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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?

#371

Post by jeffreyrogers »

testfoobar wrote: post #43

Such a pandemic cliche: making sourdough bread. Takes all day. Took about 3 or 4 tries until I got the hang of it. Now I make two loaves every weekend. Tastier than anything I've bought at a store. Started with Serious Eats: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2020/07/how-to-make-sour... Settled at Tartine Country Bread: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016277-tartines-country... Makes me happy every time.

I think this is the same recipe for Tartine Country Bread but not paywalled: https://tartinebakery.com/stories/country-bread

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

#372

Post by brundolf »

Taking short windows of time to breathe and not think about anything at all. Unrelenting sources of daily stress - even small ones in the back of your head - prevent you from ever releasing the big stuff and throw a shade over everything else in your life. Spending 30 minutes sitting outside, with zero expectations or stressful thoughts allowed, can turn my entire day around. Sometimes multiple days.

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

#373

Post by bpodgursky »

jhrozek wrote: post #54
bpodgursky wrote: post #6

Wife gave birth to a healthy child.

Congratulations! It’s funny to see your comment downvoted while just above a comment that says “dog” is not and gets a bunch of enthusiastic replies. HN demographics I guess?

It's a weird place.

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

#374

Post by jvm_ »

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…

Whenever I come across a picture of a location that looks cool, whether it be a castle/ruin/beach/city. I search Youtube for 'place name walking tour' and then filter by Long videos.

Usually gets some good results. Sometimes the camera person is too chatty, but you can always mute them.

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

#375

Post by drchickensalad »

asiachick wrote: post #184

Off 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.…

I feel you, friend. I've had every single experience you have. Although, I've burned out a bit on online gaming. I really just need to see my friends again to refuel my energy...

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

#376

Post by eskimobloood »

phreeza wrote: post #290
eskimobloood wrote: post #147

Buying a pen plotter last summer was one of the best decision for a while. As I start my journey into programming with generative art, using macromedia director and processing, I always wanted to be able to create my on physical prints. So for the last months I got back to have fun writing code in my spare time. Some examples: https://twitter.com/eskimobloood/status/1366300689652187140 https://twitter.com/eskimoblooo…

What is this ptpx process? Some kind of postcard exchange? Looks fun, is there more info somewhere?

Yes, stands for plotter twitter postcard exchange. I think there is no real info online. It was organized by Paul Butler[1] on twitter. In the end you but your info into an google sheet and he organized sending out emails with the addresses for your postcards to send to.

[1]https://twitter.com/paulgb

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

#379

Post by DyslexicAtheist »

rmvt wrote: post #323
DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Why be happy when you can be interesting" -- Slavoj Žižek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U88jj6PSD7w

interesting. as someone who's been feeling extremely unhappy lately, i often wonder if most of us don't actually revel in our own misery to a certain extent.

> i often wonder if most of us don't actually revel in our own misery to a certain extent.

I know I do.

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

#380

Post by allannienhuis »

throwawaybbqed wrote: post #351
jmfldn wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Working from home. I realised being in an office - especially an open-plan office - was setting off my social anxiety all the time." This! It's been such a game changer for me too. My career has been turbo charged over the last year. The change has been so dramatic that I won't switch to a company that doesnt have a remote-first policy. I'll forego money and promotion opportunities for it. The stress and anxiety red…

I'd like to point out that as a manager, my stress and anxiety level have gone through the roof during this WFH period. As I was an IC for many years, I completely see your point but I'd like to point out the other side. I've talked to several other managers in my org, and I am not alone. Some part of it may be that older people (who are likely to be in management) are more likely to have kids (which led to untenable…

I have been a manager and manager-of-managers for quite a few years (many of which were WFH), and IC now. I'm curious about your statement that some might look at the behaviour describe above as "phoning it it"? I didn't see anything in their description that said anything about getting less done or putting less time in or not being available when needed. Maybe I'm misreading something.

I agree that remote management has very different challenges than remote IC - certainly you're likely to spend a lot more time talking with people so less-than-ideal WFH circumstances would be harder.

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