"Poor Dad, Rich Dad" was eye opening to me growing in a developing eastern european country. It is probably this book more than anything else that made me want to be an entrepreneur.
Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?
371–380 of 567 posts
Re: Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?
#372You will die and no one will remember you again.
Re: Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?
#373I went to a Vipassana retreat [1] for the 4th time in my life (over a 10 year period). It has been a while, last time since 2016. It's hard to keep up a practice, but I'm in a position to do so now that's must better suited than before. I can't go into that, since I want to keep this comment short ;-) I've noticed a few things: - I experience pleasant, neutral and unpleasant feelings more intensely. - I am better cap…
This should come with a warning. Vipassana and other meditation retreats have also caused profound psychosis in people. Be warned about an irreversible mental breakdown. Your mind is unnaturally put in a hyper insensitive environment that it is not meant to be in, nor is it designed to from an evolutionary standpoint. It is designed to stay alert with its environment and defend you from threats, seek mate/food. There were a bunch of posts about this on HN.
Re: Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?
#374Levin's quote from the end of Anna Karenina:
""" “This new feeling has not changed me, has not made me happy and enlightened all of a sudden, as I had dreamed, just like the feeling for my child. There was no surprise in this either. Faith—or not faith—I don’t know what it is—but this feeling has come just as imperceptibly through suffering, and has taken firm root in my soul.
“I shall go on in the same way, losing my temper with Ivan the coachman, falling into angry discussions, expressing my opinions tactlessly; there will be still the same wall between the holy of holies of my soul and other people, even my wife; I shall still go on scolding her for my own terror, and being remorseful for it; I shall still be as unable to understand with my reason why I pray, and I shall still go on praying; but my life now, my whole life apart from anything that can happen to me, every minute of it is no more meaningless, as it was before, but it has the positive meaning of goodness, which I have the power to put into it.” """
There have been many times in my life where I have reflected on past behavior and things I've done and have been disappointed in myself. Yet no matter how much I try to change certain things, there are certain aspects that are just fundamental to who I am a person and I can't change. The best I can do is keep pushing forward and trying to be the best person I can be.
Re: Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?
#375Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’d agree. I was hurt by bullying enough that if I had ever made it big I would have found the most outrageous bullying case I could find and try to sue a school district out of existence? Maybe if teachers thought they could lose their pension maybe they would put a stop to bullying.
Suing to threaten the pensions of underpaid teachers. Makin’ a difference in the world.
Eh, look at PaulHoule's statement with some empathy.
I got bullied by a teacher, probably more, starting in fourth grade. I've written about it on this website. It can develop authority issues, trust issues, or both. It's a lifetime of work to undo those things.
Similar to people posting their stories with names with the hope for justice in some form or fashion, suing someone puts the details out for bare. He would likely never get the state government to actually repeal pensions, but he would get to tell his story in a media that people would definitely be paying attention to.
There's a valid question of whether any of the approaches above are healthy for a society. I'd venture to say no, but that is the way our society is.
Re: Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?
#376“Say Yes more. The people without passion are the ones who always say no. But the happiest people are the ones who understand that good things occur when one allows them to.” From the brilliant book “Yes Man”, by Danny Wallace.
Sorry, but awful advice. Being afraid of saying "No" and feeling compelled to say "Yes" all the time and trying to make everyone except yourself happy is the worst way to life your life. Been there, done that, won't go there again.
You’ve misinterpreted the advice :) It’s not about being compelled to say yes all the time to make others happy, it’s about saying yes _more_ to make yourself happy.
As an example, a work friend of mine invited me to a house party once at their shared house, there were a lot of people going but I didn’t know any of them except her. My instinctive reaction was to say “thanks, but no thanks”, but I decided to take a gamble and say yes.
I ended up having a really good evening, and I met some really great people who I now consider to be friends of my own. All because I took a gamble and said yes to something I’d typically say no to.
Re: Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?
#377Mentor advice: 1. An estimate is better than a guess. An measurement is better than an estimate. 2. It's never the money. (They will always say it is, but it's not.) 3. Never let anyone eat your lunch. 4. The best time to turn it on is before it's ready. You'll get plenty of data to finish it faster. 5. The only good Powerpoint slide is evergreen. If it's not, it's already obsolete. 6. Your positive mental attitude m…
I dunno. I’ve been around half a century and I’m pretty sure when people say it’s not about the money most of the time it’s about the money.
Re: Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?
#378Earlier quoted context omitted.
What other types are there? Genuine question.
Talking about me: I'm very much abstract and academic and do not really care about practical applications. I went into Physics and realized how much I hated the lab and the more experimental oriented subjects: I love the Math sequences, love Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Mechanics, loved Special and General Relativity but hated Laser and Optics, hated Electrical Circuits, hated Nuclear Physics (prof was an experimentali…
That’s interesting. I began as a Physics major, and loved Laser and Optics, Electrical Circuits, Mechanics, all the labs really. But then I got to upper division Quantum Mechanics and I hated it. I was pushing around Schroedinger equations all day to get the correct answers but I never had a firm mental model on what was actually going on behind the math. I ended up switching my major to Mechanical Engineering. In hind sight I should have jus stuck it out because I ended writing software for a living anyway :)
Re: Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?
#379Always take sides. By not taking a side you are automatically wrong. This doesn’t mean you should engage in identity politics, etc. but when faced with a choice take the time to make an informed decision. If you say something “should be a thing” you are automatically now in charge of creating it or convincing someone to create it. Do not tell people who are working on things that they should realize your idea if you…
> Always take sides. By not taking a side you are automatically wrong. This doesn’t mean you should engage in identity politics, etc. but when faced with a choice take the time to make an informed decision. This is a good way to piss away incredible amounts of time on irrelevant things. You are definitely not “wrong” by choosing to ignore an argument about which Kardashian is better looking.
Taking a side does not mean submitting yourself to an argument. The advice is "take a side", not "advocate/defend a side in all circumstances".
Re: Ask HN: Advice that changed your life?
#380Floss.
A hygienist told me all my teeth were going to fall out if I didn't start flossing. I started that day and have been religious about it every since. Haven't lost a tooth yet :)