Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 110 posts

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#91

Post by tomatocracy »

keyle wrote: post #24
pdmccormick wrote: post #20

Over the past year, I’ve made a deliberate effort to improve my “personal computing”, which for me is about how I use the shell. I start by trying to notice when I’m doing the same task multiple times and getting tripped up on the specific syntax or sequence of commands (i.e. what’s the Git command again to split certain files out of a previous commit into a separate one?) I will then create an alias, a shell script…

Everyone does this. Otherwise you'd go bat sh*t crazy trying to remember every intricate details of common tools. also using ctrl+r and filter through older commands (ctrl+r to cycle) is also necessary for good mental health. for example alias ll="lsd --icon never -l" alias lla="lsd --icon never -l -a" # all alias llr="lsd --icon never -l -r -a" # reversed alias lls="lsd --icon never -l -r -a -S" #by size alias llt="…

Ctrl+R is nice, and was a big quality of life improvement when I first found out about it.

Recently I've found a similar improvement going from "plain old" ctrl+r for history to a set of zsh extensions plus fzf - my current set of extensions is zsh-autocomplete, zsh-autosuggestions, zsh-syntax-highlighting, zsh-history-substring-search, zsh-histdb, and fzf-histdb.

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#92

Post by bionhoward »

dehrmann wrote: post #36
Izkata wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually find it easier to memorize the flags than to memorize the commands I created myself, because they're a lot more descriptive than short commands like in your examples. The few times I do come up with my own stuff, it's a 2+ line function (or full shell script) that can't be duplicated in a single command and can't be done as an alias.

I memorize the flags because it means I'm comfortable on any machine. Issue in production, and your aliases aren't there? No problem.

Awww, you can put the aliases inside your script and source it, then you can keep the aliases in prod!

You could even have your script automatically add the line to source itself to the profile, so you source it once and then it happens automatically!

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#93

Post by fouc »

keyle wrote: post #24
pdmccormick wrote: post #20

Over the past year, I’ve made a deliberate effort to improve my “personal computing”, which for me is about how I use the shell. I start by trying to notice when I’m doing the same task multiple times and getting tripped up on the specific syntax or sequence of commands (i.e. what’s the Git command again to split certain files out of a previous commit into a separate one?) I will then create an alias, a shell script…

Everyone does this. Otherwise you'd go bat sh*t crazy trying to remember every intricate details of common tools. also using ctrl+r and filter through older commands (ctrl+r to cycle) is also necessary for good mental health. for example alias ll="lsd --icon never -l" alias lla="lsd --icon never -l -a" # all alias llr="lsd --icon never -l -r -a" # reversed alias lls="lsd --icon never -l -r -a -S" #by size alias llt="…

> Everyone does this

I disagree, experienced *nix users probably remember a TON of commands outright, after going through multiple distros/*nixes over the years.

Personally I have maybe ~30 aliases that are actually used. There's almost no point in inventing aliases that will go unused or be rapidly forgotten etc.

git has it's own alias config which I prefer to use instead. some examples: st=status, co=checkout, ci=commit, cp = cherry-pick, mod=add -u.

so that means I do 'g st' instead of 'ss', yeah, a couple extra keypresses but I'm okay with that.

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#96

Post by Izkata »

ph4evers wrote: post #62
Izkata wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually find it easier to memorize the flags than to memorize the commands I created myself, because they're a lot more descriptive than short commands like in your examples. The few times I do come up with my own stuff, it's a 2+ line function (or full shell script) that can't be duplicated in a single command and can't be done as an alias.

Except for tar. But there I use the mnemonic “xtrackt ze files”

For tar, I have memorized: x, c, z, j, v, f

The trick with tar that people seem to have issues with is the ordering with "f" - since it takes an argument, if you're using the combined short form it has to be last with the filename immediately following.

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#97

Post by Zambyte »

bayindirh wrote: post #90
Zambyte wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

/bin/ss will still work.

Why should I need to write a longer command for something I routinely use, while ",[tab][tab]" would bring all my aliases/custom commands?

... then don't use the alias.

You said:

> you lose a command

I showed you how you do not lose a command. That is all.

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#98

Post by scns »

dpig_ wrote: post #65
danShumway wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For me the point of the timer is to snap me out of the distraction or I’ll be on Hacker News for an hour. Timers are such a big deal with ADHD. It's not news to anyone that people with ADHD suffer from time blindness, but even knowing that I'm constantly underestimating how much it affects me. Even if I'm not doing a scheduled task, having something that regularly beeps or vibrates to shake me out of whatever I'm f…

I live and die by the timers on my watch (whenever I can remember to set them).

I set the Calendar from Simple Mobile Tools to repeat Notification till discarded. That way i have to switch it off and look what needs to be done.

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#99

Post by bayindirh »

Zambyte wrote: post #97
bayindirh wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should I need to write a longer command for something I routinely use, while ",[tab][tab]" would bring all my aliases/custom commands?

... then don't use the alias. You said: > you lose a command I showed you how you do not lose a command. That is all.

This is what I do. I don't use aliases.

> I showed you how you do not lose a command. That is all.

I know. I understand your point, but yours is a very pedantic (sorry, was unable to find a gentler word) take on the issue.

In the heat of debugging some prod problems, the need to remember which commands are overridden by aliases and the effort required to remember full paths is an extra mental load. This is why it's better to not use aliases or be super careful, or at least prefix them with a common character is useful.

There's something called scaling cost. It's not only valid for infrastructure or software architecture. The customization you do, or the procedures you follow need to be able to scale too. I recently had to abandon Tiddly Wiki for Obsidian, because the work required to maintain that corpus of information became accidentally quadratic, and started to eat into my productivity and time. Aliases and terminal customization are also affected by this phenomena.

Re: When I stopped trying to self-optimize, I got better

#100

Post by jihiggins »

1290900990 wrote: post #85
jihiggins wrote: post #16

I think "self-optimize" is the wrong term to focus on. Imo, it's more about self-compassion / a more personal version of "psychological safety." Anecdotally, a few years ago I made a decision to run with my (ADHD driven) impulses when deciding what to spend my time on. It was difficult to let go, but I decided to let myself just fall behind with projects / work for a year or two (or until I was fired.) Long term, the…

The funny thing about ADHD is that the "topic" of ADHD is a trap for ADHD people in itself. Being aware of ADHD might initially seem like a good thing, but then it becomes a constant thing to "optimize" for. It becomes ever-present. "Could this behavior/issue/problem be my ADHD?".

Trouble with executive function / working memory are issues that affect every facet of your life. It's already ever-present, regardless of whether or not you put a name to it.
Post reply on HN