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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?

#531

Post by btym »

grimoald wrote: post #79
bencollier49 wrote: post #22

Hmmm, hate to admit this: Use a Mac for work rather than Linux. The unixness combined with availability of the likes of MS Office, together with the genuinely beautiful interface has really increased my throughput. Secondly: Doing 1.5 hrs exercise daily.

For me, it's using Linux instead of Windows for coding (at least back then when I was learning to coding). It was so much easier to start a quick C++ project using an editor and g++ than fiddling with VisualStudio. Not to mention Python.

Even just for daily, non-project use, nuking my Windows install was the best thing I've ever done to my computer.

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

#532

Post by reactor »

Tenoke wrote: post #140
chollida1 wrote: post #126

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.

Please don't get into a mode of thinking that I need evidence for everything. It is free, try it yourself and see it works, if it doing any good for YOU, then it's just immaterial if it was never proved or not worked for anyone else (coz everyone is different, something works for you may not work for them)

I'm saying this with first hand experience, I was skeptical (I think lazy is better word), but I started recently, been on four weeks now and it is working for me, never going back.

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

#533

Post by btym »

Slackwise wrote: post #359
WA wrote: post #86

Stopped playing computer games. I played Heroes of the Storm and Hearthstone a lot. Like almost every evening when I had nothing else to do. I noticed over time two things: First, I can't play such games in a non-competitive way. While some seem to play Hearthstone for fun, I play to win and I want to figure out how to do so. This leads me to second: Ultimately, for an hour's worth of gaming time, I had a few feel-go…

Just a heads-up, but if you ever take interest in card games again, I'd recommend giving Magic: The Gathering a try. Why? • There are no cards with the words "random" on them • Of the cards you draw, you can mulligan several times to get a better hand • Many cards let you search your deck and pull out what you need, or something similar, further reducing "chance" being a factor • You play a game of Best-of-3, and on…

And also, there is probably a strong MTG community in your area, regardless of where you live. That makes any game 10x better.

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

#534

Post by adamredwoods »

munchbunny wrote: post #269
sdegutis wrote: post #212

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.

Board gaming (ahem, euro-gaming) has replaced video games, and I feel better about it since I get to meet new people and converse. Social skills decline when not used!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurogame

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

#535

Post by kerrsclyde »

rayalez wrote: post #458
chollida1 wrote: post #126

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…

One cool tip - you can meditate while running in the morning. That way you can do two useful things at once, and meditation doesn't seem boring. It's also much easier to stop the thoughts, focus on the present moment, breathing, etc when you are running in a park as opposed to staring at the wall.

I do this whilst swimming for hour in morning. Just empty my mind and go, I find it's a halfway house between sleeping and the start of my working day proper.

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

#536

Post by coldtea »

dominotw wrote: post #312
andrepd wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

what could possibly be 'scientific backing' for meditation. Sounds ridiculous to even ask.

This sounds as coming from the totally unscientific and non-experimental cult of "scientism" -- it's basically a pre-baked prejudice about what could and what could not have scientific backing.

One might as well be religious if they don't read scientific literature (which offers tons of studies on meditation) and don't at least keep an open mind and try to verify experimentally their claims.

Not only it doesn't sound "ridiculous to even ask", but there are LOTS of scientific studies on the matter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_on_meditation

https://nccih.nih.gov/health/providers/digest/meditation-sci...

https://nccih.nih.gov/health/meditation/overview.htm#hed3

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

#538

Post by dvdcxn »

elorant wrote: post #439
rdegges wrote: post #358

For me, it was 100% weight lifting and dieting (aka: exercise). Pretty much everyone here has mentioned this, but I don't think anyone has really explained just how incredibly life-changing it can really be. I've been programming since I was a kid. Spending most of my time at a desk eating Doritos and fast food wasn't really the best choice. I spent most of my 'good years' as a young guy being really overweight and h…

Body builders look like that because they swallow a ton of protein pills and other shit that eventually take a toll in their health. I hope for your sake you're not going down that path.

Nothing wrong with protein supplements. There are far more dangerous things body builders ingest that you would've been better mentioning.

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

#539

Post by kylestlb »

1) Yoga (or just breathing better). If you're a shallow breather your entire life this will change so much. 2) Stronger-typed javascript. I can't imagine not using Typescript at this point. I would lose so much productivity without the proper intellisense, among other things.

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

#540

Post by coldtea »

dominotw wrote: post #521
metaphorm wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

in fact there's a huge amount of research on this topic. try googling it.

so people are meditating for 'benefits', to make more money . seems so counterintuitive. All those studies are stupid.

>so people are meditating for 'benefits', to make more money . seems so counterintuitive.

People have been meditating for benefits (including more money and better performing at their job etc) for millennia. It's not just for spiritual/religious purposes (and if fact in some cultures those can be mixed as well without any contradiction).

>All those studies are stupid.

Yeah, all those scientists are useless and their universities are full of idiots, nothing like an internet comment to put them in their place.

If you want to prejudicially exclude research, don't claim to speak in favor of science.

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