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Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

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

#681

Post by kkcorps »

polytely wrote: post #651
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…

My best advice about writer's block is: the reason you're having a hard time writing is because of a conflict between the GOAL of writing well and the FEAR of writing badly. By default, our instinct is to conquer the fear, but our feelings are much, much, less within our control than the goals we set, and since it's the conflict BETWEEN the two forces blocking you, if you simply change your goal from "writing well" t…

This one is absolutely genius.

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

#682

Post by astura »

darkerside wrote: post #393
afpx wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My life experiences don't match your mental model, sadly. Maybe it has to do with where and how one grows up? For example, I know with certainty that my parents, teachers, and first bosses were enemies. A lot of people on HN seem to have grown up in safe, nurturing, loving environments. But, remember that most of the world's people didn't. I don't mean to call you out - just saying that I would love to have had your…

Most people grew up with parents who love them. They might not know how to show it, and I'm sure there are exceptions, but love for offspring is about as close as it gets to universal human experience. Parents may not express that love all the time, and may even harm their children in spite of it. And they will probably hate themselves after the fact for it. I was oversimplifying, of course. You can certainly end up…

You and I are clearly living in two completely different worlds.

I estimate at least 20% of parents don't love their children, based on my personal experience and observations.

Even if terrible parents who do terrible things actually love their children, it is not like it actually matters. If someone, for example, molests you because they love you, molests you because they hate you, or molests you because they don't have any particular emotion towards you. You still are molested.

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

#683

Post by tim333 »

throwaway7281 wrote: post #301
el_dev_hell wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean this sincerely: WTF does that mean? Mass murder is the opposite to technology?

Germans learn about the history of the Third Reich in detail and I always asked myself: how could this happen? Smart, hard-working, intelligent, compassionate, literate people start to plan industrial murder of millions of people on the basis of what exactly? Now, here's the thing. Progress is not that shiny guiding light. It is an extreme force, especially a force to control things, especially nature. The Third Reic…

Bad though that was, massacres and genocides go back millenia and went on without much tech involved. eg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocides_in_history#Neanderth..., Pinker's stuff, the book Demonic Males on how chimps do it

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

#684

Post by pusiko »

jimmySixDOF wrote: post #616
pusiko wrote: post #564

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If at first you don't succeed, try two more times so that your failure is "statistically significant"

or: If at first you don't succeed, Sky Diving is not for you.

In that case it's still statistically significant ;)

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

#685

Post by chrisshroba »

mam2 wrote: post #624
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.

where was the french in this ?

Just an idiom :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon_my_French

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

#687

Post by vestrigi »

jjice wrote: post #160

Ignorance can be bliss. Didn't change my life, but has definitely helped me in a lot of cases, especially recent times. Generally speaking, I can't affect what is currently happening in the news, despite how upsetting it might be, and it won't even affect me in a lot of cases. I try to consume little information for things I don't care about or will have a negative effect on me as a way to spare myself from anxiety.…

I would argue that it should only be done if you know it makes you significantly more unhappy. If everyone would abstain from the news, no one would be held responsible for anything. While I agree that most of the news are not for me, the small percentage that alarms me and makes me go research and talk about issues is worth it. I can never know what might be concerning to me outside of my interest bubble.

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

#688

Post by JoeAltmaier »

hartleybrody wrote: post #680

Jeff Bezos has a great interview where he talks about his decision to leave his cushy Wall Street job and start a website selling books. He talks about how he used a "regret minimization framework" where he projects himself into the future and imagines which decision he would regret the least. I have used this technique multiple times myself to help with otherwise fraught or overwhelming decisions, and I think it's a…

As a trick for solving a single problem, ok sure. That sounds like chess, where a failure loses the game. Not the same risk of failure in life decisions (well, skydiving maybe). To minimize later regret sounds terribly hesitant, cautious and small.

So many other ways to organize your life: joy maximization is one for instance. There's the money thing. And character should come in there someplace, not just utilitarian nonsense.

Einstein(?) said it this way: "When I want to make a decision, I flip a coin. If I'm disappointed in the outcome then I know I wanted the other choice." Sounds about like the same thing (only a century earlier)

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

#689

Post by JoeAltmaier »

idkwhoiam wrote: post #643
k4ch0w wrote: post #599

No one is thinking about you. That stupid thing you said in the meeting, the thing you did in middle school, that pimple on your face that feels huge. It's entirely in our mind and everyone else is too focused on themselves to ever see or think about the silly things you're embarassed about.

>No one is thinking about you That hurts

...and it also helps, when you get out the other end of the ego tunnel. Lets you be truer, and freer.

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

#690

Post by JoeAltmaier »

dorkwood wrote: post #6

Nick Cave, on writer's block: "My advice to you is to change your basic relationship to songwriting. You are not the ‘Great Creator’ of your songs, you are simply their servant, and the songs will come to you when you have adequately prepared yourself to receive them. They are not inside you, unable to get out; rather, they are outside of you, unable to get in." https://www.theredhandfiles.com/do-u-have-any-spare-lyr…

Either way, he's amazing. So few can get to the point that the songs come to them. Celebrate him for that, then.
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