I'm reminded of the best personal advice ever given by a Physiscist:
"Dear Mrs. Chown, Ignore your son's attempts to teach you physics. Physics isn't the most important thing. Love is. Best wishes, Richard Feynman."
Ask HN: Hackers falling in love
41–50 of 73 posts
Re: Ask HN: Hackers falling in love
#42Falling in love is not one of life's distractions, its one of life's points. Time well spent.
True. I agree that it's one of life's points. However, oftentimes maintaining a relationship can be distracting.
Re: Ask HN: Hackers falling in love
#43>molecular chemistry is a tough adversary I hope you're sure the other party doesn't see this. Can't imagine that would go down too well. That's all I am to you? Amino acid chains? If obsession with love can be reduced to chemistry, then obsession with business must necessarily be understood similarly, and with a similar inward scepticism. But yeah. However much you enjoy your work, it's not going to benefit it long…
If the person I was dating didn't find that amusing and endearing then we'd be doomed anyway.
I'm dating a psychologist, who has a reductionist approach to such things. She says things like "You just gave me a massive surge of oxytocin." It's awesome.
Re: Ask HN: Hackers falling in love
#44I was at dinner with a young lady who is now my girlfriend a few months ago, and she asked me my plans for the next morning (Saturday). I told her that I was going to be programming (it was during the last week or two prior to AR's launch). She said: Of course, after all you are a businessman. The job comes first. I said: No. Not first. Not second, either, unless first is "all the things I love in life." I had a real…
Disagree. Plenty of us live to work, because working is living. If you're not creating and producing, you're merely existing.
Re: Ask HN: Hackers falling in love
#45This is not so much a possibility as an inevitability. Chances are you will fall in love and it will disrupt your life whether you're starting up or doing something else entirely. If you're fortunate, you're new significant other will be a disruptive, yet motivating force. Moving you towards new heights that you had not imagined. But, it's more likely to be a struggle to balance your life's goals with your desire for…
> As for me, I've been with my wife for over 10 years (most of it dating), and... honestly? I think this relationship has had an adverse effect on my goals. I, kind of, think I'd be much more rich and successful had I never met my wife. Define successful?
Probably "fame", "power" and "money". Notice how happiness is not there.
Re: Ask HN: Hackers falling in love
#46I was at dinner with a young lady who is now my girlfriend a few months ago, and she asked me my plans for the next morning (Saturday). I told her that I was going to be programming (it was during the last week or two prior to AR's launch). She said: Of course, after all you are a businessman. The job comes first. I said: No. Not first. Not second, either, unless first is "all the things I love in life." I had a real…
Though I agree that love and family come above all else, of course, I do quite dislike the whole 'it's just a job' attitude. Isn't the whole point of all this that we do what we love and are passionate about?
I, for one, adore programming and would do it even if I was working as a bank clerk.
Obviously there are awful days and truly crap aspects of running a business, and even when coding, as things you love aren't a pure, crystalline edifice of positivity but necessarily embody suffering within them. What counts is the net meaningfulness of what you are doing, I think. And I believe when you are doing something you love it pays infinitely more than it costs.
I say this with all respect, as you have achieved amazing things, and are clearly a very competent (far better than me) hacker.
Re: Ask HN: Hackers falling in love
#47I was at dinner with a young lady who is now my girlfriend a few months ago, and she asked me my plans for the next morning (Saturday). I told her that I was going to be programming (it was during the last week or two prior to AR's launch). She said: Of course, after all you are a businessman. The job comes first. I said: No. Not first. Not second, either, unless first is "all the things I love in life." I had a real…
Though I agree that love and family come above all else, of course, I do quite dislike the whole 'it's just a job' attitude. Isn't the whole point of all this that we do what we love and are passionate about? I, for one, adore programming and would do it even if I was working as a bank clerk. Obviously there are awful days and truly crap aspects of running a business, and even when coding, as things you love aren't a…
I love my job and find a great deal of meaning in the work, but there is no level of Yay This Is The Best Job Ever that would make it more important than those other things. (It is my favorite job ever. This morning aside, I practically bounce with enthusiasm about it. I am probably spoiled for doing anything else. But if it were ripped away from me, I'd still be living a very blessed life.)
I appreciate the praise, but folks overestimate my skill at hacking. I'm good at it. There are a lot of people better at it than me, including on HN.
Re: Ask HN: Hackers falling in love
#48>molecular chemistry is a tough adversary I hope you're sure the other party doesn't see this. Can't imagine that would go down too well. That's all I am to you? Amino acid chains? If obsession with love can be reduced to chemistry, then obsession with business must necessarily be understood similarly, and with a similar inward scepticism. But yeah. However much you enjoy your work, it's not going to benefit it long…
That's all I am to you? Amino acid chains?
No darling, of course not! Fatty acids, if deposited in right places in the right amounts, may also produce a visual sensation that will trigger the emotional response in the occipital lobe!
Re: Ask HN: Hackers falling in love
#49I was at dinner with a young lady who is now my girlfriend a few months ago, and she asked me my plans for the next morning (Saturday). I told her that I was going to be programming (it was during the last week or two prior to AR's launch). She said: Of course, after all you are a businessman. The job comes first. I said: No. Not first. Not second, either, unless first is "all the things I love in life." I had a real…
I have some foreign language partners, and when I tell them I'm going to a programming conference they always ask if my co-workers are going, and each time I have to explain that I'm going for fun, not for work. (Of course, I program at work, but sometimes the conference isn't applicable to my job.)
To be fair, I'm pretty sure US-based friends would ask the same except that most of them are technically inclined, so it's not usually necessary.
Re: Ask HN: Hackers falling in love
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Though I agree that love and family come above all else, of course, I do quite dislike the whole 'it's just a job' attitude. Isn't the whole point of all this that we do what we love and are passionate about? I, for one, adore programming and would do it even if I was working as a bank clerk. Obviously there are awful days and truly crap aspects of running a business, and even when coding, as things you love aren't a…
I love my job and find a great deal of meaning in the work, but there is no level of Yay This Is The Best Job Ever that would make it more important than those other things. (It is my favorite job ever. This morning aside, I practically bounce with enthusiasm about it. I am probably spoiled for doing anything else. But if it were ripped away from me, I'd still be living a very blessed life.) I appreciate the praise,…
I definitely want to emphasise that I agree that love, family, etc. are the most important things. Only people who have never had such could disagree with that :-)
Just wanted to highlight that I think it's important that work be more than simply a means of obtaining money to fund pleasure in your spare time, that it can be more than that, which as your reply indicates, you clearly agree with.
The vast majority of people (talking about those lucky enough to live in the very privileged western world) have the attitude that work is a misery that you cannot avoid, and I think it's important to emphasise that there is another way :-)
You've created a successful business through hacking, your analyses demonstrate you are very sharp + competent, I think that alone qualifies you as a great hacker. And your humility only makes me think that more so :-)