

Excuses - guynamedloren
http://madebyloren.com/excuses

======
todayiamme
This post is the moment HN has jumped the shark for me.

I don't understand the deep amount of insight I'll gain from a rant by a man
doing his best to berate his "friend" over failing at certain things in life
and talking about how he deserved to get kicked out in a manner that seems to
be oddly reminiscent of mean girls?

This isn't just limited to this post, but it is scattered through every thread
I read these days. They tend to talk about stuff like harems and 4 out of 10
replies are just mean... There's no other word for it. It's almost as if most
of the commenters these days don't have any insightful things to say, so
they've turned commenting into a game of pulling other people down and proving
them wrong instead of trying to add to a conversation and reaching an
understanding. (that always used to happen to some extent, but now it's there
in almost every thread I read and it's disturbing)

I miss the real HN. :-(

~~~
Evernoob
The same guy posted another link to his blog about an hour or so earlier
bashing someone for failing to secure YC funding and then blogging about their
experience.

I don't see what makes this Loren kid qualified to preach like this. Just
ignore him.

------
BrianHV
I was in a similar — albeit not so extreme — place to where Abe was. I tell
everyone that I'm working towards a music career and experimenting with
startups. But I recently (prompted by a birthday) started looking at how I
spent the past few months. And when I looked at it honestly, I hadn't done
some of the core things that are required to be successful. I hadn't networked
in the music scene much, I hadn't played out enough, and I hadn't devoted
serious time to writing code, preferring to learn new frameworks, languages,
or techniques.

What I noticed was that in all cases, there was a fear of trying and failing
underlying my inaction. I was worried that if I played out and didn't live up
to professional standards I would develop a bad reputation quickly. I was
worried that I would produce a service that some people would start relying on
but that wouldn't produce enough revenue to justify maintaining it. It was a
lot easier to tell myself that I would be successful when I put the effort in
than to actually test that hypothesis.

So I made a conscious decision to err on the side of action in all things. I
chose to wake up at 8:00 every day even though I love being able to sleep in;
it puts me into a working state of mind. I chose to install LeechBlock in
Firefox, which will make it so I can't even post in this thread by the time
you're reading this. Between 9 and 5 every day, I'm doing only things that
advance me towards my goals. (And eating.) And I refuse to allow myself
excuses. If I imagined a friend asking me why I haven't done something that is
an essential step in my process and I would feel embarrassed by the answer, I
do it ASAP.

I've been at this a week now. I've already accomplished several things I ought
to have done months ago. Hopefully I'm building habits that I can maintain
indefinitely.

------
johnkpush
Perhaps this person suffered/suffers from depression?

~~~
coryl
Sounds like the textbook symptoms.

------
galaxy80
I've tried to learn to code, but it's hard to find resources for beginners
online. I tried Codeacademy.com but their weekly lessons don't explain things
like where to put [] or {} in code so I got lost and frustrated halfway into
the first lesson. I work 11 hours a day, so I don't have all this free time.
Abe was lucky to get a break like that. I would love a break like that. Too
bad he screwed himself and his opportunity up.

------
127001brewer
_If you aren’t doing exactly what you want to be doing, there’s only one
reason: you don’t want it badly enough._

Great line - talk is cheap, but it takes years to become an "overnight
success". You have to want it badly enough.

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nsxwolf
Sounds like someone is too young to have kids in school.

Incidentally, there are good excuses and bad excuses. Bad excuses are
essentially lies. A good excuse, or really, an excuse, _excuses_. If one has
an excuse, one is excused and rightfully escapes criticism or blame.

------
BasDirks
Do you have an RSS feed for your main site?

~~~
guynamedloren
I do: <http://madebyloren.com/posts.rss>

~~~
BasDirks
did I miss it or is it actually not linked to on your page?

~~~
guynamedloren
you're right, it's not on the site. went through a quick redesign a little
while back and i guess i forgot to include it. also, i'm only showing the last
10 posts with no pagination or archives... there are some nuggets in there!

------
nirvana
I can speak on the job/travel conflict. Making apps or running a website can
enable you to travel the world full time. We've been doing it for four years.

For the record, two of us travelled on a budget of less than $4,000 a month.
Actual net costs were about $2,700[1] a month, and this is over 4 years, so
not a short term number. This included the USA and Europe which are not
exactly cheap.

If you've got some websites or apps making $2k a month, you can travel the
world. And you can just go to nicer countries as your income goes up. Be
aware, though that it is distracting to travel full time.

IF you're young, there's no reason not to- you can start an internet startup
while on the road, and if you fail, you'll at least have one hell of an
adventure. I can tell you this-- being able to tell a interviewer about a
multi-month trip traveling is like catnip on job interviews. Everyone wants to
do it, and you doing it makes you stand out compared to other candidates.

And if you're at all successful, you won't ever need that job interview. You
don't have to come home. (or you may find "home" is somewhere else.)

Damn, do I need to start a blog.

[1] This is spread over time, so, 6 months living in the UK is a lot cheaper
each month than the one month where we flew across the Atlantic. We budget an
expensive flight every 6 months or so, and take local or cheap transportation
in-between.

~~~
guynamedloren
> _Damn, do I need to start a blog._

I was really hoping for a link to a blog about your travels!

Sounds like an amazing time though, would love to do some traveling and
exploring in the future.

