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Ask HN: What do you wish you had done/known in your 30s?

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Re: Ask HN: What do you wish you had done/known in your 30s?

#211

Post by prometheus76 »

webmobdev wrote: post #206
prometheus76 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that most forms of Christianity can be underwhelming, but Orthodoxy has a rich tradition that dates back over two thousand years of a mystical relationship with God, rooted in prayer. It's very different than any other form of Christianity that I have ever heard of.

According to Hindu philosophy, there are 4 ways to explore spiritualism: 1. Doing one's duty with detachment - the mind is trained to detach from the results of one's action and not attach positive or negative associations to it, thus weakening the ego and leading to enlightenment. 2. Self-enquiry and awareness - Pursuit of knowledge, and understanding of your own self in relation to the world to achieve a heightened…

In Orthodoxy, prayer is considered the "art of arts and the science of sciences". Everything in Orthodoxy is intended to improve your prayer life, and your prayer life is how you enter in and pursue a personal relationship with God.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish you had done/known in your 30s?

#212

Post by v-erne »

prometheus76 wrote: post #174
v-erne wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot wrap my head around how can You throw away empiricism - for me this is the only working way to validate mental models. Without it You just have infinite space of possibilities that are based on some subset of axioms that You choose as You please. It becomes just a logical and emotional game of who says it better (have better stories to tell). And I don't belive in numbers or cities - they are just useful abs…

Numbers are useful abstractions with no empirical evidence to back them up. That's my point. Numbers are a way of interacting with the physical world and reproduce certain results, but numbers themselves are abstract and have no physical properties. As for empiricism, I certainly did not throw it out. It's useful, but not for everything. Say I have three knives in my kitchen drawer: a butter knife, a steak knife, and…

Oh I think I can see whats happening here - You probably have strong emotional need for things to have purpose and meaning. Sure, if I haven't accepted that pure existence is enough (and depending on the point of view it has none or all the meaning that we want) then exploring pure models in search for purpose would be also what I would do. But since I believe that there are infinite number of abstractions with no real physical properties that can be interpreted as real through your reasoning, from my point of view, empiricism becomes the only real tool (because per Your first example even the best or worst ultimately comes down to preferences that were shaped by physical world).

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish you had done/known in your 30s?

#213

Post by v-erne »

scionthefly wrote: post #105
dartdartdart wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Waiting is not bad, most child abuse cases come from people who shouldn't have had kids in the first place. The worst case if you wait is that you'll have to adopt kids, which is arguably way more humane than introducing another hungry soul into the world.

Adoption is not always a viable option.

But having children is? How come?

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish you had done/known in your 30s?

#214

Post by prometheus76 »

v-erne wrote: post #212
prometheus76 wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Numbers are useful abstractions with no empirical evidence to back them up. That's my point. Numbers are a way of interacting with the physical world and reproduce certain results, but numbers themselves are abstract and have no physical properties. As for empiricism, I certainly did not throw it out. It's useful, but not for everything. Say I have three knives in my kitchen drawer: a butter knife, a steak knife, and…

Oh I think I can see whats happening here - You probably have strong emotional need for things to have purpose and meaning. Sure, if I haven't accepted that pure existence is enough (and depending on the point of view it has none or all the meaning that we want) then exploring pure models in search for purpose would be also what I would do. But since I believe that there are infinite number of abstractions with no re…

Let's say your lover writes a poem for you on a piece of paper and gives you the poem. You find it to be quite lovely, and you memorize the poem. Then, in a tragic accident, the cleaning lady throws the paper with the poem written on it into the garbage incinerator.

Does the poem still exist?

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish you had done/known in your 30s?

#215

Post by v-erne »

eadmund wrote: post #197
deathanatos wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you are in a position where you could potentially start a family I'm in my 30s, and this seems to be the trickiest part that people older than me — sorry — seem to want to just pave over. House prices are bananas. Trump, COVID, Russia have erased years of investment gains. Student loans are a constant tax on my finances (that I'm almost free of… …soon…). Wage growth has been stagnant (my career has seen ~4.7% Yo…

> Trump, COVID, Russia have erased years of investment gains. I really, really , really hate to defend Mr. Trump, but on his first day of office the Vanguard total stock market index closed at $116.91; on his last day of office it closed at $198.86, a 70.01% increase (14.19% annualised). There are numerous reasons to criticise the former president, but the performance of the stock market during his tenure does not ap…

If You only care for short term, then sure, You can try to use this argument, but in long term the division that his irresponsible political strategy fueled can only end bad for whole economy (who said there cannot be another civil war? last time I checked most people believed that war in Europe is impossible).

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish you had done/known in your 30s?

#216

Post by culopatin »

gnz11 wrote: post #169

- Everything in moderation. - Max out retirement contributions. - Use all of your vacation time, set strict limits on work hours. [1] - Exercise, eat real food, take time to relax. All three are connected and work together. You cannot optimize for just one. [1] Stress is a destroyer of both your mental and physical health that has real long term consequences. No startup/job/employer/etc is worth destroying yourself o…

Im doing everything minus taking time to relax. I’m in a constant limbo between “relax” but not fully committed by the stress of wasting productive time. This turns into a waste of time that’s not productive nor relaxing that is just procrastination. If I could figure out how to fully relax I’d probably be available for productivity for longer and I’d enjoy my free time more.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish you had done/known in your 30s?

#217

Post by v-erne »

prometheus76 wrote: post #214
v-erne wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh I think I can see whats happening here - You probably have strong emotional need for things to have purpose and meaning. Sure, if I haven't accepted that pure existence is enough (and depending on the point of view it has none or all the meaning that we want) then exploring pure models in search for purpose would be also what I would do. But since I believe that there are infinite number of abstractions with no re…

Let's say your lover writes a poem for you on a piece of paper and gives you the poem. You find it to be quite lovely, and you memorize the poem. Then, in a tragic accident, the cleaning lady throws the paper with the poem written on it into the garbage incinerator. Does the poem still exist?

The answer depends on what You are trying to prove.

If You define this poem as ordered list of words that can be interpreted trough cultural and local context, then it existed even before it was written down.

If You want to go more realistic way then this poem exists only through my memory (partly as memory and partly as an emotional association) and will disappear with my demise.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish you had done/known in your 30s?

#218

Post by v-erne »

ryandvm wrote: post #93

That almost everybody is faking it. There are outliers of course, but by and large, your colleagues, your mentors, your leaders, your enemies (you shouldn't have very many); they're all just normal people doing their best. And their best is usually just average.

And I might add that even the above average people are only above average for short periods of time and in very narrow categories. Be wary of authority figures that rides on past achievements (past performance is not indicative of future results).

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish you had done/known in your 30s?

#219

Post by prometheus76 »

v-erne wrote: post #217
prometheus76 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say your lover writes a poem for you on a piece of paper and gives you the poem. You find it to be quite lovely, and you memorize the poem. Then, in a tragic accident, the cleaning lady throws the paper with the poem written on it into the garbage incinerator. Does the poem still exist?

The answer depends on what You are trying to prove. If You define this poem as ordered list of words that can be interpreted trough cultural and local context, then it existed even before it was written down. If You want to go more realistic way then this poem exists only through my memory (partly as memory and partly as an emotional association) and will disappear with my demise.

You have smuggled in a LOT of things that are not empirical in your response.

"Ordered" - what is the empirical evidence for order? How can one know the difference between randomness and order with only empirical evidence? Order requires a concept of "orderliness" that one is comparing the evidence to.

"Words" - the empirical evidence of a word is a squiggle on a piece of paper. Everything else about a word and its connection to a thing is purely abstract, and not empirically verifiable.

"cultural" - what is the empirical evidence for a culture? What empirical properties does a culture have? Can it be defined merely by its physical characteristics?

"context" - what does this even mean, empirically speaking. We have infinite number of facts. How does empiricism filter relevant and irrelevant facts? What does it even mean for something to be "relevant" empirically?

"existed even before it was written down" - so something existed with no empirical evidence? How can you say it exists then?

"Memory" - what is the empirical evidence for your memory? Can I hook you up to a machine and stimulate your brain in such a way that I could get the words of the poem to read out on the screen?

"emotional association" - what does that even mean empirically?

I could go on, but I have to get back to work. I hope I have helped you clarify your thinking about how "empirical" you actually are(n't), but I've probably just lost you, and for that, I'm sorry. Please forgive my inability to speak more clearly.

Re: Ask HN: What do you wish you had done/known in your 30s?

#220

Post by schwartzworld »

wodenokoto wrote: post #179
Eric_WVGG wrote: post #13

I wish I had realized that I was still young. I had some early startup-ish projects in the late-nineties/early-2k's, they crashed and burned with the dotcom crash, and I felt like I had lost any chance at making something cool or any kind of impact. I even felt like, at the age of 28, I was too old for dating and had missed all my opportunities. Things picked up for me in every respect — professional and personal — a…

30 is the new 20. I had a talk with a friend the other day about how 50 year olds used to be old. They just don’t look or feel that way now a days

A lot of that is because your image of 50 year olds is dated to what they were like when you were younger.
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