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Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

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Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#471

Post by throw_away »

fredsir wrote: post #83
soneca wrote: post #18

News == entertainment. Originally by Aaron Swartz http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews Although I have slightly different takes from his and the level of avoiding the news might be different too, but the core idea that I follow these days is there. I used to think following the news was a mix of my duty as a citizen and important for my life, personal and professional. Now I believe it's quite the opposite, I be…

I'd like to hear more about how you have implemented this. Do you not read any news? Some? How do you find out what's going on? I've been dabbling with this too, and my current state is that I don't consume any news or social media (twitter) that I cannot consume via my RSS reader, which in practical terms means I don't subscribe to any major news outlets, but instead subscribe to a smaller newspaper in my country th…

"To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week's newspapers." — Nassim Taleb

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#472

Post by brightball »

“The test of first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” - Dwight Whitney Morrow

I heard that quote sometime around age 18 and it has always stuck with me to a degree that impacts how I view everything. It’s made a habit of trying to understand both sides of hard topics...which often leads to frustration with people who only want to understand one.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#473

Post by daxfohl »

The recognition that the greatest success of modern marketing is having subconsciously convinced us that things are harder than they are, and there's a right way to do things.

I can't run a server without AWS. I can't run an email server without O365. I can't clean a toilet without toxic blue stuff.

Lots of things are actually pretty easy and cheap, and whatever makes you happy is the right way to do it.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#474

Post by jerry1979 »

paulcole wrote: post #386
mulmen wrote: post #378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think your example disproves Glass' statement. Surely students are in the beginner phases and their work does not represent their full potential. Glass' statement seems to say forgive students (and yourself for being one) instead of writing them off as hopeless.

Look at the first sentence of Glass’s statement. It is meant to be told to beginners to encourage them. He’s telling beginners that because you’re trying you must have good taste (which is clearly not true) so stick with it.

Ira is obviously trying to point out that the self-hatred comes from the fact that you know enough about your work to hate it. He turns pessimism into meta-cognition.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#475

Post by ISL »

devin wrote: post #182
teraflop wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Dude, sucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something." -- Jake the Dog

When I was learning to play the game Go, someone told me that there's some old advice about "losing your first 100 games as quickly as possible". That's stuck with me. Another one is (and I don't even know if it's 100% true, but I don't much care) that a common housefly will change its path if it runs into a window more than twice. I strive to be better than a common house fly.

There is a photography adage that your first ten-thousand photographs are your worst.

I'm not sure I agree -- sometimes you get lucky or circumstance is favorable -- but I am certain that my second ten-thousand photographs were better, on average, than my first.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#476

Post by jerry1979 »

brightball wrote: post #472

“The test of first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.” - Dwight Whitney Morrow I heard that quote sometime around age 18 and it has always stuck with me to a degree that impacts how I view everything. It’s made a habit of trying to understand both sides of hard topics...which often leads to frustration with people who only…

I have heard this quote credited to tons of different people. I still like it.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#477

Post by [deleted] »

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #442
wazoox wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Related : you are more what you do than what you think. What you think mostly comes from what you do, and that determines who you are; act more, think less. Do things, don't overthink it.

This reminded me of Revealed Preference Theory[1], which is about observing consumer choices, but the idea is broadly summed up as "It is not what you say, it is what you do that reveals what you want." or who you are. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revealed_preference

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#478

Post by JackFr »

carom wrote: post #242
purerandomness wrote: post #142

The idea that your mind is not you . That "thinking", as a process, is just a tool of your body, just like eyesight, for example. Listening to meditation and mindfulness practitioners like Jon Kobat-Zinn and Eckhart Tolle, I found it absolutely groundbreaking, for myself, to realize that the mind is an instrument that needs training and tuning, and sometimes can lead you astray, and can't be trusted unconditionally.…

The other more Daoist end of this spectrum is that your mind and body are you. Through the power of will you control both of these. As a long time meditator the "I am not my body, I am not my mind" mantra has always bothered me. I am both of those and will shape both of those in my image. Dissociative practices will not bring me closer to my goals. The comparison to eyesight is strange too. If your eyesight is poor y…

We know there are colors of light the eye can't see, consider there are true things the brain can't think. Your brain has tricked itself into believing its a universal understander. It's not.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#479

Post by pecantree »

Things happen because they can. Like a vacuum that gets filled, just because it can be filled.

(The thought came at a time of mental rut, and thinking that I cannot contribute further to the idea I had)

Things get discovered/invented just because they can. If you were to stop existing at this moment, it'd still get made. The best you can do is accelerate the process. If it can exist, it will be brought into existence. The only thing you can influence is the time at which it'll start existing.

Basically led to me pacing down my life and stop living with the constant stress of "I got to make it or it'll never exist".

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