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Ask HN: What is the best advice you got on any aspect of life?

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51–60 of 281 posts

Re: Ask HN: What is the best advice you got on any aspect of life?

#51
post #10

Having tight positive feedback loops is great for motivation. For example when writing code, seeing immediately if it works. Either by hot reloading, automated testing or at least building it. I try to find the same in other mundane topics.

Agree, that's definitely one of the gems of wisdom from the software product world that would work in many aspects of life. Finding ways to get an MVP of something, getting feedback and iterating definitely makes one get the motivation from quick visible results, and also definitely teaches one a lesson or two about humility too.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best advice you got on any aspect of life?

#52
post #20

This is a mix of Buddhist, Hindu, and Stoic philosophy: Ask yourself this, why do you do anything? For the sake of Profit? Recognition? Love? Or return of any kind? Any deed done with reward in mind creates an expectation which, if not met, causes suffering. Similarly, you will end up focusing more on the reward than the task itself and will unable to be loyal to the task. The only reason you must do a task is becaus…

Define suffering, because the absolute of what you describe requires life with zero emotion and most would agree that a life like that would be depressing as hell. I've never met a depressed person who didn't say they were suffering.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best advice you got on any aspect of life?

#56
'a_bonobo, you're lying to yourself.'

I am an overly optimistic person and I was talking about how I believe my career will pan out and develop. They just stopped me and said that I was lying to myself, being way too optimistic, blindly assuming stuff that (relatively surely) would not happen or pan out. They were right. Sometimes you want to believe something so much, even though it has no chance of being true.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best advice you got on any aspect of life?

#57

I followed the advice of lifting weights. Before that I was feeling pretty tired of my life, barely played with my little son, was exhasuted in my work as data scientist and my personal relationships with my wife, family and friends were poor. Also I didn't had the energy to pursue my hobbies, was abusing cannabis and alcohol and had poor eating and sleeping habits. Since I started going to the gym and found this sim…

I also started on stronglifts and moved onto greyskull lp shortly after my progression stalled and I stared to lose interest:

https://physiqz.com/workout-routines/powerbuilding-programs/...

Re: Ask HN: What is the best advice you got on any aspect of life?

#58
Having a love for one's fate.

This is a common idea in Stoicism, Buddhism, Taoism, etc.

Shakespeare famously touched upon this in Hamlet:

> Why, then, 'tis none to you, for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so: to me it is a prison.

The absurdity of life is that much of our suffering is our own doing. That one has to accept this absurdity before you can find peace.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best advice you got on any aspect of life?

#59
post #15

From my mom: If in a couple there is a wide intellectual imbalance, it is not going to last long. Whether it is intelligence or curiosity or culture.

Since you're on this site, sounds like your mom doesn't want you going after beautiful dummies.

My mom told me she saw lots of beautiful dumb girls marry successful men, and then their kids were dumb as bricks.

Also to be careful with dating short women because then your boys might be short. I said okay well then by that logic you don't want to date tall women either because you might have tall girls.

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