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Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

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171–180 of 393 posts

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#171
post #23
post #20

Aphantasia: How it feels to be blind in your mind By Blake Ross https://m.facebook.com/nt/screen/?params=%7B%22note_id%22%3A... Before reading this post I had no idea I had aphantasia and thought everyone else was the same as me, unable to see anything when they closed their eyes. This helped me understand myself and my relationships so much better than ever before. Thanks Blake!

I still can’t quite believe there are people who can see clear images in their minds. Maybe it’s more a matter of how you report your experience? I’m very conscious of how poor my mental images are, but maybe with a little less introspection I would also say I have great mental imagery.

I'm pretty sure it's just in how people report it. I was always quite good at geometry puzzles because I could picture the shapes moving in my head. Does that mean I can see images in my mind or not? It's nothing like seeing with my eyes, but I can definitely "see" it in my mind.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#173
I've shared this before in a previous thread but I'll do so again: https://wall.org/~aron/blog/

This blog has had a huge impact in my life and I'll be forever grateful to Aron for uploading it to the internet and also grateful to Fede_V who shared the blog in this HN comment a few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18176929

My life is much more fun and fulfilling thanks to its influence.

There are lots of other great blogs but none have had as great of an impact on my outlook.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#176
post #128

7 years ago I had just aborted an internship, my foray into being an employed adult, because I found myself unable to deal with disagreements. Contrary to my naive hope that the confidence boost from being a Professional Software Developer(tm) would solve all my emotional problems I now knew that my limitations would follow me around anywhere I would go. But I had no idea how to change and was too stuck in my own anx…

> It dawned on me that my attempt at completely controlling my life had, in fact, caused me to lose control over it.

Could you possibly unpack this for me a little bit? It strikes me as absolutely true for me, too, or at least sounds like it could be true, but I'm pulling at a thread I can't quite grasp.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#177
post #28

I know that it is tempting to paste a link to your favorite blog post, but I would like to encourage you to post really life-changing posts. If you post "maybe not" or "not really" maybe refrain from posting? Otherwise it will be just another popularity contest of random blog posts, we have more of them than those from the title I believe. It's okay for the thread to be short. Not a GP. The opinion is my own.

Every time I see something like this I have two answers: none and all. On one hand, "life changing" is a big word and I have never read anything that I could possibly say had as big an impact on me as, say, having children. It's hard to imagine articles and books are life changing, only that they can contribute to life changing actions. On the other, nearly everything I've read has changed me and how I saw the world,…

> On the other, nearly everything I've read has changed me and how I saw the world, even ever so slightly.

Same here. The discrete life-changing stuff in my life have been things that happened to me or someone close to me.

Not stuff I've read. But the stuff I've read stay with me and have definitely changed my perspective, affected how I approach things etc.

So rather than reading a particular blog post, I'd say: read lots!

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#178

https://blog.tjcx.me/p/consume-less-create-more This article inspired me on two things : 1) Lots of the things I do in everyday life is just to consume: buying, watching, following, etc. These things either consume my money, or my time. These things make me feel good, but it does not generate real value. In order to get rich, I need to create things. I also start to realize that great people are great because they st…

If you /really/ want to make money, you don't sell. You buy and rent out.

I like that.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#179
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The most important thing to note is that cutting your spending rate is much more powerful than increasing your income. I believe that part isn't exactly right, because you can increase your income way more than you can reduce what it takes for you to live. If you're a software engineer making let's say 70k, you can find a job where you make 150k, 200k or even more. If you currently spend 50k every year, it's way mo…

Agree. I think that advice panders to people who want advice they can act on today . You can choose to save $3 at your next grocery store visit right away and it won’t even hurt. However, telling people to work on earning more feels like an impossibly difficult ask for many. You’ll get instant pushback when you suggest it, so bloggers avoid it. FIRE blogging is more about pandering to what people want to hear. It is,…

That's a good point. I wonder why we consider that people telling people to spend less is okay, while telling people to earn more is not. Maybe because we consider that they have total control over what they spend, but not over what they earn? While this may be true, most people still could probably find a better job.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most life-changing blog post you've ever read?

#180

This early retirement post got me to save a LOT more money for my future, while friends were out vacationing or even worse, buying very expensive gizmos. I have one friend who lives in a crappy apartment absolutely filled with "top of the line" gizmos, that amount of money could've had him retiring one year earlier. https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-si...

Still, there is more to it. Don't wait to retire to do what makes you happy.

I surely do not :) my job is very interesting, yeah it can suck debugging or going through bureaucracy and documents. However, I get to WFH, do chores as my break time, then at 4 or 5 I say Good Day and I use my evening for family, friends, and hobby. Happy life so far!
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