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Ask HN: As an adult introvertish nerd what makes you happy?

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Re: Ask HN: As an adult introvertish nerd what makes you happy?

#31

Post by Delmania »

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/unhappy

Also, there's a passage in Meditation by Marcus Aurelius I think would do you well. To paraphrase, if you turn your full attention to the present task, not worrying about the future, and letting the past go, nothing can stop you from living a good life.

> Always loved learning new stuff, but don't have enough time to really be immersive in anything. Now when I see an interesting problem in math/physics I can hardly give it an actual shot and it makes me very very sad deep down.

I have something for you to do. Take a moment to sit down, and write about the things you knew how to do you first graduated from college, and the things you know how to do now. I'd say from your experiences as a founder and a CTO, you've learned some things that are more valuable than math or physics.

Re: Ask HN: As an adult introvertish nerd what makes you happy?

#32

Post by quadcore »

cameronperot wrote: post #26

I figure my experience is relevant here. I graduated college in 2014 with a degree in finance and went straight to work in the machine that is corporate America. I had a "good" job and life was fairly easy. However, after a year or so I eventually became bored with that lifestyle. I've always been a self-learner with a desire for knowledge and a challenge. I started looking around to go back to uni, this time somethi…

where in germany?

Re: Ask HN: As an adult introvertish nerd what makes you happy?

#33

Post by skipperr »

Meditation is what did it for me, I've always been kind of introspective. It's also interesting what you can do with... nothing at all, really. You can enter the meditation and come out of it a different person, that's a short-term result. But committed meditation practice is changing my character in the long run. In the meantime, the short-term results show what is possible to achieve (and it's more than you'd think, you can do a lot with just you on your own).

If you're dissatisfied with life as it's ordinarily lived on a deeper level, maybe it's something that speaks to you as well. Long-term change takes a lot of practice and effort, though, but it's meaningful effort (at least to me).

Re: Ask HN: As an adult introvertish nerd what makes you happy?

#34

Post by starlord »

cameronperot wrote: post #26

I figure my experience is relevant here. I graduated college in 2014 with a degree in finance and went straight to work in the machine that is corporate America. I had a "good" job and life was fairly easy. However, after a year or so I eventually became bored with that lifestyle. I've always been a self-learner with a desire for knowledge and a challenge. I started looking around to go back to uni, this time somethi…

I am glad it is working out great for you. In fact this scenario is more or less what I have in mind when I think about going back to college for higher studies. Never could let go of the first love of life (yeah it wasn't a girl, it was Physics :| )

I graduated a little earlier when MIT OCW was the only online resource of good quality, and did try to learn enough about a lot of things. Suffered slightly lower grades, but came as a well equipped generalist to pursue almost anything... But real world mechanics have left much to be desired frankly from the nice picture painted all through school and college of how life would be. And while this option is really enticing for me, the other comment on how writing generic grant proposals can be an equally soul-sucking exercise does bring in an element of doubt...

But thanks for sharing this. If you don't mind sharing, what university are you at or you would recommend for Physics/quantum-computing-related programs?

Re: Ask HN: As an adult introvertish nerd what makes you happy?

#35

Post by aerialcombat »

cpfohl wrote: post #30

Even as an introvert it's always people. After college, before getting married my (now) wife and I had the same problem - but we noticed it wasn't just us: everyone we knew felt lonely. We decided to start getting together with all our friends and acquaintances almost every night after work. We hosted or set it up for about two weeks before it took on a life of its own and we didn't have to be present for each night;…

Almost every night! wow. Gotta try this.

Re: Ask HN: As an adult introvertish nerd what makes you happy?

#36

Post by starlord »

jcbrand wrote: post #27
apatters wrote: post #16

> Damn difficult to meet genuine folks after college (Would love any suggestions on where to find them... Definitely not facebook :/ ) This may not be very popular advice around these parts, but it works. Go to the local pub, have a few beers and talk to people. Cultivate an interest in televised sports or whatever else people like to talk about (can't stay I've ever been a huge sports fan, but like a lot of things,…

Honestly, I have absolutely no interest in feigning interest in televised sports to make friends, and luckily this is definitely not necessary. Here in Europe I quickly tell people I don't watch football and don't care about the teams or match results. If that's a deal breaker for someone, then they're not friendship material. Instead of going to the pub, I'd rather recommend hobbies that you can share with people. I…

I will agree with this. I would prefer to find a fit rather than fit in.

And this does not mean being obstinate, but rather pursuing only what I find interesting rather than what most people find interesting.

Re: Ask HN: As an adult introvertish nerd what makes you happy?

#37

Post by jboxee »

cpg wrote: post #29

I started playing tennis and I loved it. It's non-contact, you have to be thinking all the time and it's outside (often in the sun). I am happy when I play (or even watch) tennis. Then (warning, plug ahead) I started a D3.js project (to keep skills fresh) to visualize data about tennis strings and rackets[1] to understand them better, ... ... which devolved in keeping my rackets/strings on that same app, which later…

I feel like your word "devolved" would be better served by "evolved" :)

Re: Ask HN: As an adult introvertish nerd what makes you happy?

#39

Post by thisone »

I stopped pigeon holing myself as an introvert.

I quite literally looked at my life, thought about where I wanted to be, and then looked at what traits I'd need to cultivate in order to get there.

One of them was 'how to have a conversation with people' which was hard to learn, and embarrassing to practice, but I got there. I'm not 'extrovert' at it, and it is exhausting, but I'm no wallflower any longer.

Another one was 'how to disagree with someone and not be deferential, passive aggressive, or just plain aggressive about it' this I'm still working on, but I've gotten better at it.

Thankfully, the 'I can do it myself' attitude I had to cultivate as a child, gave me a good foundation of life skills. I can travel alone, attend conferences alone, eat out alone, generally take care of myself. I just needed to add some extra skills to be able to get to the 'happy' point.

Re: Ask HN: As an adult introvertish nerd what makes you happy?

#40

Post by robertcarter »

cameronperot wrote: post #26

I figure my experience is relevant here. I graduated college in 2014 with a degree in finance and went straight to work in the machine that is corporate America. I had a "good" job and life was fairly easy. However, after a year or so I eventually became bored with that lifestyle. I've always been a self-learner with a desire for knowledge and a challenge. I started looking around to go back to uni, this time somethi…

Can you talk a little more about your experience studying in Germany? What is the application process like? If you went to school in the US how is the experience same/different? My wife is German and should we live there I would like to do some more college too
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