2025 years ago a guy none of us have met in person agreed to pay for our wrongdoing by agreeing to be tortured and die a humiliating death.
Not the time or place for this.
Why not?
What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?
301–310 of 353 posts
Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?
#3023-day bike trip, NYC to Provincetown. On day two, our group split up and I was riding with a close friend. 15 miles into the 100-mile day, we got our 3rd flat. We had only carried 2 spare tubes. We had barely pulled our bikes onto the sidewalk when a woman in a sedan slowed down to ask if we needed help. We said yes and she quickly pulled over. We piled our bikes into her car, trunk open, and she drove us to the near…
Carry a patch kit now?
Tubeless now - no flats in 5 years :)
Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?
#303Earlier quoted context omitted.
A surprising number of people are even afraid of succeeding
I actually struggle with this quite a bit, took me a while to realised, but wonder if you have any advice to get over it? (Aside from just succeed more)
I'm struggling with this too. First, figure out if it's a true fear of success or really fear of failure in disguise. (I'm afraid of getting hired. So what? Then I have to perform. So what? But I might fail. Ahh, there we go.) Secondly, figure out what messages people around you gave you when you succeeded or failed. Especially any behaviors that gave you a feeling of fear, shame or disgust. Third, start placing your own judgment of what constitutes success or failure above what others think of as success or failure. Set your own goals and criteria for completion. Lastly, don't focus on the outcome, focus on your inputs. Work patiently, slow down until you reach the quality you want to reach.
Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?
#304Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know what else is a nice thing to carry? A wad of paper towels to get the grease off. Even if someone can repair their own bike, they often don't have a plan for the grease. I've handed out paper towels to 4-5 people this year and they were all delighted.
And alcohol wipes. Just the other day someone stopped to give me alcohol wipes after I put my chain back on. The alcohol cleans off the grease completely, unlike paper towels. I'm carrying a pack in my car now.
Interesting. My usual approach at home is actually to put a few drops of cooking oil on my hands, which dissolves the grease; regular soap can then remove the oil.
I already have some alcohol wipes in my bag as part of an emergency medical kit. I'll add a few more for grease emergencies. :-)
Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
what's green mean, new?
Comments made by recent accounts appear with green names until a grace period passes. HN prefers "legit accounts" (subjective) - good faith comments from real people, reasonable uses of alias and spun up fresh accounts for regulars to say things without being part of their main history, etc. New commenters welcome. There are obvious and less obvious dark patterns of bad faith account creation. The admins do a pretty…
>Comments made by recent accounts appear with green names until a grace period passes.
on HN? huh, i've never seen that (and i'm no spring chicken)
Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?
#306I've got a weird one from a bank. I was driving from South Carolina to Virginia, I was completely broke, and had exactly $20 in cash, and only a couple dollars in my checking account. I did my math wrong, and didn't have enough money for enough gas to make it home. I was trying to draft behind semi trucks and drive slow to conserve fuel, but it wasn't enough. I called my bank at the gas station with my needle on empt…
I was at a gas station once and someone approached me with a sad story about needing to get somewhere (I don't recall the details) and he was broke, could I give him some money for gas. This is a common scam but he seemed genuine and I was in a good mood. I said I did not have any cash but I would buy him a tank of gas, which I did. Then I went back to fill my own car, and the pump never charged me. I swiped my card,…
I wonder if the second tank of gas at the same gas station triggered fraud detection, and your card company handled it without asking.
Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?
#307I live in Minnesota and do not own a snowblower. Probably my mistake, but I always joke that I get most of my exercise in the winter. Snow is really heavy for those without context. A couple years ago we had a particularly bad snowfall. The plow has a nasty hate filled habit of dumping all its snow in my driveway. I had a drift at the end of my driveway about 4 feet high and 6 feet deep. Literally up to my chest. I h…
> Snow is really heavy after a nar nar day in pow pow cuttin freshies up to your nippy nips, you'll change that assessment! (my email address was once inadvertently put on a mailing list for the planning of a bachelor party ski weekend, people I did not know or have any connection to, and that's the way they talked. i enjoyed it so much i didn't confess till they demanded to know why i hadn't RSVPed yet)
> after a nar nar day in pow pow cuttin freshies up to your nippy nips
Translation, please?
Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?
#308I saw my mom do something as a child that really stuck with me. This was back in the 70s cause I’m old. It was summer in the Midwest we were in the car in a store parking lot gettin ready to leave. An African-American lady pulled into a spot beside our car. In front of her was a pickup truck with two men and a pregnant woman. They started accosting the lady telling her she had bumped their vehicle and now the pregnan…
Your mom was especially courageous to do this as a child!
People are having kids earlier and earlier these days.
Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?
#309It is really interesting the very high percentage of comments are people who don't live in the US, or the story happened outside the US. I don't say this in a snarky "the US is full of assholes" way, just that's interesting and I'm not sure why that would be.
It’s because you were not really tallying.
I did the tallying for you. When specifically two countries were mentioned and it wasn’t clear which country the good deed happened in, I awarded 0.5 points to each of those countries.
The top country that is specifically mentioned is the USA. Of countries that are specified as non USA, they accumulated 34.5 points. The USA accumulated 37.5.
The tallying was done at 4:03 PM UTC on December 14, 2025
Here is the {position, score, country} list
#0. 42 Country not mentioned
#1. 37.5 USA
#2. 6.5 UK
#3. 5 Japan
#4. 4 Australia
#5. 2.5 Germany
#6. 2 Canada
#6. 2 India
#7. 1 Argentina
#7. 1 Bethlehem (Roman Empire, ~4 BCE)
#7. 1 Costa Rica
#7. 1 Iceland
#7. 1 Jordan
#7. 1 Nigeria
#7. 1 Norway
#7. 1 Philippines
#7. 1 Poland
#7. 1 Spain
#7. 1 Tahiti
#7. 1 Taiwan
#8. 0.5 France
Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?
#310I was gifted an ivory keyed Steinway grand piano in high school by someone who heard me play a couple of simple pieces in a retirement home. I did not know him but a family member was an occasional acquaintance of his. It is a stunning instrument.