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Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#191

Post by packetlost »

JackFr wrote: post #165
packetlost wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quality of consumption is different for sure, but I would argue that certain areas of reddit are of high value to my job, hobbies, etc. and Moby Dick is of little value those areas and quality of life in general. You could perhaps make arguments about historical value, context, or benefits to reading comprehension, but at the end of the day, reading anything is about only as good as the information you're taking…

I would argue that reading Moby Dick is of value to your quality of life in general. Good fiction speaks to the human condition and can help us live our lives more fully.

I will respectfully disagree that it leads to a more 'full life' for everyone. People have different perspectives, values, etc. and that type of experience is purely subjective. I personally think it's of some value, but not as much as some other content.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#192

Post by NoOneNew »

ValentineC wrote: post #4

I like re-reading this once every few months, and taking stock of how little I've internalised it: https://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-y...

Out of every post here so far, this is by far the best. It also aged like fine wine. Probably more poignant now than ever. I totally see this as a good occasional slap in the face every few months to re-analysis yourself.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#193

Post by ryandrake »

I know Slate Star Codex already gets a lot of attention here, but Meditations on Moloch [1] helped me to stop being a libertarian. I was already well along the way of abandoning those politics, but that blog post, especially the arguments about multi-polar traps was the final nail in the coffin.

I think the past two years has provided even more evidence that simply letting people act however they want based on self-interest and relying on Nash for good outcomes can even be deadly.

1: https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#194

Post by buddhistdude »

zxlk21e wrote: post #176
ema wrote: post #128

7 years ago I had just aborted an internship, my foray into being an employed adult, because I found myself unable to deal with disagreements. Contrary to my naive hope that the confidence boost from being a Professional Software Developer(tm) would solve all my emotional problems I now knew that my limitations would follow me around anywhere I would go. But I had no idea how to change and was too stuck in my own anx…

> It dawned on me that my attempt at completely controlling my life had, in fact, caused me to lose control over it. Could you possibly unpack this for me a little bit? It strikes me as absolutely true for me, too, or at least sounds like it could be true, but I'm pulling at a thread I can't quite grasp.

Why do you need to understand this sentence? So that you can use that new knowledge to alter the set of concepts that you have of life, ideally improving them, so that you are more able to control your life, to steer it in a better direction? Because you want to be alright? The point is to let go

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#195

Post by jmfldn »

Bill Joy "Why the future doesn't need us" https://www.wired.com/2000/04/joy-2/amp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Why_The_Future_Doesn%27t_Need_...

A very famous blog post by Bill Joy on the dangers of rapid technological change. Rather then dismiss fears over exponential tech he takes the claims seriously and tries to reason about them. He even factors anarcho-primitivism into his analysis which is as far away as you can get from Silicon Valley views which he obviously eptimomises being the founder of Sun Microsystems.

I love it as its a truly open minded attempt to consider the potential existensial risk of tech and the deep, big picture, philosophical implications of technological progress. It's just so different to what most Silicon Valley luminaries talk about which are often full of certainty about our glorious future.

It resonates with me a lot as I often feel like a bit of an outsider as a technologist and software engineer who has the odd sleepless night about where it's all heading. This quote haunts me...

"I have always believed that making software more reliable, given its many uses, will make the world a safer and better place; if I were to come to believe the opposite, then I would be morally obligated to stop this work. I can now imagine such a day may come."

For me that day has not come but I feel that moral obligation more as I get older so I think I'm on the same page as Bill here.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#197

Post by danaos »

snarf21 wrote: post #114

I agree with others, there is no one thing that is going to change your life. You get there via experience. Experiencing the consequences at 30 of something may feel profound despite the fact your parents told you the same thing 100 times as a youth. My advice is this: Introspection is a super power. The more you take the time to step back and reevaluate all of your actions/assumptions in life, the more you will be a…

> Corollary, if you are going to have regrets, regret doing something, don't regret not doing it.

I need a time machine...

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#198

Post by inasio »

mrob wrote: post #18

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2014/07/instant-pot-el... If you see cooking primarily as a means of getting nutrients rather than a hobby, I very strongly recommend getting an electric pressure cooker. It greatly simplifies cooking because it's automated. Just add the ingredients, close the lid, press a button, and wait. You will get a perfectly cooked one-pot meal with minimum effort. You can even mix fresh a…

Sous vide for all the hype has had similar benefits for me. Some recipes can take a long time, but same as on an electric pressure cooker things are completely automated and hands off. There's no need to monitor or stir, and the results are always great and always repeatable. Chicken breasts are always perfect, salmon, steak, etc... (also works on some veggie recipes)

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#199

Post by itsoktocry »

LivelyTortoise wrote: post #181
mrob wrote: post #18

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2014/07/instant-pot-el... If you see cooking primarily as a means of getting nutrients rather than a hobby, I very strongly recommend getting an electric pressure cooker. It greatly simplifies cooking because it's automated. Just add the ingredients, close the lid, press a button, and wait. You will get a perfectly cooked one-pot meal with minimum effort. You can even mix fresh a…

> If you see cooking primarily as a means of getting nutrients rather than a hobby, I very strongly recommend getting an electric pressure cooker. Oh hi there! Do you have any recipes that you recommend? I actually bought an Instant Pot a couple months ago, and so far have found one great one pot meal that I cook in bulk on the weekend - basically tomatoes + sweet potatoes + peppers + beans + quinoa. Toss it all in a…

>Do you have any recipes that you recommend?

Not sure of your dietary preferences, but one of the big advantages of the Instant Pot is being able to cook cheaper, less palatable cuts of meat. It can also cook an entire frozen chicken in under an hour...

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#200

Post by meowface »

geocar wrote: post #155
beltsazar wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's even crazier is that not everyone has an internal monologue: https://www.insidemymind.me/blog/brain-stuff/today-i-learned... If aphantasia is "internally blind", this one is "internally mute and deaf". I wonder if anyone in the world has both conditions. That would be interesting to understand how they think.

I participated in the Prosopagnosia study at Imperial a few years ago. I also don't hear any internal monologue; When I think, I think in words, and it is very similar to reading. I think I can imagine sounds in my head, but it is a little like singing, or humming a tune without making noise. I believe I have the cadence and rhythm of sounds, but it's not really easy to get words that way. I can also recognise some s…

I think something's amiss here.

>I participated in the Prosopagnosia study at Imperial a few years ago. I also don't hear any internal monologue; When I think, I think in words, and it is very similar to reading.

Isn't this exactly what an internal monologue is? Lack of internal monologue would be someone who thinks only abstractly or visually, without any words.

>I think I can imagine sounds in my head, but it is a little like singing, or humming a tune without making noise. I believe I have the cadence and rhythm of sounds, but it's not really easy to get words that way.

Yes, isn't this what pretty much everyone experiences, unless they have one of these listed disorders? If you can think in words, watch a TV show and later picture what the characters look like, and listen to a song and have it get "stuck in your head", then I think you have an internal monologue and don't have aphantasia.

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