Live data from Hacker News

Poll: How are you doing currently?

news.ycombinator.com

171–180 of 231 posts

Re: Poll: How are you doing currently?

#171

Not great tbh. Might just use this opportunity to rant a bit. Maybe it’ll be cathartic. For years I’ve felt increasingly physically unwell. Started as dizziness when walking outside. Nowadays I also feel utterly exhausted, and short of breath, often. Kinda like how you feel coming down with the flu, but like most of the time. It’s ruining my life, frankly. I’ve had many tests done to exclude cardiac or neurological i…

I'm on a similar boat with general malaise, breathing issues, and insomnia. Has been going on for about 2 years and has destroyed my quality of life and ability to do any kind of physical activity. Doctors have no idea and have essentially just told me to live with it.

It seems like being caught in limbo - being just well enough to work and subsist but too ill to go out and really do things. I just keep hoping one day it will just got away.

Re: Poll: How are you doing currently?

#172
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not so alien to Europe as you seem to think. Over the past 20 years, more people per capita have died in school shootings in Germany than in the US. A European nation was in a similar situation very recently. What is maybe unique about the US is that nothing will be done, where as Germany added additional gun control laws, and probably will not ever have as deadly a decade for schools as the 2000s again. I'm…

> Over the past 20 years, more people per capita have died in school shootings in Germany than in the US. A European nation was in a similar situation very recently. Wikipedia lists 90 deaths in "mass shootings" in Germany for the almost 32 years since 1990 [1]. I'm quite surprised its that high tbh. Wikipedia also gives a total of 118 deaths in mass ahootings in the US for just the two years 2022 and 2021 [2]. There…

My number for these murders in the US was 119, basically taking a similar wikipedia page as the one that you linked to and adding up mass shootings (I used 3 or more as criteria, chosen because of one definition used in one particular US law) at schools, which I defined as k-12, pretty arbitrarily, just what I thought of as "schools."

That gives more in killings in Germany than the US, really due to their particularly brutal 2000s decade, and which does not seem likely to recur, and the US might benefit from looking at the actions Germany took.

The page you linked to is mostly not school shootings, so I don't think it is a good way to examine my statement.

Re: Poll: How are you doing currently?

#173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about the support network for your condition but surely there are some? I'm making an assumption, but you write as if you are trying to manage things all by yourself, which is commendable but perhaps making things more difficult than they need to be. Are you working with any kind of local autism support group? I would hope there are some resources to help people such as yourself navigate the difficulties…

You are correct in that I take on too much myself. Difficulties in communication leads to situations where what I ask for is disregarded or people take offense at the idea I'd need or date to ask for accommodations. "Just do it yourself, why do you need help?" "Stop asking questions just do it" These are knee-jerk reaction of neurotypical society and not something I can ever really change (the world is as it is). Thi…

> I have an incredible wife who is being super patient while her husband struggles to be a partner instead of a dependent.

As someone also facing (different) employment challenges stemming from autism, this feeling is very familiar. I was only diagnosed last year, finally bringing clarity to a long struggle. But I dug myself into a deep hole by trying to power through special needs I didn't know I had, and it's a long climb out.

My wife has been amazing and supportive and critical to my recovery, but I became debilitated enough that it's hard to feel like a partner. I'm getting there though, little by little. Even if I can't see the progress each day, I can see it clearly quarter by quarter.

Re: Poll: How are you doing currently?

#174
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not so alien to Europe as you seem to think. Over the past 20 years, more people per capita have died in school shootings in Germany than in the US. A European nation was in a similar situation very recently. What is maybe unique about the US is that nothing will be done, where as Germany added additional gun control laws, and probably will not ever have as deadly a decade for schools as the 2000s again. I'm…

I'm willing to give this the benefit of the doubt if there's a lack of english-language reporting, and I don't want to trivialize as it's tragic wherever it occurs, but - Wikipedia[1] has six events dating back to 1983 plus one from 1913, with a total of 46 deaths. - CNN[2] only covers 2009-2018, with one German school shooting (to 288 American) - Infoplease[3] lists mass shootings (not just schools) worldwide from '…

I'm not suggesting under-reporting of German mass shootings in English (well, outside of the 1-2 casualty incidents which you also note), I just used a count from wikipedia. I suspect the difference in our numbers is whether you include shootings at University. I didn't, but that is a completely arbitrary call, maybe they should be included. I'm not trying to create a ranking or hierarchy, just emphasizing that not everywhere is say, the UK, which as far as I know has had 0 school shootings since 2000.

Re: Poll: How are you doing currently?

#175
post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not so alien to Europe as you seem to think. Over the past 20 years, more people per capita have died in school shootings in Germany than in the US. A European nation was in a similar situation very recently. What is maybe unique about the US is that nothing will be done, where as Germany added additional gun control laws, and probably will not ever have as deadly a decade for schools as the 2000s again. I'm…

> Over the past 20 years, more people per capita have died in school shootings in Germany than in the US. Any stats to back that up? Seems completely counter-factual.

You can see the basic methodology in sibling comments, just some counting on wikipedia, really hinging on whether you include Universities (I did not).

But a less controversial way of putting it is that other countries, including European ones, have had comparable incidents, and we can compare what they did with the US.

Re: Poll: How are you doing currently?

#176
post #116

Very Bad. * Preparing to work/move to US from CA (as a Canadian) as a SDE with 10yr exp * Grinding Leetcode (quit hobbies to do so) * Improving but not at the pace I want * Failed easy-medium coding test at $SHOP * Demoralized, rethinking career choice * Thinking when I can stop leetcoding..when I eventually stop being SDE? * Thinking about what happiness is * Met with mental health mentor for the first time. Cried.…

Keep going, it's going to be okay. The blind 75 is your best shot for quick results: https://leetcode.com/discuss/general-discussion/460599/blind... You can skip dynamic programming unless you're planning on tackling Google

Thanks... I'm doing exactly that! I'm depressed at the fact that I don't enjoy leetcode but for job security, it must go on.. Maybe I'm not cut out for SDE? not sure...

Re: Poll: How are you doing currently?

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do value the teaching profession, I wish the pay was better. Despite the current events, I do not think they need more protection. I am in favor of gun control and I am in no way saying there are not issues. If you look up professions with the highest death rates. Teacher's are fairly low on the list, if they show up at all. https://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/15-professions-with-the-h...

For comparison, the Washington Post[0] says: "The Education Department reports that roughly 50 million children attend public schools for roughly 180 days per year. ... That means the statistical likelihood of any given public school student being killed by a gun, in school, on any given day since 1999 was roughly 1 in 614,000,000." So in a given (180 day) year, such a child has a 1 in 3.4 million chance of dying, wh…

You appear to be conflating children with teachers. I was commenting on teacher risk, and linked deaths by profession. What you responded with was children, which are not teachers, or even a profession.

Re: Poll: How are you doing currently?

#178
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the answer to education is to break up large schools and have schools that are no larger than 100-150 kids in total. 10x the number of schools and have individual attention to kids and teachers both. Fire the bad teachers quickly. Have larger communal facilities for things like sports and more outdoor activities like a form of scouts.

I understand the impulse for smaller schools, trust me. I think you'd be surprised to look into city schools and the capacities they were originally built for, compared to the amount of students they serve today. Part of that is land value and construction costs, but many urban schools are in a version of just-in-time maintenance. Your solution for more smaller schools is at play in suburban areas, and result in some…

I think a lot of people don't realize the class size disparity across the country: I certainly didn't.

A few years ago I had to write a software application for a non-profit running a program for schools in the Los Angeles (I think: somewhere in Southern CA) area. In our rural school district, a class with 30 students would be a lot. In her school district, there was no class that had fewer than 30 students. I was in shock; she probably already knew that.

And before anyone asks, yes, my kids go/went to public school.

Re: Poll: How are you doing currently?

#179
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

do you want to talk about it? or is there anyone you trust who you can reach out to? is there anything we can do for you?

Is there a way to message another HN user, to be able to communicate without it being public but also without giving the world your email address?

No there's no "DMs" on HN as far as I know. I was tempted to add my mobile number, but being the public internet and all probably not the wisest choice.

Re: Poll: How are you doing currently?

#180
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm willing to give this the benefit of the doubt if there's a lack of english-language reporting, and I don't want to trivialize as it's tragic wherever it occurs, but - Wikipedia[1] has six events dating back to 1983 plus one from 1913, with a total of 46 deaths. - CNN[2] only covers 2009-2018, with one German school shooting (to 288 American) - Infoplease[3] lists mass shootings (not just schools) worldwide from '…

I'm not suggesting under-reporting of German mass shootings in English (well, outside of the 1-2 casualty incidents which you also note), I just used a count from wikipedia. I suspect the difference in our numbers is whether you include shootings at University. I didn't, but that is a completely arbitrary call, maybe they should be included. I'm not trying to create a ranking or hierarchy, just emphasizing that not e…

I actually think focussing on the mass casualty count aspect is misplaced. I don't spend my time at work worried about how wrong things went, I worry about how bad an incident of that sort could have been given a less favourable set of circumstances.

ie. Yes someone got onto the network, but they were dumb and got blocked having done no damage. Is it serious because of the potential or not because of the lack of impact? I claim the former!

As such, the only ratio I care about is frequency of people shooting other people at schools (per capita, sure). On that measure, I am expectant USA is a world leader?

Post reply on HN