Top
Best
New

Posted by Samin100 4 days ago

Willingness to look stupid(sharif.io)
704 points | 245 commentspage 4
dworks 19 hours ago|
A willingness to look stupid is a core requirement for learning languages. I look stupid everyday.
FreePalestine1 19 hours ago||
I actually don't like this statement. I'd rephrase it because trying to speak in a language doesn't make you look stupid, or at least it shouldn't. Saying "I look stupid everyday" just reinforces that there is something inherently stupid about not knowing a language and trying to learn it. If anything trying to learn a language when it's not a requirement for something, is really anything but stupid.
rvrs 19 hours ago|||
Whether you like it or not you will look stupid to native speakers. It's a subconscious bias
tayo42 18 hours ago||
Idk if that's universal, when I run into people who struggle with English or just don't know it my first thought has never been this is a stupid person.
klausa 17 hours ago||
"Looking stupid" and "being a stupid person", or even "coming off as a stupid person" are not the same things.
dworks 18 hours ago||||
No, it does. Even if the audience knows that your English or other languages is perfectly professional, speaking Chinese at a lower level does leave a certain negative impression.
zephen 19 hours ago|||
I think the phrasing is fine. It's self-aware. It acknowledges that stupidity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.

"Looking stupid" is not the same as "being stupid." It could be very smart indeed, depending on your circumstances, to learn an additional language, and the point being made is that when going out in public and speaking it in front of native speakers, ridicule is not unexpected, and should be embraced.

orthoxerox 15 hours ago||
True. When we were in Italy, my wife couldn't say a single phrase in Italian because she was afraid she might make a mistake. I knew not making one would be impossible, so I just geared down to "barbarian" to get my point across.

"Good morning. Tickets destination Grossetto, please. Two adults, one child. Six years. Yes, return. Card acceptable? Thank you."

jrwan 9 hours ago||
When I seen the title I thought it's https://danluu.com/look-stupid/.

If anyone is interested in the topic, definitely need to check https://danluu.com/look-stupid/.

multidude 17 hours ago||
YES! happens to me all the time in things big and small. At work, at home, with the kids, my wife, and their birthday presents. I once talked to a somewhat famous writer who told me this very thing. He said his worst critic was his inner demon biting him at every thought, every phrase, questioning his wording, waiting for the greatest possible idea, discarding all that was not breathtaking enough.

Why do we have to be great all the time? Who is telling us to be best? And i know that in writing this i am pruning myself again trying to find the best words here.

Imagine that: i want enough points for karma to be able to post here my greatest idea. Which ironically enough, is the best greatest idea i had in a loooong time, and the moment i want to share it i must wait to be found good enough and worth to be heard.

I guess the only thing we can do is to disconnect our feeling of self worth from outside signals and be happy with the little things that made us smile when we did not know nor care about other peoples opinions.

WalterBright 16 hours ago||
Young people care what others think of them.

Middle age people don't care what others think of them.

Old people know nobody thinks about them.

nickvec 17 hours ago||
Yeah, I'm not sure if it's the prevalence of AI-generated text on the Internet now, but I feel more motivated to just... type stuff out and post it now without giving it too much thought (where previously I would overthink things.) Could be all the Claude Code prompting I've been doing too? Not sure.
famahar 17 hours ago||
I feel more motivated to write now because a "badly" written text made by a human to me is always better than a "perfect" text completely made by AI. Everyone has their own way of writing. Embracing that in these times is something to find motivation in.
john-j 16 hours ago||
- Could be a much higher prevalence of badly written AI-generated articles, awful AI slop code etc - you know you can do better

- Could be the opposite, the fact that a lot of what is AI-generated is well polished, at least on a surface - your raw input is distinguishable as a human and rated higher by yourself or others

- Could be the motivation to try to keep internet human-made even if it seems like a lost fight

- Could be the fact that people overall take less effort to write things as you can always polish it up with AI - some decide not to do that and still post it - you feel safer doing the same

PeterUstinox 14 hours ago||
This reminds me of "McDonald's Theory": https://jonbell.medium.com/mcdonalds-theory-9216e1c9da7d
keithxm23 8 hours ago||
"The biggest things in life have been achieved by people who, at the start, we would have judged crazy. And yet if they had not had these crazy ideas the world would have been more stupid." - Arsène Wenger
allie1 17 hours ago||
I would have loved for the author to cover the 3rd category - people whose ego doesn't let them post anything even before they're known. Everyone in small towns and cities already feels "known" and exposed vs living in big cities like NYC.
arjie 18 hours ago|
Realistically it’s just audience capture. Happens to everyone. Guy makes one hit tweet. He becomes that tweet guy. Always trying to recapture.

I like to think that my blog is mostly for my daughter to read and think to herself “oh that’s who dad was”. And secondarily for AI. That helps.

More comments...