* If you are working on someone else's crappy idea, think about working on your own crappy idea.
* Call people you might need later when you don't need them. Or they tend to disappear when you do need them.
* Learn about the stock market and invest right away. You'll make money, lose money, then understand money.
* Build as many projects as time allows. It's nice to have the option to pick and choose.
* If you don't do the thing you want to do today, 5 years from now you'll remember and wonder how different your life would have been if you did.
* Don't ask people what they think about your idea. They'll either be supportive or mean to you. None of these are about your idea.
* Have a conversation with someone who doesn't speak your language. Make the effort to understand them. Mr Tereso, came out of nowhere and taught me life lessons that changed my life. He spoke no English, and i spoke Duolingo level Japanese.
* I'll end with this. If you are bored, create something. Make a clay pot, a drawing on paper, a JavaScript file, a wooden structure, a shoe rack, a sand castle, a matchstick home, a story. Make something you can look at the end result and you'll never get bored again...
That's an excellent point. I definitely prefer working in small companies, then you're closer to people's crappy ideas. But still you never get the full benefit as you never take the full risk.
> Don't ask people what they think about your idea. They'll either be supportive or mean to you. None of these are about your idea.
There was a talk about this recently on HN [0]. Asking for feedback about your product/idea is useless because people also lie. The only way is to ask them about their problems around the area you are looking into, or else get users in to test your product and video them.
This is a bit rambly and tangential, but one thing I'd really want to emphasize is the "something" part.
Sometimes it's good to decompress by just making something that's neither conventionally useful nor well-engineered, but absurd, like an inside joke taken to the extreme.
A personal example: My friends and I have built an IRC bot that stores most of its code in Redis and is almost entirely developed on IRC by stuffing a bunch of incomprehensible JavaScript on a single line. It can pull data over HTTP and mangle it in various ways, it had a neural network trained with our IRC logs to generate random text, it has a Twitter client, can be used as a REPL, has a simple wiki-like database, etc. All these features are composable using an ad-hoc scripting "language" with a parser that sometimes breaks in hilarious ways. And most of the development happens when we are bored and just want to take a break.
None of the code we've written for it or the technical "design" is pretty or robust. But we have a ton of fun hacking on it because we get to build something while completely disregarding whether it'll be useful or even work properly. That's why we work on it.
I didn't understand much of what you said about your project, but it still sounds fun and interesting. Kudos.
While I agree that some people will be blindly supportive or mean (or will lie as another comment pointed out), it sounds to me that you might be asking the wrong people or you might be allowing ego to taint your perception of their responses.
In my experience, there are plenty of thoughtful, analytical people out there who can help you explore aspects of your idea you might not have considered. Those people, however, will likely only give you their honest assessment if you already have a relationship with them. For me, having a small network of thoughtful individuals that I trust (friends, family, etc) is essential.
In addition, you have to be able to separate your ego from the idea so that you can view criticism of it in an objective way, rather than as simply “mean” (which it might be, but might also contain grains of truth).
This is, of course, no substitute for feedback from actual customers/users, though I would argue that, in the early stages of exploring an idea, it is equally necessary.
A little bit later, I relayed these situations to someone who was giving advice on where to take the product / business, and he pointed out that these low-effort supportive comments and "please add feature X" suggestions are ways in which people brush you off in a non-confrontational way. He pointed me to a pretty good book called The Mom Test, which goes through the reasons why this is the case, and also how and what type of questions you should ask. Highly recommended reading, it was eye-opening for me.
> Hey, what do you think of this product?
> Oh! This product looks great! I would definitely buy this!
vs.
> Hey, I have 10 copies of this product available. Would you like to buy one?
> Oh! Umm… Well…
This might be the best single sentence I've read on the internet so far this year. Kudos.
In short: Boredom is a function of creativity / creating.
Thanks again.
Often it is the other way around.
A sidebar question: What are video games' and technology's destruction of boredom doing to the future of creativity?
Love this. Reminds me of Jobs’ Stanford commencement address and Bezos’ regret minimization frameworks. I try to live my life this way, though it’s not always possible.
My ex fancied herself a day trader and spent an amazing amount of time researching trading, back-testing trading strategies, and coming up with new strategies. This was over around a decade. In the end, her "can't lose" strategy (high leveraged investment in a RITE with some sort of a "even if it fails we get our money back" option coverage) resulted in six figures just disappearing. I never got any sort of answer on what happened there, we were divorcing at the time and she wouldn't say anything about it. I'm pretty sure she didn't take it an run, she was just too embarrassed about it.
What has worked best for me is: - Invest early. When I was 19 I nearly took out a $10K loan to put into an investment account, just as a sort of "forced saving". I loved the toys, so that was a good way to make sure I got money into that. I wish I could go back and actually do that.
- Make sure you are taking advantage of your free money. I have a friend that isn't taking advantage of his work's 3% matching. I max out my Simple contributions.
- Putting money in a low-fees investment account. I have the bulk of it in a "targeted retirement account" at Vanguard, with the target retirement age set to around 70, which keeps it a bit more aggressive right now when I don't need the money and can contribute more.
One thing I would add: *a Job pays you for your time, learn to build a anything that can solve your/other peoples pain points and the product will make you a living (best case scenario). More free time = wealth.
Also, I am done with T.V & Social Media. World Cup 2018 is going on ATM, we have Cricket World Cup next, then we have another Sports Tournament, and another, and another one... The entire entertainment industry is one infinite `loop` of baloney and you hold the `break` statement to it. They're made to distract you from the real deal. Go out with a Soccer ball in stead, you don't have to be a top-class player yourself, just kick the damn ball.
No matter how lazy you think you are, how fat/thin you are, start exercising. Just do the basics at the beginning and slowly progress. Seriously just start with a 5 minutes of Jumping Jacks in the morning. You'll feel much better for the rest of your day.
Also, as seen on many of the suggestions in this thread, don't worry a lot about how short our life is. It makes matters worse.
I spend quality time with my friends & family to discuss about our day-to-day incidents and others, not to debate on a third person's performance on the pitch. Also, I don't find much difference among Olympics or Fifa World Cup or any other world sporting leagues, regardless of their popularity or duration, I find all of them to serve NIL for my prosperity- just a frequent hit of dopamine, that's all.
But, what disappoints me is I was academically & extracurricular-wise far more superior than them (except IO medals), still not a single so called elite colleges accepted me. But, I am an optimist and what I've learned about myself is I can teach myself the COMPUTER SCIENCE far better than somebody else. I don't know what will happen in few years time, I may stay unemployed or may land my dream job, but the thing is, I am always learning and I do believe that my skills will be appreciated.
People you love can be gone tomorrow.
You too - so prepare for that.
You don't make friends at job, you will be fired as soon as they notice you have some family problems influencing your work. There will be no talking, no asking anything... and then your "friends" will silently agree with everything the manager does.
Read more - it really helps with anything you will do.
Write more - get a pen and a notebook, not a computer.
People will disagree with the brightest and most true thing you will write - just don't care as soon as what you wrote is true.
The more general variation on this theme is : "Most of your friends aren't".
They're drinking buddies, folks to talk to at $event and $hobby_club
If shit meets fan most of them will disappear. There will be a few who turn out to be real friends. A few in each group will surprise you greatly.
Yea, I think that's what I wanted to write. And drinking is the best way to get a promotion, knowledge and skills don't matter if you drink with the boss.
The worst part is that if they were in a shitty situation I would've been willing to help them out (and often did), but when the tables were turned they were nowhere to be found.
For sure, this kind of semantic puritanism seems like a great way to convince yourself that you're an unlikeable person with no friends.
Nothing wrong with drinking buddies or casual friends at the local cycling club or wherever your hobby interests lie.
But they won't be true friends in the sense of people you could call on for advice or assistance if life has just presented you with "a challenge".
What has surprised me over the years is how poorly I can predict closeness - both with myself and others. People you'd think were your closest friends can, and do, disappear when you have sudden need. Fairweather friend probably is derogatory but I guess they only get called that after some shitty event? Here, we probably are into semantics. :)
Conversely I've been just as surprised by people who didn't seem that close but went above and beyond to help some situation.
> seems like a great way to convince yourself that you're an unlikeable person with no friends
I have no idea at all how you arrive here. :)
Yes, it's important to be able to gauge the degree of closeness accurately (at least not be very wrong about someone being a close friend), but that's a bit of a different concern, imo.
>> seems like a great way to convince yourself that you're an unlikeable person with no friends
> I have no idea at all how you arrive here. :)
Having many friends is generally considered important for general wellbeing, and is a social success-criterion. If you're telling yourself that all those people who enjoy being around you and that you enjoy being around (even if they might probably not be there for you in a deep crisis) aren't friends, that they're somehow fake, it's easy to get lost. At the very least, it's easy to rationalise not spending time with them. And you'll certainly never have a chance to convert any of them to "real" friends.
Sounds like things were very rough but you’re in a much better spot than last year. If I’m right, happy to hear. :) otherwise please reach out!
Eventually, I said hey, we should do this with our son. So we did, he had the same problem, took about 2 months before he started drawing, building, tinkering. After getting all this free time back I decided to cut off all notifications on my phone except phone calls and text messages.
It was hard giving up my Instagram account, which I had grown to over 500 followers for my pottery side work, but even though I wasn't much of an Instagram person, I still would find myself checking it randomly when I was bored. Each thing I cut off helped with the next thing. Once I got all this stuff cut off, I realized that the important things I wanted to know about in the world I could just directly check their website once a week and be good to go. So I usually start my Monday off with my deep work in the morning, then I read things that are important to me.
What is amazing is when you cut it all off, how much you still think about it. You reach for your phone then realize you uninstalled all addictive apps. It has been a long time now, and sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the night, I still reach for my phone before realizing the only thing on my phone is my email and I only get email from personal people as I have unsubscribed from everything that isn't positively influencing my life. This includes marketing stuff because they are just really good at making me want things that I don't need.
I know I sound absolutely crazy, but this AskHN question really sparked my interest. I tell people all the time who ask me why I am so happy, positive, etc, and I tell them, "I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, I do some sort of exercise daily(mostly gardening right now), and I am not on any social media, negative news, and I have no TV." People will look at you like your absolutely nuts, but let them, I feel 1000x better than I have ever felt in my entire life. If you want a place to start, just take your phone, uninstall anything that you feel you need to check that doesn't:
1. Make you money
2. Brighten your day 100% of the time when you open it
3. Isn't a huge time suck for no mental or physical gain
Once you do this, DON'T go back. Surround yourself with things you love, eat good food, exercise and spend time in the sunlight. Any politics you feel strongly about, find their website and check it when you start your week or end your week.
Last of all, you can do it!
Turn off Hacker News.
I don't have an answer to this though. Thoughts on how to improve the situation would be appreciated.
Hobbies are vitally important to keeping you happy and healthy, don't neglect them.
When you get a speeding ticket and the GPS co-ordinates in the photo imply the camera van was miles away, the court won't care.
My son was diagnosed with ADHD. A relief to know what it was, but also a burden in terms of managing it.
Falling down the stairs after slipping on a Nerf gun hurts. It really, really hurts.
Family comes first, always.
Why does distance from car to camera van matter though? I'm very curious!
For challenging and losing my wife got 5 points instead of 3 for just paying the fine without a fuss.
This situation hit me hard, made me really doubt the impartiality of the courts.
When my wife stated her defence the prosecuting Garda sergeant said, under oath, "We don't use that American GPS we have our own GPS!". My wife though she had him at that point, but the judge believed the Garda.
I have kept all the documentation in case we can do something about it in the future, but that's unlikely. What is really grating is that the lady before my wife admitted to doing 120kph in an 80kph zone, the judge dismissed the case because of her "honesty and frankness".
Currently An Garda Siochana (Irish police) is undergoing huge turmoil and a number of public inquiries due to corruption and bad management. When the police are found to have faked 1 million breath tests in order to hit targets our little issue becomes very low hanging fruit.
Thank you for writing about it. Even if it does not do much, a sense of commonality is sometimes all the little man needs.
>...
>Family comes first, always.
I didn't learn this in the past 12 months, but a recent event has definitely reaffirmed this: stick to your 35-45 hours and leave. I start getting pretty useless as the day drags on. After a certain time, there is a sharp decline in my productivity. If I push through it, I just make mistakes that I have to fix later.
If you're not in a company that values your personal time[0], then start looking for another job. The burn out just isn't worth it. 6-figure salaries with equity and free breakfast/lunch/dinner just isn't worth it when you realize that your 50s will be filled with a distinct lack of motivation to ever leave the house.
[0]: I am with a company that values my personal time, but I voluntarily took on extra work to help another team meet a critical production deadline. I was compensated with quite a bit of extra time off in return. However, the stress and headache of being a duo that saved another team's ass (and possibly their jobs) and their constantly expressed anxiety was barely worth it. I actually snapped on one of those team members during this time period, and I said some things, within earshot of very many people, that definitely was not work place appropriate.
I figure the cost of those 8 hours is really 10%, not 20%... and much of that 10% is bought back with the increased productivity brought on by long weekends. I would love to work that way.
Over the last ten years it has gone from no overtime to "Can you do a wee bit of overtime?", then "You are working this weekend" to not even asking me and just expecting me to be in the office working late.
It came to a head last August when I was at a big-4 consultancy. The usual email about ordering dinner went around, that was code for we are all working late tonight. I said "Sorry, I don't need any I'm off home". Within a minute the project manager was at my desk saying "Well, we clearly have a problem and you need to fix it now." They were always so careful to not actually say the word overtime, it was all code such as asking us what we wanted for dinner or telling us that the security man would be locking up late and the like.
That was the point when I knew that I had to change things.
The worst thing was that I had told that company I could not work late as my wife worked evenings and we have kids. I got a note added to my contract acknowledging this, but they wouldn't honour it. They even went as far as suggesting that I hire a babysitter or ask my wife to give up her clients. They were oblivious to the fact that I would rather be with my children than earning €100k.
I should have done it sooner. About five years ago I was a company that claimed to be family friendly, but was anything but. During my annual review I was marked down for not "Giving Time to the Company" basically not doing overtime. I said that expecting me to give away my skills for free was unprofessional. I was told that I was unprofessional for even thinking that. That is when I should have taken the plunge to go it alone, but I held out hoping for a better employer.
Haha, what's this fallacy? I've seen a variation of it: "You're the one who is racist because you notice (and call out) racism."
There are days where it's really hard, and there are absolutely days that I forget my medicine and basically the entire day is shot, but in all honesty I really truly believe that I owe a good portion of what I have to the fact that I have ADHD.
I learned a ton of methods and skills for dealing with depression, forgetfulness, anger, impulsivity, and motivation from a really young age. And those skills have helped me significantly more than my ADHD has ever pulled me down. Going into highschool and college already knowing how to manage myself and how I learn, tricks and ways of working to ensure I stay on task meant that I had a big leg up over a lot of my peers.
We always suspected ADHD and now that we have the confirmation we can deal with it properly.
On the flip side his IQ is 140 (SB5 test) which is nice, but also adds an extra burden on to how to manage his condition. Luckily he loves coding and building things - but we have to always be looking for something new and stimulating for him to do.
We've been lucky to get him accepted in to a number of schemes to help him manage his condition and harness his abilities. He's only eight so its early days for good quality intervention and help.
Of course the bullying is inevitable. Kids at his school call him autistic, plus he has two different coloured eyes which just makes him more of a target. Luckily his younger sister is a bruiser and sticks up for him.
- There is no integrity in keeping silent when witnessing wrongdoing, even when speaking out may harm your current business prospects.
- Most "interesting" ideas in tech currently simply aren't.
- "Software Craftsmanship" is a scam.
- Programmers are far less logical than they would themselves believe.
- Non-tech project managers in tech teams are beyond useless; they're often plainly harmful to the business.
This is not an exhaustive list, and I didn't learn all these things in the past 12 months. Some have just been beaten into me more over the past year.
Before Google, business listing websites competed by being the most disciplined in listing business data — they had humans doing this. Along comes Google and gains a huge advantage by leveraging technology — not human discipline. And we all know who won.
Most outspoken Software Craftsmanship proponents eschew technologies like a strong type system à la Haskell in favour of manually-written tests — somehow not realising that you gain most leverage by taking advantage of types, and tests, and other formal verification systems.
Furthermore, in my experience, many architectural patterns talked about at these events (onions, ports and adapters, etc) are over-engineered piles of garbage in practice.
Wanting to be a better programmer is a good thing, of course. Dogmatically doing TDD (and yes, I write tests!) and adhering to SOLID principles is not the way you go about it.
I've only been in this field for about 18 months and I'm so overwhelmed by all these conflicting ideas and have no idea where to turn.
Do you have any advice for juniors on how to internalise good engineering principles and how to avoid dogma?
Read the "classics" - Code Complete, Pragmatic Programmer, Clean Code etc. Google "best books about programming" and you'll find plenty.
When you're reading think about the why. You're job is dealing in complexity and there is no one true way. Understand as many of the different ways as possible.
If you think an idea is weak, try and figure out a question that exposes the weakness (how does this handle a date before 1970?). Expect that sometimes this question will reveal the idea isn't as weak as you initially expected.
Remember you only need to solve the problem that's in front of you. If that problem doesn't seem easy try to break it up into smaller problems.
Complicated solutions are often bad solutions.
Complicated solutions can be good solutions.
Write your code for people to understand.
Advice on good writing is often very applicable to code... See Orwell(1), particularly "Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous" 1.https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/tips-masters/george-o...
- Get comfortable on the command line — it's almost a running joke now that modern tools are often outperformed by awk/sed/grep/cut/etc
- Go through the book 'Seven Languages in Seven Weeks' — You won't thoroughly learn those seven languages, but you will learn how to learn programming languages
- Get good at recognising hype and reducing marketing language to their core ideas. This seems especially applicable in the JavaScript world (though this may just be my confirmation bias speaking)
- Get good at accurately defining the problem you intend to solve. This would seem so fundamental that it isn't worth mentioning, but you'd be surprised how often people jump to "Ah! An excuse to play with shiny new framework/tool/languge/whatever" before knowing what it is they're solving
Most of these seem quite fundamental, but you go an awful long way in this industry on fundamentals.
Imagine a future co-worker coming in to fix a bug in your code - that person should ideally be able to say, aha, write a fix, and afterwards nobody can tell you didn't do it yourself.
If an abstraction makes things easier to understand, do it. If it doesn't, don't. Sometimes an extra test can make something easier to understand or modify, or handling more edge cases can make it the code more robust against future uses. But it's always a trade-off: less code is plainly easier to understand.
With that yardstick, lots of hyped tech just isn't good enough, advice given goes plainly against understandability or APIs that may look nice on paper result in hard-to-understand code full of accidental complexity. This applies to a lot of software method thinking too - does it result in me understanding the use cases better or in more understandable code? If not, don't waste time doing it.
By the way, writing code that's easy to understand and APIs that result in usage of said APIs being easy to understand is really hard. I spend a fair deal of my time rewriting code that I'm not comfortable with because it's too hard to understand. If you practice that, I think you might end up as an excellent programmer. Understandability extends to user interfaces and system design - a beautiful program that requires its users to jump through hoops to get everyday tasks done is an abomination in my book.
For me, software craftsmanship (lower case) is just having pride in what you are making, and constantly improving your work based on a multitude of things, performance being only a small part of it.
Software certainly shouldn't be about adhering to strict processes and principles; software is a creative endeavor. Sometimes you can write novels, sometimes you can write haiku, sometimes you can write sonnets, sometimes you can write long form articles.
I'd love if you could expand on this topic. What do you mean by charlatans?
The 'Appeal to Authority' fallacy creates a feedback loop here too. They mislead to gain authority. They use that new authority to gain more opportunities to mislead.
I am not saying this is the common case. Naturally, there are many brilliant people in our industry. I am however saying that this happens enough for it to be a concern of mine.
As tempting as it is, I won't name names.
"Not only working software, but also well-crafted software
Not only responding to change, but also steadily adding value
Not only individuals and interactions, but also a community of professionals
Not only customer collaboration, but also productive partnerships"
I fail to see the "scam" here. Your follow-on comments seem to take issue with some of the popular opinions on how to best accomplish the goals above, but that hardly disqualifies the effort to improve software development as a profession outright as a "scam".
In practice however, it's a different reality.
Let's not forget that SC's perhaps most infamous proponent once said that C++ is a "man's language", and that Java is an "oestrogen" language.
I feel like C++ is the antithesis to the "manifesto" posted in the parent. I /like/ C++, but it seems to me like it is nearly impossible to write code that is easy to read, easy to change, performant, and correct, all at the same time.
This is something I learned first hand in the previous year. I joined a company that purposely seeks out known entities in a specific space. These are people I've seen do tech-talks and lead meetups. I specifically joined with the idea of mentorship and gleaning as much information as I could.
What I learned is that some of the ideas being pitched via tech-talk were actually introducing some of the most convoluted and inefficient practices into the department. I learned that some of those individuals were in untouchable ivory tower positions, and crossing them would cost you your job. I learned that upper-management didn't actually know a damn thing about the space and sought after those known entities to cover that gap and make themselves appear more relevant.
The world is a maze and you always have more options than you realize.
Doing what you think would be best (i.e. learning Russian) is most often not as good as doing something similar that fits your routine better (i.e. there's a Polish guy in your building that's willing to teach you Polish). Another formulation: Don't force your dreams but rather take (with gratitude) what is given/in front of you.
If what you think is best is worth it then change your life so that it can fit comfortably into your routine.
Time doesn't exist but causality does. Whatever you are doing don't beat yourself up when your focus drifts to something else. You will find yourself drifting back to it when you reach a catalyst, so the things you really want to do will eventually see the light of day.
Relaxing is more powerful than tensing, you can get further and faster (This one I keep learning over and over in new contexts).
Everyone is obsessed with fashion and how you look says more about you than you yourself are able to comprehend. This is because there are people that can see everything they need to know about you from how you look, you are familiar with this phenomena but from the other side. Resist it.
You are fundamentally alone.
I love this statement. To me it seems to be another expression of "don't let perfection be the enemy of good".
You need to prioritize how you spend your time. This is not a one-time exercise. It's an ongoing process.
You look at the things that you do in a given day, week, month, and year. You see how they benefit you, your family, friends, community, and society. You weigh that against your goals and happiness. You make little adjustments to how you spend your time.
Concreted example: I like gardening. Not any gardening, but growing heirloom tomatoes in particular. They are a finicky bunch and are often not the easy-to-grow varieties. This is OK. I fail a lot. I need to dedicate more time to this in order to succeed. People tell me to not try growing from seeds, but get some seedlings and start from there. That would not satisfy me. Unfortunately, I have other things that I value greatly so I decided that after this season, I will put growing tomatoes on hold. I'll get back to it once some of my current priorities pass and I have more time.
Over time, your life will begin to look more and more in tune with your goals and expectations, and you will be a happier person.
Fill in your own details and don't try to copy off of others. Everyone is different. And don't try to grow heirloom tomatoes with kids, a full time job, a side business, and an active social life--the day is too short for all of that.
The inverse is not necessarily true :)
It never can, but you can sure burn a lot of money trying.
People lie.
Typed languages are better.
Here are some things I learned in the past 12 months:
* economics are more useful to me than politics. Stop reading news on politics, but rather financial news
* my biggest flaws are lack of patience and a big ego. Was hard to see this even though most of my life problems originated from these two
* sleep is damn important
* knowing yourself is an illusion. You can have the feeling that you know yourself, but you'll be amazed how many things you can still learn about yourself.
* is very important to avoid resentment. This means talking or doing uncomfortable things, but is such a relief afterwards
Did you ever do Show HN of this project?
Right now I started to read The concise guide to economics[1] As the title says it's a really simple and concise book which explain basic terms from economy. I find it quite good for beginners like me.
In the future I plan to add these to my reading list:
Financial Times blog[2]
Paul Krugman's blog[3]
The New York Times
The Economist
[1] https://www.amazon.com/Concise-Guide-Economics-Jim-Cox/dp/19...
Product-market fit is hard.
Keeping razor focus is harder.
Excercise, good sleep, and healthy food pay big dividends.
Don't bother disagreeing with people on social media.
Finally: I can build way more things than I thought I could 12 months ago.
You should put that on a tee-shirt, or maybe a billboard.
I'm not disagreeing here. I don't want to make this more complicated.
Based on the context of the original comment, they probably believe the chance is very low. After thinking on it a bit based on my own experiences over the years, even after using niche forums for hobbies and just plain socializing, it's often very rare to have a real conversation.
One example I can provide right now are a few people I've seen on one of those aforementioned niche forums who basically copy-paste all of their "opinions" on software and technology from a different forum and are dogmatic to the point where interaction with them is exhausting and counteractive towards the light-hearted and positive nature of the forum; it's not worth it to even try to align the messages of both parties based on their biases because the dogmatic ones are looking to be "right" and believe that those who aren't in agreement haven't been shown the light. It quickly becomes more prudent to simply ignore that person/those people, but not everyone does, and those who do choose the path of tuning out leave the area that much more barren.
Of course, I'm not talking about things that are reflexively grouped under "social media" like Twitter and such. Still can't figure Twitter out.
Still working on improving my health, but coming to terms with this being a part of life rather than something I'll get over completely.
If anything, the last 12 months has taught me that your health is the one thing you can't replace. Enjoy living while you can, because when your health's gone, it's gone.
So sorry to hear about your misfortune. How is the recovery going ?
After that, i learned to value my lonely hours :)
Sometimes at the end of a long day I try to remember this :)
I haven't had that feeling in a long long time.
Then, my kids were born. As they grow up, I see them experiencing the types of joy and happiness as I have described above. I see them laugh uncontrollably. I see them explode with joy over the smallest of positive surprises. I see how they discover the world and experience new pleasant experiences. I see their emotions when they unbox a birthday gift. I literally feel a portion of it. It's incredible!
That feeling is back.
But, speaking as one who is closer to the end of the process than the beginning, my biggest regret is that so often I didn't take the time or make the effort to give them love and attention when I could have.
I'm really bad at finishing things. I have a lot of side projects on the go when perhaps I should focus on just one venture. But I've learned to just embrace trying to do everything at once (even if far from perfectly), and enjoying it rather than beating myself up about failing to consolidate. Might limit potential, but I like it more this way.
(I've run my main business for 20 years. I co-run a co-working space. I have a SaaS project, sports forum, involvement in some apps, a vanlife showcase, an aerial photography side business, etc. About to add something else. List of the main things here: http://www.isaacforman.com.au/)
* Cliche, but worth repeating: Money doesn't buy happiness, it buys choices, some of which may make you happier than others.
* Intimate relationships are like spinning plates: Hard to get started, easy to maintain once they are, but they DO require maintenance or they will eventually crash. Do nice things for your significant other and you will always have a refuge from the other crap that happens in your life.
* Learn when you have to move on, sometimes some things are out of your control and there's nothing you can do about it.
* We all have our own story, don't judge people for their vices and flaws unless you know their story (there are exceptions to this rule)
* Sometimes you just have to take the jump, quit your job, move overseas, and survive on your credit card until you find a new job. Otherwise in a years time, you'll be in the same shitty place you are now.
* Seasonal Affective Disorder is a right bitch, and alcohol is not a cure.
* Corollary from the above: You may not feel it sometimes, but people do care for you, despite your head telling you the opposite.
But for me, I was in a city that I didn't really like, and a job that I didn't really like. I wasn't going anywhere and I wasn't saving any money. Basically, my life was on hold. I had worked at my job for a year, and had saved a total of zero dollars, my boss was never going to give me a pay rise, and I was feeling like shit at work.
I realised that if I stayed where I was, in a years time, I was going to be in exactly the same situation and there weren't a lot of other jobs in my city that would've put me in a better situation.
So I decided that I'd quit my job and move to Australia, which for New Zealand citizens is as simple as getting on a plane and flying over (essentially it's visa free). I didn't have much in the way of savings, but I figured I had 3 months of runway if I used my credit card.
I found a job within a month, and everything else has fallen in place quite nicely.
The main takeaway is that sometimes you need to be able to realise when you're in a situation that you can change, and then do what you need to do to enact that change, even if that means moving way outside your comfort zone.
It reminds me of a buddy who moved out here from the east coast to live here in the Bay with essentially nothing.
He racked up a bunch of credit card debt and slept on our couch for about three months but ultimately was able to land an amazing gig in SF and is now doing great.
Wondering when I'm going to fold my hand a do the same type of thing.
I used to love getting pushed outside my comfort zone, I'd take more risks than most, and I loved being "behind the 8 ball", I found I did my best work when there was no other option.
But then over the last year I got complacent, i got comfortable. I started second guessing any changes, because "what if it's worse"? I started becoming more and more risk averse, and more unwilling to change.
Recently I started changing that, and I'm making a conscious effort to push myself outside my comfort zone, because as you said, if I "woke up" 5 years from now and I'm still in the exact same position, i'd hate myself.
Thanks for reminding me that I'm making the right choice.
* Trying harder will not always change someones mind about things and may make stuff worse
* You need to rely on and trust and respect yourself first before others due to the above
* Mindfulness, exercise and nature can be your best friends, don't ignore them
* Keep in touch with old friends and make new ones when you can you never know when you might need them
* Reading is good, specialization is for insects, be good at lots of stuff and don't be too upset if you don't feel you can't master anything
* Be kind, everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle
Last year, I went back to reading paper books, and it was a revelation. Suddenly, I could immerse myself again! And after a while of this, my spouse gave me her unused Kindle Paperwhite - all the advantages of ebooks, only without Internet access on the device. Easy to read in bed at night without keeping her up with a light, too.
I'd almost forgotten the pleasures of chewing through big, intense works of nonfiction, the richness and depth of book-level arguments of history, science, biography, and more.
Going all the way for your dream (or something you believe in); it doesn't matter how many times you fail, and only you should be responsible to decide when to let it go when you think it's time to move on. Doing what you want, for as long as you want, is what life is all about.
Only one or maybe two things are really important at any point in your life, rest of them just seem important, but they are not.
Boredom is the biggest problem of our generation.
I reached the conclusion that I am the most creative, productive and feeling the best when I am bored. But there is price to pay - it takes a lot of effort to get bored.
Our generation is constantly distracted and getting bored is actually a skill. From that perspective, it's the lack of boredom which is the biggest problem of our generation.
Are we thinking along the same lines?
I'm bored, lets see what's on TV. I'm bored, lets see what my Facebook friends are doing. I'm bored, let's see what I can buy on Amazon or eBay. I'm bored, let me see what's on HN.
I think a better alternative would be: I'm bored, I'll paint a painting. I'm bored, I'll write up a POC of an idea. I'm bored, I'll read a book. I'm bored, I'll create something. I'm bored, I'll learn something new. I'm bored, I'll go outside and play.
Maybe hide your browser icon and put your code editor / paint / word processor icon in it's place.
When I'm comfortable with my life and relaxed, I tend to slack and mess things up in the long term.
This year I got an amazing job offer, and my wife threw a giant fit, told me she's not coming, and said "I took a gamble and lost. I never thought you would actually get an offer".
Now she's refusing to get a job, wants me to continue paying for our house that she's living in on the east coast (in addition to rent for my apartment in the Bay Area), wants me to pay for 20 flights per year across the country so she can visit friends and family, and has called me every mean name in the book.
So my career is going great but my marriage is falling apart.
Being in a bad marriage is like being that poor mouse in 'An American Tale'. Looking wistfully up at the night sky, thinking "Somewhere, out there..." (there is a life that doesn't resemble hell / a distorted version of expected reality).
Obviously, I'm making a leap here that you aren't some kind of monster or what-have-you and you don't deserve any of this. ; )
Also, when I was growing up, my parents always said "divorce is wrong; you can always make a marriage work if you try hard enough". Interestingly, they've completely flipped on that opinion now that they've heard how I'm being treated, but I guess I'm still "brainwashed". If I didn't have these irrational moral qualms, I would have ended the marriage by now.
If she doesn't and you value working at the offered position in that location more than your relationship (I know, it's hard to think in those terms but be honest with yourself).. The other commenters might be on to something.
Moving to the other side of the US is like moving to another country in some aspects. She didn't qualify your original question as realistic, and didn't give you an honest answer. It's understandable - but now you're the one who needs to re-evaluate what you find more important.
Best of luck with it, I'm sure in time you'll be happier than you will be in the short term! Just be decisive and don't drag things out one way or another. And remember, grudges are heavier than forgiveness.
A twisted version of Stockholm Syndrome, trust me. That nagging feeling that says, "I don't want to rock the boat and be the bad guy", will not move you forward in life.
Doing the long-term mental gymnastics of "Things will get better if X happens or Y turns up", is just wasting more time.
Edit: Please don't read this as negative. But having been there, and having spent way too long pondering the situation... It breaks my heart to hear of those currently living through it.
Listen to your body when you think about your options. It is way ahead of the thinking mind and already knows what feels best.
I will also say this since no one else is: now is the best time to get divorced from a financial perspective, as your earnings are about to go up. Get out now and find someone you want to be with for decades to come...
Aren't we all.
I'm in a pretty good position based on my own merits.
But I moved in with a friend at the advice that I'm too young to be living alone. I'm starting to miss it.
I would have earned a lot more and be much further in my career, potentially already employing people, if I hadn't listened to my peers and mentors when it comes to career advice. I should have looked at their position, given their age and compared it with my own. Technically they're amazing, career and money-wise, they should be much, much further ahead than I.
Save more. Get better with finance administration. Set hard goals and break them. Just because you earn almost 10-fold your first job, doesn't mean you should be spending more than you were before. Money drives business drives ideas drives change.
1) You're better off looking at things probabilistically.
2) You should seek ways to put the odds in your favor whenever you go up to bat and forget about the outcome.
3) When things are going your way, don't get arrogant. And when things aren't, don't get despondent.
4) You should keep going up to bat and let the law of averages work things out in your favor.
Simple, rather obvious things like doing (do a thing, take action) and asking (if you never ask...), dramatically improve your odds of causing and or colliding with good luck outcomes. They often take very little time as well. The biggest cost in asking, is typically being shot down; if you can handle that, then the sky opens up.
I used to be really mediocre at the asking aspect. I remember my mother telling me, when I was a teenager, that I was just like her, I never asked for what I wanted, and she lamented that the squeaky wheel always get the grease. That pissed me off, the projection of her flaw/weakness/non-action choice onto me. I've tried to remind myself since then, to routinely stab at the universe for stray opportunities by inquiring, asking, etc.
The first time I raised venture capital, it was because I sent a cold email to a billionaire. I didn't think they'd reply, and the email only took ten minutes to craft late one night. They replied and were interested in what I was building, and I raised capital from that person shortly thereafter. All I had to do, is do something (build), and ask (network the action I took out into the wider world), and I made a good luck outcome possible. Absolutely nothing would have happened without the ask; such a simple thing.
Other ways to put things in your favor over the long term:
- Keep increasing your capacity to do things. Learn ubiquitous skills such as sales, basic accounting, negotiation, speaking, etc.
- Keep increasing your network. Asking is a huge part of this.
- Improve your signalling. Signal your achievements, your opinions...share.
- Grow your assets. Even if it means putting a little bit of money away or cutting down on expenses.
Unless you have a good reason to say "No" [1] to stuff, say "Yes". Doubly so in outside of a "work task" context[2]. More experiences/involvements means more opportunities for fortune to look your way.
[1] Good reasons to say "No" - already committed, the ask will hurt you, I need rest, i can't afford that. Bad reasons - this is odd/out of my comfort zone/not interesting, it violates a routine, "I'm waiting for..."
[2] I really really mean "outside of work tasks" because just saying yes to every little request at work can result in work overload and the inability to do life. The point of work is to enable life, not to spend the entirety of it staring at $IDE.
* Freecamping in Europe has shown me as an American that America is not nearly as free as we were taught to think. Great place to make money, though.
* There are definitely better things to experience in life than playing with more money than one really _needs_.
Caveats: Getting sick / injured, not having a normally paying job, poor worker rights, growing old.
I'm happy to pay half my income in taxes if it means me and the people I care about will be taken care of.
Would you mind explaining further?
https://www.scotways.com/faq/law-on-statutory-access-rights
Or not. But it's very distinct from what's allowed in the US (or most of the world for that matter)
Is this exclusive to the c-suite, or is "CTO" interchangeable with "Head of Product?"
However, it's growing like crazy, hitting revenue goals we never were able to hit in my previous companies, because there is such a huge demand on the market here for logistics/deliveries.
Lesson learned = do something the market wants, you don't even need to be that good to be successful (wrt growth).
* Always talk to your seniors/manager for advice when you are stuck
* Move away from the habit of instant gratification as you move up
* Buying a used car is always better than buying a new one. Save on taxes and not much fear in crashing it.
* Any app with infinite scroll is made to glue you in and waste your time
For example, if you live with a family and 1 person does not NEED a car, then they can be passed the oldest car, and when it's ready to junk, you buy a brand new one where you don't have to worry about the history of the car. Rinse, repeat, you will maximize the value obtained from each vehicle and not have to worry about how previous drivers or mechanics treated it.
This biggest expenses in cars are the surprise ones where you end up shelling out for towing or emergency repair or paying extra to buy a one since you are time constrained and can't shop. But if you have a spare car, then you have the luxury of using it until it's dead, and leisurely shopping for a deal when you need another.
* Bumbling a tech interview can still bowl me over and make me feel inadequate, even though I've been in tech for 15 years.
* International travel is life-changing. Seeing the world outside of my American bubble for the first time a few months ago altered me in a way I didn't think possible.
* Not all titles mean something.
* Do things for the sake of doing them, not because there is an end goal.
* Time is more important than money (but pay off your debt).
* Words and intent matter.
2. It's easier to get up early if you're alone, and it might even be easier to fall asleep
I think as long as there are people with deep pockets, anywhere desirable will be expensive regardless of supply. Like when dieting, "you can't out exercise the fork", you can't out build the wealthy and multi property investors.
The housing crisis is a wealth inequality problem. Trying to build out of it destroys the character of cities and their access to nature and for what? To appease the always too deep pockets of people buying up multiple houses...
We overestimate our fears most of the time.
An idea is nothing. Execution is everything.
We often behave as if some social triviality or temporary financial issue were actually life threatening, when indeed near-worst case scenarios are almost inconsequential. That person will judge you for a week or so then forget about it; if you fail financially you can rely on family, friends, savings, social security to not go homeless. The probabilities of bodily harm or true social outcasting are often very remote (and even outcast is often a but choice, since there are always other accepting people elsewhere).
Compare that with how much we fear climbing a simple step ladder -- we wouldn't give it much thought at all. But the probability of falling and having major bodily harm or even head trauma is perhaps much greater than the probability of poor outcomes from frightening daily situations. No that you shouldn't fear climbing ladders, just to give a perspective of how incongruent our intuitive fear can be to reality unless we police and adjust ourselves.
Some fears are rational, but as you say, a lot of fears are totally out of proportion. It's important to not exaggerate any negative consequences that might arise from a situation.
Another neat thing I heard in a podcast on writing was that the author fought her fear of talking in front of an audience with the fear of missing out. She knew that if she declined the invitation to speak at a convention, she would later regret missing out on the experience. So she used the latter fear to fight the former.
It's important to not attempt to remove all fear from your life, as that's bound to fail anyway and make you more anxious, but to learn to live with fear on a low enough level so that you still keep acting.
Everything is all fucked in the end, anyway. Might as well remember to live life while you still can.
Doctors are exorbitantly overpaid relative to the value they provide.
How little money matters once you have a few hundred K.
Really ?
No matter how simple a new framework promises to make things, you end up having to learn as much as with any other to achieve a non-trivial result.
When I realized this, I started looking at frameworks and languages not based on hype, but based on the style I would enjoy learning the most with.
And that's hard work. "Work is love made visible"
Thank you though.
- No matter how much transparent, rewarding and fair an organization thinks it is, just producing great work is never enough to get what you deserve in return. Ask for what you think you deserve, be it a promotion, a raise, more responsibility, etc. Don't wait for it to be handed to you.
- No matter how much fair a company is, if you are not vocal enough about your contributions, you'll not get as much recognition as you deserve. That or you need someone to do that for you like your manager or colleague but that is very rare.
- If people you look up to leaves the company, seriously re-think if you want to continue there. People leaving no matter how close to you will not badmouth the company so you won't know something is wrong.
- If a founder leaves, get out ASAP and look for something better.
- If you are not a founder and are the best person at your job in the company, get out and work with people you think are better than you.
- You are worth much more than you think. If you want to make more money, you almost always can.
Peanut butter is best in savory applications.
In order to change peoples' minds, they have to want to see that they're wrong. I think certain personality types are innately more disposed to the sort of introspection necessary to evaluate one's beliefs and throw out what's wrong.
Really it comes down to how much you care about truth. Coming from the hard sciences, it's surprising how far you can get in this world without caring even a tiny little bit about truth in many fields, most of which involve "people" and not "things": politics, sales, marketing.
The second is too! I’m telling you, peanut butter is an amazing savory ingredient! You don’t have to go full Hemingway (peanut butter and onion sandwiches), but at least satay is the way. Peanut butter is especially good when it’s spicy.
Plus yes, the other stuff, but I just can’t say enough about peanut butter.
https://manba.ca/T31jCjVS/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Box-of-...
People always look at me like I've got a second head when I tell them about the wonders of peanut butter tuna. They don't understand for some reason.
It's basically a poor mans satay tuna.
Of course the truth of depression is that it never goes away. But this is something to try to get through a few months
This is double edged. I left my wife about 3 months ago now - I was really, really, not happy and I finally had enough after 8 years. Everyone had an opinion. People I thought were very good friends turned on me, gave me shit for leaving (friends of mine; not friends of ours) and others were very supportive (mostly family). Sometimes to many opinions are a bad thing; but to few can be bad also though.
Take the opinions you can get; run a filter or 2 on them and go with your heart.
(I don't talk to the people that gave me shit for doing it anymore; and I'm much more happier now, both without the wife in my life, and without those friends in my life)
We are not defined by our intentions (no matter how noble) but rather our actions.
> Gabriel (son): When I have a family of my own, I won't hide behind them
^ The Patriot
They don't realize that survival instinct is a strong deterrent.
> Became a father of a daughter. Learning => Be happy and spend little more time with family , value time and spending time effectively.
> Bought a home with so much of efforts. Money is hard to earn, dont waste it for anything, and important if you are losing money , dont regret for it.
My director refers to me as a rock star. My total comp this year is just north of $240K. I was promoted about 13 months in. I'm told repeatedly I'm one of the top engineers in my org and admired and reputable for my ownership, bias for delivery, and quality of work.
The interviews you passed or failed mean absolutely nothing. Any company who rejects you can fuck right off. Take it from me.
The "first impression" that the parent created is a powerful image that can burn in the brain of the surrounding people and follow him throughout his career, in exchange for perhaps 1 year lag in "official" experience and remuneration during 1 or 2 years early in his career. On the other hand, being promoted too early and fucking up can unfortunately have an analogous effect, and throw a career overboard.
This is not fair, but people's brain work like that.
2) The world is absolutely unfinished. Really I sometimes wonder why everything not just breaks down with all the issues and broken solutions.
3) Teaching people is wonderful and fulfilling
4) Sales people and development people are .. different
- Do the things you have to do first.
- You have two mental modes of operation - "manager" mode and "worker" mode. Batching your tasks by this dichotomy reduces stress caused by context switching between the two. In other words - when you're planning, plan. When you're doing, do.
- Software features don't mean shit unless you're designing the workflow around them. Tools that work based on journeys and flows are better than tools that provide disconnected capabilities and make you implement the journeys in your head.
* That the NHS is much better than it's portrayed in the media.
* That my political opinions are way out of alignment with the majority.
* That I don't much like my software, the platform it runs on or a substantial proportion of my customers.
Doing things with cold logic will get them solved, but doing them with your heart will make you grow.
Bad days are important too.
Everyone struggles, but not everyone manages that properly. Justifying shitty actions with past experiences is no justification alone.
Taking care of both yourself and others is incredibly rewarding.
Living in Scotland, vitamin D daily really helps mood.
There are people who lie and manipulate. Don't be naive and dismiss or justify the incongruities.
Investigating incongruities will always teach you something, as there's an unknown reason for the incongruity.
Problems need holistic solutions - e.g. sorting posture by increasing muscular strength isn't enough if you also need to work on loosening muscles and increasing flexibility. Hence the need to persevere more.
A lot of people struggle with keeping the bigger picture in mind (e.g. thinking about the user when designing a part of a system).
I work from home so I'm on the phone a reasonable amount - I always walk around on my calls. It also gives you a screen break and really helps with problem solving.
I've also become more away of my dips in productivity. Unless you're doing something mundane you can't smash out great results for 8-10 hours every day. Switch tasks, go for a walk (outside this time), make a tea etc. Make sure your lunch break is something totally different to give your mind a break (I go watch TV).
1) I find it interesting 2) It is important to my family.
Edit: What I'm trying to say is that: 1) If you look back, what you appraise are the well-thought decisions you made in most cases; 2) What's between these well-thought decisions are often more clutter than there should be, and in the end you end up making the rational decision anyway. You're just often postponing it; 3) Being rational is not often an energy intensive decision, but there are other factors (faults that are in the field of your general rational decision making, fears/lack of tuning your machinery/proneness to procrastination etc.); 4) All of these previous faults fall into the category of self-conscious behavior / betterment of your self-consciousness, which both are in the field of rationality... what's the core realization/ignition for the beginning of this process? Maybe it's that there's not much outside of rationality, and that "all you are" is a direct result of your rationality.
* There is life after failing at a startup
* When building a business, being organized matters more than being smart
* Most things in life work out better when taken one step at a time, no matter how slow it feels
* Things happen in life all the time. It gets easier when you can identify the ones you can change, which ones you can only change slightly and which ones you have no control over- You can't travel enough. I visited 9 new countries in the last 12 months. Way too little.
- Try to experience new things instead of just seeing and selfi-ing them. [ If you go to a new country, go to the rough edges of the city. Go to events but also to night clubs. Talk to people. Go with them on a trip. (Don't do crazy things and don't harm yourself. I'm not suggesting stupid behavior). ] [ If you try a new dish, try it again at another restaurant. Learn the recipe. Try to cook it ]. etc...
- Push yourself. As much as you can. Don't set expectations. I've learned that expectations are what makes you burn out not hard work.
- It's high time to learn a new language. I master 3 and can understand 4. I'd say you should at least speak 5 fluently and understand 8.
- The reason most people are poor/struggle is because they choose to. The reason some people are poor is because they are in a transitional phase. (Barring health conditions and quantum randomness)
- Money is very easy to make. But you only realize that once you master the skills/processes to make it flow.
This represents great opportunity as it is 4x quicker developing with content and the customer first. Clients need not be infuriated by expense, lack of progress and the agony of getting their online business making money.
Biggest discovery is thanks to 'Lighthouse' - it seems most average websites think it is okay to bundle a megabyte of scripts with a page and ten to twenty thousand lines of CSS, 97% of which is not used.
Use a trackball instead of a mouse. Your wrists will thank you for it.
People share their feelings more often than I thought. Maybe opening up isn't as bad.
I'm going back to 2 hour daily commutes.
The flexibility of remote work can be a real problem. It causes arguments because you don't have a 3rd party to blame for when you have to be in work or not.
The company you're working for fixes the working hours so there's no discussion about doing 'just this one thing' at some random point in the day.
* Same as the above, but for Python.
* SIMD Intrinsics for C to add some extra juice to my code.
* People wait too long to quit a job or get out a bad situation
* Being very deliberate about what you do and who you spend your time with is worth it
* Sleeping masks really improve you quality of sleep
There are things that you really want and things that you think you want. The more you focus on the latter, the less likely it is that the things you really want and need, come to you.
But after I could let go of arbitrary wishes and ideas, the things I needed came easily.
Secondly, even in moments of intense emotional stress(like death of a close one) - never "don't give a f*". You still breath as natural as possible, you still try to find to keep your center, your equilibrium. Not also in those moments, but especially in those moments.
- Make efforts to simplify things and make them maintainable for the future, but not at the expense of your health, well being, or the cohesion of your team.
- Stress will kill you and mess with the people around you (especially your spouse). Learn to understand yourself and how you react to emotional stimuli so you can "roll with the punches".
No air conditioning
100 push-ups daily
100 sit-ups daily
100 squats daily
Run six miles daily
1 hour Meditation
Talk to 1 new person daily
Execution > idea.
All good things in life are hard to get.
if i feel i need to resign, i need to resign immediately. job hunt is never easy. recruitment process is shit in most companies, almost in all startups. self-motivation is most important. stop depending on external verification. sleep & wake at the same time, spend some time outdoors early in the day, take a look at the sky, smile at the people in subway, say "bless you" when they sneeze. smile especially when you feel bad about the work, smile when the others don't smile, help people. stop wasting stupid money, save and spend on what will make the family feel better. berlin, its startups and founders are overrated. still there are some that shine.
I knew they took all of your time but I never understand what life is like when you have to schedule a task that takes ten minutes for the weekend
But it gets easier and they (well, mine at least :-) ) are absolutely wonderful, or can be at least.
* I thought if Trump won I would be glad I left the US. And I am, but it's overpowered by a pervasive, ever-present sadness and despair.
* Facebook is (was, rather) probably a net negative in my life.
It simply requires enacting states to award their electoral votes to the winner of the most national popular votes.
All voters would be valued equally in presidential elections, no matter where they live. Candidates, as in other elections, would allocate their time, money, polling, organizing, and ad buys roughly in proportion to the population
Every vote, everywhere, for every candidate, would be politically relevant and equal in every presidential election. No more distorting, crude, and divisive and red and blue state maps of predictable outcomes, that don’t represent any minority party voters within each state. No more handful of 'battleground' states (where the two major political parties happen to have similar levels of support) where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters in 38+ predictable winner states that have just been 'spectators' and ignored after the conventions. We can limit the power and influence of a few battleground states in order to better serve our nation.
The bill would take effect when enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes—270 of 538. All of the presidential electors from the enacting states will be supporters of the presidential candidate receiving the most popular votes among all 50 states (and DC)—thereby guaranteeing that candidate with an Electoral College majority.
The bill was approved in 2016 by a unanimous bipartisan House committee vote in both Georgia (16 electoral votes) and Missouri (10). Since 2006, the bill has passed 36 state legislative chambers in 23 rural, small, medium, large, red, blue, and purple states with 261 electoral votes. The bill has been enacted by 12 small, medium, and large jurisdictions with 172 electoral votes – 64% of the way to guaranteeing the presidency to the candidate with the most popular votes in the country
NationalPopularVote
Politics is a popularity contest, and nobody cares about corruption and the issues.
Nobody will stand up for you.
If you stand up for yourself, there will probably be consequences.
The FBI is scary.
Python appears to be somewhat popular, so what you say isn't terribly surprising. I'm trying to break a very common mold.
Leadership is a variable though. And it can make or break a project.
Optional typing (like clojure. spec, plumatic schema) beats static typing.
Life is short, there is no time for procrastination for a shitty job, relation or anything else that doesn't bring you anything anymore
Generally, I'd advice on being so comfortable with yourself that you don't ever feel like you "need" a relationship.
I still have the capacity to be surprised by the mundane.
It not only can get worse, it is getting worse.
Read the “The Anatomy of Peace” for full explanation.
If your work is too important, then invest in yourself some more.
More performant self = Better output.
Warning: based on anecdata
* Look at a cosmopolitan city center. Everyone who owns a house debt free there is rich.
* Look again at said center, most likely the owners aren't from your country (except US probably).
* Conservative rich people invest heavily in the housing market.
* The amount of rich people having some emotional understanding of working on a per hour basis, or working for a normal wage in general, is low.
* I've seen people in a relationship from different income classes, some definitely have it tough to understand each other. I haven't seen anyone break because of it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened with a fraction of them. Hypothetical example, combine it with stereotypical gender ideals (e.g. man must pay) and a SO (woman) that has expensive hobbies, the working-class man cannot keep up.
* My prediction on: the rich friend determines what's going to happen if he/she pays was dead on. I also predicted it might erode such a relationship when money comes too much into play, which I was partially right about.
* The claim that most wealth is inherited seems to be true from my personal experience. Consequently, most people don't know how to get rich but how to stay rich.
* Some rich people get a really amazing education and are polymaths by the time they get into their twenties. Some rich people are more the opposite.
* All in all, I feel money is a multiplier on a lot of things. I know that, for me, money will be a multiplier on the expression of my personality. If you are into new age stuff, then as a rich person you have a new age house, for example. If you're a sci-fi person, then you'll have a techy house.
---- Jobs ----
* People don't value your computer science degree at all if they studied a shitty study program (any) and hate university because of it and don't have experience with hiring CS grads. It turns out, that's still a rather large group.
* Corollary: people don't evaluate your experience in the right way.
* When people see the word "internship" they see it as no experience, despite the fact that the programming work was more demanding than most employees there.
* Interviewing in startups doesn't follow any sane process. To do: I need to figure out how to to get some understanding on a startup's culture in less than 2 hours.
Thanks for the question, these 12 months have been emotionally weird. I guess I needed to vent a bit. Dealing with income inequality from so close all of a sudden feels tough, but I'm fine right? So why should it be? Hence it's weird.
Trust.
Computers.
Look up the past experience of new management and the makeup of the company they were at. It's likely that new management was brought in to bring the same kind of management they were doing. i.e. if they outsource engineering at the previous company, they're probably going to do it to yours. This is your way of finding out what is coming before they actually announce it.
If a sexual harassment lawsuit comes out against the company or people in the company and anyone is even partially guilty - no matter who they are - fire anyone involved and replace them even faster. If you're an employee that is not involved with the issue, leave the company ASAP. It's unlikely the company will do the former until it's too late and thus you will see every possible metric plummet.
If management has a tendency to not replace people very quickly - they are either never replacing them or they just don't give a shit. Either way, get out.
If management is making their calendars private - they don't value transparency no matter what they say. Something is probably happening that they don't want you to know - and it's never something good.
I need to study technical interview problems on a more regular basis if I want to get a new job. Big Company interviews are harder than ever.
$500k/yr is kind of obtainable in the bay area for a single earner. It's also the only way I'll ever afford the region (in terms of a family w/ a home). I need to start thinking about alternative plans.
I've learned that I need to optimize for financial gains at a much faster rate than I have. I'm now giving up on every other goal for the moment because they just don't matter in comparison. I've realized now I should've held out for better offers and studied harder last year. My $30k/yr jump in comp could've been $100k and I should've studied harder and interviewed at more big companies. I've also learned I should not stay at a company for a year in hopes to "learn something". Just optimize for $$$ because experience will follow no matter where you go.
If your partner is a drama queen or just gets upset all the time (short of you giving 100% of everything you have to them) - it's definitely them and not you. You have to let them grow up and focus on your own shit. You can't let another person suck all your energy away - they should be giving you energy and not taking it all away.
If you've been waiting to get something for a decade or what not - the inevitable getting of it is probably going to be wildly underwhelming. You spent too long waiting for it. :( In my case, it was a motorcycle. I had wanted one for 8+ years but inevitably when I did get one - it was and still is underwhelming. Unfortunately, I don't get to ride it much now anyway since I'm so focused on studying and don't see that changing for a while.
* The humble live in continuous peace, while in the hearts of the proud are envy and frequent anger.
(2.) Establish constructive, rational ways of thinking.
* Constructive thinking is defined as "the degree to which a person's automatic thinking ... facilitates solving problems in everyday life at a minimum cost in stress."
* The more constructively you think, the happier you feel, and the better your emotional adjustment.
(3.) Strive for joy and contentment, not happiness.
* It’s important to make a distinction between joy and happiness. Happiness is circumstantial, like the pleasure that comes from eating ice cream on a sunny day at the beach. Such happiness is slippery and can vanish in a second. But joy is different. At the very least, it isn’t based on circumstances, which means it can’t be taken away
(4.) Enable contentment.
* “Though a good dinner is not to be despised — yet it is not worthy to be compared with a contented mind, which is a continual feast.”
* Contentment may be particularly useful for counteracting problems that stem from fear and anxiety.
(5.) Be patient.
* That’s what patience is. It’s being able to have this sense, in the middle of craziness, that all is not necessarily well according to circumstances, but all is well. Patience is being rooted in something outside of yourself, even when our hearts are weak and frail.
* Listen patiently and with an open mind.
(6.) Reduce negative emotions.
* Distorted evaluation of our performance in front of other people is the reason for depression and anxiety.
* Most negative emotions are completely useless. Resentment, bitterness, hate, and jealousy have never improved the quality of life for a single human being.
(7.) Purity and simplicity give freedom.
* “Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature.”
* The happiest homes in the world are not those in which are the finest carpets, the costliest pictures, the most luxurious furniture — but those in which glad, peaceful hearts dwell.
(8.) Build beautiful habits.
* Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they’re not. They’re habits.
* Create healthful, beautiful habits to live sustainably and achieve long-term goals.
(9.) Exercise regularly.
* Regular cardio exercise can help you sleep better, feel more alert and energetic, and enjoy reduced risks for cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis.
(10.) Eat healthily.
* The key public health challenge today is to reduce intake of all highly processed carbohydrates in favor of whole carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, legumes and minimally processed grains) and healthful fats (like nuts, avocado and olive oil).
Oh yea, opiate addiction is not due to befuddled doctors, and corporations. It's due to a country wide depression. People are misserable on so many levels, while spirituality is kinda dead.
Our lives are our own making. We are given where we landed on this earth but the rest is up to you and how you deal with the challenges.