Star Trek - You Can't Do More By Playing It Safe
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters cite the 'Tapestry' scene when discussing risk-taking, life regrets, and ambition in a supposedly utopian Star Trek society.
Recommended by 2 people across 2 different months, 2018 to 2026.
What it is
A short clip from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode 'Tapestry', in which Picard, given a chance to relive his youth, learns that playing it safe would have left him a lesser man. It was uploaded by a viewer who shared it on his blog because it resonated personally.
What people said
Recommends rootsudo · 2022-06 · Hacker News · on “Any self made millionaires here? Was it worth it?”
The problem is, - is the time/life/worth balance worth it? I would agree, yes, stick in tech 40 years, you'd be a millionaire, even 5-10, but at that point, I feel you should exit - and live your life and do your "thing." It's one thing to try and succeed, another to try and fail, and ironically, when most people have assets/liquidity, they're in the part of the life that failing and restarting is hard, if not impractical all together. I've seen this many a time, growing up in Florida - and it does make the route of being a "office drone" for 40 years, appeasing, or even getting a 100k+ salary via a public sector job, and a pension to retire on and the ease/slowness of the work. But, then ag
Recommends somenameforme · 2026-11 · Hacker News · on “Patrick Stewart taught us what good men do with power”
One of my favorite episodes of TNG was Tapestry, to the point that it significantly influenced my life perspective. It emphasizes that even in this sort of idealized world, the things you might want to avoid are still unavoidable. [1] [1] - [this video]
Cites TangoTrotFox · 2018-08 · Hacker News · on “Why Prosperity Has Increased but Happiness Has Not”
Star Trek is interesting to consider. Most see it as a sort of utopia, one that people could only dream of. And it's certainly portrayed as such. Yet "poor" is not really a measure of what you have, but a measure of what you don't have. In our Star Trek society imagine the state of mind and affairs for the hoards of Star Fleet officers unable to find promotion and instead left to meaningless toil while somebody else calls all the shots. Well actually that's hardly even touching on the issue. Consider those that can't even get into Star Fleet! There'd be entire movements from these "poor" individuals indignant at the inequities in society. Star Trek rarely tackled this issue as it was always
Cites TangoTrotFox · 2018-09 · Hacker News · on “We’re Measuring the Economy All Wrong”
But everybody is rich relative to practically any time in our entire species existence. Ready access to clothes, food, fresh water, indoor plumbing, and so many other things are things that we take completely for granted, but they aren't a given. I would much rather be an aristocrat in ancient Greece than a poor person in America due to the ability exert your ideas, but in terms of niceties a poor American has our ancient Greek aristocracy looking like they were living in some nicely decorated slums. Ignore non-material components, and I'd take the poor American in a heartbeat. People sometimes look to Star Trek as an example of a utopia, but think about what would really happen. Have you ev