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

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

#261

Post by DyslexicAtheist »

jmfldn wrote: post #253
DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lot of companies in EU (especially D/A/CH) also have absolutely no plans to continue WFH. Despite covid restrictions going to be an issue also long term, they have (1 year later) still no strategy that incorporates or improves efficiency in WFH organization and workflows. Instead they all look forward to going back to a time that no longer exists.

So not the EU obviously but in the UK, or London at the very least, I don't know of a single white collar worker where much-increased WFH won't be the norm. I'm not just talking tech but banking, law and so on. We do indeed seem to be far ahead of our European neighbours in this regard from what I'm seeing.

I agree, it will be the new norm. it's just that this insight hasn't arrived yet in many places (and Europe is generally lagging behind in doing things differently compared to how it was done the past hundreds of years). suppose it won't matter really since majority of companies won't survive the coming years anyway (for other reasons) so their short sightedness wrt WFH doesn't really matter :D

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

#262

Post by jmfldn »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #261
jmfldn wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So not the EU obviously but in the UK, or London at the very least, I don't know of a single white collar worker where much-increased WFH won't be the norm. I'm not just talking tech but banking, law and so on. We do indeed seem to be far ahead of our European neighbours in this regard from what I'm seeing.

I agree, it will be the new norm. it's just that this insight hasn't arrived yet in many places (and Europe is generally lagging behind in doing things differently compared to how it was done the past hundreds of years). suppose it won't matter really since majority of companies won't survive the coming years anyway (for other reasons) so their short sightedness wrt WFH doesn't really matter :D

Yeah totally agree. The UK is much more enlightened and progressive than a lot of Europe on many things (unfashionable opinion, particularly for a "remainer" like me)

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

#263

Post by Nbox9 »

meken wrote: post #223

Getting a nice car. I’m prone to depression if I stay in the house too long. Having a nice car means when I roll out of bed in the morning, I’m able to head straight to a nice, comfortable, private, warm space and start listening to meaningful podcasts, audiobooks, get breakfast, head to the gym, and get a consistent good start on the day. I’m not sure if I can go back to city living at this point if it means giving…

In contrast I hate driving cars. I feel like it’s my least favorite tool. I have a nice car, I’ve driven even nicer cars in different styles and hated them all. Driving requires so much of my attention I feel like it’s invasive. In addition I feel like I have to sit relatively still and use my muscles in very particular way. It’s a trap for my mind in body, and an experience I don’t find pleasant.

I am an American and will go out of my way to use any other mode of transportation, even at the expense of time or money. Sometime’s it’s just unavoidable.

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

#264

Post by csixty4 »

Transitioning my gender. Living my truth. Coming out to everyone in my life and being forced to confront the shame that held me back for decades.

It took a lot of reflection and was cause for a lot of growth. But now I'm not only mentally happier, I'm taking better care of my body because it finally feels like it's my own.

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

#265

Post by _spoonman »

break_the_bank wrote: post #249
_l4jh wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m 36 and followed a similar path “retiring” a few years ago to be a stay at home dad. I missed out on my daughters early years due to being a workaholic and didn’t want to do the same with my son. I failed to realise when I was young I can earn more money but never more time and memories built from a phone video suck. I enjoy spending time doing work on the house and since we moved to [redacted] in 2018 I do a few…

I am far away from being a dad but curious, how do you balance "providing for your kid" and "being there for your kid"?

The two aren’t mutually exclusive and the roles change as the kid gets older.

When they’re newborns you are focused totally on providing: they can’t feed themselves, change their diapers, or bathe themselves.

When they get older they can do those things but then start having questions about the world and girls and faith. That’s when it really gets fun because you strengthen the bond.

So you’re always providing for the kid. Being there is the tougher part.

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

#267

Post by DyslexicAtheist »

jmfldn wrote: post #262
DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, it will be the new norm. it's just that this insight hasn't arrived yet in many places (and Europe is generally lagging behind in doing things differently compared to how it was done the past hundreds of years). suppose it won't matter really since majority of companies won't survive the coming years anyway (for other reasons) so their short sightedness wrt WFH doesn't really matter :D

Yeah totally agree. The UK is much more enlightened and progressive than a lot of Europe on many things (unfashionable opinion, particularly for a "remainer" like me)

never mind fashion trends, they come and go :) I think you're on point. Hopefully Britain will bounce back as a beacon of progressive ideas. It was always the voice of reason and brought balance to the dominating German/French axis of bureaucratic/pedantic authoritarian thought.

I miss you guys!!

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

#268

Post by meken »

Nbox9 wrote: post #263
meken wrote: post #223

Getting a nice car. I’m prone to depression if I stay in the house too long. Having a nice car means when I roll out of bed in the morning, I’m able to head straight to a nice, comfortable, private, warm space and start listening to meaningful podcasts, audiobooks, get breakfast, head to the gym, and get a consistent good start on the day. I’m not sure if I can go back to city living at this point if it means giving…

In contrast I hate driving cars. I feel like it’s my least favorite tool. I have a nice car, I’ve driven even nicer cars in different styles and hated them all. Driving requires so much of my attention I feel like it’s invasive. In addition I feel like I have to sit relatively still and use my muscles in very particular way. It’s a trap for my mind in body, and an experience I don’t find pleasant. I am an American an…

Interesting.

Yup, if that was my experience, I would hate driving cars as well.

I’m able to drive pretty much on autopilot. Plus, I don’t feel I’m wasting time listening to podcasts/audiobooks because I’m “doing something/headed somewhere”.

I’ve driven almost 20k miles in the past 3.5 months.

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

#269

Post by giantg2 »

break_the_bank wrote: post #249
_l4jh wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m 36 and followed a similar path “retiring” a few years ago to be a stay at home dad. I missed out on my daughters early years due to being a workaholic and didn’t want to do the same with my son. I failed to realise when I was young I can earn more money but never more time and memories built from a phone video suck. I enjoy spending time doing work on the house and since we moved to [redacted] in 2018 I do a few…

I am far away from being a dad but curious, how do you balance "providing for your kid" and "being there for your kid"?

In my experience, you have to make sacrifices. Everything in life is a trade-off in one eaybor another.

I gave up my nice car and doing track days. Many of my time consuming hobbies that involved going somewhere have been greatly reduced or eliminated. I tried replacing them with smaller hobbies at home while I can watch the kid - like small batch beer brewing or learning bass guitar.

Career-wise I have accepted that I will not be promoted and will remain an average midlevel dev for the foreseeable future, mostly due to the cultural expectation that you have to put in more hours to be higher level (and some past decisions still dragging me down). I also acknowledge that I can't afford to changes jobs, eventhough I hate my current job. I need the money to support my family.

The responsibilities that come with marriage and kids is vastly understated - it can be absolutely crushing. If it weren't for these responsibilities, I would have changed jobs, been a senior dev or tech lead, made and saved more money, and likely would have been able to move to a lower cost area to retire early.

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

#270

Post by jackdbd »

rococode wrote: post #40

Video walks on Youtube. If you haven't heard of them before, they're simple first-person videos where the filmer walks around some area with a stabilized video camera - no talking, just walking. I've really missed traveling and watching video walks while exercising has been a great way to satisfy that travel craving a bit and also trick my brain into experiencing some semblance of normalcy (not sure I could remember…

Thanks for the links. I'm a great fan of video walks too. They are very relaxing and IMHO they provide a much better overview of a place than the typical travel vlog.

Here is another Japan-focused channel. There are walks either with or without audio commenting. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGfM15CKSjHl8bGp16P6P8g/fea...

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