Ask HN: What have the past 12 months taught you?

I like to feel I'm the victim of circumstances, blaming hardships on some abstract entity (like fate), subconsciously hoping that 'fate' will prove me wrong by making something good happen to me.

I am using substances (nicotine, sweets) and certain activities (web browsing, video streaming, podcasts) as distractions so that I don't have to face emptiness, loneliness, and boredom.

I am constantly looking for short-term rewards and expect instant gratification for pretty mundane things.

I am very judgmental towards other people and think I can see through their little lies to themselves, but don't dare to look at my own.

I crave recognition and care way too much about what other people think of me. I cannot take it when other people think I'm stupid, didn't get something, acted carelessly, wasn't on top of things etc

I am afraid of facing uncomfortable truths about myself, my history and my current situation.

I focus too much on where I'm not entirely the way I would like to be and have a hard time accepting myself the way I am.

And yes, I realized almost all of that only in the last 12 months.

I lost a friend of 17 years last spring (he was 30) to a similar cardiovascular issue, and I'm still picking up the pieces more than a year later. It hit way harder than losing grandparents.

It also showed me that people I'm surrounded by are a lot shittier than I thought compared to him. It taught me to look out for my personal interests more, especially when it comes to health and compensation for my time, and generally standing up to obnoxious bullies.

> The general population is extremely ignorant to climate change and the rather serious consequences it brings. I've had many people tell me it's fake, it's just something politicians use in debates, it's a conspiracy, that we aren't experiencing global warming but in fact are headed for a mini ice age, that they don't care because they can't stop it so they're going to keep on living their life how they want

I think we have to realize that people vary wildly in their cognitive ability, and some people may just never be able to grasp complex abstract concepts. It doesn't make them worse people, but I don't want to be subject to the tyranny of ignorance either. Another part of this is that people are dealing with personal crises much of their time (like loss of loved ones) and that their focus cannot be diverted to global problems for too long. Life's hard enough without having existential crises about the survival of your species every week. Not sure how to tackle this one.

> That Silicon Valley is comical. I'd always pictured it as these brilliant people doing neat stuff, making breakthroughs and driving future technology.

The one place that changed my view of technology is, surprisingly, HN itself. For the same reasons you state, I've committed to being a generalist, because most HN posters and the tech cargo cult shows how easily you lose perspective if you are successful in a narrow field of tech. It circles back to your earlier point about tech being elitist. Just the idea of people who have very narrow perspectives being elitist is hilariously ironic to me.

I'm sensitive to lactose, but eating too much of anything in one sitting will give me horrendous breath, especially (red) meat and onions.

Omeprazole is required at this point.

It's unspeakably depressing.