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Merry Christmas, HN

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Re: Merry Christmas, HN

#151

Post by Smaug123 »

Smaug123 wrote: post #147
theboywho wrote: post #51

Can someone please explain to me what’s special about Christmas for those who celebrate ? Is it special symbolically ? To me it feels like you get to see your family and maybe have 2-3 days off, which is something most people do many times a year, usually during the weekends.

There's no date or time which is objectively special, of course. Historical accident has simply given many societies a common period in the middle of Northern hemisphere winter in which we band together to banish the cold and darkness for a time, to remember that light and warmth will come, and to take some time (however brief) away from the constant cruel work that survival requires. Of course, many people don't nee…

(Also, go and read "Hogfather", by Terry Pratchett. As I seem to remember Yudkowsky said, though presumably in much better wording, Terry Pratchett's death is all the reason you could need to resolve to end death forever. Hogfather, in particular, I think is one of his crowning works and I sometimes choke up a bit just thinking about the book.)

Re: Merry Christmas, HN

#153

Post by maxrf »

Pephers wrote: post #130
sen wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know a single person who still used a real tree. The artificial ones look incredible these days and are infinitely more sustainable, less messy, look better longer, and can be chosen to suit the room perfectly. If you’re a nerd like me you can even embed them with WS2812 RGBs and an ESP32 WLED controller, which would be way too much effort for a temporary “real” tree.

I don’t believe a Christmas tree made from fossil fuels is more sustainable than my certified organic Christmas tree grown less than 5 km from my home. That being said I know most trees are sprayed regularly, then wrapped in plastic netting and transported long distances to a Christmas market.

that made me wonder about lifetime cost - I've just donated my wood, wire & ff-plastic tree of 20 years to another home, I don't have an answer tho' ...

Re: Merry Christmas, HN

#155

Post by cmeacham98 »

cmeacham98 wrote: post #149
ellis0n wrote: post #97

I'm from Ukraine. This is the hardest Christmas I've ever had in my life. Because of the war, they had to move to a safe place and constantly incur large expenses. Unfortunately, the war ruined all plans to launch my startup and a programming language that would help people be more smart and free, which I have been doing for 10 years. I tried to work on a startup while working at work, but the problems associated wit…

Suggestion: Given that you live in Ukraine I assume English isn't your first language, but but find someone who's a native speaker (or as good) and have them proofread your website. If you can't find anybody, at least run it through a software spell/grammar checker. I spotted two typos about 15 seconds in ("so peoples gets mobility" and "imediatelly") and that will put people off a lot because it makes the project fe…

Additional feedback ignoring the first impression issues:

Download link being TestFlight is ... not ideal.

The website is super vague? What exactly is your app? It seems to be a mobile IDE for your proprietary programming language?

Committing to a new language, _especially_ a proprietary language where the only IDE is on iOS is a HUGE choice. You need way more details on why someone should choose this over learning Objective-C/Swift. See, for example, Rust's homepage that explains the advantages Rust brings: https://www.rust-lang.org/

Your pricing structure is vague and it's not exactly clear what the value-add of the paid products are. What does it mean to have a "Verified account"? Is this also a social network?

Re: Merry Christmas, HN

#156

Post by ellis0n »

cmeacham98 wrote: post #149
ellis0n wrote: post #97

I'm from Ukraine. This is the hardest Christmas I've ever had in my life. Because of the war, they had to move to a safe place and constantly incur large expenses. Unfortunately, the war ruined all plans to launch my startup and a programming language that would help people be more smart and free, which I have been doing for 10 years. I tried to work on a startup while working at work, but the problems associated wit…

Suggestion: Given that you live in Ukraine I assume English isn't your first language, but but find someone who's a native speaker (or as good) and have them proofread your website. If you can't find anybody, at least run it through a software spell/grammar checker. I spotted two typos about 15 seconds in ("so peoples gets mobility" and "imediatelly") and that will put people off a lot because it makes the project fe…

Thanks for the answer. Totally agree, the site is still a draft, because there were not enough resources and it was the last in the task queue. This is a big project built from scratch. There is still no application in the app store and no marketing for this site. I am also making a second site with a description and documentation of the programming language. I will definitely correct this and probably will immediately check for grammatical errors.

Re: Merry Christmas, HN

#158

Post by tobinfekkes »

shlorn wrote: post #124
labrador wrote: post #58

In case you're homeless and living in your car rejected by everyone you love because you can't stop drinking, but temporarily holed up in a roadside motel over Christmas with a case of vodka... that was me. It gets better. I now have 5 years sobriety, but I'll never forget that despair I felt and how my mind was in a loop thinking about killing myself. I've put a temp email in my profile in case you want to reach out…

I have my health, a career and I have my parents but this has been the hardest of holiday seasons. While I'm blessed, I feel like I'm falling behind peers who are are in serious relationships and starting families of their own; guess it's one of the first times I've felt lonely and the world/reality closing in. This thread has been a good read; to me its a reminder to charish what I have and remember to look forward…

3 years ago, at my family's Christmas dinner, I shared that my wife had separated and filed for divorce. Worst Christmas ever. I didn't eat anything, threw up, and don't remember much apart from being depressed, angry, and confused.

I just got remarried this year and can confirm that tomorrow will be better if you allow those that love you to help, and choose long term betterment and stability over short term fixing happiness.

Re: Merry Christmas, HN

#160

Post by rubicon33 »

didgetmaster wrote: post #99
labrador wrote: post #58

In case you're homeless and living in your car rejected by everyone you love because you can't stop drinking, but temporarily holed up in a roadside motel over Christmas with a case of vodka... that was me. It gets better. I now have 5 years sobriety, but I'll never forget that despair I felt and how my mind was in a loop thinking about killing myself. I've put a temp email in my profile in case you want to reach out…

You don't have to 'hit rock bottom' to have temporary times of despair in your life. Even if you have a lot of things going for you, we all have times when we feel sad, depressed, lonely, in a rut, overwhelmed, or other negative emotions. If you find yourself in one of those times, convince yourself that it is only temporary and look for the good. Help someone else out because serving others will give you a boost. Su…

I'm one of those people that from a young age gave religion a bad rap.

The problem is nobody ever told me about its utility. I was just dragged to church every Sunday and occasionally lectured on God / etc. It was really easy for a young mind to get cynical about it especially amongst a family that was very preachy.

I wish someone had said "whether or not you believe in THIS god, there is utility in believing in SOMETHING higher than yourself. When you grow up, and are deep into your work life, there will be dark days when you will have nothing that can comfort you, other than the belief that things will get better, and that someone or some thing is more in control than you think".

I wish someone had explained that there is immense utility in the community of religion. That you could end up in your 30s without much of a broad social community. Sure friends, sure family, but not really belonging to any community bigger than those (other than work).

I feel like the religious people around me as a youth really failed. There IS actually a good reason to have a faith. It doesn't have to be because you're afraid of going to hell. There's actual utility in it, mental utility.

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