

The Fight (2012) - kamaal
http://dcurt.is/the-fight

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aroman
Wow. That felt very powerful to me, and well written.

Predictably, it is causing me to reflect on my own life. I'm sitting up in my
bed, typing on my smartphone at 1:39 am, exploring the feeling that I have no
idea what _I 'm_ fighting for.

At the risk of diluting the genuineness of Dustin's words with cliches of my
own, I actually now realize I don't know what I'm doing with my life. Which is
surprising to me, because I've been lulled into absorbing my own persona of
"guy who has plans and ambition" — I'm sure many of you can relate.

I'm a senior in high school, off to college next year. I'm supposed to be
studying cognitive science and human-computer interaction. I have worked hard,
inside and outside the classroom, to get where I am, or so people tell me.

I have aspirations of greatness too naive and disgustingly grandiose to
formulate into actionable plans. I legitimately see threads connecting all
reality — from the power of design to the eerie harmony of the human
experience — and that it is my duty to weave them into visibility.

Worse, _I believe I have the duty to change the world, because I regularly
fantasize about doing so._ I have been raised to believe that "if I will it,
it is no dream."

I have the dreams, some very specific, others abstract, but I can't always
make sense of them when I wake up.

And how do I know which are worth fighting for?

~~~
IvyMike
> I don't know what I'm doing with my life [ ... ] I'm a senior in high school

Spoiler alert: you will find this hilarious in a year or two.

~~~
NhanH
One of my friends used to told me "If you look back on actions you made 6
months ago and don't think it's funny, you haven't been learning" :-).

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kev009
I live in a strange duality according to this article. I'm in my mid-20s and
have accomplished much of my childhood goals. I knew I wanted to be a
professional developer at a young age and have quickly risen to my choice of
companies, locations, and roles doing this. I'm aware of my mortality, but
death itself doesn't scare me in the sense that if I died tomorrow and had
some way to reflect I would certainly not regret any of the things I have or
have not done. And not because I've made spectacularly good decisions or have
done anything extraordinary; I simply accept the randomness of the world. The
thing that really drives me is taming that randomness, eliminating
inefficiency with small and clean systems, and helping others do the same.
Some cultures seem to be catatonic with death - to me it's an event that
happens to all of us - so in practice I fall in line with the article but I
guess with different implementation. For me, it is very liberating to live
outside of all fear.

~~~
BorisMelnik
What you have managed to accomplish is what I struggle with most every day.
Like you, except I am in my early thirties I have accomplished everything I
have ever hoped and dreamed of x10. Only difference is I accept death but fear
it every day.

I am fearful of what happens "after" OR I fear nothingness, it also makes me
very very sad..

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jdkent
My dad, age 76, collapsed at the gym while working out. His trainer performed
hands-only CPR on him for 8 minutes before the paramedics arrived. After a few
shocks, the paramedics got his heart going again. He spent 3 days in a
medically induced coma with reduced body temperature. From there, he spent
another 10 day in the hospital and 60 days recovering.

As mentioned in the article, it's extremely rare for people to survive cardiac
arrest. My dad is alive for two reasons:

1\. Hands-only CPR. It works, and it's dead simple. handsonlycpr.org

2\. He was extremely healthy before the incident. He may have been 76, but he
also worked out and climbed mountains. Exercising and eating right not only
prevents cardiac problems, they also improve your recovery. His body was in a
condition to repair itself better than most individuals his age. Being healthy
is not just about prevention.

~~~
NamTaf
My grandfather had a stroke in his late 70s. He was mowing another elderly
lady's lawn (something he did for cash on the side given he was retired) and
had a stroke. He fell down behind the mower and was down for 30 minutes before
the lady noticed something odd about the fact that the lawnmower engine hadn't
moved from one side of the house in that time.

He never fully recovered. He regained some mobility of the paralysed side, but
never enough to walk despite our efforts to make him get up and use a rail to
walk down the corridor. He could at least help my grandmother with his
assisted transfers from bed to wheelchair, which was good considering she was
almost as old as well. He was not able to talk properly, but he could
communicate well enough. As someone who'd been tending to an avery of hundreds
of birds and doing manual labour on his acres of property prior to that, it
was the single worst torture for him to be paralysed like that.

He remained incredibly mentally sharp. He'd come to family birthdays and would
be sitting at the end of the table with some of hte family around and he'd
spot something across the room that no one else saw - a grandchild stealing a
sweet from the table or whatnot. He'd struggle to communicate it to us but
sure enough his eagle eyes and sharp attention had noticed it.

It was with no doubt that his incredible physical health was what made him
even survive. He lived for some 5-8 years after that. It was a terrible life
and he felt incredibly depressed and helpless given his previous circumstance,
but he was alive and we gave him the best quality of life we could.

In summary, I guess what I'm trying to say via example is that you cannot
possibly underestimate the ability for a healthy body to endure trauma that a
less healthy body will just give up under. Especailly as you age, your
physical health will help you in ways you can never imagine. Don't neglect it.

Oh, and CPR is a phenomenal tool. Being able to provide first aid is one of
those things that you hope will never pay off, but when it does it will
literally save a life.

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jmduke
Some previous discussion (in particular, I recommend the thread caused by
ForrestN's comment):
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4740540](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4740540)

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teach
Mods: You should probably add (2012) to the headline. Worth reading again,
though.

~~~
diminish
Here please read earlier discussions on it
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4740540](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4740540)

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junto
As I read this I realise that the ambitions and dreams I had in my 20's have
changed. Now that I have two children I have a greater fear of dying, which is
more because I fear not seeing them growing up and not being there to protect
them from harm when / if it arrives.

Funny how your priorities can change so vastly.

------
read
_remember to go against your instinct_

So far I had formed the impression one should be going _with_ their instinct.
Are some instincts bad and some good? What's the test for telling which is
which?

~~~
xvedejas
I think he means the tendencies which overtake us if we don't think
deliberately about them, like procrastination. Procrastination is my worst
instinct, and at times the biggest obstacle between myself and my goals.

~~~
read
Changing your life to have different tendencies seems elusively tricky. My
biggest one is the opposite of yours: stepping away from work.

Have you found ways around such obstacles?

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bjornsing
Amazing story, and amazing writing!

By the way, the most spectacular story along these lines I've heard is that of
Anna Bågenholm, a Swedish doctor who was trapped under ice, in flowing
meltwater for 80 minutes [1]. She made a nearly full recovery after being
"dead" for hours. Read the article, it makes you wonder what life really is.

1\.
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_B%C3%A5genholm](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_B%C3%A5genholm)

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lxkl
While the story and the thoughts it provokes are certainly good, the
conclusion is way off. At least in a buddhist's way of seeing things who
should be experts in this regard. An interesting and enlightening article is
the following: [http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-
PHIL/ew27149.htm](http://buddhism.lib.ntu.edu.tw/FULLTEXT/JR-PHIL/ew27149.htm)

