If you have to make an important proposal, get it on really nice paper. Go to the print shop and ask what they can do - it's amazing what $15 gets you in terms of wow factor.
Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?
91–100 of 187 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?
#92I've got a lot of mileage out of this Employment Hack:
Treat your job as an unimportant thing that's easily replaced, as opposed to your Career that's Important and Fragile and something that you should never ever mess with for worry of ruining your entire life.
If you're not sweating your Career, you're more likely to do silly things like take too much vacation, even long sabbaticals. You're more likely to stand up to silly policies in your Big Company and even find ways to work them to your advantage. If things start going downhill, you'll be more likely to simply bail and go find someplace better.
But if you get into this space where you worry that you're going to be laid off at the first little screwup, and that will mean you have to move into a cardboard box and ask for spare change at the offramp, you're only going to get deeper and deeper into that space until you're stuck. And you're going to cling to your crappy job as though life depended on it while they keep treating you worse and worse.
I have thoroughly employable friends in their 30s who live in constant fear of being laid off, and it's ruining their lives. And I have the example of myself, who didn't sweat it too much, spent the better part of his 30s on the beach with a laptop, and seemingly landed on his feet, more employable than ever.
It's just a job. Try not to give it too much importance.
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?
#93#1.
What if a simple mental exercise could improve your memory and intelligence?
http://brainworkshop.sourceforge.net/
#2. Dual N-Back Community [ lot of tips: Dual N-Back, Brain Training & Intelligence ]
http://groups.google.com/group/brain-training
#3. Memory hack .. [ Anki is a program which makes remembering things easy. ] http://ankisrs.net/
#4. Medication hacks:
ADHD: http://curetogether.com/blog/2011/02/22/what-patients-say-wo...
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: http://curetogether.com/blog/2011/02/03/surprising-new-data-...
#5. self-monitoring / Self Tracking
tips: http://quantifiedself.com/
#6. Lonelyness hacking:
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?
#94Use a vertical monitor for your code editing. Having twice as many lines of code in front of you at once makes a big difference. Most skeptics haven't really tried it. Stop wasting time obsessing about the best coding setup and the best editor. I've seen very poor developers with incredibly advanced typing shortcuts that they spend hours perfecting. They still write shit code (maybe they do so faster...). I use the s…
> Use a vertical monitor for your code editing
> Next time you're tempted to immediately fire up the
> debugger, just don't and try to figure it out only by
> looking at the code.
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?
#95Two here. 1) Make the placebo effect work for you. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that says that the placebo effect works. Deep down, I know that the placebo effect works, and that simply thinking that I'm getting better makes me better. So, whenever I feel like I'm about to get sick, I tell myself that I can make myself feel better - and I get better. I got this working a few years ago and I haven't had…
> Whenever you get a new program, hit every button
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?
#96Get your self tested for ADD, I know this sounds weird but up 10% of people have it. And with treatment,I got tested and my coding started to become more in depth. My concentration is more then i can ever imagine. Before I would work 30mins 30 mins(a life hack I got from HN previously) off like a previous. Now I can work 2 hours straight with even better results from what I would do in 4 30 min work sessions.
I haven't come across any scientific basis for ADD, and I've looked. It seems to be a catch-all diagnosis for "responds positively to ritalin, etc."
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?
#97Socks tend to become lonely, loosing their other half, which makes you end up with lots of single socks in the drawer. I ditched them all and purchased 20 pairs of the same socks. I never pair them up, but simply dump them in the drawer after washing. This way I don't have to pair them up and I never have to quest for "the lost sock(tm)".
Conversely, you can take my approach: give up wearing matching socks. :)
That's what I do. I just dump all my socks in my drawer and pick two every morning. Sometimes they match, most times they don't. This has been the subject of much amusement at the office and with my family for many years now. I can't count the number of times I've had to ask people why they assume socks "should" be the same colour.
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?
#98When a meeting goes off topic, stand up and walk out. It's a good wake up call for all involved. And if they suddenly decide that there's something important they were meant to ask you but forgot because they were too busy discussing the weather, they'll ask you before your hand hits the door knob.
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?
#99I used to be bad at names, but eventually I figured out if I repeat a name a few times within seconds of learning it, I generally remember it. "Hi Kevin, nice to meet you, I'm Pat. I was going over there to refresh my drink, you need anything Kevin?" It can sound a little weird, but it's made a huge difference for me, and people love it when you remember and use their name. Quit drinking so much soda, and switch to d…
Remember: not everyone needs to lose weight and/or cut their calories.
Re: Ask HN: What are your best life hacks?
#100I never put a really big task on my todo list. Instead of having "Write 500 page report about XYZ" on your todo, break it down to smaller jobs, but not too small. So instead, write down "look on wikipedia about xyz for 60 minutes", "open up Word, come up with a first draft title, and write down the chapters needed". Makes it A LOT easier to get started on something! If the task is too big I, and many others I suspect, just procrastinate. You end up with half a day gone just thinking about how hard and big the project is, instead of just opening Word and writing down a title, which is better than nothing.