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0 pointssoheil4y ago0 comments

If you need external inspiration to do something that's usually a bad sign. If you need it to start a business that's a recipe for disaster.

I tend to agree with Elon Musk, he said: "If you need inspiring words, don't do it." [0]

[0] https://www.facebook.com/drivelinebaseball/videos/if-you-nee...

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hashim4y ago

Couldn't disagree more and this is exactly why I worded the text very carefully in the way that I did. It's true that you need to be a certain level of self-driven to achieve a goal or project, and that a good portion of the motivation for it should come internally, but human beings are not the machines that we program and it doesn't benefit us to pretend that we are. Long hours of working on the same overwhelming things has the very natural effect of burning us out, so external motivators are necessary from time to time, and I would argue much more beneficial than running on fumes just because you have some irrational belief that you're too much of a Terminator to need external motivation.

soheilOP4y ago

Of course we're influenced by the world around us, but I guess the point I'm trying to make is that you can't look for inspiration. It kind of has to come to you. This is why movies are probably a bad source. As a commenter below mentioned Apollo 11 was a very inspirational achievement to lots of people, it was an incredible event that changed people's lives specially impressionable children.

You need to be shaped by those events like a statue.

That's why those events need to be powerful, significant and life changing not mere theatrical plays.

hashim4y ago

you can't look for inspiration. It kind of has to come to you

You need to be shaped by those events like a statue.

those events need to be powerful, significant and life changing

Sounds like you're making a lot of speculation on what you/Elon Musk think humans should be instead of what they actually are.

It's shifting the goalposts compared to your points earlier, which was that human beings could not rely on external motivation.

More importantly, without being accompanied by citations of some sort, your claims about what should be are basically religious/superstitious, and therefore meaningless to anyone else but you.

rrss4y ago

this sure sounds like external inspiration:

“I think Apollo 11 was one of the most inspiring things in all of human history. Arguably the most inspiring thing. And one of the most universally good things in history. The level of inspiration that provided to the people of Earth was incredible. And it certainly inspired me. I’m not sure SpaceX would exist if not for Apollo 11.”

- Elon Musk

soheilOP4y ago

Yes but that's not something a movie can give you or words can help with.

rrss4y ago

I don’t really follow - most people inspired by Apollo have only ever known about it via film or words.

A huge fraction of the movies people have suggested here are nonfiction about the space program.

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hashim4y ago

soheilOP4y ago

You need to be shaped by those events like a statue.

That's why those events need to be powerful, significant and life changing not mere theatrical plays.

hashim4y ago

you can't look for inspiration. It kind of has to come to you

You need to be shaped by those events like a statue.

those events need to be powerful, significant and life changing

Sounds like you're making a lot of speculation on what you/Elon Musk think humans should be instead of what they actually are.

It's shifting the goalposts compared to your points earlier, which was that human beings could not rely on external motivation.

More importantly, without being accompanied by citations of some sort, your claims about what should be are basically religious/superstitious, and therefore meaningless to anyone else but you.

rrss4y ago

this sure sounds like external inspiration:

- Elon Musk

soheilOP4y ago

Yes but that's not something a movie can give you or words can help with.

rrss4y ago

I don’t really follow - most people inspired by Apollo have only ever known about it via film or words.

A huge fraction of the movies people have suggested here are nonfiction about the space program.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse