Whenever I read that you should embrace failure, I think that many people won’t get the point.
The human mind loves routine. Routine is a series of steps you’ve done before, in a way that’s always the same. When you know something works in a certain way, it’s a safe feeling that you know what’s coming. It’s the opposite of danger, and the fear that’s connected to danger.
When you read somewhere that you should embrace failure, they really mean that you should change. Change always has a positive effect, and if it hasn’t (you failed!) you can usually change again and learn something in the process, advancing you overall.
What keeps you from change is when you never break your routine.
Neither conformity nor unconformity are hard. The only two hard things are to put the call which is suitable in a situation and to not have a default for every situation.
I was called a post-privacy person this week because I don’t care about encrypting my hard disk and oftentimes even have no passwords or pretty unsecure ones. I don’t agree. I think if the data you have on your disks isn’t worth stealing for anyone and cannot be used to compromise me, I just don’t see why I need to lock it down. You’re not important enough to justify securing your data – so stop worrying and enjoy life.
Every person is convinced that his perception of reality is true. As most of man’s beliefs are only subjectively true, man’s greatest flaw is if he bases his decisions upon the assumption that his outlook on the world is true. An even greater flaw is if he realizes his own inaptitude and is unable to decide anything thereafter. Lack of decision equals stasis. So in order to not fall into stagnation, a strive for finding and connecting the little pieces of information that are canonical and that hold a high probability of objective truth is necessary. This is called science and has to replace religion.
To usual people, it’s often hard to understand why nerds and especially developers often are pretty critical about the way you Google, the texteditor you write in, the way you find that funny link you want to show off or how you do the various tasks at hand on your computer. You want something done and just do it the way you know it and a minute later, your problem is solved, your Google search has found a page that you now browse for the information you need; your Word file contains the screenshot you just took or whatever. Meanwhile, the computer nerds besides you rolls on the flood, apparently died of old age or many from the agony of watching you do what you just did.
Why is it that way? Developers work on their computer the entire day.You’re trying to use the tools they use all the day, and they always know a better and faster or more effective way to solve your problem.They’ve solved that problem 1000 times more than you, and for them saving 30 seconds if a big time benefit.
And using those better waysis like wearing a watch when you never did so before. It feels strange first, often you don’t realize it could help you, but then, you find enough situations where the quick glance on the watch is really much more convenient than getting out your phone buiried in your pocket, klicking a button and waiting the screen to apprear, only to have to lock the screen after that and putting the phone in its safe position.
by h.koppdelaney
