47 thoughts on “How one redditor found happiness. This is just wonderful.”

1. That was a really awesome article, and I 100% agree with everything she said, especially the “don’t help anyone more than they’re willing on helping themselves”… That rule is extremely important, and I wish it were more ubiquitous, as I know far too many people who waste their time on others who are lost and willing on clutching that helping hand as long as they can stay with butts firmly attached to the ground. It’s sad. :\
   Anyhow, “don’t be a dick” is an excellent contribution. ^_^

2. But then you read the reddit comments, and it becomes soul-crushing. Why do we always have to troll? 🙁

3. I read this a little while ago when you tweeted it, and I’m glad I did. Thanks for sharing it.

4. “You know, I really wish I’d spent more time being a dick to people.”
   I’ve known way too many people like that. Thanks for calling our attention to that Reddit post, Wil.

5. I just ignore the stupid comments, and pick out the useful ones. Reddit is really good that way, if you have your preferences set up correctly.

6. It’s the law of conservation of trolls. As soon as you banish one, another takes its place.
   But fear not, brave warrior!
   For the battle is worthwhile in and of itself. We must persevere, despite the trolls. Our happiness is our best weapon. Use it wisely and the trolls will not penetrate your armor.

7. That was great, Wheaton. Thanks.

8. Thank you so much. When I wrote that I had no idea that anyone would appreciate some silly girl listing her most embarrassing moments. I was honestly going to delete it when I got home from work.
   The feedback from the reddit community has humbled me in a way words can never describe.

9. Dude, you dropped a stone in a pond when you wrote that, and the ripples are going to touch people in positive ways you never imagined possible. Thank you so much for writing that post.

10. Shit, you guys are making me all teary-eyed over here.

11. I would add just a bit to the part about finding your passion.
    Just because you find your passion it doesn’t mean you’re done.
    It doesn’t matter if you find your passion if you keep avoiding it. You’d think that if you’re passionate about something it would be so much easier to stay dedicated to it, but you’d be wrong, at least in the beginning. In the beginning you are in love with the idealized version of what you think a project will be. When reality sets in it’s hard to keep going, but nothing will be more rewarding than pushing through the hard parts to finish something you love. Just ask any writer.

12. In spite of your claim that “I have to work hard to sound this stupid.” (great line btw), it was well written and universal.
    You covered a lot of issues. It is guaranteed to touch almost everyone.

13. +1

14. It took courage to write about yourself that way, but you know what? You’ve just shown us all what it’s like to be human: frail, sometimes frightened, but never giving up. People love stories about real people. It’s how we know we’re not alone.
    I’d offer a “yeah, but…” to Wil’s addition to your list, though. “Standing up to a dick doesn’t automatically make you a dick too.”

15. Amy, I find your writing both lucid and lovely and the opposite of “stupid.” Thanks for having the courage to post it and leave it up. Let your geek flag fly, sister!

16. That was a really lovely piece, and genuinely touching. Despite your misgivings about grammar, I thought it was very well written. You have a wonderful, natural flow that allows your readers to easily connect with your thoughts. Thank you so much for sharing your words. We’re all better for having read them.

17. I just love that someone responds to your “don’t be a dick” comment by…
    wait for it…
    being a dick.

18. I'm not sure if that guy was going for super-double-hilarious-irony, or really just being a dick. Either way, downvoted for being an asshat.

19. Oh, no! http://twitter.com/AmyLukima tweeted she totaled her car!

20. Thank you for sharing this!

21. She’s right, you know. Hating yourself makes it hella hard to love anyone or thing. I too am working on that. Most days I’m too stupid for my own good, make more mistakes than should be allowed, break something, forget something, the list goes on. I guess I am who I am.
    I guess we all have things about ourselves we want to change. This was a really good article. Seems like for someone who thinks she is bad at writing, actually is pretty damn good.
    I wish that lady lots of luck. I like the part about her “friends” being stuck in a boring lifestyle. Guess she out numbered them in the happiness department. Comes around, goes around.
    Thanks for sharing, Wil. =]

22. Wil, thank you so much for sharing this. This is a truly brilliant piece of work, and I actually needed it at this point in my life. And I definitely think your addition fits. 🙂

23. I gotta thank you for posting this. I’m only 27 myself, and as hard as it may be to believe, I think I came to most of those same realizations myself. But even so I found one or two things that I didn’t realize I was doing. I hope a lot of young people read that and follow her advice.

24. Asshat.. such a great term…

25. Should be a class at school for this .. sadly we can’t put old heads on young shoulders – most of these are truism’s learnt along the way .. but that doesn’t make them any less true 🙂
    One of life’s ironies is that you finally learn all this at about the same time that you run out of options for dealing with hehe.

26. Just saw that, that sucks.

27. For the most part, the more “significant emotional events” a person goes through, the more wisdom they gain.
    And that author has had quite a few events in her life and around her.
    Hopefully, the rest of us can learn the lessons without the “dynamic tension learning.”

28. That was beautiful. I’m glad she shared that, and I’m glad you shared her wisdom (along with your own) with us, WW.
    Universal as those truths may be, we all need reminding of them sometimes.
    Cheers… *relurks*

29. Hey Wil.
    Since I couldn’t find/remember a direct email to you I thought I’d leave you a note here as I know it will reach you that way.
    I’ve left a few comments under my facebook account but for some reason it lists me as a URL instead of a name, so I signed up for Typepad.
    Anyway, the reason for my writing is that I started a fan page for you over on Facebook a few months ago. There was one already in existence but it began asking for “Donations” and was obviously some kind of front for spam. I took it upon myself to create an alternative where the readers of Facebook could get updates about you from a genuine source. A page for fans by a fan. Under no circumstance have I ever claimed to be you at any time, even saying so in a disclaimer on the page itself. Sadly I think many people simply joined up without looking and before long posts directed to you were being left.
    So here I am, asking for your seal of approval. As far as I know you aren’t on FB, and I can/will run the page. Mainly I share links and pics that you share on here and twitter, more often than not simply linking back here to your blog.
    If you want me to delete the page I will do so without question. If you choose to endorse the page, that would rule.
    I apologize for the length of the post, and the fact that it is off topic from something that is indeed very awesome and inspirational. Thank you for your time.
    Jason R Vickery
    mercutio531 at gmail.com
    Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wil-Wheaton/346898470248

30. Thanks for sharing this. It’s a wonderful read in the morning.

31. Wow… thanks to Amy for writing that & Wil for sharing it. My favourite part was, “finding something you are passionate about in life should be one of your first priorities.” How I wish I knew that 20 years ago… How do you start over at 37? (That’s how old I am too, Wil, I’m not stealing your age.)
    -Alicia
    (@AliciaWag)

32. Truly inspirational. Thank you very much for sharing it with us. I’m not even going to lie and say that I didn’t cry my freaking eyes out after reading it.
    It’s strange because while chatting with a friend before even reading this, I basically point-blank admitted that I’ve allowed certain negative circumstances that have happened in the past year and a half to turn me into a person that I’m not exactly proud to be right now. I’ve been doing a lot of self-reflection lately and that shed some light on some things about how I’ve let myself and a lot of other people down by just sort of giving up and flaking out on life in general. It just seemed easier to cut myself off, build up walls and completely alienate myself from everyone and everything I used to care about.
    Regarding your “Don’t be a dick.” addendum: I may joke around a lot about things and act like it’s all fun and games and harmless to act like an asshole because it’s all in good fun, but you’re right, it’s not as if I’ll look back one day and say “Wow, I’m so glad I acted like such a dick all the time!” It’s more or less just me making a statement that I’m not worthy of being well-liked, so hey, be the annoying chick because she’s more fun to play than the real me. In all actuality, I don’t even know who the real me even is anymore. It’s like I’m this ghost of my former self…a once happy, confident person who knew who she was and used to like that person and was proud to be that person. It’a about time I took a page from Amy’s book and found that person again…

33. Hawesome, just hawesome. On another note – I too want a TARDIS purse.

34. Words can’t say how glad I am to have been pointed to this post. I’ve said a lot of things on my own blog in the last year or so which have (or I have tried to make it) echo the things this poster was saying. Not all of it has been popular and I’ve taken some severe flak for holding opinions that contradict the vast majority of my current friendship group.
    People view me as arrogant because I draw the line on how much I’m willing to give for my friends. How much help, how much time, how much attention and how much credence I give to what they say. I draw the line and say ‘enough’s enough’ sometimes and people don’t like that. I can only assume it makes them question two things – what they give to others and what they expect from themselves – and they don’t like either of the answers.
    Knowing I’m not the only person in the world who holds these ideas … it’s a massive relief. I feel like someone switched a light on for me. Thanks for posting it. And yeah, she’s getting a message like this one too 😛

35. I completely agree with the ‘don’t help anyone more than they’re willing to help themselves’ comment too. Unfortunately it’s an unpopular opinion to hold (as I found out to my cost when posting about it on LJ recently amongst my friendship group) and just finding that there were other people who shared that opinion was a massive thing for me – I said on a comment below, but I felt like someone switched the light on and I wasn’t shouting into the void any more.

36. A collection of profound ideas which can only really be accessed by someone who has been to hell and back again. Depression and despair are bad things and yet, in my own experience, allow access to insights that I wouldn’t have found in a happier state of mind. Kudos to Amy for both recognising the wisdom she’s found and having the guts to share it with the world. Amy, may you only know joy in life.

37. Thank you, Wil & Amy. Try being a 29 year old teacher and realizing that you are absolutely tired of just teaching to a test and that you actually want to help kids explore the world. Who’s up for a travelling school that actually teaches real world experience? My kids can google just about anything, why not teach them how to use that? Anyway, rambling… Thank you, again, Wil & Amy.

38. Thank you.

39. Not sure how else to connect to you, so I will leave a comment here.
    Along the lines of the post above, this YouTube Video is a celebration of Geekdom. Amy’s post and your blog are indicative of the most wonderful movement toward–I hate to say mainstreaming, perhaps global acceptance–of nerdiness.
    You may have already seen it. It is music video for an Ok Go song. I don’t know much about them, but I have to say that this video and effort behind it is inspiring.
    http://tinyurl.com/yax44dt
    These links are take you to the making of the video:
    http://tinyurl.com/yhpnodm
    http://tinyurl.com/ydjatd8
    http://tinyurl.com/ycon2dz
    http://tinyurl.com/y8f3sbr
    Michael

40. I’m all tears welling up. I so needed to hear (read, wev) that today.

41. In a similar vein, the lengths geeks will go to help each other. May bring a tear to the eye. (It did mine.)
    http://www.geekologie.com/2010/03/brings_a_tear_to_my_eye_three.php

42. Thank you for sharing Wil. I absolutely love that there is a place where people can connect and learn and grow. A place where wonderful things can be shared and experienced.
    In many ways, the internet can make people feel even more alone and withdrawn.
    But thankfully, there are some truly amazing people like alukima who bear their souls and help us all feel just a bit more connected to the human race.

43. Is it wrong to feel proud of myself for having lived some of the sentiments on alukima’s list, having had some of the same struggles?
    I also feel humbled for realizing that some of them aren’t on my “checked off” list.
    Wil (is it rude to use your first name even though I’ve never met you? “Mr. Wheaton” seems too ridiculous considering you’re only a year older than me), sorry for being so long-winded but I wanted to reflect on your catchphrase: don’t be a dick.
    Part of why I’ve avoided social media for years is because I’m extremely opinionated. Sometimes my opinions get hold of me and I lose the perspective that these aren’t just words on a page, they’re people. Usually this is in the context of geek culture like tabletop wargames where everyone seems to have a penchant for arguing with one another (likely due to the frequent *need* to get into the miniutae of rules construction which always starts fights).
    And then I would find myself Being A Dick.
    It wasn’t until I lost someone I lived with for twelve years last October that I really took stock of my life, including my behavior online, and started making some real changes…which is why I’m now making my very first, tentative steps into social media after a decade of message forum posting (which feels decidedly different to me)
    As someone who is highly successful in social media, do even *you* have to face the evil of the Intraweb Dick Monster and squash it down?
    Sorry for the length of this comment. I like words too much. 🙂
    P.S. Looking forward to your PAX East keynote later this month. Have no fears, I’m sure you’re going to nail it. After all…you’ll be with your people.

44. Thanks for sharing. Grammar be damned–that was prosaic.

45. I don’t know how you manage to wade through all those links (never visited Reddit before) but thank you. That was a nice thing to read (too bad about the horrid trolls).

46. So … wow. That article is great. Your addition is great, and it’s only reenforcing my WilW love. I admit it, you were among my very first official “Crushes” I grew up watching TNG, along with the others. Since then I’ve occasianlly perused your site when prompted to via another site, such as slashdot or others, only recently truly appreciating how awesome you are. I received Just A Geek for my birthday and read it cover to cover, and then read it again. Your writing is wonderful, and in a lot of ways made me feel better about a lot of things that have happened in my life. This probably could have been an email, and could be WAY less sappy but it is what it is and I just wanted to thank you for the link, your books, this site, and for being you, because you’re really awesome.
    /feelings.
    Um … cock.
    There. That’s what the internet is all about.

47. Well, I can’t reasonably expect that you’ll find this little reply of mine in the vast sea of comments (not to mention a full week after the post), but I did take a moment to share the article with my VOX Neighborhood as well as your addition.
    (Can’t imagine I’d be the first to mention it, either; as you *are* using TypePad here. But, y’know, yeah. Documentation and all that.)

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