Anyone else get the feeling that you should just kill yourself

People in the past being way smarter than me bothers me less than people in the present.

I literally got a math minor for my ego.
I knew it wouldnt be useful (it hasnt been) and that I would never make any contributions to the world of maths
But god damn if I don't like to wave it around and have people say "OOOOOH THAT MUST'VE BEEN HARD"

Because in reality, you not existing would make those resources go to brainlets.

>>8799485
>implying my college isn't holding me back

>>8799485
Geniuses are too busy saving the world to raise children and teach. So we have to step in to offload the grunt work.

Maybe someday geniuses will be able to automate away childcare and education, but for now there's a place for us.

>>8799485

who gives a fuck how 'great' they were at 'science'. literally who gives a fuck. who gives a fuck? it's probably a bad idea anyways.

you're just fucking memed.

>>8799600

geniuses in general don't do anything more noteworthy than regular people.

it doesn't fucking matter. just live your life and be happy with it.

>>8799485
Von Neumann never used his full potential. People of average intelligence can contribute more than he did.

>>8799653

what the fuck do you care how much you contribute? it's other peoples concern how much they want to try and get out of you. why don't you mind your own fucking business?

>Seriously trying to justify your entire existence by comparing it to a literal genius

honestly, no you should not continue existing. If that is a real rational thought you've actually had and not just some meme rhetoric

>>8799661
>what the fuck do you care how much you contribute?
The best way to evaluate a scientist is by their contributions.

>it's other peoples concern how much they want to try and get out of you. why don't you mind your own fucking business?
Unless you go full Perelman and isolate yourself from the world, you still have to deal with other people and with the value you have to them. The idea that you shouldn't compare yourself with others is mainly propagated by lazy brainlets who can't do anything useful.

>>8799683

>The best way to evaluate a scientist is by their contributions.

who gives a fuck? who the fuck is evaluating you? what the fuck do you care?

>Unless you go full Perelman and isolate yourself from the world, you still have to deal with other people and with the value you have to them. The idea that you shouldn't compare yourself with others is mainly propagated by lazy brainlets who can't do anything useful.

no, you shouldn't compare yourself to others. it's pointless, as this thread explains. there's always a bigger fish, and what does it matter? do what you need to do to make a living. if you're smart, make a very good living.

you've just heard too much bullshit. learn your skills, do your job, fuck your women, have some kids, eat food. putter around in your garage. then die.

>>8799689
>who gives a fuck? who the fuck is evaluating you? what the fuck do you care?
>no, you shouldn't compare yourself to others. it's pointless, as this thread explains.
Aside from having a deep passion for their subjects, the greatest achievers in all areas compared themselves with others all the time. That's how they knew how much they had to improve to be the best.
But I'm guessing you don't want no necessarily be one of the best, and that's fine. Leaves room for the actual ambitious people to get what they want.

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>>8799700
>the greatest achievers in all areas compared themselves with others all the time. That's how they knew how much they had to improve to be the best.

how wonderful, that we can afflict others with mental illness in order to extract from them something useful. i'm not against it.

>But I'm guessing you don't want no necessarily be one of the best, and that's fine. Leaves room for the actual ambitious people to get what they want.

no, i really don't. but, i'll tell you, the ambitious people don't get what they want; if they did, they'd stop being so lucrative to have around. they can never have what they want.

>>8799689
>no, you shouldn't compare yourself to others. it's pointless, as this thread explains. there's always a bigger fish, and what does it matter? do what you need to do to make a living. if you're smart, make a very good living.
At what point in your life did you stop having ambition, anon?

I'm in grad school, and there's still a shred left for me. I won't be like von Neumann, but I might make a positive contribution to my field.

>>8799485
Well somebody has to serve the fast food to people who actually matter.

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>>8799746
>At what point in your life did you stop having ambition, anon?

probably around the point where i realized what those ambitions were just explosive substitutes for. don't get me wrong, there are things that i still 'have a passion for' (aka i enjoy doing them for their own sake). but there's no longer urgency to them. it's nice.

>I'm in grad school, and there's still a shred left for me. I won't be like von Neumann, but I might make a positive contribution to my field.

that should make you some good money.

>>8799756

nobody matters in the sense that you mean. nobody at all. and even if you become 'someone who matters', it won't satisfy you the way that you hope it will.

>>8799746
>>8799722
>>8799700
>>8799689

The problem with comparing yourself to others is that unless you're a literal top-tier genius, it'll lead to nothing but misery and likely won't increase your work output. It'll motivate you, sure. But that kind of motivation is also likely to destroy every other aspect of your like and keep you unhappy.

Do what you enjoy, and pour yourself into it. It doesn't mean work less hard or do less. It means keep things in balance. Would getting slightly more work done be worth pushing away everybody you care about in life? Making you dread every day? Making you filled with stress? Chances are, the little bit more you'll accomplish won't be worth it to anybody, and chances are, the added stress will deteriorate your quality of life and quality of work until the extra time doesn't even matter anymore.

Work hard, be happy.

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>>8799760

americans expect happiness. and spend a lot of time trying to get it. and are extremely disappointed if they don't. they spend a lot of time thinking about themselves. turns into quite a problem. unless you're a psychotherapist, in which case it's quite lucrative.

>>8799497
why didnt you get the math major then? every joe studying CS gets a math minor...

>>8799769
I'm the one you're responding to, and my reading comprehension might be off right now but I honestly can't tell whether you're agreeing with me or being condescending.

Either way, I have to agree. They act as though if they just work hard enough and make themselves miserable enough then eventually they'll have everything they need and they'll 'deserve' to be happy. Far too few learn to cultivate happiness.

I don't mean to imply that the alternative is to never try for anything, and pat yourself on the back until you're content. But its about a state of mind.

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>>8799777
>>8799777

>Whatever some genius discovered anyone else would have discovered anyways.

checked

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>>8799791
>but I honestly can't tell whether you're agreeing with me or being condescending.

neither really. i agree with you. but i think the whole 'happiness' thing is also a wild goose chase much like 'ahh, i am worthless if i can not be a great master scientist like newton!'

obviously, there are positive emotional states. they're pleasant. even euphoria at times. but it's fleeting, and i don't quite think that's what people mean when they say 'i'm unhappy' or pontificate about whether they are or aren't happy.

what comes to mind are those raccoon traps. the raccoon sticks his hand in to grab a goody. but, his fist bunches up and gets caught on a nail. raccoon will stay there for days, might even die, before it lets go of the goody.

>>8799803
I think we honestly agree more than it may have appeared in my initial posts. Chasing those kinds of pleasantries is just as likely to leave you feeling hollow and empty as anything else.

That's actually a shockingly good analogy.

But yeah. Personally, in my own life I tend to read a lot on Taoism, Buddhism, and Stoicism (the ancient philosophy, not the modern "be a man, deny all feeling" shit people seem to think it is.). Most of it revolves around these ideas of cultivating a contented mind rather than pursuing impossible achievement or chasing momentary happiness.

What do you pursue for yourself?

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>>8799840

i'm in school now, a bit older than most people. had a bad start in life. i'm studying business and engineering. i'd like to own my own business at some point, so i can have kids and pass it on to the next generation.

i've absorbed lots of the philosophical and spiritual/psychological stuff, used to read obsessively. i wonder if it helped or hurt.

i used to want to be a composer, when i was young. now i just compose and study music for my enjoyment.

>>8799803
Fantastic post

>>8799760
>. Would getting slightly more work done be worth pushing away everybody you care about in life? Making you dread every day? Making you filled with stress?

Absolutely. If it could mean that I'd be remembered beyond just being standard issue 120 iq labcoat brainlet #56283889 then I'd do that in a heartbeat

I just want to do something so that I'm not forgotten when I'm gone

>>8800028
>I just want to do something so that I'm not forgotten when I'm gone

People remember Lee Harvey Oswald :^)

>>8800028
I don't know. That doesn't matter to me so much. Maybe because I know I won't be around to enjoy "being remembered". What I find fulfilling is working to maximize my contribution to society, because this always involves solving novel, interesting problems of ever-increasing complexity. How far I get is not really the point. I will enjoy what I do while I'm here, whether I'm forever remembered as the second Einstein, or just helped to keep this human ant hill humming, so that people like them may do their work in a stable, robust society that makes their work possible in the first place.

It's about the journey.

>>8799485
Youre looking for boolean porn

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>>8800065
What did he mean by this?