What I learned from six months of being stupid on purpose

This takes me back to the weirdness of my post-college years: so much pressure to show that I know what I'm doing but no actual work or life experience to draw from. The transition thinking success is good grade to realizing that real success is figuring out what the questions are and how much effort I should put into answering them.

I definitely relate to the crux of the article though:

> I realized getting to a point where you reap the benefits from what you’re hoping to learn requires you to do it yourself and fail. A lot.

I also had to work hard to shift from the fixed mindset: "I'm smart therefore I need to be good at this. If I'm not good at this, then I'm dumb" to "I'm going to put the effort it and give myself the grace that learning takes a long time". Almost nobody is smart enough to get it right away, and truly, nobody starts out knowing everything.

I learned this most clearly from running, where I had no expectations to live up to, no "I should". I put in the work for years, and ran faster and further than I ever thought I would. I'm never ashamed to say "today was a crappy run" or "I didn't do very well, better sleep it off". Then why was I afraid to say "I don't get this complex idea yet, I better spend some time reading it 12 more times until it starts making sense"?

> six months of being stupid on purpose

Those are rookie numbers.

I've been doing that for 40 years

Alternative title:

What I learned spending a lifetime making the world a little bit worse for everyone else for fun and profit.

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Their entire mindset seems to be, "how can I take advantage of other people making mistakes to make a few dollars here and there? and how can I induce them to make even more mistakes in my realm of influence so it is even easier to profit from them?"

This is why he is always chasing the latest fad—"dropshipping massage guns, rug tufting, rainbow-loom bracelets, you name it"—people who follow fads are less likely to do their research and more likely to click buy on the overpriced TikTok ad. AI just empowers him to do more of this.

The only skill he seems to work on is his "taking advantage of others" skill. It's astounding that he got to this age without knowing even the basics of programming... and he only learned those basics once it became relevant to taking advantage of others. Rather than trying to create something new, or create a better version of something old, he just wants to disrupt efficient commerce so he can skim off the top.

I'm sure he makes a ton of money doing this. I wish that weren't possible.

Will take this chance to plug one of my favorite books - How I Became Stupid by Martin Page[0].

[0]https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/186837.How_I_Became_S...

The pull chord for dark/light mode is nice!

> I feel that tutorials and informative reading are always good starting points for getting down the basics of a skill.

And for seeing what’s possible with a skill. But this can be very overwhelming as well. When you watch the masters doing what looks really easy and after that start with your first steps - and fail - it’s way more discouraging than starting without having seen this and being proud of small achievements.

> I’ve been an entrepreneur for as long as I can remember

Yeah, ok… Not for me.

Can someone explain the n8n hate? I recently used it as part of a course and it helped connect some dots for me on what I'd been studying.

How is n8n any different from the "Visual" tools from the 80's and 90's like Visual Smalltalk?

Yeah, but can he find a building skyline or the best time to buy and sell stock

It's nice to see the kids having the same sorts of discoveries the olds had once upon a time. Specifics change, but we're just stupid humans spinning around the sun together

Can't tell if this is n8n viral marketing

Relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMhwddNQSWQ

"Social media content factory" "[Automated] Ebay flipping"

What a vile, vile thing.

I hate to nitpick, but what is 'a software'? I see and hear the phrase being used on social media but folks I know in real life just say 'software'.

I build a software vs I build some software.

This is a joke, right? It's horribly written, and full of financebro bullshit. I feel like I'm back in law school talking to the business majors who couldn't get a good job and used law as a fallback.

I commend him for trying to learn new skills. no one needs to know this shit. It's not instagram.

Title reminded me of this: https://i.imgur.com/17qzK8h.jpg

Well, the sloppening is real. Finance Bros really be burning tokens.