

Failure - comatose_kid
http://www.possibleprobable.com/?p=150

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swombat
_The Buddhists have a belief that I find intriguing: Before you are born, you
get to see what your life will be. You are then asked if the life will be
acceptable. If you give your OK, your memory is wiped clean and you get to
live that life. Otherwise, you get to look at another life. So, the life you
lead, with all its suffering and challenges, is the life you chose on that
day._

Not to put too fine a point on it, as this is clearly just a fluffy
inspirational quote, and the article itself is worth reading, but this quote
kinda sorta makes no sense. Here's why:

 _You are then asked if the life will be acceptable._ What you find acceptable
is a function of who you are. Who you are is also largely a function of the
experiences you have had in life. What I find acceptable now is not what I
found acceptable 10 years ago and probably not what I will find acceptable in
10 years. So, acceptable from what perspective? The perspective of the person
who has lived that life, or the perspective of someone else? Those are two
very different perspectives that will lead to very different answers.

Another big hole is that there are only a finite number of existences out
there. So surely someone has to be stumped with a life they didn't like. It is
condescending and incredibly insulting to tell someone whose life really,
really sucks that they chose it.

So, a nice article, with a nice fluffy thought at the beginning, but the
gaping holes in that fluffy thought kind of bothered me.

~~~
dhimes
I've never heard of that belief, and a Buddhist posting on the original blog
mentioned the same. Must be some specific flavor of Buddhism.

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greendestiny
I found this quote interesting: "psychologists have found that a person
flourishes when their chance of success is between 80% and 95%. If your chance
of success is below 80%, you start to act desperate. Above 95%, you start to
get complacent".

I wonder if many startups feel anywhere close to an 80% chance of success.

~~~
bprater
I think it's imperative. From an outsider's perspective, most start-ups look
like a bunch of nuts riding the edge of sanity. From the inside, you have to
convince yourself that you will succeed.

Yes, it looks a little bit like crazy.

~~~
greendestiny
I'm not sure I've ever been that confident on a decent sized project. I'm
starting to wonder if it explains a lot of things about me or if its just the
latest convenient thing to tell myself :)

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mynameishere
That post is a good example of what is wrong with blogs. It's basically an
interesting intro without a body, 'cause, you know, blog entries are 500 words
or less.

~~~
bprater
I disagree, I thought it was an amazing blog post.

The bottom-line is that you have to entertain online. No entertainment, no
visitors. And people aren't entertained when they see a big wall o' text.

If you were even slightly entertained, I'll bet you give his blog another
chance next time.

Really, I'm not sure what more he could have said, beyond setting the stage
for a grander story.

~~~
netcan
_The bottom-line is that you have to entertain online. No entertainment, no
visitors. And people aren't entertained when they see a big wall o' text._

I wouldn't even say that. Blogs are blogs. They are a certain medium with
certain styles & certain breakable 'rules.' Evolution & survivor bias ensure
that most blog posts read are the types of blog posts that are appealing to
the the people reading them. I see no problem with that. Same goes for novels,
biographies, essays, magazine articles or pretty much any category of writing.
Nothing wrong with that. A blog within the framework of the style is
definitely a useful one to have out there.

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nickb
BTW, Aaron's the author of one of the finest books on programming, programming
Cocoa/Mac in Objective-C specifically: [http://www.amazon.com/Cocoa-
Programming-Mac-OS-3rd/dp/032150...](http://www.amazon.com/Cocoa-Programming-
Mac-OS-3rd/dp/0321503619/)

If you've ever wanted to write that little iPhone app, pick up his book and
you'll be a pro in few months.

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bprater
I've never heard that Buddhist story before! Pretty amazing.

Why do you think you picked this life?

~~~
rms
To experience life in the upper class of the second to last generation of
humanity, Generation Y. It's a learning experience and my post-human soul will
have this life added to its knowledge along with all of the other lives it has
lived.

~~~
alecco
My sarcasm detector is flipping.

~~~
rms

      Teen2: Are you being sarcastic, dude?
      Teen1: I don't even know anymore.
    

-<http://www.snpp.com/episodes/3F21.html>

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jayair
This idea of "..and I think we do our best work when we are conscious of
both(success and failure)." has always intrigued me. Do we really need to know
the reality of failure?

The explanation I can come up with is that the experience and knowledge of
failure gives us an advantage on both sides of the 80-95% spectrum (lets
ignore the validity of the numbers for a second). For the times when we feel
that our chances our below 80% we get scared and if we had the experience of
failure we would be better suited to handle the stress. On the 95% portion I
think it keeps you honest by reminding you that you could fail and the
consequences if you do.

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dgordon
"So let me spell out my thoughts explicitly: If success is the carrot, then
failure is the stick, and I think we do our best work when we are conscious of
both."

I was disappointed here. This seems far too trite a conclusion for the
thoughts he put forth in the rest of the entry. Did he feel compelled to wrap
it up quickly for some reason? I don't know. But there's so much more he could
have said, even within a reasonable-length blog entry.

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papersports
A startup flourishes when its founders have the belief, whether it is well
founded or not, that there chance of success is at least 80%.

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rw
Final quote:

"So let me spell out my thoughts explicitly: If success is the carrot, then
failure is the stick, and I think we do our best work when we are conscious of
both."

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eru
Interesting. Though I think the 80%-95% range was made up.

