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

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

#681

Post by polishdude20 » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 3:47 PM UTC

oarfish wrote: post #636

kccqzy wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 noc…

Yep, the modern view is that injuries happen due to doing too much too soon rather than any technique problems. Either way injuries are super rare if you follow a program with a good build up of stress over time.

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

#682

Post by BonoboIO » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 4:02 PM UTC

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…

ChatGPT makes very good training plans if you know what you want. Like a 4 day split with XYZ available machines.

Not for beginners, but very good if you want to think a little bit less which exercises you take for the next 4-6 weeks.

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

#683

Post by mckirk » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 4:02 PM UTC

Cool to see that you kept the idea alive, thanks! :D

I'd have totally forgotten to post again, even though I also considered doing it at some point.

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

#684

Post by Fradow » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 4:04 PM UTC

My current passion is to maintain and fix cars. No modification because very little is allowed in my country and I keep the budget super tight.

I started about a year ago. Prior to starting I had never owned a car or done any sort of mechanic task. My first oil change was on a friend's car before I actually owned a car (getting to his place with a jack, jackstands and other tools in a rental mechanic bike was an experience in itself).

Getting into that hobby was a key factor in my battle with depression. While I've not recovered my pre-covid energy, I'm in a much better place.

Since then, I've done minor operations on 5 cars, and lots of things, including non-trivial operations (suspension overhaul, gearbox replacement) on the car I bought to be my "test dummy" (though it's by no means a beater, I bought it running and driving, it's just 20 years old with a fair mileage).

I would definitely recommend that hobby, especially if you already own a car and have a space to do it (living in an appartment, I had neither and still figured it out)

I also started a Youtube channel of filming myself doing those operations, but I'm not that passionate about it. I'm still on the fence of whether to stop or continue it. While I'm proud of it, it's a time sink and the few bad comments (it's the internet after all) leave a bitter taste.

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

#685

Post by storypitch » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 4:09 PM UTC

As a tech engineer who ended up in marketing, I've spent the last decade building an agency business and working with tech companies.

When ChatGPT/LLMs became accessible, I started playing around with OpenAI's API with the goal of "encoding" some of my expertise into the AI so it does the work for me (specifically how to write founder stories for my customers).

The result is https://storypitch.ai and it's already generating revenue.

But I have to say it's both worrying and fascinating to see AI do my work for me.

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

#686

Post by cyrialize » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 4:12 PM UTC

kfoley wrote: post #416

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…

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…

I'm a big fan of Greyskull Linear Progression! I've always liked 3 sets of 5 more than 5x5.

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

#687

Post by cyrialize » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 4:14 PM UTC

gadders wrote: post #623

bodhi_mind wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just began the 5/3/1 strength training method. I’d like to use gymnastic rings for most of my accessory work to try and get a nice balance of strength and flexibility.

5/3/1 is good, but it's not a novice programme. It's more intermediate. I started on 5/3/1 and did OK but would have got stronger faster at the start of my lifting if I had followed the Novice Linear Progression in Starting Strength. https://startingstrength.com/get-started/programs One the "newbie (strength) gains" are tapped out though 5/3/1 is an excellent programme.

I've also seen older people use 5/3/1 when they are unable to recover as quickly from linear progression routines.

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

#688

Post by sanderjd » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 4:15 PM UTC

jll29 wrote: post #573

There are several topics that I recently got more into: - The utility of randomness: returning from a machine learning conference in Italy where I had a pretty random (if you do not believe in fate) conversation with a stranger, where suddenly more people stood around and joined in. It basically started with me commenting on one poster "Isn't it amazing how useful randomness is, given there is no pattern/structure in…

Have you made any progress on that books & libraries "project"?

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

#689

Post by stcroixx » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 4:17 PM UTC

Aachen wrote: post #630

stcroixx wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I get older, game controls just get too complex for me to enjoy casually. Way too many combinations of stuff to remember. NES is most fun - 2 buttons and a d-pad.

What age range is 'older' here? Controls have gotten easier in my experience, at least on anything made for a mainstream audience. Recently it came up on a podcast with a game reviewer among the hosts that games nowadays seem to all have a setting where enemies can be beaten by looking at them angrily and how it's basically story mode at that setting, and how much that's doing for inclusivity and how many non-gamers…

47. NES had 2 buttons plus a d-pad. An xbox controller has 8 buttons, 2 joysticks, and a d-pad - it's all just too much for me to have fun with. I'd learn to play the accordion if I was up for all that.

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

#690

Post by sanderjd » Tue, Nov 07, 2023, 4:27 PM UTC

makingstuffs wrote: post #461

Love, life, people and planet. When I was young I spent a lot of time blinded by rappers with their spinning wheels and crowds of hangers-on which drastically lead me astray — being from a single parented poverty stricken family in the London it wasn’t exactly hard. Since then I have been through so many different stages to get to the point of contentment with whatever life throws my way. Within this contentment I ha…

Like the other commenter said, this isn't cheesy!

It's one of these funny things, where during adolescence, stuff like this sounds really cheesy (or "cringe"), but then gaining wisdom through life is largely a process of slowly figuring out: oh, this isn't cheesy at all; serious people have been thinking and talking and writing about this topic for millenia, because this stuff really is core to the human experience.