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Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?

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Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?

#21
Life: Learned a little bit late to stop being a totally selfish/asshole boyfriend, leaving me open to finding a great relationship and now two kids. It's helped other relationships as well, and there's a few exes to whom I should apologize if it weren't so socially inappropriate to do so. :)

Programming: leaving a couple of fun and well-paying jobs to go to places where I wasn't the best at everything. Learning from others (and teaching others in areas where I excel) has given me more happiness/satisfaction/growth than any single language, project or other discrete event.

Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?

#23
post #3
post #2

To never get overly attached to my tools - programming languages, frameworks, paradigms, patterns etc. and to always choose the right tool for the right job, by putting aside my own personal bias.

I'd like to do that but could never actually achieve it.

I have an exactly opposite problem. I always want to work in a new language/tool. Once I learn the language/tool I lose interest in it unless the work I am doing is challenging in itself.

Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?

#24
Life: Don't generate human waste - be lean. Make everything you do have a value (even if its gaming - it has mental value). Stop watching syndication TV/Facebook/IM etc.

Programming: Be very aggressive with learning. Set a goal of books to read, programming languages to learn, per half a year. Read a TON of code in the process.

Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?

#25
Life: Getting fitter. I wasn't too overweight at my peak weight but I was getting a beer belly from sitting all day, feeling extremely tired at the end of each day (I'm only 20 years of age and it's not normal) and I decided to do something about it. I've always been intimidated by what other people think which is why I didn't join the gym earlier but I sucked up and joined 11 weeks ago and it's the best choice i've ever made. It's motivated me so much.

Work: Scoping out and learning new technologies. I've been iPhone programming for ages and realised I hadn't really dived into other stacks such as Rails or JS programming. Definitely need to do more of this though.

Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?

#27

Life: Slow carb diet and P90x. (a little embarrassing, but true) Programming: Diving farther into photoshop. I know thats not programming, but I really like to play around in photoshop during long code sessions. It helps my brain relax.

I want to try P90X soon and was wondering if you've felt it's made a difference?

Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?

#28
Life : To stop taking things too seriously, enjoying the ups and downs of life, and making little progress every day in various roles I play in life.

Programming : Working for myself and not for a monthly pay-check. To do work that I enjoy doing while earning enough for day to day living.

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