Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

141–150 of 170 posts

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

#141
post #48

Stable salaried jobs -> Contracting, business, chaos. It suits me better.

I really like the "chaos" part. I think it's a very down to earth description to how it is in practice =)

related: when I worked for Cheaptickets (started as a smallco, turned into BigDumbCompany eventually) I was in a group called "Car, Hotel, Air and Other Stuff." You can see why I liked the acronym. I specialized in the Other Stuff (jvm, monitoring, troubleshooting, performance, thread issues, etc.)

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

#142
government contracting => engineer at university

running => biking => bike racing

pc => mac

php => python (django)

complaining about tools => writing my own or patching others

no source control => github

learning projects => practical development and products

reading tech books => memoirs only

bottled water => filtered pitcher => bottled water

desktop => laptop

local documents => google docs

virtualbox => vmware

individual => LLC

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

#143
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what differences / or benefits have you seen from sprinting instead of running/jogging ?

Sprinting gives a rush of endorphins and hgh. Sprinting is anaerobic exercise for the heart, and jogging is more aerobic. However, both are important. Sprinting not only involves power, but technique and arms, it yields a different physique by using faster twitch muscles and requires flexibility. Jogging is more harmful to the body when one gets addicted to constantly pushing and playing with the pain threshold, or i…

> what animal would you pursue jogging?

Cheetahs

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

#144

Sitting => Standing Desk: The effect this has had on my productivity is surprisingly large. Typical "Healthy" Diet => No Processed Foods or Sugar: It's hard to disambiguate placebo effects, but I generally feel pretty awesome. Laptop Screen => Cinema Display: This has definitely enhanced my productivity. Shoes => No Shoes: Of course I need to wear shoes occasionally, but when I do, they are "minimalist" and have flex…

Which minimalist shoes are you using? I've been looking for good recommendations.

Not the original poster; but I am using Vibram Five-Fingers and they suits me quite well. (I do prefer barefoot running when possible.)

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

#145
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Got rid of the husband, everything I ever owned, and my car. And also took a boatload of supplements, did a lot of reading about my medical condition, changed my diet, and a whole lot of other stuff. Some info on what I did is here: http://healthgazelle.com/ Not much info, mind you. I'm too busy getting my life back to spend much time on the site. Peace.

Amazing website. I'm at the "plateau" bit that you mention, and i'd love to learn more.

You know, much of the site was written as much as 5 years ago and I have become a combination of bitter about the reception I get in the CF community and busy getting my life back together, so I hardly look at the main site anymore (I do sometimes post to the new-ish blog). So please refresh my memory, maybe with a quote and/or link to the piece you are referencing. That might help me sound like less of a fool.

And you can always email me sometime.

Thanks.

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

#146
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.

I never knew of the word "Affluenza" till today! I like learning things like this :) Glad to see you've made positive changes in your life, especially from feeling sick all the time. All that must have been a massive undertaking.

Ten years and counting and undoubtedly numerous other ways in which it could be measured as "massive". But well worth it. :-)

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

#147
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what differences / or benefits have you seen from sprinting instead of running/jogging ?

Sprinting gives a rush of endorphins and hgh. Sprinting is anaerobic exercise for the heart, and jogging is more aerobic. However, both are important. Sprinting not only involves power, but technique and arms, it yields a different physique by using faster twitch muscles and requires flexibility. Jogging is more harmful to the body when one gets addicted to constantly pushing and playing with the pain threshold, or i…

> I am inclined to think we're built to go for a walk to a hunting ground, sprint and throw an arrow.

The adaption to bipedalism actually reduced our sprinting capabilities and increased our endurance. It's likely that we used our superior endurance to chase down our prey over long distances far before we had arrows. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o

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

#149
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…

> New Zealand => Australia From where in NZ did you leave and where in Oz did you end up? What were the improvements you found? Do you think you would've found them moving to some country other than Australia? Curious. :)

I moved from Auckland to Brisbane. The weather and lifestyle are better, people are generally more upbeat and opportunities are better.

New Zealand has a major case of tall poppy syndrome. Australia doesn't have this so much. Most people generally want you to succeed, and help you out.

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

#150
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sprinting gives a rush of endorphins and hgh. Sprinting is anaerobic exercise for the heart, and jogging is more aerobic. However, both are important. Sprinting not only involves power, but technique and arms, it yields a different physique by using faster twitch muscles and requires flexibility. Jogging is more harmful to the body when one gets addicted to constantly pushing and playing with the pain threshold, or i…

> I am inclined to think we're built to go for a walk to a hunting ground, sprint and throw an arrow. The adaption to bipedalism actually reduced our sprinting capabilities and increased our endurance. It's likely that we used our superior endurance to chase down our prey over long distances far before we had arrows. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=826HMLoiE_o

If it were me, I would've told my buddies to start building a fence for next time while I was out hunting it down. Also dogs and horses could have helped with the hunt. How is he meant to carry the carcass back? Does he light a fire to signal to the others to help him? What happens if tigers smell the blood or no one reaches him in time, or a pack of hyenas are following the hunter? Most of the time, a lot of the hunt was reconnaissance (endurance yes, jogging no.) Large groups of people jogging frequently for long groups of time doesn't seem right, perhaps in parts of Africa (eg Kenya) jogging has become part of society and remains fun. Bipedalism has other benefits besides endurance: vision, climbing, reach, sitting, freeing up hands, inducing fear. People going on a 10km run every weekend, on concrete, in a polluted city, with a hunched back is just wrong. Just because you can jog, doesn't mean you must.
Post reply on HN