’t die from a tragic car accident, an aneurism, or cancer?
You can’t control as much as you think you can, and sometimes that’s a good thing. Fortune favors the prepared mind, but you can show up and still strike out, or you can find more success than you deserve. Recognize your good fortune.
Remember that the guy making you coffee is a person with feelings. If everybody were like you then you’d have to drink coffee you made and take your own trash to the dump and do your own plumbing. If anything these people are doing a service to society. Charity work, if you will. Respect it.