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

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501–510 of 545 posts

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

#501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

isn't it harder to socialize when you're not surrounded by people in gyms, an office, and so on? I personally would put that above home ownership, especially while I don't have a family.

I don't think that stuff is available in a city during Covid lockdown.

why are you assuming that lockdown is going to last forever?

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

#502
post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

isn't it harder to socialize when you're not surrounded by people in gyms, an office, and so on? I personally would put that above home ownership, especially while I don't have a family.

Are those socialisations meaningful though? If so, you could meet those people elsewhere. If not, why waste time on them instead of actual meaningful friendships?

because friendships start as acquaintanceships?

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

#503

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…

Similar to this, I've picked up photography and have started watching and following a number of POV street photography videos. It's a similar concept, except there's sometimes dialogue about what's going both in the environment and in the photography.

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

#504

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why not go out for a walk yourself? as somebody who spends a lot of time in nature it's hard to grasp how sitting more in front of a screen can improve the mood. or perhaps I got it wrong and OP isn't working in Tech and screen time actually means being not at work? not judging what makes you happy (that would be stupid on many levels) but genuinely wondering if you don't need the endorphines and flowing juices of at…

In lots of northern climates, going out for a walk during winter sucks. It's cold, dark and slippery. The winter landscape is cool to look at for a few days sure but after that it just becomes depressing.

This. I live in the American Midwest. I absolutely hate the winters here. If you're the subset of people who love winter sports it can be great, but I can't bring myself to enjoy them despite living here my whole life.

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

#505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

why not go out for a walk yourself? as somebody who spends a lot of time in nature it's hard to grasp how sitting more in front of a screen can improve the mood. or perhaps I got it wrong and OP isn't working in Tech and screen time actually means being not at work? not judging what makes you happy (that would be stupid on many levels) but genuinely wondering if you don't need the endorphines and flowing juices of at…

The weird thing is, these kinds of videos actually stress me out, because they remind me of the fact that I'm sitting in my tiny apartment watching someone else getting out and seeing the world. The more I watch, the more I ask myself: is this ever going to end? Am I going to break out of this preexisting bubble of just being content with what's on my screen, a mentality that I'd already lived out for years before th…

Unless you had a specific career you wanted to pursue in Japan, why not focus on Western companies with offices in Japan instead? The culture is closer to that of Western culture supposedly, so you may not need to deal with the idiosyncrasies. Or you could just do fully remote internet-based work. Lots of tech work can work just fine entirely remote and on an entirely different timezone

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

#506
post #155

Earlier 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…

Perhaps, though peak/off-peak makes no difference in time for me. It would reduce the busyness but I was generally able to sit anyway. Even then, I am _forced_ to sit and read (/scroll) for that amount of time a day, at set times while I could be doing things that are far better for my mental and physical health. (or just more fun, fun is underrated these days)

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

#507
post #457

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t agree. You need to eat to not die before you need sex.

Yes. But given the choice, in non life or death situation. Between sex and food. People would pick way more sex than food. What I mean is that sex is easier to reach for than food when a person is bored. Just like heroin is more potent than aspirin. Also it has been proven that both sex and heroin stimulate pleasure parts of the brain.

> Yes. But given the choice, in non life or death situation. Between sex and food. People would pick way more sex than food.

Ever notice how folks have sex less frequently when they're in relationships and as they grow older? Where the opportunities for sex exist in multitudes? Yet they never stop eating. You can live without sex, you can't live without food. The drive for the two are not comparable.

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

#508

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.

It is seriously so gratifying to make. It's also really nice to be able to share it with friends/family. I think post-covid, I'd like to share with neighbours as well.

Try mixing gochujang with it after the autolyse step, it adds a wonderful aroma and depending on how much you put in a nice kick too!

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

#509

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity: whereabouts in the Himalayas are you located? We've been looking for nice places off the beaten path and are always looking for inspiration.

I live in Sikkim. Temi to be more accurate, it is a small village. It is just below a well-known tea estate. If you search for Temi Tea, Sikkim, you will get a good idea. The tea is one of the best export quality tea from India.

Looks like a wonderful place! How I wish that people from outside of Sikkim could acquire property there - it's one of our favourite states in India.

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

#510
As silly as it is at my age, the weekly D&D game I run. After taking a hiatus from gaming for almost a decade, about a year before the pandemic I bought the newest edition books on a whim and got a game together. It's the highlight of my week. I feel pretty good considering all the folks playing in the game have been impacted by COVID in some way (ER Nurses, National Guardsmen) and they have all told me at various times that the game keeps them sane.

Going back to school has been great too. Many years ago I was told I would never make it as a programmer and I should never even attempt Computer Science (great academic advisors I tell you). Well, I finally decided I was sick of people telling me what I am capable of and after being a programmer for the last 12 years I decided I wanted that CS degree. Not because I somehow think it will change my work life much, but because I want the personal knowledge and growth. Needless to say I have enjoyed everything I've been learning and the things I was told would hold me back haven't even once been an issue.

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