On being useful
Aug. 26th, 2025 02:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
posicScott D. Clary writes in Facebook -- https://www.facebook.com/scottdclarypage/posts/pfbid02jUrT2EFJ1e9ZWZM8atF9aDEtByRpBoyHqKWvpgeKYGymHjoptE8MbPY7c1yfbtwjl :
The advice that changed my life:
"Stop trying to be impressive. Start being useful."
Impressive gets you invited to parties. Useful gets you equity.
Impressive is exhausting to maintain. Useful compounds while you sleep.
Choose accordingly.
***
This advice presumes that you are going to be rewarded for being useful. In my experience, this is generally not the case.
I am a mathematician, I do not sell my services for money. In most cases, I do not see how being useful would serve my best interests, or the interests of advancement of mathematics which I am striving to serve.
As a general rule, I prefer to be impressive and useless. And no, I do not get invited to parties very much. Also, I decline most invitations.
The advice that changed my life:
"Stop trying to be impressive. Start being useful."
Impressive gets you invited to parties. Useful gets you equity.
Impressive is exhausting to maintain. Useful compounds while you sleep.
Choose accordingly.
***
This advice presumes that you are going to be rewarded for being useful. In my experience, this is generally not the case.
I am a mathematician, I do not sell my services for money. In most cases, I do not see how being useful would serve my best interests, or the interests of advancement of mathematics which I am striving to serve.
As a general rule, I prefer to be impressive and useless. And no, I do not get invited to parties very much. Also, I decline most invitations.
