Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#251

Post by beenthere » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 5:36 PM UTC

plinkplonk wrote: post #183

Get admitted to a PhD in CS at Stanford next cycle. Bottleneck: At my age and with no formal education in CS and poor academic records, getting an admission is next to impossible by conventional wisdom. But the challenge is what makes it interesting :-). PS: If anyone has any data/anecdotes/advice on "impossible" PhD admissions, I'd be glad to hear it (either here or my email is in the profile).

I will send you mail once I reach home. Directly Stanford PhD would be difficult maybe you can get an MS from a second tier college and then go for a PhD. Anyway it would be interesting to talk

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#252

Post by gcheong » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 5:37 PM UTC

clistctrl wrote: post #55

Contemplating how to ask a girlfriend of 2 years how to take it to the next step when her view has been soured by a late parental divorce.

I was with my wife for 14 years before we got married. No need to rush it ;^).

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#253

Post by nooneelse » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 5:38 PM UTC

lkozma wrote: post #74

Learn every juggling trick I have seen, heared of or imagined. Roadblock: balls keep falling. EDIT: current status (as of yesterday): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lsuO0tQZaU

> Roadblock: balls keep falling.

Perhaps a powerful fan pointed upward could slow them down a bit.

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#254

Post by plinkplonk » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 5:39 PM UTC

beenthere wrote: post #251

plinkplonk wrote: post #183

Get admitted to a PhD in CS at Stanford next cycle. Bottleneck: At my age and with no formal education in CS and poor academic records, getting an admission is next to impossible by conventional wisdom. But the challenge is what makes it interesting :-). PS: If anyone has any data/anecdotes/advice on "impossible" PhD admissions, I'd be glad to hear it (either here or my email is in the profile).

I will send you mail once I reach home. Directly Stanford PhD would be difficult maybe you can get an MS from a second tier college and then go for a PhD. Anyway it would be interesting to talk

Thank You. All help/advice appreciated. It is the middle of the night here (India). So I'll probably reply when I wake up.

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#255

Post by Ardit20 » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 5:39 PM UTC

To write a novel.

Bottleneck: Lack of discipline, perhaps also lack of life experience to make it truly meaningful and classic and maybe also lack of other softer skills such as how to convey in writing different accents or manners of speaking of different people.

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#256

Post by JayNeely » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 5:41 PM UTC

aaronbrethorst wrote: post #247

Publish a book (like on dead trees). The biggest roadblock for me so far is just having time to execute on it. I have friends who have published books through ORA, so I'm not too concerned about getting proper introductions to people in the tech publishing world; I just don't know if I have the time to sit down and bang out 200 pages of quality material.

Try joining NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month): http://nanowrimo.org

It's a world-wide one-month novel writing sprint, meant to solve the "one day" novel problem ("One day, I'll write a novel"). Though the focus is on novel writing, there's nothing to stop you from working on a non-fiction book.

The in-person write-ins, online community available for short word-count sprints, and other community-momentum / encouragement benefits can be a huge help to anyone who "wants" to find the time to write, but somehow hasn't yet been able to. Single moms with a job succeed at this. You can too!

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#257

Post by siculars » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 5:43 PM UTC

not exactly a life goal , but my next personal goal is to get my padi divemasters certification.

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#258

Post by Psyonic » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 5:44 PM UTC

Concours wrote: post #113

turning my ventures profitable enough to do whatever I want, whenever and wherever I want. Then do a couple of Kids. If I could just find out how to do tweens, priceless. Bottleneck: have two kids at once, and gain some 2 years (time between first and second kid)

Solution: Two mothers.

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#259

Post by SandB0x » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 5:45 PM UTC

lkozma wrote: post #74

Learn every juggling trick I have seen, heared of or imagined. Roadblock: balls keep falling. EDIT: current status (as of yesterday): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lsuO0tQZaU

Practise standing over a bed or a couch. This greatly speeds up the ball recovery process, allowing you to iterate faster with far less frustration!

Re: Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently?

#260

Post by JayNeely » Thu, Jul 08, 2010, 5:46 PM UTC

Ardit20 wrote: post #255

To write a novel. Bottleneck: Lack of discipline, perhaps also lack of life experience to make it truly meaningful and classic and maybe also lack of other softer skills such as how to convey in writing different accents or manners of speaking of different people.

Just recommended NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in another thread.: http://nanowrimo.org

It's a world-wide one-month novel writing sprint, meant to solve the "one day" novel problem ("One day, I'll write a novel"). The in-person write-ins, online community available for short word-count sprints, and other community-momentum / encouragement benefits can be a huge help to anyone who "wants" to find the time to write, but somehow hasn't yet been able to.

Their forums are filled with great advice on how to improve dialogue, convey more realistic characters, etc.