661–670 of 774 posts
I quit my job recently to work on AGI. I have some unique insights that I wanted to put into practice. The past month has been the most intellectually stimulating, challenging, and rewarding period my life. Some interesting utility has already appeared. I won’t discuss the details but I will say it does not involve statistical learning. And don’t worry, I’ve read Bostrom :)
> I have some unique insights Could you elaborate more?
Yet despite this, I just don't feel like I could do this for next 10 years. There's just something missing - maybe it's challenge, a sense of impact or perhaps passion, can't place it. Somehow, the small-pay startup internship whose job I passed up on, seemed more fun. Everyone seems to have it all figured out with their plans to do MBA, MS etc or continue in the industry and here I am all confused.
So, here I am, trying things .... I guess. I got on the Rust hype by building a terminal application that taught me much. I'm planning to build a homelab to hack around and learn a bit of DevOps and security. I'll be buying a guitar with my first income soon. I've also been enjoying playing football, as I mistakenly missed out on sports in college. Another thing I've recently gotten into is quantitative finance - something I think might be interesting as a career since I also enjoy mathematics, but it seems to be too difficult a career to break in. Anyways, I've got Hull's Options, Trading and Other Derivative and some stochastic calculus books I'm planning to finish this year.
Sorry, it's all messy and over-ambitious but hopefully I'll figure something out :)
I've been passionate about learning classical guitar for a few years, but that's really ramped up since COVID lockdowns. I'm working through a standardized exam system, and completed my grades 5, 6, 7 and recently, 8. During part of the process I realized that I wanted to get feedback on my raw practice sessions - think 30 minutes warming up with C major scales, followed by an hour working on one line of a piece - so…
Congrats on this! I'm told it's one of the most difficult instruments to learn. While I also took lessons over the pandemic and play every day I am not that far yet, as I just wanted to be able to play a few Bach preludes without requiring the trappings of civilization, and so have what I call "campfire Bach" in my rep. These are the true original pieces (some transposed for the guitar arrangement), but other musicia…
I’ve heard really great things about Mearns’ arrangement of the Chaconne (which I’m tackling now, against my better judgment). I gave it a very brief read and thought it was interesting with campanella fingerings, but thought the change to E minor is a little too out there for me right now. I might take another look now, though! Thank you for the reminder :)
Thanks so much for posting this, I love the spirit of it. I'm passionate about my sobriety journey. I just got home from a dinner party of ex coworkers and friends. Being the only one not drinking is hard for me and a huge change. I used to lead the charge with booze, it was the thing that took my crushing anxiety away. It made everything more fun. Well, that can only last so long when you abuse it so much and it fuc…
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I wrote a comment the other day about how global warming might not be that bad: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33483424 I know some people will be upset because they think saying that might mean we don't get emissions under control. I don't think people here on HN have much control over emissions, but in any case I encourage you to get emissions under control to the extent you can!
Thank you for your thoughts. Everyone can affect their emissions to some extent. * Don't have children is a big one, or limit the number you have. One child is equivalent to 24 people people not driving, someone quoted to me the other day. It's not a popular idea though. * Drive a small car not a big car. Drive about 90kph, it's more fuel efficient than driving faster. * Buy local - It might be more expensive in mone…
I got to use my math skills (estimating when some scheme would make the number reach a certain level. I got to use my research skills (searching the game wiki for schemes to make the number reach a certain level). I got to use my puzzle-solving on some of the minigames. I got to be patient while waiting for schemes to pay off. I got to be persistent when grinding through some minigames to make the number go up. I had something to look forward to whenever I was bored throughout the day.
Thanks to the dev, aniwey, and thanks to the HN poster who started the thread about Universal Paperclips on which I found a reference to Candy Box 2.
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Didn't think I'd find something like this on hn. Good luck to you mate. I'm on the journey too. Almost 2 years now, was on the verge of brink and posted something on hn to which Dan, the moderator emailed me and told me to hang in there. At the time had no one, still keep a small circle and no immediate family. His words gave me strength to survive and possibly how I ended up in recovery instead of the other side.
Dang is an unappreciated treasure of HN who does not get enough credit. Thank you dang.
Beyond the western borders of this little town, the tech gold rush has both expanded to epic proportions, affecting all the economies in the world, and also gone through enough booms and busts that the phrase "gold rush" seems somehow off.
As more and more young'uns join and jaded veterans return to throng the tavern alike, it often seems to be on the brink of either exploding with the largest gun fight in history, or jumping the shark.
And yet, against all odds, it retains its original magnetism - drawing throngs that grow in number and diversity while seers like [https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=patio11](https://news.y... and [https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=tptacek](https://new... continue to return - dispensing worldly wisdom worth its weight in gold from corner tables.
The secret is the man at the corner of the bar @dang, always around with a friendly smile and a towel on his shoulder. The only sheriff in the west who still doubles as the friendly bartender: always polite, always willing to break up a fight with kind words and clean up messes himself.
Yes a cold-hard look from him is all it takes to get most outlaws to back down, yes, his Colt-45 "moderator" edition is feared by all men, but the real secret to his success: his earnest passion (some call it an obsession) for the seemingly sisyphean task of sustaining good conflict - letting it simmer but keeping it all times below the boiling point based on "the code":
"Conflict is essential to human life, whether between different aspects of oneself, between oneself and the environment, between different individuals or between different groups. It follows that the aim of healthy living is not the direct elimination of conflict, which is possible only by forcible suppression of one or other of its antagonistic components, but the toleration of it—the capacity to bear the tensions of doubt and of unsatisfied need and the willingness to hold judgement in suspense until finer and finer solutions can be discovered which integrate more and more the claims of both sides. It is the psychologist's job to make possible the acceptance of such an idea so that the richness of the varieties of experience, whether within the unit of the single personality or in the wider unit of the group, can come to expression."
May the last great tavern in the West and it's friendly bartender-sheriff live long and prosper.
My father passed away about 3 weeks ago, and the current thing that I am passionate about is setting myself up to be and stay doing things that would make him proud and honor his memory When I say I was close with my dad, that doesnt even scratch the surface. Im 24, and I can think of maybe three weeks worth of days across my entire life where I didnt talk to him (and most of those were solo camping without cell serv…
I have two sons – 5 and 1 – and this is exactly the kind of relationship I want to build with them. Do you have any advice? Thanks, and I'm terribly sorry for your loss.
Finally, what works for everyone is very different. My dad was always concerned with my weight, so he would flat out say “oh hey you’re looking kinda chunky today” and while many would think that is kinda mean, the kinda relationship we had showed me that that meant he cared about me and was worried I was eating too much or not exercising enough. But if you as a dad said that same thing to your kids, they may resent you for it. Go with your instincts and be the kind of dad you would want, and if you had the desire to succeed for their benefit, I’m sure you’ll do great.
Remember that kids aren’t little gremlins… they are people like you and me that just haven’t developed as much yet. So treat them like humans, instill all of the values you hope for early, and just hope they stick! It might sound vain to say, but I like to think that a lot of what makes a kid like their dad as much as I liked mine was just the fact that I’m a pretty good kid :)
God bless and do your best! You’re already more than half way there with that attitude!
My father passed away about 3 weeks ago, and the current thing that I am passionate about is setting myself up to be and stay doing things that would make him proud and honor his memory When I say I was close with my dad, that doesnt even scratch the surface. Im 24, and I can think of maybe three weeks worth of days across my entire life where I didnt talk to him (and most of those were solo camping without cell serv…
I lost my father to murder several years ago and have been waking up thinking of him a lot this week. Somehow I really found your post comforting. Thank you.
Remember your dad fondly, live a life he would be proud of and proud to call you his son/daughter, and do your best in everything and you will always have him with you. He’s in every cell of your body, and he is in every crevice of your brain.
Glad my story and I were able to comfort you some!
I'm passionate about two things: game development and writing! For several years I've been working as an evenings-and-weekends indie game developer. I love it -- it's such a joyful mix of technical and creative tasks. It's stimulating and challenging and expressive, and makes my heart feel so full when I've finally finished something that another person can play. If I could ever reach a point where I could properly f…