Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 312 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?

#261

Post by neltnerb »

tasuki wrote: post #195
neltnerb wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you surprised? I have to write firmware all the time and everyone still uses C unless they're dedicated to another language for some reason. I can see being into Rust. I haven't had any reason to use it yet.

Memory safety? Isn't that a reason to use Rust over C, that there are some classes of errors one can move from runtime to compile-time?

I'm not saying there's no reasons to use Rust over C, but I am saying that I'm not surprised C is still highly valued. I was still being forced to use assembly for firmware a decade after I learned C.

I will not be at all surprised if firmware stays in C until Rust has been practical for use in firmware for several years as well. I don't doubt it'll happen, I haven't written a line of assembly for my firmware in a decade either, but consider how many hundreds of thousands of lines of C there are in the libraries for just one target architecture.

It sounds cool and useful and I'm looking forward to it, but every time I start asking around if Rust is worth the effort the answer from people who use Rust a lot is "not really" because my projects aren't big complex firmware beasts. I am not surprised that a firmware developer with expertise in C can easily find work.

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?

#262

Post by steveklabnik »

neltnerb wrote: post #261
tasuki wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Memory safety? Isn't that a reason to use Rust over C, that there are some classes of errors one can move from runtime to compile-time?

I'm not saying there's no reasons to use Rust over C, but I am saying that I'm not surprised C is still highly valued. I was still being forced to use assembly for firmware a decade after I learned C. I will not be at all surprised if firmware stays in C until Rust has been practical for use in firmware for several years as well. I don't doubt it'll happen, I haven't written a line of assembly for my firmware in a de…

Some of us are working on it ;)

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?

#263

Post by neltnerb »

steveklabnik wrote: post #262
neltnerb wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not saying there's no reasons to use Rust over C, but I am saying that I'm not surprised C is still highly valued. I was still being forced to use assembly for firmware a decade after I learned C. I will not be at all surprised if firmware stays in C until Rust has been practical for use in firmware for several years as well. I don't doubt it'll happen, I haven't written a line of assembly for my firmware in a de…

Some of us are working on it ;)

Thank you :-D

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?

#264

Post by Someone »

mrfusion wrote: post #160
everybodyknows wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ear canal is surprisingly delicate. I started ocean swimming recently, and was surprised to learn that I was developing "surfer's ear" -- a buildup of scar tissue. The damage is cumulative, and if you let it go past a certain point the only fix is surgery.

The sea water was causing scar tissue? I’m confused.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surfer%27s_ear:

Irritation from cold wind and water exposure causes the bone surrounding the ear canal to develop lumps of new bony growth which constrict the ear canal. Where the ear canal is actually blocked by this condition, water and wax can become trapped and give rise to infection

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?

#266

Post by jkk1 »

telesilla wrote: post #255
eludwig wrote: post #21

Physically, my best advice is to take good care of your back and your teeth. These 2 things can make a huge quality of life difference once you are past 40. I would also add your eyes, but there is not a lot you can do about that one! Almost everyone needs reading glasses by 40. Glasses suck, but you get used to it. Psychologically, the best I can say is to forgive yourself for any stupid things you did when you were…

I'm the opposite, I have increasingly failing sight long distance but my shortsightedness has no signs of showing. I'm curious when I'll need bifocals, and whether it's possible to wear long and short vision contacts, one in eye, and wait for my brain to adjust.

You must be myopic, and your optimal distance of your optical system is naturally at near. If so you may not need bifocals at all. Think of your distance glasses power as making up for how much your optical system is off by to be focused at infinity (distance). A person with a minus prescription has excess power and naturally focuses nearer targets. A person with -2.00 power glasses is focused best at 1/2.00 = 0.5m which is a nice reading distance. A person not requiring glasses ("0") is focused at infinity and has perfect distance vision. For such an eye to focus up close the lens/ eye muscles work to increase the power (fatten the lens) until near is in focus. Unfortunately this ability to accommodate steadily decreases w/ age, noticeable at 40yrs old. Those who are +3, the focal length is 1/3meters BEHIND your eyeball and you'll need glasses for everything once your natural ability to vary focus starts dropping off. You can figure out your exact focal length (meters) by taking your distance prescription a + b x c, and calc 1/(a + 1/2b). minus in front of eye, plus behind the eyeball. Neat, huh?

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?

#267

Post by jkk1 »

jedberg wrote: post #93
eludwig wrote: post #21

Physically, my best advice is to take good care of your back and your teeth. These 2 things can make a huge quality of life difference once you are past 40. I would also add your eyes, but there is not a lot you can do about that one! Almost everyone needs reading glasses by 40. Glasses suck, but you get used to it. Psychologically, the best I can say is to forgive yourself for any stupid things you did when you were…

My eye doctor told me something very useful about 20 years ago, when I was in my early 20s. He told me not to wear my glasses unless I had a headache. He said that your eye has muscles and they need workouts like the rest of your body. So I basically never wore them. I was just on the cusp of needing a prescription back then. He gave me glasses because insurance covered it so why not he said. But then gave me the adv…

your day will likely come, unless you're a -2.50 or so. you can almost figure out a person's age by their ability to accommodate (vary focus)-- there are graphs out there (https://qa.healthtopquestions.com/41365/presbyopia-age-chart). You may have a longer go w/o readers if your starting point is a little more minus. You should wear your glasses if you need them-- fatigued, unable to see, need to see. Nothing permanently bad happens if you wear them all the time or not at all, you'll just be blurry or strained.

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?

#268

Post by davidrupp »

syndacks wrote: post #132
mark_l_watson wrote: post #127

I am 69, so I will chime in here: I now spend much more time dedicated to the food I eat, exercise, and meditation. A good thing is that I mostly no longer care much about changing other people's opinions on things. I certainly enjoy talking and expressing myself but if someone listens to me then that is sufficient - they don't have to agree with me. It works the other way also: even if I disagree with someone, I can…

Hi, thanks for sharing. This resonates. What kind of books did you write?

Since Mark himself may not care to post this: https://markwatson.com/books/ .

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?

#269

Post by stephc_int13 »

tasuki wrote: post #189
stephc_int13 wrote: post #88

My first advice would be to not underestimate the importance of sleep. This is a key factor for both quality of life and productivity. The only way to optimize sleep is to sleep enough. Second, try to understand the power of compound interests as soon as you can. Life is long enough to invest and see the returns. Invest in yourself and in projects with long-term value, don't be seduced by shortcuts and don't be a sla…

I've "slept enough" for a couple of years and developed a severe case of insomnia. I couldn't fall asleep till 2-3am, then slept till 10am to make up for it. Repeat. Bad idea. Waking up at a regular time and restricting my sleep below what's comfortable has helped very quickly. I'm considering sleeping more, but feeling slightly groggy after sleeping 6.5 hours is way better than spending 10 hours in bed, 3 of them su…

My tip would be to discriminate between what is under your control and what is not.

Typical things that are hard to control: the law of physics, the weather, 99.99% of human beings.

Not reading the news might help.

Re: Ask HN: What is it like to be old? What advice would you give to younger people?

#270

Post by stephc_int13 »

tasuki wrote: post #189
stephc_int13 wrote: post #88

My first advice would be to not underestimate the importance of sleep. This is a key factor for both quality of life and productivity. The only way to optimize sleep is to sleep enough. Second, try to understand the power of compound interests as soon as you can. Life is long enough to invest and see the returns. Invest in yourself and in projects with long-term value, don't be seduced by shortcuts and don't be a sla…

I've "slept enough" for a couple of years and developed a severe case of insomnia. I couldn't fall asleep till 2-3am, then slept till 10am to make up for it. Repeat. Bad idea. Waking up at a regular time and restricting my sleep below what's comfortable has helped very quickly. I'm considering sleeping more, but feeling slightly groggy after sleeping 6.5 hours is way better than spending 10 hours in bed, 3 of them su…

Insomnia is a sign of a deteriorating mental health, you should focus on that instead of trying to hide it.
Post reply on HN