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Ask HN: Have you ever had a changed-your-life moment?

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Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had a changed-your-life moment?

#181

Post by sowbug »

golly_ned wrote: post #148
sowbug wrote: post #142

Three. 1. Saw an ad in 1980 for a Radio Shack TRS-80 for $499. Suddenly understood that computers were more real than the spinning tape reels shown in movies. Started learning BASIC at the local Radio Shack while my mom was grocery shopping next door. Got offered programming jobs at least twice during those sessions (or maybe they were child predators). I've been exchanging code for money for the 40+ years since. 2.…

What was the thing that was trying to kill you?

A German Shepherd dog. It had been trained to attack, and while I'd never witnessed this myself, supposedly the owner trained it on smaller live creatures. Obviously this was the neighborhood house that we avoided -- the owner was even surlier than the dog -- but it was on the way from my house to the local store, and where I lived there was basically one road, so I didn't always have a choice. That road's speed limit was 50 miles per hour, which also made it dangerous to walk. This will become relevant in a moment.

One day I was walking back from the store, and I froze as I realized the dog's chain-link gate had been left open. The dog was in its yard, eyes locked on me. The road separated it and me. It began charging toward me. I was too afraid to take my eyes off it, let alone start running. It reached the road, still coming straight for me. As it approached the dotted yellow dividing line in the road, I remember hearing the dog's nails hitting the pavement, and sensing that it was changing its stride, as if it were preparing to leap. I remained petrified.

Next thing I knew, the dog was nothing but entrails. A speeding car killed it. I remember seeing the back of the driver's head through the rear windshield. He didn't even look back. He just kept going. A moment before I was sure I'd be killed, but now there was just me, intact but scared, and a still-settling spray of animal parts in front of me.

Sorry for leaving that out on the first post. I was trying to keep each part short.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had a changed-your-life moment?

#182

Post by fragmede »

Catching Covid in March of 2020, before vaccines were available totally changed my trajectory. I suffered permanent damage to my body. I'm disabled now. I'm trying my hardest to manage my acquired disability, but the worst thing out of all of my problems is that when I try and share my lived experience, close friends that disbelieve me really hurt.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had a changed-your-life moment?

#183

Post by tartoran »

anonymous_goat wrote: post #93
CalRobert wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it's worth, my relationship with both of my parents improved dramatically when they got divorced. I was 10.

While that is an absolute possibility, the statistics give that outcome a much lesser chance than fucking up the children in one way or another. Nice to hear it went for the better for you! :) So far, we manage quite well - although my children obviously know something's wrong with me and we talked about my depression symptoms (without telling them the reason), we manage to keep our kids out of our problems.

Your story is quite messed up, your partner is responsible for ruining your trust and your wellbeing. And it seems to me that this one time slip up for 6 months is something that is no accident but says something fundamental about your partner. Not sure what you could do now and you’re right about being depressed about it. But life throws you a curveball and things may end up in a totally different unexpected place and it could totally turn out for the better, you never know. Also, learn to be a bit selfish and love yourself some more.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had a changed-your-life moment?

#184

Post by mod »

I started college and on the second day, I totaled my car because someone ran a stop sign in front of me.

I had just secured a room to rent because the local college apartments wouldn't approve my dad's credit. I had to get a job immediately, so I really couldn't stay.

I went home, and never did go back.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had a changed-your-life moment?

#186

Post by q7xvh97o2pDhNrh »

CalRobert wrote: post #31

In 2012 I bought a book called "Getting Out: Your Guide to Leaving America". It had a chapter on how to move to (almost) every country in the world. Nothing seemed practical, I didn't have the skills and there was a recession. But in the end there were some interviews with people who had left, and there was a throwaway line: "I got a working holiday visa for Ireland" I didn't even know working holiday visas existed!…

Ah, just another classic example of how much the details matter when parsing JSON. ;)

Very cool story. It's funny how little decisions can ripple out into huge changes to a life trajectory. I suppose the art of it all is to occasionally make a few good little decisions -- and ride the momentum when you do. Glad yours worked out!

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had a changed-your-life moment?

#187

Post by jiggywiggy »

bbkane wrote: post #122
jiggywiggy wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait till you get them ;). Sort of joking. I know the feeling, also had that. Getting them is very different from this high, but probably even more worth it. Although you will be more tired and busy then ever before.

I just finished feeding my first baby, and I'm not sure when I'll have time for anything else again.

Yet in the end you will be more effective and get more done then ever before :).

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had a changed-your-life moment?

#188

Post by coldtea »

nicolas_t wrote: post #75
coldtea wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In many cases you don't even need a "working holiday visa" to go and live somewhere else. E.g. if you have a remote job, you can just travel to a third country and work from there. Most countries just require that you get out for a few days per 3 or 6 months (which can be just visiting a nearby country, staying in a hotel, and returning) to renew your plain tourist visa.

I'd be careful with this. I've done that in the past in Malaysia, going through the border from Malaysia to Thailand every 3 months.. Eventually when I took a plan from the airport to travel somewhere else, I got questioned by immigration because of the patterns of staying 3 months and then leaving for a few days. They asked me how I could finance my stays and told me that any work I was doing while in Malaysia remot…

>I do think it works well but it's not a long term plan and if you do it, you must plan with potentially being denied entry eventually.

First, absolutely, the latter can happen at some point.

Second, however, I know tons of people that did it just fine with no issue for years.

YMMV

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had a changed-your-life moment?

#189

Post by ducharmdev »

confp wrote: post #40

When my dad died, shortly followed by my mum. It really made me realise the futility of life. Since then, it's been ten years or so, and I look forward to being dead. Not for any religious, spiritual purpose, but just to get all this life nonsense out of the way. It will be much easier to not exist any more.

This reminds me of a section towards the end of Plato's Apology:

> ...there is great reason to hope that death is a good, for one of two things: - either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if you suppose that there is no consciousness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed even by the sight of dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain. For if a person were to select the night in which his sleep was undisturbed even by dreams, and were to compare with this the other days and nights of his life, and then were to tell us how many days and nights he had passed in the course of his life better and more pleasantly than this one, I think that any man, I will not say a private man, but even the great king, will not find many such days or nights, when compared with the others. Now if death is like this, I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a single night.

Re: Ask HN: Have you ever had a changed-your-life moment?

#190

Post by solarmist »

zak-wrench wrote: post #180

Three. First was when i was 19, I took a year off after highschool and went to a new town to study and accumule as much knowledge on physics, until one day when my roommate brought some hump, i took some of it as I was about to watch "the social network" and made me switch from physics to spending the rest of the year learning c++, and eventually getting an engineering degree on systems informations. Second and third…

> I found myself in an "interesting" position where I had to reshape my identity from scratch.

What did you end up doing about it?

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