Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

531–540 of 839 posts

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#531

Post by _0ffh »

evanmoran wrote: post #528
devin wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was learning to play the game Go, someone told me that there's some old advice about "losing your first 100 games as quickly as possible". That's stuck with me. Another one is (and I don't even know if it's 100% true, but I don't much care) that a common housefly will change its path if it runs into a window more than twice. I strive to be better than a common house fly.

Sometimes I wonder if failing twice is an optimal evolutionary state. Once is not enough to know if it’s worth changing for.

Yeah, as a kid this is what always bugged me about Wile E. Coyote.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#533

Post by lappet »

throwaway7281 wrote: post #283

As a German, the idea that mass murder and high tech are different sides of the same coin has shaped my world view forever (after reading Dialectic of Enlightenment and On the Critique of Instrumental Reason). Horkheimer red-pilled me on our western societies and I'm grateful for it.

Can you elaborate why high tech is similar to mass murder? I don't always embrace tech but I see tech as a tool that can function differently based on who is using it

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#534

Post by vehementi »

daniel-thompson wrote: post #361

Actor-observer asymmetry. Briefly, it's the idea that when we observe others, we're more likely to attribute their behavior to the nature of their personality than to their circumstances or situation, and that we do the opposite when judging our own behavior. Example: You drive your car faster than the speed limit. You're probably doing it because you feel like you have a reasonable need (you're late for something, e…

When I commit the fundamental attribution error it's just because I'm distracted, but when others do it's because they're lazy idiots

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#535

Post by kd5bjo »

wayne_skylar wrote: post #498
endymi0n wrote: post #150

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot o…

I think the problem I have is that I don't understand how to get good at something that I have good taste in. Of everything that I've been able to learn I've always had some sort of pleasure in the doing. I enjoyed my C++ assignments in college. I've enjoyed learning the basics of woodworking. I love art and would love to learn to paint or draw but I can't figure out how to enjoy the small victories there. It's not a…

I’ve found that I need to alternate between two kinds of practice within a session: Pushing my limits with no real expectation of success is where I actually learn things, but is demotivating. I also need an easier task that I’m confident that I can succeed at, where I can just get into a flow state and perform.

I’ve never tackled drawing, but if I did, I would probably pick some simple object and sketch it at the end of every practice session. By drawing the same object over and over again, you’ll notice it getting easier and better over time, and you’ll build a ritual around drawing that feels familiar and comfortable.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#536

Post by jerzyt »

teraflop wrote: post #170
endymi0n wrote: post #150

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot o…

"Dude, sucking at something is the first step towards being sorta good at something." -- Jake the Dog

There are so many people who don't mind being stuck at "sucking at something" it's outright scary. I'm currently learning Python, and very frequently I feel that my solution is not elegant, and I hate it. I imagine a lot of people would just go along with it. Maybe not on HN, but in general.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#537

Post by _0ffh »

lez wrote: post #431
groby_b wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assume good intent until proven otherwise . Because there are plenty of people who'll repeatedly treat you like shit, and then continue to demand you assume good intent. To which I say, pardon my french, fuck that noise. People are entitled to the benefit of doubt only as long as there can be doubt. Once that is gone, act accordingly.

Absolutely! But corporations can also treat you like shit. When they do, try to ditch them. Well, that is a challenge.

Yes, definitely a problem, specially in markets where there are only a small hand full of players. At my place, internet providers come to mind. They all suck immensely, but you know the competition is approximately equally shitty.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#538

Post by adamredwoods »

Seek content-ness, not happiness. Happiness comes later.

In my early-twenties, I kept thinking that I always wanted happiness, and if I wasn't then something was wrong. I later realized that it was the pursuit of something that I could never attain that was draining and I realized that was the wrong path. I cannot attain perfection. So I decided to look for a better life-path that I could sustain, feel comfortable, and be content for long periods of time. Happiness comes later, naturally almost. It comes in small packets sometimes. Sometimes I don't even notice.

It's a concept that I read once in Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, where the grandmother did not want to go into this box and see the world, because if she saw things she wanted but couldn't attain, she'd be unhappier than she currently was. This concept can be explained further with the parable of the fisherman and the businessman. I also think this is one of the ideas behind the movie "Mr. Holland's Opus", which took me years to understand.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#539

Post by areweforreal »

"Find an excuse to win"

I had an attitude of quitting early or pausing on the first obstacle I faced. I used to think of it as "This is not my area of expertise" or "Let me wait for other person to confirm this" or "This is too hard, let me give myself some time" etc.

Unknowingly, I used to look out for excuses to no give my 100%.

Somewhere I read this quote, and that's where I realized the stark difference of mentality I had. From then on, it's really changed my life for good.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#540

Post by silveroriole »

aazaa wrote: post #193

Favor interrogative-led questions over leading questions. A leading question attempts to get the listener to agree or disagree with a premise you feed to them. An interrogative-led question often begins with the words: who; where; what; when; why. Imagine the responses to these two questions: - "Did you like the movie?" (Leading) - "What did you think about the movie?" (Interrogative-led) How do each of these questio…

I assume people are meant to find the second question easier to answer? But I don’t know why. The first gives you some vital information for pulling this interaction off successfully. It tells you the speaker liked the movie (or hated it, depending on tone of voice), so you’d better think about how vehemently you want to disagree with them. The second sounds like a trap! If you say “boy, it sucked!” and the speaker loved it, they might not like that! It only works if you trust the speaker to be some kind of enlightened being who never gets offended. If I didn’t know the speaker well, I’d be tempted to give a really wishy-washy non-answer to the second question.
Post reply on HN