Winning the lottery of life, being born in Australia after world war 2 where everyone born is in the global top 1%.
Same for US, Japan, Germany, UK, and France
Canada, New Zealand, Singapore
Ask HN: What are you thankful for?
241–250 of 304 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are you thankful for?
#242The stability my job provides me. Pays about twice what I need & that gap provides a lot of options & peace of mind.
Re: Ask HN: What are you thankful for?
#243Been grateful to have found job in another country and ditched toxic friendships and people from my born-city. Wages are 3-4x higher than what IT pays in my country, so I could afford to be stable and have a family, something now millennials are struggling for.
I am thankful to myself for having also deleted my Facebook account, removing also the above toxic relationships further.
Re: Ask HN: What are you thankful for?
#244I’m thankful for the heart donor who saved my newborn daughter’s life last week. My daughter contracted Coxsackie B enterovirus at 2 weeks old, and it scarred her left ventricle beyond repair. Her donor has given her a second chance. Another family had to make a heartbreaking choice at a devastating moment, and they chose to give life to my daughter and probably several other gravely ill infants. Check your organ don…
I opted out of organ donation in a country which enables it by default. Looking at it from an evolutionary point of view, I don't see any good in it, sorry.
Confused. You think organ donation is bad because it saves lives that should end for the sake of...maybe a slightly stronger species? Do you disagree with the practice of medicine in general or something?
Re: Ask HN: What are you thankful for?
#245Despite 12 years of terrible grades, due to an education system that simply didn't fit, which pretty much banned me from engineering or computer science in university, I still managed to find a different route into software engineering. I love it. It challenges me every day. It is exciting and engaging and fun. I've found self-drive and motivation without the need for medication anymore. And because of it my family g…
I relate to this a lot. I managed a six figure career as a software engineer with bad school grades and no college.
Re: Ask HN: What are you thankful for?
#246My kid. A daily blessing.
Re: Ask HN: What are you thankful for?
#247I am thankful for having been born at the end of the 70s, just at the right time. Had I been born substantially earlier, I probably would not have survivesd as I started into this world with a tumor in both eyes which was treated with a ton of radiation when I was still an infant. Technology was already advanced, but not "too much". I was lucky enough to experience the newsgroup era on the internet, a time when peopl…
I have light asthma and I think of the timing of my arrival in this world at times too. Had I been born a few hundred years earlier, I probably would not have survived as I had to do a lot of physical hard work which I can't always.
Re: Ask HN: What are you thankful for?
#248Thankful to grow up in country where hospitals are free(I have never needed medical attention but close family members) and higher-education is paid for so I could study for 6 years without stressing about money.
Bangladesh!
Re: Ask HN: What are you thankful for?
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
> That's amazing! I'm super happy for you and your family! > Your comment gave me pause because it reminded me that it is opt-in not opt-out. It is an election cycle, I wonder if we could convince one of the candidates to switch us to opt-out rather than opt-in for organ donation. While I am personally an organ donor, I don't believe the state should be the defacto owner of my organs post mortem.
I've heard a proposal for a alternative to opt-in and opt-out which is 'forced choice' How it works is a form to do some other thing (for example, get a driving license) has a checkbox to donate and one to not donate, and the form is rejected as incomplete if you don't choose one or the other. This of course means you don't have to apply a default to those people, because they've made an explicit choice already. Of c…
An idea - this binary choice can be attached to combination of reaching adulthood (18 or similar) and combination of obtaining state ID / passport.
For younger, parents can choose. If somebody wants to argue about teens, they can decide themselves / be not-decided by their choice until reaching adulthood.
Re: Ask HN: What are you thankful for?
#250I'm thankful to live in a country that respects my basic human rights. Having met those less fortunate, I've realized I've taken this for granted way too long. Birth is the greatest randomizer to your life.
which country?