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twink

36 karma · joined September 11, 2010

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twink··on Private Beta Access to Geeklist for YC News Readers (code: YCREADERS1)
They allow you to cross-post certain things to Twitter.

Apart from that, Twitters permission system is very coarse. There are only three access levels.

twink··on Private Beta Access to Geeklist for YC News Readers (code: YCREADERS1)
Wrong.
twink··on Ask HN: No intrinisic motivation to build stuff
> I know I have all the capability to deliver crazy performance. And hey, I still do from time to time, it's not like we're doomed. We have already proved that we have the mental capability to achieve great things

Yes, sure we are. But isn't it sad how much of our potential is wasted?

> now it's time to utilize it.

Motivating words, but I need more than that ;-)

twink··on Ask HN: No intrinisic motivation to build stuff
How to trick myself into building an awesome web project? Remove all software other than a text editor? Wouldn't I need at least a web browser? :-)

I think it's not that easy in all cases. However, I already practice the food use-case you've mentioned (I simply don't buy unhealthy food).

twink··on Ask HN: No intrinisic motivation to build stuff
First of all, thanks for the helpful input.

> Here's my suggestion for you: Be a manager. Set aside an amount of time each day to work as your manager. Ask yourself about your goals, figure out what you need to excel at those goals, and make sure that you get what you need. Is your work structured the right way? Is what you're doing now working? If you can't figure out what to do next as a manager, go learn. Read a book or online article about management to get ideas. But, mostly, just make sure you actually do it.

It's easy to find blah-blah blog posts and books written by self-proclaimed life advisors, usually with very low information density (which makes it impossible for me to read carefully). Can you recommend any particular material?

twink··on Ask HN: No intrinisic motivation to build stuff
> Perfectionism is a nasty beast. Are you a perfectionist too?

Unfortunately, yes. And I'm definitely treating life as an optimization problem. However, most of the time I don't see the big picture. For example, I spend hours or days figuring out the "best" piece of hardware to buy (e.g., a new monitor), and then another day trying find the best offer. Usually I get frustrated the more options I find. Quite often, after many wasted hours, I end up buying nothing at all.

Other people would just "google" for "monitor test 2011", take #1 from the list, get it from their local dealer, and spend the rest of the day working on an interesting project or earning money (or both). What a happy life.

> I have found success when my hobbies and side projects intersect with each other. I finished a Flash animation when it was for a class project. I actually did learn a Haskell for Great Good when I made my senior research project "An Investigation of Lesser-Known Programming Languages." Then learning Haskell was not just a thing that might be cool but rather a school project that I had to finish.

Jup. The only programming projects I finished were school projects. That's when I have no problems getting incredibly productive, but a few minutes after the submission deadline, everything is back to normal and I waste my time sucking in random bits of information on the web. There's no way to become a great programmer (builder/creator) if you only code (build/create) seriously a few times a year.

> If something like school motivates you, then use that to your advantage!

Yes, school is the only thing that really motivates me. But well, now I'm close to graduation, and I don't know yet what could replace it. That's scary.

> Do note that knowing a lot about a little does give you some unique advantages. If you ever do need to really learn something for a job or school project, it will be much easier than if you knew nothing about a subject. You are also more aware of what tools are available for various projects, and you can select the right tool for the right job.

That's true. I often notice that my tech knowledge is very exhaustive/broad compared to people who I consider experts in their particular field. They know one thing very well, I know a little about countless things.

However, I don't really know if that helps me as a programmer. Good programmers have to become experts in a at least a few technologies. Maybe I should not force myself to become a programmer. Maybe I should pick a route where there is no need to become an expert. Suggestions?

> If you'd like to talk, send me an email. Info's in my profile if you are interested.

I definitely should do so. But somehow I'm already starting to lose all interest in fixing my problems. I'm already onto the next thing: Skimming through the Python twisted docs, just to see that I don't actually want to build anything. Sigh.

twink··on The Underground Website Where You Can Buy Any Drug Imaginable
This one is interesting though.
twink··on Khan Academy and BitTorrent Partner to Distribute Educational Videos
That's also what I do with the podcasts I listen to. 1.35x is my default though ;-)

The files go from my podcatcher directly into sox for conversion. Sounds a lot nicer than the speedup mechanism provided by my mobile media player.

time sox --single-threaded -S "${FILE}" -t wav - tempo ${TEMPO} | lame -h -V 4 - ${NEWFILE} || exit 1

id3cp --v1tag "${FILE}" "${NEWFILE}"

Does anyone know of a way that doesn't need a conversion to WAV first?