Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dgreensp 5022 days ago
I'm a maker and I don't agree with the moral judgment against sexiness, ambition, and creating freely without guilt.

I've met very few "entitled" or "narcissistic" people, but I've heard the term thrown around a lot, usually to refer to people who live a little too boldly for the comfort of onlookers, lacking the guilt complexes and constipated style of self-expression many of us inherited.

2 comments

Wow, there's some projection there.

If you're genuinely creating something, at least 90% of 'normals' will appreciate that.

If people are calling you entitled or narcissistic, it's possible that, rather than you living too boldly and being such a genius they can't understand, you're actually kind of entitled and narcissistic.

You didn't read the OP?
I did, and generally agree that humility about achievement leads to the best results, a sense of entitlement to the worst. My only beef was 'our parents understood this'. WW2/depression generation, maybe, boomers, no way.

The comment I was responding to seemed to take serious offense at the OP, and I don't.

I don't take serious offense, I just disagree with the article. Taken at face value it seems to be warning makers not to feel to good about themselves. As a personal belief system about making, it sounds like a negative, unhealthy one. The tagline "Sexiness is vanity" gives that away. Imagine telling your daughter, "Don't feel sexy, that's narcissism that is. Exalts the individual and such. People who feel sexy are vain. Sexiness is poison, it's toxic; if you start to feel it, resist it." That's about half of what this article is trying to drive home, and I think it says as much at the OP as anything. That's ok though, it's a very personal post.
Also, making is sexy.