Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#631

Post by whydontwezz » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 1:30 PM UTC

philip1209 wrote: post #251

Low-plastic living. I read a book by the world's first zero-waste restaurant, Silo. The book got me thinking about how different our lives would be if oil were expensive. "Pretend oil is really expensive" is a good proxy for doing things that are "eco-friendly." Since reading the book, I've tried to eliminate single-use plastic from most of my life. It's incredibly hard. Everything from my socks to my vegetable packa…

I never understood why we don't pump and incinerate all non-recyclable waste straight into a volcano and let the lava deal with it!

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#632

Post by stolksdorf » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 1:32 PM UTC

izzydata wrote: post #53

solardev wrote: post #7

There is a new show on HBO called Scavengers Reign, and it's become my favorite scifi story ever. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21056886/ It's kinda like watching Planet Earth about another ecosystem, with a strong focus on judgment-free ecology (ie there isn't good and evil, just different flora and fauna and otherwise interacting both with their normal food webs and with human outsiders). It really tickles the envir…

I'm really enjoying Scavengers Reign, but I can't help but feel like the local biology is a bit too absurdist. Or the amount of consistently lucky moves some of the characters would had to make to discover some weird quirk of that alien life. They had been there for maybe weeks or months, but somehow discovered that if you climb inside of the belly of this particular creature and twist some of his internal organs tha…

I also struggled with this when watching it. It's frustrating because I am really enjoying the show, it makes me feel like a kid again, but I have such a strong desire for consistent and cohesive world-building.

The trick/explanation/excuse I've been using is that we know our characters are explorers and experts, so maybe the life on this planet isn't as "alien" or "unknown" to the characters as it seems to us.

I've had survival training, I know how to identify certain useful plants or recognize tracks from animals in ecosystems I don't live in, so I tell myself that it must be like that from their perspective. Which lines up, seeing as the character's don't seem to react that strangely or shocked to most of what they see. Even one of them says that their goal is to not only survive, but _thrive_ here until rescue.

Highly recommend it, the trailer gives a good sense of the vibes without giving away too much.

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#633

Post by gadders » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 1:32 PM UTC

Public speaking. I started an internal diversity group based on (what I thought would be) a less popular diversity strand and wanted to get better at public speaking and presenting to do the topic justice.

So, I joined Toastmasters. Went along for a few taster sessions and signed up. Quite apart from improving my speaking skills it's actually a lot of fun. I'd recommend it.

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#634

Post by sjmulder » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 1:37 PM UTC

Aachen wrote: post #621

davidw wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YIMBY politics is where it's at for me too. My city has a housing crisis. My best friend here got forced out by the prices. It's different from software... so slow to get things done. But also really rewarding to see housing get built and policies allowing different, more affordable kinds of housing to be built. We just re-legalized SRO's here!

What's an SRO for the nonamericans here?

Single room occupancy (studio flats)

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#635

Post by SnootyMonkey » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 1:38 PM UTC

justanotherjoe wrote: post #590

m463 wrote: post #489

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be nice to have a legal wiki. Maybe not to represent yourself ("anyone who represents himself has a fool for a client") but maybe useful stuff. For example, in california, you have certain online privacy rights you can exercise, and it would be nice to have a form letter to enumerate and exercise those rights. or how to fight a parking ticket, etc.

what i find stupid is that you can represent yourself, but you cant have your non lawywr friend represent you. Despite one being better than the other.

This is an example of regulatory capture. In this case, by the legal profession.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulatory_capture

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#636

Post by oarfish » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 1:41 PM UTC

kccqzy wrote: post #518

kfoley wrote: post #416

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For anyone looking to get started I highly recommend the StrongLifts program and the associated app, both free [1]. I neglected strength training for a long time because every time I tried to get started I would feel overwhelmed. Then I tried StrongLifts and loved the fact that it's just 5 exercises, but provides pretty much a full body strength workout. The guy who developed the program has put a ton of effort into…

The StrongLifts program, while still pretty good, is not for absolute beginners. The app and the website has videos and detailed instructions, but that doesn't replace a human coach being able to point out in real time mistakes in your form that you do not even realize. And if you are a beginner, any attempt to do these exercises will invariably contain so many mistakes that they are not worth doing any more. Just fi…

Sorry I don't mean to offend, but this comment rubs me entirely the wrong way. This attitude strikes me as gatekeeping and turning people away from barbell training.

> mistakes in your form that you do not even realize.

form is entirely overrated in lifting. There's little evidence that a particular way of moving in the gym is more or less injurious, even if it looks funny. Efficiency is another matter, but don't nocebo anyone into not touching barbells in fear of "bad form".

And while coaching is surely useful, it is entirely unnecessary for a beginner who just wants to get started. You can make plenty progress for years without a coach, but it might be faster with one.

> And if you are a beginner, any attempt to do these exercises will invariably contain so many mistakes that they are not worth doing any more.

this is also clearly untrue and way too generic. Even inefficient lifting is healthy. Youtube is all you need to get started. There's plenty dumb info there, but plenty good also

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#637

Post by greenie_beans » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 1:47 PM UTC

rchaud wrote: post #441

greenie_beans wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'd love for there to be micro-magazines and short stories on paper, made cheaply and distributed to small mailing lists with a single stamp (not an email newsletter!). PDF versions available for long-distance readers. what do you like to read? i might have some suggestions

I'm open to different topics. Short stories, music, business, art.

little engines has stories and it's free: https://www.littleengines.pub/

i also like forever magazine, the writing is better than little engines: https://forevermag.net/

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#638

Post by oarfish » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 1:47 PM UTC

candiddevmike wrote: post #323

nwiswell wrote: post #284

Powerlifting. Solitary and meditative if you want it to be; social and uplifting if you don't. It's healthy in a variety of ways (including bone density; physical activity; higher BMR and glucose metabolism; improved cardiovascular function). Also being strong is useful surprisingly often. Unlike many things in life, your progress is almost entirely dependent on your consistency and the effort invested, with the exce…

Powerlifting can be very dangerous. You can really, permanently, mess up your body, specifically your back and neck. What steps do you take to mitigate that risk?

> Powerlifting can be very dangerous.

citation desperately needed. Injury rates for resistance training is very very low. The far higher risk is in not training.

If you start juicing and compete to the absolute max, then maybe? Even then I am skeptical that the data supports this.

I don't know where this weird belief comes from, while the universal recommendation is to do both resistance training and conditioning to reduce a whole bunch of risk factors for health and longevity.

> What steps do you take to mitigate that risk?

Well, we train to make our tissues resilient, of course.

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#639

Post by itake » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 1:51 PM UTC

gadders wrote: post #625

itake wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried 5/3/1 in college and I after week 4, I felt like you need to be juicing to keep up with it.

What were you eating? Were you trying to stay lean at the same time?

I didn't diet, which probably didn't help. I had an unlimited meal plan in college, but didn't take full advantage of it.

Re: Ask HN: What are you passionate about at the moment?

#640

Post by Aachen » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 1:51 PM UTC

kaycebasques wrote: post #407

Poverty abolition. I just finished Poverty, By America . It's really moving and seemingly well-researched and honest. I don't know if I'll stick with it. I don't have a good track record of sticking with social activism stuff. Deep-down in my bones I know however that poverty is wrong and really doesn't need to exist at the levels we have collectively accepted as "natural".

How does one 'do' social activism stuff anyway? Do you find out found a local group that hands out informational flyers to move people to act or donate, or how should I imagine this?