Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

341–350 of 545 posts

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

#341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm beginning to acknowledge my abuse too. I lost a lot of friends because the man is always blamed by default in any kind of conflict. Most men think women are not capable of abuse until it happens to them. And if it does happen it can take years to acknowledge what happened and pride kicks in so most men never talk about it which further contributes to the lack of awareness. Add to that the fact nobody truly cares…

It's especially sad that our societal views are so far off the data due to stereotyping. According to some CDC studies, more men are victims of domestic abuse than women are. It's just that men do not report much of it, and there are more cases of severe injuries when it comes to women (40/60 split). I think one of those CDC studies even said that men are more likely to have a deadly weapon used against them in a dom…

The problem is how we deal with outliers. Statisticians know that outliers need to be excluded from their results, but society tends to focus on outliers, letting everyone else lay in their shadow.

We're all guilty of it. We have competitions with the sole purpose of finding these extreme outliers. We look up to them, turn them into household names, reward them with great wealth and accolades.

It turns out if you look for outliers, you will find mostly men. Pick any attribute you can measure and you'll probably find a man who "wins". Fastest human? Male. Greatest chess player? Male. Worst serial killer? Male.

This is vaguely recognised which is why women are held to different standards. They have their own sporting events, for example, otherwise they would all fall into the shadow of the all-male outliers.

Nobody minds that 99% of men fall into that same shadow, though.

In car insurance it's quite well-known that men, on average, are responsible for higher payouts. But this isn't because men, on average, do more damage to cars. In fact, the statistics show the opposite. But when women damage cars it tends to be below the threshold that is worth claiming. When a car is completely written off, it tends to be due to a man. It's a tiny minority of incidents, but has a huge impact on insurance payouts.

As with anything, people focus on the extremes and the extremes are mostly male. But that doesn't mean every male is responsible or even capable of the same. But, as with insurance, we all suffer from it.

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

#342

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you do for health insurance?

Go read https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/blog/ if you filter out the snarky “I’m so badass” posts there’s actually good advice in a ton of topics such as health insurance / coverage, investments, and how not to be a wasteful person mostly :)

Seconded MMM, that blog changed my life.

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

#343

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’m so sorry, this sounds truly awful.

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

#344
Buying a home. But not for any of the typical reasons.

If you told me back in February that I'd buy a home in 2020, I'd have told you to get lost. I lived alone in a small apartment, with a "necessities" mentality, and homeownership was on my radar for 5-10 years out. Why invest in exercise equipment when I go to a gym, a decent WFH setup when I work in an office, or kitchenware when most of my meals are eaten at work or meetups? Why buy a home, if I seem to just use home for a place to sleep?

The pandemic rapidly changed that mentality. "Necessities" was now synonymous with "going without".

The straw that broke the camel's back was the big trees out back being chainsawed down all day over three days (they needed to; they were hanging out by a transmission line). That changed the view from my porch from something resembling nature (and for much of the pandemic, that was my "nature"), to industrial buildings puking out vapor.

So I didn't buy a home for a partner, pets, kids, or otherwise - I still have none of those. But my overall health has increased considerably by having a backyard that won't change unless I want it to, a small home gym to prevent dropping even more muscle, a dedicated office space to delineate when WFH starts and ends, and an open-plan kitchen. And with the interest rates the way they are, I figure I've just saved future-me a ton of money anyway.

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

#345

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…

Those specific questions may be triggering - better to focus on what helped to improve then resolve your feelings

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

#346
post #257

Buying a dishwasher. 1. Less drudgery means more time to relax 2. Less pressure to minimise kitchenware use means more ambitious and enjoyable cooking 3. I just get a little jolt of happiness when I walk into the kitchen and see my large cuboidal son sitting there

If you cook and have to clean large pots and baking trays, then dishwasher doesn't help you with that as much. These items cannot fit into a regular home dishwasher and these take the most time to clean and dry compared to washing plain plates and utensils.

Also dishwashers are not good for roommate arrangements because unless strict rules are enforced things keep piling up in it or you cannot put stuff inside while it is running. Still have to hand wash it yourself then.

I can see the utility of dishwashers for single people or couples who don't cook, but honestly I haven't found them very useful myself.

Also if you get proper bluetooth headphones and enjoy podcasts, washing dishes can become one of your favorite activities, like mine.

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

#347

Studying Russian. What a beautiful language and culture. I just love to listen about Russian culture and history. Their museums have wonderful social media channels.

Any resources you’d recommend for someone interested in doing this?

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

#349

The people in a country that has outsized influence in the country I live in came to their senses and voted out their leader. Other than politics my 11-year old son understanding the Roblox API, and 8-year old daughter topping her class in reading and spelling.

> The people in a country that has outsized influence in the country I live in came to their senses and voted out their leader.

As one of the people in said country, this was one of the highlights of my year as well.

Post reply on HN