
Mistakes in time - akharris
http://blog.ycombinator.com/mistakes-in-time/
======
neom
I feel like this is what makes dyslexia kinda cool. You spend so long when
you're young trying incredibly hard to pick up this seemingly impossible thing
that comes naturally to everyone else, eventually you build up a resiliency to
not being very good at anything in particular, and you become pretty
comfortable just trying many many different things as creatively as you can,
because there is a zero percent chance you'll become "good at them" anyway.
The upside of this is an inherent curiosity.

[https://www.google.com/search?q=dyslexic+entrepreneurs](https://www.google.com/search?q=dyslexic+entrepreneurs)

~~~
nico
My co-founder and wife is dyslexic.

Just like you say, because she had to work so much harder than everyone else,
she basically got really good at working hard and never giving up.

Here's a piece she wrote about being a dyslexic entrepreneur:

[https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ugly-dyslexic-duckling-
misa-c...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ugly-dyslexic-duckling-misa-chien)

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gt_
This post speaks to the value photography brings to my life, as something that
_can_ exercise sensual creativity. But, there is a caveat. This does not work
in correlation with social media. This isn’t to say one should not share their
photos, but that there can be a few different agendas at play there and this
comment concerns the more personal one.

I am often critical with art and normally one to make things harder than they
need to be, but I don’t think my photography habits show it. I approach
photography much like the author and, for me, it has nurtured a very special
relationship between myself and the world around me that I feel so many miss
out on, including many photographers. There are many ways to explain the zen
and fulfillment of photography but experiencing might be harder for some
people. I recommend stashing your photos and not uploading them to social
media for long periods of time after shooting them. Shooting film helps with
this. Also don’t shoot simply to document. Shoot because your visual senses
are nudging you.

Gear trap is awful. Shooting film has few defensible benefits, but it does
prevent the gear trap. I shoot on a trusty Contax G2 with 3 lenses, using
Velvia 800 or Tri-X 400 maybe push a couple stops and use my own flatbed
scanner. This is a simple and reliable setup that no new equipment can compete
with. For someone starting out, look for a decent condition rangefinder with
around a sharp 35mm focal length lens.

Also, I like the author’s photography!

~~~
akharris
So glad you like my photos!

I totally agree with your feelings around social media. I don't actually use
it much, for many reasons, but a big one is that I don't want to feel as if
I'm taking pictures to get likes. It is far more about doing something I
enjoy.

~~~
gt_
I think it makes a pretty big difference!

It's been interesting seeing how the camera equipment industry has boomed
since the introduction of camera phones. I like to think of those who got into
photography by way of Instagram but eventually realized the value in having a
more pure relationship with the practice. I wonder if everyone is capable of
that relationship. You obviously have a great eye, and maybe that influenced
the connection.

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dzink
For the longest time I had this fear of looking at a pristine piece of paper
and being afraid to put anything on it, because my ideas might not be worth
the effort and materials it took to make the paper. I had collected stacks of
beautiful clean notebooks as a child from friends and family who got
promotional business materials, so I'd have plenty of paper to write on, once
I get wiser (culture of scarcity in Eastern Europe didn't help matters).

The biggest allure of dabbling with computers at 8 and learning to program was
because you can play and undo things with no material impact. Today I pick my
mediums of ideation carefully - scrappy paper notebooks, whiteboard or iPad
and only pencils for creative work, but no fancy notebooks or permanent pens.

Whether its time or medium the fears are the same - we just need to give
ourselves permission to be kids again and go play.

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cvaidya1986
Thanks I needed that. “When you let go of that need to be immediately great,
you are also able to better learn from the people around you. Rather than
compare yourself to where people are, and decide that it would be impossible
to match them in the time you have, you think more about how to get gradually
better over the time you have.”

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ronilan
> _Fundamentally, the thing that scares me is that I’m worried about not being
> great at the things I do._

My daughter learns Mandarin at school. I try to catch up with Duolingo (which
btw is amazingly good).

Mandarin is a great antidote to the “greatness worry” above.

No matter how hard we work, how much we progress, how good we become, there
will always be at least a billion people better than us.

“The race is long, but in the end it is only with yourself”.

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lynnetye
>>> I had 4 different jobs, and 4 different career paths, in the 10 years
after college.... Each time I switched jobs... I also realized that I’d gotten
older, and started to fear that I did not have the time to get great.

I too have changed jobs and careers several times since graduating college.
Strangely, doing so has actually been liberating for me. I entered a PhD
program immediately after college, obsessed with not only being the greatest,
but also the youngest. (I didn't just want to "break records," I also wanted
to be many years younger than the previous record holder when I did.)

I let go of these fantasies the moment I dropped out of grad school though. I
was starting over from scratch which meant I'd be too old to be the best and
youngest at anything. And not chasing that goal has pretty much set me free.
Everything is way more fun now, including being a complete noob in a room full
of experts.

[http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/care...](http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2007/07/career-
advice.html) <\-- I always appreciated this Scott Adams post. It helped me go
from path #1 to path #2.

Ps. Your photos are phenomenal. Thanks for sharing, even though it was scary
to! You are (almost certainly) already the top 25% at two or more things. Now
how bout dat?! :D

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mar77i
Still better than my own existential dread about all the things programming
I'll never be able/doing/learning/getting a hang on, which I derive from the
realization that my lifespan is limited. I mean, it's not easy to admit that
even my basic research is ... mostly out-/open-sourced.

EDIT: reading the article further, I discover the author is covering this.
It's an amazing read.

~~~
akharris
Thanks - programming is another area where I feel this dynamic at work. It's
such a vast and interesting and hard space.

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aldous
Do you know the song "Quick Canal" by Atlas Sound? It articulates some of the
sentiments in this thread beautifully.

"I wanted to live the life of a prince Because I thought saints were born
saints So, indeed, we didn't stand a chance

Insalubrious offshoots of nature With heart & mind of our own All the
daughters, all the sons Taking centuries to unearth the creature

Heralding a stage Where consciousness is higher Taken through a costly process
Of success & failure

I thought saints were born saints I looked in the dirt & found wisdom is
learnt Through a costly process Of success & failure

Oh, wisdom is learnt"

[https://youtu.be/RwjUyrp7-aI](https://youtu.be/RwjUyrp7-aI)

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barce
With a startup, you can setup KPIs. The author of this piece mentions growth
as the main one and to focus on that. How was the author able to measure his
growth as a photographer?

~~~
akharris
I haven't been able to figure out anything quantitative for this, but I can
look at my recent pictures and see that they're better than my old ones.
That's a start, at least.

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SirensOfTitan
Using a getting-things-done approach has really improved my ability to learn.
Before, I’d often get too overwhelmed with the end goal I had in mind (being
great, perhaps). Within GTD, I always define a next tangible action for things
I want to learn. It changes the game, as it redirects my focus from horizon
view to what I can do right here and now to advance my goals or desires.

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DaniFong
this is really great for understanding what has been happening to people. glad
we built this time machine!

