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Are people bad at their jobs or are the jobs just bad?

(annehelen.substack.com)
287 points moonka | 3 comments | 02 Apr 25 21:54 UTC | HN request time: 1.077s | source
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zw123456 ◴[02 Apr 25 22:52 UTC] No.43562700[source]▶
I recently retired after 45 years in tech. I started out in 1978 at Bell Labs. I have had great jobs and terrible jobs. Great bosses and horrific bosses. And all the things in between. I did not just survive, I thrived and beyond and worked at 3 start ups and a bunch of other companies large and small. What I learned is to not to be afraid. Regardless of what is happening around you. Fear is the enemy. Don't be afraid to be weird or crazy or whatever is causing you to be timid.
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adultcool ◴[02 Apr 25 23:18 UTC] No.43562925[source]▶
Fear is the mind killer.
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1. saturn8601 ◴[03 Apr 25 04:03 UTC] No.43564609[source]▶
Fear is one thing but how do you deal with regret? Regret for taking the leap as well as regret for not taking the leap? There can be regret in both paths.
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2. imp0cat ◴[03 Apr 25 05:26 UTC] No.43565088[source]▶
Start by reading some Robert Frost.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43476154

3. anarticle ◴[03 Apr 25 11:01 UTC] No.43567828[source]▶
You have to accept that life is single threaded and you’re not always going to choose the most optimal path.

It’s easy to overthink, but without omniscient info, execute the plan you have.

Regret is tough because it piles up as you age. It’s easy to look back and think “dang, I did a lot of bad moves” while ignoring all the upsides and limited info you had at the time.

In many ways our easy access to info makes you think “just one more search” will make my decision 10x better when in reality it’s a huge super power you should use to drive execution, not the other way around. Think of what an advantage it is to have that much context on the scale of human existence. At least for me, this makes me more optimistic: I make less mistakes than ages before me because I’m relatively better informed. Note: this doesn’t mean the choices are always good, just that I understand them more completely.