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Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

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Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#431

Post by profalseidol »

Whatever you decide, please make sure that it's for the benefit of the human race and not for personal or your investor.

You have the luxury to decide what you wanna do. Not so many can do that. If I wanna stop working on this shitty profit squeezing airline software, the police will force me out of my roof and I will have to forage leftover food.

Ofc, I'm not telling you not to enjoy living. Everyone has the right to do so. But you can do that without stepping over other people.

Take your time reading Confucius or Epicurus. Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#432

Post by falcor84 »

m12k wrote: post #378
throwaway713 wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hang yourself or do not hang yourself, you will regret it either way How does one regret hanging himself?

Kirkegaard's existentialism was religious in nature, in contrast to the later atheist existentialism of Sartre. So it's quite possible that from Kirkegaard's perspective, it could be possible to regret things after your death (or maybe it's just a joke - I haven't read Either/Or, so I'm not sure how far along toward his religious phase he was when he wrote it)

Either/Or is noted for presenting two perspectives, with the first volume demonstrating a hedonistic take on life, and the second a more "adult" religious take.

I couldn't personally get through the second volume yet, but I plan to some day, when I'm older. In the meanwhile, I would quite recommend the first volume, which I've read twice.

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#433

Post by nicky0 »

samstave wrote: post #269
flixic wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.

WOW! In my 44 years - I have not met anyone else who says this other than me and a very small group of my friends. :-)

Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself.

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#434

Post by michalu »

yesenadam wrote: post #285

I want to be careful with this decision, to avoid any future regrets Don't forget to consider that you may regret whatever you do - by human nature, the grass is proverbially always greener on the other side. People who have kids may wish they hadn't, but if they hadn't, they may have regretted that - in both cases thinking they'd made the wrong choice. Socrates and Kierkegaard, among others, discussed this as a basi…

I know very few people who regret having kids, unless they're single parents. Most of my friends in fact say it's the best thing in their life ... on the contrary 100% of people who don't have kids and are over their prime to have any they regret it or give you an unconvincing, hesitant answer along the lines of "maybe it's better" ... Now having children too early that's a different story.

This point of you'll regret it anyway is wrong in my opinion. I believe you are way more likely to regret things you've never done than thing you have done.

And that's why it's wrong, you can make relatively sound decisions using degree of regret as a measure as opposed to assuming you will regret it equally ... when you look at your life and project yourself to your deathbed imagine how you'd feel.

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#436

Post by postsantum »

michalu wrote: post #434
yesenadam wrote: post #285

I want to be careful with this decision, to avoid any future regrets Don't forget to consider that you may regret whatever you do - by human nature, the grass is proverbially always greener on the other side. People who have kids may wish they hadn't, but if they hadn't, they may have regretted that - in both cases thinking they'd made the wrong choice. Socrates and Kierkegaard, among others, discussed this as a basi…

I know very few people who regret having kids, unless they're single parents. Most of my friends in fact say it's the best thing in their life ... on the contrary 100% of people who don't have kids and are over their prime to have any they regret it or give you an unconvincing, hesitant answer along the lines of "maybe it's better" ... Now having children too early that's a different story. This point of you'll regre…

Admitting you regret having children is a social suicide, nobody will be open about it in public. Moreover, saying this is the best thing in your life is the only acceptable answer and anything less would make people look down on you with pity and casual disdain.

Still they exist, just look for them on parenting forums, reddit threads, facebook groups. But yes, a lot of them is about having chrildren too early

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#437

Post by techslave »

swagasaurus-rex wrote: post #282
Kkoala wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did pretty much like he advised, though I haven't seen this article before now. I got bored at high school and life in general. I discovered programming and thought that it's fascinating. So I decided to learn programming. I self-learned and started building my own projects, big and small. But now a couple years after my biggest regret is exactly the same, why did I waste so much time at high school and why didn't…

There is plenty of time to learn the things we want to learn. How long does it take to get a bachelors in college? 4 years? How many years do we have in a lifetime? Not including our youth? 60? 70? All it takes is dedication and persistence to learn the things we want to learn.

oh my sweet summer child, would that it were so easy.

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#438

Post by Aeolun »

postsantum wrote: post #436
michalu wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know very few people who regret having kids, unless they're single parents. Most of my friends in fact say it's the best thing in their life ... on the contrary 100% of people who don't have kids and are over their prime to have any they regret it or give you an unconvincing, hesitant answer along the lines of "maybe it's better" ... Now having children too early that's a different story. This point of you'll regre…

Admitting you regret having children is a social suicide, nobody will be open about it in public. Moreover, saying this is the best thing in your life is the only acceptable answer and anything less would make people look down on you with pity and casual disdain. Still they exist, just look for them on parenting forums, reddit threads, facebook groups. But yes, a lot of them is about having chrildren too early

It’s social suicide, but it’s just also really, really hard. I don’t really think humans are biologically built to regret their kids until they reach a certain level of independence.

Take it with a grain of salt though, it’s purely anecdotal.

Re: Ask HN: How did you decide what problems to solve in your lifetime?

#439

Post by Aeolun »

techslave wrote: post #437
swagasaurus-rex wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is plenty of time to learn the things we want to learn. How long does it take to get a bachelors in college? 4 years? How many years do we have in a lifetime? Not including our youth? 60? 70? All it takes is dedication and persistence to learn the things we want to learn.

oh my sweet summer child, would that it were so easy.

You disagree? If so, why?

Persistence is a pretty good quality to have for learning most anything.

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