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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

#711

Post by Pamar »

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 am doing this, YMMV: I started drawing exactly 1 quick sketch (mostly human figures, taken from https://line-of-action.com/) a day. EVERY DAY.

After 30-40 days of this I started putting the results on Instagram. I had an Instagram account for maybe five years, only to follow friends there, never posted on it. I kept drawing and publishing at least one piece a day, every day, from April to December. In some cases (e.g. I went away for a holiday) I either took drawing stuff with me or built up a bit of "buffer" before the trip in order to keep posting regularly.

Now it is a bit over a year since I started, I post at least once every two days, actually more like once every 1.3/1.5 days...

I do believe I am improving, and anyway I am enjoying this immensely. I do not know if for you the publishing part may act as an incentive or you maybe feel intimidated by this. So try just drawing without publishing for at least one month, possibly daily.

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

#713

Post by lonelappde »

freepor wrote: post #416
ken wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear suggestions like this occasionally, and I don't get it. Apparently sentences like "Did you like the movie?", which sound to me like perfectly neutral questions, actually have a slant. Which way is this question leading me to answer? How can I tell? "Yes" and "No" seem equally acceptable answers here. I don't see how either one would "displease the asker", without knowing more about the situation.

The problem with the question is that it reduces an infinite dimensional space (all the things you could have thought about the movie) into a single scalar value. Your mind is likely to be preoccupied with performing that projection which is fundamentally uninteresting. It’s like asking “Is the pharmaceutical industry good or bad?” vs. “How should the pharmaceutical industry participate in society over the next 20 ye…

It's ok to ask follow-up Why questions.

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

#714

Post by mmazing »

nstart wrote: post #575

From my father: No matter how correct you are, you won't get anywhere by making the other person feel stupid. He gave me this after we went together to a conference on communication and I found the presenter to be making some rather doubtful statements. I asked questions and tried to break the presenter in the QnA session and when I didn't get what I wanted, I left. I was 15 at the time. So, I forgive myself but stil…

I struggle with this a lot, and am super aware that I do this. It's NEVER my intention to make someone feel stupid, but I think the way I say things comes across that way.

I have a hard time correcting it, or even knowing what / how to say things differently upon reflection.

My current iteration of figuring this out is maybe things I think are important to criticize (or give my 2 cents on) aren't as important as I think they are.

It's tough.

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

#715

Post by BitwiseFool »

JadeNB wrote: post #90
BitwiseFool wrote: post #28

“The universe is a cruel, uncaring void. The key to being happy isn't a search for meaning. It's to just keep yourself busy with unimportant nonsense, and eventually, you'll be dead.” Thanks Mr.Peanutbutter

I guess that the bleakness is the point, but I prefer a more optimistic spin on the same thing: the key to happiness isn't a search for meaning, because the universe has none to offer. It is the creation of meaning for yourself—what you do has the importance you attach to it, neither more nor less.

That's exactly what I took from it too.

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

#716

Post by maerF0x0 »

vmception wrote: post #215
maerF0x0 wrote: post #19

Compounding, growth etc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O133ppiVnWY Taught me the logical impossibility of the stock market to go up by x% per year, forever. Taught me that getting better today (however small) can give resources to getting better(er?) tomorrow. Taught me that many "experts" just say whatever to get voted in or to get a budget without regards to the absurdity of their own statements, and that many peo…

I want to point out the primary indices like the Nasdaq and S&P500 kick out poorly performing companies. So they very well could go up x% per year if their managers felt like it. It doesn't really bound to the marketcap of its components, just their relative marketcap amongst each other.

If you assume we've only tapped 10% of the planet's economic capacity (raw materials, energy, human support capacity) then we're only about 30 yrs from exhausting this planet. To continue doubling we'll need a new _a new earth_ every 12 years to continue it's growth rate.

This is the point of the video, that when you're consuming a finite resource, you cannot have infinite growth and when you're 1 doubling away from complete exhaustion you'll only have consumed about 50% of those resources ... if doublings are 12 years apart that means the span between rapid growth and halted growth could be as small at 12 years.

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

#717

Post by iansowinski »

Realizing that time speeds up for us when we grow up. Maybe this sounds obvious and silly, but thinking not only how short life is, but also how faster and faster it passes by gives you something. (I had to pick one idea though!).

Here some article: https://qz.com/1516804/physics-explains-why-time-passes-fast...

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

#718

Post by renjimen »

ct520 wrote: post #489

You CAN have your cake and eat it too.

Fun note: it's one of these proverbs that people know the context for but not many (at least, not me until recently) really understands why it means what it does. Apparently it's because the old English usage of "have" included to keep/retain something, so it goes that you can't simultaneously eat your cake and keep it for later.

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

#719

Post by maerF0x0 »

abetusk wrote: post #214
maerF0x0 wrote: post #19

Compounding, growth etc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O133ppiVnWY Taught me the logical impossibility of the stock market to go up by x% per year, forever. Taught me that getting better today (however small) can give resources to getting better(er?) tomorrow. Taught me that many "experts" just say whatever to get voted in or to get a budget without regards to the absurdity of their own statements, and that many peo…

For me, this type of thinking does the exact opposite in that it has a chilling effect on finding solutions and correctly assessing reality. While some of what Al Bartlett says is true, that unfettered exponential growth can't go on forever, other statements are misleading or outright false. He has a soapbox about limiting population growth now (in the US) [0], tied in to concepts of peak oil and other "dark green" t…

I agree that the limits maybe inconceivably high from here. But disagree they'll always grow. When populations are doubling you'll only at 50% before you're 1 doubling away from collapse / exhaustion.

>That means, at US levels of consumption, the ceiling on just using the sun for our energy needs is 23 trillion people. The earth's population is 7.6 billion now. Even taking Bartlett's estimate of population doubling every 40 years, that's over 400 years of growth.

I think we're starting to see the that the current limiting factor is not the inputs on earth's energy balance, but on the outflows. If we do not reflect a good portion of that energy, but instead utilise it (w/ a good portion being converted to heat) we'll eventually cook ourselves.

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

#720

Post by renjimen »

Pamar wrote: post #711
wayne_skylar wrote: post #498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 am doing this, YMMV: I started drawing exactly 1 quick sketch (mostly human figures, taken from https://line-of-action.com/ ) a day. EVERY DAY. After 30-40 days of this I started putting the results on Instagram. I had an Instagram account for maybe five years, only to follow friends there, never posted on it. I kept drawing and publishing at least one piece a day, every day, from April to December. In some cases (…

Would you mind sharing your Instagram? I'd love to see your progress - I'm sure it would be inspiring for others to follow your lead (even if you're not quite Picasso yet)
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