Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 110 posts

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#41

Post by pdmccormick »

dehrmann wrote: post #36
Izkata wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually find it easier to memorize the flags than to memorize the commands I created myself, because they're a lot more descriptive than short commands like in your examples. The few times I do come up with my own stuff, it's a 2+ line function (or full shell script) that can't be duplicated in a single command and can't be done as an alias.

I memorize the flags because it means I'm comfortable on any machine. Issue in production, and your aliases aren't there? No problem.

I'm curious, how much time would you say you spend on a set of personal machines, versus connecting to random hosts?

My conceptualization of "personal computing" is something more akin to a home or a garden. It's a place where I should feel comfortable and relaxed. Familiar. It's a refuge of sorts, a place where I will inevitably spend an inordinate amount of time, and actually have a lot of real life experiences reflected (through the form of personal writing). Whether working, reading or writing, I tend to think of these machine contexts really as extensions of and foils for my mind. A discoverable mind palace, if you will.

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#42

Post by anbotero »

keyle wrote: post #24
pdmccormick wrote: post #20

Over the past year, I’ve made a deliberate effort to improve my “personal computing”, which for me is about how I use the shell. I start by trying to notice when I’m doing the same task multiple times and getting tripped up on the specific syntax or sequence of commands (i.e. what’s the Git command again to split certain files out of a previous commit into a separate one?) I will then create an alias, a shell script…

Everyone does this. Otherwise you'd go bat sh*t crazy trying to remember every intricate details of common tools. also using ctrl+r and filter through older commands (ctrl+r to cycle) is also necessary for good mental health. for example alias ll="lsd --icon never -l" alias lla="lsd --icon never -l -a" # all alias llr="lsd --icon never -l -r -a" # reversed alias lls="lsd --icon never -l -r -a -S" #by size alias llt="…

I used to do this, but with fish shell unless I have very similar commands, I just type part of the whole line to something I (personally) associate it with and that’s it, that’s the command.

I press a space before commands with sensitive information so they don’t stay in my history or throwaway commands that I’m 99% sure I won’t use again.

Complicated ones I create a function for it, but I no longer carry aliases on my shell configuration, and I prefer the legibility of my commands/history.

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#43

Post by pdmccormick »

evilc00kie wrote: post #37
keyle wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone does this. Otherwise you'd go bat sh*t crazy trying to remember every intricate details of common tools. also using ctrl+r and filter through older commands (ctrl+r to cycle) is also necessary for good mental health. for example alias ll="lsd --icon never -l" alias lla="lsd --icon never -l -a" # all alias llr="lsd --icon never -l -r -a" # reversed alias lls="lsd --icon never -l -r -a -S" #by size alias llt="…

Ctrl+R is insane but sometimes I have a hard time remembering flags due to overusing it. Especially when crafting new pipelines/solving new problems. But I'd always alias some uncommon tasks and usages. Especially my quirky git ones: # get default branch alias gdefault='git remote show origin|grep -E HEAD|cut -d" " -f5' # cd to git root alias groot='cd "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)"' # Revert last unpushed commit…

Funny, I was just learning about Git revision ranges the other day, to get to something like the last one! Thanks for sharing.

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#44

Post by [deleted] »

pdmccormick wrote: post #20

Over the past year, I’ve made a deliberate effort to improve my “personal computing”, which for me is about how I use the shell. I start by trying to notice when I’m doing the same task multiple times and getting tripped up on the specific syntax or sequence of commands (i.e. what’s the Git command again to split certain files out of a previous commit into a separate one?) I will then create an alias, a shell script…

[deleted]

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#45

Post by jihiggins »

brailsafe wrote: post #29
appleiigs wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working from home really helped me. I use the Tomato/Pomodoro technique, but backwards. I let myself be distracted for 10 minutes first, then I work for 20 mins after. Distractions such as laundry, reading news come first, which relieves the feeling that I need to do something else, calms me down. Then I can do 1 work task for 20 mins. Then when I feel restless again I spend another 10 mins doing what my mind wants (…

I've been reflecting on how the last few years have been going for me, regarding my tendency to have no structure, no consistency, plenty of burnout, and no job lasting longer than a year and a half, and have consequently been reversing course on what you describe, especially now that I have medication. Long, long before I had an ADHD diagnosis, I struggled with the same pattern of working intensely for whatever amou…

I think our approaches aren't entirely dissimilar, despite the language around "impulses." e.g., I've had trouble letting myself take breaks when I feel like I'm behind at work, and it often turns into a feedback loop. For me, "following my impulses" here means letting myself off the hook for long enough to recharge. I have a cutoff for work hours (or at least, I let myself give up for the day after a certain time.) I try to spend time on things I think are valuable, but in a way that avoids constantly fighting with myself.

When I've tried Pomodoros / structured time management, the task paralysis has always shifted to encompass the techniques themselves, and I tend to easily tune out alarms.

I think it ultimately comes down to having that space for experimentation and failure

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#47

Post by sambazi »

keyle wrote: post #24
pdmccormick wrote: post #20

Over the past year, I’ve made a deliberate effort to improve my “personal computing”, which for me is about how I use the shell. I start by trying to notice when I’m doing the same task multiple times and getting tripped up on the specific syntax or sequence of commands (i.e. what’s the Git command again to split certain files out of a previous commit into a separate one?) I will then create an alias, a shell script…

Everyone does this. Otherwise you'd go bat sh*t crazy trying to remember every intricate details of common tools. also using ctrl+r and filter through older commands (ctrl+r to cycle) is also necessary for good mental health. for example alias ll="lsd --icon never -l" alias lla="lsd --icon never -l -a" # all alias llr="lsd --icon never -l -r -a" # reversed alias lls="lsd --icon never -l -r -a -S" #by size alias llt="…

> alias ss="git status"

ss is actually a 'socket stats' and will list all active connections while resolving their reverse dns name, be careful

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#48

Post by 63 »

pdmccormick wrote: post #20

Over the past year, I’ve made a deliberate effort to improve my “personal computing”, which for me is about how I use the shell. I start by trying to notice when I’m doing the same task multiple times and getting tripped up on the specific syntax or sequence of commands (i.e. what’s the Git command again to split certain files out of a previous commit into a separate one?) I will then create an alias, a shell script…

Must be nice being able to work in the same shell every day, and one you have complete control over no less. For those of us ssh-ing into uncountable remote servers all day with unprivileged accounts, it's not really a practical option unfortunately.

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#49

Post by bheadmaster »

63 wrote: post #48
pdmccormick wrote: post #20

Over the past year, I’ve made a deliberate effort to improve my “personal computing”, which for me is about how I use the shell. I start by trying to notice when I’m doing the same task multiple times and getting tripped up on the specific syntax or sequence of commands (i.e. what’s the Git command again to split certain files out of a previous commit into a separate one?) I will then create an alias, a shell script…

Must be nice being able to work in the same shell every day, and one you have complete control over no less. For those of us ssh-ing into uncountable remote servers all day with unprivileged accounts, it's not really a practical option unfortunately.

If your utilities are written as self-contained exported Bash functions, you could concatenate them all in a single file (say, `utils.sh`), with a single line at the end:

    exec /bin/bash
Then you could do something like:

    ssh hostname@address -tt bash -s
And have all your utilities available on the remote machine :)
Post reply on HN