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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?

#361

Post by MaxBarraclough »

salt-thrower wrote: post #279
certeoun wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Reminds me of stoicism. If it's outside your control, don't bother too much. Face your challenges and do the best you can, being a better you.

It is very beautiful and interesting to me that Stoics and Buddhists arrived at very similar conclusions despite being thousands of miles apart and having little to no contact.

Christianity has the same idea too, at least if you count the Serenity Prayer. Probably not an independent discovery though, I imagine its creator (a theologian) took the idea from Greek philosophy.

> God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

> courage to change the things I can,

> and wisdom to know the difference.

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer#Genuine_precur...

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

#362

Post by salt-thrower »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #361
salt-thrower wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is very beautiful and interesting to me that Stoics and Buddhists arrived at very similar conclusions despite being thousands of miles apart and having little to no contact.

Christianity has the same idea too, at least if you count the Serenity Prayer. Probably not an independent discovery though, I imagine its creator (a theologian) took the idea from Greek philosophy. > God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, > courage to change the things I can, > and wisdom to know the difference. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serenity_Prayer#Genuine_precur...

Yes, this is the most stoic/zen prayer that I've ever heard from a Christian context. I like it a lot.

Unfortunately Christianity suffers from excessive moralizing and mythology, which turns me away from it. But it definitely has lines of thought that descended from stoic thinking.

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

#363

Post by zshrdlu »

foooobaba wrote: post #41

When I was 13 I read ESR’s how to become a hacker and it changed my life.. I followed the instructions starting with c++ then linux and that’s basically how I got into coding! http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html

Ah, this one probably had more impact on me than I credit it for. Thanks for pointing it out :)

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

#364

Post by vangamoZX »

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…

Thank you. I could be in the same state than you were, possibly. Now, I'm intrigued and open to read more.

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

#365

Post by kcartlidge »

superasn wrote: post #262
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. So many enlightened people have quoted this as the one thing that matters most than anything else. I read this article "This column will change your life"[1] about an Indian philosopher named Jiddu Krishnamurti many many years ago but this passage really stuck with me: Krishnamurti went on to give coun…

In his early days Jiddu Krishnamurti was touted as the World Teacher by the Theosophists who 'discovered' and trained him. They made him the main guy of the Order of the Star. Then he stood up at a convention of about 3,000 members and disbanded the whole thing, abandoning the role they'd prepared. He said:

> I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path.

I can't remember the article/blog post now but it was a commentary on that one quote, which led to further reading of his books and a certain view on life (I appreciate the irony/contradiction given the quote, and I'm not a 'follower' of his).

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

#366

Post by derangedHorse »

geocar wrote: post #360
meowface wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If not, could you explain why you’re giving your opinion? I'm not a researcher or a scientist of any kind. I know very little about aphantasia, and don't experience it myself or know anyone who does (besides one podcaster I listen to). I simply suspect that some percentage of people who report aphantasia may not actually have it, based on dozens of peoples' self-reports that I've read before. Subjective experiences…

> Are you able to hum a song you've heard before? If so, I think that could potentially require a kind of ability to represent the song in your mind If I pay attention I can tell that a sound is higher or lower than another. I can also count. It often requires a lot of concentration (and many repeats) to hum a song I have heard. > Are you able to think about a note with some pitch frequency and then about a note with…

I think their argument may stem from the fact that they can’t remove themselves from their own frame of reference enough to understand yours. In their head, to have this abnormal diagnosis, you must either be exactly like their perspective of someone with aphantasia, or be someone who just doesn’t understand that your experience is just like theirs.

The problem with having a diagnosis like this is that a lot of people won’t understand what it’s like to not have the characteristics we take for granted to the point that it seems unreal. To avoid accepting that the scale of people who have experiences that they’ll never be able to understand is bigger than they imagine (and avoid cognitive dissonance), they must invalidate your experience.

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

#368

Post by the_jeremy »

jlengrand wrote: post #64

I don't know if they changed my life, but they did literally made a big impact in how I value myself for sure. That led to 3x salary raise over time and how I interact with my day job. Both from patio11 * How to negotiate salary : https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/ * Don't call yourself a programmer : https://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/10/28/dont-call-yourself-a-pr...

During my last round of interviews, I chose to spew out salary numbers. This is because I exclusively interviewed with recruiters who reached out on LinkedIn (sometimes you have to know your limits on how much effort you're willing to put in while employed).

I found a recruiter who was reasonably decent (placed a friend of mine). I asked what top-of-band for my YOE in my COL seemed to be, and he said $130k-$140k. I then gave $150k as my requirement to all future companies. Too many were saying yes, so I upped it to $170k, then $190k, then at $200k I only got one bite. (Caveat: of course I asked for numbers from them first - when the recruiter was unwilling, depending on my mood I would say I wasn't willing to proceed further without a comp range, or I would give out my desired number and see what they said.)

I might have missed out on companies willing to offer $200k while earlier in this process, but about half of the recruiters reaching out were positions offering $100k, and I was unwilling to waste that much time in interviews for jobs I didn't want.

In case anyone wants to know how it ended, I told my current company (paying $120k) that I was in final interview rounds for $200k and I wanted to quit to focus on studying for interviews. They offered me $200k to stay and I accepted.

TL;DR: Interviews take a long time. If you're some rando on LinkedIn and they're some random company you've never heard of, it's not worth assuming they'll be able to pay you enough and going through the process.

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

#369

Post by sydthrowaway »

mxstbr wrote: post #233

patio11's classic post on negotiation: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2012/01/23/salary-negotiation/ I almost doubled my compensation in large part thanks to it for one of my positions. I increased: + Base salary by $75k + Signing bonus by $35k (from $0) + Stock options by $100k total (standard four year vesting, so $25k per year) If you're a knowledge worker in a sought-after field, particularly in the current environmen…

Can you tldr it?

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

#370

Post by joshxyz »

MrPowers wrote: post #69

How to Start a Startup by Paul Graham: http://www.paulgraham.com/start.html Specifically this line "So if you want to invest two years in something that will help you succeed in business, the evidence suggests you'd do better to learn how to hack than get an MBA." I spent 5 years building a good business school resume and this post encouraged me to try out programming instead. The flexibility of a programming job let…

those essays were really something. still grateful he wrote those.
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