Last week I learned that Sextus Empiricus argued that learning is impossible.
Ask HN: What did you learn last week?
31–40 of 55 posts
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn last week?
#32I learned that my dad isn't my father. He didn't even know he wasn't my father. My mom passed away a few years ago and took this secret to the grave with her. I took an Ancestry.com DNA to try to answer the question of: "what, in my ancestry, if anything, results in me not being able to tan well at all?" (compared to my mother/father). In doing so, I was also greeted with another surprise: my mother happened to do on…
My father always knew his "father" was not his biological father, but it wasn't until a couple years ago (when he was in his mid-60s) that he was able to find and connect with the half-brothers and -sisters he never knew he had, from the family his bio-father made after he left my father's mother and never looked back.
At any rate, how did your father take the news?
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn last week?
#33Last week felt like I finally understand how webauthn and passkeys work - now my auth server has a "passwordless" login flow https://github.com/authcompanion/authcompanion2
Was there anything in particular that made this click for you? If you have any resources to share I'd love to see them.
Guide to Web Authentication - https://webauthn.guide/
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn last week?
#34Dig dive into OpenStreetMap ecosystem by reading weeklyOSM archives.
[1] : https://weeklyosm.eu
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn last week?
#35I finally understood the difference between references and pointers and now the reason for Box pointers in Rust makes more sense.
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn last week?
#36I learned that my dad isn't my father. He didn't even know he wasn't my father. My mom passed away a few years ago and took this secret to the grave with her. I took an Ancestry.com DNA to try to answer the question of: "what, in my ancestry, if anything, results in me not being able to tan well at all?" (compared to my mother/father). In doing so, I was also greeted with another surprise: my mother happened to do on…
My father always knew his "father" was not his biological father, but it wasn't until a couple years ago (when he was in his mid-60s) that he was able to find and connect with the half-brothers and -sisters he never knew he had, from the family his bio-father made after he left my father's mother and never looked back. At any rate, how did your father take the news?
The situation you describe is the one I'm curious to avoid.
My old man was sort of "bah humbug" about it all. He wasn't necessarily "surprised" that my mom would do such a thing, but still "surprised" — eyes wide open, shaking-of-the-head.
My mom was notoriously sneaky, though her legend is prototypically more tame than this: "oh look at this cat I found on the sidewalk that was lost!", or "this dog was going to be put down if someone didn't take it."
My favorite story though is that when they (my mom/dad) went on a week-long canoe trip: your pack is usually heavy when you start and is supposed to get lighter as you go — you know, from the food you eat. Well, my dad noticed his was not getting any lighter as the trip went on. Fast-forward a few weeks, my mom is out working in the yard and my dad goes out to get something when he notices some really particular rocks that match at all with the existing rocks that were laid.
Little did he know he carried in his pack during their canoe trip.
The rest of the day (I broke the news to him shortly after lunch hour) we spent the day chuckling about "how 'Jeanine' it is [of a situation]" — Jeanine being my mother. We found common ground there if nothing else.
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn last week?
#37I learned not to trust any home services contractors' word. Have been left out to dry by 3 of them in one week after confirming appointments a day or two before. On the flipside, I learned how not to paint walls, i.e. learned doing it the wrong way. I learned a sump-pump advertised to pump 500 gal water per hour will take 3-4 days to pump the muck out of my swimming pool in 4-5 days, i,.e. not to trust those ratings.
I’ve had this in the past year as well. I don’t get it. They may be really busy but it seems like bad customer service on their end.
The ones that either don’t return calls or emails or just don’t show, I’m never reaching out to them in the future and I’m never recommending them. But maybe it will never matter?
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn last week?
#38Went through The Art of Prolog and Prolog starts clicking on.
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn last week?
#39I learned that I put my faith and trust in some people who were never sincere and were simply using me.
Sometimes you flock to someone because you see them being kind, considerate, and overall a strong leader.
It turns out that some people know how to fake these qualities. They’ll use you, and while you look up to them, they see you as a pawn in a chess game.
Assuming that people make mistakes and everyone actually just means “well” or has good intentions, it’s extremely naive. People will sell you that shit and take advantage of you.
I got gaslighted enough times and finally saw what was happening.
Re: Ask HN: What did you learn last week?
#40I learned that it's ok to be working a job or on something just because it can be stable and it pays the bills. I think I've looked to work maybe too much for purpose, and if you're not working for yourself it's going to be very hard to find fulfillment when doing that.
So basically learned to be ok with not seeing work as a purpose driver for me at the moment.