Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#261

Post by incomingpain » Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 1:26 PM UTC

Django 5 recently came out, I put off upgrading my app until after the holidays. turns out pip doesnt even have 5 yet? Whatever version I upgraded to went smoothly.

The new SSH 0day also messed me up as I use paramiko which is vulnerable in this project. I did have some upgrade problems but that was a 1 time problem.

Said project is a ssh based network config management project.

I think this week I'm going to investigate adding bgp awareness into it.

My list of ideas, whether or not they are even viable is a big question I'm sure, could probably keep me busy the rest of the year.

Then I also have my honeypot network project which also builds a threatfeed. Though that has been online for almost 1600 hours, very stable.

Here's the thing, I've been where you are.

You are seeking a purpose. Perhaps even a life purpose?

You can be anything you want but there's 2 rules.

1. You want to do the thing which you find is as fun as video games or whatever.

2. You must try to be the very best. You may not become Tiger Woods or Gretsky, but you have to aim to be the best.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#262

Post by rubicon33 » Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 3:38 PM UTC

pillefitz wrote: post #203

rubicon33 wrote: post #106

Great question & post! I am definitely working on nothing (outside of my normal day job, of course). I used to work a normal day job and then in the evenings and weekends work furiously on side projects. One of those side projects became a business that while still around today, is probably getting shut down this year due to failure to generate revenue that exceeds its relatively minimal costs. In other words, the bu…

I believe it's freeing to try, fail, and eventually exclude life paths and gain a new focus and understanding of what's next. I don't know anything about your project, please ignore if I'm off the mark. But is it possible you spend time building something without validating it's a solution people actually need and pay for? It's very difficult to do because you have to face feedback technology doesn't provide. On the…

> But is it possible you spend time building something without validating it's a solution people actually need and pay for?

Absolutely.

The service I provide is also available in a free form, but lacks some of the features I offer. It definitely is the case that those features I offer are - apparently - not as valuable as I had hoped for the target demographic.

If I were to do this whole thing again, I would probably lead with finding product market fit, rather than blindly building something and hoping for the best.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#263

Post by maxslch » Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 4:16 PM UTC

ive been doing nothing basically over december, quit a fast paced design agency working with funded startups for 4 years, got so tired I just sat through december lol, did some travel, saw family, played sports and video games etc.

now in January I narrowed down my ideas for what to do next and main one i'm focused on right now is launching a productized agency for my services - a subscription for design services for indie makers, bootstrapped companies and early stage startups mostly

i'm actively enaging with other makers on twitter and making some connections which gives me a feeling I missed when working for the agency - I build up my own assets and value over time vs exchanging hours for cash consistently.

I'm finding also there are so many ways to provide value to other people, amount of ideas i get now to solve problems i notice and directly involve me is crazy - basically daily. Never have I been more excited and calm.

sometimes you need to abstract yourself and allow to do nothing to be at your best after - I think a lot of us working with tech can relate to that.

bento.me/mxd

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#264

Post by reureu » Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 5:33 PM UTC

gn4d wrote: post #259

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #37

Wow, I just wanted to say thanks a lot for posting this. I'm in a very similar boat. I was always very focused and goal-oriented in my younger days - a bit of a workaholic but generally enjoyed working hard. A number of changes since the pandemic have left me feeling very similar to you: 1. Like tons of other people, I re-evaluated my relationship with work during the pandemic. To be honest, it wasn't easy. I think a…

I am far younger than you, but ditto on all counts. The pandemic crushed everything that I studied and worked for. And it taught me as someone in my early 20s that even though I spent my entire life with my nose to the grindstone, everything could be instantly stripped away by world governments, and friends and coworkers and family members could also suddenly turn on each other like rabid dogs. Honestly, at least be…

> everything could be instantly stripped away by world governments

Your comment suggests that the driver of your (and your peers) anhedonia is some lingering threat of some future lockdown by governments? Is that what you're saying? And, is that actually the case or is it just the easiest cause to put your finger on?

I understand that period was really rough for so many reasons. But a lot of the angst I see among friends/family/coworkers today isn't from the lockdowns per se, but it's more from having to slow down and consider some heavy, almost-existential questions surrounding their relationships, life, fulfillment, social supports, and purpose. And, at least for me, struggling with how many of the things I thought I knew about myself turned out to not really be true. Lockdowns may have forced me to see and acknowledge these issues, but they were always there.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#265

Post by vineyardlabs » Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 7:22 PM UTC

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #244

tenpoundhammer wrote: post #31

I found in my mid thirties that my perspective on what was important and desirable shifted significantly. Which led me to become disengaged from my desire to build side projects and learn new programming languages. It was a time were ecclesiastes from the Bible resonated a lot. After a while I just found out that I wasn’t interested in nothing but I had to rediscover what was important to me and what I valued spendin…

> It was a time were ecclesiastes from the Bible resonated a lot. As an open minded agnostic who has not read the Bible or the Tanakh I am curious, what about the Ecclesiastes in particular resonated with you?

Not the commenter but it's just a interesting premise. It's an old King who's experienced every earthly pleasure in existence (food, wine, servants, women, etc.) who is looking back on his life and writing a letter to his son. He is basically despairing that all of these things were in vain and that they don't mean anything now that he is old, etc. It doesn't really have a clean payoff or moral either, the premise is basically "life sucks, pleasure is fleeting, and then you die".

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#266

Post by mattgreenrocks » Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 8:18 PM UTC

webworker wrote: post #248

mattgreenrocks wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Extremely Online crowd’s influence is waning. Twitter is widely mocked as a cesspool of conversation. Facebook is seen as antiquated. Instagram and TikTok are the current darlings but they seem to have less of an iron grip than the OG social networks. The future is probably not another winner-take-all network. We’ve tried enough of those. The future is probably smaller networks where users self-select into them b…

This is just a side note, but my Instagram feed has become basically entirely irrelevant. It's just reel after reel from people promoting themselves or some product. The network feels increasingly like a rapid-paced HSN/home shopping network or similar. Do I look at it daily? Yes, I do. But I'd say that 95% of the content I see on it is junk, very few of my peers are posting their lives on there. As for blue-line Fac…

Yep. My IG feed is very quiet after I muted all the self-promoters and overly-prolific posters. Plus, I only follow people I know IRL, so I hit the "you're caught up" marker within 20s or so easily. The result is it is very rare to load up IG and find something of interest. I can still stay connected, but it doesn't grab me. I feel like the reel section just doesn't work for me, either.

> very few of my peers are posting their lives on there

Yes, this is not a great sign for IG. It is still relevant in that people click the icon everyday, but it seems to be slipping.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#267

Post by vineyardlabs » Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 8:23 PM UTC

granshaw wrote: post #188

the_only_law wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Since then, I have learned new things, but not because they were "relevant" or "important", bit just because they were fun. How do you maintain a career? I stopped caring about relevant and important and my career suffered for it. I stopped caring about fun because it was either a waste of time or inaccessible.

This is what I hate about this industry at this point in my life. Just this morning I was fantasizing about being a dentist instead and just be able to work for as long as I like, not worry about ageism, and otherwise live my life, without needing to constantly “keep up”

I think this is kind of a fantasy. My impression of dentistry and the medical field in general are that there are constantly new procedures coming out to learn, new techniques to implement, and new tools to train on. Maybe ageism is less of a thing since a lot of dentists are self employed but if the dentist down the block is cheaper/better/less painful you're going to see less revenue.

Similarly you could find a job maintaining ATM software in 90s style Java but your earning potential will probably be impacted.

The grass is greener where you water it.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#268

Post by SeanAnderson » Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 8:41 PM UTC

kaimac wrote: post #260

SeanAnderson wrote: post #116

I'm working on myself through my work, if that counts? I'm a staff-level SWE. I took the last year off of paid employment because I felt anxious and stressed even though everything was, objectively, fine. I had some poor health habits that I was staunchly ignoring and a project I was deeply vested in at my job was ripped out from under me. The meaning I ascribed to that project was giving my life purpose and, with th…

Thanks for writing all that out, I'm in a similar situation I suppose and you've made me feel better. And I love the idea of your ant colony.

:) You're welcome. I'm glad you found the writing enjoyable and appreciate the kind words about my ants.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#269

Post by frnkquito » Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 9:10 PM UTC

I'm also working on nothing for the past two years. After about 10 years into software development and side projects, keeping up to date with new tools and frameworks, and so on, I'm now feeling both overwhelmed and bored at the current incremental upgrades tech is having. Similar to smartphones, they're getting boring.

I feel that my level of knowledge allows me to easily grasp new concepts, and that exciment fades when I realize that the most juicy part will be implementing it in a big project, and not another CRUD SPA.

This pause/gap I consciously took made me realize I wanted to make my knowledge broader, and go all the way down to learning what makes software and tech exist: fundamental concepts like math, physics, calculus, probability, yada yada.

I'm also using this time to learn about cultural aspects of software, it's history amd methodologies.

Without being overwhelmed by tech, I took the decision of starting an engineering degree. And with that, I think I'm keeping the tech grinding on pause, until I learn how systems work, how tech is able to exist, with the hopes that after having a structural foundational base, I can go back to tech and move aside from CRUD SPAs, solving exciting and hard problems.

I'm really glad I found this post, this is something that keeps resonating in my mind. This is a really overwhelming industry.

And as a closing note (maybe I'm talking to myself here), never ever feel bad about doing what feels good doing.

Re: Ask HN: Who else is working on nothing?

#270

Post by atom058 » Mon, Jan 15, 2024, 9:17 PM UTC

smeej wrote: post #80

whamlastxmas wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Be someone to people you care about and are close to. Don't worry about trying to be a person that has a wikipedia page.

Oh yeah. Couldn't care less about that. I mean it several levels back from that, being a subject in my own story rather than merely an object in anyone else's, being someone who has an identity and makes decisions and engages other people as a person in my own right. I wasn't anybody even to myself, which is why I couldn't ever do anything. I could be used by people to do their things, but I wasn't an agent even in m…

This resonates a lot with me, and I think you expressed what has been running through my mind lately.

Sometimes, I feel like I lack agency; lile I'm not a primary character in my own life's story. It's so easy to sit back, follow the flow, and let the will of others dictate what I work with and spend my time on.

Working on changing that. But now I'm at an impasse, as it's difficult to know which of my interests and hobbies are coming from within me, and not just something I do to--for lack of a better way to express it-- please or impress others.

Current working theory is 'work less, play more', spend time with others, and being as attentive and receptive that I can.

Thank you for your words: they helped me