
Ask HN: What would you like to say to your fellow HN readers? - shambolicfroli
If you could address us as a group for 30 seconds, what would you tell us?
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FlyingAvatar
I find that I am very good at stereotyping.

When I stereotype people who I disagree with, it's very easy to engage with
them in a way which will induce them to reciprocally stereotype me.

In this mode, it's possible for us both to speak with each listener only
hearing the words that reinforces their own stereotype.

I find this also happens in reverse when engaging people who I agree with,
making me feel better about my preconceived notions but not really challenging
my views.

My task has been to talk with more people who I disagree with and listen to
them. If I can't convince them of my view, that's ok. If they can't convince
me of their's, that's ok.

So far, this process has been more frustrating in the moment, especially at
first, but has generally left me feeling better about humanity.

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emit_time
Sleep and exercise are the two most important things you should absolutely be
doing to improve your life.

Followed by diet and meditation.

Also, if you’re anything like me, forcing yourself to spend time with people
will make you significantly happier. (Speaking as someone who has a tendency
to isolate themselves.

~~~
ariosto
This. Also, I'd like to add: being kind to yourself.

~~~
justforfunhere
How to be kind to yourself? I have heard this phrase before, but never able to
figure out what it means!!

~~~
emit_time
In your head don’t spend time going over how you could have done things
better/differently. Initial evaluation is good when things could have gone
better, but past a certain point you’re just beating yourself up and getting
worse than nothing out of it.

If you beat yourself up mentally to much, it’ll make it harder to do anything,
because you’ll be afraid of failure etc.

That’s partially how I think of it anyways.

Also, be realistic with your expectations.

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jppope
Be a little nicer and a little happier.

We as a group sit on the forefront of all knowledge, with great jobs (in the
context of history), getting a chance to build the future. Tearing people
down, being overly critical, or general negativity comes with the skill set
but you can do a lot more good from the bright side of things.

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Isamu
Thanks.

For giving me a place where I can comment and others can disagree with me.

Thanks for not being overrun with stupidity. Not saying stupidity doesn't have
its place, but ...

Thanks for the upvotes ... and the downvotes. I deserve both.

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Iwillgetby
If your corporate network can connect to every domain that is NOT in this
top10million list, your network will likely have a breach in the next 0 to 120
months. Most malware domains are not in the top_10_million. Also, match IP
connection traffic to DNS responses to cover the direct IP connect problem.

/www.reddit.com/r/bigseo/comments/6zwu1w/list_of_the_top_10_million_websites_based_on/

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gitgud
_It takes new ideas a long time to catch on - time that is mainly devoted to
evolving the idea into something useful. This fact alone dumps most of the
responsibility for early technical innovation in the laps of amateurs, who can
afford to take the time. Only those who aren 't trying to make money can
afford to advance a technology that doesn't pay._ [1]

This is how I feel about hacker news. People who have the time to advance
technology. And I'm grateful to witness so much of it here.

[1] [https://apenwarr.ca/log/20190207](https://apenwarr.ca/log/20190207)

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octokatt
No one knows quite what they’re doing. You deserve to be here. Keep learning,
you’ll get there.

When you see the giant exit, the perfect job, the super-cool ultra-light
digital nomad lifestyle... that guy doesn’t know what they’re doing either.
Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Be nice to yourself.

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quickthrower2
Thanks for being the most interesting place online. I have learned a lot of
stuff I’d otherwise not know.

If you downvote, but the comment isn’t obviously spammy or silly then try to
leave a comment to help the original commenter know why.

Not everyone is making millions, or has saved half their salary in a pension
plan, or has published some seminal paper etc. There are a lot of high
achievers here but it’s ok not to achieved too.

Enjoy life it’s great because it’s a miracle we exist.

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mindcrime
The sky isn't falling, and technological advancement still represents a key
element of improving the human condition. The actions of a few bad actors, as
dismaying as they are, don't indicate that everyone in tech has malicious
intentions or anything.

We should strive to do better than systems of governance that involve an
implicit (or explicit) threat of violence in order to coerce people into
behaving the way we want. And we have no moral standing to use violence in
that way to begin with.

Read lots of awesome books, and listen to great music. But don't let anybody
else define for you what constitutes "awesome books" or "great music". Take
suggestions and hints and recommendations from others, weight them as you see
fit, but in the end: _" to thine own self be true"_.

In the words of the immortal Aleister Crowley _" Do what thou wilt, shall be
the whole of the law"_.

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throwaway973434
I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I live in one of the most expensive
cities in the US and make barely above the local minimum wage. I decided to
learn to code, but there's all this anthropological stuff that I don't know,
and I don't have a network at all.

I keep getting discouraged and giving up. I write code and don't publicize it.
It's all niche anyway. There are months where I don't apply to anything, but I
hardly ever get called back - I graduated from college, but with a liberal
arts degree. (I got really bad advice.) I apply to fifty jobs and get one
phone screen, and then I teach my friends in the Bay Area about how compilers
work and so on. I know a guy in a similar position who gave up and became an
expat, and I've been helping him learn Python, but I don't let on that it
probably won't pay off.

My lease is almost up, and my roommate is going back to college anyway, so I'm
going to move back in with my family and work full-time on getting a job and
grinding interview problems. But they don't even have an internet connection!
Maybe I could get dialup to work. I don't know. I'll probably become a regular
at the local McDonald's.

I don't think I'm any good. I'd give up, but the alternative is aspiring to
someday become an assistant manager of a fast food joint.

Working these crappy jobs, I've met a lot of people in similar positions.
Smart people from hopeless backgrounds who ended up working nothing but
retail, or IT guys who can hold their own in web development shop talk but
lost their jobs in 2008, ended up homeless for a while, and now push carts in
warehouses.

How the hell do people without traditional backgrounds make it? Do I have to
go through a boot camp and give up another few months of my life? (Besides, I
tried that once already and it didn't pay off - although that was right after
I finished college and realized I had some toilet paper, so I had hardly any
work experience.) Does it all come down to networking?

Is there any hope?

~~~
nojvek
I don’t know what i’m doing either. Whether software is the right industry for
me. I’ve spent 10 years of my life doing it. Might as well continue. I’m
dreading my job and may quit in a couple of months. Don’t have anything lined
up.

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fafk
Articles from New York Times have the catchiest titles, but are never worth
the time.

~~~
jppope
amen

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AnimalMuppet
Genuinely listen, even to people who disagree with your strongly held
opinions. Listen to really give their position a fair hearing, not just
looking for something to argue with. This has several benefits:

\- You could actually be wrong, even if you don't think that's possible. You
might learn that your position is mistaken.

\- You might see that the other person's position, while you still don't agree
with it, is still not as nuts as you thought it was.

\- Even for a position that you totally disagree with, you might learn how to
better refute it. You might even learn how to more accurately state it in the
process of refuting it. (It's always better to refute something that your
opponents recognize as their real position, rather than a strawman.)

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AwesomeFaic
I dunno, I get stressed addressing an audience

Keep sharing cool stuff and be nice to one another

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ploika
Get over yourselves. You are a very arrogant bunch.

You are not a genius and neither am I. Being able to write a unit test does
not automatically make you smarter than someone who studied humanities in
college.

Living in the USA does not make you a more effective worker than someone who
does not.

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tsycho
Be less negative.

Try to look for the positive ways something may be used.

For constructive criticism, try to come up with something unique to the
product in concern. Any product may be shut down in the future, there's no
value in repeating that in every thread.

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bernardv
1\. Diversity of opinion is valuable. You can express your opinion without
diminishing someone else's. 2\. Balance your technical work with real subject
matter expertise

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Salesdude
Why is almost everyone on HN hellbent on being more productive. I believe
people should relax a bit and be grateful for what they have. Yes, its okay to
try to do more things, but life is not about productivity. We are not
machines, we are human beings. Invest some of your time in your family,
friends, volunteering, or just being thankful for what you have.

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aorth
Put down your phone when talking to family and friends. Don't just keep typing
and say "I'm listening."

~~~
telesilla
Thanks for writing this. Came just at the right moment.

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RandomBacon
\- Thanks for being an awesome community.

\- Please validate users' email addresses, (send a confirmation link, and no
more emails until that link is clicked). Especially if you already have the
users' money (eg, they bought something from your company, and then you add
the email address they gave you to a mailing list).

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natalyarostova
Economics is not the type of system you're used to studying. It's weird,
complex, and has extreme unintended consequences that at hard to predict and
often impossible to solve. The same intuition that leads you to be excellent
at solving closed system problems will lead you astray in economic systems.

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CM30
What you build or what you say is far more important than how you build it or
say it. Too many people get hung up on the code quality of their projects and
the technical side rather than the whole content/promotion one, and end up
building a very shiny ghost town as a result.

Same with writers, video makers, etc. People get so distracted by the
language/readability/structuring aspect that they forget that actually talking
about things people care about matters significantly more.

So stop getting sidelined by tech and formal structure, and focus that effort
on things people want/need instead.

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nf05papsjfVbc
Much like the scarecrow, I chased after wit. Presently, I came upon a singular
fact: the Tin Man's quest is Noble and mine vain. Being considerate,
compassionate and sensitive towards the fellow man is the only way forward.

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byproxy
For the love of god, stop focusing on productivity!

Learn to enjoy things that serve no practical purpose.

Maybe a useful exercise to that end is to imagine yourself on your deathbed.
Assuming you're lucid enough, what will you be thinking about?

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WheelsAtLarge
Look ahead and set goals for your future. It's much nicer if you decide what
it will be rather than random luck deciding.

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nojvek
Get some sleep. Do random things for the sake of doing them because it makes
you happy. Fuck productivity!

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starpilot
UFOs are real.

~~~
quickthrower2
Does that mean aliens though? Could be military tests...

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toomuchtodo
Be Excellent To Each Other.

~~~
didgeoridoo
Party on, dudes.

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p0d
Money isn’t everything.

