Ask HN: what was the best life/programming choice you ever made? • Hacker News Board

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

#201

Post by kamaal » Mon, Dec 03, 2012, 5:02 AM UTC

oz wrote: post #200

kamaal wrote: post #198

Life: To get a early realization, that money is the most important thing in life. Work: To work towards the 'Life' goal. To work smart, and make clever savings and investment moves. I've read enough of the 'money is not everything' quotes. Its almost a given and keeps coming back to me from my own experiences and from what others tell, Money is definitely the most important thing in your life. Having lots of it means…

I had the same realization at about 23 (I'm 26 now). I'd like to talk. What's your email? It's not in your profile.

Mailed you, Hope you will get it soon.

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

#202

Post by rsmaniak » Mon, Dec 03, 2012, 6:33 AM UTC

lazyjones wrote: post #13

Life: leaving the academic world and doing things that actually affect / matter to people. Programming: writing an Atari ST emulator (it landed me a job offer by a prestigious game company)

got any tips/resources for an aspiring emulator programmer? I find emulation fascinating, I've always wanted to write an emulator for my favorite console (neo geo) but I'm mostly a CRUD programmer without a lot of comp architecture knowledge.

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

#203

Post by besharp » Mon, Dec 03, 2012, 6:34 AM UTC

lifehouse67 wrote: post #80

scottmagdalein wrote: post #71

Life: 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.

Nice to hear you forgave your wife afyer an affair, i can't imagine how you felt

A really hard decision, I think he is a man with brave heart.

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

#204

Post by huhtenberg » Mon, Dec 03, 2012, 7:15 AM UTC

phil wrote: post #178

huhtenberg wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What are the odds you'll cross paths with the wife of a random person from the internet? Your comments (and the others saying this should have been anonymous) are really saying that you think scottmagdalein should feel ashamed about this part of his life -- in his replies he's telling you that he doesn't. It's worth reflecting on why you feel that way.

No, I am not saying or implying this. Who am I to say what he should be ashamed of? What I am saying that this is a matter that perceived as private and sensitive by many, and that I would personally prefer for it to stay that way.

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

#205

Post by lhnz » Mon, Dec 03, 2012, 8:29 AM UTC

Ixiaus wrote: post #123

lhnz wrote: post #18

Life: starting to read again and reading broadly: psychology, architecture, software, theatre, business, anthropology, great literature, philosophy, linguistics. Work: realising that I am not stupid and that I can make a difference, I began to apply a three-word philosophy to life: "Belief, Thought, Action." All beliefs that withstand scrutiny must be acted upon.

You should write and if you do I want to know where you put your writing.

I don't write enough unfortunately. I have something like 20+ text files in a folder on my machine with notes... that I'm meant to at some point turn into blog posts. :)

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

#206

Post by kayoone » Mon, Dec 03, 2012, 9:20 AM UTC

kamaal wrote: post #198

Life: To get a early realization, that money is the most important thing in life. Work: To work towards the 'Life' goal. To work smart, and make clever savings and investment moves. I've read enough of the 'money is not everything' quotes. Its almost a given and keeps coming back to me from my own experiences and from what others tell, Money is definitely the most important thing in your life. Having lots of it means…

I think as you grow older you will realize the opposite, that in fact this is not the case. As a human being, you will never stop to worry. If you have financial security you might stop worrying about the things you mentioned, but you will also have a lot of new things you worry about, its natural.

Also id argue, not having to worry about failing or taking risks will make you much less likely to succeed in such a scenario, from a statistical point of view.

While i agree that money is of very high importance in todays world, it still doesnt make you happy even if that sounds banal, its true. It makes certain things in life alot easier, so everybody should strive for financial security but saying it is ultimately the most important thing in everybody's live is a very broad statement to make.

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

#207

Post by michielb » Mon, Dec 03, 2012, 9:47 AM UTC

Life: Quitting my graduate studies in astrophysics in 96 to start a company, which ended up growing to 125 people in 7 countries and being acquired. Making the decision to leave the cool yet predictable world of science in favor of a startup took some hard thinking and talking, but looking back this obviously was the biggest career choice I ever made.

Second biggest choice probably was to leave said acquiring company, to venture out again. I can't say I found my next big project yet and leaving the new comfort zone definitely took away some comfort, but I felt it was the right choice. Like Steve said: Never settle ;-)

Programming: Taking a week-long course by BNR to learn iOS programming. Following an intense week-long program is very different from working through a book in your own pace, learning alone. Having a neighbour asking you things, or to ask things, makes learning incredibly more effective.

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

#208

Post by GFischer » Mon, Dec 03, 2012, 1:15 PM UTC

bcambel wrote: post #69

Life: Moving to Netherlands Programming: Leaving .NET behind after 6 years.

What language(s) did you leave .NET for? I'm still stuck on .NET (and I like it) but I know I can't build decent web or mobile applications with it.

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

#209

Post by gtirloni » Mon, Dec 03, 2012, 1:21 PM UTC

kenjackson wrote: post #57

Life: Having a child. The first six months were mad hard. But he's been what gets me up in the morning now... Literally Programming: Not caring about trends. I've realized I can learn pretty much anything on demand. So I find interesting problems and try to solve them, rather than spend alot of time learning frameworks and languages and hope to apply them. And I've found learning on demand for real problems causes me…

I barely find time to do the things I want. I can't conciliate the idea of having to take care of a kid right now.

Perhaps having a kid would make me stop wasting time on useless stuff though.

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

#210

Post by sivakumar_k » Mon, Dec 03, 2012, 1:26 PM UTC

GFischer wrote: post #208

bcambel wrote: post #69

Life: Moving to Netherlands Programming: Leaving .NET behind after 6 years.

What language(s) did you leave .NET for? I'm still stuck on .NET (and I like it) but I know I can't build decent web or mobile applications with it.

I use .Net and Java stack, I don't want to start a war here but I never felt held back due to any reason for developing web apps in either of the two. For mobile apps, its a different story, I stick to phonegap.