
Kevin Smith’s Secrets To A Successful Life - moge
http://connectedcomedy.com/kevin-smiths-secrets-to-a-successful-life/
======
mowmowmow
How did I know his advice would be a variation of 'do what you love'? I've
heard it so many times, but am I supposed to quit my job as a developer that
supports my wife and two young kids, and do something that I'm really
passionate about, like starting a rock band? That's really tough, my wife
would probably leave me and we'd have to move out of our nice, safe
neighborhood.

Also - once you make your passion your ft job it then starts to get annoying.
I remember when programming was my passion, and now it's just another job -
who's to say the same thing wouldn't happen with filmmaking or music?

~~~
Ixiaus
That's why you figure that shit out _before_ you get the wife and the
mortgage. But, either way, you can still do it you just have to do it slowly
and in your free time. Making your passion your full time job does not make it
annoying!!!! I LOVE WHAT I DO EVEN MORE NOW THAT I WORK FOR MY SELF! When I
worked in a cubicle farm like you and cranked out commodity software, I
_fucking hated programming_.

Think of a fun idea, doesn't have to be academically innovative, just
something useful to people and start cranking on it. I did that. I have a full
time job from it now and holy shit do I love it. There are days I work 12
hours, but you know what? I feel _awesome_ afterwards. After a 12 hour day in
the office of company x I always needed a beer and bitched about shit for half
a day.

Sorry for all the french. I just can't stress these points enough - same
points Smith is making, really. I don't even make "a lot" of money, just
enough to be upper middle class. I love my work, my life feels fulfilling, and
I have money to do what I want with it.

If you don't have kids, I recommend waiting on that ride - it's tough enough
that you have a wife. Hopefully she's a cool chick and will support/help you
during transition and well into the wild journey of working for yourself.

[EDIT] To clarify the final paragraph: I don't mean to rag on
wives/girlfriends (I have a girlfriend), it's just that, if she isn't a cool
person and you are emotionally dependent then you lose a certain amount of
autonomy and freedom to move around and do things (like leave your job and
move into a two bedroom apartment). My girl happily downsized from a house to
a two bedroom apartment when we moved to San Diego. It took her a year, but
she sold the majority of her junk and we are now much happier (TBH). We also
don't share finances (I have a thing against that) so it helped her save some
money for other things/experiences as well.

~~~
steveklabnik
And you can even find girlfriends who do the opposite: I have no particular
desire to move, but mine wants to see the world, so she's pushing me to
finally get around to doing that.

Everything in life is a tradeoff. You just have to be conscious of the ones
you're making.

~~~
Ixiaus
A good point - awareness of where your center of gravity [in life] is - an
important quality to cultivate.

RE: girlfriends that are the opposite. I agree, it is very possible but it has
been my experience that either foreign or alt chicks are the most open to
experiencing new things. To balance that sexist comment, I also realize there
is a corollary in mainstream American men as well.

BTW, travel (particularly budget backpacking) will change your entire world
view; kudos to finding a woman that is into that. I highly recommend India for
a few months, on a shoestring and with no itinerary :)

~~~
mowmowmow
I'd love to do the budget backpacking thing, I'm dying to see Europe.
Hopefully when the kids are a couple of years older we can leave them w their
grandma and take off to see the world for a few weeks.

~~~
Ixiaus
You'll probably have to do it with the kids - a few weeks isn't enough to
immerse yourself in culture. You'll just end up swimming around in the western
bubble. Live an alternative life style with your kids, show them the world
isn't a scary place. Hell, move to Europe! Just some ideas.

~~~
js2
Indeed. Meet the Miller family -
<http://edventureproject.com/wordpress/?page_id=3> ("We spent a year touring
most of Europe and part of North Africa on our bicycles… with all four kids")

Or the Vogel family - <http://familyonbikes.org/blog/?page_id=10> ("The Vogel
family left June 8, 2008 for a 2 1/2 year bicycle trip traversing the Pan-
American Highway from Alaska to Argentina.")

It can be done.

------
afterburner
Kevin Smith had an impressive drive, focus, and determination with respect to
pursuing film-making. He wanted to _get down to it_ ; he went to the shortest,
cheapest film program he could find, and dropped out half way with a partial
refund because they were spending too much time on film theory and not enough
on practical filming, and would rather spend the money on his first film.

Sure, he's a slacker in many respects, and proudly so, but in this respect, he
was focused as a laser. It helps...

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cypherdog
Keven Smith is a smart guy who can tell a great story. "An Evening with Kevin
Smith [1 & 2]" are both great DVD's where he goes from college to college
telling life stories and answering questions/ giving advice off-the-cuff, and
yet, these stories are engaging and hilarious and well worth watching. The
advice he gives in this article, in my opinion, is simple advice that I think
guys here on HN have been reading for years, but it's no less true, whether
you like Kevin Smith or not.

~~~
TamDenholm
He also did "A threevening with Kevin Smith" incase people aren't aware. I'd
say it's about time for another DVD.

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e40
It may not take talent (or an abundance of it), but it does take a certain
type of intelligence. Kevin Smith clearly has that. I fear that many people
(including the guy who started this with a tweet) probably will never get
something like this moving in the right direction.

~~~
cmos
What tragic thought! While his path may not be laced with such obvious success
as Kevin Smith, the whole point of the tweet is that all it requires is
passion and a willingness to follow it. Surely anyone is capable of that.

~~~
levesque
Replace willingness by motivation and focus. Everybody is willing to do
something, not everyone will find the willpower to do it.

~~~
nswanberg
If you want a book-length version of the same advice, read Think and Grow Rich
by Napoleon Hill, a curious depression-era classic:
[http://books.google.com/books?id=c86H36mgiM4C&lpg=PP1...](http://books.google.com/books?id=c86H36mgiM4C&lpg=PP1&ots=ZJTg8cIPjc&dq=think%20and%20grow%20rich&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false)

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guynamedloren
Looks like Kevin Smith compiles his tweet monologues on his own blog:
<http://silentbobspeaks.com/?p=401>

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mattdeboard
I am honestly surprised by the number of people "meh"ing at this advice. It is
surprising because this is a forum for hackers, smart people who look for ways
to use a system's rules (or lack thereof) to do what they want or need to get
done. And yet a significant number of commenters here are saying "Don't want
to be what you want to be; be what you want to be" is bad advice.

As a novice hacker, my role models are many of the same smart people who post
here. It's a little disheartening to see such strident dismissal of some good
god damn advice.

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Tycho
I think it all just comes down to how much time you waste instead of doing
something useful. Like I'm doing right now writing this comment and reading
HN. Nobody ever seems to admit how much time they waste watching tv, web
surfing, sleeping, gaming, drinking etc.

~~~
mattdeboard
Agreed. I need to uninstall Steam.

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llimllib
cached:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&safe=...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fconnectedcomedy.com%2Fkevin-
smiths-secrets-to-a-successful-life%2F&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=)

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hugh3
This is nice, but I'm disinclined to take useful advice on how to live my life
from people who are apparently less happy than I am.

~~~
generalk
I don't know how happy _you_ are, but Kevin Smith seems pretty damn happy with
his life.

~~~
levesque
Maybe he's one of those persons that, you know, are just _happy to be happy_.

Their happiness might be thought of as the result of this pseudo code :

    
    
        happiness = abs(happiness)
    
        while (!implode)
    
            happiness = happiness * 1.1

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io
step 0: be really talented

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piney
Like a lame pep-talk from your Wall-Mart manager after he fires you.

