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

301–310 of 545 posts

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

#301

Post by rramadass »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #100

Surprisingly - my burnout. It came one day, out of the blue and broke me in two pieces. Thanks to the great human empathy in my company (and their support) I went through it without too much problems. It taught me that I am not invincible and that I should listen to my body more. I am not 20 anymore. I voluntarily scale down my professional scope and my title, to concentrate on the things I have an actual influence o…

Quite interesting. I believe a lot of us in the Software Industry are suffering from this but without acknowledging it and/or forced to ignore it due to circumstances/social factors/rat race. I am quite fascinated by the psychology behind "burnout" (maybe suffering from it myself) because it not natural for us to be in a constant state of stress arising from problem solving as is demanded by the industry. The lack of physical activity exacerbates the problem and you are caught in a vicious cycle leading to mental/physical breakdown.

Would you mind sharing some details? What exactly happened to push you over the threshold? How was/is your physical health? How exactly is your mood/emotions affecting behaviour? How do you feel before/after?

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

#302

Post by jetpackjoe »

edge17 wrote: post #280
dmerrick wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't get opportunities to share this very often... my sideproject is a 24/7 Twitch channel[1] of driving footage with a companion chatbot. If you like slow-tv you might enjoy it. [1] https://www.twitch.tv/ADanaLife_

Out of curiosity, how much does it cost to stream 24/7 off cellular like that?

The about section of the Twitch channel says:

> This is pre-recorded dashcam footage from a year of traveling the United States in a campervan. It runs 24/7.

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

#303

Post by oleander73 »

I retired (after getting diagnosed with incurable cancer). I was a workaholic and never thought I could quit so easily, but after quiting I don't miss work and I'm a lot happier (despite the cancer thing). If you are obsessed with work and in a position to take a few months off, please consider doing this. It may change your perspective.

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

#304

Post by yitchelle »

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…

If reading a newsletter is also your thing, I recommend Craig Mod's newsletter on his walks around Japan. Quite refreshing.

https://craigmod.com/ridgeline/

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

#305

Post by irchans »

We all thought that my dad was going to die from covid19. The doctors were very pessimistic. He lived. He recovered very slowly over the last 4 months. During the first month, he could not speak English (he was born in Norway), he needed 3 liters per minute of oxygen, and he could not stand up. Now, he has no trouble speaking, does not need oxygen, and he can walk 300 yards if he has a walker. Every month he has improved.

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

#308

Post by piptastic »

giantg2 wrote: post #269
break_the_bank wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Hmm I can maybe understand why you think you’ll be a mid level dev without putting in hours.. you didn’t mention your location so not sure.

But why in the world can’t you afford to change jobs? Plenty of places need mid level devs and it doesn’t cost anything to change jobs.. in fact they usually pay you more.

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

#309

Post by giantg2 »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #227
redis_mlc wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 playbo…

I had to vouch for this comment. I get that this looks misogynistic, but what parent describes is exactly my experience. It literally describes my post break-up relationship with my wife. the meddling of her led to poisoning of my relationship with the kids. she was the one who was hitting me any time there was an argument, threw plates and glass, or became physical in other ways that I had no choice than call the po…

I feel like there's a lot a brainwashing and manipulation even when spouses aren't physically abusive.

My wife tells me stuff that just doesn't make sense. When I sold my nice car and quit doing track days when we got married with plans to have kids, she kept telling me that I could've kept it and that the only reason I had it must have been to get girls. That simply wasn't true. And keep it? Using what money! I pay all the bills (and benefits, and retirement saving) except for her phone and car, while she spends as much or more every month on her hobby as I do on the mortgage. Or if I tell her that we should cut back on our toddler's screen time that day, she'll say it was only .5 hour, eventhough I witnessed 1.5 hours of TV time and .5 hour of phone/youtube time.

On top of this, she occaionally tells me that I'm mean to her. This is usually in response to me giving her instructions on how to properly perform some task. For example, she said I get the whites very clean looking when I wash them. I told her you have to pre soak them with bleach or oxiclean when they look dirty. Apparently this is mean to say? Or I mention that our toddler with a heart condition shouldn't be drinking iced tea with caffeine in it. Apparently this makes me controlling. I thought this would be common sense (drinking caffeine is the opposite of taking a medication to slow heart rate, which could lead to a bad outcome).

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

#310

Post by giantg2 »

oleander73 wrote: post #303

I retired (after getting diagnosed with incurable cancer). I was a workaholic and never thought I could quit so easily, but after quiting I don't miss work and I'm a lot happier (despite the cancer thing). If you are obsessed with work and in a position to take a few months off, please consider doing this. It may change your perspective.

Sorry to hear about your prognosis. I hope you get to enjoy the time you have.
Post reply on HN