
Ask HN: Favorite HN quotes? - reducesuffering
&quot;I still think Oracle is two engineers thinking about B-trees and then several million salespeople&quot;
======
zck
What pg has called the "comeback of all time". After a back-and-forth about
someone's chances of success. from
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35079):

> Of course it's a bold statement. But if I wasn't bold...

> Did you win the Putnam? If not, please don't be "bolder" than this guy:
> [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravi_Vakil](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravi_Vakil)

> Yes, I did.

~~~
TheAlchemist
It just makes me so sad that I discovered HN so late !

~~~
smithmayowa
That thread was unbelievable, man hackernews discussions were very
enlightening back then, drew houston even introduced his startup in that
thread.

------
lewisflude
From 2007 on Dropbox

"I have a few qualms with this app:

1\. For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite
trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and
then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP
account could be accessed through built-in software.

2\. It doesn't actually replace a USB drive. Most people I know e-mail files
to themselves or host them somewhere online to be able to perform
presentations, but they still carry a USB drive in case there are connectivity
problems. This does not solve the connectivity issue.

3\. It does not seem very "viral" or income-generating. I know this is
premature at this point, but without charging users for the service, is it
reasonable to expect to make money off of this?"

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224)

------
acheron
"JavaScript is the XML, the Yugo, the Therac-25 of programming languages. The
sheer amount of human effort which has been expended working around its
fundamental flaws instead of advancing the development of mankind is
astounding. The fact that people would take this paragon of wasted opportunity
and use it on the server side, where there are so many better alternatives (to
a first approximation, every other programming language ever used), is utterly
appalling."

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11447851](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11447851)

------
jstewartmobile
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17364748](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17364748)

" _Sorry, but we need a Turing-complete language for ads and tracking.
Preferably with JITting, and unfettered access to the GPU and other misc.
peripherals like GPS, webcam, etc. In return you get free cat videos.

You’re welcome._"

------
AnimalMuppet
Sorry, I have usernames for these, but not links to where they were.

"Play stupid games, win stupid prizes." \- Nicholas_C

"We're all on mushrooms, you've just been drinking tequila all night - that
means you get to fix the flamethrower..." \- bigiaian

"You've got to be a twit to believe Twitter." \- hardworkforyou

"Nothing is as dumb as being too smart." \- bonesss

"Advice is free, until you take it." \- em0ney

"Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice." \-
philipov

------
krrishd
incidentally i kept track of two in my personal note of quotes that stuck with
me:

“Those ideas are also based in my anecdotal experience, and perhaps it comes
from a willingness to question some "fundamental axioms from scratch", but at
the same time maybe that's a) not always a bad thing to do from time to time,
and b) if your fundamental axioms are good there is no reason that you won't
come back to them.” -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17296020](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17296020)

“Augmenting human intelligence, while leaving the hearts as they are, is a
loss, not a gain.” -
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17196155](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17196155)

------
kapurs151
This is a good collection: [https://dnluu.com/hn-
comments/](https://dnluu.com/hn-comments/)

~~~
omosubi
Haha I came to post one I saw on your link - "Most people realize by their 30s
that prestige is a sucker's game; it's a way of inducing people to do things
that aren't much fun and they wouldn't really want to do on their own, by
lauding them with accolades from people they don't really care about."

Also, the link you have is wrong - it's [https://danluu.com/hn-
comments/](https://danluu.com/hn-comments/)

------
wallflower
My all time-favorite HN comment is from fiaz.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121413](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=121413)

> fiaz XXXX days ago | parent | favorite | on: Ask News.YC: How to re-motivate
> yourself?

APOLOGIES for making this post so annoyingly long, but I really hope you find
value in the words below.
\-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm going to first share a personal experience from my early trading days to
illustrate where I'm coming from. I used to wake up at 4:30 am everyday in the
Chicago suburbs to beat rush hour traffic and make it into downtown Chicago at
6:30 am. In order to wake up so early, I fell into a habit of sleeping at 9:00
pm and like a robot waking up at 4:30 am. This simple routine was indirectly
helpful when things seemed darkest. For the first six months, I lost money and
was ridiculed constantly by other traders who were more successful than me
(which was about 20 other guys CONSTANTLY using me as a punching/whipping
bag). The only thing that kept me going was the fact that some of the very
same traders that would be making wise cracks at me for losing money were some
of the most successful people I knew at the time. For better or worse, if I
needed a trader to model myself after, it was the same people that were
telling me how bad a trader I was - and although I was not open to really hear
what they were saying, they were right about my skills in every way (but their
feedback was always packaged in some sort of insult). After racking up some
rather hefty losses, I was determined to quit at one point during month four,
but because I had a habit of waking up at 4:30 am I simply "forgot" that the
night before I told myself I would quit and spare myself further
humiliation...by then I was warned that I was now on the red list of traders
ready to be cut. Also, my personal savings were starting to approach zero (the
base "draw" for house traders was enough to pay for food; you usually make
your money on a percentage of your profits, and I was deep in the red at the
time). To say the least, there were many excellent reasons to be "reasonable",
forget about my dreams, and quit. After 4 consecutive "failures to quit", I
realized that I didn't quit because somewhere deep down I was hanging on to a
dream, however remote at that point: that I could somehow be as successful as
the other traders that I knew. At the same time I realized that I had hit rock
bottom in that I couldn't even succeed in failing! Very tough times indeed...
An interesting point to note here is that although my losses were starting to
get very large, the people who were funding me as a trader kept me because I
had one redeeming quality: EFFORT, and this helped build tenacity. Other
traders who barely traded but had a fraction of my losses were cut much faster
because they didn't put forth much effort. They were not willing to take
losses and be bold/brave and fight it out; I was willing to take risks, and
this saved me from getting cut faster than others. Slowly I began to
reinterpret the constant humiliation I was suffering: perhaps the other
traders were right about their "jokes" and there might be something in what
they are saying that will help me get out of the red. I also realized that
since I had failed at quitting (which was now the ULTIMATE failure), there was
no further failure for me and that if I took baby steps they were surely to
succeed (this translated into taking smaller trades/profits). Only after
improving upon my abilities as a trader and channeling my energies
appropriately did I succeed and earn everybody's respect as a trader (and you
have no idea how this made me feel!). I quickly made enough in commissions to
be trading my own account, and be successful as an independent trader onward.
When I look back at those final months of 1999 (yeah that's right, I was
losing huge cash at the end of 1999 when the entire market was going crazy
UP!), there was more good than bad even when I was getting my ass handed to
me. It's just that I was intentionally creating my own feedback (I'm right
everybody else is wrong) instead of seeing the results I was getting
(losses/insults) as feedback and information that would help me be successful.
I kind of snicker every time I see somebody ask for feedback on their startup
on YC.News only to end up justifying themselves by telling everybody why they
did what they did when they get negative feedback, which is the feedback of
greatest value. If somebody tells you how crappy your idea is, thank them that
they even spent a few brain cycles considering your idea. The lessons I
learned from this that are perhaps relevant to your questions:

\- Determine if you believe in yourself to succeed as an individual (I know
this sounds odd, but for a moment just examine your thought patterns and your
actions and see what message you are sending to yourself; do you listen to the
voice that says you can't or are you paying attention to the feedback from
your efforts and the results you are getting?)

\- Search deep down inside and see if the project you are working on is
something you believe in or not. If you can't sell yourself, then you
shouldn't bother trying any further...

\- ANY attention you get for your efforts is good attention. If you get LOTS
of negative feedback, then be grateful - you've jumped the first hurdle of
getting people to give a damn about what you are doing! :)

\- There is responsibility and accountability that goes with both success and
failure. You need to be ready for both because they can be equally painful in
equal ways. The amount of accountability that comes with success can be more
unbearable than the accountability that accompanies failure. I personally know
of some very talented people who enjoyed phenomenal initial success only to
find just as fast that they were in over their heads. \- The more you resist
the possibility of failure then you are less likely to recognize possibilities
that will help you succeed. If you are afraid to fail, then most certainly you
are afraid to succeed. This sounds counterintuitive but it's based upon the
fact that fear makes your mind less supple and less responsive to the changes
that will push you out of the game - or conversely it will lessen the impulse
to jump on the opportunities you need to succeed. \- The results you get has
everything to do with your users/market and less to do with you as an
individual; it's sometimes hard to separate these two. See the other side of
the equation and what side you are on before trying to solve it. Don't ever
think you are above the feedback of your users...EVER! \- Don't have
expectations (this is just setting yourself up for failure). Because you are
starting out you may not know what is best to help you succeed - ESPECIALLY if
you're lacking motivation. Keep in mind that whatever results you get from
your efforts will lead to more possibilities (in the form of additional
information).

\- Have some behavioral "context" within which to exercise discipline and
structure. Seek to grow your efforts within this context. My context was my
sleep schedule. It was a routine that was so ingrained that my drive had a
laser focus. This might not work for some, but it worked for me. Finally, I
will add that in my opinion failing hard and fast is MUCH better than failing
slowly. The faster you know for certain something isn't going to work out, the
sooner you can cut your losses and move on to your next idea. When you
eventually succeed, you will look back at all the times you were quick to cut
your losses and get to where you are...

\---------------------------------------------------------

Please do NOT contact me asking for advice in trading/investing. This is a
VERY personal thing, and it has everything to do with who you are, NOT with
how much information you have, or which tools you use, or who you know.

------
ironmike
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”

\- Mike Tyson

