
Ask HN: I feel like helping somebody out, what can I help you with? - jiblyyyy
Let me help you. Just ask. Anything, as long as it&#x27;s reasonable and I can actually make it happen, yo. No strings attached, just a random act of kindness, I guess.<p>Edit: Some already started sending me emails (email is in my profile). That&#x27;s ok if you think it&#x27;s better vs the comments section.
======
marchdown
I could use some encouragement and life advice. I apologize if this ends up
being long and whiny.

I feel like I'm stuck on the outside of the part of society where all the
meaningful intellectual work happens.

Since I was a child I have always aspired to learn from the scientists and
engineers and humanitarians so that I could be like them one day. I've read
Hamming, Feynman, Norvig, Herbert Alexander Simon, and felt that those were
the people who have gotten it right, that that's what life should be about.
Explore the world, do hard, honest work of figuring things out and building
something new that helps people realize their potential and live better. Find
the math behind the mundane and harness it to improve the human condition.

But I've been struggling with depression for years and I'm ashamed of how I
spent my time in university. I feel that I haven't found a mentor or path of
my own. I've constantly felt overwhelmed and let down by myself and by the
system. I feel that I don't have the skills or the resolve to just plow ahead
and _do_ things. I feel that whenever I try to do research, or write, or even
think out loud it ends up with a mockery of the real thing.

Right now I've graduated from a five-year course in computational linguistics,
did half a year of antidepressants, half a year of advanced math seminars and
moved to Israel for a change of scenery. I would really like to find a
collective here where I could learn and solve real problems. Join a startup or
do a PhD.

I still have a crippling case of impostor syndrome and occasional panic
attacks. If any of you here have suggestions — however specific or general, —
I would really appreciate it.

~~~
jiblyyyy
Thanks for the honesty, let me give you some practical advice and maybe a
birdseye view of your situation (or at least how I think about it)

\- From your wording, I think you're looking too far ahead in the future,
emphasising the long journey ahead of you.

\- What I'd suggest you doing, is, kind of like this little post, start
extremely TINY.

1\. Pick a field you're interested in. Don't overthink it, you don't have to
spend the rest of your life with this one decision. Just pick 1 thing in the
next 8 seconds. It's just a tiny little experiment.

2\. Find a non-profit organisation within that category that you can support
with voluntary work. Again... don't overdo it. Just helping them spread the
word, or simply sending them an email of appreciation for the work they're
doing is a great start.

3\. From the action you take in step 2, use the positive feeling you've gained
to do an other tiny act of goodness. Potentially write about each tiny action
you take, and keep a blog about those positive feeling/findings/etc.

I'm curious to follow your journey.

Small steps ahead, and before you know it, you can look back at a long trail
of awesomeness, appreciating how you got there. Instead of looking to the
future, not knowing how to get there.

~~~
marchdown
Thank you!

I've just send a note of appreciation to the Centre for Effective Altruism.
Let's hope that's a first step. I'll try keeping track of them @
[https://mastodon.xyz/web/accounts/75086](https://mastodon.xyz/web/accounts/75086)

Use the positive feeling to propel myself forward, you say? I'll go help my
housemates with the chores and do a writeup on formal correctness proofs.

Sure beats feeling bad about not applying for jobs here more aggressively.

I'll keep in mind your suggestion of starting tiny, starting over instead of
staying stuck, and not overemphasizing the big picture. I'm grateful you took
the time to answer.

------
yrio
Can I ask you to work excellently in your job & donate some % of your income
to a charity for some amount of time (not just a one time thing) ? ;)

Any charity with good reviews in
[http://www.givewell.org/](http://www.givewell.org/) and
[https://www.charitynavigator.org/](https://www.charitynavigator.org/) are OK.

~~~
jiblyyyy
I actually already do that. Not specifically through those websites though. I
wish more would do the same.

------
_spoonman
One of the things I am interested in is quantitative finance. I don't have a
math background, however. I'm fascinated by it all and want to be able to read
scholarly articles on the subject and understand what they're saying, as they
are heavy in math. Do you think 36 is too old to take a few online advanced
mathematics classes and indulge in my interests?

~~~
jiblyyyy
Taking a little side road here, but the question of being 'too old' for
something is a limiting belief you should squash, right now! Here's a super
inspiring infographic that answers the question 'Am I too Old to Start', in
the context of entrepreneurship. Browse through those names and ages. You'll
find motivation to pursuit your own things, despite your age.

------
nikivi
You can help us make a search engine to visualise all of world's knowledge
with mind maps.

The search engine is open source : [https://github.com/learn-anything/search-
engine](https://github.com/learn-anything/search-engine)

We use Javascript, React, Redux and Webpack to build it together with D3.js
for visualisation.

We wrote about why we are building it here :

[https://medium.com/@NikitaVoloboev/the-invisible-
mountains-b...](https://medium.com/@NikitaVoloboev/the-invisible-mountains-
bd50a31bc64e)

------
jonjlee
I'm an ex-engineer, now pediatrian who would really like to be a founder in
healthcare technology after residency (2 more years left). Can you show me how
to get started? I'm in Seattle. My limitations are that I hope to stay sane,
avoid sacrificing all of my time away from a family of 4 children, and be able
to start in the light of a significant amount of educational debt (>100k). I
know it's quite a specific request, but you said ask anything!

~~~
jiblyyyy
I don't know a lot about your specific market, but here's what you could do:

\- Start writing. A blog, newsletter, what ever. Start today

\- The goal is to build an audience around your writing. Focus on what you
know best, and write for a specific type of customer

\- Don't focus on getting thousands of readers, having 20, 50, 70 people is
enough to learn about the problems people have in your industry \- identify
the problem, build a solution for your group of readers (could be a course,
SaaS, etc.) product may not be free. Put a solid price tag on it.

\- If people pay, and your product seems to solve a real pinpoint, focus more
effort on promoting it and attracting more of the same kinds of customers. Go
at it slowly.

\- Don't take investments, loans or other things that will only put more
weight on your shoulders.

\- Start spending just 2-3 hours a week, today and just stick with it.

------
carsongross
If you have any social media presence (or know someone who does) some signal
boost on my against-the-grain front end library would be much appreciated:

[https://github.com/LeadDyno/intercooler-
js](https://github.com/LeadDyno/intercooler-js)

I have some articles up explaining some of the theory behind it on the blog:

[http://intercoolerjs.org/blog.html](http://intercoolerjs.org/blog.html)

------
anigbrowl
Do you know, or know where to research, a tool that would allow private
tagging of Facebook users? Say you were developing a product and wanted handy
way to flag people as likely (or unlikely) future customers to based on your
personal impression, rather than FB's approach of selecting characteristics
and having your ad served to a list of users.

------
goforthpro
I have an opportunity to connect a leading IoT vendor with public agencies to
impact homelessness... I need an InfoGraphic that depicts
who/what/how/why/when/where IoT can positively impact the lifecycle of
homeless mothers. Thx for your generous offer!

------
goforthpro
I have an opportunity to connect a leading IoT vendor with public agencies to
impact homelessness... I need an InfoGraphic that depicts
who/what/how/why/when/where IoT can positively impact the lifecycle of
homeless mothers. Thx for your generous offer

------
aecorredor
I want to build a fantasy draft soccer app with node and react. I guess I
would need socket.io for the draft, but I've never done any real-time app
before. Can you help me out in explaining in the overall architecture of the
system? Especially the real-time aspect of it.

~~~
jiblyyyy
Why don't you build a tiny real-time app first. Maybe this will help:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FPkN6ETqes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FPkN6ETqes)

~~~
aecorredor
Thanks for the cool video, I'll definitely start small first.

------
jkoschei
Help me find some reading material for this evening — post the best thing
you've read recently

~~~
joatmon-snoo
Reread the Count of Monte Cristo [1] last week, as well as nonjon's "Where in
the World is Harry Potter" series [2][3][4] (HP fanfiction, comedy and AU,
mature content). Highly recommend both.

[1]
[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1184](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1184)

[2] Where in the World is Harry Potter?
[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2354771/1/Where-in-the-World-
is...](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2354771/1/Where-in-the-World-is-Harry-
Potter)

[3] The Untitled Cheekquel Project
[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2477165/1/The-Untitled-
Cheekque...](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2477165/1/The-Untitled-Cheekquel-
Project)

[4] You Did What! [https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2630300/1/You-Did-
What](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2630300/1/You-Did-What)

------
fimdomeio
Maybe listing things you're competent at might help for people to know what to
ask for.

~~~
jiblyyyy
I didn't want to limit what people would ask for and even if I'm not able to
do it myself, maybe I could point people in the right direction.

------
moocowtruck
I'm trying to adopt another special needs child from bulgaria and save them
from orphanage hell. This time we can't do it without raising money, we have a
fundraising site and I can pm if interested.

~~~
jiblyyyy
send me an email

------
eeks
Please donate any amount to the OpenBSD foundation:
[https://www.openbsd.org/donations.html](https://www.openbsd.org/donations.html)

~~~
jiblyyyy
done

------
pella
[https://www.hotosm.org/get-involved/disaster-
mapping](https://www.hotosm.org/get-involved/disaster-mapping)

------
OliverJones
Help a schoolteacher through
[http://donorschoose.org](http://donorschoose.org) .

------
IPS3c
Make someone smile today!

~~~
jiblyyyy
My daughter has been smiling all day. I guess that's mission accomplished :D

------
Code72
Are you a bot

------
Code72
Are you a bot?

