Slovenia is in turmoil right now. Protests against the government are happening almost daily, some are turning into riots. This happens in countries with a lot of unemployed and underemployed young people. Especially if you also add a lot of established industries falling apart and everything that brings with it.
Have to congratulate the police on their bang on job, though! Just 100 meters from a full out war you would never guess something odd was going on.
Last week I published my opinion on the matter (link in sloveninan), perhaps foolishly, I seemingly went against all the protestors. Although it's difficult to say because they are merely against, without much notion as to what they are for.
Young and naive
There was a lot of backlash. Eventually had to turn off twitter so I could get some work done, didn't dare read the 70+ comments left on the post itself.
People my age and younger mostly quipped that I am a neoliberalist scumbag, whatever that is ... the post itself was really more libertarian in nature. Promoting the idea of self-sufficiency rather than relying on external factors for your happiness and success in life.
Those older than me predominantly agreed that I am simply being young and naive.
"Oh, kiddo. You have so much to learn in life still. Why do you spout nonsense when my sage wisdom has taught me that you are just young and naive? You live in a bubble, boy. A sheltered existence!"
__I know I should just ignore ad hominems, but this one hits very close to home.
It's the sort of logic I've had to deal with all my life. People simply dismissing what I have to say because I am younger. When they agree - "Oh my, what a wise youngster!" - when they disagree - "Oh the follies of naive youth; he'll learn"
Can there be anything more annoying?
The treatment began when I was about 14. Of course his opinion of the world is completely invalid! Look at the pubescent youngster, thinks he's absorbed the wisdom of the world. HA!
Back then it was nihilism. I couldn't come to terms with the idea nothing I do ultimately matters in the grand scheme of things. It was too much freedom to bear. Discussing with adults didn't help much, their feedback amounted to "Oh, you're young. You'll grow out of it eventually."
I didn't grow out of it. I simply learned to harness the immense freedom and power stemming from the ability to do anything.
Similarly I've always believed I can achieve anything if I just try. Once I really set my mind on something, I will get there eventually. Probably not on the first try though.
Mentioning this to adults ... "Oh you poor soul. You've lived a sheltered life under your mommy, don't you know? Real life doesn't work that way"
Well, I don't know what crawled up those adults' behinds, but so far I have reached and surprassed all goalposts I have ever set for myself, with the exceptions of those where found a better goalpost.
I had to stop setting goalposts ...
Being excited about success is much better than the emptiness that comes from reaching a goalpost and looking into the void beyond.
So yes, I do live in a bubble. My life is going surprisingly marvelously. I do enjoy every single day like it was the best thing since sliced bread.
But I built this bubble myself. I come from a single-parent home, my mum is a disgruntled government employee with 20+ years of service. At times she's had to work several jobs so we could make it through the month. Nothing was handed to me on a silver platter - I got plenty of things on a tin platter though; I'm grateful for those.
I live in a bubble because all my life I have been young and naive. Naive enough to believe in myself, foolish enough to never ask permission.
My one dream in life is to stay this way until the day I die.
Continue reading about Being young and naive
Semantically similar articles hand-picked by GPT-4
- The story of my family is the story of survivorship bias's other side
- Exams and revolutions
- Two business things Slovenia needs to change
- I returned to Slovenia after 3 months and I am culturally shocked
- Going from Slovenia to Palo Alto ... what culture shock?
Learned something new?
Read more Software Engineering Lessons from Production
I write articles with real insight into the career and skills of a modern software engineer. "Raw and honest from the heart!" as one reader described them. Fueled by lessons learned over 20 years of building production code for side-projects, small businesses, and hyper growth startups. Both successful and not.
Subscribe below 👇
Software Engineering Lessons from Production
Join Swizec's Newsletter and get insightful emails 💌 on mindsets, tactics, and technical skills for your career. Real lessons from building production software. No bullshit.
"Man, love your simple writing! Yours is the only newsletter I open and only blog that I give a fuck to read & scroll till the end. And wow always take away lessons with me. Inspiring! And very relatable. 👌"
Have a burning question that you think I can answer? Hit me up on twitter and I'll do my best.
Who am I and who do I help? I'm Swizec Teller and I turn coders into engineers with "Raw and honest from the heart!" writing. No bullshit. Real insights into the career and skills of a modern software engineer.
Want to become a true senior engineer? Take ownership, have autonomy, and be a force multiplier on your team. The Senior Engineer Mindset ebook can help 👉 swizec.com/senior-mindset. These are the shifts in mindset that unlocked my career.
Curious about Serverless and the modern backend? Check out Serverless Handbook, for frontend engineers 👉 ServerlessHandbook.dev
Want to Stop copy pasting D3 examples and create data visualizations of your own? Learn how to build scalable dataviz React components your whole team can understand with React for Data Visualization
Want to get my best emails on JavaScript, React, Serverless, Fullstack Web, or Indie Hacking? Check out swizec.com/collections
Did someone amazing share this letter with you? Wonderful! You can sign up for my weekly letters for software engineers on their path to greatness, here: swizec.com/blog
Want to brush up on your modern JavaScript syntax? Check out my interactive cheatsheet: es6cheatsheet.com
By the way, just in case no one has told you it yet today: I love and appreciate you for who you are ❤️