
Taming Doubt - apgwoz
http://www.defmacro.org/ramblings/taming-doubt.html
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zupatol
I'm not that wise. Sometimes when I have a good idea can't help fantasizing
about receiving awards. Lately I've seen myself teaching young people about my
accomplishments. Knowing this is completely ridiculous is not enough to stop
it. So maybe I should try meditation.

I was about to ask if anyone knew how to find a meditation class, but then I
googled it myself:

<http://www.ehow.com/how_2222761_meditation-teacher.html>

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Create
Having read the thing, two quotes come to mind. "In biblical terms, there is
nothing new under the sun":

"You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.
This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my
life."

\-- Commencement address by Steve Jobs

"The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and
uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a
scientist doesn’t know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a
hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty damn
sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have
found it of paramount importance that in order to progress, we must recognize
our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of
statements of varying degrees of certainty — some most unsure, some nearly
sure, but none absolutely certain. Now, we scientists are used to this, and we
take it for granted that it is perfectly consistent to be unsure, that it is
possible to live and not know. But I don’t know whether everyone realizes this
is true. Our freedom to doubt was born out of a struggle against authority in
the early days of science. It was a very deep and strong struggle: permit us
to question — to doubt — to not be sure. I think that it is important that we
do not forget this struggle and thus perhaps lose what we have gained."

\-- "The Value of Science," address to the National Academy of Sciences
(Autumn 1955) in What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures
of a Curious Character, Richard Feynman.

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shiro
I liked the article. Although my ego swings from euphoria to depression
depending on the positive or negative feedback, ultimately I feel I'm just an
instrument of something bigger existence (I'd call it Muse if I'd be an
artist, but I don't know any Goddess of Programming) and the only way to
satisfy myself is, um, to let She drive me to wherever She wants to go, apart
from how my ego feels by the feedback. In other words, it is the to-be-done
work itself that demands me to work on it. It seems that some creators
(writers, musicians, etc.) mentioning same kind of drive.

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baltoo
Perhaps not Goddess of Programming, but The Lady (of Discworld fame) could
maybe be apt for a Goddess of Startups.

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TooMuchNick
This is why it helps to have one or two colleagues you really respect, who
really respect you. If you're confident that they're very good, then if they
think you're good too, you must be good, right?

I find this satisfies my need for the approval of others, while being much
safer than looking for the approval of a dozen, hundred, or ten thousand
readers or users.

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andreyf
So should I feel bad for feeling bad about myself for not achieving this level
of understanding?

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apgwoz
I felt the same way. I read the post and thought "this is exactly what happens
to me," and then I was like, "Damn, why didn't I realize this was happening?"

Reading it is extremely insightful, but my assumption is that despite reading
it, this sort of thing is something that has to be realized on your own.

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andreyf
_this sort of thing is something that has to be realized on your own_

Absolutely, but the post helps. What I was referring to, also, was feeling
jealous that the author can go through life without seeking the approval of
others. I've found this a big problem in myself - something I'm trying to rise
above.

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coglethorpe
I really hope people vote for this comment.

