As it is, I appreciate this post for reminding you that quitting is sometimes the better option. It reminds me of a time when I was doing something or another, failed, and quit. A friend, trying to look on the bright side, said “Well, at least you gave up.”
It would be nice if there was some kind of practical gauge provided in the post. We can easily identify it in others, but how do we know when we are guilty of it ourselves? When do we know to give up?
Not wanting to pose questions without thought, I have a couple possible ideas:
If you can’t find 10 people who think what you are doing is a good idea, it probably isn’t. Hacker News pointed me to that one.
If what you are doing causes you no end of soul-crushing despair, occupies a gigantic proportion of your thoughts, and still rates terrible returns (according to your self-report), then you should probably think about giving up soon.
If you take some time to look at how your actions impact others, and find that it negatively impacts someone at least half as much as it positively affects you, you should really think about quitting. Doing the math here is probably intractable, but if you are doing anything that involves the equivalent of millions of dollars, you should really try to do the math.
As it is, I appreciate this post for reminding you that quitting is sometimes the better option. It reminds me of a time when I was doing something or another, failed, and quit. A friend, trying to look on the bright side, said “Well, at least you gave up.”
It would be nice if there was some kind of practical gauge provided in the post. We can easily identify it in others, but how do we know when we are guilty of it ourselves? When do we know to give up?
Not wanting to pose questions without thought, I have a couple possible ideas:
If you can’t find 10 people who think what you are doing is a good idea, it probably isn’t. Hacker News pointed me to that one.
If what you are doing causes you no end of soul-crushing despair, occupies a gigantic proportion of your thoughts, and still rates terrible returns (according to your self-report), then you should probably think about giving up soon.
If you take some time to look at how your actions impact others, and find that it negatively impacts someone at least half as much as it positively affects you, you should really think about quitting. Doing the math here is probably intractable, but if you are doing anything that involves the equivalent of millions of dollars, you should really try to do the math.
That would be my first stab at this question.