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Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

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Re: Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

#161

Post by mercutio2 »

makerofspoons wrote: post #96

It is shocking how much of this advice assumes that the world will be a similar place even a few years from now. There is a constant set of themes, for each of the years I scanned but especially my age which is 23, to travel, invest for the future, and start businesses and I am increasingly skeptical of each. I am just starting out, and I am here because I used to think that my future involved travel and startups, bu…

When I was your age, and extremely worried about climate change, I went to live on an ecovillage with like minded people trying to demonstrate a lower-impact lifestyle.

It was terrific, highly recommended! You might find visiting a few to be a satisfying way to connect with likeminded folks.

The one I lived on was a secular, rural-US community with at the time pretty intense covenants [0] but there are lots, with widely varying beliefs.

[0] http://dancingrabbit.org/

Re: Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

#162

Post by thisiszilff »

extrememacaroni wrote: post #122
makerofspoons wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair enough, but tourism is estimated to account for a tenth of global carbon emissions which is not insignificant: https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/tourism-climate-ch... People have been espousing that we are doomed for decades, but many of them were actually right: we have not meaningfully deviated from the predictions made by the 1972 report The Limits of Growth ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Limits_…

The thing about pessimism is that it's a very attractive mindset for people who don't like to think all that much, but want to have answers. It's also the mindset for people who stagnate and adopt a defeatist attitude. It's also an extremist mindset, that closes itself away from other options and is fueled constantly by more pessimistic thoughts. It's also a mindset that can quickly lead to depression, due to the con…

On the other hand the human life & culture we've developed might not give us a "realistic" means for dealing with the environment and climate change. Reread what you've written and look at it from the perspective of someone concerned about climate change, whose read the reports that we're likely to see effects of it within our lifetimes, and who lives in a world where the response to a progressively worsening disaster is ranges from "not my problem", "don't be so negative", to "what can we do?".

Young people today are born into a world with a considerable amount of inertia leading it to a not so happy place. The evidence points to this not being just pessimism, but a reality they will have to face and deal with in their lifetimes. Rising sea levels, political instability as once habitable and arable land become inhabitable and barren, increasingly sever weather, etc. Pessimism and optimism in this case refers to how severe these problems will be and whether we can either put them off or mitigate the consequences, not whether or not they are happening.

Re: Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

#163

Post by [deleted] »

kart23 wrote: post #106
brightball wrote: post #37

IMO the most valuable sections are always going to be Unfortunately, the hard thing is that when you're It's a paradox.

I'm 18 lol, super confused and trying to gain something from older people. However, they always seem to say the same thing, and it's mostly just common sense, along the lines of stay in school and work harder. I guess I could say the same about my high school years, but I feel like I've heard the advice on this site a thousand times over.

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

#166

Post by imtringued »

jmts wrote: post #152
SketchySeaBeast wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’m not sure how I will best incorporate this advice into my life. Don't go bald.

Realise that the advice is nonsense and baldness has no meaningful impact on your life. Go bald and be happy.

So the advice is don't listen people who post on HeyFromTheFuture? It doesn't surprise me but it's self defeating.

Re: Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

#167

Post by derangedHorse »

patatino wrote: post #2

I like the idea, some thoughts.. Every year seems a little much? Maybe at young age, but 21/22/23 doesn't really make that much of a difference, or even 40/45 The advice should be written for the perspective of the reader not the writer: "Hey 13 year old, don't stop learning how to play piano" How would that help a 13 year old? Something like "Hey 13 year old, I stopped playing the piano at your age and now I'm regre…

I disagree. Having a targeted age makes the platform feel more relatable to where I am in life as opposed to general advice that can be applied to a whole age group.

Re: Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

#168

Post by explainplease »

makerofspoons wrote: post #105
extrememacaroni wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't sound like you're enjoying anything.

I'm not. I'm still grieving. I think most people when they realize the extent of climate change, soil depletion, and ocean acidification will have to go through some stage of grief before they can accept the future they thought they had is going to be cut short.

Good grief, you've been completely brainwashed by the media. Grieving? Over dirt?

The climate has always been in a state of flux. For as far back as e.g. ice core records can show, the temperature and weather and atmospheric gas concentrations have gone up and down and all over the place, for millions of years.

Despite that, here we are, supposedly at the highest point yet demonstrated of intelligent civilization, our species having overcome all of it--and there are members of said species like yourself, who are acting completely irrationally, against all historical evidence.

If our ancestors thought like you, they'd have all frozen to death in caves, and we wouldn't even exist. "Hey, Ug, baby, wanna start a fire and get it on?" "Nah, I'm grieving cause the wooly mammoth outside sneezed and blew some dirt into the lake. We're all gonna die anyway, so why bother having kids? Might as well go ahead and freeze to death now here in this cave."

Get a hold of yourself, before it's too late for you to make use of the limited years you have on this planet. Tomorrow isn't promised to anyone.

Seriously, now, you might actually be clinically depressed. It's very hard to think rationally or overcome irrational feelings when depressed. You're on the Internet, so google up the signs of clinical depression. If any of them apply to you, go get some help from someone trained to provide it. There's no need to suffer helplessly when we have tools available to help. Do something now, because no one else can truly help you until you decide to start helping yourself.

Re: Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

#169

Post by makerofspoons »

explainplease wrote: post #168
makerofspoons wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not. I'm still grieving. I think most people when they realize the extent of climate change, soil depletion, and ocean acidification will have to go through some stage of grief before they can accept the future they thought they had is going to be cut short.

Good grief, you've been completely brainwashed by the media. Grieving ? Over dirt ? The climate has always been in a state of flux. For as far back as e.g. ice core records can show, the temperature and weather and atmospheric gas concentrations have gone up and down and all over the place, for millions of years. Despite that, here we are, supposedly at the highest point yet demonstrated of intelligent civilization,…

You know, you're right and I made an appointment with a doctor yesterday evening.

Re: Show HN: HeyFromTheFuture – Advice people wish they had at your age

#170

Post by explainplease »

makerofspoons wrote: post #169
explainplease wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good grief, you've been completely brainwashed by the media. Grieving ? Over dirt ? The climate has always been in a state of flux. For as far back as e.g. ice core records can show, the temperature and weather and atmospheric gas concentrations have gone up and down and all over the place, for millions of years. Despite that, here we are, supposedly at the highest point yet demonstrated of intelligent civilization,…

You know, you're right and I made an appointment with a doctor yesterday evening.

Great, best wishes to you. The best practical advice I can give is, again, that no one can--or will--help you more than you help yourself. Also, look for medium- and long-term patterns. It's easy to be in a short episode and feel like it's permanent. When you recognize that it's okay to feel down for a while, that there are natural ups and downs, and that you will feel better soon, it's easier to handle, and that makes it last a shorter time and raises the "floor" of the experience, so to speak.
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