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Tell HN: You are not alone this Christmas

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Re: Tell HN: You are not alone this Christmas

#171

Post by User23 »

ethbr0 wrote: post #77
divbzero wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There must be a good ELI5 intro to linear algebra out there that doesn’t assume a ton of background but… I agree with other comments that linear algebra has limited relevance to learning programming. Your experience with Emacs gives you a far bigger leg up than mastering linear algebra would.

IMHO, programming (the practice) itself doesn't require math. Problems you solve with programming may or may not require math: the math requirements come from the specific problems. Every time I've used heavy math in programming, I've figured out the math for the problem in isolation, then programmed that solution.

> IMHO, programming (the practice) itself doesn't require math.

Strictly that is incorrect, but I get what you mean and agree with the point you’re communicating. I suspect it’s largely due to the rather dysfunctional way mathematics is taught in America.

Writing C for example requires knowledge of order of operations, inequalities, boolean arithmetic, and something very much like mathematical induction if you want your loops to terminate. Most programmers with the math optional mindset just don’t think of all the math they’re doing as math. For me the realization was empowering since once I realized I really was using a lot of math it inspired me to start filling gaps in my knowledge.

Edit: This looks interesting: https://pimbook.org/

Re: Tell HN: You are not alone this Christmas

#172

Post by Aeolun »

crossroadsguy wrote: post #69
abzug wrote: post #20

Thank you for this gesture. I lost almost everything. Job, 7-year relationship, my mental health. Feeling that I'm not only alone but inadequate to have a life like anybody else. I'm still alive, so there's that.

You were able to have a seven year long relationship. People spend their thirties or more without being in even one. I have tried and the best I could manage was 2 years. Second best was 4 months. At least according to me you definitely are not inadequate :)

Maybe a bit of both? If my relationship is going on the rocks I’d rather it happen after 4 months or 2 years than after 7.

Re: Tell HN: You are not alone this Christmas

#173

Post by treebot »

I am not spending Christmas alone, but sometimes I wish I was. The holidays are the toughest time of year for me, because they bring up bad memories from my childhood, and the darkness of winter amplifies it and makes me feel dead inside. Every year around the holidays I have at least one really bad breakdown, and I'm just way more vulnerable emotionally, so everything hurts so much more and for longer. The pain generally has to do with relationships with other people though, so being alone helps. I don't know if it would be better to be totally alone, as OP is, but spending extensive amounts of time with family or a romantic partner is just terrible for me. Cheers OP, buy yourself a gift.

Re: Tell HN: You are not alone this Christmas

#175

Post by abzug »

cseleborg wrote: post #170
abzug wrote: post #20

Thank you for this gesture. I lost almost everything. Job, 7-year relationship, my mental health. Feeling that I'm not only alone but inadequate to have a life like anybody else. I'm still alive, so there's that.

Hang in there! Mental health is serious business, I hope you have a good professional you can turn to. Programming is a great distractions, as others have pointed out. Make sure you don't use it to completely displace the pain you're feeling. You need to spend some time with it as well, that's how we humans deal with an it. Alternating between moments of distraction and periods of "dealing" is a good middle way, I th…

I just want to do something to move on.

Re: Tell HN: You are not alone this Christmas

#176

Post by XIVMagnus »

abzug wrote: post #20

Thank you for this gesture. I lost almost everything. Job, 7-year relationship, my mental health. Feeling that I'm not only alone but inadequate to have a life like anybody else. I'm still alive, so there's that.

Being single is a blessing on its own, merry xmas!

Re: Tell HN: You are not alone this Christmas

#177

Post by framecowbird »

cseleborg wrote: post #170
abzug wrote: post #20

Thank you for this gesture. I lost almost everything. Job, 7-year relationship, my mental health. Feeling that I'm not only alone but inadequate to have a life like anybody else. I'm still alive, so there's that.

Hang in there! Mental health is serious business, I hope you have a good professional you can turn to. Programming is a great distractions, as others have pointed out. Make sure you don't use it to completely displace the pain you're feeling. You need to spend some time with it as well, that's how we humans deal with an it. Alternating between moments of distraction and periods of "dealing" is a good middle way, I th…

This is great advice, I often use programming to distract myself from some pain or other. It can be a useful tool but can also become a long-term avoidance which isn't healthy.

Re: Tell HN: You are not alone this Christmas

#178

Post by hsavit1 »

abzug wrote: post #20

Thank you for this gesture. I lost almost everything. Job, 7-year relationship, my mental health. Feeling that I'm not only alone but inadequate to have a life like anybody else. I'm still alive, so there's that.

it shouldn't be required to have a social circle to enjoy the holiday season, if people truly extended christmas greetings and cheer to others around them. unfortunately since the 1950s, christmas has evolved into a commercial and transactional affair.

Re: Tell HN: You are not alone this Christmas

#179

Post by brncsk »

matt89 wrote: post #152
brncsk wrote: post #136

This year, after a tumultuous breakup (that quite literally plunged me into my deepest crisis to day), I’m practicing being alone. Mostly because what lead to said breakup in the first place, was me being a relationship-addict, which at this point in my self-awareness journey I understand to be a transgenerational issue. Thus being with family does not help at all (even though I did my fair share of being with them y…

I went through a breakup this year, which was (objectively looking) not too bad, because we managed to end on good terms, but left me personally very very sad and full of regrets. I'm also going through therapy right now, and these two things combined made me realise that I'm completely unprepared for being alone and that I very much resent it and think of being alone as a failure. And while in general I think that i…

Thank you Matt - your insight on thinking about yourself as a failure while being alone hit me quite hard, but also provided a piece of self reflection I did not have until now.

As for this experience being an opportunity and a challenge - I totally agree, even though it does not seem so ATM.

Let us both embrace this challenging-but-worthwile part of it, I guess, while also acknowledging the hard ones. Wish you love and peace as well along your journey!

Re: Tell HN: You are not alone this Christmas

#180

Post by evanmoran »

abzug wrote: post #32
gigatexal wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dang! That’s tough! How are you coping? You good?

I'll be lying if I tell that I'm good. In 2022 I'll study to become a programmer. Focus on algorithms, data structures, and try to learn math (I'm very math illiterate, I don't know anything beyond basic arithmetic). So at least by this time next year I'll have more knowledge.

You can do it! Most coding is algebra, algebra 2, maybe trigonometry. Focus on those and you will do wonderfully.

In game programming you would need linear algebra, but you can go a long way with just vectors, cross products, and dot products.

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