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Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#231
https://journal.neilgaiman.com/2017/05/the-neil-story-with-a...

It's a story of two Neils dealing with imposter syndrome. Every time I start feeling like I'm just the guy who goes where others point and I didn't actually accomplish anything, I go back and read this. To every new engineer I've worked with who has struggled with self-doubt, I have sent this. I cannot overstate how calming and centering this post has been to me.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#232
https://kotaku.com/we-are-explorers-in-search-of-mystery-in-...

This one crystallized for me a feeling that I'd always felt deep inside but never known how to express.

I'd found it in virtual worlds, sure, but it goes far beyond that. Even beyond fiction. This longing for something beyond the fold, something that can never be reduced or pinned down or fully understood, a wormhole in understanding that always begs you to keep seeking, keep moving, keep wondering and imagining. The fundamental belief that there's always more out there above and beyond our grasp, and that that is a good thing, and not something to be remedied.

What's described here is one of the most important north-stars in my life, if I'm being honest. It has almost religious significance to me.

> Mystery is not merely the unknown. It is the impossibility of knowing and yet the continual attempt to know. It is unknowability itself. It is futile and essential.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#233
patio11's classic post on negotiation: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/

I almost doubled my compensation in large part thanks to it for one of my positions. I increased:

+ Base salary by $75k

+ Signing bonus by $35k (from $0)

+ Stock options by $100k total (standard four year vesting, so $25k per year)

If you're a knowledge worker in a sought-after field, particularly in the current environment of crazy salary explosion, you should absolutely read that blog post!

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#234
post #18

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2014/07/instant-pot-el... If you see cooking primarily as a means of getting nutrients rather than a hobby, I very strongly recommend getting an electric pressure cooker. It greatly simplifies cooking because it's automated. Just add the ingredients, close the lid, press a button, and wait. You will get a perfectly cooked one-pot meal with minimum effort. You can even mix fresh a…

Pressure cooking is very common in some countries, but I'm only familiar with the simple mechanical pressure cookers (that work on gas or induction stoves). Can electric pressure cookers do things that a regular one can't?

It's not a matter of what it can do, but of safety/ease of use. I used a traditional pressure cooker for many years, but nowadays I see no reason to go back to babysitting the cooking process. Waiting for pressure to build? Deciding when it's done and lowering the stove to maintenance pressure? Setting an alarm, and then making the pot stop cooking? Nah, just set the timer at the very beginning and go for a walk.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#236
post #18

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2014/07/instant-pot-el... If you see cooking primarily as a means of getting nutrients rather than a hobby, I very strongly recommend getting an electric pressure cooker. It greatly simplifies cooking because it's automated. Just add the ingredients, close the lid, press a button, and wait. You will get a perfectly cooked one-pot meal with minimum effort. You can even mix fresh a…

Pressure cooking is very common in some countries, but I'm only familiar with the simple mechanical pressure cookers (that work on gas or induction stoves). Can electric pressure cookers do things that a regular one can't?

You don't need to "babysit" them. They'll get to pressure and adjust the heat automatically. And then they'll stop at the appropriate time.

Being able to dump ingredients in and set the pressure for 20 minutes, and then go out for 2 hours and come back and eat warm food that hasn't gone bad is really, really nice.

Apart from that - as others pointed out, they're multifunctional. I make yogurt in mine. Also acts as a slow cooker but in my experience not very well.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#237

https://blog.tjcx.me/p/consume-less-create-more This article inspired me on two things : 1) Lots of the things I do in everyday life is just to consume: buying, watching, following, etc. These things either consume my money, or my time. These things make me feel good, but it does not generate real value. In order to get rich, I need to create things. I also start to realize that great people are great because they st…

I don't agree with the overall take that the world is binary in that way at all.. You create to sell? No, I think a fundamental part, for example of art, is that it can be created for no reason whatsoever. To give a personal example, I really enjoy music production and playing piano.. but I do it only for myself and have fun doing so.. i don't even share it with anyone. Does that mean I am creating but not selling? A…

Yeah, I agree with all of this. A lot of these types of posts and responses give me strange vibes, like people going through life trying to minmax everything and 'win' it as if it was a game.

It's an attitude I encounter frequently in tech circles, but it never stops feeling very weird to me.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#238
post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quality of consumption is different for sure, but I would argue that certain areas of reddit are of high value to my job, hobbies, etc. and Moby Dick is of little value those areas and quality of life in general. You could perhaps make arguments about historical value, context, or benefits to reading comprehension, but at the end of the day, reading anything is about only as good as the information you're taking…

I would argue that reading Moby Dick is of value to your quality of life in general. Good fiction speaks to the human condition and can help us live our lives more fully.

And it makes things richer just in your daily life to have some familiarity with history and the literary canon instead of being deaf to its influence all around you.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#239
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the Glengarry Glen Ross "closing" scene would have a positive impact on me and get me fired up if the profession was something in tech, at a company whose mission I cared about. Otherwise, as the article mentions, I do indeed just think Alec Baldwin's character is a borderline sociopathic asshole.

I just rewatched that scene - he isn't saying anything meaningful. He's being rude, telling people how much money he makes and telling them to "just close".

He’s telling them the harsh truths of how the world works. He’s flaunting what they want in front of them and then showing them what they have to do in order to have it.

It’s as controversial as the cracked piece in itself. And for some people in my circle - it’s a wake up call.

You can’t expect to just get what he has by drifting through life aimlessly. You have to do what it takes. It’s a message to the kids who were told as children that they were perfect just the way they are and that they could do anything they wanted (but never put in any effort towards it). It’s a message to the children raised by shitty parents who didn’t instill grit and perseverance and tenacity into their kids that they need to get it together if they want what others have. That it takes work and that you don’t get things handed to you like your parents handed things to you all the time as a kid.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#240
I'm not super big on ESR myself, but somehow this[1] appeared in front of me when I was 11 or 12 and I sincerely believe that, had it not, I wouldn't have been as fascinated by open source software development as early as I did and for as long as I have. In retrospect I really don't agree with all of it, but a lot of its main ideas continue to ring true for me and I still find it an enjoyable read after all this time. Generally, I've found that I really like essays about hacker culture (like the Lisp Curse essay, which I won't link here) as opposed to career-advice or technical-lesson blog posts. When I'm getting a friend into software I try to urge them to check such essays out as they illustrate a kind of fun and exciting, intrinsically motivated culture that's seemingly detached from the image of corporate software engineering in most people's minds.

[1] http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

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