[HN Gopher] On Depression and Founders
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On Depression and Founders
Author : jdbiggs
Score : 49 points
Date : 2021-06-17 19:27 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (startupstrats.substack.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (startupstrats.substack.com)
| failwhaleshark wrote:
| In bodies with testicles, low T (from a number of possible
| causes) can be even worse than just depression: inability to
| concentrate, confusion, alertness, consciousness, memory,
| anxiety, social, and sleep problems. You don't want this.
|
| Maslow's hierarchy things help: Sleep (where possible), diet,
| water, exercise (HIIT cardio and weightlifting), get outside,
| routine, defuse catastrophizing thoughts with reality, and not
| everything is as hard as it may seem (no mind, grasshoppa).
|
| Avoid: alcohol, walnuts, almonds, soy, licorice root (black
| licorice candy), mint, certain oils (canola, corn, cottonseed,
| soybean, flaxseed, sunflower, safflower, palm kernel,
| "vegetable"), sugar/HFCS, carbs, trans-fats, and _excessive_
| omega-3.
| beforeolives wrote:
| As someone who is depressed, founding a company is very low on
| the list of things I would like to do.
|
| Reasons:
|
| - it's practically impossible for me to be excited about any
| business/software idea/project/opportunity
|
| - depression diminishes my productivity which is extremely
| important for a founder
|
| - the instability from building a company creates a negative
| feedback loop with one's depression
|
| I need stability and routine; I need to put in a lot of effort
| just to have a normal life and keep a job. Running a company
| becomes almost impossible in those circumstances.
| barbazoo wrote:
| And that's totally ok. Many of us feel that way.
|
| I hope you're finding the help you need, whatever it is.
| drewcoo wrote:
| Or maybe those founders who claim they can't form a group need to
| get together to talk about how it feels to not be listened to and
| how they are constantly dealing with people trying to one-up
| them. Maybe they feel they're always solving everyone else's hard
| problems but nobody's solving theirs.
|
| There is help for that:
| https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-healing-crowd/20...
| haswell wrote:
| I'm trying to understand your perspective and what you're
| trying to say with this comment. Are you implying that these
| founders are narcissists? This seems like a pretty big leap.
|
| Edit: I think I get where you're coming from now, but when
| you're dealing with depression, unless that social circle of
| narcissists is the primary cause, focusing on "fixing" the
| narcissistic behavior is not really a great way to deal with
| the primary issue.
|
| Sure, it's a great goal, but it's probably unrelated to the
| founder's immediate needs.
|
| Don't ask a drowning person to coordinate their own rescue.
| AussieWog93 wrote:
| The article made mention of the fact that almost all of the
| startup founder/CEO social groups are environments of one-
| upmanship when what many people really need is support.
|
| The comment was referencing this part of the article.
| haswell wrote:
| I think I get where they're coming from now, but ultimately
| I feel that it's a misguided take.
|
| - TFA: Founders suffer from depression, and some have a
| difficult time getting support from their peers, because
| their peers are narcissists.
|
| - Parent comment: "Depressed founder claims they can't form
| a group..." links to an article that's focused on
| narcissists, not really a resource for a depressed founder.
|
| The trouble with the parent comment is that it's focused on
| "fixing" the situation with the narcissist social circle,
| when it may be more productive/appropriate to focus on the
| founder's immediate needs.
|
| Sure, it's useful to think about ways to improve the
| behaviors seen in the social circle, but that's not really
| top of mind for a depressed person.
|
| If I'm depressed, and I go to a friend for support, and
| they aren't in a place to support me, my next step isn't
| going to involve trying to change how my friend behaves, or
| trying to make it possible for them to support me.
| Growling_owl wrote:
| It is. If you are competitive you don't need to be around
| people who try to one-up you to feel bad when they do in fact
| manage to one-up you.
|
| You will go and reaserch info on how other people are doing
| with their finances or private life or twitter followers or
| whatever the arena is.
|
| And you'd do so out of your own volition. This is very easy
| nowadays with the Internet
| browningstreet wrote:
| A la Paul Graham's "keep your identity small", maybe "founder"
| doesn't need to be an identity association for everything.
| void_mint wrote:
| > A startup isn't a suicide pact, it's an adventure.
|
| "Hustle Mentality" really ruins a lot of the magic of this
| statement (hence why this post needed to exist in the first
| place). That and ad revenue.
|
| > You are important, you are intelligent, and you are loving.
| You're worth worrying about.
|
| Well said.
| josephfung wrote:
| Thanks for posting. Yes, +100 to this.
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