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Ask HN: What do you struggle with?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you struggle with?

#291

Post by sp527 »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #201

Everything worth doing and about half of the things that aren't. If I had to pick one thing, it'd be my weight. I've lost 150lbs and have been keeping it off for years. People who've never lost a significant amount of weight (north of 50lbs) probably can't understand what it is like to have to fight your body every day of your life. I have to avoid temptation as much as possible, which means keeping only enough food…

Your caloric intake is dangerously low (assuming you're a dude). That's what's slowing down your metabolism. There's tons of research on this. Also, your goal should be to put on lean mass and reduce your bodyfat percentage (with a goal of keeping it under 15%) - it makes staying in good shape a lot easier.

Re: Ask HN: What do you struggle with?

#292

Post by jamesrcole »

GijsjanB wrote: post #192
mrdependable wrote: post #31

I've been struggling with adulthood ever since turning 30 and starting a family. I have this image in my head of what life after 30 looks like from seeing my parents and all their friends doing basically the same thing as each other. It's not a life I want for myself, but every decision I make pushes me further and further in that direction. My mind has been programmed to think and act in a way that eventually lands…

All the comments applaud the change and to avoid the unavoidable, but isn't the unavoidable a "normal" path almost everybody takes? When you are young, you have all the options. When you're done studying, you realize you choose a path. And the options deminish. Than family life, husband/wife, kids. Now you're options are crushed. You need the income. The kids need the stable home. Of course there are a lot of variati…

> You did nothing wrong, you walked the path, like the rest of us.

Earlier in your comment you say "Of course there are a lot of variations", but then here you treat it as if everyone ("the rest of us") walks that same path. Not everyone does.

Re: Ask HN: What do you struggle with?

#294

Post by ChuckMcM »

madeuptempacct wrote: post #288
ChuckMcM wrote: post #240

I have a very wide area of interests, and doing things takes time. But while I'm doing thing 'A', I think about the fact that I'm making no progress on 'B', 'C', ... 'n' and it distracts me both from thinking as deeply as I need to on thing 'A' and the enjoyment I get from getting something done. So I struggle with letting go of the desire to get everything done that I can imagine would be fun and interesting to do.

Apparently that's a no-no: ... Flint replied, "Well the top 5 are my primary focus, but the other 20 come in at a close second. They are still important so I'll work on those intermittently as I see fit as I'm getting through my top 5. They aren't as urgent, but I still plan to give them a dedicated effort." To which Buffett replied: "No. You've got it wrong, Mike. Everything you didn't circle just became your 'avoid…

Although some contradiction with the 7 habits of successful people (work on important but not urgent things).

That said, I don't disagree with Buffett, but I do struggle with it :-)

Re: Ask HN: What do you struggle with?

#295

Post by jmcgough »

madeuptempacct wrote: post #202
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #201

Everything worth doing and about half of the things that aren't. If I had to pick one thing, it'd be my weight. I've lost 150lbs and have been keeping it off for years. People who've never lost a significant amount of weight (north of 50lbs) probably can't understand what it is like to have to fight your body every day of your life. I have to avoid temptation as much as possible, which means keeping only enough food…

I thought your stomach eventually shrunk and the fat cells died. I.e. re-gaining weight would be easy in the short term, but would eventually get to "normal levels"? And I doubt too many people think it's easy - even losing a couple of pounds is a pain in the ass.

The fat cells never die unless you get liposuction, they just shrink. Your body is primed to regain that weight if your diet or activity level changes.

Re: Ask HN: What do you struggle with?

#296

Post by dovereconomics »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #201

Everything worth doing and about half of the things that aren't. If I had to pick one thing, it'd be my weight. I've lost 150lbs and have been keeping it off for years. People who've never lost a significant amount of weight (north of 50lbs) probably can't understand what it is like to have to fight your body every day of your life. I have to avoid temptation as much as possible, which means keeping only enough food…

I lost 120lbs and for a long time I was in almost the same situation, but I can say I "fixed this problem".

I realized I didn't have a hormonal or even psychiatric issue: I was an addict.

Addicted to sugar, fat, salt in extreme quantities. I would always go from a bowl to a box of cereal.

So I quit it all. Cold turkey. It could "fit my macros", but I took no sugar, no junk food, no snacks.

Only food. Real food.

And I realized it's really hard to become fat on rice, chicken and vegetables. You"d need an insane appetite.

And, after some time, I slowly regained control.

I stopped counting calories, and now I'm happy to say I'm able to eat half a Snickers bar and not crave anything else.

And I'm fit! Happy eating, keeping a bit of muscle and a low body fat =)

Re: Ask HN: What do you struggle with?

#297

Post by jmts »

throwaway82729 wrote: post #261
ChuckMcM wrote: post #240

I have a very wide area of interests, and doing things takes time. But while I'm doing thing 'A', I think about the fact that I'm making no progress on 'B', 'C', ... 'n' and it distracts me both from thinking as deeply as I need to on thing 'A' and the enjoyment I get from getting something done. So I struggle with letting go of the desire to get everything done that I can imagine would be fun and interesting to do.

+1000. I have too many interests and cannot focus on one thing. Lack of a strong hobby (except computers) in my childhood could be a reason for it.

I have found it somewhat useful to write all the things I want to do somewhere that I trust, and select a few of them to work on right now that I am either most interested in, or feel will give me the greatest benefit in the future. I give myself permission to shuffle those projects as necessary, by try to limit them to just a couple at a time so they don't become unmanageable.

I have huge lists of ideas for projects (everything from designing my own index cards, to a ridiculous idea for demonstrating the curvature of the earth), lists of books that I want to read, lists of lists of books that I might find interesting, lists of music to listen to, and smaller lists of things like places to go, things to see, and skills to learn.

By keeping track of the things outside my head, it seems to declutter my everyday thoughts and I can focus on doing meaningful work on the few things I choose to work on right now. Obviously projects and reading are two things that are important to me, so I try to do a bit of each every day when possible. It doesn't always work, but it works better than when I had no such system.

Re: Ask HN: What do you struggle with?

#298

Post by aj7 »

throwaway82729 wrote: post #261
ChuckMcM wrote: post #240

I have a very wide area of interests, and doing things takes time. But while I'm doing thing 'A', I think about the fact that I'm making no progress on 'B', 'C', ... 'n' and it distracts me both from thinking as deeply as I need to on thing 'A' and the enjoyment I get from getting something done. So I struggle with letting go of the desire to get everything done that I can imagine would be fun and interesting to do.

+1000. I have too many interests and cannot focus on one thing. Lack of a strong hobby (except computers) in my childhood could be a reason for it.

Me too. Thank god I’m retired.

Re: Ask HN: What do you struggle with?

#299

Post by TallGuyShort »

Tade0 wrote: post #246

I might have lost a second friend to suicide even though the last time this happened I promised myself that I would do something before it's too late. Problem is I have no way of knowing for sure, because the only means of contact I had with him was through facebook and his account is currently gone. He's been openly contemplating taking his life for a year now or so. Normally whenever he did this I would try to be t…

>> I would do something before it's too late >> apparently that was to little, to late

You can't take that all on yourself. The way people reach out is a factor in suicide but it's absolutely not the only one. I hope you find out what happened to your friend and that it was nothing too final, but please don't make the mistake of carrying that burden. It would be as big a mistake for you to do that as it would've been for your friend to feel like death was the only way to deal with their problems.

Re: Ask HN: What do you struggle with?

#300

Post by jmcgough »

Mizza wrote: post #269
legohead wrote: post #219

I don't like the new way of doing things. Kubernetes, node, react, terraform... Everything is more complicated and also more fragile. I feel like the software world is collectively mad and I'm sitting on the outside asking "wtf is going on?" Or maybe I'm the crazy one.

So much of this. React is like one step forwards, 10 steps backwards. Mixing markup and logic, adding a whole front-end compiler, needing imports from third parties to re-implement basic browser functionality - for what? So that users have to see a loading spinner and their back button doesn't work any more? I'm 90% sure it's an accidental conspiracy to keep front end developer salaries high. Talking to older heads,…

React is most useful if you have really complex state that you're trying to manage and reason about. It's probably overused because people who don't need it are just doing whatever's trendy without understanding trade-offs, but it's a godsend for UIs that need hundreds of components, persistent state, etc. IMO people often add Redux to it before a project really needs it.

There's no need to mix markup and logic, a good pattern is to have dumb components that just translate state into markup, and keep your logic elsewhere.

Modern javascript (and typescript) is a joy to program in and has greatly improved my productivity. Having to compile it with babel is a small price to pay.

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