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Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

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Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#231

Post by Mz »

jacquesm wrote: post #223
Mz wrote: post #209

I kind of feel like no one here will care/be able to relate, but these are some of the things I am proud of: * I graduated high school as STAR student and a national merit scholarship winner -- while missing 18 or 19 days of school every year and dragging myself to school sick much of the rest of the time and also being called "lazy" and told I "wasn't really sick". (I wasn't diagnosed with CF until I was almost 36.)…

If there ever was a comment that justified the 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' proverb then this is it. Congratulations, it looks like you've had a tough deck to play with and you're making the most of it.

If there ever was a comment that justified the 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' proverb then this is it.

Yes, but it's also a little like the joke about the sheik with many wives, 'each more beautiful than the last': Only if you line them up that way.

Congratulations

Thank you!

it looks like you've had a tough deck to play with and you're making the most of it.

I had a head start: I learned to play poker and deal cards when I was about 4 years old. Daddy was a cardsharp. Couldn't have a relationship to him if you didn't play. :-P

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#233

Post by peterwwillis » 

  * I've been to 5 high schools
  * Went through 9th grade twice
  * Dropped out of school entirely
  * Self-taught everything I know about computers and technology
  * Work for a large media company doing the job I set out to do for a decent wage
Technically i've achieved all the [other] goals I set out for myself as a kid. Time for some new goals...

* Not that this is impressive, but finally began working out 5 months ago and continue to stick to it 4 days a week. This is the longest i've stuck to anything besides a job/relationship and I am in the best shape of my life.

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#234

Post by jacquesm »

cperciva wrote: post #229
jacquesm wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That may be because everybody here would agree that in Patricks position they'd do the same thing, but hardly anybody can see themselves even getting to parity with what you've done.

Sure, one of the major reasons most of us haven't saved a drowning child is a lack of opportunity; but is that any different in the case of my accomplishments? I'd say that the largest reason most people haven't done the things I've done is that most people weren't born to Oxford-educated parents, one a Chemistry professor, the other a high school mathematics teacher. I can't point to anything I've accomplished as be…

Ok, good point :)

Let me try to put it this way:

I want't born stupid, but my family situation was pretty lousy to begin with (father violent and alcoholic), so my mom divorced when I was 6 and life was pretty tough for her, my sister and myself until I got to high school.

But I did eventually get to high school. There it got tougher, the first year I tried to learn as much as I could, pretty much scored straight A's, but was despised for it by my class mates, failed the second year, dropped out at 17 after failing again. My home situation steadily worsened during those years and at some point it looked like living with my dad would actually be the preferred situation.

Bad mistake... Anyway, by 17 I was working for a bank in the mailroom, eventually someone in the IT department gave me a break and I've been doing pretty good ever since.

And now for the but bit :)

So, even if I didn't have oxford educated parents, I know that I could not have matched you, even if I had wanted to.

The reason for that is simple, see, in spite of my 'rough' (nothing compared to some people in this thread though) start in life I know fairly well which bits I got through persistence and which bits because I got lucky.

I chalk up your living circumstances to luck, just as Patricks presence in the pool that day was luck, just like me getting a break.

So Patrick can take 'credit' for doing what he did, I can take credit for making the most of that one break I got and you can rightly take credit for the things you've achieved.

Circumstances made them possible, but the hard work that went in is what you get to take the credit for. Yours was a lucky situation, but plenty of people might not have made that much of it, myself included. I know my limitations. I also know what I'm good at :)

Everything in life is one part circumstance, one part what you do with it. So, you achieved well over and beyond what most people born to two educated parents would have achieved and I think that's what you are being recognized for.

People save other peoples lives on a daily basis and it literally is the most natural thing in the world. I prefer to think that anybody would respond to a child in danger that way.

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#235

Post by jacquesm »

Mz wrote: post #231
jacquesm wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there ever was a comment that justified the 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' proverb then this is it. Congratulations, it looks like you've had a tough deck to play with and you're making the most of it.

If there ever was a comment that justified the 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' proverb then this is it. Yes, but it's also a little like the joke about the sheik with many wives, 'each more beautiful than the last': Only if you line them up that way. Congratulations Thank you! it looks like you've had a tough deck to play with and you're making the most of it. I had a head start: I learned to play poker an…

> Daddy was a cardsharp. Couldn't have a relationship to him if you didn't play. :-P

Funny :)

My family from my dads side was pretty large, and my grandfather decreed that the kids got their pocket money on Friday, and after that had to play cards, mandatory.

So, naturally the pocket money became part of the game, and all my aunts and uncles got to be pretty good at playing cards.

When I was 15 or so I stayed over for a week at my grandmothers house (my granddad died long before that), and in my innocence I asked her if she wanted to play cards with me.

I should have probably realized what was about to happen when she suggested giving me the opportunity to make some money.

Long story short, don't play cards with old ladies that can count two full decks, I was happy to go home with my clothes ;)

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#236

Post by FraaJad »

jaxn wrote: post #143
FraaJad wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking Hindi is not a necessary condition for one to be considered Indian. Tao te ching is not a religious book.

I disagree about the Tao Te Ching not being a religious book. It is the primary book of Taoism. "The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao" That is a paraphrase from memory of the opening of the book. Which seems to me a lot like the Jewish refusal to speak the formal name for God because it is too holy and they couldn't speak it truthfully.

I've read the whole book(not saying that you haven't ;) and haven't found any references to Tao being a "God". Tao is a Way of Life, analogous to the concept of Dharma in Hinduism, Buddhism and other Indian religions.

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#238

Post by egb »

* I wrote WebRPG back in the Java 1.1 days, with a very thin distributed object graph for all communications, and it mostly worked :-)

A highlight of that experience was having Gary Gygax hang out in our booth at GenCon - http://web.archive.org/web/19980205004902/www.webrpg.com/?li...

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#239

Post by nekopa »

Wow, I now have to upgrade all my goals :) As I always find myself becoming a teacher no matter what job I do (I finally gave in and am now an English teacher) my proudest moment was during my technical training for the US Air Force as an enlisted man (Computer maintenance and telephone systems engineer, which I went for because I had always been a 'software guy' so this allowed me to play with big iron): During our basic electronics training segment our lecturer took off sick and so we had a substitute teacher who was trying to use the original teachers notes, but knew nothing about the subject. After 2 classes of confusion, I offered to take over the class and taught it for the remainder of the 2 weeks. The best part was that it was the only segment of the whole course where everyone scored +90% on the final.

Re: Ask HN: Cool Things You've Done (Brag Thread)

#240

Post by Mz »

jacquesm wrote: post #235
Mz wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If there ever was a comment that justified the 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger' proverb then this is it. Yes, but it's also a little like the joke about the sheik with many wives, 'each more beautiful than the last': Only if you line them up that way. Congratulations Thank you! it looks like you've had a tough deck to play with and you're making the most of it. I had a head start: I learned to play poker an…

> Daddy was a cardsharp. Couldn't have a relationship to him if you didn't play. :-P Funny :) My family from my dads side was pretty large, and my grandfather decreed that the kids got their pocket money on Friday, and after that had to play cards, mandatory. So, naturally the pocket money became part of the game, and all my aunts and uncles got to be pretty good at playing cards. When I was 15 or so I stayed over fo…

My dad didn't play the kids for money. He did play other adults for money when he was younger, and won consistently enough that he basically treated it like a part-time job in addition to his regular full-time job. (For some strange reason, mom didn't object to him spending Friday night out with the guys. ) When I was a kid, we sometimes anted up with cookies or mints while playing poker. The problem was trying to not eat all your winnings while playing, thereby leaving yourself short for betting. :0
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