Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?

1) "You should develop a thick skin." - advice provided by Jeff Bezos. I think it's one of the least obvious, and most important, things especially if you have a bit of ambition in life, and you need to swim with the sharks. I mention the advice here [0].

2) "Is this what you want to be remembered for?", not sure where I've read it, but it's a powerful question.

3) "It's sunny in Venezia today, stop reading HN and go for a walk". Me, just now. Half kidding... But walking is one of the most powerful things you can do to help yourself. In fact, I'm closing my computer now, and I'm going for a walk. Can't wait to see other comments when I come back later tonight.

[0]: https://simon.medium.com/jack-dorsey-meditation-and-a-tip-fr...

Similarly I think “what if I die tomorrow”? This really helps me prioritize the experience I want from life over status, money, etc.

Most of them are bullocks, made when i went crazy:

https://github.com/gizmore/anonymous-zen-book

1) If you don't know a world you can't talk about it

I had an awesome math instructor while in college named Gamal. I was in a linear algebra class with literally three other students, and at first it was a traditional lecture style class. Soon though Gamal tired of this and said "Look guys, you're going to take turns teaching these lessons". One day it was my turn to teach the lesson. I opened the textbook, started reading out of it and working an example problem on the board.

Gamal raised his hand and started asking questions about the example. I, not understanding the concepts very well, answered by reading out of the book. Gamal said "Daniel, to hell with that book. Don't tell me what the book says. Tell me what YOU know. How can we explain this with only the things we understand?"

Use what you know to figure out what you don't know. Use your own understanding instead of trying to borrow someone else's.

I went to a Vipassana retreat [1] for the 4th time in my life (over a 10 year period). It has been a while, last time since 2016. It's hard to keep up a practice, but I'm in a position to do so now that's must better suited than before. I can't go into that, since I want to keep this comment short ;-)

I've noticed a few things:

- I experience pleasant, neutral and unpleasant feelings more intensely.

- I am better capable of not reacting to my feelings (I have more choice in it). This is both needed with pleasant and unpleasant feelings as both types of feelings can come from (un)wholesome places. E.g. pleasant/unwholesome: alcohol or watching YouTube for way too long. E.g. unpleasant/wholesome: you're noticing work is boring you at the moment. You realize that you're a bit tired and could use a nap in order to feel more sharp.

- I react more intuitively to people their body language, without realizing it much myself

In short: it makes me feel more alive (quality of life has gone up) and it makes me feel more at ease around people.

There's a reason I nicknamed myself mettamage. This is the reason. Meditation (metta meditation being one of them) has changed my life so much that it has become my pseudonym on HN.

[1] https://www.dhamma.org/

Note: the practice is awesome. I'm not a fan of that they dive into Buddhist scripture that much. Fortunately, whenever they have their videos on, you can just meditate through it. More fortunately, they do mention at one of their last videos that the practice is what is important: understanding the theory that is unrelated to the practice is not important.

Examples of what I don't / do believe: I don't believe in water, fire, earth and air being the core elements of the world. I don't believe the Buddha was able to notice subatomic vibrations. However, I do think that the craving/aversion framework is a useful one. I do believe that meditation can teach you a thing or two about addiction and how to overcome it.