
Ask HN: What's your most interesting life goal currently? - lionhearted
Bonus points: What's some roadblocks or bottlenecks you've identified in the process?<p>Even more bonus points: Try to help someone else in the thread with their goals, especially clearing out those roadblocks and bottlenecks.
======
elomar
I want to leave mommy's house and start living as a "digital nomad", moving
from country to country every few months as I want. I want to know the world a
little better.

The most obvious roadblock is making money along the way. My plan is to do it
by launching a small web product, blogging about the travel, working as a
local on countries where I'm allowed to, and doing some freelance programming
work.

I have at least one year to save some money and get started working on these
ideas. I'm sure it will not be easy, but I want give it a try :)

~~~
djm
I spent nov/dec 09 in thailand trying to do the digital nomad thing. I was
travelling while studying though, not working for money. Few things to
consider:

(1) Peace and quiet costs money. You may find it difficult to work if you stay
anywhere that the backpacker crowd congregates.

(2) The longer you stay somewhere the cheaper it gets. An example from my
experience - I spent a month in chaing mai in northern thailand where I rented
an apartment. Per night it would have cost £18 if I was staying for a few
days. Staying a month meant they gave me a tenancy agreement and it worked out
as about £8 p/night plus electricity which was about £15 for the month.

You might want to try spending a few nights at different youth hostels in the
city you intend to stay, then find an apartment for a month or two in the area
you like the most.

(3) Food is both massively over-priced and pretty crap if you buy it in the
hotel or nearby restaurants to where you are staying. Try and go further
afield to eat where the locals do. Don't be put off by street food - it's good
and cheap.

(4) Take plenty of time to just relax and go with the flow. try and put
yourself out there and make friends. Avoid tourists attractions and guide
books. I went to thailand intending to do exactly this but somehow didn't
quite let myself go as much as I should have done. I've regretted it since.

Above all, actually go and do it. Most people who say they want to never
really do.

I'm currently trying to build myself a money making web app that will allow me
to get back on the road too. Good luck :)

~~~
stavrianos
eating what the locals eat, beware of endemics. If you're in rural India, do
_not_ drink the tea sold at road-side carts.

~~~
nirmal
But once you get past the first round of stomach churning illness that food
and tea is great! It's usually all I eat when I visit family in India. I
haven't gotten sick from road-side food for the last 6 trips back.

------
jackowayed
I'm not sure that it's my most interesting, but I want to someday make robotic
fireflies.

I'm about to leave the East Coast to go to Stanford, and I don't want to live
in a firefly-free world. I thought about trying to import them and have them
breed, but apparently most species like humidity and standing water, which the
Bay Area isn't too long on. I'm also not sure if they could find stuff to eat
out West.

So robots are the logical solution. I realize it's going to be really hard to
make something that small that's light enough to fly that blinks a light, has
enough power to go for more than a few minutes, and can have the logic I'd
like it to have. (In a perfect world, I'd like it to randomly roam campus for
a few hours and then come back to where I launched them from.)

Also, my friend who's into robotics tells me that the US government has put a
lot of money into robotic insects (for spying?) and not really gotten
anywhere.

Nonetheless, someday I hope to make this happen, even if it doesn't quite have
all of the features that it has in my mind.

~~~
jherdman
> I thought about trying to import them and have them breed, but apparently
> most species like humidity and standing water...

Thank you for not doing that. The last person to have an idea like this
introduced those god damn Starlings to North America. Mice came here in the
same fashion (i.e. human intervention).

~~~
mattmichielsen
If you ever get a chance, watch this movie:
<http://www.badmovies.org/movies/canetoads/>

------
johnfn
The google codejam occurs about once a year ( <http://code.google.com/codejam>
). If you make it past the qualification round and the first round, and you
place in the top 500 of the second round, then you get a codejam tshirt. (This
year, I placed around 1300, which is good, but not good enough!)

Getting that tshirt is my goal - a nice, tangible way to symbolize the massive
amount of algorithmic things that I'm attempting to learn. A year ago, I
couldn't solve a single problem in round 2.

Practicing for this sort of thing is a lot of fun. Programming competitions
offer bite-sized questions to think about, and I believe that solving these
types of questions really helps my coding style. If you don't write the best,
most straightforward program to solve the problem, then you're going to run
into costly bugs.

~~~
codevandal
Have you heard of TopCoder ( <http://www.topcoder.com/tc> ) ? They run several
algorithm competitions like this every month.

~~~
johnfn
Yeah. I've been practicing on topcoder and another, lesser known site, called
codeforces.

~~~
cschep
Codeforces is run by this dude [<http://petr-mitrichev.blogspot.com/>] who is
the #1 ranked algorithms programmer on TC. Pretty cool!

------
jeb
I'm planning to identify a suitable candidate to get married to, and who is
genetically appropriate enough to give me good quality kids, then convince
this person to marry me and carry my child, within the next year.

Difficult, but I assume interesting.

~~~
MarkPNeyer
My Advice:

1) Accept the person that you are, and learn to love that person. If you don't
accept who you are and love yourself, others will have a hard time following
suit.

2) Do the things you love. In doing so, you're likely to meet others who share
the same interests.

3) Stop worrying about whether you'll ever find someone. When you do this, you
project a sense of desperation, and others can pick up on this.

~~~
barmstrong
Great advice, and totally agree.

On a more practical level, try OkCupid.com. Seriously, I've been so impressed
with that site. If match.com is like myspace, okcupid.com is like facebook.
High quality, smart people. The girls actually write you back. I'm averaging
about 2 dates a month from OkCupid right now.

Also, the site is just a well designed and fun web app, so I can appreciate it
on that level.

~~~
Magneus
Seconded. Great site.

I haven't used any other dating sites, so I have no proper basis for
comparison, but I've been very satisfied with the site, from matching system,
search options, etc.

Bottom line: I ended up meeting my current girlfriend there and things are
going very, very well with her. Anecdotal evidence, yes, but I hope it
complements the nuggets of awesomeness you'll find on OKTrends
(<http://blog.okcupid.com>).

------
jaxn
I am getting married next year. we are merging two divorced families (with
both have kids and this will be a Brady Bunch size family).

My goal is to make it work. We are doing pre-marriage counseling, talking
openly, pushing myself to grow, practicing patience and acceptance, and
everything I can.

It is a huge challenge, but it is completely worth it.

My secondary goal is to stop working in tech and focus on my retail business
(which is profitable and ready to grow).

------
plinkplonk
Get admitted to a PhD in CS at Stanford next cycle.

Bottleneck: At my age and with no formal education in CS and poor academic
records, getting an admission is next to impossible by conventional wisdom.

But the challenge is what makes it interesting :-).

PS: If anyone has any data/anecdotes/advice on "impossible" PhD admissions,
I'd be glad to hear it (either here or my email is in the profile).

~~~
hyperbovine
At the risk of discouraging you, have a look at the applicant profiles people
post up on some of the grad school forum sites. In general, I have to say I
have seen very little evidence of longshot admissions. The people who get in
to MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley CS (et al) almost invariably have a stellar
transcripts & scores, platinum refs, research experience, and very frequently
a few papers and an NSF or NDSEG to boot.

If you are really serious about this, I would say that your best bet is to
start making inroads into the field by first getting a masters at a lesser
school. There you would be able to demonstrate that you are capable of doing
well in grad level courses, which will be a serious question mark on your
application given your poor grades. If you are lucky and work hard, you may
also be able to publish & network. Especially at the top schools, academia is
extremely insidery and knowing people counts for more than you might expect.
At least, this has been my experience, and I am trying to do something very
similar in a closely-related field (math).

Last, I see it all the time that people get hung up on gaining admission to
the best schools. Why Stanford? Getting to rub shoulders with the leaders of
the field would, admittedly, be awesome--but you should remember that there
are many less selective departments which could afford you a solid and
rewarding PhD experience. In my completely un-scientific estimation, 90% of
your success or failure grad will be due intrinsic factors--intelligence, work
ethic, communication skills, and so forth. The other 10% will come from your
surroundings. Don't get so hung up on the latter that you lose sight of the
former. Or, more simply: it's possible for you to be a successful PhD student
and academic without going to Stanford.

~~~
plinkplonk
All good advice (up voted), but I really am swinging for the fences here. I
don't want a masters or PhD at a lesser school . Doing quite well without one.

"I see it all the time that people get hung up on gaining admission to the
best schools. Why Stanford? "

I am not "hung up" on it in the sense that if I don't get in that is quite all
right. I have zero ego attached to any academic credentials. As you rightly
point out the odds are that I'll fail and that is OK.

This is an attempted "hack" somewhat akin to climbing Everest via the hardest
route possible. If the goal is _just_ to stand on top of Everest there are
better ways. There are easier routes up the mountain (like getting the Masters
first from a lesser school, then going to Stanford for the PhD etc etc), but
the fun (for me, I am a crazy guy) is in doing the hardest thing possible.
There are other things I could do like come over on an H1 visa first then
attend some classes while working at some MegaCorp, ace those, get to know
some professors etc etc, but I don't _want_ to do it that way.

I don't mind if I never get a PhD. I am not doing it to increase my self worth
or career opportunities. (I have plenty of both, and the time and effort put
into a PhD can probably be used to build a half dozen startups instead if
money were the goal). In Computer Science anyone with a laptop, Ubuntu, a
network connection and an ACM/IEEE membership can do any kind of research he
wants to, though that would be a very barebones approach.

This is just a(n artificially high) bar I am trying to jump over. Jumping over
a bar is intrinsically pointless. The fun is in the attempt.

I understand if people think it is a crazy idea. I just put it down here
because the OP asked for "interesting" goals. Crazy ideas are often
interesting!

"At the risk of discouraging you, have a look at the applicant profiles people
post up on some of the grad school forum sites. "

I am not discouraged at all. I personally know very "average" people who have
PhDs from MIT/Stanford. The idea that every MIT/Stanford grad is some kind of
technical/research superman is a myth. There is a bell curve there, and I am
confident I am not on the lower end of that curve. I don't have the right
"background" to get in but I've never let that stop me from trying anything so
why start now?

So sure, by conventional thinking I have next to no chance. On the other hand,
a scientist I work with (who supervises several PhD's at IISc and IITs) said
to me "I've never seen anyone level up as fast as you do. You understand [his
specialization in Machine Learning] more deeply and have more ideas than any
of my students. If you ever want to do a PhD and want a recommendation, ask
me".

I plan to. ;-)

~~~
hyperbovine
Well then, more power to you & best of luck. I'm curious--if accepted would
you even bother going? It sounds like merely getting in would satisfy all of
your goals.

~~~
plinkplonk
"I'm curious--if accepted would you even bother going? "

Yes I would. There are some ultra awesome professors there I'd love to work
with. And the atmsphere and facilities at Stanford would be much better (than
my present situation in Bangalore) to do research. My focus wouold be to work
with and learn from them, not to become a fulltime academic.

If I get my PhD I'd like to be the author of a _few_ awesome research papers
and have no intention of getting into the tenure track rat race and so on.

"It sounds like merely getting in would satisfy all of your goals."

My _immediate_ goal is to get and admission. Why should meeting that goal
satisfy _all_ my goals?

Once you jump over one bar you reset it higher and try again.

If I were to get admitted, I'd set a goal of doing some stunning research, ace
the classes and so on (which would be quite a challenge given the calibre of
my fellow students).

------
abstractbill
I'm trying to figure out: (1) how much time a newborn will actually demand
from me and my wife, and (2) how we will fit in all the things we have decided
_must_ continue to happen (e.g. me still having a fulltime job, both of us
getting regular exercise and a bit of downtime, etc).

~~~
donw
Wait, if you're abstractbill, does that make the kid AbstractBillImpl?

~~~
francoisdevlin
DefaultBill

------
lionhearted
I'm going to design my first article of clothing for myself next month. I'm
going to Vietnam, and I'll do it in either Saigon, Hanoi, or Ho An. I'll be in
the first two cities anyways, I might go to third just for its reputation as a
tailor and fashion city. I've got a shirt I used to like a lot that's worn
out, going to have a tailor use it as a model to make another. Going to get
two shirts made. Depending on how that goes, I might make a crazy-ish piece
since prices are somewhat cheap.

~~~
ronnier
I visited Vietnam three times over a 3 year period. Is it your first time?

Since my last visit, laws have changed that require you to wear a helmet while
on a moped. One of the things I enjoyed the most was the freedom in riding a
moped around a huge crowded city for hours, not knowing where I was going, or
where I'd end up. It's somewhat ruined now with the helmet law. Nearly 100
degree weather wearing a helmet isn't so fun.

~~~
chollida1
I had a close friend die from a crash on a moped due to him not wearing a
helmet.

I suggest you suck it up and wear one regardless of the heat if you either:
use your head for a living, or just value your life.

~~~
mrtron
That is unfortunate about your friend.

Helmets seem to be all or nothing. If there is a law forcing them, 95% of
people wear helmets. If there isn't, 95% of people don't wear a helmet.

You would expect people to carefully consider it and make a decision on their
own. For some reason people can easily rationalize not wearing a helmet in two
seconds and roll with that for years.

~~~
jackowayed
> _Helmets seem to be all or nothing_

I'm not sure about that. The law in Delaware is that you must have a helmet on
your motorcycle for each person on it (I guess they don't want there to be a
monetary cost to wearing a helmet.), and it seems like the majority (2/3?) of
people I see wear them, but definitely not all.

To some extent it comes down to culture/how aware people are. I think in
America, at least half of people would wear them regardless (and in a lot of
states, there's either no law requiring them, or the law only applies to new
riders).

------
chunkyslink
I'm training for the 'Yorkshireman Marathon' in September in the UK. Its 26.6
miles of hilly off road tracks with over 3000ft of ascent. I don't just want
to finish it, I want to get in between 3.30 and 4 hours.

The biggest problem at the moment is finding the time to train. Ideally I
would like to be out everyday but I can only manage 4 days a week. Each
training run is lasting upto 2.5 hours and finding that time each day is
tough.

The rest is fun and massively rewarding. As I get fitter I need less sleep and
I feel much stronger - both physically and mentally.

~~~
dhyasama
In general terms, you may need less sleep when you are healthy and fit, but if
you are doing 2.5 hour runs you really should be getting _extra_ sleep.
Distance running takes a huge toll on your body and you need to do everything
you can to help it recover. My favorite long run recovery technique is an ice
bath, ibuprofen, and beer (carbs!).

~~~
chunkyslink
Thats the catch 22 of it all. I get plenty of sleep, at least 9 hours a night.
So when I'm up I'm full of it an could easily do a long run as I'm fully
rested and ready to go.

The only way to find more time to run is to sleep less which is obviously bad.

I've never tried the ice bath, ibuprofen and recovery but I've certainly had
beer. Thanks for your advice.

------
terryjsmith
I would like to get my black belt in Taekwondo by the age of 30 (turning 23 in
August) and fight at a Canadian national or Ontario provincial competition. I
am currently a yellow belt (started about a year ago) but have won a gold and
a silver at two recent invitational competitions.

I had an excellent teacher in Thunder Bay, but just moved to Toronto a month
ago to be in a more tech savvy town (I'm a developer) and am having difficulty
finding a dojang that I like and that gives attention to nurturing their lower
color belts.

~~~
robryan
I've considered joining Taekwondo for some time but worry that the lower belts
will be to caught up in teaching very basic moves and the traditional aspects
of the sport.

I understand the need to learn the basics just wondering if you found this
time a drag at all or it was all interesting and I'd have nothing to worry
about?

~~~
caffeine
To be honest, in martial arts, the basics is really all there is. You don't
tell a novice from an expert by which katas they know, or even their belt.

You tell them apart by their attitude toward training (patient, calm, focused)
and their mastery of the basics (accurate targeting, completely relaxed body,
powerful delivery).

One thing I've enjoyed in martial arts training is that taste grows faster
than ability - which means that subjectively you get worse the more you
practice. To compensate, training teaches you to be more patient with yourself
- when we screw something up, we just do it again, there's no need to say
anything or get annoyed.

Attitude is the biggest thing to focus on in the early grades (the technical
stuff can only be learnt by repetition, so it's not that hard - just repeat).
I don't think it's a drag at all.

------
WesleyJohnson
I suppose the most interesting goal, to me, is getting my teeth fixed. I
didn't take care of them all through my twenties and it's had serious
repercussions on my social and professional life as well as taking a drastic
toll on my confidence.

Roadblocks and/or bottlenecks are easy: finances. Dental work isn't cheap,
especially when you're looking at as much work as I need done. The "fear" of
the dentist was also an initial roadblock, but not only is it far less worse
than I imagined/remembered, I also happen to have "the hots" for my female
dentist so it makes going far easier.

~~~
abstractbill
I had _awful_ dental hygiene up until my mid-20s.

A big step for me was finding a dentist I trusted, and just doing what he told
me - letting go of the fear that he was going to completely drain me
financially.

It wasn't cheap, but eventually all the required work was done, and I formed
new habits that have meant no no work has been needed for several years now.

One of the most important things I did was get invisalign (braces). My teeth
were really hard to keep clean before - flossing was almost impossible in some
places due to the way my teeth were overlapping. Now they're straight it's
really quite easy.

~~~
WesleyJohnson
I'm with you there. The dentist I have now I really feel like I can trust and
she's given me a care plan that isn't just the highest priced option, but all
my options. She recently went in to do a root canal and found out I didn't
need one when she could've just as easily done it and charged me for it.

But I do agree, I think once I've gotten the work done, taking caring of them
should be easier.

------
cousin_it
I presume you're asking about goals not dreams? Here's the stuff I've been
working on lately:

1\. Fixing my motivation problem. No, not that kind :-) After a lot of self-
analysis I discovered I'm motivated by my desire to be "the best", and this
isn't a good thing because I tend to become a little better than the #2 guy
and then stop, contented. Mozart or Microsoft didn't become what they are by
trying to beat the #2 guy! So I'm fixing myself to always move forward even
when there's no one ahead of me.

2\. Becoming a better classical-style singer. The major roadblock is that my
health is very poor, and my throat always seems to be sore for some reason or
other. I rectify this by taking as many lessons as I can when I'm feeling well
or even moderately unwell.

3\. Becoming better with women. The major roadblock right now is that I don't
know how to "raise the temperature" in a casual date setting. In nightclubs
where the "temperature" is high, I've taught myself to pick up women pretty
consistently, but this doesn't seem to be enough.

4\. Releasing a neat piece of software that I've been developing in the last
couple months. It's already pretty good and will probably make a bigger splash
than my last "fun" project (<http://openphotovr.org>) did, but the finishing
bits just take so much time. Don't worry HN, I'll keep you posted.

5\. Solving math problems in and around "computational game theory". My
previous "neat" results were about quining cooperation
(<http://lesswrong.com/lw/do/reformalizing_pd/> and
<http://lesswrong.com/lw/13y/freaky_fairness/>), and recently I've been trying
to solve a similar problem in a more abstract setting. Not getting much
results yet; so far it looks like a blank wall and I keep trying different
directions of attack.

~~~
jackowayed
1: just find someone else to compare yourself to. Even if there's no one
better than you at your job/in your group of friends/whatever, there
definitely _are_ people better than you.

4: You're probably trying to make it too perfect before you launch. Pick a
date that seems a little too close, and resolve to submit it to HN by that
date no matter what. If you end up pushing half of those "finishing bits" to
after launch, whatever. It's quite possible that no one on HN will say that it
should have one of those finishing bits, which probably means you can cross it
off the list.

------
steveklabnik
Turning Hackety Hack into a force to be reckoned with when it comes to
teaching programming.

I was a really bad steward for the first half a year, due to crushing lack of
assistance and being really demoralized. Lately, I've managed to turn that
around, and am currently crushing it pretty hard. 1.0 for Whyday, and then
more beyond... things are looking up, but it's a long hard road ahead.

------
terra_t
launch a web site that brings in enough income that I can quit my day job

~~~
kadavy
Start blogging about everything you know. Teach the world. Check your
Analytics regularly to find out what of those things people are searching for.
Use the Google Keyword tool to measure market potential of digging deeper on
those subjects. Start spin-off sites if there's enough potential. Sign up
appropriate affiliates. Develop information products around those subjects.
Sit back and relax.

~~~
terra_t
too much work & not scalable. sh1tm0nkey and all the "make money fast" people
online tell you to do this... I used to hang out on forums with people who do
this and I can say that 95% of them are broke, the other 5% are making money
exploiting the other 95%.

------
tiffani
To be a racecar driver--professionally or not. Sounds crazy, but something
about watching Formula 1 for the last few years has driven (haha) me to really
want to get involved some kind of way. Saving up for lessons at the Skip
Barber Racing School for next summer.

Current bottleneck: no time right now to dedicate to it. I just satisfy race
longings now thru occasionally karting and flying around the backroads here in
NC.

<http://www.skipbarber.com/>

~~~
tricky
Do you know about Drivers Education (DE) and track days? I just got my $1500
"race car" running and am planning to do a DE event this fall with my local
PCA (porsche club of america.) There are also Solo2 and autocross events
everywhere you can do in your daily driver.

~~~
mattmichielsen
I think I have about $1600 in my autocross (and sometimes daily driver) car.
It really isn't that expensive if you find something cheap (like a BMW E30 or
Porsche 924) and do all the work to it yourself.

~~~
tricky
heh... mine is an '88 924S. For anyone who's interested, there is a ton of
support for DIY'ers out there who want to build a car. The bmw and porsche
forums are awesome. I imagine there's a great forum out there for any car
worth racing.

~~~
mattmichielsen
Sweet. The 924S was greatly underrated in my opinion. I have an '87 that was
my previous autocrosser but is in need of new struts, which are pretty
expensive (more than I paid for the car).

------
lkozma
Learn every juggling trick I have seen, heared of or imagined.

Roadblock: balls keep falling.

EDIT: current status (as of yesterday):
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lsuO0tQZaU>

~~~
SandB0x
Practise standing over a bed or a couch. This greatly speeds up the ball
recovery process, allowing you to iterate faster with far less frustration!

------
thirdusername
I'm moving to Thailand or possibly the Philippines from Sweden at the end of
August, to attempt to build apps aiming to be ramen profitable in a developing
country and then work my way up from there.

Problem: Worst case, my savings only last until December.

Solution: Splatter "hire me" over apps, portfolio site and keep an eye out for
freelance work to retain a reasonable life-support margin.

Problem: May not find freelance work due to bad luck, recession, incompetence
etc.

Solution: Apply for distance courses and do 25-50% studies for student
funding.

Problem: May over invest in a horrible idea that is never going to make money.

Solution: Aim to build small apps.

Problem: Completely ran out of money, with no obvious way of getting new ones.

Solution: Credit card should get me a few months margins.

Problem: Completely ran out of credit, with no obvious way of supporting
myself.

Solution: Admit incompetence, feel ashamed, move back to comfortable Sweden
and work at Volvo or Ericsson until retirement like everyone else.

Problem: Pretty Asian girls.

Solution: Don't.

Biggest bottleneck is clearly money, and I'd really prefer not be studying at
the same time. I'm also going to be staying with friends, so that'll keep my
burn rate down.

~~~
d_r
You may have already thought about this, but have you considered getting a
"teach English" job? In many cases, your housing (and possibly food/etc.) will
be paid for, and you can focus your free time on building apps. Best of luck!

------
mattheww
I want to start a company that builds solar panels in space.

Roadblocks (the ones I think are the biggest anyway):

Supply Chain. Probably going to first need a way to or supplier who can mine
and process materials from somewhere other than Earth.

Infrastructure. Definitely going to need some sort of factory in space in
which this operation can be done.

Knowledge. I don't know anything about manufacturing in space. There's some
research in the area, but my guess is that the knowledge base just doesn't
exist.

edit: formatting

~~~
thestoicattack
Has anybody every done (non-fictional) mining somewhere other than Earth?

~~~
mattheww
I don't think so. If you count collecting samples and returning to Earth with
them, there's Apollo (from the moon) and possibly Hayabusa (from an asteroid:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayabusa>).

------
ErrantX
Build a house; specifically a wood/earth "natural house" and fit it out to be
self sufficient (for monetary rather than eco reasons :)).

Current road blocks: finding time to build, finding a site without NIMBY
neighbours, planning permission (grrr)

~~~
djm
I'm interested in this too and also for monetary reasons rather than the eco
thing.

Mostly what I've looked at so far are cob/straw houses. With these you are
basically looking at a rubble/concrete base (which you can hopefully scavenge
for free), clay/straw/sand for making the cob, and wood for the
roof/window/doorframes etc. The best budget option for a roof seems to be
turf, although that cuts down on the amount of rain water you could collect if
you wanted to independant from a water company.

The biggest obstacle in the UK seems to be finding suitable land and getting
planning permission etc. I don't really know any solution to that.

Over the past few weeks I've been reading 'building with cob: a step by step
guide" which covers both the technical and legal aspects of building one of
these structures in the UK. It's a great book.

~~~
ErrantX
I know this is self promotion :) but I recently blogged about my reasons for
wanting to do this here: [http://www.errant.me.uk/blog/2010/07/why-i-want-an-
eco-house...](http://www.errant.me.uk/blog/2010/07/why-i-want-an-eco-house/)

 _The best budget option for a roof seems to be turf_

What I have in mind is something of a sunken/earthworks house - so yes, turf
roof which I would try and double as a grass terrace etc. cob/straw looks like
a useful material from my research too - coupled with the sunken aspect for
insulation reasons.

 _The biggest obstacle in the UK seems to be finding suitable land and getting
planning permission etc. I don't really know any solution to that._

Most of the "first generation" examples I have seen build first and sort
planning later. But there are newer projects that have applied successfully -
and that is the route I prefer.

I think planners are becoming more open to self sustained housing, thankfully
:)

Thanks for the book recommendation! I will track it down from Amazon.

------
felideon
To do research in natural language processing. Roadblocks:

* Time. Or if time = money then I need money to be able to spend time on this. Also, in itself this wouldn't bring in much income I don't think.

* No CS background. Don't know where to start.

~~~
ananthrk
Three good books that can get you started:

1) Natural Language Understanding - James Allen 2) Speech and Natural Language
Processing - Jurafsky & Martin 3) Statistical Foundations of Natural Language
Processing - Manning

You can brush up your probability and Linear Algebra from the prep guides
available from Andrew Ng's machine learning course. My best wishes.

~~~
pchristensen
I have copies of 2) Speech and Natural Language Processing - Jurafsky & Martin
3) Statistical Foundations of Natural Language Processing - Manning that I'm
willing to sell. I tried to bite off more than I could chew and moved on to a
different project.

peter at pchristensen dot com

------
jashmenn
I'm working on becoming a beekeeper. Learning about bee cycles and getting
involved in a beekeeping group is easy enough. The biggest roadblock is
finding a place to keep them in LA.

~~~
spaghetti
Perhaps Acton or Leona Valley could work? I went cherry-picking in Leona
Valley last weekend and there was quite a bit of honey for sale here and
there. Also my local grocery store sells great honey from Acton. If you're not
familiar with these areas they are in and around the Antelope Valley (about
one hour north-east of LA).

------
michaelaiello
I want to go on a deep sea submarine ride, so that I see bioluminecent fish.

Road Block(s): No packaged trips to do this, no network with marine
biologists/researchers who own the subs

~~~
caffeine
In case you live in London .. come see the Science Museum (South Kensington),
they have an incredibly cool deep-sea fish exhibit going on, including
bioluminescent ones.

------
YuriNiyazov
learn as much mathematics as I can. Currently enrolled in undergrad summer
classes at Berkeley, but I already have a CS degree from another school back
east. Some obstacles: paying tuition out of pocket, navigating the bureaucracy
of being a non-matriculated student, finding inexpensive housing near the
university that's not utter crap; struggling to keep up in classes because I
am older and my brain doesn't work as fast, etc.

~~~
M_Sanger
if your goal is to just learn as much math as you can. Why matriculate in the
class and pay tuition? I've never seen a professor check if everyone is
matriculated let alone kick anyone out for not being matriculated. Plus no
bureaucracy. :-) I've sat in on tons of classes. Also MIT, Stanford and
Berkeley post video lectures, notes, assignments exams of math classes online.
also free. save the money and get a better apartment.

~~~
YuriNiyazov
Ah.

Because at any given moment I may have some side projects that "might
potentially make some money" going on, and if I don't pay for a class, I will
naturally just want to work on those projects - this has been proven out by
history.

------
mattm
Become one of the world's top salsa dancers by 2020.

Current roadblock is that I'm just not doing it enough. I get distracted by
other interests of mine. I was previously practising 3 times a week (which
probably still isn't enough) but lately I'm only going once a week.

~~~
roel_v
Not to be cynical, but how are you going to be top of the world in anything
practicing only 3 times a week?

~~~
mattm
Yeah, I know. Even three times a week isn't enough. Perhaps it's a goal that
isn't really important to me.

------
Random_Person
I am currently trying to get back into programming. I haven't touched code in
10 years and way back then I was still writing little-- applets I guess we
would call them today-- in QBasic and cracking out some crappy VBasic stuff. I
was completely self-taught which meant that my code was as sloppy and
inefficient as you could possibly imagine while still successfully getting the
job done. I had been writing BASIC for about 10 years at that point and was
pretty competent with the way I hacked things together.

Here I am, years later, vastly more knowledgeable than I ever have been, yet
code dumb. I have a few things I would like to develop solutions for, and Java
seemed to fit my needs. I started on the "How to Think Like a Computer
Scientist" book and I've enjoyed it, but I'm starting to feel that maybe Java
isn't the solution I am looking for.

A few solutions I would like to have implemented quickly and I am heavily
considering refreshing my limited knowledge of VB and cracking out some hack
code.

I'm torn right now. Learn a new multi-platform language and proper coding
practices or just settle for some Windows only solutions that I could complete
in a vastly shorter period of time.

edit: spelling

tl;dr - write code again (learn a language)

~~~
Poleris
It might be interesting to just learn how to be a great information architect
and product manager. Head a team of offshore developers to make your ideas
happen.

Just an idea...

~~~
Random_Person
I honestly think I would be good that that. I am a very mechanical person-- a
large portion of my friends and family refer to me as "the fixer." I feel that
I generally am able to develop innovative solutions to problems, but I
currently lack the coding skills.

The problems with the few things I want to accomplish currently is that they
are not really money-making solutions. They are personal things that I would
like to implement across a variety of platforms to include Windows, Linux and
my cell. Another would be simplifying work-related tasks that could benefit my
co-workers as well, but are not something that the company (nor myself) would
be interested in spending largish sums of money on developing.

------
markeroon
Some really inspiring stuff in here.

My short-term track/running/fitness goals: Break 4 minutes for 1500m, 2:00 for
800m. Currently at 4:06 and 2:00.1 (the latter is so heartbreaking!). Squat
250lbs (currently at 185, weighing 138).

Educational goals: 4 publications in the next two years, complete PhD (CS).
Get a solid grasp on differential calculus. Truly understand relativity and
quantum mechanics.

Any advice from people who've tackled any of the above is welcome. Thanks.

~~~
hugh3
Well I'm way behind you in the running (I'm attempting to do _eight_ -minute
miles) but ahead of you in the relativity and quantum mechanics, so I'll say
this: you'll never get a proper understanding by reading popular-science type
books. You want to get proper textbooks and work through the problems one by
one. I can recommend _Understanding Einstein's Relativity" by D'Inverno and
Eisberg and Resnick for Quantum Mechanics.

Note: that last one won't get you into really interesting bits like the
_interpretation* of quantum mechanics, but I think you need to have a thorough
understanding of the mathematics before you tackle the philosophical issues.

~~~
markeroon
This is what I was looking for. Thanks so much!

------
dhyasama
Moving to New York with my wife and two-year old. We've always wanted to
experience the city and it's a major change from where we are now (Maine, 15
minute bike to work along the ocean). It scares the crap out of me but it's
important to show my daughter how to have adventures.

------
davidw
Raising our daughter. Current bottleneck: not using potty. Think we'll just
have to wait until she's ready though!

~~~
felideon
Do you know all the tips & techniques there are? We've just been going through
this with our 2-yr-old for the past 8 months and wouldn't mind sharing what
I've learned.

But, I think the best thing we did that actually worked---which we always had
been reluctant to trying---was to leave him running around the house butt-
naked. The whole apartment has carpet.

Fun times.

~~~
davidw
I'm not sure if that's effective - we've tried it some, but there doesn't seem
to be a connection, yet, to "I should have done that with the potty". People
have told us that it sort of happens when they're ready and not earlier, so
perhaps it's best not to rush things.

~~~
felideon
Yes, definitely don't rush it and always be patient. But you may be surprised
to find that she actually does make the connection and still refuses to use
the potty.

------
aaronbrethorst
Publish a book (like on dead trees).

The biggest roadblock for me so far is just having time to execute on it. I
have friends who have published books through ORA, so I'm not too concerned
about getting proper introductions to people in the tech publishing world; I
just don't know if I have the time to sit down and bang out 200 pages of
quality material.

~~~
JayNeely
Try joining NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month): <http://nanowrimo.org>

It's a world-wide one-month novel writing sprint, meant to solve the "one day"
novel problem ("One day, I'll write a novel"). Though the focus is on novel
writing, there's nothing to stop you from working on a non-fiction book.

The in-person write-ins, online community available for short word-count
sprints, and other community-momentum / encouragement benefits can be a huge
help to anyone who "wants" to find the time to write, but somehow hasn't yet
been able to. Single moms with a job succeed at this. You can too!

~~~
philwelch
It's terrible luck, for me, that nanowrimo is always November, which is always
end-of-semester crunch time for me.

------
ppruitt
Earn my FAA Private Pilot Certificate
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_certification_in_the_Unit...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_certification_in_the_United_States#Private_pilot)

------
ananthrk
Becoming a better programmer.

Roadblocks: Lack of self-discipline and commitment (day job providing good
money)

~~~
felideon
Maybe you've seen this from being on HN, but
www.structuredprocrastination.com. Try to get busy with "important" things,
and you'll find yourself programming more.

One thing I'm starting to do, since I also have a day job, is going to the
library for my lunch break (I eat lunch real fast right before I go) which is
luckily a few blocks away, with and laptop loaded with Ubuntu to force myself
to do some more lisping.

Once I get in the habit I'll be able to work on harder challenges and
hopefully become a better programmer.

~~~
ananthrk
Thanks for the link. My current _structured procrastination_ is reading HN and
lot of technical articles. I think I should stop doing that and start coding
more.

------
alinajaf
The Japanese Language Proficiency Test N1. It has been a personal demon of
mine for the past five years and I've only recently got the confidence to say
that I may one day be able to pass it. Required for post-grad study in a
Japanese university or work at a Japanese company (for a foreigner at least).

------
Mc_Big_G
Don't get killed by a bear or experience any other medical emergency during a
week-long, dispersed camping trip in northern California.

~~~
abstractbill
Banging pots and pans together will usually scare bears away. If not, just
remember you don't have to outrun the bear - you just have to outrun your
slowest friend.

~~~
Mc_Big_G
I bought an air horn. If I don't need it for bears, it should be a funny alarm
clock for my buddies. ;)

~~~
thaumaturgy
As you move through the wilderness, the wildlife around you runs away
depending on how loud or out-of-place you are. Think of it as being a really
effective animal-chasing flashlight.

In the vast, vast majority of cases, a confrontation with an animal of any
size will lead to the animal trying to get the hell out of there as quickly as
possible. I've been within 20 feet of big black bears and had coyotes sniff my
toes; all I had to do was move a little and they took off. People just like to
imagine "confronting" a bear and scaring it away because those few cases get a
lot of media attention, and they're exciting.

So try instead to shrink your circle as much as possible and see what you can
encounter out there. I like to sometimes find the right sort of spot and sit
really quietly for a few hours, to see what comes along.

Tom Brown's books on tracking &etc. are pretty OK and talk about this a bit.

------
Poleris
I really like the concept behind this Ask HN, especially the "help someone
else in the thread with their goals." I'll definitely try.

Goal: Launch a non-profit student apprenticeship program in partnership with a
few corporations.

Roadblock #1: While doing my 9-7 job.

Roadblock #2: A few of my web applications are finally reaching the "need to
incorporate" stage. Have very little clue about law and accounting.

Roadblock #3: Have some of the clients/partnerships down, but getting the
right students and professionals involved is difficult.

------
wallflower
Learn OpenGL so I can finally make those mobile games I've always wanted to.
Hangups are thinking in matrices, understanding of the math involved

~~~
z0r
The math involved for basic 3d is overrated. Just sit down and copy code at
first, and write reams of stuff that works. It should be no problem to magpie
enough code to get a simple engine together.

~~~
roel_v
Agree. Also, I liked this book: [http://www.amazon.ca/Math-Primer-Graphics-
Game-Development/d...](http://www.amazon.ca/Math-Primer-Graphics-Game-
Development/dp/1556229119/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278602690&sr=1-7) a
lot, even if it's quite basic and not hardcore (i.e. many applied examples
rather than formulas and proofs).

~~~
wallflower
Thanks all for the book recommendations!

------
nadam
To do research in building a consumer behaviour simulator, or more generally a
'society simulator' (simulating a whole city with people in it who have jobs,
who are going to restaurants, go shopping, pay taxes, etc...) Meanwhile trying
to figure out whether I can create some kind of startup/business out of this.

Bottleneck: My boring day job, which is needed because I have a family to
support.

~~~
roel_v
If you're serious about building a business around this (i.e., if you're into
the business side of this rather than the pure research side), post a way for
me to contact you - we should talk.

~~~
nadam
Yes I am serious about building a business around this. My strategy is to
simulate as much aspect of a virtual person's life as possible, because the
simulation of different aspects strengthen each-other, makes the simulation
more precise, enables more and more emergent behaviour. On the other hand in
the beginning I will mostly try to aim for those aspects which have immediate
business value: to simulate consumer behaviour in shops, restaurants, etc...

I happily talk about this with you. My email is:

nadam60 at gmail dot com

------
jpcosta
Quit smoking cold turkey (was a 1 pack smoker for over 7 years). I am 3 days
nicotine free and that sounds very interesting to me.

Roadblocks: they keep selling them...

If someone else is planning the same, the tips at whyquit.com helped me.

~~~
marilyn
Read the book, Easy Way to Quite Smoking by Allan Carr.
<http://www.amazon.ca/Easy-Way-Stop-Smoking-Kit/dp/1905555008> It worked for
me, my partner, and several of our friends.

~~~
fbnt
It worked for me too. It's like reverse-brainwashing.

------
antidaily
Build a successful web app so I can do less consulting.

~~~
shezi
you should try the challenge at challenge.co for that!

------
robryan
My goal should probably be to finish off my last uni semester coming up as
well as possible but much more interested in my startup at the moment.

Another aspect I guess is to get more involved in the Melbourne startup/
coworking community, only had limited contact thus far in what seems to be
quiet a large and vibrant scene.

~~~
GVRV
Hey mate, I'm a final semester student doing CompSci at Monash. The melbourne
startup scene is awesome! Definitely a lot of experienced and inspirational
figures who're willing to give back to community. Would be awesome to catch up
in person sometime.

------
ebun
Hitchhike across southern Japan (Honshu mostly)

~~~
masterj
I hitchhiked around Argentina and Chile 2 years ago, and the experience has
been far and away the best thing I've done in my life. I'm currently gearing
up for a much longer trip, if I can just figure out where.

My old roommate spent a few weeks hitching around Japan and loved it. He had
no trouble at all, and the people were all really nice.

You might want to read Hokkaido Highway Blues if you haven't yet.

------
tricky
to find this surface mount resistor I just dropped.

~~~
tricky
found it!

------
donw
Fluent in Japanese.

Roadblock: Day has 24 hours. Need 27.

I blew past the JLPT 2 last year, so this year it's just a matter of finding
the time to work on it every day.

Would list my marathon training, but that's too popular as-is. ;p Farthest run
has been ten miles so far; I'll get there...

~~~
gauthr
It's time to move to Japan, if you don't live there already. It's the closest
you'll get to studying 27 hours a day, and the only sure path to fluency,
given the level you're at.

~~~
donw
I'm writing this from my tiny apartment in Saitama. :)

~~~
dnsworks
Speaking of which, I'm hoping to visit my friend in Singapore in Sept or
October, mind if I swing by and crash in your hallway or something? (or meet
in Tokyo and show me around? :)

~~~
donw
My apartment does have a hallway, in addition to a bedroom and a kitchen.
Unfortunately, they're all _the same room_.

I'd have more space if this place said 'Adidas' on the side.

That said, of course I'll meet you up in Tokyo and show you the city! As long
as I'm in-country, of course; I'll be back in the US for August, and I'm not
sure where I'll be for October and December.

~~~
dnsworks
Oh man if you're going to be in town in August, why don't you plan on crashing
at my place for a weekend? I think you'd get along well with my new roommate,
and if the timing is right a few other engineers will be in town hanging out
as well.

------
noelsequeira
My goal is an online social initiative that changes how people seek and
receive real-time help.

A lot of deserving folks without an online voice struggle to put the word out
when in need (An urgent need for blood, a sudden need for funds for a critical
operation). I'm thinking we can tap into influentials to help spread the word
(who can earn karma in return).

Bottleneck: As step 1 in this project, I've launched
<http://www.saveaplusk.org> , but ironically it's suffering from the very same
problem I want to solve - I have too small a voice to get the word out.

~~~
kznewman
I am coming from a similar place but not yet launched my site. I have thought
about the challenge you describe, and there are many on this site with advice
that can help.

Whatever size voice you might have, it is louder when you use it locally. Are
you and your friends using it to help people? Are the people then helped not
willing to try it?

I can’t see your site from my current location but with local and modest goals
you might be surprised who the influentials are and what karma they might
really want.

~~~
noelsequeira
Thanks for your inputs, they're insightful. Tapping into my local network
might work only so much in my case - most folks aren't too active on Twitter.

But I'm not going to give this up so easily - i will give it my sincerest
shot. I guess the hard part's figuring out what works and what doesn't.

------
foxtrot
Debt Free

~~~
captaink
As someone who just managed that this year, a few pointers.

1\. Budget. I know it sucks, and I know it is a hassle, still, no way around
it. Grab excel or numbers or openOffice and do it start of each month.

2\. Split accounts I have used this technique to great success. \- 1st account
is the "INCOMING" account, This is where all incoming money goes to and all
fixed costs (see 1. Budget) go away from. \- 2nd account is a "pocket money"
account. Pocket money is transferred there. Nice about this: You can spend ALL
of this and your bills and food are still paid. \- 3rd account is a savings
account. Not much to explain here. Make sure to save a good amount.

3\. Keep at it

4\. Get a seperate wallet for "food and household". I usually get a laugh
about this, as it was something our parents used to do. Still, I withdraw cash
beginning of the month and pay my groceries from this. Works wonders.

5\. Keep at it

6\. Use a big chunk from your savings account to remove all remaining debt at
once.

7\. Enjoy freedom.

I know people will go on about "credit history", "credit rating", etc...
However, I plan to nev er go there again.

Best, ::captaink::

~~~
foxtrot
#2 is something that I am already in the process of setting up. I am going to
leave my main card at home, and then setup standing orders to transfer my
pocket money into my new account every week. This seems like the most logical
way to reign in unnecessary spending.

The other practice I want to get in the habit of is telling my self that I can
only spend money if I have earned it from doing extra work, be it web design,
cutting a hedge etc. That should motivate me to get out and about to earn
extra on the side.

Its going to be very tough thats for sure, then again some of the happiest
times of my life have been when ive been broke.

------
hazmattron
I want to design and launch a improbably large space-mirror. If it were
properly focused on earth (curvature adapting to distance from the planet),
and given light-speed delay, we could direct a telescope upon it and see the
state of earth 6.52x years ago, where the mirror is x parsecs away from earth.

Roadblock: probably not a scientifically viable proposition, given space
debris and lack of ability to build something that large/durable. Solution:
write a sci-fi short story with this as a plot element, and call it good.

------
chrisconley
Sail the US east coast down to the caribbean.

------
paraschopra
When I was a kid I thought of owning all toy robots out there in the market
and then observing how they react with each other. I still think it will be a
cool goal.

~~~
Poleris
There are some cool things being done in virtual cooperation/teamwork
explorations. Make a robot in virtual space and see how it interacts with
other robots!

------
philwelch
Reduce my earthly possessions to what I could feasibly bring with me on an
airline flight, not counting furniture and kitchen supplies and not

Roadblocks: Most books don't exist in ebook form, I don't have an ebook
reader, printed books cannot be ripped to disk as easily as CD's and DVD's. I
have sentimental attachments to too many items. It seems wasteful to throw
away valuable items, but selling them is a hassle.

------
Brentley_11
I want to toboggan/sled in Antarctica. I don't see it happening any time soon,
but I should probably go for it while I'm still young and limber.

~~~
chronomex
My goal is to do telecoms work in Antarctica. Let me know :)

------
gcheong
"Getting over" my fear of heights. An off-and-on project I've been working on
for my entire life.

Roadblocks: Being willing to put myself in feared situations long enough to
acclimate to them. I know exposure works for me but it's still very hard as
the next goal always seems to be the impossible one. I've been having some
success in combining mindfulness techniques with the exposure practice.

~~~
thecircusb0y
2 things I can suggest.

1.) Try setting a goal with someone else, it doesn't have to be the same goal
between you, you both basically have to spot eachother and make sure one
another do what they require themselves to do. That said you could do both
goals together doubling your experiences.

2.) I have a fear of heights too. However, the way I've tackled it was with
indoor rock climbing, which transfered to outdoor freeclimbing, and once I
lose the weight, skydiving next year.

~~~
gcheong
Good suggestions. Thanks!

------
randomtask
Learn to sail and buy a boat. Ultimately I want to do solo expeditions.
Inspiration -> <http://www.bigoceans.com/>

My biggest roadblock is that I'm broke. I haven't really started on this goal
in earnest yet. My intention is to finish my PhD by the end of the year and
then freelance for a while to earn enough money for lessons and boat.

------
shade
My most interesting goal right now is to try to make the time to start moving
off of Microsoft development technology. I like C#, but ASP.NET annoys me and
the whole platform feels like a massive dead end unless I want to work on
boring corporate stuff.

My primary roadblock there is trying to decide what tech I want to pick up.
Ruby and Rails are appealing, Python looks interesting, and I wonder if I
shouldn't be looking at some new stuff like Clojure or node.js as well. I also
wonder if I shouldn't get into some of the evented frameworks like Tornado or
EventMachine. This has always been my problem -- I'm interested in too many
aspects of technology and there's just no time to pursue them all.

My secondary roadblock, once I decide on a tech, is getting some good
documentation and perhaps some mentoring on it. Some of those frameworks seem
to be pretty lacking in good documentation and examples.

------
bartwe
After completing a compiler/language and used it for the ICFP contest i'm now
thinking of making a debugger/ide for it.

------
toisanji
My current life goals are to run a marathon this summer (I'm running a half
marathon this month) and to practice yoga daily. I've also been working on a
project to help people accomplish their life goals: <http://yana.com> If you
want to check it out, the beta code is "ycnews"

------
f1gm3nt
Hack a gibson...

~~~
nzmsv
My first thought was "Hackers" (the movie). I am appropriately ashamed :)

~~~
Goosey
Mine too, along with the infamous (at least among my friends) quote: "NO ONE
Hacks the Gibson!"

~~~
keefe
nothing is impossible when sleeping with angelina jolie is on the line

------
c1sc0
Raise a million for charity, preferable a research-oriented one.

------
pavs
Here is mine: <http://blogriot.com/life-list/>

~~~
ritonlajoie
good luck with the extra pepper !

------
thestoicattack
Finishing my PhD.

~~~
kunjaan
Awww.

~~~
thestoicattack
I can't tell if you're trying to say that my goal is adorable or disappointing
or that I'm a young'un or what.

------
tobtoh
Trying to figure out the best way to pitch an idea to Google Australia to
create a new job role for me in Melbourne (the only Australian Google office
is in Sydney) in an area they don't currently cover ... oh and I'm not
currently a Google employee.

~~~
ig1
Lars Bak managed to do it :-)

------
vineet7kumar
I am still in a job that I hated like anything when I had to join it two year
ago. I couldn't join Grad school this summer due to lack of money. So here are
my goals in order of priority: 1\. Build a small webapp so that first of all I
can quit my job and have time to hack on what I like. 2\. Get admission to a
good Grad school next fall with full funding. 3\. loose all the fat (a lot of
it) that I have gained in past few years. 4\. Make extra money to buy a Royal
Enfield Bullet classic (any MotorCycle enthusiasts from India here ?) and go
on a countrywide motorcycle trip of India.

~~~
vineet7kumar
Should have started long back ....but better late than never.

~~~
beenthere
@Vineet you can try doing some research, Grad Schools value that a lot. You
can try joining some research institute in india (I know they are rare) and
have at least a paper submitted before you apply A good idea would be to
target WWW 2011 conference which is going to take place in hyderabad,

In my case I had 2 international publication in a reputed International
chemical engineering journal on topics related to machine learning which
helped me a lot despite of poor grades,

you can try applying to universities like NCSU, UNCC which are decent also
provide good support,

------
kareemm
Move to San Francisco with my girlfriend, legally (we're Canadian). I can
start a company w/ US friends that will sponsor me for a visa / work permit.

Her situation is the biggest roadblock - she didn't graduate from college (a
big strike in the DHS's eyes) and has been self-employed as an esthetician for
most of her career.

While she'd be open to working for someone else in the US, getting a visa for
her will be tough without the college degree. And her preference is not to
work for someone else so she can continue to run her practice while starting a
skincare product line biz.

~~~
jaxn
Can she be a partner in your company too?

~~~
kareemm
good thought. probably, though getting her a visa through my company or
someone else's is still the biggest challenge as she doesn't have a college
degree.

------
cromulent
Learn to be happy.

"Satisfied with my lot" is probably a better term. Life is excellent except
for the 5% of my brain that sees the bleak side of everything.

The main roadblock is the common depression / bipolar type II episodes.

~~~
zeta
Meditate! You will be happier, calmer and more focused. There are many
meditations out there - be promiscuous and try out as many as you can. You
will then be able to figure out what works best for you.

------
singular
Develop a programming language which allows you to easily write inline
grammars then use them and mutate them at compile- and run-time. Additionally
have a nice (default) syntax, nice support for concurrency (I'm thinking
something similar to goroutines), and actually try to make the language
reasonably popular (the most insane of my goals).

Roadblocks: Myself, more than anything. So hard to work on something a. so
big, and b. in spare time when I so often feel like chilling out!

------
bengl3rt
Trying to figure out if my dream job really exists anywhere.

I am trying to move from pure coding to a job that combines coding with
traveling and dealing directly with technical stakeholders. It seems in most
companies the people who are responsible for the latter do very little, if
any, of the former.

Figure I will put another 1-3 years trying to find this position at an
existing company, and if that doesn't pan out, I'll just start my own company
designed around letting me do exactly that. :)

~~~
jaxn
I had that gig for a while.

I was a consultant working on Business Intelligence and found a niche in
automating rights management.

After a couple of years the travel got old (and there were some not fun
projects in there too).

~~~
bengl3rt
Yes, the verticals that are likely to feel like bankrolling all the traveling
tend to be the larger corporate ones - the ones who are in the Business of
Business, especially.

Not saying there aren't fascinating problems to solve in there as well, but
you're right, there can be a lot of churn...

------
keefe
$10k/mo passive income

~~~
rphlx
Same. Running a business is not easy, but it's the easiest way to get there
IMO.

It takes like 5-10M in capital to make 10k/mo "safely" on a long term basis
now, which rules out an investment-only strategy for almost everybody.

~~~
lovskogen
Why do you need five million dollars for that?

~~~
rphlx
It's hard to live off passive investment income b/c world governments are
intent on shafting savers to bail out the debtor majority. "High yield" FDIC-
insured savings accounts pay like 1.2% now in nominal terms but their return
will surely be negative in real terms.

------
GVRV
Completing my CompSci degree and Financial Independence within 12 months.

Roadblocks: Psychological.

Bottlenecks: A boring regular job (partial financial independence) is an
easier option.

~~~
mjtsang
What year in college are you now? Is 12-months on track to graduate with a CS
degree?

~~~
GVRV
Monash University, I finish in 4 months.

------
Empact
Funding & national media attention for my political accountability startup.
<http://votereports.org/> (next 6 months)

Partner with a certain local government agency to make a major user-facing
improvement. (next 2 years)

Start a school using an the updated version of the monitorial/lancasterian
system of education. (next 20 years)

------
eel
Summer: learn prereq material including functional programming and basic ai
for an ai course that I want to take in the fall.

Life 1: live with less (stuff)

Life 2: meet a girl

As far as progress... I've started on Summer's, but I'm not as far as I hoped.
Currently working on SICP. Life 1 is actually progressing, as very often I
find things that I can get rid of and not miss. Life 2... not yet..

------
anigbrowl
Becoming an attorney, without an undergraduate degree or going massively into
debt. This is possible in California, although it's difficult and the career
prospects are limited, given an abundant supply of competitors for a shrinking
number of openings. Fortunately (?) I love law more than I love money.

------
z0r
Become a 4 dan go player. Recently ordered a lot of new problems & other study
material to try to get there.

~~~
timdellinger
What's your present rank? I'm not devoting much time to it right now, but I'm
trying to go from 10k -> 5k. (My efforts were re-invigorated when I got the
iPad app from Many Faces of Go).

~~~
z0r
I've hit 3 dan before, but right now I'm probably a weak 2 dan. Life & Death
is the key, so hopefully running through a thousand fresh problems will do the
trick! If you do the same, you can do a lot better than 5k :)

------
fezzl
Become an awesome martial arts trickster!

<http://trickstutorials.com>

------
wags
I'm preparing to start the application process to the United States Air Force
Officer Training School to be commissioned as a 17D - Cyber Operations
officer.

Roadblocks are the back log to even talk to a recruiter, and the extremely
long and thorough application process. Someone help!

------
anatta
Going into the wilderness to meditate and attain nirvana. No I'm not joking.
I've got a tent ready, I've read the Samyutta Nikaya (Connected Discourses of
the Buddha), and I'm going to the Ansel Adams Wilderness near a stream, under
a tree or overlooking a cliff.

------
Gianteye
My goal at the moment is to put a product out on the market. I've made a lot
of free/open source/one-off projects that had potential to go further with a
little investment. I'm currently taking one design, and getting it on shelves,
being sold in stores.

------
Concours
turning my ventures profitable enough to do whatever I want, whenever and
wherever I want. Then do a couple of Kids. If I could just find out how to do
tweens, priceless.

Bottleneck: have two kids at once, and gain some 2 years (time between first
and second kid)

~~~
Psyonic
Solution: Two mothers.

~~~
Concours
yeah, great idea, but big cons: that's probably the fastest way to not see my
kids grow, and loose my wife.

------
sushi
I want to participate in Volvo Ocean Race.

Currently I am learning Python and Django and waiting for the Drupal 7 release
to create a project. I hope it makes enough money that I can relocate to
somewhere in Scandinavia preferably Finland.

------
davidwparker
I just started running about 14 weeks ago. I'm 26, 27 in October. I just ran
my first half marathon (13.1 miles), and I'm aiming to run 30 miles when I
turn 30. I'd like to do it in a respectable time too.

------
kadavy
I want to present at SXSW. I couldn't tell you precisely why, I just think
it's a great conference and I love to share knowledge. The free badge wouldn't
hurt.

ROADBLOCK: honing in on a subject. I can only submit one proposal (which is
due tomorrow), or, hope to get picked for someone else's panel. Here are
potential panel ideas:

\- Website Optimization Basics: I wrote a post a few months back that was
popular on HN, about how I reduced page load time by 75%
([http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/wordpress-optimization-
drea...](http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/wordpress-optimization-dreamhost-
rackspace/)). I would boil down the technical jargon to simple language. It
would be a dual presentation with the engineer that gave me most of the advice
I used.

\- Reverse-Engineering Visual Design: I would explain some of the classic
principles and methods that designers use to make the decisions they do when
designing for the web. I presented on this at BarCamp Chicago a couple of
years ago ([http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/design-for-the-coders-
mind-...](http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/design-for-the-coders-mind-reverse-
engineering-visual-design/)), so I have something to start with, but it still
needs more juice.

\- Everything You Already Know About SEO: the basics of SEO are stupidly
simple, and widely known, but there are many misconceptions and unknowns. I
would condense and explain all of the best practices and things that we _do_
know about SEO, and how to use them to grow your business.

\- How to Get a Date Online: I have an alter-ego through which I give online
dating tips (<http://onlinedatingmatchmaker.com>). I would talk about how to
best represent the interesting aspects about yourself, present communication
techniques for opening with matches and securing dates, and present data from
studies that suggest provocative things, such as why you should lie on your
online dating profile ([http://www.onlinedatingmatchmaker.com/lie-online-
dating-prof...](http://www.onlinedatingmatchmaker.com/lie-online-dating-
profile/)). I actually got a personal message from Hugh Forrest only minutes
after submitting this presentation idea last year - about how much he liked
the idea - but I guess it didn't make it through the selection process.

Another ROADBLOCK is my relative lack of speaking experience. I find it hard
to get motivated about smaller speaking opportunities like BarCamp or Peca
Kucha, so I'm not sure where to find mid-level speaking opps to hone my chops.

A BOTTLENECK is my relative lack of notoriety, or having a "thing." As you can
see a variety of topics interest me, but I can't yet be thought of as "the
four-hour workweek guy" or "the personal finance guy"

Any advice, or opinions on which panel I should propose, would be appreciated!
Thanks - I love this thread!

~~~
seancron
I'd say talk about "Reverse-Engineering Visual Design". As a coder who
understands some of the basic principles of design but just can't seem to make
it click, that would be the most interesting for me.

Optimization and SEO are nice, but if you don't have a solid design they're
not that useful.

------
mcantor
Get my "C" rating in Foil at a USFA-sanctioned fencing tournament.

------
leftnode
Get back into amateur bodybuilding and compete in another show.

------
SethWilson
My most recent life goal is to learn how to shave with a straight razor...
Don't ask me why, just seems like a cool skill to learn and someday pass down
to my sons.

~~~
raintrees
I expressed interest in same. My wife bought me a nice introductory model
(german-made) but the pressure required (and angle of attack at my throat!!!)
to get any hairs cut scares the dickens out of me. Now it is slowly rusting in
my bathroom...

~~~
SethWilson
Exactly why I've been putting it off. I thought about paying an old school
barber for an hour of his time to show me the ropes and the "gotchas"

~~~
raintrees
So long as his name is not Sweeny :)

------
escanda
Get a programming gig in the UK. Roadblocks: (1) Language barrier, my spoken
English is not as good as it should. (2) Non working experience in the
country.

------
Pistos2
To be honest, my primary goal in life is to be a saint. Second to that is
helping others with the same.

Roadblocks: Human nature. But grace overcomes that.

------
ig1
Stop consultancy work and focus on product building, move to Berlin (happening
in a few weeks) and learn German upto A2 level.

------
known
I guess Facebook will reveal these details.

------
yigit
Goal: Moving to Lapland.

Roadblock: There are no job opportunities for a software developer in that
area.

------
mjtsang
I want to start my own private equity firm, and then my own Fortune 500
company.

Sky's the limit, right?

------
dwsjoquist
Spend more time lurking on hacker news.

...oops, I posted, guess every goal has some setbacks.

------
moge
To write business book management lessons I learned while working for Oprah.

Bonus: My NDA

------
Oxryly
Fully realize who I am, what I have, and what I am capable of.

~~~
Gibbon
Check out the book Zen and the Art of Making a Living by Laurnce G. Boldt. I
just finished reading it and it's really inspiring/helpful in that regard.

~~~
Oxryly
That looks interesting... funnily enough zen is my current practice, and it's
impact on my living has been and continues to be profound.

------
paulreiners
Play more hockey.

------
tmsh
Antigravity boots. Funding. Gravity.

------
siculars
not exactly a life goal , but my next personal goal is to get my padi
divemasters certification.

------
nailer
To make something people love.

~~~
Oxryly
You do that every day...

~~~
nailer
How so?

~~~
Oxryly
Look in the mirror. (apologies for the glibness)

------
apop
get independient

------
clistctrl
Contemplating how to ask a girlfriend of 2 years how to take it to the next
step when her view has been soured by a late parental divorce.

~~~
araneae
Asking someone to marry you (I assume that's what the next step is- maybe it's
something else) when you don't know what the answer will be pretty much only
happens in movies. And it's not a good idea.

I was just at a friend's wedding last weekend, am engaged myself, and four
other friend pairs are also engaged. In all of these cases, we discussed
marriage extensively with our partners before anyone was officially asked. We
all knew what the answer was going to be.

If you want to consider going to the next step, you should bring up marriage
casually in conversation. If she sounds like she's just not into it, she's
either going to say no, or say yes because of pressure when she doesn't really
mean it.

------
earth
To be the man who donates the most and the man who owns the least, at the same
time.

Bottlenecks: My empathy is ridiculed by the way I live. I believe I can make
more of a difference in a position of power then if I just move somewhere and
work as a volunteer for the rest of my life. Though to get to power I have to
live in this world which I hate.

~~~
hariis
Know Life.

~~~
earth
One day I might understand that

------
Ardit20
To write a novel.

Bottleneck: Lack of discipline, perhaps also lack of life experience to make
it truly meaningful and classic and maybe also lack of other softer skills
such as how to convey in writing different accents or manners of speaking of
different people.

~~~
johnfn
As a roadblock helper:

Have you heard of Nanowrimo? <http://www.nanowrimo.org/> People get together
and write an entire novel over November (50,000 words). I have actually done
it twice.

You're probably thinking of saying something like "how can you ever write a
good novel in just a month?" The point of Nanowrimo, though, is to get you to
ignore your internal critic.

The reason that everyone wants to write a novel, but people rarely get too far
(and I can see this in your comment) is because people are too concerned with
writing the _best possible novel they can write_ , and let down when it
doesn't come out that way. This is why people run into writer's block: they
endlessly self-criticize, and they can't sneak out a word past their highly
critical self.

Do Nanowrimo. Write the worst novel in the world, if that's what it takes. But
you need to get rid of your internal critic. Or at least silence him until the
editing stage. Then he can come out and go on a rampage. But he is useless
when you are trying to brainstorm. You'll never get anywhere if you set out to
make a meaningful, classic book.

~~~
Ardit20
Thank you. I suppose it might be of help to many people, but, I would not
fancy the pressure.

I am not being stopped by an internal critic. I have written a bit and I quite
like what I have write, I was very much pleasantly surprised in fact. I do
think though that if it will give me full satisfaction I should perhaps learn
of ways of speaking by different people and also I plan to take some acting
classes which might be of help.

But yeh I do think I will need some time, I think it will be a life project
and probably never be published. I don't want to be a writer. I enjoy writing
though, a lot, especially when you at some point you are not really the writer
but witnessing and thinking wow where on earth did that come from, its coool!

How did your novels go though?

------
mkramlich
enough passive income to live on

Tesla Roadster

help a loved one to get cured of a horrible health problem

not necessarily in that order, and not necessarily interesting to others, but
they are among my top goals right now

------
RShackleford
Attempting to get TX/RX Labs (<http://www.txrxlabs.org>), the first
hackerspace in Houston, up and going. I've had lots of fun attempting to get a
lawyer so we could get our 501(c)3 in the hopes that we can also get a larger
workspace. I have gotten the webservers and website up in the nick of time,
and I've got a bunch of stickers and t-shirts I will be selling at the Next
HOPE and at DEFCON 18 for the group, and adding a party/membership drive in
Houston on the same weekend as HOPE will probably get us enough members to get
over a vital hump so we can offer more to our members.

I also get to go through the same drill with Locksport International
(<http://www.locksport.com>). In fact, visit the Lockpicking Village at The
Next HOPE and DEFCON, or Security Snobs (<http://www.securitysnobs.com>) and
buy some lockpicks or t-shirts to help your fellow hackers!

------
ddemchuk
1) Overcome my periods of overwhelming lack of passion and focus, that could
potentially be rooted in some medical things

2) Write a few philosophical fiction books

3) Run a Micro ISV while I'm writing those books :)

I guess none of these are unique to us all here, but they're my current life
goals.

------
binaryfinery
My goal is to create a new programming language (sort of - in so far as I can
talk about it). If monetized properly it would be worth billions. Questions
is, should I incubate it myself, which will take longer, but be very
financially rewarding, or work on it openly so that better minds than mine can
make it better - but then no money for me... (except perhaps on the conference
circuit!)

~~~
TheSOB88
Is this a joke, or what?

~~~
binaryfinery
No. What part do you find funny/absurd?

~~~
TheSOB88
You think you can make billions on a programming language? The only popular
language that I can think of that isn't free is C#, so people are going to
have options.

You talk about it as though it would be easy, but promotion, debugging,
libraries, support, tutorials, HOLY SHIT it's not easy.

~~~
binaryfinery
Well either I'm stupid and/or completely inexperienced, or I have a really
good system. I take it you assumed the former. :-) Thank you for answering. I
initially thought you were saying that the "go for money vs go for open
source" question was a joke.

~~~
TheSOB88
Just sounds like you have a bad case of "shit's easy" syndrome, as Yegge said
when I was reading him yesterday.

~~~
binaryfinery
Never said it was going to be easy. My question, in fact, was whether I should
have it take longer by doing it myself, or open it up to the community to get
it done faster.

~~~
TheSOB88
Good luck...

