

How to Stop Sucking and Be Awesome Instead - DiabloD3
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/05/how-to-stop-sucking-and-be-awesome-instead.html

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bfilmheld
Zeitgeisty at the moment: "being awesome"

See also: This blog post by Julien Smith "The Short and Sweet Guide to Being
Fucking Awesome" (2011) [http://inoveryourhead.net/the-short-and-sweet-guide-
to-being...](http://inoveryourhead.net/the-short-and-sweet-guide-to-being-
fucking-awesome/) and also the free kindle book "The Flinch" (late 2011)
[http://www.amazon.com/The-Flinch-
ebook/dp/B0062Q7S3S/ref=sr_...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Flinch-
ebook/dp/B0062Q7S3S/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1338549997&sr=1-1)

I do think its good to overcome the shortcomings hamstringing your happiness.

Still; There is a striking similarity between Atwood's and Smith's blog-post,
besides the central message. Both refer to a big success in their own field
(Stackoverflow / Best selling book). I'm wondering if they would've reached
their "serenity of awesomeness", if it wasn't for this ...

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tgrass
When being awesome means being at the top of one's game and being best in
one's field, it's a positional good, a zero-sum game. We can't all be number
one.

While we might find personal fulfillment, we are still just a bunch of animals
around the watering hole, suspiciously eyeing the beast next to us while we
take a sip.

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fghh45sdfhr3
Am I the only who who likes of Jeff as someone to start an inserting
discussion, not someone who has the best grasp on things?

His podcast discussions with Joel... geez!

His first attempts are often... bad. When he wrote about the MVC pattern
countless people quickly started correcting him.

Any time he writes anything about crytpo or security it quickly ends up with
red lines through it, and a correction, and then correction gets stricken out
and there's a second correction, but to his credit he does not de-publish any
of that. He keeps it all out there.

He is 100% correct only on fundamental issues. Have tests, have a build
server, use source control, but not visual source safe. Those topics all have
value to novices.

I guess I'm trying to say that's Jeff's work has made him more notorious than
awesome in my mind.

~~~
tgrass
He passes the beer test.

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speg
I never get much out of these slide shares. Obviously nothing beats being
there in person, but am I missing some obvious 'presenter notes' section or
something that provides more details?

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cruise02
Yes, there are additional notes. Look for the "download the full presentation"
link (requires slideshare login) right after the "It's better to be safe than
sorry..." quote.

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stephengillie
"Shooting for the moon" and "jumping the shark" involves working without a
safety net. Phrased differently:

 _Making a backup plan takes away effort from your goals and makes you more
likely to fail and need your backup plan._

I don't remember if this is from a famous quote, a blog post, HN discussion,
or a video. I've found it to be true in some situations.

~~~
cageface
_I've found it to be true in some situations._

Yes, and false in others. We don't hear as much from the people that shoot for
the moon and fail because they tend to keep quiet about it and slink back to
their boring jobs and lives, if they still can.

Personally I'd like to hear more about the failures around here because the
relentless cheerleading sounds phony and you can learn at least as much from
the failures as the successes.

~~~
alexshye
I bet that people who fail, while shooting for the moon, still learn a whole
lot. The experience and knowledge should pay off and count for something, even
when slinking back to a boring job.

But I agree that it'd be nice to hear of lessons learned from more of the
failures. Something is wrong when the majority of startups fail, but the
majority of the popular blog posts are about success, or are from those who
have succeeded.

And now time for a shameless plug. To avoid the survivor bias, I started my
blog when I quit my job: <http://alexshye.wordpress.com/>. If I flame out, it
will be documented on the inter webs :)

~~~
cageface
Good luck!

I did the same thing myself a year ago. I've already got a long list of things
I'd do differently if I started again today.

~~~
alexshye
Thanks!

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Yaggo
How to be awesome, step 1: Stop using slideshare.net, it sucks.

