> Big smile, nice suit, lots of self promoting bullshit. And then people start calling it charisma and flock to it and we end up in the realm of populism and fad instead of getting shit done.

This is the world we live in now. Self-promotion and public relations are the controlling factors in most large decisions I see in my profession (higher education) that it's just, well, sickening.

It seems like, across most fields, public relations and how we are perceived is far more important than the work actually getting done.

If you can wrap up a shit sandwich in a pretty bow and sell it, why worry about the quality of what you're selling?

It's depressing. Honestly, it drags me down on a daily basis to see people who plainly have no function except to be self-promoting and who can play the PR game get ahead consistently.

And the best part is, it's an impotent rage. What is there even to do about this? I have no idea.

You don't have to be so cynical, because some people might have deep-down issues, and the posturing is a way to hide it. They just want to be liked, and so they "cheat", and that's why they are biologically "punchable". Cheating is punished.

I'm with you. I mean, already the title perspires arrogance. I'm not going to click on it, even though there might be good advice there. I probably have already heard it and probably will heard it again from someone without that attitude.

The reason being people you trust in curating things upvoted it. Not the guy’s fault!

For some reason all of this induces negative emotions in me as well - it's like everyone and their mother wants to tell you how excellent they are and how you should live. Maybe it's this "write! you need to write! now!" advice which is frequently appearing on HN frontpage, maybe this is the reason why programmers with two years of experience are telling with authoritative tone 'how it should be done' It's annoying to try to filter out "fake it until you make it" lot but I'm afraid that there is no solution besides big dose of skepticism

Thanks for the comment. Could you please share why does this induces a negative emotion?

My intention was to become create a system for myself, and I decided to share that on my personal blog with friends and people who know me. So the original intention was to share something that I'm using myself, and something that I've spent 10+ hours researching.

Would love to hear your opinion

Productivity hacks are the new startup hacks.

(Kidding, not kidding... I'm more annoyed by "founder" specialness/pithy comments on Twitter than productivity hacks, though, I haven't seen a Roam submission in a few days; And yes, I know where I am).