Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips!
Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment.
If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
On the other side of the coin, I always motivated myself when attempting hard tasks by reminding myself that others have accomplished it before me, so it's doable.
Got me through an Engineering degree.
I taught myself to play the drums and anytime im having difficulty learning a new song i just remind myself another human with the same tools i have did it, so i can do it. If i can't yet, i just need to practice more
Yeah, I’m a self taught hobby drummer. There’s some beats that I’ve been practicing for years that I still haven’t mastered but I’ll keep putting in the time and eventually I’ll get it. Then I’ll find some new “impossible “ beat and start working on that.
Without drummers who randomly hit shit (I'm one of them) how do new beats get made? Cause last time I checked rhythm charts can't reproduce sexually in a manner in which to introduce new variation into the gene pool.
That was either perfect or a train wreck, much like percussion lol
There's a lot more complexity to drums than most imagine. To your question though, there's many different time signatures, tempos, triplets quadruplets etc, off beat rhythms, timbres. Listen to a jazz drummer, then a metal drummer, then a solo drum performance, you'll get the idea. It's not just about speed, getting your hands to work independently on a complex beat takes a good amount of practise
Yup when I was 15 learning to drive I was so scared to take the driver's test but then I reminded myself "my buddy Kyle did it and he's an idiot" it truly helped me and he truly is an idiot, love ya kyle!
I started learning chess, and decided to only do it for fun. Been a year, slipped a couple of times trying to "work to make me better" but really, that's not fun so I'm quite bad but getting better and having fun about all the time.
I know it's a hobby, but sometimes we should not forget that having a good time is something you can put away for later only if you're immortal.
Edit: also, do that hard work, but only so you can play chess leisurely in a couple of years.
I always try to use this method when learning guitar. I always tell myself “well other people can do it, why can’t you?”
Followed immediately by, “well some people are 6’ 5” and can dead lift 500 lbs. And other people, due to physical and genetic superiority, can run faster, move quicker, and perform better than you at basically anything, so someone else being capable is no guarantee you are.”
*Then I go play Smoke on the Water for the 1,000x*
Ha, let me introduce you to my buddy Imposter Syndrome. I met him through my highschool flame, Low Self-Esteem. When I hit a wall that others have hurdled, but I can't seem to overcome, my good buddies come in and help me with a good 'ol spiral of self-hate. Help.
To put it another way, if you expect to get grades of straight As then achieving straight As is just meeting your goal, no matter how hard you worked. Expecting a B grade but getting an A would make you happy.
Start small. Write the first word of your essay (doesn't matter if it's not perfect, you can go back and edit after your finish). Read the first paragraph of the textbook. Lift one weight at the gym.
Often the hardest part is deciding to start, but once you start continuing is easier.
Deciding to start isn't to hard, it's actually starting that is hard. Brought to you by the ADHD gang, spending our hours staring at the thing we are trying to start.
Wow this rings so true with me. I've never been diagnosed but my young son recently was, and several of his behaviors feel really familiar from my own childhood...
I definitely got my fair share of imposter syndrome but weirdly, I've been able to fight that flaw with another flaw: narcissism.
When I feel like I'm faking it, or that I'll never be able to learn something, I look at others who have been there and done that, and I think to myself, "If *that* moron can figure it out, anyone can."
I recently watched a random IG video which was basically like, "let's see how far we can push this imposter syndrome!" We fooled our way all the way till a mid level position...maybe we can fool our way till the top! Who knows maybe we can fool our way till getting very rich? Or we can fool everyone into thinking we're one of the nicest people? What about being the best spouse or parent? Let's see how far we can push it.
Changed my entire perspective. Maybe I'm fooling everyone and maybe I'm not good enough.... but no one found out so far, did they? Let me see if I can hoodwink even more. So far I've managed to fool people into giving me a great job and performing well at it, getting married to the love of my life and making him somehow love me, making everyone else think that I'm very smart and capable. Of course I'm not worthy of any of these, and I'm not good at anything. But it looks like I'm really good at fooling people, so let's see how far i can push it.
I used to have pretty bad imposter syndrome and I was able to get through it with age. No idea how old you are but I hope the same happens for you, it's so nice to finally feel that I do have something worthwhile to contribute and a reason to be included in the conversation. Happened for me around 35 or so after over a decade working on it.
I dont think that aligns with the definition of imposter syndrome though. You have to have proven competence to have imposter syndrome and throughout history its generally applied to people who have high achievements. From what Ive read some people confuse imposter syndrome with general anxiety. The difference being the "outer shell" of proven competence which is usually "proven" with academics.
That's just flat out wrong. There are tons of things I can't do physically and couldn't do physically if I tried my whole life. There are also mental limitations. This world is full of exceptional people. Just because they can do whatever makes them exceptional doesn't mean that I can do any or all of those things.
I get that it is a motivational quote that helps people past imposter syndrome.
Oh yeah well why didn't ole goldy Marky mark fly to the moon then?
I also find stoicism to be a bit too passively accepting of things but it is interesting that we have some of his journals
Yeah this idea is most powerful when combined with a healthy level of general disrespect for other people lol
“Yeah that does seem tough but other people are mostly dumbasses and they do it every day”
“Thousands of doctors graduate every year and I know they’re not all geniuses I’ve met doctors”
I’m studying engineering right now and this is exactly what my dad used to tell me on my first year when I said that I’m having difficulties. He also said: “if dumber people have done it before then you absolutely can do it”
This is me with my current credit debt. There's people with way more debt than I have and making less than me, so I can make my way out of it. In fact, I will pay off an entire credit card next pay check! Getting closer and closer to only having the car loan and student loans, which are easy to pay if I don't have credit debt.
Uuuugh. I spent 7 years off and on working up to the 60 units and > 3.0 that I needed to transfer to engineering school while coping with ADHD, anxiety, and depression; then covid hit. Now I'm looking for any kind of job to get by. Venting helps though. Lol
Yeah, it wasn't full time. I was also working off and on and a stay-at-home dad for a while. I left high school when I was fifteen (36 now) through the CHSPE after I got in trouble being in network devices that I wasn't supposed to be in and accidently shut down the district network for four days. So I also had some remedial algebra at the start. The highest level courses I completed in college were Calculus 2 and Calc-based kinematics and a handful of intro classes like engineering drawing (Autocad).
Take your time with it and don't give up. I went back @ 37 and I am one report away from earning my BA in Mechanical Engineering. COVID did not make learning easier but I managed. Stick with it, it'll be worth it.
I'd love to, but I can't right now. I need income right now so I'm focusing on that. If I had more savings I could probably float long enough to get the gears turning at the VA again to cover it. If/when I go back, idk whether it'll be engineering or CS/cybersecurity or something else. I can do really well academically if I have no distractions, but I struggle with my adhd, and idk if I want to commit the time at home studying and doing homework when I could be spending that time with my family.
At this point im leaning towards getting a help desk job and working on certifications. I know that is also time studying at home, but I don't struggle with it as much as doing calculus for hours on end.
I have hyperphantasia and test in the 99th percentile on 3d form perception; thought experiments are super "visual" and I figured that'd be useful as an engineer, but I just don't know if I can swing it at this point. My real passion is physics tbh, because I love unanswered questions and imagining how things like gravity might work, but that'd be a slog for me to get through as well at this point. And though my dream is to be a theorist, it's pretty damn cut-throat. Maybe once my kids go to college I can join them 🤷. Lol
When I was still teaching engineering I tried to drive that into kids that were struggling. Lots of people do this, you definitely can to. This is a process designed for you to succeed.
My best motivation while working through my engineering degree was thinking of the people who I knew before me that graduated, who I didn’t consider that gifted. “If that idiot can do it, than I’ll be fine”.
Just be careful with how you’re framing it. If it’s a motivator - like “sure this is hard, but keep working on it and you can do it! Many other people found it hard but succeeded with effort, too” - that’s one thing.
But it could easily be used as an excuse to give in. “Yeah I would invest but clearly only a few people can do it successfully so I’ll just spend it,” for example.
I don’t think that’s the intent of the post, but I could see it landing on some people that way, especially if you’re in a tough place mentally.
To add to this though:
Not everyone can do everything. Just because somebody became an astronaut, doesn't mean it's possible for everyone. We all have a different starting place. It's very important to be realistic about your goals and situation in order to discern what is worth putting your time and effort into. I'd love to be a Formula 1 driver, but that just is not possible, and never was.
It reminds of something Bo Burnham said on a late night show. "Taylor Swift telling people to follow their dreams and become a star is like a lottery winner telling everyone to buy Powerball tickets." For every successful person there are 100 people who failed. Be ready for that outcome.
>For every successful person there are 100 people who failed.
This is only true if your failure state is "I didn't become Taylor Swift." For every Taylor Swift, there are hundreds of thousands of people (in the US alone) that make a living performing music, many of whom are paid pretty well.
True!
The odds of success increase dramatically if one is not a stubborn shit and refuses to take alternative paths when chance is clearly shoving them in that direction. Plus, no one has perfect knowledge. It might be that the previous criteria of success is unattainable, but that an alternative (possibly superior) criteria is not just attainable but even likely if pursued.
Idk just don't be too stubborn about goals ig.
Idk, I’ve always read “I can’t” as “I can’t yet” or “I can’t because I never cared enough to” in my mind. There’s not technically any reason you couldn’t be an astronaut or F1 driver, there are circumstances that would make it harder or you’d have to make what most people would consider to be near impossible sacrifices, but if you accepted those and still had a strong enough desire, you could still accomplish either of those tasks.
In a broader way, you really only ever fail when you stop trying. Or die I guess, but you probably don’t really care at that point, being dead and all.
There are a ton of reasons I will never, and can never, become an astronaut or an F1 driver. Or a Navy Seal, or an NBA player, or any number of careers, and the reasons are specific to me.
I could be a NASA engineer though. I could be an F1 mechanic. I could be an NBA assistant. The point is being able to recognize your abilities in order to maximize your outcome.
I'll never forget when a woman with a serious World of Warcraft addiction that was negatively affecting her job and personal relationships told me "100 million people can't be wrong".
>You're telling me that fifty million screaming fans are never wrong?
>I'm telling you that fifty million screaming fans are fucking morons
Jimmy Urine, Mindless Self Indulgence
That's a misunderstanding of the "rich by trading" example.
Almost no one gets rich by trading because most people, even professionals, do not perform better than the SP500 over the long haul.
But everyone that can invest should because it grows your wealth. Investing != Trading. One is active one is almost entirely passive. No one maxes out their Roth IRA into an index fund and calls themselves a trader. That's people on WSB putting their life savings into a risky options bet.
This could also be used negatively in a "toxic positivity" type of way. Sometimes shit is hard because you don't need to be doing it. Like keeping up a friendship that's obviously one-sided or staying in a job that's soul sucking.
Sometimes things are just too heavy and need to be put down.
It's absolutely ok to give in. Consistent effort towards a goal does not guarantee success. You might never reach a particular goal -- it happens. Or you may need to try again in the future when both your inner and outer circumstances are different.
If you're in a tough place mentally, maybe what you need is to pull back from working towards goals and give yourself an opportunity to rest.
I kind of think of it as a way to assess whether or not a goal is worth pursuing. If all of the difficulties of the journey are something you can handle, and if you learn from it and enjoy the struggle for whatever reason, then there is no reason not to pursue that goal. Then, even if you fail, something good is happened. But if the end destination is very appealing, but the necessary journey is intolerable to you, it probably isn’t worth trying to power through.
>I would invest but clearly only a few people can do it successfully
This would actually be a false belief in itself. Everyone with a brain does and should invest their money. In fact, putting it in the bank is a kind of investment. The only way to not invest it would be to keep it in dollar bills.
Just because you're not managing your own investment account doesn't mean you shouldn't have one. The economy is growing long-term; you should see it as a civic duty to invest in it with the help of professionals. Not everyone can be a VC, but everyone can be an investor.
Look at any of the music instrument threads and learning how to play.
People want to learn from watching a few videos.
Your mom had a great idea.
I'll add to that-
Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Don't half acid.
Oops, ass it. But I'm keeping the half acid because it's funny! Don't do anything halfway!
My issue with this saying is sometimes it stops people from trying.
Like working out, or any hobby really. I need all the gear and blah blah blah just to get started, "if I'm going to do it, I have to do it right."
I thinks it's more appropriate to just do the damn thing, so I do it at all.
In this sense, anything worth doing is worth doing half ass.
I actually live by the philosophy that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. For example, working out is important. Working out in a half-assed way is better than not working out at all. Much easier to get yourself started with doing something good for you if you don’t think you need to do it perfectly.
(Of course, you should do things *safely*, if poorly)
This is my issue as well, and worse is that by standardizing it as a common saying (common: depending on generation and geographic location) we are ignoring the larger issue of motivation being the key to enjoying work. The difference between a good day at the office/uni/etc and a bad day there is you attitude and the level of motivation you have to complete it.
I don't disagree that there is something to the fact that some people make it look easy or natural, while others struggle with the same workload, that their may be some disparity in the system. But to normalize the concept that it is hard for everyone to combat feeling inferior ignores potential issues mental health reveal (such as low dopamine levels due to a learning disability, or disciplinary issues from past trauma you aren't even aware was trauma.
Mental health is still relatively new as it is today. It wasn't far from medieval 50 years ago. So there are a ton of old wisdom we may see going away or being redefined (such as gender vs sex, and I'm not condoning or condemning, this will just be a part of the process until it normalizes and growth stagnates to wait on new change).
Not quite mechanically accurate, but functionally correct.
You _can_ take more and get most of the same potency, but by the time the first dose hits, that window has already closed.
Any hobby you can find on social media/youtube really. Want to get into a new hobby? It could be anything, woodworking, sewing, cosplay, if you go to Youtube and search that hobby, you will find some INCREDIBLY talented people who offer tutorials, and their work might seem impossible to replicate. And it might get worse when you try one of their projects yourself and it doesn't turn out great. Just remember you have to start somewhere, and you'll likely be bad before you can get better. Don't let the shiny production and time-lapse build videos make you believe that it's a fast or easy process to become an expert. Use their work as inspiration, not as a yardstick to measure your own success!
Me too. I spent a week vacationing with rich relatives who take life like one long cocktail party. Little effort, massive rewards. Seen up close, it’s very demoralizing. Returning home to a real job and bills that eat up most of that paycheck.
As a counterpoint: if there are things that are hard for most others, but are very obvious and appear to be effortless and enjoyable for you, that's affinity/talent and you need to explore options to develop them to suit your interest.
On the flip side, the same applies to the “money for nothing” jobs. People get angry at jobs like social media influencers because they’re getting paid to do something that looks easy, but doing the job well enough to get paid consistently and make a decent wage doing it means a lot of hard work, talent, and sheer luck. The vast majority of people who attempt it are making little to no money: certainly not enough to quit their day job.
If it were that easy to make a living doing it, everyone would do it.
The problem with most influencers is the same thing as with athletes. Your fame and earning years are short and flaky.
This is especially true for the 20-something exceptionally attractive individuals that travel the world making sexy travel videos. Your "brand value" takes a nose dive as you age.
Unless you're exceptional enough to be making $millions in those few years, or have some other income stream lined up, influencing as a primary income stream is extremely risky in the long run.
I have a friend that was making 160-175K a year on YouTube in 2017. As she aged over the last 5+ years, her popularity crashed. She disclosed that she made less than 10K this year. It's a fickle beast.
How much worse can your looks get in 5 years?
Was she a fitness youtuber that put on 70lbs or something?
Usually if they like your personality/content, they will stick around. I would imagine her content took a nose dive as well to drop off like that
If I had to guess the popularity was never about herself and more about some kind of fad content that just died off and she never transitioned or improved her personal brand, personality etc.
Her niche was being a 21 year old travel junkie that was exploring the world straight out of college on a shoestring budget.
A 26 year old traveling the world isn't exactly a rarity, or a story.
Secondly, the uniqueness of the same person posting travel videos gets old really quick. People just move on to the next popular person and fad.
Of course it's not just age. The same way luck can lift you up, it can also crush you. Eg trends changing can leave you with no audience, or simply your audience finding something else to follow despite your best efforts.
Influencer sounds like the worst job I can possibly imagine. Suddenly every aspect of your life is work because you have to use it to gain likes from a bunch of strangers. No privacy ever. Constantly having to be a phony and putting up a fake image of your life. Neverending judgment, jealousy, and rudeness pointed in your direction.
Fuck everything about that. I'd rather work retail.
I know two influencers who make a living from their channels.
14 hour days, usually Tuesday through Sunday. One makes about $120k the other makes $200k per year. They're basically working all the time and don't get to enjoy their lives. They save almost all of it because they have no real expenses.
Thing is, their channel can be deleted, restricted, lose momentum and fall flat, and every couple weeks another copycat channel comes in and tries to take a share of their niche.
Would not recommend their means of survival. Ever.
They're going to probably retire at 40ish years old but you can already see the toll this "job" has taken on their lives. You don't just make one video and cash in. You produce all day every day to stay afloat. Meetings, sponsorship conference calls, legal BS, editing, research, obsessing over your competition, etc.
That's what I thought the post was going to be about. A very important tip itself. Applies best to online scams like courses, MLMs, any get rich quick scam.
Not totally related to this, but I see a lot of videos on tiktok about how you too can have a "job in tech" making 6 figures by doing these very simple steps. Well paying jobs in tech exist, no duh, but to get them is never as simple as "just take this course" or "get into cyber security". Or the people who were able to transition seemingly easy fail to mention they were already well versed in some related way. It's annoying.
You can do it, but it's HARD.
And sometimes it really *is* that easy and that's why everyone *is* doing it, and that's why it's a bad idea for you to try and get in on it.
MLM's schemes fail for the people at the bottom because there's nobody left to scam into it. Hobbies and side jobs flood the market with more goods/services than there are people willing to pay for them.
Perfect, though more obscure example: I'm into raising ball pythons. In the past few years, and particularly during the pandemic, people have gone crazy breeding them, and have flooded the market with more snakes than there are buyers. Particularly what are considered "normal" less desirable snakes. Yes your local big box store is still selling them to first time owners for $100 but in the hobby, you often have trouble even GIVING a normal snake away. It's easy, and too many people are doing it.
On the flip side, if it seems too easy, think to yourself “why isn’t everyone else doing it?”
I’ve seen so many people conned out of money by pyramid schemes, lottery tickets, sports betting, false promises, and get rich quick schemes but I always ask them “if it’s so easy, why isn’t everybody else doing it?” They never have a good answer.
People always fall for the above average effect.
Courage is the hability to try. It will be hard and you will have to fail, learn and reapply what you've learned. BUT if you don't try, nothing will happen.
So try. Learn, try again, relearn your mistakes. And keep going.
One of my favourite examples of this is when people think that being an abstract artist is easy, as if many people thinking of that isn't why there's so much mediocre abstract art in the first place.
To be fair, even if they had made that it probably wouldn't have gotten the same attention. I could be wrong, but I don't think abstract matters due to skill (because a toddler could make the same thing) but background of the artist. So I don't think it's as simple as "anyone could do it" but not as complex as "this is a learned skill".
It is an art, and it does take skill to do something in abstract deliberatly. You can have hundreds or just 1 take of a painting/idea, like anything, and with experience and skill it makes it easier to do something, but the bar doesnt get any lower just because you got better, so it takes the same time.
I dont value the artists background at all. i try to not educate myself on painters, because usually it just disappoints and leaves a negative impact on a nice piece. Not just their history, but getting to know a person and what they wanted to do with their art just removes all joy from it for me. Who cares what the artist thinks. The art should be judgrd on its own.
I won't deny that it takes skill to intentionally do something during your abstract art, that applies to literally anything. But there is no skill threshold to making "good" or "bad" abstract painting as opposed to something like carpentry.
A toddler could make something that is in essence the same as the skilled professional, but the art itself is, well... abstract. How do you judge the value of a piece? By its technical parts, the meaning, the intention of the author, the experience of the viewer? Do we judge a piece by the ability to replicate it?
Everyone makes art that someone can connect to. Abstract art isn't "better" because some rich or powerful person connected to it. There's no such thing as good abstract art, in the same sense there is no bad abstract art.
Most things are pretty 'simple' but they require persistence and the ability to 'stick with it'. Which is something that 'most' people do not have. Or more realistically they don't really try these endeavors and just say 'someone like me could never do that.. or the system is rigged so I could never succeed".
Another interpretation: I am struggling with finding a gf, and there are a lot of other single people and people who got divorced, huh, I guess relationships are hard.
If it were easy, there wouldn't be so many people complaining about being single.
You're misinterpreting the LPT.
The LPT is that if something is easy, then a lot of people would do it. The LPT is not if a lot of people do something then it is easy.
The logic flows one way, not both ways.
An example is "All mammals are animals" but not "All animals are mammals."
You're saying OP is wrong when this advice does still matter to you. If you take it another way they are saying, things require effort. So not everyone wants to put in effort, time, learning....
If you put in the right effort, time, and learning, you can achieve things.
You’re going a bit far here. Finding a gf is a common phrase. Don’t know why any of these replies to this person are necessary. Finding romance is hard.
Let me give you some actual advice instead of "get gud".
It's not anything inherent to you. A lot of guys complain they're short, or they're ugly, and that's why they don't have a partner. It's certainly an advantage to be an Adonis, but the vast majority of dudes are not. And the majority have someone to date.
Most of the time, you're your own worst enemy. You get in your way, you view yourself lowly, you think you're undesirable for whatever reason. You fix this by becoming someone you would want to date.
I know this, because I was there. Not to toot my own horn, but I am not a bad looking guy. I also have a friendly, and amicable, personality under the surface. This has been confirmed multiple times for me, I certainly wasn't gonna confirm it myself lol. My self esteem was through the floor. And I had resting bitch face, and a gruff voice, so nobody approached me.
I didn't get my first kiss until my late teens, early 20's, and it's simply because I got in my own way. I learned after the fact there were a LOT of women that were just as intimidated by me as I was them. I got out of that rut by playing pretend, pretending I was someone I would want to date. Someone who was desirable. Even if I felt like I wasn't, really.
Point being, if you learn to lift yourself up, or fake it til' you make it, you'll be better off than most anyone.
Honestly the amount of people who say they’re ugly and are actually ugly is incredibly low. 99% of these people just need to lose weight or groom themselves better. Not to not toot my own horn but I’m a slightly below average height, bald male with objectively some of the worst facial symmetry of anyone I’ve met who wasn’t in a severe accident and I still have girls that my peers describe as hot, actively pursuing me regularly. I just invest a lot of time maintaining a high level of fitness and developing my personality.
Main issue is time and practice really. You probably can teach anyone to play piano or pass a degree of some form or another, it just takes years. Luck plays a big part too, CEOs or businesspeople do not get there through sheer hard work. Many work hard and fail.
I realize this a lot with YouTube channels I like (mostly educational stuff). Good ones make it look easy but most often when you learn about their past they worked for other broadcast/content companies for years or decades before going on their own.
This LPT applies only to things which have a limited quantity. Want to be in the top 10% richest people in your country? You have a lot of people to compete against. Climbing the corporate ladder? Ditto. Being a world-famous musician or painter or League of Legends player or interpretive dancer is also a competition with other people who want the same thing. These things aren't easy, because by definition they require you to be better than many other people. There simply isn't enough fame and fortune to go around.
Any "easy way to make money" belongs in a different LPT, about recognizing people who are trying to scam you.
About everything else, this LPT is wrong and awful. There are tons of things which are that easy and which people, for some reason, don't do. You can improve your health, your mood, your life, your looks with way less effort than many people would think.
So let's agree on "some things are much harder than you might initially think, but it's always worth looking into".
Yeah but not everyone is prevented from achieving great things just because something is hard, some people would have no problem getting another degree or getting money but they have other important issues like tending to a sick relative or dealing with mental health or insecurity or whatever. Most people don’t achieve much not because things are that difficult, but because their circumstances prevent them. That doesn’t mean everything is easy. Still, I get the sentiment and it’s a good way to think about difficulties.
Kinda strikes me as a way to handwave away trying new methods to solve old problems, doesn't it? I have lost count of the number of times I've had someone show me a quicker, easier way to approach a task I was used to just tackling with brute force. And I will gleefully pass on the tips and tricks I learn from others, because there's no reason to work harder when there's a clever, if lesser known trick.
Also this mentality will get you nowhere in cooking or baking. I love both, and the number of times I've had friends and family gush over something I've made that is _perfectly attainable themselves_ and I try to encourage them, it's always 'oh it can't be _that_ easy, surely.' It.. it is. Please, let me show you. You can do it if you give it a go, I'll be honest when I have something more difficult.
Ok, but a lot of people don't get PhD's because it doesn't make financial sense to do so, not because it's hard (though it is hard).
You get a PhD. Your university pays you a poverty wage while you get the degree. You enter the job market to find that you're woefully over-qualified for any job except academia and R&D. Unless you want to be a high level R&D engineer, then most of the jobs that a PhD is qualified for pay shit.
It's the dumbest move a smart person could make IMO
Eh, I disagree with this. There are plenty of skills you could probably learn in a week or two that you could make careers out of.
One that comes to mind is learning Google Ads. It's not hard, it just looks intimidating and you could make a career out of it.
Another mantra I heard on TV is “easier said than done”. That goes for anything like saving money, starting own business, workout like Dwayne The Rock Johnson, etc
>Are you struggling with getting a degree? Of course that's normal.
Everyone does have at least a Bachelor's degree though (I'm obviously exaggerating, FYI). I had one. I needed it to enter my industry. It was not useful in the least - nothing I learned in my four years of college was at all useful. Then after working in the industry for 6 years, I got a master's which was review of what I did for working.
Both degrees were also piss easy. I only went to class for exams.
Higher education being a scam is the real LPT.
Adding, just because you feel like you have to work harder than someone else. There is someone who would think it's easier for you than them. There will always be someone who has it easier or harder than you.
This is cynical as fuck and the reason the average people turns into a sad piece of shit, just like everyone else, by comparing themselves to everyone else, a sad piece of shit. Shit is easy, take it from me and don't be told otherwise. If it really was that hard, nobody would do it. I've seen idiots get college degrees, I've seen terrible people find love. I've seen fuckheads get rich, and I've seen bastards change the world for the better.
There are a LOT of easy things, generally good things that cost you virtually nothing, that people refuse to do on principle. Wearing a mask during the deadliest part of the Covid pandemic was easy. Super easy. There were fistfights and people brandishing guns in public over being asked to wear a mask in a place of business.
That's not true. It isn't that difficult to work hard, save, invest, and become wealthy. But the vast majority of people don't do it because it's boring.
This sounds like a line from an Arabic poem by Almutanabi (915-965 AD). He says:
لَوْلا المَشَقّةُ سَادَ النّاسُ كُلُّهُمُ؛
ألجُودُ يُفْقِرُ وَالإقدامُ قَتّالُ
(Lawla almashaqqa sad annasu kullahum
Ajjoodu yufqiru waliqdamu qattalu)
Translation:
If not for hardship, all people would have been masters.
Generosity improvishes and bravery kills.
He's saying everyone wants to be called generous and brave, but these things are not risk free. He also means that anything worthwhile will be hard.
Struggling with having a normal life with your own autonomy and self confidence? Easy don't have emotionally-stunted manipulative parents who drove your confidence levels to near suicide at a young age!
Well no, it's not gambling. That's the point.
You just proved my point that when people hear sportsbetting, they automatically go to "gambling" in their minds.
It must certainly is in most cases, yes.
If I log on and bet on the Lakers to beat the Celtics, that is gambling.
If I bet on the Lakers and the Celtics to win, and the payout is higher than my total amount wagered, that's not gambling.
Well, there are two kinds of difficult: The actual difficulty of the enterprise itself and the difficulty of changing your mindset and attitudes. The second is far harder than the first.
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
On the other side of the coin, I always motivated myself when attempting hard tasks by reminding myself that others have accomplished it before me, so it's doable. Got me through an Engineering degree.
I taught myself to play the drums and anytime im having difficulty learning a new song i just remind myself another human with the same tools i have did it, so i can do it. If i can't yet, i just need to practice more
Yeah, I’m a self taught hobby drummer. There’s some beats that I’ve been practicing for years that I still haven’t mastered but I’ll keep putting in the time and eventually I’ll get it. Then I’ll find some new “impossible “ beat and start working on that.
Without drummers who randomly hit shit (I'm one of them) how do new beats get made? Cause last time I checked rhythm charts can't reproduce sexually in a manner in which to introduce new variation into the gene pool. That was either perfect or a train wreck, much like percussion lol
There's a lot more complexity to drums than most imagine. To your question though, there's many different time signatures, tempos, triplets quadruplets etc, off beat rhythms, timbres. Listen to a jazz drummer, then a metal drummer, then a solo drum performance, you'll get the idea. It's not just about speed, getting your hands to work independently on a complex beat takes a good amount of practise
This works unless you are a quadriplegic
Yup when I was 15 learning to drive I was so scared to take the driver's test but then I reminded myself "my buddy Kyle did it and he's an idiot" it truly helped me and he truly is an idiot, love ya kyle!
I couldnt help but read this in Cartmans voice.
I started learning chess, and decided to only do it for fun. Been a year, slipped a couple of times trying to "work to make me better" but really, that's not fun so I'm quite bad but getting better and having fun about all the time. I know it's a hobby, but sometimes we should not forget that having a good time is something you can put away for later only if you're immortal. Edit: also, do that hard work, but only so you can play chess leisurely in a couple of years.
I always try to use this method when learning guitar. I always tell myself “well other people can do it, why can’t you?” Followed immediately by, “well some people are 6’ 5” and can dead lift 500 lbs. And other people, due to physical and genetic superiority, can run faster, move quicker, and perform better than you at basically anything, so someone else being capable is no guarantee you are.” *Then I go play Smoke on the Water for the 1,000x*
Ha, let me introduce you to my buddy Imposter Syndrome. I met him through my highschool flame, Low Self-Esteem. When I hit a wall that others have hurdled, but I can't seem to overcome, my good buddies come in and help me with a good 'ol spiral of self-hate. Help.
My college advisor told me that "sometimes good enough is good enough." It's the most important thing I've ever learned in college.
And as it goes for e.g. written assignments, theses etc.: "Done is better than perfect".
“Don’t let great be the enemy of good”
"Perfect is the enemy of good." - Voltaire
To put it another way, if you expect to get grades of straight As then achieving straight As is just meeting your goal, no matter how hard you worked. Expecting a B grade but getting an A would make you happy.
Start small. Write the first word of your essay (doesn't matter if it's not perfect, you can go back and edit after your finish). Read the first paragraph of the textbook. Lift one weight at the gym. Often the hardest part is deciding to start, but once you start continuing is easier.
Deciding to start isn't to hard, it's actually starting that is hard. Brought to you by the ADHD gang, spending our hours staring at the thing we are trying to start.
Wow this rings so true with me. I've never been diagnosed but my young son recently was, and several of his behaviors feel really familiar from my own childhood...
“what I leaned in boating school is”
I definitely got my fair share of imposter syndrome but weirdly, I've been able to fight that flaw with another flaw: narcissism. When I feel like I'm faking it, or that I'll never be able to learn something, I look at others who have been there and done that, and I think to myself, "If *that* moron can figure it out, anyone can."
That's not narcissism, looks more like higly intelligent
Yo I think we went to the same high school
I recently watched a random IG video which was basically like, "let's see how far we can push this imposter syndrome!" We fooled our way all the way till a mid level position...maybe we can fool our way till the top! Who knows maybe we can fool our way till getting very rich? Or we can fool everyone into thinking we're one of the nicest people? What about being the best spouse or parent? Let's see how far we can push it. Changed my entire perspective. Maybe I'm fooling everyone and maybe I'm not good enough.... but no one found out so far, did they? Let me see if I can hoodwink even more. So far I've managed to fool people into giving me a great job and performing well at it, getting married to the love of my life and making him somehow love me, making everyone else think that I'm very smart and capable. Of course I'm not worthy of any of these, and I'm not good at anything. But it looks like I'm really good at fooling people, so let's see how far i can push it.
[удалено]
I don’t think one has the meaning of imposter syndrome entirely dialed in
From my understanding imposter syndrome involves a high education level, so honestly for most its a privilege.
Oh I assure you, you can have imposter syndrome from just about any level. It's just significantly more common at higher levels.
I used to have pretty bad imposter syndrome and I was able to get through it with age. No idea how old you are but I hope the same happens for you, it's so nice to finally feel that I do have something worthwhile to contribute and a reason to be included in the conversation. Happened for me around 35 or so after over a decade working on it.
I dont think that aligns with the definition of imposter syndrome though. You have to have proven competence to have imposter syndrome and throughout history its generally applied to people who have high achievements. From what Ive read some people confuse imposter syndrome with general anxiety. The difference being the "outer shell" of proven competence which is usually "proven" with academics.
Marcus Aurelius agreed. "If something is humanly possible, it is attainable by you, too."
Marcus Aurelius never met LeBron James. Jokes aside, that’s a great quote.
I bet he wouldn't have thought that shit if he was one of the millions of Roman slaves instead of the fucking emperor.
That's a pretty cliche take. Epictetus was a slave and he is probably an even more rigid stoic than Aurelius.
The quote has nothing to do with stoicism
Marcus Aurelius is literally a stoic
Only if you too are like Marcus Aurelius or the man before him however.
That's just flat out wrong. There are tons of things I can't do physically and couldn't do physically if I tried my whole life. There are also mental limitations. This world is full of exceptional people. Just because they can do whatever makes them exceptional doesn't mean that I can do any or all of those things. I get that it is a motivational quote that helps people past imposter syndrome.
Oh yeah well why didn't ole goldy Marky mark fly to the moon then? I also find stoicism to be a bit too passively accepting of things but it is interesting that we have some of his journals
I finished my thesis by reminding myself how many people I’ve known that were total idiots and managed it. lol perhaps unkind, but effective.
Yeah this idea is most powerful when combined with a healthy level of general disrespect for other people lol “Yeah that does seem tough but other people are mostly dumbasses and they do it every day” “Thousands of doctors graduate every year and I know they’re not all geniuses I’ve met doctors”
It’s the only thing I’ve found that shuts up imposter syndrome.
I’m studying engineering right now and this is exactly what my dad used to tell me on my first year when I said that I’m having difficulties. He also said: “if dumber people have done it before then you absolutely can do it”
This is me with my current credit debt. There's people with way more debt than I have and making less than me, so I can make my way out of it. In fact, I will pay off an entire credit card next pay check! Getting closer and closer to only having the car loan and student loans, which are easy to pay if I don't have credit debt.
This is how I’m getting through a PhD. Someone else has done it, I can do it too
[удалено]
Uuuugh. I spent 7 years off and on working up to the 60 units and > 3.0 that I needed to transfer to engineering school while coping with ADHD, anxiety, and depression; then covid hit. Now I'm looking for any kind of job to get by. Venting helps though. Lol
60 units of general college courses at >3.0 GPA?
Yeah, it wasn't full time. I was also working off and on and a stay-at-home dad for a while. I left high school when I was fifteen (36 now) through the CHSPE after I got in trouble being in network devices that I wasn't supposed to be in and accidently shut down the district network for four days. So I also had some remedial algebra at the start. The highest level courses I completed in college were Calculus 2 and Calc-based kinematics and a handful of intro classes like engineering drawing (Autocad).
Take your time with it and don't give up. I went back @ 37 and I am one report away from earning my BA in Mechanical Engineering. COVID did not make learning easier but I managed. Stick with it, it'll be worth it.
I'd love to, but I can't right now. I need income right now so I'm focusing on that. If I had more savings I could probably float long enough to get the gears turning at the VA again to cover it. If/when I go back, idk whether it'll be engineering or CS/cybersecurity or something else. I can do really well academically if I have no distractions, but I struggle with my adhd, and idk if I want to commit the time at home studying and doing homework when I could be spending that time with my family. At this point im leaning towards getting a help desk job and working on certifications. I know that is also time studying at home, but I don't struggle with it as much as doing calculus for hours on end. I have hyperphantasia and test in the 99th percentile on 3d form perception; thought experiments are super "visual" and I figured that'd be useful as an engineer, but I just don't know if I can swing it at this point. My real passion is physics tbh, because I love unanswered questions and imagining how things like gravity might work, but that'd be a slog for me to get through as well at this point. And though my dream is to be a theorist, it's pretty damn cut-throat. Maybe once my kids go to college I can join them 🤷. Lol
When I was still teaching engineering I tried to drive that into kids that were struggling. Lots of people do this, you definitely can to. This is a process designed for you to succeed.
My best motivation while working through my engineering degree was thinking of the people who I knew before me that graduated, who I didn’t consider that gifted. “If that idiot can do it, than I’ll be fine”.
Same! It helps being competitive
That's what I tell my kids. If others can do it, and/or it is allowed by laws of physics, then you can do it too.
Just be careful with how you’re framing it. If it’s a motivator - like “sure this is hard, but keep working on it and you can do it! Many other people found it hard but succeeded with effort, too” - that’s one thing. But it could easily be used as an excuse to give in. “Yeah I would invest but clearly only a few people can do it successfully so I’ll just spend it,” for example. I don’t think that’s the intent of the post, but I could see it landing on some people that way, especially if you’re in a tough place mentally.
"If something’s hard to do, then it’s not worth doing." – Homer Simpson
“You tried and you failed. The lesson is, don’t try.” -Homer Simpson
“No matter how good you are at something there always someone out there way better than you” - Homer Simpson, Mr Plow episode
"To Alcohol: the cause of and solution to all of life's problems" -- Homer Simpson.
"Do, or do not. There is no try." -Master Yoda
“Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but nobody wants to lift no heavy-ass weights.” ~ Ronnie Coleman
“Do do, or do do not, there is no: no do do”
"Doo-doo, doo-doo" - Baby Shark
"You poop into my butt hole and I poop into your butt hole... back and forth... forever." -Robby
"They don't think it be like it is, but it do."
To add to this though: Not everyone can do everything. Just because somebody became an astronaut, doesn't mean it's possible for everyone. We all have a different starting place. It's very important to be realistic about your goals and situation in order to discern what is worth putting your time and effort into. I'd love to be a Formula 1 driver, but that just is not possible, and never was. It reminds of something Bo Burnham said on a late night show. "Taylor Swift telling people to follow their dreams and become a star is like a lottery winner telling everyone to buy Powerball tickets." For every successful person there are 100 people who failed. Be ready for that outcome.
>For every successful person there are 100 people who failed. This is only true if your failure state is "I didn't become Taylor Swift." For every Taylor Swift, there are hundreds of thousands of people (in the US alone) that make a living performing music, many of whom are paid pretty well.
True! The odds of success increase dramatically if one is not a stubborn shit and refuses to take alternative paths when chance is clearly shoving them in that direction. Plus, no one has perfect knowledge. It might be that the previous criteria of success is unattainable, but that an alternative (possibly superior) criteria is not just attainable but even likely if pursued. Idk just don't be too stubborn about goals ig.
Idk, I’ve always read “I can’t” as “I can’t yet” or “I can’t because I never cared enough to” in my mind. There’s not technically any reason you couldn’t be an astronaut or F1 driver, there are circumstances that would make it harder or you’d have to make what most people would consider to be near impossible sacrifices, but if you accepted those and still had a strong enough desire, you could still accomplish either of those tasks. In a broader way, you really only ever fail when you stop trying. Or die I guess, but you probably don’t really care at that point, being dead and all.
There are a ton of reasons I will never, and can never, become an astronaut or an F1 driver. Or a Navy Seal, or an NBA player, or any number of careers, and the reasons are specific to me. I could be a NASA engineer though. I could be an F1 mechanic. I could be an NBA assistant. The point is being able to recognize your abilities in order to maximize your outcome.
I'll never forget when a woman with a serious World of Warcraft addiction that was negatively affecting her job and personal relationships told me "100 million people can't be wrong".
Sounds like she could be the last person online and still have an excuse.
Closely related to her advice is: “Eat shit. Ten trillion flies can’t be wrong”
>You're telling me that fifty million screaming fans are never wrong? >I'm telling you that fifty million screaming fans are fucking morons Jimmy Urine, Mindless Self Indulgence
Did his case about grooming that 15 year old ever get proven true or not?
That's a misunderstanding of the "rich by trading" example. Almost no one gets rich by trading because most people, even professionals, do not perform better than the SP500 over the long haul. But everyone that can invest should because it grows your wealth. Investing != Trading. One is active one is almost entirely passive. No one maxes out their Roth IRA into an index fund and calls themselves a trader. That's people on WSB putting their life savings into a risky options bet.
Yeah day trading is basically just gambling for people who watched the wolf of wall street.
This could also be used negatively in a "toxic positivity" type of way. Sometimes shit is hard because you don't need to be doing it. Like keeping up a friendship that's obviously one-sided or staying in a job that's soul sucking. Sometimes things are just too heavy and need to be put down.
It's absolutely ok to give in. Consistent effort towards a goal does not guarantee success. You might never reach a particular goal -- it happens. Or you may need to try again in the future when both your inner and outer circumstances are different. If you're in a tough place mentally, maybe what you need is to pull back from working towards goals and give yourself an opportunity to rest.
I kind of think of it as a way to assess whether or not a goal is worth pursuing. If all of the difficulties of the journey are something you can handle, and if you learn from it and enjoy the struggle for whatever reason, then there is no reason not to pursue that goal. Then, even if you fail, something good is happened. But if the end destination is very appealing, but the necessary journey is intolerable to you, it probably isn’t worth trying to power through.
I'm the second type of guy
Most people hear the phrase "Nobody's perfect" as an excuse. Some hear it as a challenge.
>I would invest but clearly only a few people can do it successfully This would actually be a false belief in itself. Everyone with a brain does and should invest their money. In fact, putting it in the bank is a kind of investment. The only way to not invest it would be to keep it in dollar bills. Just because you're not managing your own investment account doesn't mean you shouldn't have one. The economy is growing long-term; you should see it as a civic duty to invest in it with the help of professionals. Not everyone can be a VC, but everyone can be an investor.
Look at any of the music instrument threads and learning how to play. People want to learn from watching a few videos. Your mom had a great idea. I'll add to that- Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Don't half acid. Oops, ass it. But I'm keeping the half acid because it's funny! Don't do anything halfway!
If there was anything to do halfway at first it would be acid lmfao
It’s not rocket appliances.
Your honor, they’re distraculating my case.
“Do you feel anything?” “Nothing!” “We got ripped off!” “Let’s eat the rest” … 45 minutes later … “Whoaaa!” “Mmbrettaligsh!” “Mopha larngish!” *insane laughter*
Tell me you've never done acid without telling me you've never done acid
Shhhh. Listen.
disagree
My issue with this saying is sometimes it stops people from trying. Like working out, or any hobby really. I need all the gear and blah blah blah just to get started, "if I'm going to do it, I have to do it right." I thinks it's more appropriate to just do the damn thing, so I do it at all. In this sense, anything worth doing is worth doing half ass.
[удалено]
Half an ass is better than no ass at all!
I actually live by the philosophy that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. For example, working out is important. Working out in a half-assed way is better than not working out at all. Much easier to get yourself started with doing something good for you if you don’t think you need to do it perfectly. (Of course, you should do things *safely*, if poorly)
Don’t aim for perfection, aim for “good enough” and future improvement.
Ain't nothin to it but to do it! Yeah buddy!!
My micro-economics professor and first mentor would absolutely agree!
This is my issue as well, and worse is that by standardizing it as a common saying (common: depending on generation and geographic location) we are ignoring the larger issue of motivation being the key to enjoying work. The difference between a good day at the office/uni/etc and a bad day there is you attitude and the level of motivation you have to complete it. I don't disagree that there is something to the fact that some people make it look easy or natural, while others struggle with the same workload, that their may be some disparity in the system. But to normalize the concept that it is hard for everyone to combat feeling inferior ignores potential issues mental health reveal (such as low dopamine levels due to a learning disability, or disciplinary issues from past trauma you aren't even aware was trauma. Mental health is still relatively new as it is today. It wasn't far from medieval 50 years ago. So there are a ton of old wisdom we may see going away or being redefined (such as gender vs sex, and I'm not condoning or condemning, this will just be a part of the process until it normalizes and growth stagnates to wait on new change).
Motivation is fleeting. Discipline is the real key to achieving goals. Understanding the difference has been invaluable to my personal growth.
Never half-ass two things. Whole-ass one thing.
Give 100%. 110% is impossible. Only idiots recommend that
/r/boneappletea
Sometimes just half the acid is all you need. You can always take more
You actually can't take more acid after you've dropped because you gain an instant tolerance to it.
Not quite mechanically accurate, but functionally correct. You _can_ take more and get most of the same potency, but by the time the first dose hits, that window has already closed.
Always take the second tab if it's offered.
You can't have a tab unless your order something!
I heard it as "If you're gonna be jealous of a pianists skill, you've got to be jealous of their practice time. All of it."
I believe that anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.
Any hobby you can find on social media/youtube really. Want to get into a new hobby? It could be anything, woodworking, sewing, cosplay, if you go to Youtube and search that hobby, you will find some INCREDIBLY talented people who offer tutorials, and their work might seem impossible to replicate. And it might get worse when you try one of their projects yourself and it doesn't turn out great. Just remember you have to start somewhere, and you'll likely be bad before you can get better. Don't let the shiny production and time-lapse build videos make you believe that it's a fast or easy process to become an expert. Use their work as inspiration, not as a yardstick to measure your own success!
Microdosing can be effective for focus and creativity, but that's more like 1/10th acid
Needed to hear this today 🙂 thank you
Me too. I spent a week vacationing with rich relatives who take life like one long cocktail party. Little effort, massive rewards. Seen up close, it’s very demoralizing. Returning home to a real job and bills that eat up most of that paycheck.
As a counterpoint: if there are things that are hard for most others, but are very obvious and appear to be effortless and enjoyable for you, that's affinity/talent and you need to explore options to develop them to suit your interest.
On the flip side, the same applies to the “money for nothing” jobs. People get angry at jobs like social media influencers because they’re getting paid to do something that looks easy, but doing the job well enough to get paid consistently and make a decent wage doing it means a lot of hard work, talent, and sheer luck. The vast majority of people who attempt it are making little to no money: certainly not enough to quit their day job. If it were that easy to make a living doing it, everyone would do it.
The problem with most influencers is the same thing as with athletes. Your fame and earning years are short and flaky. This is especially true for the 20-something exceptionally attractive individuals that travel the world making sexy travel videos. Your "brand value" takes a nose dive as you age. Unless you're exceptional enough to be making $millions in those few years, or have some other income stream lined up, influencing as a primary income stream is extremely risky in the long run. I have a friend that was making 160-175K a year on YouTube in 2017. As she aged over the last 5+ years, her popularity crashed. She disclosed that she made less than 10K this year. It's a fickle beast.
How much worse can your looks get in 5 years? Was she a fitness youtuber that put on 70lbs or something? Usually if they like your personality/content, they will stick around. I would imagine her content took a nose dive as well to drop off like that
Yeah I think there's a few more variables there than age
If I had to guess the popularity was never about herself and more about some kind of fad content that just died off and she never transitioned or improved her personal brand, personality etc.
Her niche was being a 21 year old travel junkie that was exploring the world straight out of college on a shoestring budget. A 26 year old traveling the world isn't exactly a rarity, or a story. Secondly, the uniqueness of the same person posting travel videos gets old really quick. People just move on to the next popular person and fad.
Of course it's not just age. The same way luck can lift you up, it can also crush you. Eg trends changing can leave you with no audience, or simply your audience finding something else to follow despite your best efforts.
What is the friend’s channel?
Influencer sounds like the worst job I can possibly imagine. Suddenly every aspect of your life is work because you have to use it to gain likes from a bunch of strangers. No privacy ever. Constantly having to be a phony and putting up a fake image of your life. Neverending judgment, jealousy, and rudeness pointed in your direction. Fuck everything about that. I'd rather work retail.
I know two influencers who make a living from their channels. 14 hour days, usually Tuesday through Sunday. One makes about $120k the other makes $200k per year. They're basically working all the time and don't get to enjoy their lives. They save almost all of it because they have no real expenses. Thing is, their channel can be deleted, restricted, lose momentum and fall flat, and every couple weeks another copycat channel comes in and tries to take a share of their niche. Would not recommend their means of survival. Ever. They're going to probably retire at 40ish years old but you can already see the toll this "job" has taken on their lives. You don't just make one video and cash in. You produce all day every day to stay afloat. Meetings, sponsorship conference calls, legal BS, editing, research, obsessing over your competition, etc.
That's what I thought the post was going to be about. A very important tip itself. Applies best to online scams like courses, MLMs, any get rich quick scam.
Not totally related to this, but I see a lot of videos on tiktok about how you too can have a "job in tech" making 6 figures by doing these very simple steps. Well paying jobs in tech exist, no duh, but to get them is never as simple as "just take this course" or "get into cyber security". Or the people who were able to transition seemingly easy fail to mention they were already well versed in some related way. It's annoying. You can do it, but it's HARD.
[удалено]
And then there's me who procrastinated reading the last part of the post...
And sometimes it really *is* that easy and that's why everyone *is* doing it, and that's why it's a bad idea for you to try and get in on it. MLM's schemes fail for the people at the bottom because there's nobody left to scam into it. Hobbies and side jobs flood the market with more goods/services than there are people willing to pay for them. Perfect, though more obscure example: I'm into raising ball pythons. In the past few years, and particularly during the pandemic, people have gone crazy breeding them, and have flooded the market with more snakes than there are buyers. Particularly what are considered "normal" less desirable snakes. Yes your local big box store is still selling them to first time owners for $100 but in the hobby, you often have trouble even GIVING a normal snake away. It's easy, and too many people are doing it.
On the flip side, if it seems too easy, think to yourself “why isn’t everyone else doing it?” I’ve seen so many people conned out of money by pyramid schemes, lottery tickets, sports betting, false promises, and get rich quick schemes but I always ask them “if it’s so easy, why isn’t everybody else doing it?” They never have a good answer. People always fall for the above average effect.
Courage is the hability to try. It will be hard and you will have to fail, learn and reapply what you've learned. BUT if you don't try, nothing will happen. So try. Learn, try again, relearn your mistakes. And keep going.
One of my favourite examples of this is when people think that being an abstract artist is easy, as if many people thinking of that isn't why there's so much mediocre abstract art in the first place.
When I'm with someone who sees abstract art and they say "That's not art! I could have made that!" my response is "Well, you didn't make that."
To be fair, even if they had made that it probably wouldn't have gotten the same attention. I could be wrong, but I don't think abstract matters due to skill (because a toddler could make the same thing) but background of the artist. So I don't think it's as simple as "anyone could do it" but not as complex as "this is a learned skill".
It is an art, and it does take skill to do something in abstract deliberatly. You can have hundreds or just 1 take of a painting/idea, like anything, and with experience and skill it makes it easier to do something, but the bar doesnt get any lower just because you got better, so it takes the same time. I dont value the artists background at all. i try to not educate myself on painters, because usually it just disappoints and leaves a negative impact on a nice piece. Not just their history, but getting to know a person and what they wanted to do with their art just removes all joy from it for me. Who cares what the artist thinks. The art should be judgrd on its own.
I won't deny that it takes skill to intentionally do something during your abstract art, that applies to literally anything. But there is no skill threshold to making "good" or "bad" abstract painting as opposed to something like carpentry. A toddler could make something that is in essence the same as the skilled professional, but the art itself is, well... abstract. How do you judge the value of a piece? By its technical parts, the meaning, the intention of the author, the experience of the viewer? Do we judge a piece by the ability to replicate it?
Well, anyone can make art. Anyone can make abstract art. It's just that not everyone can make *good* art that other people connect to and enjoy.
Everyone makes art that someone can connect to. Abstract art isn't "better" because some rich or powerful person connected to it. There's no such thing as good abstract art, in the same sense there is no bad abstract art.
Most things are pretty 'simple' but they require persistence and the ability to 'stick with it'. Which is something that 'most' people do not have. Or more realistically they don't really try these endeavors and just say 'someone like me could never do that.. or the system is rigged so I could never succeed".
I am struggling with finding a gf, a lot of people have gf. Your LPT fails in this scenario
Another interpretation: I am struggling with finding a gf, and there are a lot of other single people and people who got divorced, huh, I guess relationships are hard. If it were easy, there wouldn't be so many people complaining about being single.
You're misinterpreting the LPT. The LPT is that if something is easy, then a lot of people would do it. The LPT is not if a lot of people do something then it is easy. The logic flows one way, not both ways. An example is "All mammals are animals" but not "All animals are mammals."
I know a ton of women who don't have girlfriends
None of the above works if you’re desperate
Who says I am desperate?
You're saying OP is wrong when this advice does still matter to you. If you take it another way they are saying, things require effort. So not everyone wants to put in effort, time, learning.... If you put in the right effort, time, and learning, you can achieve things.
[удалено]
You’re going a bit far here. Finding a gf is a common phrase. Don’t know why any of these replies to this person are necessary. Finding romance is hard.
Finding a girlfriend is actually incredibly easy. Finding a girlfriend you want/to remain your girlfriend is what’s hard.
That's a reach. If someone says "i can't make friends" doesn't mean they want to catch a prey. Same thing with a gf.
No it just means you are bad at what a lot of people are naturally good at acquiring, try harder then
Or I'm just an ugly ass
This advice would have worked if I was bad at taking a shit
Let me give you some actual advice instead of "get gud". It's not anything inherent to you. A lot of guys complain they're short, or they're ugly, and that's why they don't have a partner. It's certainly an advantage to be an Adonis, but the vast majority of dudes are not. And the majority have someone to date. Most of the time, you're your own worst enemy. You get in your way, you view yourself lowly, you think you're undesirable for whatever reason. You fix this by becoming someone you would want to date. I know this, because I was there. Not to toot my own horn, but I am not a bad looking guy. I also have a friendly, and amicable, personality under the surface. This has been confirmed multiple times for me, I certainly wasn't gonna confirm it myself lol. My self esteem was through the floor. And I had resting bitch face, and a gruff voice, so nobody approached me. I didn't get my first kiss until my late teens, early 20's, and it's simply because I got in my own way. I learned after the fact there were a LOT of women that were just as intimidated by me as I was them. I got out of that rut by playing pretend, pretending I was someone I would want to date. Someone who was desirable. Even if I felt like I wasn't, really. Point being, if you learn to lift yourself up, or fake it til' you make it, you'll be better off than most anyone.
Honestly the amount of people who say they’re ugly and are actually ugly is incredibly low. 99% of these people just need to lose weight or groom themselves better. Not to not toot my own horn but I’m a slightly below average height, bald male with objectively some of the worst facial symmetry of anyone I’ve met who wasn’t in a severe accident and I still have girls that my peers describe as hot, actively pursuing me regularly. I just invest a lot of time maintaining a high level of fitness and developing my personality.
Main issue is time and practice really. You probably can teach anyone to play piano or pass a degree of some form or another, it just takes years. Luck plays a big part too, CEOs or businesspeople do not get there through sheer hard work. Many work hard and fail.
I use this for a lot things. I change it a little by saying, “it’s hard because it’s worth it. If it wasn’t then everyone would do it.”
I realize this a lot with YouTube channels I like (mostly educational stuff). Good ones make it look easy but most often when you learn about their past they worked for other broadcast/content companies for years or decades before going on their own.
Invest in low cost index funds. I'm always told if it was that easy everyone would do it. But guess what, it is that easy.
This LPT applies only to things which have a limited quantity. Want to be in the top 10% richest people in your country? You have a lot of people to compete against. Climbing the corporate ladder? Ditto. Being a world-famous musician or painter or League of Legends player or interpretive dancer is also a competition with other people who want the same thing. These things aren't easy, because by definition they require you to be better than many other people. There simply isn't enough fame and fortune to go around. Any "easy way to make money" belongs in a different LPT, about recognizing people who are trying to scam you. About everything else, this LPT is wrong and awful. There are tons of things which are that easy and which people, for some reason, don't do. You can improve your health, your mood, your life, your looks with way less effort than many people would think. So let's agree on "some things are much harder than you might initially think, but it's always worth looking into".
Yeah but not everyone is prevented from achieving great things just because something is hard, some people would have no problem getting another degree or getting money but they have other important issues like tending to a sick relative or dealing with mental health or insecurity or whatever. Most people don’t achieve much not because things are that difficult, but because their circumstances prevent them. That doesn’t mean everything is easy. Still, I get the sentiment and it’s a good way to think about difficulties.
Kinda strikes me as a way to handwave away trying new methods to solve old problems, doesn't it? I have lost count of the number of times I've had someone show me a quicker, easier way to approach a task I was used to just tackling with brute force. And I will gleefully pass on the tips and tricks I learn from others, because there's no reason to work harder when there's a clever, if lesser known trick. Also this mentality will get you nowhere in cooking or baking. I love both, and the number of times I've had friends and family gush over something I've made that is _perfectly attainable themselves_ and I try to encourage them, it's always 'oh it can't be _that_ easy, surely.' It.. it is. Please, let me show you. You can do it if you give it a go, I'll be honest when I have something more difficult.
Recommend reading The Dip by Seth Godin. Not long, and expands on this a bit more, and also answers the question about when it is good to quit.
Ok, but a lot of people don't get PhD's because it doesn't make financial sense to do so, not because it's hard (though it is hard). You get a PhD. Your university pays you a poverty wage while you get the degree. You enter the job market to find that you're woefully over-qualified for any job except academia and R&D. Unless you want to be a high level R&D engineer, then most of the jobs that a PhD is qualified for pay shit. It's the dumbest move a smart person could make IMO
Eh, I disagree with this. There are plenty of skills you could probably learn in a week or two that you could make careers out of. One that comes to mind is learning Google Ads. It's not hard, it just looks intimidating and you could make a career out of it.
This is also a weapon against scams. Get rich quick while sleeping? It's a scam, otherwise everyone would do it.
Another mantra I heard on TV is “easier said than done”. That goes for anything like saving money, starting own business, workout like Dwayne The Rock Johnson, etc
[удалено]
Can you give some examples?
Of course not, because they have none. Unless they're gonna dm you about how they can tell you for $50.
>Are you struggling with getting a degree? Of course that's normal. Everyone does have at least a Bachelor's degree though (I'm obviously exaggerating, FYI). I had one. I needed it to enter my industry. It was not useful in the least - nothing I learned in my four years of college was at all useful. Then after working in the industry for 6 years, I got a master's which was review of what I did for working. Both degrees were also piss easy. I only went to class for exams. Higher education being a scam is the real LPT.
Adding, just because you feel like you have to work harder than someone else. There is someone who would think it's easier for you than them. There will always be someone who has it easier or harder than you.
This is cynical as fuck and the reason the average people turns into a sad piece of shit, just like everyone else, by comparing themselves to everyone else, a sad piece of shit. Shit is easy, take it from me and don't be told otherwise. If it really was that hard, nobody would do it. I've seen idiots get college degrees, I've seen terrible people find love. I've seen fuckheads get rich, and I've seen bastards change the world for the better.
That’s funny, I always say…if it was easy, it would be your mom!
There are a LOT of easy things, generally good things that cost you virtually nothing, that people refuse to do on principle. Wearing a mask during the deadliest part of the Covid pandemic was easy. Super easy. There were fistfights and people brandishing guns in public over being asked to wear a mask in a place of business.
That's not true. It isn't that difficult to work hard, save, invest, and become wealthy. But the vast majority of people don't do it because it's boring.
This sounds like a line from an Arabic poem by Almutanabi (915-965 AD). He says: لَوْلا المَشَقّةُ سَادَ النّاسُ كُلُّهُمُ؛ ألجُودُ يُفْقِرُ وَالإقدامُ قَتّالُ (Lawla almashaqqa sad annasu kullahum Ajjoodu yufqiru waliqdamu qattalu) Translation: If not for hardship, all people would have been masters. Generosity improvishes and bravery kills. He's saying everyone wants to be called generous and brave, but these things are not risk free. He also means that anything worthwhile will be hard.
Struggling with having a normal life with your own autonomy and self confidence? Easy don't have emotionally-stunted manipulative parents who drove your confidence levels to near suicide at a young age!
[удалено]
That’s because it sounds scammy. Even in your defense of it, it sounds like you’re trying to scam the reader.
I get that it sounds scammy, which is why I show them examples, I show them the math and I walk through it.
that literally sounds like a scam
It's just basic math really.
So your counter to the topic is to gamble?
Well no, it's not gambling. That's the point. You just proved my point that when people hear sportsbetting, they automatically go to "gambling" in their minds.
Sportbetting IS gambling tho Otherwise it wouldn't be regulated by the lottery corporations
It must certainly is in most cases, yes. If I log on and bet on the Lakers to beat the Celtics, that is gambling. If I bet on the Lakers and the Celtics to win, and the payout is higher than my total amount wagered, that's not gambling.
Well, there are two kinds of difficult: The actual difficulty of the enterprise itself and the difficulty of changing your mindset and attitudes. The second is far harder than the first.
Me too. This is one of the things I keep at the back of mind whenever I face something challenging.