Beg HN: Share some ideas. • Hacker News Board

Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.

#61

Post by rphlx » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 3:28 AM UTC

shykes wrote: post #55

rphlx wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who followed this advice excessively, I have to counter it a bit. Through most of my 20s I lived in the cheapest, shittiest apartment I could find, ate cheap (which in the US means extremely unhealthy) food, rarely went out partying with friends, never went on a vacation, never dated, etc. This kills your network and your health. Frugal is fine, but don't be so freaking cheap that when you're 30, you hate…

> [...] ate cheap (which in the US means extremely unhealthy) food [...] You're doing it wrong. You can cook your own food for dirt cheap and still have a very healthy menu.

There's a huge time cost to preparing your own food from raw ingredients. I agree it's worth it, but it's definitely more expensive than hitting Jack In The Box.

Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.

#62

Post by rphlx » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 3:55 AM UTC

noname123 wrote: post #46

rphlx wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who followed this advice excessively, I have to counter it a bit. Through most of my 20s I lived in the cheapest, shittiest apartment I could find, ate cheap (which in the US means extremely unhealthy) food, rarely went out partying with friends, never went on a vacation, never dated, etc. This kills your network and your health. Frugal is fine, but don't be so freaking cheap that when you're 30, you hate…

I'm curious the specifics that you did in the last 2 years to fix your life. Specifically, how did you transition from your frugal ways to your current living? Expand your network and improve your health? This would be very helpful to the rest of us who are going through the same thing that you have accomplished.

I'm still only a couple weeks into actually fixing it. I've started going to the gym 3-4X/wk, and switched to a clean high protein/low carb diet.

Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.

#63

Post by stoney » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 5:37 AM UTC

hotmind wrote: post #26

My idea for you? Make RandomRunners.com happen. I'll even give you the domain name. The concept is here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1554144

I've often thought about something along these lines - not to run a whole marathon as was originally suggested, more like: "I'm going to run 4 miles after work tonight at an 8:00 min/mi pace, anyone want to join me?"

I definitely think this idea's got legs...

Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.

#64

Post by khandelwal » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 12:46 PM UTC

edw519 wrote: post #10

Here's an idea: get a job. After a year, you'll have plenty of ideas, maybe even one of your own. I hate to rain on anyone's parade, but the thought of begging for ideas in an on-line forum is just so alien to me. The best predictor of your success in any endeavor is your own determination. With someone else's idea, you're much more likely to bail at the first sign of difficulty. Once you get a little real world expe…

To further this, get a job with one of these folks: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1557972

A lot of the jobs posted sound pretty interesting, with interesting problems to solve.

Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.

#65

Post by mynameishere » Fri, Jul 30, 2010, 1:21 PM UTC

Take an existing product and put a clock on it.

Re: Beg HN: Share some ideas.

#66

Post by shykes » Fri, Aug 06, 2010, 11:54 AM UTC

rphlx wrote: post #61

shykes wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [...] ate cheap (which in the US means extremely unhealthy) food [...] You're doing it wrong. You can cook your own food for dirt cheap and still have a very healthy menu.

There's a huge time cost to preparing your own food from raw ingredients. I agree it's worth it, but it's definitely more expensive than hitting Jack In The Box.

There seems to be a misconception in the USA that everything healthy must be fancy. Make rice and lentils, chop a tomato and an onion, fry an egg: congratulations, you just ate a full, healthy meal for less than $2. Time wasted: approximately 10 minutes.

Even better: take turns cooking for the team. 5 people, 20 minutes of work: you're down to 4 wasted minutes per person. That's less than you need to walk to Jack in the box.