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

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

#671

Post by seibelj »

systemicdanna wrote: post #658
seibelj wrote: post #472

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The existence of overwhelmed workers who don't have any energy (or desire) to think outside of their daily routine is a shared characteristic of all economic regimes in sufficiently large countries. It's not due to "socialism in the US" or capitalism somewhere else. Lowering taxes or improving public school system won't solve that completely. And, just to note, Catholicism doesn't encourage freethinking either.

Catholicism has no issue with science as any scientific fact was established by god and therefore is fine. You may be thinking about Baptists or similar groups with literal interpretations of the bible. The church really doesn't have any mandates other than the Nicene Creed and no one has to agree with everything the Vatican mandates, our priest and deacon both disagree with certain elements of the official doctrine. God gave humans free will and therefore the capacity to sin. You are allowed to think anything you want, there is no mandate.

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

#672

Post by systemicdanna »

seibelj wrote: post #671
systemicdanna wrote: post #658

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The existence of overwhelmed workers who don't have any energy (or desire) to think outside of their daily routine is a shared characteristic of all economic regimes in sufficiently large countries. It's not due to "socialism in the US" or capitalism somewhere else. Lowering taxes or improving public school system won't solve that completely. And, just to note, Catholicism doesn't encourage freethinking either.

Catholicism has no issue with science as any scientific fact was established by god and therefore is fine. You may be thinking about Baptists or similar groups with literal interpretations of the bible. The church really doesn't have any mandates other than the Nicene Creed and no one has to agree with everything the Vatican mandates, our priest and deacon both disagree with certain elements of the official doctrine.…

I appreciate your explanation!

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

#673

Post by motohagiography »

_jcrossley wrote: post #663
motohagiography wrote: post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

So happy to hear you’re giving CG a shot as well! That attitude and image of “Campfire Bach” is excellent, are you practicing BWV 999 Prelude in Dm yet? That was my first intro to Bach - such a wonderful tune, and a little easier than other Bach pieces for guitar. 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…

BWV 999 was my first, it's such a pleasure, then 846 (wtc 1), and this year's project was 1007 and have it down as well, but after hearing Mearns' version with a whole bunch of the implied counterpoint filled in, it's almost embarrassing to play the original now. I'm thinking my next project is his bwv 847, and I have been warming up to it by slightly rearranging bwv 846 by adding an alberti bass note via a sort of travis picking technique, akin to what Mearns did with his bwv 1007 arrangement. Skill wise, the Chaconne is probably a decade away for me right now, but this winter I may get his wtc c minor prelude down, then go back to foundations with instruction again so I can tackle more serious pieces. To play CG well takes everything, and its been a long time since I gave that to something. Glad to see someone else take it up a bit later as well.

Happy trails! :)

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

#674

Post by laurieg »

Recently, I took up making things. Electronics, wood, cardboard. I've not been doing it very long but it is incredibly fulfilling, and the help and support from others is wonderful. It's really nice to be unashamedly enthusiastic about something.

Speaking to young people regularly too is great. They have new ideas, new perspectives and are brimming with enthusiasm. Sure, they have new words, new ways to hang out with their friends, new music and fashion but we're all more the same than different.

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

#675

Post by ohy »

Hello from Berlin, Germany. Currently spending my days mostly learning for exams and doing homework. I hate every second of it. Not because I'm opposed to learning stuff. But because I just think other topics are way more interesting and useful for me in the future. Every time I sit there and try to memorize something that I really don't see any value in, I feel such a loss of a lifetime. I just think of all the things I could do instead... (theoretically I could drop out, but I don't have the courage right now)

Honestly, I'm passionate about all those fun little niche coding projects I have written in my notebook and want to work on. But I don't really have the time to develop my beginner-skills to the extent I would like to, for me being able to build them.

If anyone is in a situation where he has uniquely more than average free time. Please use this time to develop a skill, you'll be grateful for it, I can guarantee.

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

#676

Post by mbrochh »

Good morning from Singapore!

My side-project of the moment is to turn these amazing videos on how to setup a proper bitcoin node: https://www.ministryofnodes.com.au/ubuntu-node-box-guide-202... into an Ansible script so that anyone can do all the steps shown in the videos in a matter of minutes.

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

#677

Post by marcusverus »

atchoo wrote: post #455
eslaught wrote: post #51

I spent my morning working on a science fiction novel. (I won't post more here, but you can find it through my profile if you're interested.) Are there any other writers in the house? On a completely unrelated topic, one of my earliest "internet" memories was wandering into open source communities and trying to figure out this CVS thing and connecting it to GNU Savannah so that I could download some code. Those were…

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…

Check out the podcast Writing Excuses. Start from the beginning. There is some really helpful and blissfully actionable storytelling advice in there, much of it given by one of the most successful writers of Fantasy (Brandon Sanderson).

As for tips to get started, i’m partial to the following advice (paraphrasing Asimov): Everyone is capable of writing good books, but there’s a catch. The catch is that is that the first million words that anyone writes will be crap. Before one can write great prose, one must first get those million crappy words out of their system.

I personally find this to be extremely liberating. It allows me to just write and enjoy crafting sentences, characters and stories without torturing myself with premature expectations of greatness. Nobody sits down at a piano for the first time and expects to play something beautiful. Treat writing the same way. Play chopsticks, enjoy yourself, and rest assured that you’ll get better!

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

#678

Post by daretorant »

HellDunkel wrote: post #427
daretorant wrote: post #394

Fables. For the past year or so I’ve been writing a book of fables. I originally began the effort inspired by the book The Little Prince. Over time, I’ve begun reading book after book of fables. I love finding different ones—from the classics like Aesop to Buddhist koans, Persian, Indian, Chinese, Arabian fables. The format is just so fun and I think the philosophical lessons can be really powerful. I think of it as…

Great! Maybe you can help me out. Some 10 years ago i went to an exhibition in portugal showing old woodcut illustrations of fables. These were released as a book which i held in my hands once but cannot find anymore. I thought the name was montaigne but probably my mind is playing tricks on me.

Fascinating! Perhaps the woodcut illustrations of Mantegna, a renaissance Italian painter?

I did not find a book of fables of Mantegna’s illustrations, but I did find a painting of a fable (The Boy and the Filberts). It is possibly credited to Aesop, but not confirmed. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_and_the_Filberts

Also worth nothing: During the same period and area, another artist named Verona illustrated a book of Aesop’s fables: “It was also in Verona that the first illustrated edition of the fables of Aesop was published in 1479 (21.4.3), with woodcuts designed by Liberale da Verona, one of the city’s leading painters.” (https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/wifb/hd_wifb.htm)

Do you recall any of the stories or characters in the book you read? Or anything about the book that left an impact on you?

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

#679

Post by pdimitar »

plonk wrote: post #466
pdimitar wrote: post #447

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am really not sure. I am not looking for more responsibility and more pressure on my psyche right now. I am very capable and have proven it in numerous projects but I honestly need to dial down the responsibility... Not sure how one breaks this loop though.

Well I've been stuck like that a few times (still very young though), and changing cities/states/countries has always been the best way to get out of it. There are probably IC positions that don't cause Amazon-style stress while being technically interesting. Just a thought.

But that's just the thing: "more technically interesting" has a big intersection with "mentally exhausting". And sadly the things I'd code with a smile on my face don't look at all lucrative.

We'll see. The only way to break this cursed feedback loop is to have more energy in me -- physical and mental. I am working on it with positive results but it's way too slow.

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

#680

Post by senorsmile »

tobbob wrote: post #623

I'm a night owl, always have been, always will be, but we live in an early bird world, and fitting in with that is worth a lot. So at the moment I'm passionate about fixing my daily routine to finally get enough sleep, and get to work early, leave early, and hopefully have energy to do things in the evening. I've changed all my clocks back one hour so that psychologically it's easier to stomach. I have a light set on…

I highly recommend listening to this specific episode of the Peter Attia podcast: https://pca.st/episode/eafed9b7-a673-4b84-8dc3-46684eeba9ad
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