
Ask HN: Share a gem. Teach me and you. - lionhearted
One of my favorite discussion threads of all time, on any forum, was "Teach me and you. Give a gem" on the Civfanatics forum. It wound up being 15 pages of insights on how to play Civilization IV well, and was really a wonderful, enjoyable, community building experience.<p>Here was the first post:<p>"Share a "one-liner" simple strategy that can help beginners, seasoned players and maybe even be a gem that one of the pros can learn from.<p>Feel free to explain your tip, but avoid complex, in-depth strategy."<p>So, care to share a gem about technology, entrepreneurship, or general Hacker News type topics?
======
kashif
The world is meaningless, there is no God or gods, there are no morals, the
universe is not moving towards any higher purpose. All meaning is man-made, so
make your own, and make it well. Do not treat life as a way to pass the time
until you die. Do not try to "find yourself", you must make yourself. Choose
what you want to find meaningful and then live, create, love, hate, cry,
destroy, fight and die for it. Do not let your life and your values and you
actions slip easily into any mold, other than that which you create for
yourself, and say with conviction, "This is who I make myself". Do not give in
to hope. Remember that nothing you do has any significance beyond that with
which you imbue it. Whatever you do, do it for its own sake. When the universe
looks on with indifference, laugh, and shout back, "Fuck You!". Remember, that
to fight meaninglessness is futile but fight anyway, despite its futility.

The world may be empty of meaning, but it is a blank canvas on which to paint
meanings of your own.

Live deliberately.

You are free.

\- Anon (Edited)

~~~
cynicalkane
Really? What a mishmash of meaningless platitudes. There's regularly more
insightful stuff on the Dr. Phil show.

This insistence on bald self-determination will fail utterly for all but the
loneliest, most isolated instances of Nietzschean uebermenschen. The reality
is that mankind is a social creature, that we draw on the meaning provided by
others, that we look to the molds of others for inspiration, that our
definitions of ourselves vary significantly from culture to culture and
society or society. But wherever and whoever you are, you won't find the
secret to eudaimonia in a philosophical ramble that reads like it was written
by the memetic Courage Wolf.

I know many who have tried to "make themselves" and failed. It seems to be a
common thing for kids in their early 20s, fresh out of college, to try to do.
Many with depression will not be able to summon the will to "imbue" their own
meaning. For many, the assertion that the "universe looks on with
indifference" is strictly worse than irrelevant. And so on.

And even if you have some unusual strength of willpower such that you can take
the OP's advice to heart, trying to re-make yourself all at once, with no idea
how to go about it, will be about as productive as banging your head against a
wall, and the end result will be nothing but a terrible headache and severe
ego depletion.

Indeed, I once tried the Courage Wolf approach to happiness that is advocated
above. I found much better results once I decided that I don't know what I
want, but by pursuing those things that seem to fulfill me, I can head down
the positive path one step at a time.

Many, particularly Greeks such as Aristotle, pondered what makes one happy,
free, and virtuous, with much more insight than the OP. But you don't have to
read Aristotle. Just use some common sense.

~~~
kashif
Must this be the only opinion? Perhaps, there was something in my life that
makes this quote resonate with me and some other folks...

~~~
jtheory
I think "know thyself" is far more valuable than "make thyself", because in
real life, everyday terms we have far less control over what makes us happy
than it seems, rationally.

But -- we also have far more freedom than many people realize. "I can't"
usually conceals a confused morass that needs to be dredged out with a
vengeance.

The decision might still be "I won't", but if you know _why_ , and have some
sense of how to maintain your emotional equilibrium, etc. you're still far,
far ahead in the game.

I think the quote resonates with you (and many people!) because it's so easy
to be locked into near-immobility by a kind of inarticulated wash of bad
feelings about how other people must be judging us, and in fact most of this
anxiety is unfounded and misleading.

It's incredibly valuable to take a kind of eyes-open "5 questions" approach to
big decisions, to dig out the kind of thing like "so apparently I will do
almost anything to avoid being criticized by men who resemble my father". And
yeah, break free from the crowds (hint: this tends to actually earn you
respect, not harsh judgment), work on improving yourself, etc..

But don't delude yourself into thinking that simply because there's no god,
universal meaning, etc., you'll be able to just shake it off if you realize
that your choices have earned you the contempt of those you love and respect.

------
DavidMcLaughlin
I picked this one up on Hacker News.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1398805>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ego_depletion>

The title says it all. Self-control is exhaustible. So when you're trying to
make changes in your life, keep it to one simple thing at a time. Over time
the one thing you decided to change stops being self-control and starts
becoming a habit. Once it becomes a habit? Start training something else.
You'll rack up positive changes in no time.

~~~
pmcginn
I wish this had been the first advice I'd received when I started dieting.
After flailing around for years, I started calorie counting, and then made
lifestyle changes once every few weeks. Smaller portions, whole wheat instead
of white, simple things like that. Doing them one at a time made all the
difference, and I finally got back down to my college weight.

~~~
jtheory
Ah, and the whole dieting process has a nasty trap built right in, because
your willpower diminishes as your blood sugar drops.

I don't have the study in front of me, but I recall the effect was pretty
clear.

------
SandB0x
_If the coefficients of a polynomial add to zero, then (x-1) is a factor._

For example, let's try and factorise f(x) = 2x^3 + 9x^2 + 4x - 15

What happens if we set x = 1? Then f(1) = 2 + 9 + 4 - 15 = 0, so (x-1) must be
a factor.

It's much easier to get f(x) = (x - 1)(2x^2 + 11x + 15) = (x - 1)(x + 3)(2x +
5) if you know one of the factors in advance. This was useful at school, at
least. Not so much now.

* See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynomial_remainder_theorem>

~~~
scorpion032
As a corollary, on the same lines of thinking,

If the co-efficients of the odd powers and the even powers are equal, then
(x+1) is a factor.

------
patio11
The secret to customer service is "I'm sorry" and putting a period after it
ASAP to avoid undoing all the good you just accomplished. ("I'm sorry you
couldn't figure out how to..." <\-- failed.)

Relatedly, buy yourself a puppet and route all email through the puppet.

~~~
danvoell
And, how can I fix the situation. Yesterday, had a coffee shop say, sorry we
make mistakes and that was it. Some companies work to resolve the situation
very well. A simple, we can throw that out and make you a new one would have
been nice, to which I would have passed but felt better about the service.

~~~
weaksauce
They didn't offer a new coffee? That is standard operating procedure for every
coffee place I have been too. A lot of my friends were baristas when I was
younger and as such I have spent a lot of time in coffee shops.

Did you order a blended drink a few minutes before closing? (that really
pisses them off) Also, don't take this the wrong way, but did you tell them
about it rudely? I have no way of telling from your post so I am just putting
that out there.

------
jacquesm
Not sure if it is a 'gem' but it certainly is useful:

tail -10000 somelogfile | cut -d ' ' -f 1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -n | tail

Quick one liner to get a fix on who is currently messing with your server in
ways that are 'counter-productive', also a nice way to show newcomers to unix
how you can string together existing unix commands to create new ones on the
fly.

As for start-up advice that would fit in one line:

A practical, bug ridden, bad implementation of something trumps a theoretical,
perfect implementation of the same thing.

~~~
Confusion
To generalize that a bit: learn the unix cmdline utilities and how to use them
together. Something as simple as

    
    
      grep "some pattern" * -R | cut -d' ' -f1 | 
        xargs sed -i -e 's/some_other_pattern/replacement/g'
    

will save you 15 minutes of painful searching and replacing through numerous
files.

~~~
dhimes
And keep a cheat sheet of the ones you've found really useful.

~~~
Confusion
And always, always, _always!_ test commands (or queries, for that matter)
before executing them. For instance, my example would run 'sed' multiple times
on files containing multiple matches of the string grep searches for. And it
should have been cut -d':' -f1. Running it without the 'sed' command would
have made both those things clear immediately. If you think you know for sure
it does what you intend it to do, but you didn't test it, then it doesn't do
what you think it does.

~~~
jacquesm
A good trick for that is to type in the whole command with 'echo' as the final
one in the place of the command that actually makes changes. Then you replace
the echo with the 'real' thing on the next run if the results where what you
expected them to be. In the case of 'rm -rf $1. *' that would save you a lot
of hunting around for backups ;)

~~~
bd
This also works for SQL commands: use SELECT before UPDATE/DELETE with the
same WHERE clause for sanity check.

~~~
trafficlight
This one is super important. I just got burned by this a couple of days ago.
Sometimes I blow by the WHERE clause because I have a happy Enter finger.

It's also not a bad idea to do a quick mysqldump of the database you are
working on, just in case.

~~~
jacquesm
I always thought the missing where defaulting to all records was a bug in the
spec, and would have much preferred it if 'where true' was a mandatory thing
on deletes and mass updates instead of the current default.

------
Towle_
A productivity gem from Jerry Seinfeld, heavily paraphrased.

For anything you wish you were doing every day, like working out or practicing
violin or working on your startup: Get a big, yearlong calendar and put it on
a wall in your bedroom. Every day you complete your task, mark a big, red "X".
Eventually, you'll build up a big string of X's and won't want to break it.
That incentive will push you more than you think.

~~~
prawn
And before everyone gets too excited, it's been created as a web-app already a
few times!

~~~
snitko
Could you share a link?

~~~
irondavycole
There's also an iPhone app for this called Daily Deed.

~~~
kristofferR
and Streaks.

------
edanm
A few gems for easier computer use:

1\. Buy a 50gb Dropbox account, put all the folders you care about in there
(all your projects, documents, music, etc.). Makes life so much funner when
you know you don't have to worry about losing your important documents ever
again.

2\. Start using a password management tool like Keepass. Makes you rely less
on memory, which makes life on a computer less stressful. I wrote an article
about this recently with some tips and tricks
(<http://www.loopycode.com/solving-sign-up-anxiety/>).

~~~
zyfo
How do you deal with either working from your Dropbox folder ( convoluted) or
having duplicate folders (local syncing)?

~~~
edanm
Great question, I spent a lot of time thinking about that. Eventually, I
realized that it _wasn't_ convoluted to work from my Dropbox folder. At least
the problem wasn't keeping project files there. After all, most projects are
just lots of source code, and it doesn't matter where it sits.

The big problem with keeping projects in there is that each project might have
computer-specific configurations. I try to keep those to a minimum, by e.g.
using relative directories whenever possible. For the few things that I
_can't_ keep completely relative, I rely on environment variables that I set
on each computer I work on.

Other than that, I haven't run into any problems working right out of my
Dropbox directory. At one point I considered running all my software from
Dropbox (using portable versions), but that really did cause a lot of headache
(most programs have session-specific configuration which would cause problems
on different computers).

Have you run into any other problems with keeping projects inside Dropbox?

~~~
zyfo
Mostly I found it annoying to switch from ~ to ~/Dropbox while on the command
line.

Is there any way to change the folder Dropbox? If so, I guess it could be the
same as ~.

~~~
edanm
You can do it with a registry hack, but I didn't/wouldn't go down that road.

------
jakevoytko
Solve the problem before you code the solution.

That may be obvious to this crowd, but I learned it the hard way!

I competed in the ACM programming competitions in college, so I did lots of
practice problems. When I coded up-front, I would first represent the problem
description as data structures and solve it from there. This is obviously
flawed, since I had no idea whether any of it was useful! Sometimes they
weren't, and sometimes I missed obvious tricks and wasted a lot of time. When
I first worked out a solution on pencil and paper, I always knew what code
needed to be written.

~~~
clueless123
Coders do two things: Thinking and Typing.. the more you do of one, the less
you do of the other

~~~
endlessvoid94
Unless you're writing Java.

------
rokamic
Sometimes we get stuck, writer's block kicks in. Do yourself a favor, get up
and go do something else. The magic elves will come and fix whatever you were
stuck on, I promise.

------
tokenadult
As Confucius said, 三人行，必有我師焉 ("wherever three persons are walking, my teacher
is surely among them"). I can learn from anyone in my environment, and other
people always have a lot to teach me if only I will listen.

(Adapted from

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1295342>

where the first person to reply to this quotation that time reminded me that
not everyone on HN takes advantage of this, but where other HN participants
got Confucius's point.)

~~~
aaronblohowiak
Another of his, "To know what you do not know is the best."

------
chegra
You only need one. You only need one business venture to work right to be
considered successful.

~~~
tiffani
I first heard this from Mark Cuban wayy back in '05.
[http://blogmaverick.com/2005/05/30/success-and-motivation-
yo...](http://blogmaverick.com/2005/05/30/success-and-motivation-you-only-
have-to-be-right-once/)

~~~
chegra
Nice read, I have written a post about it:

<http://chegra.posterous.com/you-only-need-one>

------
arethuza
A deal, particularly an investment, isn't done until the money is in your bank
account.

~~~
acangiano
And if you use PayPal, it's even worse than that.

------
Eliezer
If you are selective about which arguments you inspect for flaws, or how hard
you inspect for flaws, then every flaw you learn how to detect makes you that
much stupider. It gives you one more chance to fail each time someone presents
you with a new argument, and you face the challenge of changing your mind.
Intelligence, to be useful, must be used for something other than defeating
itself.

~~~
oz
Could you go into more depth on this?

~~~
pjscott
Here's an article in which he does so:

[http://lesswrong.com/lw/he/knowing_about_biases_can_hurt_peo...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/he/knowing_about_biases_can_hurt_people/)

This is also relevant:

[http://lesswrong.com/lw/km/motivated_stopping_and_motivated_...](http://lesswrong.com/lw/km/motivated_stopping_and_motivated_continuation/)

Both articles are an interesting read, and it's sobering when you catch
yourself doing the things they describe.

------
tom_ilsinszki
The only reason why another person will do what you want, is because they want
to do it. Look at their viewpoint as well as your own, when you ask them to do
something.

If there is nothing in it for the other person, you're just wasting time, both
his and yours. 'Because I want it done!' will only get you a half-hearted
effort or worse.

------
bajsejohannes
Read the spec _before_ programming.

(This might seem obvious, but I find that it is tempting to "just see if I can
get it to work" before I read the documentation. I always end up with worse
code than when I take the time to read up on the technology. A similar advice
is The Pragmatic Programmer's "Don't program by coincidence")

------
michaelaiello
Be willing to spend money on things that are valuable. Don't kill you business
by being a cheap bastard.

------
jonp
People regret things they didn't do more than things they did.

~~~
Confusion
On the other hand: there's an infinite amount of things you can't/won't do in
your life, vs. a finite amount of things you will do. Don't spend your time
worrying about all the things you haven't done: that gets in the way of
actually doing things.

~~~
mvalle
On the third hand: of the infinite amount of things you can't/won't do in you
life, there is only a finite amounts of things you want to do, and you won't
regret not doing things you don't want to do.

~~~
apower
On the fourth hand: of all the things you have done you would for regard some
of them.

------
br41n
Back everything up. Now.

~~~
arethuza
Occasionally try restoring your backups and check that the really important
stuff is still in a usable form.

~~~
trafficlight
Also, every few months take a few minutes and make sure that you really are
backing up what you need.

I had a client a few weeks ago that had a drive failure. We went to restore
from his offsite backup copy and found that some of the files he needed
weren't being backed up. A quick review of the backup job would have caught
this.

~~~
entreprenewb
And conversely, make sure you aren't backing up what you don't need.

------
jason_tko
Great thread.

Heres mine :

Look after your mentors. Anyone who takes time to give you guidance, help or
advice, go far out of your way to display your appreciation.

If they have children, buy them presents. If they like wine, ask a wine expert
for help, and buy them a great bottle of wine.

People so rarely do this that you will absolutely make their day.

~~~
cmos
I second this. Strongly.

I had 2 amazing mentors in high school who supported me in rather extreme
ways. After college I had started a company making high end stereo equipment,
using a lot of what I had learned from them. 10 years after I graduated high
school I had dinner with them and gave them each one of my products, telling
them how much they had influenced my life and how thankful I was.

A week later one of them died suddenly. So don't waste time in doing this.

------
Dilpil
Mentally accept that bugs with your code are your fault. You'll end up fixing
them faster.

~~~
mian2zi3
Excellent advice. I'd go one step further: accept the problems in your life
are your fault (responsibility). You'll end up fixing them faster.

~~~
jacquesm
The opposite of that is the root of a lot of trouble in this world.

------
BruceJillis
For a constant growth rate of r%, the formula for the doubling time Td is
given by log(2)/log(1 + r/100) which can be simplified to approximatly 70/r.

* See <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_72> for more info and background/variations that improve on accuracy in certain situations.

------
binarymax
Buy that very technical book of something you wish you knew. Spend some of
your lunchtime each day reading 5 to 10 pages.

~~~
arethuza
I have a copy here at work of "The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the
Laws of the Universe" by Roger Penrose for this very purpose!

------
Swizec
Whiteboards are always a good investment.

~~~
pcarmichael
To add to this, use shower board from a hardware store. The cost is usually
<$20 for a 4'x8' sheet. The quality varies but the price is hard to beat.

~~~
jacquesm
Or, alternatively, place 4 mm thick window pane glass over your walls, or the
much cheaper cellophane.

------
jokermatt999
If you find yourself worrying too often, ask yourself "Does what I'm worrying
about truly matter? Is it really worth obsessing over? Do I even have any
control over it?" If the answer to any of these is no, _put it out of your
mind_. It seems like fairly obvious advice, but if you can remember it, it can
make your life a lot less needlessly stressful.

------
Rickasaurus
Writing books and giving talks is really easy. It's just that most don't have
the guts to put themselves out there.

Or more generally: you can stand out by doing what others are afraid to do.

------
jorangreef
Innocence is more powerful than experience. "Experience keeps a dear school
but fools will learn at no other." Ben Franklin

Keep your heart pure. Do everything without arguing or complaining. Guard your
tongue. Speak in private of people only what would be helpful for them to hear
in public. Keep your word. Do not criticize people in positions of power. Pray
for them. When the moment comes that you meet them, and have a chance to
influence them, your voice will be authentic and honest. Your voice is like a
violin, played well for many years it can develop an incredible resonance.

------
shadchnev
Never forget that success if always a collective effort, so invest your time
and energy in relationships with others.

------
edw519
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less travelled by, and
that has made all the difference." - Robert Frost

~~~
jmatt
The literal or ironic interpretation? Or maybe a little of both?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Road_Not_Taken_(poem)>

Personally I've always appreciated it in it's literal interpretation. Maybe
this is why I could never truly appreciate poetry.

~~~
Scriptor
It's the simplest and least convoluted interpretation. On that note:

"Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." \--Albert Einstein

~~~
chc
The "literal" interpretation is only the simplest and least convoluted if you
ignore _the entire rest of the poem_.

If you go by that interpretation, you have to explain what every other line in
the poem is talking about. It's all about how the two roads were completely
indistinguishable, and Frost is very explicit that neither was perceptibly
more traveled than the other ("the passing there / Had worn them really about
the same").

That's why "I took the road less traveled by" is something he'll say "ages and
ages" in the future: At the moment, he can't tell any difference between the
roads, but in the future he will have built up a mythology to support his
arbitrary choice.

I've never heard a good explanation for what the rest of the poem is talking
about if his fuzzy memory at the end is meant to be a true recollection.

------
obsaysditto
"Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only
not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind." -
Henry David Thoreau

~~~
jodrellblank
Should that say 'indispensable', or is it a word like 'inflammable'?

~~~
fragmede
dispensable= easily replaceable indispensable = not easily replaced not
indispensable = not not easily replaced = easily replaced.

Luxuries are easily replaced and also hurt the progress of mankind.

------
jbert
Achievement comes from continually building something, not repeatedly starting
new projects.

------
paraschopra
For every gem, there is equally effective anti-gem that works for at least one
person.

------
tome
Use zsh.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zsh>

------
seis6
To be a king you only need one crown. Magic moments are magic because they are
the exception to routine days, not the rule. Coin too many gems and their will
be transformed into simple rocks.

------
iamwil
"Kiss her, you idiot... "

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=372723>

------
angstrom
Approach difficult problems with a curious attitude. Many problems that at
first glance seem beyond your skill set or nigh impossible turn out to be
easily decomposed if you play with them a little.

------
brownegg
It is more than ok to reinvent the wheel. What if the guy who invented the
wheel hadn't reinvented the block?

------
ueoa
bash control-r. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go try it.

~~~
jodrellblank
Always wondered: press control-r and type ls, it shows the last command where
I used ls.

I press up to get the second-last command where I used ls, and instead it
shows me the second last command used, full stop, outside control-r mode. How
does one cycle through ctrl-r results?

~~~
tjpick
keep hitting C-r to keep cycling backwards.

------
corin_
A little humour can always make a bad situation a lot better.

Best example is something that happened last year that I don't think I'll ever
forget. I was in China (Chengdu to be more specific) with a few friends,
working for an IPTV company broadcasting from a big event out there.
Everything that could possibly go accidentally wrong did. First our connecting
flight in the UK was an hour delayed meaning we had to run to catch the flight
to Asia. On arrival in Chengdu three of us were quarantined by the government
for swine flu (which we didn't have, and were released an hour later). Having
got outside the airport and tasted the smog one of our taxi drivers proceeded
to drive a few of us to the wrong hotel on the wrong side of the city (small
thing but.. it all adds up). This went on for the few days before the event,
including half our team getting really nasty food poisening, and 95% of our
video equipement (worth six figures) getting lost by the airline we shipped it
with. Anyway, it was all pretty tough with seemingly everything going against
us for no reason, but the turning point was the most insignificant thing that
happend that trip. A few of us were walking back to the hotel the night before
the event was starting, going through a large open space, not many people
around, and after a few seconds of discussion about its appropriateness...
Iain just shouts "CxxT" at the top of his voice. It broke the tension so
easily and from then on we really did find it much easier to look on the
bright side...

Humour can help defuse problems so often, that example just happens to be my
favourite (from what was probably the most eventful trip I've ever been on).

------
ivenkys
Mine : Remember a pay cheque goes a long way in alleviating the horrors of a
corporate job. Not everyone can afford to be a struggling hacker waiting for
the big pay-off.

~~~
Tichy
Goes a long way where?

~~~
ivenkys
Sitting in your day-job having to use (a very flaky) ClearCase instance
working on a monster code base that has no tests and has a non-deterministic
build process. Think of the pay-cheque at the end of the month. Get paid,
save/invest properly and use your evenings and weekends to work on "that"
project.

Course, this is my personal motivational technique.

------
MindTwister
Some people, when confronted with a problem, think “I know, I'll use regular
expressions.” Now they have two problems, fortunately, one solves the other.

~~~
alinajaf
My favourite variation:

Some people, when confronted with a problem, think “I know, I'll use regular
expressions.” Now they have three problems, the original problem, the regular
expression, and dealing with the annoying developer who isn't that good at
simple regular expressions who will repeat this phrase everytime he comes
across a regex in any codebase rather than actually figure out how they work.

------
kidkoala
(This was originally posted on Craigslist as "Advice to Young Men from an Old
Man")

1\. Don’t pick on the weak. It’s immoral. Don’t antagonize the strong without
cause, its stupid.

2\. Don’t hate women. It’s a waste of time

3\. Invest in yourself. Material things come to those that have self
actualized.

4\. Get in a fistfight, even if you are going to lose.

5\. As a former Marine, take it from me. Don’t join the military, unless you
want to risk getting your balls blown off to secure other people’s economic or
political interests.

6\. If something has a direct benefit to an individual or a class of people,
and a theoretical, abstract, or amorphous benefit to everybody else, realize
that the proponent’s intentions are to benefit the former, not the latter, no
matter what bullshit they try to feed you.

7\. Don’t be a Republican. They are self-dealing crooks with no sense of honor
or patriotism to their fellow citizens. If you must be a Republican, don’t be
a “conservative.” They are whining, bitching, complaining, simple-minded self-
righteous idiots who think they’re perpetual victims. Listen to talk radio for
a while, you’ll see what I mean.

8\. Don’t take proffered advice without a critical analysis. 90% of all advice
is intended to benefit the proponent, not the recipient. Actually, the number
is probably closer to 97%, but I don’t want to come off as cynical.

9\. You’ll spend your entire life listening to people tell you how much you
owe them. You don’t owe the vast majority of people shit.

10\. Don’t undermine your fellow young men. Mentor the young men that come
after you. Society recognizes that you have the potential to be the most power
force in society. It scares them. Society does not find young men sympathetic.
They are afraid of you, both individually and collectively. Law enforcement’s
primary purpose is to suppress you.

11\. As a young man, you’re on your own. Society divides and conquers. Unlike
women who have advocates looking out for them (NOW, Women’s Study Departments,
government, non-profit organizations, political advocacy groups) almost no one
is looking out for you.

12\. Young men provide the genius and muscle by which our society thrives.
Look at the Silicone Valley. By in large, it was not old men or women that
created the revolution we live. Realize that society steals your
contributions, secures it with our intellectual property laws, and then takes
credit and the rewards where none is due.

13\. Know that few people have your best interests at heart. Your mother does.
Your father probably does (if he stuck around). Your siblings are on your
side. Everybody else worries about themselves.

14\. Don’t be afraid to tell people to “Fuck off” when need be. It is an
important skill to acquire. As they say, speak your piece, even if your voice
shakes.

15\. Acquire empathy, good interpersonal skills, and confidence. Learn to read
body language and non-verbal communication. Don’t just concentrate on your
vocational or technical skills, or you’ll find your wife fucking somebody
else.

16\. Keep fit.

17\. Don’t speak ill of your wife/girlfriend. Back her up against the world,
even if she’s wrong. She should know that you have her back. When she needs
your help, give it. She should know that you’ll take her part.

18\. Don’t cheat on your wife/girlfriend. If you must cheat, don’t humiliate
her. Don’t risk having your transgressions come back to her or her friends.
Don’t do it where you live. Don’t do it with people in your social circle.
Don’t shit in your own back yard.

19\. If your girlfriend doesn’t make you feel good about yourself and bring
joy to your life, fire her. That’s what girlfriends are for.

20\. Don’t bother with “emotional affairs.” They are just a vehicle for women
to flirt and have someone make them feel good about themselves. That’s the
part of a relationship they want. For you it is a lot of work and investment
in time. If they are having an emotional affair with you, they’re probably
fucking someone else.

21\. Becoming a woman’s friend and confidant is not going to get you into an
intimate relationship. If you haven’t gotten the girl within a reasonably
short period of time, chances are you won’t ever get her. She’ll end up
confiding to you about the sexual adventures she’s having with someone else.

22\. Have and nurture friendships with women.

23\. Realize that love is a numbers game. Guys fall in love easily. You’re
going to see some girl and feel like you’ll die if you don’t get her. If she
rejects you, move on to the next one. It’s her loss.

24\. Don’t be an internet troll. Got out and live life. There is not a cadre
of beautiful women advertising on Craigslist to have NSA sex with you.
Beautiful women don’t need to advertise. The websites that advertise with
attractive women’s photos and claims of loneliness are baloney. All they want
is your money and your personal information so that they can market to you.
The posts on Craigslist by young “women” seeking NSA sex, and asking for a
picture are just a bunch of gay troll pic collectors. This is especially true
if the post uses common gay lexicon like “hole” as in “fuck my hole” or seeks
“masculine” men, or uses the word cock (except in the context of “Don’t send a
cock shot.”) There are women on Craigslist. They are easily recognizable by
their 2-5 paragraph postings. Most are in their 30's or older.

25\. When you become a man in full, know that people will get in your way.
People who are attracted to you will somehow manage to step in your path. Gay
guys will give you “the look.” Old people will somehow stumble in front of you
at the worst time. Don’t get frustrated. Just step aside and go about your
business. Know that these are passive aggressive methods to get you to
acknowledge their existence.

26\. Don’t gay bash. Don’t mentally or physically abuse people because of who
they are, or how they present themselves. It’s none of your business to try to
intimidate people into conformity.

27\. If your gay, admit it to yourself, your parents, your friends and society
at large. Be prepared to get harassed. See rule 14. If someone threatens you
or assaults you, call the cops. Have them arrested. You have no obligation to
self sacrifice because of who you are. As a gay person, you’ll have more
social freedom than straight men. Use it to protect yourself. Be prepared to
get out of Dodge if your orientation makes your life unbearable. Move to San
Francisco, New York, Atlanta, or New Orleans. You’ll find a welcoming
community there.

28\. Don’t be a poser. Avoid being one of those dudes who puts a surfboard on
top of their car, but never surfs, or a dude with a powder coated fixed gear
bike and a messenger bag, but was never a messenger. Live the life. Earn your
bona fides.

29\. Don’t believe the crap about the patriarchy. More women are accepted and
attend college. More degrees are awarded to women than men. Women outlive men.
More men commit suicide. Men are twice as likely to be victims of violence,
including murder. If you consider sexual assaults in prisons, twice as many
men are raped as women (society thinks prison rape is funny). The streets are
littered with homeless men, sprinkled with a few homeless women. Statically,
women are happier than men. The myth that girls are being cheated by are
educational system is belied by the fact that schools are bastions of
femininity, mostly run by and taught by women. Girls outperform boys in
school. It is the boys in school getting fucked over, and prescribed ritalin
for being boys. Real wages for men are falling, while real wages for women are
rising. Just because someone says something enough times, doesn’t make it
true. You have nothing to feel guilty about.

30\. Remember, 97% of all advice is worthless. Take what you can use, and
trash the rest.

~~~
Charuru
Lost me at #4 since it contradicts #1.

~~~
whimsy
Don't antagonize or pick on your opponent.

Perhaps fight an equal.

------
smiler
If you're male, check for possible signs of testicular cancer regularly. If
you're female, check for possible signs of breast cancer regularly

------
run4yourlives
_This too shall pass._

Works for everything in life, which is both a blessing and a curse.

~~~
jtheory
"entropy" ;)

------
rubinelli
Stand up and stretch now. You don't do it half as often as you should.

~~~
jberryman
And do a few pushups!

------
tjr
Sleep is good.

------
jorangreef
One of my first hacks as a kid was to change the opening copy for Civilization
by editing the game's text files to read that I created the universe.

One of my next best hacks was discovering King Solomon's Proverbs:
<http://bit.ly/aJpmva>

------
psyklic
Say your name as a statement.

------
slig
"The prisoner falls in love with his chains." — Edsger Dijkstra

~~~
hugh3
I'm not sure of the value of metaphorical platitudes that aren't actually true
in the real world. Find me an actual prisoner who's in love with his actual
chains and we can talk.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
stockholm syndrome

~~~
hugh3
Still metaphorical. A prisoner may, under exceptional circumstances, grow to
love his (or more likely her) captor, but the _chains_?

------
corruption
Due to homeostasis, a diet or exercise programmes effectiveness is inversely
proportional to the length of time you have been using it.

Average minds think alike, great minds think differently.

------
noodle
if you're going to have to sit down and power through a task that will take
you a long time (cramming for an exam, a weekend marathon coding session,
etc), operate in cycles of 20-30 minutes of focused work and then 5 minutes of
something unrelated (preferably something entertaining/distracting/social).
your mind will stay sharper, it'll be easier to focus, and you'll last longer
before you burn out.

------
harscoat
10 000 hour rule & Deliberate practice written about in "outliers" by Malcom
Gladwell and "Talent is overrated" by Geoff Colvin.

~~~
akkartik
Also <http://thetalentcode.com/book>

------
JoeH
Perfection is the enemy of good. Good is the enemy of at all. (I attribute the
last bit to Paul Buchheit)

~~~
apower
What does it mean?

~~~
jtheory
If you're trying to make it perfect, you'll waste all of your time in tiny
unimportant details (and you won't even manage to make something good). There
are a lot of would-be writers with beautifully polished first chapters, and
nothing else. Software is the same.

Likewise with making it good -- everything takes longer than estimated, and so
life will likely intervene to stop you working before you even have anything
working at all.

Lesson: get it working first (however badly), and evolve it from there.

------
Revisor
If you're a man, consider switching to the traditional wet shaving.
<http://www.youtube.com/user/mantic59>

It will make your mornings so much more enjoyable and give you a precious
moment of self-care and contemplation every (other) day.

------
smallegan
"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." -Wayne Gretzky

------
10ren
\- Ask a question. Define the nouns.

\- Sleep 2 hours extra.

\- Find a purpose that means something to _you_ (not success/cool/clever).

~~~
jodrellblank
* - Ask a question. Define the nouns.*

Would you explain this, please? Where you means 10ren, or anyone who has an
explanation, and this means the quoted sentence.

~~~
10ren
Assuming you aren't only mocking: when you're lost in a problem so complex
that you don't even know where to start, you can focus your efforts (ie.
narrow the scope) by trying to express your concern as a _specific_ question
(just one; trying to answer many questions simultaneously is a source of
complexity and perplexity). Sounds simple, but this can take a surprising
amount of work. It doesn't actually have to be a question - it can be a task,
provided it's _specific_ \- but the question form really seems to help,
perhaps by emphasizing that there's something you don't know, and that that's
OK.

A question is usually about how to _do_ something to something - ie. the
stress is on a verb. It helps to understand what that really means by defining
what it is about - ie. the nouns. Defining the nouns is usually pretty
straightforward, and often reveals what it is that has made the problem
difficult to think about. For me, the nouns are often an input data structure
(eg. a grammar + constraints), and an output data structure (eg. another
grammar, or a particular function with certain qualities).

I tend towards being anti-functional programming, but I have to admit this is
pretty much a declarative, mathematical, functional approach. It even _feels_
functional, in that you end up creating new "variables" for new states (ie.
immutable not variable), and although there's an explosion of names, things
become very clear to express when you have a convenient and precise name for
everything (ie. every _noun_ ).

~~~
jodrellblank
Not mocking, and that was a very helpful explanation, thanks.

------
nollidge
Use more than one operating system on a regular basis.

------
jyothi
When People stop growing, the organization stops growing and then the decline
starts ...

------
pmb
Accept the defaults. Or, at least, get so that you can use a computer within 5
minutes of being given the default configuration. It makes your life so much
easier. A more general form of this is: choose your battles.

------
iuguy
Years back I saw a programme on TV with a British Presenter/Comedian, Griff
rhys jones, talking about anger. He'd get wound up about so much trivial stuff
it's unreal and he just seemed to be going through life being angry and upset.

So my gem is this: Stop getting mad or angry about what happens, especially if
you can't change it. If someone screams at you, don't waste the energy
screaming back, it's done, there's nothing you can do to change it. Just work
out what you want to do next to get the best result and do it.

------
rizal
Increase efficiency (and maybe avoid injury to the wrist) by minimizing use of
the mouse:

1\. Vim / utilize your IDE's keyboard bindings

2\. Vimperator for Firefox

3\. Vimium for Chrome

4\. FreeCommander (or any Norton Commander clone)

5\. Activate Gmail keyboard shortcuts

(Edit: added #1 and #5)

~~~
Magneus
Consider a tiling window manager if you're a Linux user. Doubly so if you're a
console jock. I find it's a great way to cut down on mousing time.

------
lionhearted
Mine: Occasionally buy a can of compressed air and a soft cloth to clean up
your computer. The few dollars will keep your expensive kit running in better
condition and lasting longer.

------
ghotli
Never pick up anything by it's top.

------
kmak
There are no sunk cost in life. Even if you got really good at something, if
you really want to do something else, you can drop them and start today!

------
espadagroup
Do your toughest thinking, try to solve your hardest problems, and envision
your biggest dreams while on the toilet doing a number 2.

Something about it just works.

~~~
sdrinf
On related body hacks: holding your crap back bumps mental capabilities by
50-80%.

(Yes, I've got a couple more of these. yes, you can ask for it ;) )

------
taz
there's at least one show-stopping bug lurking somewhere in your code.

------
random42
Always do ls, before running rm (or rm -r).

Similarly, Always run SELECT query before running UPDATE/DELETE query, with
the same WHERE clause.

------
Arun2009
My suggestion: spend some quality time knowing yourself, so that you may
better lead an authentic and fulfilling life.

What does happiness mean to you? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What
do you value most? What are your goals? What _should_ they be? How would you
define success?

Cultivate your mind so that you may do the above better.

------
parka
It's not what you don't know that will hurt you. It's what you know for sure
that ain't so.

I think it's a quote from Mark Twain.

------
SHOwnsYou
I don't want to sound like a jackass, but this thread seemed to get way off
topic of technology/entrepreneurship gems and into existential bullshit.

Tip: The three hours it took to read How To Win Friends and Influence People
taught me more about running a business than 5 years of school and 8 years of
employment.

------
chegra
Persistent trumps all.

~~~
apower
You meant perseverance.

------
nhebb
Autocorrect in Outlook can be used as a canned response tool (and it's more
convenient than Quick Parts).

------
silentbicycle
A lot of problems can be rephrased as an equivalent problem with a known
solution.

If you're completely stumped, take a break. Go for a walk / bike ride /
whatever. The context change can help you see approaches you've overlooked.

Get enough sleep, or you'll be too tired to realize you're not thinking
clearly.

------
jiganti
"There seems to be two types of encouragement others give me: encouragement
and discouragement."

------
bld
I find that my idea of things is usually my biggest impediment to exploring
their potential. When I let go of my idea of myself, others, or anything else,
a path (forwards, backwards, or sideways) emerges naturally.

------
kristofferR
The only thing you really should be worried about is fear itself. Do what you
fear and fear disappears. Fear is the greatest barrier to success.

We fail because we fear failure. Stop fearing and live the life of your
dreams.

------
ambulatorybird
Fluency with box and pointer diagrams and the environment model of computation
(from chapters 2 & 3 of SICP) will allow you to understand the workings of any
applicative order programming language.

------
hboon
No matter what you do, and how well you do things, there will always be people
that is negative about you and what you did. Learn to selectively ignore such
unconstructive critics.

------
misterbwong
a) Damn the torpedoes. from:<http://www.jgc.org/blog/2009/10/damn-
torpedoes.html>

b) [paraphrased] So many people think that the keys to their lives are buried
somewhere within themselves. These are the same people that go on quests to
"find one's inner self." I say people's lives are more like onions. The
choices we make define the layers of who we are. When you peel those back,
there isn't much at all.

------
paulgb
"Do the hard thing."

I think it was in one of pg's essays that I read this a few years ago and it's
stuck with me. I've made a few life decisions based on it and have had no
regrets so far.

~~~
mr_twj
"Where there's muck there's brass."

------
mr_twj
This letter is framed on my wall thanks to an OP on HN:

<http://old.nabble.com/Re%3A-TM2-p28707277.html>

------
ttorn1
Drink a lot of water while you read and learn something.

------
lovskogen
Follow design patterns, customize to fit your own look.

------
harscoat
focus, focus, focus

~~~
apower
sleep, sleep, sleep.

~~~
InclinedPlane
Why was this downvoted? If every dev got a full night's sleep regularly the
productivity gains would be enormous.

------
ericingram
I consider this an MVC routing gem (yml):

<code> routes: \- domain: :user_id.mydomain.com \- uri:
/:controller(/:action)* </code>

------
keefe
"waiting is, until fullness."

Lack of patience can push us into doing all sorts of useless work just so that
we feel like we're doing something.

------
sev
Life will teach you, one way or another. Better take the _easy way_ if you
can.

 _the easy way_ is learning from others mistakes

------
vkdelta
Learn unix (if for some reason you haven't)

------
vkdelta
"Customer is the king". Live up to their expectations. It doesn't hurt to beat
them few times every now and then.

------
jyothi
Hiring tip - "The mind, sharp but not broad, sticks at every point but does
not move" ~Tagore

------
taz
jfdi.

or its cousin:

maybe, but do it anyway.

------
detcader
Get a Google Reader account.

Get an Instapaper account.

Get a Dropbox account.

Get a Tumblr account, at your own risk.

Try Google Chrome.

------
sids
"If I'm not having fun, I'm not doing it right."

------
muon
Keep reading.

------
mathgladiator
learn to listen and be patient for the complaint, for there is the
opportunity.

------
nollidge
Worry a little bit less.

------
cammil
Don't know your limits.

~~~
Ardit20
Why not?

~~~
FreeRadical
Dunno.

~~~
Ardit20
If you do not know your limits, or actively try and not acknowledge them, then
you would engage in self deception and lead yourself onto a wrong path.

I think it is more preferable to know your limits, but not necessarily accept
them and then actively work towards overcoming them.

~~~
noverloop
you can't know your limits until you've hit them, and even when you hit them
you have to make sure you diagnosed your limit correctly.

------
ja30278
echo 'alias mysql="mysql --i-am-a-dummy"' >>~/.bashrc

------
Sirupsen
Get into testing.

------
zyfo
_“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not;
nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not;
unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full
of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The
slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human
race”_ \- Calvin Coolidge

------
noverloop
Read up on the science of persuasion. It's the elephant in the room concerning
decision-making.

I suggest 'Yes! 50 secrets from the science of persuasion', it's a fascinating
read.

------
zyfo
Remember all your passwords by using a good "skeleton password" and substitute
a character or two for the site name.

Example: rW4ga#l0x! where # is substituted with 'h' for hackernews.

~~~
nailer
Awesome! I'm going to try rW4gappl0x! on your Paypal and rW4gagml0x! on your
Gmail.

~~~
zyfo
Go ahead.

I find it secure enough for everyday passwords. Also, the actual pattern and
placement need not be as proposed. The principle still holds.

~~~
nailer
> the actual pattern and placement need not be as proposed.

Doesn't matter. Do you have a Reddit account? They, like a lot of sites, have
stored passwords in clear text before, and these passwords have also been
compromised.

~~~
zyfo
Related anecdote: I've actually googled my password and found a unecrypted
database table on a deserted sandbox page.

------
zyfo
_Lenses to adopt for gaining a better perspective in frustrating situations:_

Reverse lens: How does the other part view this situation?

Long lens: Will I care about problem in a year from now?

Wide lens: What can I learn from this?

------
Ardit20
You need to know what is before you can know what it should be and how to make
it as it should be. Particularly in regards to knowledge. You need to know
what is known first, before you can invent new theories, hypothesis, make
suggestions.

