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Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

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Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#51

Post by jacques_chester »

jc4p wrote: post #16
jacques_chester wrote: post #2

I wrote this answer to a similar question a few months ago: "I'm not dead" probably ranks highly. I am sometimes cast into a tournament against a patient, relentless salesman for death. The problem is, he knows everything about me. Everything. Every thought, every recollection, every secret shame, every regret. Everyone I've ever hurt, how I hurt them, how I let them down, how I failed them. And he can, in a moment o…

For what it's worth, I'm very glad you're alive and thinking about this stuff friend :) I heavily relate to that overwhelming feeling stemming from meta-emotions.

Awww. When are you coming back to NYC, Kasra?

Also: your profile text is hilariously out of date.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#52

Post by cyanoacry »

When I was a little kid, I rented out Apollo 13 almost religiously. Kept watching it, admired the guys in mission control (and the astronauts too, of course).

A little later, in April, I sat in mission control and helped launch a spaceship to the ISS.

Along the way, I realized:

Engineering in the real world is maybe 30% calculations and typical "sciency" work, the other 70% is documentation and communicating to people. The day-to-day in the aerospace industry is way different than the way things are taught at school (from an EE perspective). It's impressive to me how much design happens in everyday back-and-forth conversations, versus the common image of "one guy, hard at work, cranking out equations at his desk".

Being smart isn't enough sometimes -- you need to have discipline as well, and even then, there is a considerable amount of luck in the mix. Getting the timing for a presentation, or a forcing a decision at the right time, can make a huge difference in the success of a program. You kind of have to check all three boxes to max out your success counter: smarts, determination, and luck.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#54

Post by PaulRobinson »

jacques_chester wrote: post #2

I wrote this answer to a similar question a few months ago: "I'm not dead" probably ranks highly. I am sometimes cast into a tournament against a patient, relentless salesman for death. The problem is, he knows everything about me. Everything. Every thought, every recollection, every secret shame, every regret. Everyone I've ever hurt, how I hurt them, how I let them down, how I failed them. And he can, in a moment o…

You should be immensely proud of that. I'm glad you're winning that one, and I hope 2017 is even better for you.

I can relate to it, and just remember that salesman is a fucking arsehole who is trying to cheat you out of some pretty awesome moments.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#56

Post by afarrell »

I wrote a step-by-step tutorial on SaltStack. In the process, I worked through my psychological hang-ups with writing. For as long as I can remember, writing has always made me feel just this terrible anxiety. It made me want to dig my nails into my skin. Throughout high school and university, had come to view writing as this mysterious process. From literary essays to hypothetical military campaign net assessments to design documents to historical arguments, it seemed that I was never able to write anything (other than internet comments) without at least a minor emotional meltdown. As someone who deeply cares about developer experience and good documentation, As someone who believes in the power of well-written text to convey ideas that meaningfully change people's lives--I was ashamed and frustrated and hated myself.

But I had set out at the end of last year to write this tutorial. In starting a task that wasn't assigned to me by someone else, I could control and understand so much more about it: who the audience was, what its scope was, and what even was its point? I had enough of an understanding of the subject that I could grapple with and explain it. I was able to break it down and start to approach it as just...

work.

It worked.

I got into the habit of approaching it like I approached writing code: just a matter of structuring ideas and reflecting on whether they were understandable to people. At the end, I had a working running product that someone could read and follow and learn from.

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#57

Post by coldshower »

joshcanhelp wrote: post #24

Sold a company. I learned A LOT in the process, main one being that you should keep meticulous and separate records for anything that has the chance of being spun off. The company I sold grew out of my freelancing but was separate with a separate name. Unwiring the financials as well as the logins and everything else was a headache. It also looks better to your buyer if you can quickly produce accurate records on sal…

Similarly, I sold the IP of a game I developed: http://tinyurl.com/sale-of-ip

It was hard to let go, but had to because of personal debt. A bit more backstory here: http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=bc7fdf29a4610b493fd5b278...

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#59

Post by [deleted] »

LaSombra wrote: post #30

I landed my dream job 20 years after I decided what and where I wanted. It took me a lot of time. Battling low self-esteem, giving it up for a while, following the wrong path, surviving after being fired for the first and only time. I learned perseverance. Once I set my mind on it and worked around distractions, people and my own mind, I got what I truly wanted and I'm loving and learning every single day.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What was your greatest accomplishment in 2016?

#60

Post by goodJobWalrus »

TheOneTrueKyle wrote: post #23

Created a beer bread recipe blog in the hopes that I get big enough that breweries will send me beer. Last month, a brewery decided to send me beers to "play around with". Mission accomplished.

How much beer are we talking about here? ;)
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