this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
715 points (96.2% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35800 readers
1490 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

In the last year or so I started to see so many people of my age that have done truly incredible things and still doing more.
For the vast majority of my life my only goals were gettimg academic satisfaction and doing unproductive stuff in the free time to get temporary pleasure. No end goal whatsoever.
I kind of don't know what I've been doing in the last 17 years while someone gets a patent on solar systems, other invents a new recyclable plastic, and another found a successful startup. I mean, they all find what they're supposed to be doing with their lives and excel in them.
I feel overwhelmed for trying to pace up with these kind of people. Yet I don't like the way the things are and I can't do anything but envy those people.
Anyone with experience in this regard? How did you deal with this? Did you eventually "pace up" with these people or was it too late or an unattainable goal?
Edit: Whoops, I didn't expect so many replies! Thanks, I'll look into them all

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] rodneylives@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Now it's my turn to tell you basically what a lot of people here have already said, but maybe you can get something extra out of this telling.

Everyone who was mega-successful, in old age or young, has had a huge advantage somewhere that people rarely talk about. There are no exceptions to this, only cases where those advantages are lost to time or secrecy. And nearly every time, family wealth is involved in some way. Usually directly, but even if they never got a penny, being in a wealthy family brings you so many casual advantages.

You're comparing yourself to people who were dealt winning hands from the start. Like, a kid who gets a patent at a young age? Someone was coaching them, possibly someone with an agenda. Invents a new plastic? Uh-huh, at what age did they get into polymer chemistry? Who even told them polymer chemistry even existed? There's something else going on there. Don't let the media gaslight you into thinking you're "behind."

It's okay to be you! It's not a race, and even if it was, the people you're comparing yourself to had a gigantic head start.

[–] lingh0e@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't disagree with portions of your sentiment, but your declaration that LITERALLY EVERYONE who accomplishes ANYTHING was only able to do so because of an unfair advantage... that's just wildly ignorant.

This specific example jumped out at me...

Invents a new plastic? Uh-huh, at what age did they get into polymer chemistry? Who even told them polymer chemistry even existed? There's something else going on there. Don't let the media gaslight you into thinking you're "behind."

So, you believe that simply learning about a specific scientific discipline is somehow getting an unfair advantage?

The reason why your example jumped out at me is because 30something years ago, when I was in like, grade 2 or 3, we had a special lecture in science class from a local kid who discovered a some kind of new polymer that would be used in underground cable and pipe laying because it would allow tree and plant roots to grow through them without the entire structure failing catastrophically. This kid was the older brother of one of my classmates. They were a typical blue collar family, but they were more known as a family of jocks due to their taller stature. This kid was the outlier in his family. They didn't have any kind of wealth or family connections. He was just a smart kid who got into chemistry and managed to get onto a good college program that led him to his breakthrough moment.

[–] rodneylives@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

Maybe? We're fighting anecdotes with anecdotes here, there is no way I can examine your statement when it's entirely a friend-of-a-friend memory. I take issue with your "wildly ignorant" statement (of course), and stand by my point. And it's not learning about a discipline, it's the opportunity to learn about it.

[–] bandario@lemmy.dbzer0.com -1 points 1 year ago

Just ignore these people if you can. There's a major push on at present, all over the internet this exact argument is being made again and again.

There's no such thing as merit or hard work. Everything is systemic racism and class privilege. Nothing is earned, everything is given - unless you happen to be BIPOC, in which case you are the master of your own universe and a humble genius just waiting for your chance to shine.

It's intentional racism to try and even the playing field after centuries of genuine systemic racism, but it isn't organic and it isn't right. Don't let them take up too much headspace.

load more comments (3 replies)