Meditation, Qi Gong, Yoga, Enlightenment - try to realize God within yourself within this lifetime.
HN Help: I'm lost
251–260 of 272 posts
Re: HN Help: I'm lost
#252Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't, but I don't have kids. Do you?
I have kids, own a TV, but don't get anything more than the basic network channels. Specifically, no Disney, no Nickleodeon, Cartoon Network, etc. When visiting friends and family who do have those channels, I'm constantly reminded this is a good thing. (Ironically, I think channels like Cartoon Network I would recommend more for adults, both for the creativity of some of the shows and for the nostalgia of the old st…
"for the nostalgia of the old stuff"
I don't care for new TV shows, but I sometimes wonder about cutting kids off from a source of pop-culture for their generation. It may not seem like it to us, but for them, the crap that's on now will be the stuff they watch on Cartoon Network in 20 years and laugh about or turn into surreal parodies.
Maybe moderation is a better solution?
Re: HN Help: I'm lost
#253Yup, right there with you. I am doing a lot of mental hacking, i.e. reading about depression and health. Loads of reflection about myself and how I got here. Trying to get a better perspective on the good things I've done and the things I like about myself. Spending time with friends, avoiding jobs and customers who I know will stress me out and accepting a lower standard of living because I need time to work this out. Also ended my relationship because I realized that she had no idea/interest in the things I was going through. Not that I recommend that for you, but I never would have been conscious of the additional stress that was causing if I had not taken time to think about my situation.
Long story short; make some space for you, research, think, reflect, reinvent. I am about half way to a new place optimistically speaking.
Re: HN Help: I'm lost
#254It may be useful to find out more about yourself.
Try going to http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx and taking the VIA Strengths Survey.
Positive Psychologists have found that focusing on your top strengths better promotes happiness. This is kind of an obvious finding, but it is good to know what those character strengths are.
I have a friend who is undergoing a job change that has caused him to question which direction to go, and taking this test helped add some perspective.
Re: HN Help: I'm lost
#255I'm posting this as a separate comment, not because I think that it particularly applies to your situation, but because it is good advice in the general case. If you should happen to feel, "I am utterly unhappy with my life" at any time, it might not hurt to at least darken the door of a trusted mental health professional just to be sure that there is not a clinical element to your feelings of malaise as well as circ…
I can't agree enough. Even if they can't help you directly, it is very helpful to be able to talk things out with a 3rd party. They may put you on drugs and those can help, but it's the talking that really helps. If you aren't comfortable with someone in a clinical setting, you can always find help at your church, if you are religious.
Re: HN Help: I'm lost
#256Sell everything, move to a different country where you don't speak the language. Life will be good again.
Re: HN Help: I'm lost
#257It doesn't sound like your lost.. it sounds like you know you have to make a change.
Its risky, but not doing it is ruining your life, so you know you have to do it.
It really sounds like your strong on HN because you've known this for a while, and have been considering a startup, and this is a way to explore the idea before you jump in.
You could just assume from now on that you will launch a startup, build a product and give it one hell of a shot.
It takes courage - but you have this immense anger at having wasted parts of your life working for idiots..so take that and use it to propel you forward into the new venture.
Great great post.. Id been getting so bored with all the crap on HN lately, but this made my week.
Build that thing.
Re: HN Help: I'm lost
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
I feel like I'm stuck at my work after 6 years working there. It was beginning like startup, and then we got bought after 2 years for "nothing", but I got good salary. So I'm kind of addicted to this work b/c of salary mostly. The bad thing that no progress is made for last 2 years and job became completely soul sucking. I cannot find power in myself to break those chains. How do you trick yourself to get rid of mone…
Well, as I said, it isn't for everybody. But here is my take on it: I'd rather be poor and happy than secure any day, and I live my life accordingly. I take risks, sometimes I win, sometimes I lose, on balance it seems to come out roughly even. Case in point, a bunch of people in Canada wanted to start their own business, a local gas station was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, I put together a package to be able…
Security is illusionary, who would you rather be dependent on, your boss or your own wits ?
I don't think you know just how right you are...I'm planning to quit my job at the end of the month do some 'hustling.' I trust my ability to innovate WAY more than my boss' ability to make money. I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit.
I actually got up at 4 this morning to plan how I am gonna make some money over the Christmas. Sure they can fail, but they can also succeed. It's 50-50
People always say "Well, it could be worse." I say it could be better.
Carpe Diem!
Re: HN Help: I'm lost
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have kids, own a TV, but don't get anything more than the basic network channels. Specifically, no Disney, no Nickleodeon, Cartoon Network, etc. When visiting friends and family who do have those channels, I'm constantly reminded this is a good thing. (Ironically, I think channels like Cartoon Network I would recommend more for adults, both for the creativity of some of the shows and for the nostalgia of the old st…
That's cool! How do you deal with peer pressure at school and all that? BTW, like someone else said, I hate to have thousands of episodes of tv trash like Gilligan's Island in my head.
It seems like it's really just starting to kick in now (my oldest is in second grade) so we're taking it as it comes.
We don't have video games either, and I'm starting to think that's where I would "compromise" first (although I would have to convince my wife). In general, though, I think it's easier to take a pretty hard line to start and then find points to compromise on. We have Netflix, too, so there's lots to choose from as far as things to watch. But we know some of their peers can turn the TV on at any time and watch whatever they want, which I find to be pretty scary. That whole "turn the TV to a 'kids' channel and mindlessly absorb whatever comes on for hours everyday" is the scenario we really want to avoid.
Re: HN Help: I'm lost
#260Every five or six years or so I purposefully turn my whole life upside-down, just to avoid the chances of getting stuck in a rut. It's not for everybody, it almost certainly will mess up your chances with 'striking it rich' because inevitably you'll be starting from 0 up again. I've been very lucky in always having the backing of those around me whenever I do this.
I'm really interested in this. How do you deal with stopping doing something you're half way to getting good at (c.f. it takes 10 years to get good at anything)? - Are you just a freakish genius, - or do you not consider the feeling of mastery to be essential to happiness, - or do you continue to build up existing skills AND turn your life upside-down at the same time? I'd love to be able to turn my life upside-down,…
I think it is more like learning languages than being a genius.
It's hard work (make that very hard work) but as you get more basic knowledge it becomes easier to integrate stuff that you are learning.
The only thing I would say I've ever truely 'mastered' is C programming, other than that I have lots of things where I can get by and learn from people that really know their stuff.
It is inevitable that it works like a spotlight, you turn it on an area of interest and go all out to learn what you can about it, then as your return-on-investment in time drops off you can decide to continue or quit, usually I quit when I get to the level where I'd have to go 'full-time' in order to advance.
There is just too much interesting stuff to do, no way to be an expert in more than one field.
One of the most interesting things that I've found is that as you do this you keep running in to domain specific knowledge that can fairly easily be translated in to other domains that haven't picked up on that trick yet.
This is a fairly good way to make a living.
As for doing the turning things upside-down and learning at the same time, usually it coincides, but that is not a necessity.
For me it is just a way to keep living fun.