We are all confident idiots and this is why the ego was created in evolution.
Ego is needed to make you think you are better than others at something, eventhough initially you may not be. Without ego, people would be Marvin The Paranoid Android but depressed because we didn't have the capabilities or opportunities to compete with all the smarter people around or in history. People that are laser focused and don't listen to any naysayers, those people can become successful more than people that don't even attempt to due to humbling competition.
The reason why childhood is so nice is that you can dream and imagine on becoming anything. Reality bites that in the behind, but the ones that can overcome and pursue, prevail over the ones that do not go beyond their limit. The trick is to be rooted in the real adult world, but break the rules and don't listen to others when you have a desire to push in an area with a beginners or child mind. Just do it says your ego.
The internet is a humbling experience for the ego. Competition was only your local tribe before the internet, now it is worldwide. This is both humbling and also allows humans an insight that has never before been able to be realized, you can see how you need to compete with the entire world. It is inspiring all the time and seemingly insurmountable at times, but jump start that ego and you to can be competing. Everyone can be good at something, time and focus, as well as competition can push you.
Without ego humanity may not have made it this far.
When you convince yourself you can do it, by making iterative gains to fuel more motivation, it must turn to discipline and professionalism, and that means blocks of time all the time on your focused goal or project in both the open (creative / brainstorming / ideas / play) and closed (prototypes / ship time) mode. The overnight successes are always in a multi-year focused strategy.
Check out the market, but don't be too focused on chasing what others are doing, focus on your area that meets your goals. Use that ego motivation and stay away from getting too beat down because others are far ahead.
"Read and write four to six hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can't expect to become a good writer" -- Stephen King
"Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and got to work" -- Stephen King
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." -- Walt Disney
>Ego is needed to make you think you are better than others at something, eventhough initially you may not be.
No, ego creates a sense of separation, competition you create on your own.
>Without ego, people would be Marvin The Paranoid Android but depressed because we didn't have the capabilities or opportunities to compete
No, without ego people would do fantastically great. At least they would not do silly competition. Does an apple tree competes with a palm and thinks it's no good because it's not that tall?
>The reason why childhood is so nice is that you can dream and imagine on becoming anything
No, you can dream and imagine at any age, childhood is so nice because your mind is not yet set into straight jacket of logic.
>but break the rules and don't listen to others
The rules you are talking about are only created by you, there is nothing to break just stop creating them.
>Competition was only your local tribe before the internet, now it is worldwide
Only for those who see life this way. There is a plenty of people who are happy like kids and play competition to have fun.
>Everyone can be good at something, time and focus, as well as competition can push you.
If you enjoy life and what you are doing - do you really need a push? A push is only needed to do some crap which you have no interest about.
>Without ego humanity may not have made it this far.
What is "this far"? With all the technological advancements can we claim we are the happiest and most joyous generation ever? How far did we make from ancient civilizations in how profound our lives are?
I'd argue all your 'no' and corrections are directly from your ego competing.
The end part of my rant is how you use ego to separate yourself from self constructed walls and competition, and to not rely on motivation but rely on professionalism and discipline, the Stephen King quote exemplifies this.
> The rest is too messy to comment about :)
There is that ego again. You've got all the answers and I got it all wrong. You are right, competition you create on your own.
> Without ego humanity may not have made it this far.
This far? You mean on the road to our complete extinction due to our incomparable stupidity? I sometimes feel truly ashamed to be a human. It's the ego that ruins it all, we could have been so much further. People should learn to be more humble and reject the desire for authority.
> People should learn to be more humble and reject the desire for authority.
Authoritarianism is a horrible force in the world. But it does not mean that ego does not exist, even in fighting against authority. Ego tells you to fight.
One needs an ego to know that authoritarians should be pushed back, walls should be torn down not constructed.
Awareness of ego is the first step in rejecting authority telling you what to do. Authoritarians have their ego tightly coupled to self, and don't realize it is an abstraction of self.
Authority should always be questioned and never trusted because the world operates on self-interest, that is the nature of the game.
> Without ego humanity may not have made it this far.
Not sure. Many teachings, religions are addressing removing ego from your thoughts. I heard that if you take LSD you can actually feel your ego gone with the feeling of being the one with the universe. Might be a great experience?
Agreed. I am a traveler and we are all connected, everything has beauty.
Ego death from psychedelics is realizing ego is a tool, that it isn't truly you, just a tool or armor you use to navigate reality. We live in a self-interested world, people must have an ego or you get steamrolled by the machine and divided by walls. Ego can help you tear down the walls or ignore them entirely as they are the ego of the real world and others. It helps you realize the world is nothing, unless you make it something, unless you create it for yourself.
Ego is "a person's sense of self-esteem or self-importance" and "the part of the mind that mediates between the conscious and the unconscious and is responsible for reality testing and a sense of personal identity".
Awareness of ego is key, psychedelics help you recognize it is an abstraction to you.
It's called ego death and it can also be terrifying. I've tripped with people who thought they were dying because their subjective self identify was dissolving.
Ego is needed to make you think you are better than others at something, eventhough initially you may not be. Without ego, people would be Marvin The Paranoid Android but depressed because we didn't have the capabilities or opportunities to compete with all the smarter people around or in history. People that are laser focused and don't listen to any naysayers, those people can become successful more than people that don't even attempt to due to humbling competition.
The reason why childhood is so nice is that you can dream and imagine on becoming anything. Reality bites that in the behind, but the ones that can overcome and pursue, prevail over the ones that do not go beyond their limit. The trick is to be rooted in the real adult world, but break the rules and don't listen to others when you have a desire to push in an area with a beginners or child mind. Just do it says your ego.
The internet is a humbling experience for the ego. Competition was only your local tribe before the internet, now it is worldwide. This is both humbling and also allows humans an insight that has never before been able to be realized, you can see how you need to compete with the entire world. It is inspiring all the time and seemingly insurmountable at times, but jump start that ego and you to can be competing. Everyone can be good at something, time and focus, as well as competition can push you.
Without ego humanity may not have made it this far.
When you convince yourself you can do it, by making iterative gains to fuel more motivation, it must turn to discipline and professionalism, and that means blocks of time all the time on your focused goal or project in both the open (creative / brainstorming / ideas / play) and closed (prototypes / ship time) mode. The overnight successes are always in a multi-year focused strategy.
Check out the market, but don't be too focused on chasing what others are doing, focus on your area that meets your goals. Use that ego motivation and stay away from getting too beat down because others are far ahead.
"Read and write four to six hours a day. If you cannot find the time for that, you can't expect to become a good writer" -- Stephen King
"Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and got to work" -- Stephen King
"The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing." -- Walt Disney