Life: Saying no.
Programming: Saying no.
Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?
161–170 of 230 posts
Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?
#162Giving up video games in my 20s. If I hadn't done that, I'd still be stuck in front of a game somewhere. Those things will eat your life.
An additional thought on this is that not only my own time went into games, but my competitive spirit did too. After dropping games, my hunger for being competitive and becoming more skilled did go into computer science, and my rate of improvement and excitement shot up with it.
Playing videogames, I used to have thoughts like, "It'd be cool you could level up like this in the real world to become uber powerful by just training a lot like this". It turns out you can [in our industry].
I still do enjoy videogames a bit, but not with any sorts of long term thinking with it. It acts as the chill-out activity now.
Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?
#163Life: Start questioning everything. That is, questioning accepted wisdom with respect to nutrition, medicine, sport and everything, accepting things I can verify myself, but most importantly, disregarding things I can disprove myself. I'm healthier, wealthier and happier as a result. Programming: Same; in this respect, that's ignoring common wisdom about OO and TDD. These things have value, but not of the type (and n…
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agree
Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?
#164Life: Knowing who I really am. Like I thought I could be like every other kid on the block but I later accepted the fact that I'm just a geek with not much of a social life and I'll be acknowledged if I do what I do best
Programmimg: I wasn't offered computer science in college(my country has a bad system). Rather I was offered math. I didn't see myself good enough in math so I decided to give up on programming for a while. I later read the quote "never stop doing what you love doing best". It really told me I made a fool out of my self. Now, I'm back to the keyboard.
Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?
#165[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?
#166Earlier quoted context omitted.
I admire (and even envy) your ability to be transparent, although it has left me questioning the purpose of social taboos and whether or not the custom of attempting to keep knowledge of things like extramarital affairs private is beneficial or not. As 'jaquesm points out above, publicising it could be seen as a form of "public shaming". Attempting to hide it, however, leads to people in your community speaking in hu…
Being open about the affair has many benefits. It cripples the rumor mill, taking away the secretive intrigue. If it's out in the open, people have less to speculate about and less to talk about. It makes it possible for us to help other couples going through it. Dealing with this can be an incredibly lonely experience. We want to help make it less lonely for couples. Keeping it a secret doesn't help anyone and it's…
I can only hope to be as level-headed as you seem to be when life throws a new wrench my way. Good for you, and thanks.
Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?
#167Life: forgiving my wife after she had an affair. It was hard, but a single mistake doesn't negate the fact that she is a great mom, we are good together and our son deserves a shot at having his dad in the house. Programming: learning by doing instead of by reading. I started learning Rails when I wanted to build PicDigest and the mistakes I've made have helped me learn faster on a broader foundation.
This is great, thanks for sharing.
Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?
#168Life: dropped the TV subscription, stopped reading newspapers and generally disconnected myself from the mainstream world. Thinking outside the box becomes natural then. Programming: Teaching myself Lisp and Emacs, dropping Agile methodologies, ditching OOP for functional, writing my code as if I'm replaceable and the next guy needs to pick up where I left without any trouble. The last point actually gives me more va…
I love it lol, I'm disconnected and off the grid in so many ways...I do still have TV, but I do not have a facebook account but used to... It may prevent me from getting a job at facebook but that only matters if you're not planning on creating the next big something yourself. Although don't you think that by reading HN you could end up being part of a "group think" mentality since most of all of us here are involved…
I don't think so, I love HN especially for the comments because a lot of smart people are voicing their opinions here. It goes to the point that comments are often more interesting than the linked article!
Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?
#169Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nope. I'm Scott. It's public knowledge. We were separated for eight months as a result of the affair. Everyone who knows us knows the reason for the separation.
I admire (and even envy) your ability to be transparent, although it has left me questioning the purpose of social taboos and whether or not the custom of attempting to keep knowledge of things like extramarital affairs private is beneficial or not. As 'jaquesm points out above, publicising it could be seen as a form of "public shaming". Attempting to hide it, however, leads to people in your community speaking in hu…
It would be a taboo and Scott's character could be questioned if his wife did not agree with the disclosure. That doesn't seem to be the case.
Our social system could use more people like Scott and his (reformed) wife. To me, they look like leaders in personal development and growth, let alone relationships.
Re: Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made?
#170Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? What if someone is going through it and wants to talk about it with someone else who's experienced it? I'd LOVE to help them. My wife would LOVE to help them. We can't do that very well if we keep it a secret or speak about it anonymously.
Because I would feel odd knowing what you just disclosed if I were to ever cross paths with your wife. Your wife might be OK with it, but that's not an issue. How other people feel about it is. To put it bluntly - nudism belongs to a nudist beach.
I agree with the point.