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Ask HN: How are you holding up?

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351–360 of 398 posts

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#351

Pretty terrible. I have no prospects, my startups all failed, I've lost most of my money (lost about $2m that I saved over 10 years and earned from previous startups which I managed to cash out). I tried to go the VC route, but no investors wanted to talk to me, so I spent my own money instead and now I'm broke. I need to find a job, but because I'm highly experienced and older (35 y/o), most companies see me as expe…

It sounds like it's going very rough for you. Have you considered/tried going down the consulting road? Given your experience, you sound like a tremendously good fit, and at the big consulting houses your age might actually be a benefit, as it speaks for your experience (so I've heard, so I might be horribly wrong). In any case, hope things turn out well for you.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#352
Would you please stop the karma-farming spam schemes? You're wasting your time. We ban such accounts and the sites that they try to promote here, and karma doesn't help.

The comments in this thread are fine.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#353

Hey friend. Long time lurker around here, created an account to reply here. I don't know. It's hard man. I know there are people in worse situations than me but it's hard anyway. Working from home since March. I spend all my day alone at home (with my cats). My GF arrives late and leaves early. She has to go to work everyday. I feel unmotivated. I'm not socializing, I'm getting fat, I'm slacking on my work. The worse…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#354
post #51

I feel a touch of shame considering the tenor of this thread, but amazing. I just said to my wife I don’t want to go back. And I have a pretty spacious private office. We had our first child on Halloween and we both had only returned to work for a month before being forced to wfh. We both still are. It’s great watching my son every day grow. My wife’s job leaves her twiddling her thumbs a lot so she gets to spend a l…

I feel a little guilty too enjoying quarantine. My partner and I are both homebodies, and so we've enjoyed the extra time we have together. It's also been doing wonders for my stress since we recently relocated to another country (can't avoid packing and doing stuff to get set up for another country if you're stuck at home.) I definitely don't miss the traffic from my old commute at all. I can see how if you're singl…

Same here, I'm lucky to go through this as the most peaceful time in my life. I exercise and meditate a lot, and enjoy long afternoons in the garden, watching the small life going on and prospering, in the calm of now nearly empty roads.

Could have been the opposite if I was single, unemployed, without a garden and without a dog I think.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#356
Honestly, quite poorly overall. It's a tad surprising given how much I usually enjoy working from home and what not, and how much time I now have for hobbies and what not... but I guess the repetition and lack of any real routine has actually got to me here.

I'd also say the following three factors hurt it too:

1. The feeling you're wasting your time. If you go by Hacker News/Reddit/Product Hunt/other sites, you'd think everyone and their dog has built some world changing product or service in this lockdown period, and that you're a complete failure for not having managed to do the same.

2. The lack of alternatives. Previously, working remotely was fun because there were other things you could do, and other entertainment you could enjoy if you were burnt out. In this lockdown, you basically can't go on holiday, visit any interesting places, buy things in most shops, eat in any restaurants, etc. There's nothing except 'do work' and 'work on your side projects'

That's left me in a situation where I feel like I'm just not able to do anything, and have little to no motivation to even try to do anything.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Peace, quiet, fully able to focus on my tasks. So no kids, lol. The hardest part of this is how I think it works this way for everyone else on my team at work. They are (normal work + 100%). I'm (normal work - 80%). Got my first negative performance review ever a couple weeks ago. It's rough.

Feeling this. We have a 1.5 yo, not potty trained, the infinite loop of food in/out is a suck on productivity. He also doesn't understand why we can't play with him. Before Covid, we were pretty firmly against screens for him. Now he's a straight up couch potato, first thing in the morning he looks for the remote instead of wanting breakfast :( Yesterday, with much covid related hesitation, we put him back in day car…

Yeah, I've been trying to compensate by working till 2/3 am but it's destroying my health.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#358
post #51

I feel a touch of shame considering the tenor of this thread, but amazing. I just said to my wife I don’t want to go back. And I have a pretty spacious private office. We had our first child on Halloween and we both had only returned to work for a month before being forced to wfh. We both still are. It’s great watching my son every day grow. My wife’s job leaves her twiddling her thumbs a lot so she gets to spend a l…

I feel a little guilty too enjoying quarantine. My partner and I are both homebodies, and so we've enjoyed the extra time we have together. It's also been doing wonders for my stress since we recently relocated to another country (can't avoid packing and doing stuff to get set up for another country if you're stuck at home.) I definitely don't miss the traffic from my old commute at all. I can see how if you're singl…

I was single and unemployed during quarantine, it was awesome. But then I got a job which is much better than my previous job and now things are even more awesome. But I've never had issues with handling stress, for me life is great even during great challenges. Big part of thriving right now is to resist going with the constant stream of panic-porn on social and mainstream media.

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#359
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually feel a lil guilty about how well things are going for me. Its not really been any change for me, same schedule - same job. I think the key is as you said, mostly avoiding the news. Every day or two, I skim over the headlines on CNN but mostly I avoid it. I do check the stock market in the mornings - I swear the DJIA is just a yo-yo. But it's just out of curiosity as I still have 15+ years before I can reti…

Agree 100%. I've felt a little guilty too. I started working from home full time about 4 months before covid landed in US. I'd built a nice above garage office. Kids homeschooled already. Planted a garden that's doing well, had more time for home projects, etc. I have friends not doing so well. I have donated to individuals and organizations since I feel I have an obligation to help people in need. News is the bigges…

Don't forget that you have to explicitly block every host name (including subdomains), if you are using the hosts file method.

For example:

127.0.0.1 reddit.com

127.0.0.1 www.reddit.com

Re: Ask HN: How are you holding up?

#360

Not great. I spend 22 hours of my day in the same room, split between ten hours laying in my bed and twelve in my chair. I had just moved to a new city before everything, started a new job. I don't know anyone, it's impossible to really meet new people. My roommates all disappeared to larger living spaces in the middle of March. They're paying rent but I'm alone, and even when they were here I have nothing in common…

> I had just moved to a new city before everything, started a new job. I don't know anyone, it's impossible to really meet new people. Meeting new people seems impossible, but it doesn't have. It helps to connect with others over a common interest or hobby. Boardgames, hacking for fun, volunteering, writing, photography, art, music, radio making, astronomy, movies, sports, gardening, museums, libraries, animals, cook…

Thank you for taking the time to write all this out.

I'm hoping that when covid becomes less of an issue that people are going to be eager to get out and meet people.

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