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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?

#581

Post by rdegges »

dorfsmay wrote: post #580
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…

As someone who knew you somewhere in the middle, totally didn't recognize you in the first pic, and the guy in the second pic looked really familiar, then I checked the username! Do you need special keyboards with those arms? :-)

Yves! Long time no see =) How are you doing these days? <3

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

#582

Post by kamaal »

allenu wrote: post #544
kamaal wrote: post #463

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>My "hobby" is writing a science fiction novel. >>There is a very profound satisfaction in being able to do that. For you its writing, for other its music, collecting stamps, playing games or whatever. Why do you assume writing > everything else?

I'm not the poster you're responding to, but the difference between something like writing vs. stamp collecting or gaming is the act of creation. You're making something that others can enjoy and that you can look at and appreciate. It can live on when you've passed. When you play a game, you do enjoy the experience, but at the end of it all, you've not created anything of value.

>>You're making something that others can enjoy and that you can look at and appreciate.

If you kind of look at it, everything can preserved and enjoyed by those coming after us. Stamp collection too in many ways is preservation of history. A game of chess with all its moves recorded, or an epic game of tetris.

Or take food for example. No body can taste what you cooked, but you can write down the recipe and ingredients to the very last gram and people can enjoy it forever.

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

#583

Post by nickpsecurity »

naasking wrote: post #500
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.

> I'm especially interested in fasting. Not eating for 3 days a month does not seem especially healthy. I'm surprised many believe this. It seems self-evident that our bodies are well adapted to periods of starvation. Any biology that wasn't so adapted would have been out-competed by those did. The link to cancer is typically due to free radical theories causing genetic damage, and caloric restriction is being employ…

"I'm surprised many believe this. It seems self-evident that our bodies are well adapted to periods of starvation. Any biology that wasn't so adapted would have been out-competed by those did."

I actually never thought about it from that angle. It seems like it should obviously be true now. Now the question is how true and if nuances exist where our bodies can take it but not optimal in health.

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

#584

Post by kevindeasis »

Most of these haven't become second nature yet, but I'm getting there. The hard part is having momentum and flow. But, generally, my day works out great if I can do all of this in a day.

1) Meditation

2) IFTTT that syncs trello and google calendar

3) Eating Healthier

4) Running

5) ABC: Always be coding

6) Talking to people who are really good at their domain

7) Sleeping: Flux helps

8) App that tracks how much time I spend on websites and apps

9) Pomodoro

10) Reading fiction from a good writer

11) Reading good blog posts

12) Having a lunch with different people

13) Finding people who just started programming who I can help out

14) Not having decision fatigue

I have more, but these are the main one

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

#586

Post by noctuid »

ovatsug25 wrote: post #442
jjzieve wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been a bboy off and on for almost a decade, good to see more people getting into it lately, dancing is the healthiest thing I do by far. Some unsolicited advice, there is more to it than just the moves, you'll enjoy it more/longer if you develop a deep appreciation of the music and culture as well.

Any literature / movies you would recommend for a deeper dive into that? BTW, what do you mean by bboy?

A b-boy is a term for a male breaker. Wikipedia does a pretty good job explaining "breakdancing" and "b-boying":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-boying#Terminology

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

#587

Post by willempienaar »

GFischer wrote: post #367
willempienaar wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a lot of "why doesn't this work" and "why does this work" moments. I knew there were gaps in my understanding, especially when I started developing NodeJS applications. After I read "You don't know JS" I was really kicking myself for going so long without having a fundamental understanding of the language.

Thank you for your recommendation. Do you know if the github repo include the entire content? https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS

Yes, as far as I know the repo includes everything.

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

#588

Post by davelnewton »

barrkel wrote: post #356
davelnewton wrote: post #101

Why are people listing random things they've done instead of what the moment was that led to whatever random thing is listed? Ugh. Edit I've asked a few people to describe their moments instead of just listing what the change was. YMMV, but for me, these are far far more interesting than random lists of things. I may have mis-interpreted the OP's intent, but it sure seems a lot more compelling when you know the catal…

Create a topic for your own question.

I don't have a question; I have an interpretation of the OP's question that may or may not be correct. I took "What was your moment" to mean "tell me about the moment" rather than "tell me what you did".

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

#589

Post by nickpsecurity »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #122

How 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…

This happened to me when I was introduced to the game. I was playing my class, working out different angles. Did a bunch of quests and leveling. A friend eventually asked, "Dude, you realize you've been at this for around 8 hours now?" I thought, "No way!" Sure enough.

So, I thought back on all I did in that time. I noticed the missions were all similar with slight variations. The levels, items, and so on gave me little accomplishments but mostly just changed the numbers or face of the enemy I'd fight. There was also enough time lost to make some real money or do something like apps in the real world. Last time I did MMORPG's.

Closest thing I do these days is Battlefield 4 since it improves my hand-eye coordination, assessment, and adaptation skills as I try new weapons. Plus diverse strategies available for various maps. Keep thinking I need to get back to RTS or TBS games to but I just have a console right now.

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

#590

Post by davelnewton »

barrkel wrote: post #349
davelnewton wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All interesting, but don't really seem to be "the moment".

Where's your moment? Who appointed you guardian of the topic?

Nobody. And nobody has to, either.
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