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Ask HN: What has the past 12 months taught you?

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291–300 of 348 posts

Re: Ask HN: What has the past 12 months taught you?

#291
post #68

It's important to vote.

Yes, but unfortunately because of the electoral college some folks' vote matters more than others'.

The National Popular Vote bill is 64% of the way to guaranteeing the majority of Electoral College votes and the presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in the country, by changing state winner-take-all laws (not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, but later enacted by 48 states), without changing anything in the Constitution, using the built-in method that the Constitution provides for states to make changes.

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

Re: Ask HN: What has the past 12 months taught you?

#292
post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, I feel for you man. That's crazy. You should do a write up on the process. Maybe submit it to a paper, local or otherwise?

I have tried, but the opinion of everyone I speak to locally about the affair is "what did you expect?" The process for speeding fines is pretty much a production line in the states favour. The law was changed a few years back so that the speed camera data is not the primary evidence in a speeding case, now the Garda swears that he/she believes a driver was speeding using the speed camera data only as advice. This wa…

I am so terribly sorry for you. I have been through a few similar processes myself (although none as severe as yours, by the sounds of it) and it absolutely breaks you.

Thank you for writing about it. Even if it does not do much, a sense of commonality is sometimes all the little man needs.

Re: Ask HN: What has the past 12 months taught you?

#293
post #35

I didn't know happiness until I had a daughter. I thought I had a pretty happy life until she was born. After that, i learned to value my lonely hours :)

The lonely hours are valuable, and after you have kids, rare.

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.

Re: Ask HN: What has the past 12 months taught you?

#294
post #192

Turn off the TV. Turn off all social media. Turn off any negative influences. Eat as healthy as you possibly can. Exercise, yoga, tai chi, or anything that gets you moving. Enjoy the benefits of all the time you thought you didn't have while having really good mental power because of your healthy diet and exercise. Live a good life.

I've distinctly noticed a sharp rise in toxicity in media (mostly, but not limited to, politics). But even if you cut that toxic part out of your own life, we don't live in a vacuum; friends, co-workers, and family will relay toxic news and media, despite effectively all of it being irrelevant to our everyday lives. This actually affects my demeanor not in that I just heard toxic news, but that I can see this person…

The next killer app: a media filter for toxic content.

Re: Ask HN: What has the past 12 months taught you?

#295
post #155

* The larger a company is, the more internally screwed up and annoying it is to work for * 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 oth…

Until I worked for a fortune 100 company, I never understood how true Dilbert was. Alas, the real world isn't as funny.

Re: Ask HN: What has the past 12 months taught you?

#296
post #113

Passing a driving exam in Spain may suck and not work on the 1st (or the 6th) try, but gosh it leaves some funny stories to tell afterwards. 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.

You can take my trackball only from my cold dead hand...

Re: Ask HN: What has the past 12 months taught you?

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For me I have learned that there comes a point when you need to work differently in order to protect your health and family well being. Big salaries are great, but when the price for that is massive amounts of overtime that takes you away from your family it just isn't worth it. >... >Family comes first, always. I didn't learn this in the past 12 months, but a recent event has definitely reaffirmed this: stick to y…

I've been seeing this trend for a few years, but it was only in the last year that I said to myself that enough was enough. 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 or…

> 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.

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."

Re: Ask HN: What has the past 12 months taught you?

#298

* Five co-founders are too many. * 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…

This list is amazing! thank you for this!

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.

Re: Ask HN: What has the past 12 months taught you?

#300

Take more desk breaks were you get up and wall around. Getting he blood moving just by walking round the flat for a couple of minutes actually makes a difference. 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…

Jeez - typo central! Sorry, I was actually walking around on my phone when I posted this :)
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