Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 545 posts

Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?

#131

Post by jimnotgym »

1) growing vegetables. I haven't done much for a few years, and I have loved setting up a no dig system at my new allotment. My house is full of seedlings. I think growing from seed, and seeing a plant develop helps you feel that time is moving on.

2) Since I am setting up from scratch, but know something about what I'm doing I am in a pretty privileged position. I started to document my thought process and write a blog at https://watchingplantsgrow.com. Then I soon remembered that I a) suck at design and b) prefer writing to design. So I just paid someone a small amount of money to design it nicely. I have a few unpublished blogs ready to go up when it is live. I know we like text blogs here, but I think a gardening site needs pictures. One of the struggles with gardening is knowing when to do stuff, so I am starting a newsletter where I can say what I am sowing this week. Maybe some people will find it useful (in the Northern hemisphere!)

Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?

#133

Post by Griffinsauce »

posedge wrote: post #125
d3nj4l wrote: post #65

Working from home. I realised being in an office - especially an open-plan office - was setting off my social anxiety all the time. Working in a place where I could choose to engage with people instead of having it forced upon me made it so much easier to work. I became a lot more productive and started enjoying what I did, even picking up more side projects and learning actively. It's a shame it's coming to an end,…

Agreed. For me personally, commuting is a big factor - I love not doing it... Unfortunately, permanent WFH will probably not work for me for other reasons, in particular I think that the face to face interaction with coworkers cannot be replaced...

I'm currently experiencing the same calm as when I lived a 4-minute tram ride from work. (My current job is over an hour away)

The soul killing of commuting is underrated. Just the sheer amount of time lost in your day is huge and that loss builds up over time.

And that's not even counting increased health problems, sleeping less (well), increased stress from anxiety or just basic public transport bullshit.

I used to say I didn't mind my daily ~2.5 hours in trains and trams. Right now I will fight _hard_ to keep it out of my life.

Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?

#134

Post by dave_sullivan »

posedge wrote: post #129
dave_sullivan wrote: post #98

2.5 day work week. Peak performance on those days at a decent daily rate, then I get to fuck around on whatever for the rest of the week. Wednesdays are my fridays.

Sounds like a dream. I'd love to work in short bursts of highly productive work instead of full work weeks of mostly lingering around and wasted time to fill the hours. I wonder though, how does it work out financially?

> I wonder though, how does it work out financially?

Pretty good, how is your approach working out financially?

Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?

#136

Post by bionhoward »

Walking my dog. It's my most consistent habit, not super intense but involves movement, nature, responsibility, socialization. We do about 90 mins daily, and it's a good chill time to carry pencil and a waterproof notepad and sketch ideas, make lists etc

Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?

#137

Post by redis_mlc »

p0d wrote: post #105

My wife and kids. I'm 50 and re-evaluating friendships outside the home. I have realised that most of my friendships are not mutual. I stopped contacting most of my friends over 9 months ago and have not heard back from most for 6 months to never. My own family experience wasn't great. I now realise to have a wife who actively cares for you, looks out for you, is probably the most meaningful thing that can happen to…

I understand your POV, but there is a risk with severing your friends and relying on your wife for social engagement: if you're ever divorced, you will have nobody but yourself.

Men should always be on their purpose and improving their life, including cultivating your own friends and family.

Note that during any divorce, your ex-wife will actively and immediately poison mutual friends and family as part of her playbook to make it look like it's all your fault (female shaming tactics) and that she's virtuous. Many men lose their own side of their family as a result, much to their surprise.

Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?

#138

Post by delhanty »

Selenomethionine [0]

> Selenoproteins seem to be of special importance in the development and functioning of GABAergic (GABA, γ-aminobutyric acid) parvalbumin positive interneurons of the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. Dopamine pathway might be also selenium dependent as selenium shows neuroprotection in the nigrostriatal pathway and also exerts toxicity towards dopaminergic neurons under higher concentrations. Recent findings also point to acetylcholine neurotransmission involvement.

[0] Importance of selenium and selenoprotein for brain function: From antioxidant protection to neuronal signalling

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26398431/

Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?

#139

Post by akavel »

Self-learning wing-foiling (when you're on the lake, being 6 feet from someone means dangerously close to a collision, so "social distancing" is natural...), kinda as an excuse to spend some time outside, move, generate endorphins and not think about other things (winds at my place are usually nothing to write home about, so actual foiling happened just a couple days).

Also some trekking and reddit's r/bodyweightfitness "recommended routine" ~once a week.

Those things didn't "always work" to lift my mood, to make it clear, but there were notably many times when they did. Esp. wingfoiling in the summer :)

Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?

#140

Post by heavenlyblue »

I’ve bought rollerblades in May and learnt how to skate having never skated in my life before.

Can do 180 now and going down the stairs now.

Learning a new trick every few weeks is energising - I almost forgot how easy it is to learn how do do something by just paying enough attention to the lessons.

Post reply on HN