Leaving my job in tech to start a small business making a physical product.
I realized that the abstractions of remote work and software itself were wearing in me. It's nice to be back in the material world.
Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?
181–190 of 545 posts
Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Some of this could be fixed very easily by employers by widening their range of office hours. Commuting times grow exponentially when everyone has to do it at the same time. When I was commuting in a car, the exact same path would take me 45m to an hour at peak time, and 15m off-peak. Just by pushing forward the starting time by about an hour, I saved loads of time and aggravation. This applies to public-transport co…
There are some children for whom the rigid nature of school schedules actually provides structure which makes them less stressed out :)
Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?
#183Getting a dog. I used to swear I never wanted a dog, I was a cat person. My wife wore me down, talked me into getting a sweet little Shiba Inu pup. She’s been my little ray of sunshine in an otherwise bleak world. Yubaba is now second only to my wife as my favorite thing in the world.
Honestly, getting up to let her out in the morning put me on a far more regular schedule. Taking her on walks gets me out of my office during the day and has done more than anything else to bust me out of the funk I was in.
Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?
#184Off the top of my head, online co-op gaming with friends a few hours a week.
Conversely, many of the things I see people list haven't worked for me. Working out has never made me feel good. I hate it always and it's a chore/slog to get through and I often want to quit in the middle. I feel a tiny sense of accomplishment for having worked out but I don't feel noticeably better or different than when I didn't workout. And yes, I'm working out every day. Sweat like crazy. etc...
Someone mentioned going for walks which I do, 1-3 miles a day. There are parks near where I live. I think going out is better than being stuck inside but before the pandemic I walked most places and took public transport so my total walking is probably below what it was before the pandemic. Further, walking just to go outside does not feel as good as walking to some destination. It feels more like a chore/maintenance. I do it because it's supposed to be good for me. Where as before I did it because it got me to a lunch, a dinner, a meetup, work, a store, etc.
A friend of mine says she gets high from running. She said literally "high" not just spiritually high. I ask her how long before running stopped hurting (it hurts when I run). She said 2 years! I don't think I can take it on faith that if I put up with the pain for 2 years it might stop.
I fully miss working at the office with my co-workers, having lunch with them, talking to them during work hours, getting dinner after work sometimes. Will be sad and likely suicidal if after the pandemic everything is WFH.
Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?
#185Leaving my job in tech to start a small business making a physical product. I realized that the abstractions of remote work and software itself were wearing in me. It's nice to be back in the material world.
Nice! What is it?
Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?
#186Leaving my job in tech to start a small business making a physical product. I realized that the abstractions of remote work and software itself were wearing in me. It's nice to be back in the material world.
What is the product that you make?
Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure. The plotter I've bought is the AxiDraw SE/A3[1]. There is an Inkscape plugin so you can easily plot SVG graphics. I generate the SVG graphics using small JavaScript programs. Thats already it. Here[2] is a more detailed resource list to dig into the topic [1] https://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/908 [2] https://project-awesome.org/beardicus/awesome-plotters
Thanks! I already have a 3D printer and I’ve seen some projects that made it possible to use the 3D printer as a plotter. So probably I’d try that route first. I was actually more interested in the software aspect to generate those arts.
This a is a really wide field. Basically its starts with one of the standard algorithms, like and l-system, a voronoi diagram, or simple combination of sin and cos to draw shapes. Have a look at thi-ng[1], just as example for a library that has implemented a lot of this kind of algorithms. The next step in my process is to think about how to destroy this forms as most of them are used a lot in this field and become boring. Using perlin noise as input to arguments of the algorithms is one way to do this. The other part is to make most all of the input variables easily changeable as most of the time the whole process is like writing the program and then spend a lot of time adapt the parameters until you get some interesting output. So in the end I have a small Svelte app, using Svelte only cause the data binding for the inputs so simple, which has tons of sliders that renders an SVG that can be saved in the end.
Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?
#188Being in a relationship. I can't imagine spending the last year without being with my partner.
My social circle changed radically too. People I used to meet in person are not the same set of people I would be in zoom calls with regularly.
Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?
#189Friends. The initial ~2 months of fear and complete isolation, (seeing only my partner in person) showed me how much I needed other relationships. When I started participating in small gatherings or visiting the office it was absolutely liberating. And because of the pandemic it was quality over quantity, so I became closer to the people I already knew.
I used to be an introvert for most of my life and in the last few years I've been taking it back, learning to manage this part of life. It's common that people have less friends as they get older. At 28 I already feel it and I don't want to let it happen, ready to put in the effort. It's all so much more interesting when you're surrounded by [the right] people.
Re: Ask HN: What was the biggest contributor to your happiness in the past year?
#190Living in a neighborhood I like, within viewing distance of the mountains, walking distance to my favourite cafes, deli, gym, and hiking in those mountains with my gf and other friends. Nearing another whole year with zero work, and it's only financially shitty.