
Ask HN: How to think big? - thebigta
I can&#x27;t think &quot;big&quot;.<p>I&#x27;m a happy expat with a solid career in tech in my early 30s. I&#x27;m healthy, have a family and, while no &quot;big&quot; wealth, the privilege of some financial stability.<p>However, I seem incapable of &quot;thinking big&quot; (not specifically in the startup&#x2F;entrepreneur sense)<p>It shows in silly ways, like getting an idea shut down because it misses a point of economies of scale, or more serious, like constantly dismissing Pareto and spending most of my time on grunt work (I&#x27;ve gotten a pass because I eventually panic and carve out 20% of my time to deliver 1-2 big rocks at high quality.)<p>As I age and value my time more, I start wondering whether not being able to think big will jeopardize my retirement and my family&#x27;s future.<p>Most of what I can find online feels very self-helpy (says the person asking on HN) and focuses on &quot;visualizing your dreams&quot;. Most of what I can find on HN is old content, now gone, and an article by @yegg, also gone but with a nice comment thread.<p>Maybe it is about writing down and processes and rituals. Or maybe I&#x27;m doomed and if I wasn&#x27;t taught it it won&#x27;t come (and I&#x27;ll still be fine) but I want to think I can reprogram myself and learn to think big.<p>Are there specific exercises, models, analogies, processes, techniques or any other devices you use at work, in your personal finances or in life more broadly to help you &quot;think big&quot;? How do you &quot;know&quot; it&#x27;s &quot;big enough&quot;? And how do you &quot;act&quot; on &quot;big thinking&quot;?
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yesenadam
Well, I'm no expert. And you didn't give much concrete detail. But what you
say reminds me of _women who can 't be happy with themselves because not as
beautiful/slim as the women in magazines_. Which seems like a _lot_ of women.
You're happy, with a family, career, health - what more could you want - and
still, similarly, feel 'not good enough'. I guess it's common enough on here
and in the tech world, the glamour of..well, it's money, isn't it, mega-
riches. And I doubt that makes you happy. Like 'everyone' wants to be famous,
but that seems like hell on earth. People are worried about their privacy now!
Wait till you're rich/famous...

Maybe learn to appreciate what you have? It's really not easy to do, easier to
forget to do, easier to appreciate what's gone. Don't forget to do what you
love doing.

Also, maybe 'thinking big' itself will jeopardize your retirement/family's
future, who knows, but it seems to happen as often as not.

My first instinct was to write "Stop saying you _can 't_!", but after reading
all you wrote, I thought this might be more helpful. Good luck!

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thebigta
Thank you. You make great points for me to take back and reflect on.

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cabraca
why do you need to think big? honest question. everything i can see is just
another iteration at something. even docker is basically just an iteration on
existing container technology. stop thinking big, start thinking iterative.
iterate on something so it offers a net benefit, thats "big enough"

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thebigta
It's a fair point and I appreciate it. I enjoy the daily grind and have no
issue with iterative, but how do you "see ahead" 3-5 iterations forward?

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cimmanom
Is the problem about thinking big (visionary)? Or is it about focusing on the
big picture?

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thebigta
The former, I think. I can often "zoom out" but often just in one or two
dimensions, for example I struggle "zooming forward" in time.

