Quote:
Originally Posted by Howard Treesong
El D seems heartless at times, but he is just being direct. Your name came up the other night as I was whipping the El D at credit card roulette, and I have no reason to believe he dislikes you one bit. Somewhat to the contrary, in fact. The advice "work harder" is general, but it's like the advice someone gave me long ago about poker: "play tighter and more aggressively." Taken too far, the poker advice can turn you spewy. So too with the life advice, which I'd phrase a little differently: think a little less and act a little more.
Oh I don't think that he's consumed by rage for me whatsoever, but he obviously dislikes my internet persona, finds my proud, arrogant, cocky and suchlike and wants to 'bring me down a peg' so to speak.
I guess I'm simply saying that I don't believe he wants to do so because he sincerely believes that its the best for me or that it'll improve my life. I think that if he were told say, that I were upset by his posts, that he wouldn't be able to help himself feel a slight jolt of happiness. This is a guy with 50,000+ posts and a great deal of time invested into his online persona after all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Howard Treesong
You seem like a smart enough guy -- certainly smarter than a 17k-pound low-level office job would indicate
This runs directly contrary to what he's been saying. Even if he's your friend, you should have the honesty to admit that you disagree with him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Howard Treesong
so it's a question of how to leverage the talent you do have into something more useful/productive/wealth-creating or whatever you decide it is that you want. I think I recall you expressing some desire to be a writer; if so, then write, either in a blog or elsewhere, but practice and seek to improve your craft wherever and however you can. Sweat every sentence; work with words and make them ring. Don't just spew at it, but rather really work to make every sentence as effective as you can make it.
This is all great advice and something I want to try and work on as much as I can.
The biggest problem I find, is that I'm coming across as proud, arrogant, cocky, overly confident and suchlike, but its incredibly difficult for people to pinpoint examples of how this is so. You guys are obviously intelligent enough to know that 'you're not as smart as you think you are' is an unfalsifiable claim that no-one can defend themselves from beyond expressing things differently in the tone of their work, and as such, it isn't easy for me to suddenly begin writing in a style that's conducive to running against that tone.
El D might be insulting me, but that doesn't mean his contributions aren't a useful case study as a member of my audience.
I mean, I do wonder what is really being asked of me here?
It seems like in order to show humility I'm supposed to bow my head and abase myself amid any insults and personal attacks that come my way, and yet somehow have the ambition and aspiration to somehow better myself.
If, for example, I told any of my real life friends that I wasn't intelligent enough to do better than my current job, they'd doubtless tell me to stop whining and complaining, that of course I'm more intelligent than huge swathes of the population who earn more than me, and that me saying that I'm not intelligent enough to achieve anything was just a bull**** excuse for laziness.
Do you not see the conflict in the advice I'm getting here?