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

Ask HN: How are you holding up?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

331–340 of 398 posts

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#331

Post by rotexo »

I'm lucky in that I work at an essential business, so I have been coming into work this whole time, which gives me social interaction. I have a 1/2 hour bike commute, so the commute part isn't an issue.

Downside: my girlfriend still lives with her parents (who have pre-existing risk factors), so we have only been able to go on walks for the past several months.

I have been avoiding my feelings by spending quite a bit of time after work in Hyrule (Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild).

EDIT: I should say that I am overall very fortunate. Still employed doing something that I like, safe and healthy, and my family is the same. My family doesn't live near me, so I miss them and am not sure when I will next be able to see them.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#332

Post by sbmthakur »

champagneben wrote: post #292
screye wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the US India :( (though I stay in the US) We just had a minor skirmish with China with around 60 deaths total. The messaging from China is very similar to the run-up to the 1962 war.

This isn't meant to be a provocative question: What's the messaging from India been like?

We are still in a semi-lockdown and daily cases are still increasing. It's definitely a bad time to go for a war and the government knows that. More efforts are being put into decreasing the nation's reliance on Chinese imports. Previous tresspasses by the PLA were addressed through diplomacy and the results were good. Same approach is being tried now too.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#333

Post by Trasmatta »

anonu wrote: post #43
leashless wrote: post #4

Seems less bad to me than the year or so that followed 9/11. Bad and bad enough though.

This pandemic is probably the worst human catastrophe since ww2.

It's not even the worst pandemic since WW2. The 1968 flu killed between 1 and 4 million people.

AIDS has killed 32 million people. It killed 1 million people in 2016 alone.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#334

Post by bonniemuffin »

mgr86 wrote: post #51

I feel a touch of shame considering the tenor of this thread, but amazing. I just said to my wife I don’t want to go back. And I have a pretty spacious private office. We had our first child on Halloween and we both had only returned to work for a month before being forced to wfh. We both still are. It’s great watching my son every day grow. My wife’s job leaves her twiddling her thumbs a lot so she gets to spend a l…

I'm also WFH with an infant. We have 2 very full jobs, but we have a nanny who comes to our house to help out.

It's hard to balance everything, but overall I'm really grateful I get to spend a lot of extra time with my baby during her first year of life. I know I'd be really sad to miss so much time with her if I was dropping her off at daycare every morning, but instead I get to take breaks during the day to spend time with her.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#335

Post by sbmthakur »

allarm wrote: post #279

I was let go by my company 2 months ago. I stuck in a small country on the other side of the world. There’s no flights to my country (and there’s unlikely going to be any at least until winter). My temporary visa is expiring in 2 weeks, I don’t have any evidence that they are going to extend it. The day before I was let go I moved to another apartment with a 2 years lease contract. I don’t have any broadband connecti…

It's inspiring to see that you are still taking time out for exercising and learning in such a situation, and are optimistic about the future. I hope things work out for you.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#336

Post by justinzollars »

gqxhoqvpnb wrote: post #178

Pretty terrible. I have no prospects, my startups all failed, I've lost most of my money (lost about $2m that I saved over 10 years and earned from previous startups which I managed to cash out). I tried to go the VC route, but no investors wanted to talk to me, so I spent my own money instead and now I'm broke. I need to find a job, but because I'm highly experienced and older (35 y/o), most companies see me as expe…

Don't kill yourself. Thats a silly thing to do about money. You need to find professional help and bounce those feelings off of a another person, but recognize they are feelings but dangerous ones.

If I were in your boat - delete twitter, facebook, and stop watching the news. Stop spending cash, stop paying bills, save your cash for food and things you enjoy. Take a vacation. Cash is king. When business goes south - they stop paying bills. You gotta go into survival mode. Also apply for government help. If you are smart you can find a way to qualify.

Apply for jobs, I'm older than you and unemployed and many startups are talking with me. It's only a matter of time before you secure a better job.

It seems from what you have said, you are able to make large sums of money - so it will probably happen again since you are bright, you just need to make it through this year.

The good opportunities are not gone. Our country has more problems then ever you just need to find one.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#337

Post by y-c-o-m-b »

Depressed, but not because of the virus. I'm disillusioned with tech. I don't want to write software anymore. I don't even want to look at a screen anymore. I'm doing the bare minimum to make sure I don't get fired, but most days even doing that is a struggle. When I get a notification on my phone, I want to take a hammer and smash my phone into pieces.

The only things keeping me sane at the moment are camping (which I've been doing every chance I get), yard-work, or sitting in my backyard and watching bees gather nectar.

I'm the only one making a salary in my household which supports my wife and kids. We have health issues also, so must have health insurance. With the price of housing and groceries continuing to skyrocket - and one of my kids approaching college age soon - it only re-enforces the idea that I have to stay in this occupation for much longer. I want a simple work-to-live not live-to-work life on some acreage, but I'm trapped in this suburban life-style.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#338

Post by jaynetics »

screye wrote: post #176
jaynetics wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It never ceases to amaze me how different people are. For me, all effects have been the exact opposite. Less going out, so more cooking and healthier eating. Less tired from open office noise, so more energy for sports. More free time without commute, so I picked up some long forgotten hobbies again. This means my advice might not apply to you, but if I may still recommend one thing: ignore most of the news for a whi…

> the US India :( (though I stay in the US) We just had a minor skirmish with China with around 60 deaths total. The messaging from China is very similar to the run-up to the 1962 war.

The last thing China needs right now is another hit to its GDP, which would be quite substantial if it was subjected to similar international sanctions as Russia was for its actions in Ukraine.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#339

Post by braft »

gqxhoqvpnb wrote: post #178

Pretty terrible. I have no prospects, my startups all failed, I've lost most of my money (lost about $2m that I saved over 10 years and earned from previous startups which I managed to cash out). I tried to go the VC route, but no investors wanted to talk to me, so I spent my own money instead and now I'm broke. I need to find a job, but because I'm highly experienced and older (35 y/o), most companies see me as expe…

I'm sorry you're suffering and I hope you don't commit suicide. You are not a peasant. Peasants don't have $2m at any point. Maintaining a middle-class lifestyle today, which is an opportunity still available to you, makes you one of the richest people to have ever lived, in terms of both material and opportunity. It sounds like you've hinged all your happiness and self-worth on professional and economic success, which is a losing strategy. Becoming as rich as the people you've worked for is a bad goal. You can learn to live more frugally, move to a cheaper area, work a job that's easy and boring but sustaining, declare bankruptcy if necessary, try to find communities of people you like, etc. You have options. If you've never lived in a rural area you should try it.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#340

Post by klodolph »

eyerony wrote: post #255
klodolph wrote: post #213

Started a new software engineering job just before stay-at-home orders. Joined the team in March. Nobody is training me. My teammates don’t like meetings so I never see them in video calls. I haven’t been getting any work done. Manager is asking me why I haven’t been getting any work done. I don’t even know where to begin. The documentation is garbage but that’s not so unusual. What’s unusual is that I have to ask qu…

Hey, it's me a couple months ago! With a side dose of "we may or may not fire you, we dunno yet" for several weeks (they did, abruptly, the day after once again saying they maybe wouldn't, and I guess I'll never know exactly why). Confusing as hell and unlike anything I'd experienced in my not-short career. I guess some managers/teams are straight-up incompetent at onboarding and blind to how hostile-to-new-hires the…

I have savings but I’d rather see the problems with my current job fixed rather than bailing out. I don’t think they’re intractable, just that the experience is a bit painful.
Post reply on HN