
When did we forget our dreams? - blackswan
http://xkcd.com/137/
======
maxklein
I don't think people ever forget their dreams. They always remember them, but
just move in the direction that is expected of them, and never actually
implement their dreams. But they don't forget.

Something I recently realised is this - this is it! Where I live, what I am
doing, who my friends are - this is my life! This is not a temporary stop
while I figure out how to make millions, after which I will actually start
living, no, it already started and I'm a part of it.

Waiting may take longer than I expect, so I better enjoy the wait as much as I
well can. That's why I'm not giving up my life to create a startup. Rather,
I'll enjoy things as they come every day, and dedicate an appropriate amount
of time towards realising my dreams. If the dreams never work out, it really
is not that bad, because I enjoyed the time right up until then.

~~~
dhimes
You've learned the message of Buddha and Pink Floyd well.

~~~
maxklein
This is why self help books keep selling. Because we keep hearing the same
wisdom over and over again, but we just do not _understand_ it. All these
simple fortune cookie wisdoms, they mean nothing when you read them casually.
But when something big happens to you and you really _understand_ what is
meant, then it's like opening a new door and discovering magic behind it.

I finally get it. It may be stupid to everyone else, it may be obvious, but
only now do I really really understand what is meant, and only now have I been
able to apply what I learnt to make a fair amount of money and be happy while
doing it.

~~~
johnyzee
Kierkegaard nailed this long ago, when he said that everything is subjective,
and that no wisdom can be transferred from one person to another, except
through directly living and experiencing it.

(Kierkegaard wanted his gravestone to say 'A person', because after all, who
would understand what Kierkegaard was anyway.)

------
noonespecial
Yes, we can all go right to xkcd, or techcrunch or whatever and read them
ourselves. Thats not the point of posting them on Hacker News. The point is
that the discussion that follows about the ideas in the articles/comics is
still radically different on HN than most other places.

Randall has some thoughts that apply very well in a group like this so his
comics appear here often and start interesting discussions. The only thing not
interesting to me is that every time one is getting started I have to wade
through a boundary layer of "lets blacklist xkcd" comments.

Doc my karma if you will, but I think the silent majority has voted with the
upmod arrow on the post. I am one of them.

~~~
aneesh
Completely agree, but I'm refraining from upmodding you because it would
surely be ironic if this becomes the top comment, instead of some real
discussion on pursuing our dreams!

~~~
noonespecial
Ha. Definitely. Sometimes karma catches you off guard. I didn't expect to get
any upmods for that. It was a bit of a rant really. When I got here, it was
just about entirely a discussion about blacklisting xkcd and I thought the
comic had brought up something that was really worth talking about.

Of course, as soon as I post this the _karma discussion effect_ will begin and
it'll be downvoted back to something reasonable I think. Just don't - me
bro... :)

------
llimllib
It's not that the routines cause thoughtlessness but that, ideally, the
routines free us to think about and do important, creative things by making
the daily doldrums automatic.

Sure, sometimes it's good to dive back into reinventing the routines (or
taking a road trip and questioning the purpose of the routine), but very few
people can get work done that way. And getting work done is a valuable goal.

------
Bluem00
This is an old comic and normally I'd be annoyed, but this one is an
exception: Reflecting on my dreams, even if I've chosen not to pursue some of
them, has greatly improved my mood on this particular day.

Do it again tomorrow? :)

~~~
redorb
the essence of your comment if beautiful.. tomorrow would be great.

------
coglethorpe
Great. My employer saw the last three frames and now I'm fired for what
someone else wrote.

~~~
gills
Can't think of a better reason to go build your startup :)

~~~
lux
Absolutely! Just uploading the latest changes to our "stealth mode" startup
site right now :) We'll be in invite-only mode by the end of the weekend, and
completely public sometime next month. Stoked!

Thinking about these kinds of things, I feel sad for other people who haven't
taken a risk on a dream. Caring about something as passionately as a startup
you've build from the ground up is something I imagine many people never get
to feel, although maybe having kids is similar (don't have any, so I couldn't
say...). But as far as the 9-5 goes, I'd rather care about what I built in
that time rather than feel it was wasted on something not worth doing.

Ooh, upload just finished, here I go! :)

------
michael_dorfman
A classic.

And, when hiring, I certainly wouldn't hold a rant like that posted somewhere
on the internet against an applicant...

------
yan
All this talk of following one's dreams is really making me want to finish The
Alchemist, which I started last night.

~~~
anr
Sorry, but why not go right to the good stuff?

You'll find a great list in Harold Bloom's "Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred
Exemplary Creative Minds".

<http://www.amazon.com/dp/0446691291/>

------
nazgulnarsil
this is existentialism in a shiny wrapper.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
read the first sentence in the wikipedia article on existentialism before you
downmod please.

~~~
cousin_it
Wow, you said that word. It's unfashionable.

Existentialism isn't popular as self-help because it's not optimistic. There's
no natural law that every truth must be shiny happy. "Existence precedes
essence" accurately describes our world, but doesn't motivate. A good antidote
against religion and propaganda, though.

------
ovi256
When the first bill came due.

------
as
I've had this on my wall for months.

------
Tichy
Oh, the text in the middle is meant to be read? I read the cartoon only as
"you should be more careful sdojdsa fosadf aösdpoifasdö fojahdsfösdaof
sddfjjdsjdsjfsd föso fsdöfo sdfsd fuck that shit".

------
mindcrime
That is bloody brilliant! Love it...

------
xlnt
I didn't forget my dreams.

------
prakash
PG: can you please add xkcd hostname to the blacklist? Not because it's bad --
actually it's brilliant, but adds very little to this community in terms of
news.

After getting techcrunched, is xkcd the second sign of HN going the reddit
way?

~~~
icey
It'd be pretty sweet to allow us to put a list of domains we don't want to see
links for in our preferences.

~~~
prakash
I had asked for something similar a while back.

~~~
neilc
Why not just do it yourself via Greasemonkey?

The bitching about xkcd is getting annoying (as is the constant speculation
about "Is this the moment when HN is going to jump the shark?)

