1) TDD, I get SOO much more done, & with a greater level of confidence.
2) Exercise, I'm not tired all the time anymore. I'm losing weight. I'm happier. I no longer have an all comsuming need to feast on human flesh.
Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
241–250 of 785 posts
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is an excellent point. Can you give any more detail on what you are doing instead of selling your time? I don't want specifics per say, just general ideas about what you have switched to and how it has been lucrative. I find the idea quite interesting.
I bought a really small business in the translation industry late last year. Since purchase our monthly revenue has grown ~ 190% and we have solid plans to continue the growth. We have 4 people on our internal team, but everyone works remote and part time (approx. 20 hours/week) including me. Our main workforce is made up of freelance translators (about 45 of them at the moment). I handle development, marketing, stra…
How do you handle the separation between home and work? I've noticed that when I am working for an hourly wage at a business I appreciate not having to think about work after I leave.
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#243Focusing on stretching and mobility instead of strength when working out.
My #1 priority right now is becoming a breakdancer. Flexibility is such a huge component—you end up feeling lighter on your feet and incredibly alive. Changing my workouts to flexibity first almost make them philosophical.
The easiest way to do it is with Yoga—but it might get old quickly because there are many poor teachers.
Want to start doing it and feel like you always have so much to learn? Look up Ido Portal. OMG. :)
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#2441. Good diet, exercise, and generally taking care of my health. Seriously, this should be the top priority, if you know that you're being stupid about how you treat your body - fix it as soon as possible. 2. Writing regularly(fiction or nonfiction). I think it's one of the most awesome skills you can develop, and the younger you are when you start practicing - the easier it will be. Just create a blog, and try to reg…
I like them all, I just recently figured out #2. I will add: writing about what you are doing/learning is a great test of weather or not you ACTUALLY understand it. Can you communicate it in an intelligent manner? No? Go back and figure out what you don't know.
I sometimes feel like I spent half of my working time writing down notes. I find having a buffer opened to write my thoughts down to be helpful in maintaining focus. At this point I'm often unable to get through some harder tasks at work without doing that.
That said, I still haven't figured out whether I've found a way to focus better, or whether I handicapped myself by unlearning the ability to think without writing things down.
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#2453 things for me: 1) Meditation, I used to think it was something hippies did. I now think its worth 10 IQ points. I honestly can't recommend it enough. 2) Sleep, I'm getting close to 40 and the last 2 times I pulled all nighters I ended up deleting pretty much all the code I wrote from 11pm onward. 3) Occasional Fasts. I normally fast from 6pm until noon the next day but I now do one 3 day fast each month. I think th…
Not a hippie, but you do meditation and fasts... Okay, that came out a bit incisive. Do you have any scientific backing to support those claims? I'm especially interested in fasting. Not eating for 3 days a month does not seem especially healthy. Then I see the claim that it cures cancer and forgive me if all my alarm bells go off.
It's pretty well established that in animal studies, animals that undergo caloric restriction live longer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calorie_restriction
I haven't kept myself up to date on it, but I think I remember that it was more about changing an organism's biology early in life. If you're an organism that is going to burn less energy per day, then you are an organism that just has less entropy per day, and less side-effect damage to your cells because of it. I think that the gist of it?
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#246Running... outside... I didn't start until I was like 26. It feels great.
Lucky people who felt the joy of running immediately. I tried to start running many times. I got myself to 5k. But I hate it, it is boring, and just about any other physical activity feels better than running for me.
I run for 45-60 minutes and it's perfect podcast time. (I only enjoy running on the treadmill, so earbuds are no safety hazard and I can tune out the standard exercise music in the gym.)
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#247How about stopped doing? There was a weekend where I had spent close to 20 hours playing World of Warcraft to farm materials and reagents for the epic engineering mount. After I had finished it, and spent the requisite time showing it off in-game, I looked around and realized that all of thrill of lifelong learning and making things in the "real" world has been subsumed when all my spare time was consumed in a virtua…
It's a hobby, and like any other hobby, it's profoundly stupid. How stupid is it to build model railways? How pointless is it to collect stamps. How dumb is it to fix cars? All "stupid" things we do for pleasure and for accomplishment. I suggest not being so focused on what should be stupid or not, and instead remember that time enjoyed is not time wasted.
>> "How dumb is it to fix cars?"
With that one you're learning skills which will benefit you IRL. Car breaks down? Don't have to pay a mechanic. Skills may applicable to other machines too. Plenty of hobbies have real benefits. Sports for example - health & fitness.
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#248Commuting by bicycle. Fresh air and exercise, all packed into the same amount of time it would have taken me to drive and park, even enjoyed the thrill and mental challenge of forcing myself out in the rain and snow. Took some shortcuts and explored areas I've never been to before.
What about sweating?
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#249Every time I start seriously exercising this hits in about week ~4. Sadly, I only generally keep it up for 6 months before falling back to old habits. Professionally: email lists. If you have any reason to have a blog, you should have an email list. It surfaces the identities of the people who are actually interested in what you have to say, and ties people to you much, much tighter than "Oh yeah, that thing you wrot…
Hey Patrick, I posted this on another thread, but try focusing on flexibility first. Strength will come later. You can pretty much always stretch and will start seeing feedback. If you get into a routine, you will feel MUCH better and more alive.
Click through for my last comment.
Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?
#250Using a daily planner (on paper, not a app). I figured this out about 2 months ago. Being able to write down the tasks and scan back through my backlog has helped me be more productive. For me, using a calendar service or task manager app just does not work as well... BTW, I am a millennial. edit: I am 10 years younger then everyone else at my company and get questioned all the time about "why I use a day runner" whe…
Silly question but what exact notebook are you using?