Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: If you had a month of free time, what would you do?

news.ycombinator.com

31–40 of 70 posts

Re: Ask HN: If you had a month of free time, what would you do?

#34

Nothing. The value of doing nothing can far outweigh the value of doing something. Consider taking the time to just live before you go back to whatever grind you’re always on in a month. :)

There are people who are afraid of this.

Re: Ask HN: If you had a month of free time, what would you do?

#35

I was expecting a lot of ambitious projects would be mentioned, but it seems as if a lot of HN wants the same as me. I would Unplug. Take the kids camping, explore a national park for a couple weeks and let nature do it's thing. Take the guitar, leave the tablet. Try to catch some fish, which I have never done. Read a couple books that have been put off for too long. Maybe some Heinlein or Asimovs foundation series (…

I'm with ya there. I would Unplug. I'd sit and stare at the wall. I go for a walk. I'd do nothing. (I'd quote Office Space here if I could remember exactly what Peter said) Fishing... sit and do nothing.

I know this is true because I was only given one month. It would be different if it was indefinite. Having a solid limit, and just a month, is not bad. Having nothing in front of me for the rest of my life would be different.

Re: Ask HN: If you had a month of free time, what would you do?

#36
I'd try to....

  - Find a server for cheap that I can virtualize GPU access
      Ideally >5TB HDDs, 512GB SSD cache, >64GB of RAM, cores on cores 
  - Virtualize the system that I use to Steam Stream my games 
  - Setup an at-home virtualized data analysis lab
      Python + Pandas + SciPy + Matplotlib + Mongo/SQL
  - Obtain some cool data sets and look at them
  - Setup a website and post informed conclusions from the data sets

Re: Ask HN: If you had a month of free time, what would you do?

#37
I have a day off a week, entirely to myself. I negotiated it with my work (a very large $CORP) in exchange for 20% of remuneration.

I end up tinkering with the things I'm interested in, and roaming London, going to places I've never been to in 40 years.

It can be incredibly productive. I even published a book as a result: https://leanpub.com/learnbashthehardway

What I have found 'hard' is doing nothing. I find walking helps with managing stress, as it's activity but not cerebral.

Re: Ask HN: If you had a month of free time, what would you do?

#39

Nothing. The value of doing nothing can far outweigh the value of doing something. Consider taking the time to just live before you go back to whatever grind you’re always on in a month. :)

There are people who are afraid of this.

The people most afraid of this are the most in need of it.

Always do what scares you the most.

Post reply on HN