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Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

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471–480 of 774 posts

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#471

I love niche forums like HN because it satisfies my itch for mind expanding content. The closest I got to that was OG StumbleUpon, if you know, you know. I'm unfortunately not passionate about much nowadays; in treatment for stage 4 cancer, so I'm fairly exhausted all the time. I'm glad I can still maintain my cognitive abilities during chemo so I can still do my job.

I wish you the best, I know what it is, I fought 5 years with a leukemia when I was 15. I hope you will recover well, medicine has evolved pretty well.

The best advice I can give you that worked well for me, is to always keep your brain active, keep coding, keep thinking. :) It was a cure for me to keep my ability to think, resolve problems, etc ...

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#472
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on your world view. I give ~40% of my income to a decrepit government where I have no say how it’s spent. My city pays $25,000 USD per public school student and the results have not only been atrocious for decades but are declining year after year. Government jobs require college credentials… colleges whose accreditation are approved by the government, in some circular fashion of reciprocal approval. Our medi…

So... are there any countries in the world that are not socialist by your definition? Maybe China? It has, perhaps, lower taxes and better public schools.

Developed countries were created over centuries. They have a giant amount of legacy cruft and baggage that may have made sense in an older world but no longer does. They have no reason nor incentive to reform themselves and its workers are mindless drones that never think if their work has any value because the institution lacks the market test.

China is an authoritarian godless dictatorship that will put a bullet in your head if you disagree with the dictator. This is the antithesis of freedom and the free will given to each of us.

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#473
post #452

Rollerskating as an exercise in a zen state of mind. In a crowded rink, you have to put everything else out of your mind, lest you damage yourself or others. When I've had tough weeks at work, which I've had plenty of this year, rollerskating at a rink running a popular roller disco on a Friday night has provided a clean-room level of buffer between my stressed-out work state-of-mind and my happy-go-lucky-parent week…

Any advice for newbies? I don't even know if there is a rink where I live, but I'd love to give it a try, haven't skated since I was maybe 9 -- but I'm also terrified of falling, breaking my head, running into other people, etc.

Start slowly. If you hurt yourself early, that's what you'll forever associate with skating.

To find a place nearby, I Think just google roller skating and your local area. I would think that there are local groups who'd have some kind of online presence, always looking for new recruits. I don't use Facebook myself, but that's the likeliest online gathering place.

Lean slightly forwards, bent knees, keep your centre of gravity low and use your bent knees as control and, somewhat, shock absorbers, feet in a comfortable V-shape, toes further apart than heels, and just kinda step. The V-shape and physics will start you moving forwards.

After 20+ years of nothing, it took me about two hours of constant skating at an unpopulated rink (kids birthday party) to learn satisfactory cross overs.

Long term, there are muscles in your feet and lower legs that, unless you're a dancer, you've barely used and are important for subtle balance control. These have taken me years to build up, and I've got years still to go.

Ultimately, there's no shortcut, it's all about time spent doing.

Took me 18 months to go from starting backwards skating to be moderately comfortable doing it in a speed skating session. I'm proud of myself for a goal reached, and each goal reached leads to a branching set of further goals to achieve.

And once you've got a set of skates and pads, it's cheap and it's good for fitness.

(For me, it really helped that my kids and nieces are / were really into it. Kids enthusiasm is really infectious).

P.S. running into people is always a risk. Avoiding people is a good way to learn things you didn't know you could do - until you fucking had to. I caused a five person pile up just last Friday. Be polite, be contrite, but be aware this is a risk everyone takes when roller skating.

Also, I roll on inlines, I'm a baby giraffe on quads, it's embarrassing how bad I am given how I'm quite good on inlines.

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#474
I'm super passionate about Swing Dancing. I learned some of it in Highschool but started learning Lindy Hop in college. Unfortunately I had to skip the latest event my friends went to because I'm sick, but I really want to get back out there.

A _fantastic_ video. Look at how well all the leads communicate to their follows what to do without any verbal directions. They use their movements to direct the dance. I'm not this good but I saw this recently and I'm feeling inspired.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1BJxltWSwE

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#475

Hello from Raleigh, NC. Just graduated with a degree in political science but found work as a software engineer. Currently passionate about rock climbing, I wonder if there are any other climbers on HN? I’m looking to take a class on lead belaying soon and start sport climbing!

I’m also into climbing :) Bouldering and top rope at the moment but thinking about taking a lead class next year. I mostly climb indoors but live in a region with great outdoor climbing as well so I might do more outdoor climbing in the future.

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#476
post #455

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ooh! This could be a glimmer of a passion for me. Can you recommend any beginner guides or tips to get started? I've dabbled but get tied in knots overthinking the phrasing of a single sentence. I'd love to just get into a flow state. I've tried some tools like Final Draft (yuck) and Scrivener (meh). However Fountain.io plugin for vscode felt fantastic. The restricted format of a screenplay was really helpful to me a…

Not OP, but as someone who also sometimes get stuck in my writing as well I thought I'd reply. Personally I use Scrivener for drafting and Vellum for formatting, but the tools usually don't matter that much for what you are describing. They won't really help with overthinking and getting tied up in phrasing. What helps me a lot when I sense myself getting into that getting-stuck phase where I just overthink everythin…

Thanks!

I'll try a sprint. I actualy did Morning Pages (flow of conscious execise for writers) for many years just for the psychological benefits. I got blocked on those because I think I just got sick of talking to myself and a novel is a way to get some self expression and joy of writing back without it being so self-reflective.

Can you recommend a writing discord?

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#477

I converted my mountain bike to an ebike and I’m having a blast with it! I just moved to Oakland and there’s pretty good bike infrastructure here, so I can use the bike for transportation even for relatively large distances. I’ve been using it to get groceries, run to the bike shop, and see friends. For the nerds, I added a Bafang BBSHD mid drive motor and EM3EV 52v 20.5AH pack to my Norco Fluid HT bike. I added a re…

My passion is also bicycling. Started mostly as the typical lycra-cled bicyclist on a semi-expensive bike doing long Sunday rides. Bike to work here in Norway year-around, no matter the conditions.

Then lately I've started to think: Why don't more people use bikes? Cars in my city are noisy, the big and fast roads makes it more miserable to walk around etc. At the same time StrongTowns, NotJustBikes, r/fuckcars etc have grown big, and it has become more of a movement. Make the cities for the people, not cars.

I'm now spending lots of time as a bicycle advocate. Going to public meetings, making sure bicyclists' points of view are included in new infrastructure plans, reporting cars parked in the bicycle lane, videotaping and putting things on Twitter to now quite a big following, talking to media etc.

So my goal would rather be that you don't need what's basically an electric motorbike to cycle safely as you do, instead more dedicated infrastructure and lower speeds on the roads in the city. But end goal is the same, make it safer to bike.

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#478
I’ve been working on a piece of software (an audio plugin, specifically) to help me make music on my iPad.

There’s a wonderful app called Drambo which lets you create incredible music using both its own built in modules, and plugins from other developers, but it’s lacking (by choice) a “timeline”, where you can record/draw how the parameters of each sound change over time throughout the song - instead you have to control this live.

I’m into quite hypnotic/evolving electronic music and performing it live can be a bit challenging (e.g. if you make a mistake, you have to start over), and I’d love to be able to make music like this without using my laptop, so after evaluating all the software out there which can “sequence” like this and finding none of it meets my needs, I decided to build it myself as a plugin which I can integrate into Drambo.

Usually when I have these ideas for software I don’t get too far with them, but this one is actually already nearly at a point where it‘s usable, which is exciting! To keep things technically interesting, I’ve built it with a combination of C++ (with the JUCE framework) for the audio, and Flutter for the UI, which works really well in terms of fast iteration.

I’ll probably release it free/OSS when it’s ready as I don’t think there’s much money in this kind of software and it’s just built out of passion… it’s currently the thing I end up thinking about when I fall asleep etc. haha. It’s super satisfying to have got this far with a side project.

Outside of that, I was between jobs last week and spent it going on day trips from London and getting reacquainted with photography. My cameras had been gathering dust in favour of my phone, but I’d forgotten what a “zen” experience properly taking photographs can be. I had a wonderful day on Friday in a forest taking photographs of mushrooms for hours - my technique needs work but just the process of doing it was so relaxing. So I’m going to try to get back into travelling to places and doing more photography in future, it gives a nice focus to a trip.

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#479

Mexican food! I've spent the past 3 years learning to recreate good tortillas. I live abroad in Amsterdam and miss it so much after living in California for decades. I even worked in the best Mexican restaurant in Amsterdam for a month just to learn some of the subtle techniques. I'm finally at a place where I can make tacos much better than what I would get here and even back in California. I'm currently working on…

What's the deal with corn tortillas outside of the US and Mexico?

I've found quite good flour tortillas in Central Europe and also in Thailand. But in 25 years of searching I have yet to find a decent, "proper" soft corn tortilla like I can buy in just about any non-fancy grocery store in California.

I keep telling myself there must be a shop in Madrid or Barcelona considering the size of the Mexican expat communities, but even there I have not found any so far.

What gives?

Re: Ask HN: Comment here about whatever you're passionate about at the moment

#480

Hello from Melbourne, Australia. This weekend it finally started to feel warm, and I'm ready for summer. I ran a software development agency for 8 years, sold it at the start of the pandemic, and been travelling with my wife in an RV around Australia thinking about what's next. One of the issues we faced in our business was around centralising project requirements, and ensuring both our clients and our team could ref…

How are you finding RV life? Wife and I finished a Nullarbor run to Perth recently from NSW and camped along the way, mulling over picking up a sprinter van in the near future and remote working around Australia as theres so much to see and do.

Yeah it was amazing. Finished the lap of Aus and a little more, and now pretty happy to be back in an apartment (at least for a while!) Started of with a converted Toyota Hi-ace, but upgraded to a beast https://twitter.com/chrisrickard/status/1527521824430608384
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