Nice blog post. I kind of wished the author dug more into why he worried so much about weakness, though.
I'm also reminded of something my mother told me once, "I think people have a hard time approaching me because it seems like I never have any problems." This is also one of my weaknesses: being so good at concealing one's weakness that it makes it harder to connect with people. The kicker is there isn't much feedback given to you about this other than a low-level, pervasive loneliness.
It's definitely a weakness to not expose a vulnerable side of yourself to others. Part of showing someone you trust them is trusting that they will accept you, vulnerabilities and all.
It’s foolish to expose weakness in all but the safest environment.
Being temperamental or busy a lot at work is one thing. If they know your health is failing you get a brief period of sympathy, then they start shoving you out the door, for your “health”.
Thank you
Good point about the source of my worries about weakness. At the core it's about living up to who I aspire to be. Moments of 'weakness' are like sliding back from that towards the lazy instant gratification monkey.
I have the same problem of connecting with people because of not showing weakness or complaining.
> Moments of 'weakness' are like sliding back from that towards the lazy instant gratification monkey.
That's not weakness. That's compromising with your nature that you cannot override.
I tried to be a productive robot with a predictable throughput. Many times. Never worked and will never work.
At one point you should accept some of your undeniable limitations.
Challenging all others is what it means to try and self-develop further.
> I have the same problem of connecting with people because of not showing weakness or complaining.
We the people are deep down very competitive and envious creatures. If you complain too much, you are weak. If you never complain, you are too strong and are disliked because you don't conform to the society's averages.
People in a social setting can only be pleased by you pretending to blend in with them. Harsh (and likely easy to dislike for the HN crowd) but it was demonstrated by the anecdotal evidence of many separate people whom I've known, myself included.
<That's not weakness. That's compromising with your nature that you cannot override.>
That's kinda the point of the article.
But I do believe you can change the environment and your model of the world, so that this human nature makes choices which are good for you.
So you don't become a robot. But rather you adapt better to this modern world.
Agreed. I am just not sure how compatible changing your environment with belonging to the modern world are. F.ex. I want to live in a beach house in a relative solitude (with nearest city at 30-50km). Would I belong to the modern world then?
I'm also reminded of something my mother told me once, "I think people have a hard time approaching me because it seems like I never have any problems." This is also one of my weaknesses: being so good at concealing one's weakness that it makes it harder to connect with people. The kicker is there isn't much feedback given to you about this other than a low-level, pervasive loneliness.