
Ask HN: New Years Resolution(s)? - mikeyur
I want to know what your resolutions are for 2009. I know these lists are bullshit most of the time, but what's the harm?<p>I'll start first:<p>- Get Healthier (not just losing weight, but eating better and drinking less soda/sugar drinks)<p>- Learn how to use Photoshop<p>- Read more Marketing/Business/Entrepreneurship books that I tend to push off/forget about (the pile under my desk)<p>- Start blogging...(again)<p>- Start coding again + learn a new language (I'm thinking Python)<p>- Make a full time income online and move out (currently making a part-time income)<p>- <i>Get onto the HN leader board (long shot)</i><p>I have more but I want to keep the list short and knock off one at a time. What's on your list?
======
Mystalic
I don't do new years resolutions, and it has been my policy since I was a kid.

My rationale: if you want to change your life or do something, don't
procrastinate - start right then. Putting an arbitrary date on things you want
to do never made sense to me. You just have to write it down and then follow
through.

~~~
ojbyrne
So you've inspired my New Years Resolution - no more New Years Resolutions.
;-)

------
cperciva
Two things come to mind:

1\. Reach profitability with tarsnap. (This shouldn't be hard... I'm almost
there already.)

2\. Be a better friend to my friends. (This will hopefully be easier once
resolution #1 is achieved, due to lower stress levels.)

------
markessien
I plan to

1\. Be able to jog for 10 kilometers

2\. Make a video that reaches 500.000 views on YouTube

3\. Release at least one more app that brings in $2000 or more a month

Modest goals are easier to reach, and a goal that cannot be measured is no
goal.

~~~
unalone
Your first goal is a great one. The third may be also. But the second one?
It's impossible to determine how good a video is based on the views it
receives. The masses generally _don't_ like the top-notch high-quality videos,
they like bland-and-generic above everything.

When I was 13, I got together a group of friends and released a video on
Newgrounds that hit 100,000 views - quite a lot back then! The video itself
was terrible, though: the fact that more people have seen that than anything
else I've done online is not exactly a fun thought for me. And when you look
at other popular videos, very rarely are they really smart, clever things. At
best they're "cool." You don't have many instances of people creating
something thoughtful and enlightening and getting half a million views.

While measuring goals is a great thing, possibly figure out how to make a more
useful goal for the video. Possibly even just "make X videos." The more you
make, the more you'll learn about making them, and the better you'll end up
with.

~~~
markessien
The point of the video is the page views. One of my philosophies is this - I
don't care about pleasing smart people. How are they better than people who
are less smart?

If my goal is to create an intellectually stimulating video, then I would work
on that. While that is a worthy goal, it's different from trying to create a
video that has a lot of hits. I'd actually say that for the average user on
this site, considering that most of us have university degrees, it would be
much harder to create something that appeals to a person who only has a very
basic education than it would be to create something that would be appreciated
by people that went through the same educational system that we did.

It's great to be smart, but that does not mean you should insulate yourself
from the human condition. It does not mean that simple pleasures are somehow
lesser pleasures.

If you can make a video 500.000 or more, it means you understand the how a lot
of people think, and this is more important than understand how people very
similar to you think.

~~~
unalone
_I don't care about pleasing smart people. How are they better than people who
are less smart?_

They're better because they're lucky enough to be born with greater faculty
for comprehension. I understand you not wanting to appeal _exclusively_ to
bright people, but don't make the mistake of putting down bright people
because they've got something going for them.

And you missed my point. You can't go out and easily devise something that
will get lots of page views. To quote Roger Ebert, a person in a funny hat is
not funny unless they don't know it's a funny hat. Look at the big YouTube
"indie" successes and you'll see the the biggest ones are usually entirely
unintentionally up there. The laughing baby. The kid playing Canon in D on his
guitar. Yeah, they're great videos. But you can't put up a video expecting it
to reach a certain threshold. And if you make videos specifically to meet said
threshold, you're fighting against greater odds than if you just go out trying
to better yourself as a filmmaker.

The point I was trying to make, more succinctly, is this. You can't rely on
quantity. If and when you get that many views, it will be entirely by accident
on your part. The only thing you _can_ control in your videos is quality. And,
incidentally, quality means a better chance at getting quantitative views.

Quality isn't about "pleasing smart people." It's about bettering yourself
through mastering the skills required to make a film. You can go out and make
shoddy film after shoddy film and eventually hit a lucky break, or you can go
out and try to make your movies as _good_ as possible, and when you get your
break it'll be more deserved and, for that matter, attract a better crowd.
(When I made my big Harry Potter redub, I got IMs from "fans" for a long, long
time. I still do, on occasion. It's incredibly annoying because none of them
have anything more to say than "make another one just like that last one," and
I've given up on the scene entirely. Later works I've done have attracted much
brighter, interesting people, and that's a reward unto itself.)

 _It does not mean that simple pleasures are somehow lesser pleasures._

There is intelligence in simplicity. And not all simplicity is good
simplicity, either. Don't let that let you think that there's no such thing as
quality. There's eating a piece of fruit as opposed to eating a gourmet meal,
and there's replacing the gourmet meal with a Big Mac. Both simpler, but with
one there's something significantly lost.

 _If you can make a video 500.000 or more, it means you understand the how a
lot of people think, and this is more important than understand how people
very similar to you think._

You're only ever going to understand your own mind to any significant degree.
If you become popular, you most likely won't know exactly how you do. If you
_do_ understand it, then you'll derive from the experience either a knowledge
of a gimmick - "These people love me acting stupid, let's do it again" - or
you'll understand it because you're creating a quality experience. It's why
the best way of making a good movie is to adhere to your own standards and to
focus on making, plain and simple, good movies. Any other way is riskier and
will eventually demean you. Quality, on the other hand, always has an
audience.

~~~
markessien
I agree with your points, but your points depend on the context. If I have
some wine sipping Kafka reading man in a top hat telling me that the things he
likes are the definition of quality, he's no more right than the surfer dude
who swears by fart films.

The problem with a lot of modern society is that people tell us what we're
supposed to regard as high brow - because a film is made by fox searchlight
does not mean it's qualitatively better than a nollywood film.

Intellectualism - our constant attempt to break through the limits of human
thinking - seems nowadays to have built a fence around itself and defined what
belongs in and what does not. That's what I dislike.

To give an example, those wine sippers will overwhelmingly tell say that Jazz
is a more intellectual musical form than country music. Utter bullshit, they
are intellectually equal, one just happens to be inside the intellectual box
and the other is not.

~~~
unalone
_If I have some wine sipping Kafka reading man in a top hat telling me that
the things he likes are the definition of quality, he's no more right than the
surfer dude who swears by fart films._

I prefer Beckett and I've lost my top hat, but I'll argue back as to quality.
"Enjoyment" is subjective, "quality" is not. To take humor as an example: a
fart joke is extremely generic, requires no thinking, and therefore can be
utilized by anybody equally. For most people older than 15, this means fart
jokes lose their value in humor. It's not that a fart isn't funny, it's just
that it's old and it's been used again and again. Compare this to the opening
of _The Metamorphosis_ , in which Gregor Samsa awakes to find he has become a
giant beetle. Yeah, there's an artistic point to be made about him losing his
soul and humanity, but MUCH more obviously, here's a guy who's just turned
into a bug. The first we hear of him, he's a bug. That's hilarious! It would
be less funny if it suddenly became a comedic gag used by everybody, but as it
stands it's rare and it's clever. Fart jokes _can_ be clever, but most of them
aren't. And, for the record, most surfer dudes are a lot more sophisticated
than they get stereotyped as.

 _The problem with a lot of modern society is that people tell us what we're
supposed to regard as high brow - because a film is made by fox searchlight
does not mean it's qualitatively better than a nollywood film._

No, the problem is that people assume that another person's opinion matters.
_Fact_ does - some humor can be argued very formally - but that's not the same
as a title meaning anything. I like HBO shows because they allow more freedom
to the creators, but I think that Fox's Arrested Development beats the pants
off Curb Your Enthusiasm, despite (and _because_ of, in this case) censors,
shorter episode lengths, and more restrictions on content. The Arrested
Development DVD set contains an episode that's longer, more risque, and with
censors removed, and it's less funny. So HBO's format wouldn't work for the
show.

 _Intellectualism - our constant attempt to break through the limits of human
thinking - seems nowadays to have built a fence around itself and defined what
belongs in and what does not. That's what I dislike._

Of course. Real intellectuals don't do that. Roger Ebert doesn't do that with
movies. Harold Bloom doesn't do that with books. (Bloom does insult lots of
books - he hates Harry Potter - but his arguments are based on logic. While I
like Harry Potter, his scathing criticism made me think much more about my
liking it. I was suddenly more critical and judgmental, and just happened to
find it wanting. Bloom dislikes postmodernism, though, despite its artsy
airs.) However, what you're doing is responding by saying there are no
standards at all, and that's just as heinous as saying that there are
predefined standards in given genres. The proper response is to _develop your
own taste_. That doesn't mean disregarding taste entirely. It means deciding
for yourself what's good and what isn't.

 _To give an example, those wine sippers will overwhelmingly tell say that
Jazz is a more intellectual musical form than country music. Utter bullshit,
they are intellectually equal, one just happens to be inside the intellectual
box and the other is not._

Au contraire! (Sorry, by the way: you picked humor and music as your two
arguments, and those are two things that I spend a lot of time delving into,
and I've already got a lot of these arguments rounded out in my head. Hope you
don't mind.) Country music is defined by simplicity: the melody is simple, the
instrumentation is simple. The lyrics - simple. Jazz music, meanwhile, is
inherently complex. It requires a lot of skill on part of the musicians. I've
played the flute for over 8 years, and I'm still mediocre at jazz
improvisation. Meanwhile, jazz also deals with very complex tempos and
melodies. As a result, it's got much more range in style - musicians have got
a lot more to work with, and they produce more fascinating pieces.

I'm not at all a jazz fan, it's not my style of music, but at the same time I
can intellectually acknowledge what's going on, and I like listening to
certain jazz artists a lot. I've yet to find a country musician that really
does interesting, nongeneric things. I like a few _folk_ artists: Bob Dylan
does some interesting stuff with his instrumentation, and he's got an
incredibly unique sound; Sufjan Stevens takes folk and minimalism and creates
some beautiful orchestrations. I don't have any country artists I can say the
same about.

The people who listen to country almost all to a T are less diverse in their
music than jazz listeners. This isn't because listening to jazz makes you
smart. Some jazz fans are pretty stupid about their music. At the same time,
though, if you like music for _music's_ sake, and you give everything a
chance, you find that certain genres have much more to offer than others. Jazz
is one of the most unique in that it shares few elements with any other style
of music. Country, on the other hand, is the opposite: it deals with the bare
essentials of music style, and so elements of country appear in rock and even
in some strands of orchestral music. A local band, Fountains of Wayne (they
had the hit Stacy's Mom), has a few songs that borrow heavily from country.
When I'm in the mood for that sound, I go to them, because there's nothing
that "pure" country has to offer that I can't get from their few songs. There
might be more to country than I think, and if so I'd have to judge that other
music on its own merits, but at the same time, your assuming they're equal
intellectually is hardly right. In fact, I'd counterpoint you by saying that
your saying everything is equal is _just as much an instance of fencing things
out as assigning arbitrary values without thinking,_ because you're not giving
each item a chance to make its case.

The intellectual box is very often full of shit, because not all intellectuals
think. What I ask is that you don't deny the value of intelligence just
because some morons try to fake it. At the same time, don't deny the value of
quality to yourself. If you do, you will find that you will churn out items of
much lower quality than you are capable of, and the only people that flock to
you are the people who agree with you that quality doesn't exist. Then you'll
realize you've created just as awful a box as the other camp - and worse, your
box isn't creating anything for anybody.

------
sgupta
A new slinkset for New Year's resolutions: <http://resolutions.slinkset.com/>

------
jmtame
I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions, much like I don't believe in a
state of "I _will do_ something." You won't do something if you aren't already
doing it, unless a major force compels you.

Going to the gym and having a healthy diet is not a "new year's resolution."
It's a lifestyle. You have to do it for your entire life, otherwise why even
bother starting?

~~~
mikeyur
One of my resolutions is to move out. From your logic, since I'm not already
living on my own and I don't have anything forcing me to move out (getting
kicked out, etc) then I won't ever move out. You're discounting self-
motivation from your equation. I want to move out, I have set my mind to it
and have started putting the pieces together to do so, therefore I will.

I totally agree with you that getting healthy/losing weight is a lifestyle
change, but you have to start at some point. It's something I am working to
continue into the new year, not just a task to work towards starting Janauary
1st.

You don't have any goals in your life?

------
patio11
In the sense of "If it isn't actionable and quantifiable its a delayed failure
rather than a goal:"

1) Go to gym 100 times for at least 45 minutes.

2) Sell $30,000 worth of Bingo Card Creator.

3) Take money from customers for 2nd project. (sales > $0)

4) Not disclosed.

5) Reduce food budget to 1/2 of current level.

6) Declare income resulting from wages of exactly zero yen/dollars for
December 2009 to appropriate tax authorities.

~~~
tome
_4) Not disclosed._

Ooh, now we're curious!

~~~
unalone
It's a marketing strategy on his part.

------
wallflower
I believe New Year's resolutions are like the fast food of goals/personal
development: easy to come up with, may make you feel better in the short-term,
and like fast food.. exit your system quickly.

Do yourself a favor and work towards your goals every day. Even fifteen
minutes a day accumulates compound interest over time.

------
ashleyw
Mine are really similar:

    
    
        - Get Healthier (not just losing weight, but eating better and drinking less soda/sugar drinks)
    
        - Read the piles of books on my desk
    
        - Start blogging
    
        - Learn a new programming language (C/C++/Objective-C, and the OpenGL library)
    
        - Make a decent income online where afford to buy a brand new Macbook Pro without putting it on a card I can't afford to repay...
    
        — Start a totally bootstrapped company

~~~
ashleyw
Oh yeah, forgot one:

    
    
        — Get dressed most days; when working from home, its so easy not to get dressed until the
          late afternoon or even not at all, but doing so limits my productivity substantially!

------
thinkzig
Why wait until the new year?

Why not push away from the keyboard right now and go spend 15 minutes on
something that will move you closer to one of your goals?

You'll feel a lot better, and you'll be 3 days ahead of the game. :)

------
pavelludiq
Ask this girl out.

~~~
kirubakaran
Don't wait.

------
kwamenum86
\- live healthier

\- learn Python (I wrote this one before I read the 5th item of the above)

\- save/invest more money

\- spend less time on HN

\- figure out how to monetize my free time and then do it

\- set up linux and mac os x boxes in addition to my windows box

------
Herring
1680x1050

~~~
siong1987
For those who don't understand the joke, Herring means Computer Resolution.

I tried to figure out what he means for at least 5 seconds and I admitted that
I laughed.

~~~
kirubakaran
-5 for this? Stop downvoting him/her.

~~~
unalone
Yeah. I didn't get the joke at first; the explanation was worthwhile.

------
hbien
Instead of having a ton like last year and failing, this year I'm just going
to have one resolution:

\- Waste less time

------
axod

      * Attend lots of comferences/meetups
      * Get funded
      * Launch paid for product
      * Grow advertising revenue
      * Sell the company
      * Profit!!

------
joshsharp
It's funny how similar some of mine are. Or maybe it's not funny at all, maybe
that's why we're all here...

\- Start blogging again

\- Learn Python properly (I know a bit, but would like to be
comfortable/fluent)

\- Lose some weight

but also (and these are optimistic/long-term, but hey):

\- Really work to grow my client base, further my business's reputation, etc

\- Release one of my as-yet-unfinished SaaS apps for some passive income

\- Get an office and my first employee (currently freelancing from home
office)

~~~
sokoloff
I'd delay the office as long as possible for almost all software-only shops.
It's a PITA, a distraction, and an additional expense. Once you grow to a
certain point and NEED the space, or if your home situation is too
distraction-filled, then go get an office.

Too many people are hooked on the idea "if I can work in my PJs, it must not
be a real job". If that describes your (or your family's) opinion and you
can't change it, you might have to, but look at an office as a necessary evil,
not an indicator or predictor of successfulness.

Edit: clarified that I meant renting real estate not just "the last" which
could be employee or office.

~~~
joshsharp
Good point. Don't really have room for anyone else to work here though,
unfortunately, so if I add anyone then an office is basically a necessity. I
do agree with what you're saying, though.

------
siong1987
\- get things done instead of thinking what new year resolutions I want for
next year.

~~~
mikeyur
\- getting things done instead of listing an item declaring the un-usefulness
of writing a list.

------
Hexstream
Read HN only on Saturdays (or some other fixed day of the week). I can easily
waste 2 or 3 hours a day to "keep up" with the news, this is ridiculous.

Trying to learn something truly worthwhile by reading the news is a bit like
trying to learn by watching TV or trying to get rich by buying lottery
tickets: sometimes it works, usually it doesn't, and even if you succeed it's
not quite as edifying as doing it the _right_ way (ex: learning useful
knowledge by reading books or getting rich by starting a company).

I'd be interested to know if there's some day of the week where the stories
are usually the most relevant.

------
popschedule
-Finish popalerts, & popschedule -Get portfolio site together -Figure out first year C corp taxes due. -Develop better communication and public speaking skills. -Make more connections with outside web consultants. -Wake up to the sound of an alarm. -Stop arguing with my girlfirend -Drink more tea, less coffee -Make Lists, get organized -Build large business web concepts (coke, nike, honda,...) -Paint more -Drink less

------
jjs
1\. Finish writing my current desktop app

2\. Incorporate (probably as an LLC)

3\. Sell copies of said app to people in exchange for money.

4\. Relax more.

5\. Exercise more.

6\. Visit more places and people.

7\. If steps 1-3 work, buy Wil Shipley a drink!

8\. Spend next xmas in Munich.

~~~
burnout1540
Don't incorporate too early. I did that a year and a half ago, but things came
up and I wasn't able to actually start the business. After the setup fees,
annual state franchise fees, registered agent fees, and dissolution fees, I'm
down $700 with nothing to show for it aside from this little nugget of
knowledge.

~~~
jjs
Thanks for the tip. I plan on incorporating after I've finished the app and am
ready to sell it.

------
DanielBMarkham
I don't do New Year's resolutions, but I have made a decision recently.

If I'm going to continue consulting instead of working on a startup next year,
on the side I'm going to work on something technical and fun, like an
automated .NET Ocaml-to-YUI Data Access Layer. Something where I can learn and
create a framework to use in a startup later on.

------
simplegeek
\- Quit smoking \- Learn UI (CSS and Photoshop) \- Excercise daily \- Release
my two side projects and turn them into profitable products. \- Learn a new
programming language (not sure on this one) \- Publish some pending drafts to
ACM \- Publish some articles , long due, to selected magazines \- Asking this
girl out

------
niels
I have decided to focus on personal growth. I made this list some days ago.

Personal qualities

Goals:

\- Non needy

\- Non pleasing

\- Give value

\- Accept other peoples value

Method:

\- Be faithful to own values

\- Base in own self recognition, not others opinion.

\- Accept the importance of signal values

\- Don't do or say things that undermines my own status.

Excercise:

Goals

\- running, cycling, swimming, workout.

Method

\- Sign up for several amateur races (running, cycling, triathlon)

Professional:

Goals

\- improve self promotion

Method

\- Blog, Network

Startup:

Goal

\- Launch my project

Method:

\- Keep on working? (I've rewritten it two and a half time)

\- Freelancing pays the bills

Friends:

Goal

\- Keep old friends, but focus on making new friends.

Method

\- Actively engage in other people lives, don't need "invitation".

Dating:

Goal

\- Date more girls, or meet potential long term girlfriend

Method

\- Dating sites, Social activities, Bars

Sailing:

Goal

\- Participate in as many regattas as possible (I bought a sailing boat last
year)

Method ?

Happy new year!

------
code_devil
It's not a New Year Resoultion, but certain goals/milestones that I'd like to
see achieved :

1) Develop some Social Networking Applications for Facebook etc.

2) Learn Cocoa Touch for iPhone and Develop Apps.

3) Learn a MVC framework like Django/RoR in and out.

4) Be consistent with the gym schedule and get some muscles :)

5) TBD soon :)

------
gcheong
1.Work through Stroustrup's Programming: Principle's and Practice Using C++
(always good to review the basics)

2.Write an app and sell it for enough to replace my current income

3.Train for and run the Bay to Breakers

4.Achieve "Archer" level in recurve style archery.

------
burnout1540
1\. Get my on-the-side business up and running and decide whether or not it is
worth investing more time in. 2\. Add 20k+ to my savings. 3\. Improve my BASH
knowledge. 4\. Travel more. 5\. Waste less time (TV and web)

------
rokhayakebe
Learn how to code because some idiots did not figure that computer science
should be thought in elementary school just as Mathematics, Biology, etc...The
plan HTML>CSS>Javascript>Python or PHP

------
tjic
\- do more marketing for SmartFlix and HeavyInk (I hate doing it, but it
works)

\- I started lifting again three weeks ago - keep doing it.

\- Get to the range more often to practice and carry my pistol more often day
to day.

------
dmpayton
Same as last year...

\- Lose weight \- Learn C \- Don't waste (too much) time \- Get shit done

I did pretty well on the last two in 2008. Hopefully I can keep it up while
making the first two happen.

------
albertni
1\. Collect underwear

3\. Profit

------
snprbob86
Ship.

------
mlLK
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=403013>

------
creativeembassy
Learn a functional programming language. (Maybe Haskell, but I'm open to other
ideas).

------
geuis
Not making resolutions. Whatever happens, happens.

------
Prrometheus
Do better next year.

------
ahoyhere
Remember peeps, good goals are measurable and specific.

