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Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

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Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

#302

3 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…

> Occasional Fasts There was a white paper on /r/science about how decreasing amount of sugar one consumes, lowers chances of developing some kinds of cancer (can't find an exact link, something along the lines "less sugar starves cancer"). Pretty interesting, thanks s for sharing!

There's a lot of research coming out about sugar being one of the most unhealthy things one can consume.

Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm on the other side of that wall. I never got into WoW or any similar game. So last year, my wife and I tried getting into WoW one weekend. It was awful, so utterly boring for both of us. That said, we did get into Minecraft for a few weeks. It was a fun little way to build a virtual world together. But after an hour straight of playing, I would just get this deep sense of loneliness and depression, and have to tur…

Have you tried substituting with board games or tabletop RPG's? I suggest this because they preserve the "game" aspect and give up a bit of the virtual world feel in exchange for having a strong social aspect (hanging out with friends in real life). Either one is actually very conducive towards socially drinking with friends while doing something that isn't trying to hear each other at a loud bar.

This I still do, get together with friends and play bridge (card game) for a couple of hours or more.

Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

#305
post #274
post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe not the right game? Try Dwarf Fortress. It's the only game that has addicted me past the age of 18.

For me, it is almost the opposite. I can't get into games that are highly "stateful" anymore. I find that the only games I can consistently play for relaxation are games like match-based FPSs that I'd call "stateless". The anxiety about wasting time hits me when I'm looking down at an empire in Civ or a growing base in DF or my stats pane in an RPG. When I can see evidence of how much time I've spent building an imag…

MOBAs are pretty stateless, works for me :)

Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

#306
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any meditation tips? I've gone through multiple fits & starts but I just can't keep my mind from wandering.

Count. Count each breath as you do it. When you get to ten, start at one. If you feel your mind wander, start your count at 1 again.

My 80-some year old long-term meditation practitioner says count from 1..4 and visualize the numbers as you breath in and out. He said ten is just too many, but four works rather well!

Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

#307
Learning how to say no and not feel guilty about it.

I think there's a weird superstition that many of us have where we feel as if we don't deserve and won't achieve success unless we do everything we possibly can, across every vector of life, all the time. And this causes us to have "yes" as our default response, sometimes to our own detriment. And it often takes a big cold bowl of reality (death in family, getting fired, relationship breakup, physical injury, etc) for us to realize that it's OK to say no sometimes.

Will I write a glowing intro email for a passing acquaintance's friend who wants to work at company where I used to work and still have strong relationships? No, sorry.

Will I miss a scheduled workout so I can sit in on a conference call that got scheduled at the last minute? No, sorry.

Can you borrow my phone charger? No, sorry.

Writing these out, I get the visceral feeling that it will come off as selfish. It is selfish, I guess. But learning to say no to things I don't want to do has been a big step for me.

Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

#308
post #140

3 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…

>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. I wish this was true && that there was well compiled evidence that could convince me that this is the case.

Let's guess how much money has been spent investigating the possible benefits of meditation, compared to the research funds available for commercially exploitable therapies, I'm guessing it's probably similar to that spent on sleep, in relative terms, zero, what's the point of a commercial organisation showing something free has health benefits?

Re: Ask HN: What was your “why didn't I start doing this sooner” moment?

#310
post #202
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the hype behind vim. The biggest productivity boost I find is having an editor which has great code completion and error squigglys as soon as you cause an error.

I'm trying to fix this part of my workflow myself. I'm a hardcore vimmer, trying to branch out into Java with IDEs. Every time I do it, the IDE brings in more headaches than it saves, by far. Plus, they almost seem to "break the abstraction" and make it less clear what's going on. I'm sure if I made a dedicated effort (ideally with a human present to answer the hard-to-phrase questions) I could work out all the kinks…

> For example, Eclipse requires you to re-setup your workspace every time you start a new one

I have "misc" workspace, where I keep all my small projects.

> and doesn't even have defaults for switching code tabs from the keyboard.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2332330/eclipse-hotkey-ho... ?

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