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Ask HN: What is your new year's resolution?

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Re: Ask HN: What is your new year's resolution?

#381

Post by robin_reala »

jkmcf wrote: post #295
robin_reala wrote: post #162

Mine is to get better at my adopted country’s language. My Swedish is conversational, but not much more. So at a minimum I’m going to reread my grammar books, and attempt a couple of novels.

I'd love to hear more about how Sweden became your adopted country and how the social aspect has been. I've read that it's hard for newcomers to make friends.

Left the UK post-Brexit, and my partner’s Swedish which made the choice of where to go easy. Social aspect isn’t easy, but I’ve made a bunch of acquaintances through work and a handful of close(ish) friends too. Really it’s down to you to work at it.

If you’re interested in Sweden, https://reddit.com/r/TillSverige can help. But with the latest government it’s only going to get harder, unfortunately.

Re: Ask HN: What is your new year's resolution?

#384

Post by slothtrop »

alberto7 wrote: post #314
bradhe wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something paradoxical about wishing to create more information and simultaneously wishing to consume less of it.

Except information is never really "consumed", more like "copied and integrated".

By that rationale, entertainment media is not consumed.

Re: Ask HN: What is your new year's resolution?

#385

Post by slothtrop »

rex_lupi wrote: post #230
bradhe wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something paradoxical about wishing to create more information and simultaneously wishing to consume less of it.

Nothing paradoxical. Creation and consumption are two opposite things. Creation requires active brainpower. Passively consuming what others have already created just devoids one's brain of the creative powers.

I think this misses the point the other user probably tried to make.

Yes, it can be good to bias towards taking action particularly when passive consumption is the prevailing habit. That need not take the form of creating more fodder for consumption, which can appear redundant. Absent all the niceties of modern life that deliver the means of this consumption, people in general were not full-bore creatives (I believe this is consistent even if you account for leisure time).

Re: Ask HN: What is your new year's resolution?

#386

Post by slothtrop »

jstx1 wrote: post #352
frontman1988 wrote: post #56

Not watch porn even once. I am not addicted to it or something, but want to improve my self-control.

> even once. The problem with this approach is that if you fail once, there goes the entire year. Try something like "not to do $x on 95% of days" or "go a full month without $x". An all-or-nothing strategy doesn't give you a mechanism to get back on the horse and improve.

I don't think all-or-nothing strategy is necessarily the same as restrictive cognitive restraint. You can avoid agonizing about failure and still shoot for quitting cold turkey - evidently this strategy works for some.

Re: Ask HN: What is your new year's resolution?

#387

Post by wnolens »

tmountain wrote: post #367
wnolens wrote: post #333

The most trite of goals: go to the gym. More specifically, hire a trainer and exercise outside my home. For many real and imagined reasons, my lack of a fitness routine is becoming the greatest risk to my life being miserable. I'm already in daily pain and sleep poorly.

Started working with a trainer midway through 2022, and it was a great decision. I only go to the gym 2-3 times a week, but I do supplementary workouts at home. This is a nice balance, and I highly recommend it.

Nice. Ya, I've had difficulty finding a trainer. Tried one last year but they just gave me cookie cutter workouts irrelevant to my goals. I have injuries that I need to both program around and help rehab, and someone to keep me honest. So going to try a fitness coach I think, or a small class based gym where I can get 1:1 attention.

Re: Ask HN: What is your new year's resolution?

#389

Post by slothtrop »

surprisetalk wrote: post #151
reacharavindh wrote: post #101

Stop with excuses and workout at the gym 2 times a week. Get healthier. Find a way to tame procrastination and get more things done. Consciously tell myself that it is better to do something okay than not doing because I can’t see the path to perfect. That’s it. Keep living happily with everything else.

I don't recommend trying 2 days per week. For me, doing something EVERY DAY is much easier than trying to maintain 2 a gym-day-schedule. Last year, I started doing 10 pushups every 90 minutes. It's not strict, but now I do 20 pushups whenever I transition between parts of my day. I purchased a Yesoul indoor cycle at the beginning of this year. My goal was to sit on that cursed bike for 1-minute every day. And I did.…

> I don't recommend trying 2 days per week. For me, doing something EVERY DAY is much easier than trying to maintain 2 a gym-day-schedule.

On a strength-building regimen, and accounting for time during the week, daily gym might be impractical. Normally on rest days you work on conditioning, which can usually just as easily be done at home if you're opting for cardio. At any rate some people seem to prefer daily exercise and others don't, it should be possible to stick with it either way.

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