To make myself really likeable, let me brag: this is my most viewed tweet — tadaa!!!
“You can just do things” is a meme going around the tech/start-up twitter simcluster where displaying “high agency” is a very admired trait.
I posted this when I learned this about a friend of a friend who — like Kaczynski and Math — is much better known for other work.
The reason the story resonated with me is its alignment with goals I personally had. It’s much easier to about how I would have acted in the same situation.
And yes, I made it to U.C. Berkeley, but with a much more conservative approach and definitely would have accepted a “No” for an answer.
But back to the post: one reason it had so much reach: controversy.
The statement “You can just do things” is, of course
Sensible, irrefutably, and objectively true and
utter fucking dogshit
I didn’t need a sociology degree (whoopsie) to realize that it’s much easier to just do things if you have the funds to fly to Boston, if your passport gets you through border control, and when missing a semester at home because you don’t find a sponsor doesn’t mean you lose your needs-based scholarship.
It’s the same with me and Recurse Center in NY right now. I was on the fence about suspending my unemployment insurance for leaving the country.
Luckily I can support myself — so I went without commiting fraud like a respectable citizen. But others can’t afford that.
Then again, natural selection shaped our brains to make us survive, not to make us thrive.
We have fear, anxiety, and avoid things that feel risky but in reality very much aren’t.
In today’s western society — especially as a university educated white-collar professional with access to a computer (that’s us) — there aren’t many cave lions inbetween here and our ambition.
Failure is possible. But it’s probably not that bad.
Maybe we can all just do things and still acknowledge that the things are a different kind of hard to different people, often for reasons outside their control.
But there are some things we can control — probably more than we think — and we should shape them the way we want/
I had many doubts about going to Recurse, despite me knowing I really wanted to.
What if NY is more expensive than I thought? What if I would just be lonely in New York? What if it’s not worth it? What about the gap on the CV?
What if? What if? What if?
Worst case, I just fly home early.
Speaking of cave lions and Recurse.
I’ve spent much of my week in a stand-off with concurrency in Rust — arguably more frightening than any hungry 360 kgs ice age apex predator.
On the weekend, I had an italian-american classic, meat-ball spaghetti, so delicious I wouldn’t trade them to the lion for my life.
I’m having a great time in NY, and my doubts evaporated in the first few days. I feel that I am becoming a stronger programmer day over day.
The box — build something that impresses myself — is ticked.
That alone is worth it.
But NY is fine too. Just my sleep schedule is a mess. It’s 1am and I’m still at the Hub.
Brian Johnson in shambles.
Anyways, I deserved every scathing reply to that tweet, but had I known 400k eyeballs would scrutinize my brainfart, I might've approached it with editorial precision.
No posts
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.