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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?

#181

Post by gaustin »

sejje wrote: post #126
donnfelker wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

P90x will work, but the key is diet. CrossFit will work too, but again the key is diet. P90x provides that meal planning. Stick to that and workout and it will work. Or go slow carb and hit up CrossFit. But the key thing to remember is that you can't out train a bad diet. Garbage in == garbage out.

Diet does not build muscle. Maybe you're talking about losing body fat. I'm not sure why you're preaching about that, though, since the parent/GP didn't mention weight loss being a goal.

A good diet does not imply being calorie deficient.

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

#182

Post by japhyr »

Living on my bicycle for a year instead of going straight to graduate school.

I bicycled across the US each summer for two years, and the next summer took a full year off. I rode from Seattle to Maine, down to Florida, over to California, and all the way north to Alaska. It was the classic "find yourself" adventure of a 20-something. It has grounded me in everything I have ever done since.

Facing a grizzly at four feet, alone in the middle of the Yukon, really does put everything else in perspective for the rest of your life.

Programming: Build something that people use, and start freelancing. I am not a full-time programmer, so I could have gone the rest of my life only programming for my own intellectual satisfaction. But I watched my dad pass away never having polished any of his projects, and that made me commit to releasing code. Programming has been much harder, but much more satisfying, since I made that decision.

Freelancing has let me ease into using my technical knowledge professionally, while maintaining my day job as a high school teacher.

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

#183

Post by moutard »

scottmagdalein wrote: post #143
jacquesm wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you've really forgiven her then maybe you shouldn't be telling the rest of the world too.

Absolutely forgiven her. It's something we talk about. We help other couples dealing with the same type of hardship. Keeping it to ourselves doesn't prove forgiveness and it keeps us from helping others.

Humans are capable of incredible self-deception a la Robert Trivers:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/books/review/the-folly-of-...

You're most likely fighting your genes (or perhaps you're a mutant): maybe you'll win and maybe you won't. Here the _you_ I refer to here is that part which believes it has free will and can override the other (genetic) part.

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

#184

Post by eshvk »

japhyr wrote: post #182

Living on my bicycle for a year instead of going straight to graduate school. I bicycled across the US each summer for two years, and the next summer took a full year off. I rode from Seattle to Maine, down to Florida, over to California, and all the way north to Alaska. It was the classic "find yourself" adventure of a 20-something. It has grounded me in everything I have ever done since. Facing a grizzly at four fe…

> Facing a grizzly at four feet, alone in the middle of the Yukon, really does put everything else in perspective for the rest of your life.

That sounds incredible! I am going to sound incredibly stupid but that would be something to experience. Details?

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

#185

Post by japhyr »

eshvk wrote: post #184
japhyr wrote: post #182

Living on my bicycle for a year instead of going straight to graduate school. I bicycled across the US each summer for two years, and the next summer took a full year off. I rode from Seattle to Maine, down to Florida, over to California, and all the way north to Alaska. It was the classic "find yourself" adventure of a 20-something. It has grounded me in everything I have ever done since. Facing a grizzly at four fe…

> Facing a grizzly at four feet, alone in the middle of the Yukon, really does put everything else in perspective for the rest of your life. That sounds incredible! I am going to sound incredibly stupid but that would be something to experience. Details?

I was heading north on the Cassiar Highway in BC, a mostly dirt road which parallels the more heavily-traveled AK highway. I had been seeing black bears every day from a fair distance.

I was on a flat stretch of road with grassy banks. I saw a matted-down patch on my right and thought to myself, that looks like a bear slid down on its butt right there. Then I glanced to my left and found myself face to face with a grizzly.

It's funny, I knew what I was supposed to do from reading and talking about bears. But it was my experience responding to stray dogs that had trained me in how to respond. I just stayed calm and kept pedaling, same speed. It stepped into the road and huffed in my direction, but it didn't start chasing me.

I have kept that moment in mind during every "stressful" situation in my life since then.

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

#186

Post by kaii »

Life:

- Reflecting myself constantly. (Looking at things from another perspective often allows you to learn not only from your own, but also from other peoples mistakes)

- Completely turning off TV and other mainstream media for several years.

- Starting to leave my comfort zone occasionally to extend it constantly.

Programming / Profession:

- Accepting the fact that, although being good as a programmer, I'm even better in managing things and mentoring/coaching. (accepting this was hard: i love doing programming)

- Focussing on the big picture and final results instead of wasting time with unimportant details.

- Reading/Reviewing/Discussing more code than you write actually results in writing better code and being more productive.

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

#187

Post by scottmagdalein »

moutard wrote: post #183
scottmagdalein wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely forgiven her. It's something we talk about. We help other couples dealing with the same type of hardship. Keeping it to ourselves doesn't prove forgiveness and it keeps us from helping others.

Humans are capable of incredible self-deception a la Robert Trivers: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/25/books/review/the-folly-of-... You're most likely fighting your genes (or perhaps you're a mutant): maybe you'll win and maybe you won't. Here the _you_ I refer to here is that part which believes it has free will and can override the other (genetic) part.

I don't understand what you're saying.

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

#188

Post by marcamillion »

sejje wrote: post #127
sandipc wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never taking unemployment while without work -- may I ask why?

I also would never take unemployment, and it's because I don't believe it's the role of the state to provide for me.

I am sure this means that you've never been starving with all your help fully tapped out.

Until you reach that point, please don't make such concrete declarations.

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

#190

Post by leberger »

meimnot wrote: post #98

Life: Meditation. Zazen practice specifically. Redefined my values and "self" through introspection. Programming: Realizing I'm not so great at it, moving towards programming as a hobby.

So what have you changed your career for ? A job relating to programming, or something completely different ?
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