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Ask HN: What are the changes you made in your life and never look back?

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Re: Ask HN: What are the changes you made in your life and never look back?

#71

Post by xutopia »

There are a bunch of things that really improved my life and they aren't all tech related.

    Java/.NET => PHP => Ruby
    Laundromat => Owning my own * single most amazing change
    Not caring about personal finances => Saving up
    Sit all day => Geekdesk (I stand about 1h30 every day)
    Pharmaceutical programming => Startup programming
    Restaurants => Cooking classes
    Playing WOW => Quitting cold turkey
    Windows/Linux on home built boxes => Mac
    Seeing my wife clean the house all the time => Paying for cleaning

Re: Ask HN: What are the changes you made in your life and never look back?

#72

Post by edw519 » 

  English literature ----------> mathematics
  cook ------------------------> programmer
  newspaper -------------------> internet
  mall ------------------------> internet
  land line -------------------> cell phone
  phone -----------------------> email
  desktop ---------------------> laptop
  14" CRT ---------------------> 19" flat screen
  CDs -----> thumb drives -----> cloud
  radio -----> CD player ------> Ipod
  ie --------> Firefox --------> Chrome
  Yahoo mail ------------------> Gmail
  low level code --------------> applications
  building for myself ---------> building for my customers
  kissing customers' asses ----> properly serving customers
  suit & tie ------------------> jeans & shirt
  calling Mom -----------------> visiting Mom
  Pittsburgh Pirates ----------> Pittsburgh Steelers
  Simpsons --------------------> Family Guy
  USAir -----------------------> Southwest
  weight lifting --------------> bodyweight exercises
  eggs for breakfast ----------> fruit for breakfast
  McDonald's ------------------> Five Guys
  Reddit ----------------------> Hacker News
  lurking ---------------------> posting

Re: Ask HN: What are the changes you made in your life and never look back?

#74

Post by krmmalik »

* Gym in the evening => Gym during the day (extended lunch break)

* One monitor => Two monitors as an extended desktop

* Never checking my finances => Using Zetabee cashflow to manage my finances

* Reading blogs only => Reading books (on anything) and audiobooks (in the car)

* Hot showers => Occasional Cold Water dips

* Cow's Milk => Goat's Milk

* Microsoft Outlook => Gmail

* Wasting time on the internet => Writing a journal or creating a list of things to do when im bored in advance

* Irregular work pattern => Aiming to achieve a minimum of 5hrs of focused productivity a day with 3min breaks every 60mins

* Friends that are negative or with no ambition => Limiting contact with them

* Trying to spend time with successful people or ambitious people => Setup my own Mastermind Group

* Green Tea => White Tea

* Manual version control => Mercurial using TortoiseHG as the GUI

* No programming skills => Started learning Javascript

* Relationship issues with colleagues and friends => "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie plus being more direct without being confrontational

* 20hrs of TV a week => Choosing 1 or 2 shows and following them only

* Poor quality of air in the house => Air purifier

* Back pains => Got a very simple chair, improved posture and regular back exercises

Cant think of anything else. Hope the list didnt bore any of you. Its fun to share.

Re: Ask HN: What are the changes you made in your life and never look back?

#75

Post by maayank »

mkramlich wrote: post #18

landline => mobile blah clamshell cellphone => iPhone PC/Windows => Mac/OSX Java => Python The Man's corporate cubicle => home office => my business office 9-to-5 salary grind => my own schedule, ROWE, contracting/consulting used cars => new 2010 Hyundai backpack 4 laptop => padded laptop bag => hard shell reinforced briefcase SVN => git laptop's boot filesystem on magnetic platter hard drive => SSD TV for visual veg…

living on the 70th floor => living on ground floor

why?

Re: Ask HN: What are the changes you made in your life and never look back?

#77

Post by diamondhead »

The City I was staying with my family ==> The city with software industry (2007)

[Financially Secure But Unhappy Two Years]

The city with software industry ==> A Village With A Physics School (2009)

The village with physics school ==> The city with software industry (2010)

The City With Software Industry ==> San Francisco (Left everything in my country to just be here, attend Google IO) (2011)

Re: Ask HN: What are the changes you made in your life and never look back?

#78

Post by krmmalik »

jkahn wrote: post #26

New Zealand => Australia Windows => Mac Spinning rust => SSD Of course, there are tons of technology changes that have been great. The things that have made a huge impact in my life are: Pure techie => Learning sales Employee => Business owner Sales is all psychology. It totally changes your view of the world. It's not about how things should be, but about how things are regardless. A business degree didn't teach any…

I'm really surprised by the number of people that have enjoyed the move to Mac. I went to Mac for about 6 months and then ended up coming back to Windows 7. Thats not to say one is better than the other, i just found it difficult to get used to the little differences.

Although, if i was programming more often the mac would probably have been more useful.

Re: Ask HN: What are the changes you made in your life and never look back?

#79

Post by lux »

The big ones:

* Moving away at 18 to a new province. Best thing I ever did.

* Lost my job at 20, started a company. Never worried about money or looked back. This actually seemed incredibly natural.

* Shut down said company after 10 years, just to move on to more interesting things. No regrets. I'm working on way cooler stuff now in a variety of areas and I love all of it.

* Changed my eating/lifestyle, lost 35lbs. Keeping it off with no effort due to lifestyle changes.

I don't really pay attention to small stuff. I wouldn't say CD->iPod->iPhone was a deliberate change, more of a natural progression...

Re: Ask HN: What are the changes you made in your life and never look back?

#80

Post by krmmalik »

Mz wrote: post #7

Husband => No husband Affluenza => Spartanism Car => No car Probably a whole lot of other things. Somewhere in there all that led to: Chronically Ill => Not Chronically Ill. Definitely don't plan to go back.

Would you mind elaborating on what was the chronic illness that you had and how you recovered?
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