Ask HN: What has the past 12 months taught you? - onuralp
======
firefoxd
* Five co-founders are too many.

* If you are working on someone else's crappy idea, think about working on your own crappy idea.

* Call people you might need later when you don't need them. Or they tend to disappear when you do need them.

* Learn about the stock market and invest right away. You'll make money, lose money, then understand money.

* Build as many projects as time allows. It's nice to have the option to pick and choose.

* If you don't do the thing you want to do today, 5 years from now you'll remember and wonder how different your life would have been if you did.

* Don't ask people what they think about your idea. They'll either be supportive or mean to you. None of these are about your idea.

* Have a conversation with someone who doesn't speak your language. Make the effort to understand them. Mr Tereso, came out of nowhere and taught me life lessons that changed my life. He spoke no English, and i spoke Duolingo level Japanese.

* I'll end with this. If you are bored, create something. Make a clay pot, a drawing on paper, a JavaScript file, a wooden structure, a shoe rack, a sand castle, a matchstick home, a story. Make something you can look at the end result and you'll never get bored again...

~~~
gerland
Do you have any no-bs sources to learn about stock investments? Right now it
would be gambling for me.

~~~
linsomniac
The best way to make a small fortune in the stock market is to start with a
large one.

My ex fancied herself a day trader and spent an amazing amount of time
researching trading, back-testing trading strategies, and coming up with new
strategies. This was over around a decade. In the end, her "can't lose"
strategy (high leveraged investment in a RITE with some sort of a "even if it
fails we get our money back" option coverage) resulted in six figures just
disappearing. I never got any sort of answer on what happened there, we were
divorcing at the time and she wouldn't say anything about it. I'm pretty sure
she didn't take it an run, she was just too embarrassed about it.

What has worked best for me is: \- Invest early. When I was 19 I nearly took
out a $10K loan to put into an investment account, just as a sort of "forced
saving". I loved the toys, so that was a good way to make sure I got money
into that. I wish I could go back and actually do that.

\- Make sure you are taking advantage of your free money. I have a friend that
isn't taking advantage of his work's 3% matching. I max out my Simple
contributions.

\- Putting money in a low-fees investment account. I have the bulk of it in a
"targeted retirement account" at Vanguard, with the target retirement age set
to around 70, which keeps it a bit more aggressive right now when I don't need
the money and can contribute more.

------
sus_007
Stay with a single programming language, a single framework, a single library,
a single tech stack, a single version control system until you extract the
last drop out of it.

Also, I am done with T.V & Social Media. World Cup 2018 is going on ATM, we
have Cricket World Cup next, then we have another Sports Tournament, and
another, and another one... The entire entertainment industry is one infinite
`loop` of baloney and you hold the `break` statement to it. They're made to
distract you from the real deal. Go out with a Soccer ball in stead, you don't
have to be a top-class player yourself, just kick the damn ball.

No matter how lazy you think you are, how fat/thin you are, start exercising.
Just do the basics at the beginning and slowly progress. Seriously just start
with a 5 minutes of Jumping Jacks in the morning. You'll feel much better for
the rest of your day.

Also, as seen on many of the suggestions in this thread, don't worry _a lot_
about how short our life is. It makes matters worse.

~~~
WhompingWindows
You don't find value in enjoying a 90 minute game with friends? I'm all for
limiting TV but World Cup 2018 is not really an endless cycle, they only do it
once every 4 years and it's far less content than the Olympics.

~~~
sus_007
I firmly stood by this opinion during the last World Cup of 2014 when I was
still a high-schooler. From that tournament to this, I deeply regret the
choices I've made for myself. Due to the influence of T.V & Social Media, I
participated in high-school sports while my friends took part in International
Olympiads competition. I won medals with my football team while my peers won
medals on Physics, Maths, etc. Thus, I'm not gonna let them influence the rest
of my life. Now, I strictly live my life following so called Death-bed
philosophy[0].

I spend quality time with my friends & family to discuss about our day-to-day
incidents and others, not to debate on a third person's performance on the
pitch. Also, I don't find much difference among Olympics or Fifa World Cup or
any other world sporting leagues, regardless of their popularity or duration,
I find all of them to serve NIL for my prosperity- just a frequent hit of
dopamine, that's all.

[0][https://learningunlimited.com/deathbed-
philosophy/](https://learningunlimited.com/deathbed-philosophy/)

~~~
mlevental
lol like i*o is more rewarding than sports. personally I'd trade imo medals
for being cheered by hundreds/thousands at a football game any day.

~~~
sus_007
You wouldn't do so if you came to know that those friends of mine are
attending Ivy league colleges while I recently dropped out of my mid-tier
state university because I didn't find it time-effective, and ofc finances.
Now, you would again argue that there are many factors that come into college
admission, and I absolutely agree.

But, what disappoints me is I was academically & extracurricular-wise far more
superior than them (except IO medals), still not a single so called elite
colleges accepted me. But, I am an optimist and what I've learned about myself
is I can teach myself the COMPUTER SCIENCE far better than somebody else. I
don't know what will happen in few years time, I may stay unemployed or may
land my dream job, but the thing is, I am always learning and I do believe
that my skills will be appreciated.

~~~
WhompingWindows
Ivy League is overrated, trust me here. I got a MUCH better value in my state
university for graduate school than I did spending $40k (had numerous merit
scholarships) per year on an elite education which is highly impersonal and
un-tailored. Those schools are businesses and you can provide one of their
products(learning CS) to yourself. Good on you, don't worry about not going to
those very overpriced schools, which are increasingly the playground of the
rich and the narrow few who get there based on merit. I knew many, many kids
who got there on sports rides or on daddy's donations and when it came time to
make comments in class, they were silent or contributed the banal minimum.

------
pleasecalllater
Life is short, so work on things that matter.

People you love can be gone tomorrow.

You too - so prepare for that.

You don't make friends at job, you will be fired as soon as they notice you
have some family problems influencing your work. There will be no talking, no
asking anything... and then your "friends" will silently agree with everything
the manager does.

Read more - it really helps with anything you will do.

Write more - get a pen and a notebook, not a computer.

People will disagree with the brightest and most true thing you will write -
just don't care as soon as what you wrote is true.

~~~
oldcynic
> You don't make friends at job

The more general variation on this theme is : "Most of your friends aren't".

They're drinking buddies, folks to talk to at $event and $hobby_club

If shit meets fan most of them will disappear. There will be a few who turn
out to be real friends. A few in each group will surprise you greatly.

~~~
mseebach
It's easy to be cynical, but it's important to avoid throwing the baby out
with the bathwater. Of course you can make friends at work, but no, they're
not going to be the kind of friends whose shoulders you can cry on when a
relationship goes south, but if you can have a discussion about non-work
matters, if you could imagine having them over for a backyard barbecue,
"friend" still seems like a reasonable term. Even calling them "fairweather
friends" seems derogatory. They're not super close friends, for sure, but
nothing wrong with "friend".

For sure, this kind of semantic puritanism seems like a great way to convince
yourself that you're an unlikeable person with no friends.

~~~
oldcynic
I think you;re missing the point. Not being cynical or semantically pure.
Least ways I don't think so.

Nothing wrong with drinking buddies or casual friends at the local cycling
club or wherever your hobby interests lie.

But they won't be true friends in the sense of people you could call on for
advice or assistance if life has just presented you with "a challenge".

What has surprised me over the years is how poorly I can predict closeness -
both with myself and others. People you'd think were your closest friends can,
and do, disappear when you have sudden need. Fairweather friend probably is
derogatory but I guess they only get called that after some shitty event?
Here, we probably are into semantics. :)

Conversely I've been just as surprised by people who didn't seem that close
but went above and beyond to help some situation.

> seems like a great way to convince yourself that you're an unlikeable person
> with no friends

I have no idea at all how you arrive here. :)

~~~
mseebach
I think my point is that you can look at friend-closeness as a spectrum, and
there will naturally be more people on the less close end, and very few in the
very close end. But to jump from that insight, to a slogan like "most of your
friends, aren't" is puritanism.

Yes, it's important to be able to gauge the degree of closeness accurately (at
least not be very wrong about someone being a close friend), but that's a bit
of a different concern, imo.

>> seems like a great way to convince yourself that you're an unlikeable
person with no friends

> I have no idea at all how you arrive here. :)

Having many friends is generally considered important for general wellbeing,
and is a social success-criterion. If you're telling yourself that all those
people who enjoy being around you and that you enjoy being around (even if
they might probably not be there for you in a deep crisis) aren't friends,
that they're somehow fake, it's easy to get lost. At the very least, it's easy
to rationalise not spending time with them. And you'll certainly never have a
chance to convert any of them to "real" friends.

------
97s
Turn off the TV. Turn off all social media. Turn off any negative influences.
Eat as healthy as you possibly can. Exercise, yoga, tai chi, or anything that
gets you moving. Enjoy the benefits of all the time you thought you didn't
have while having really good mental power because of your healthy diet and
exercise. Live a good life.

~~~
dmode
I am really curious how you did that. The negativity on social media and
politics today is really affecting my mental health and I don't know how to
switch it off

~~~
97s
It took some time and effort. We started with TV about a year ago. I was
talking to my wife and I mentioned how today I watched some news and some
shows and after I finished I couldn't remember what I had watched but that I
was in a negative mood. I told her I was going to turn off the TV and save the
money per year. She said okay, and I did. For a few weeks I would sit down to
watch shows etc, and then realized I couldn't. I started doing more important
things and deep working more often.

Eventually, I said hey, we should do this with our son. So we did, he had the
same problem, took about 2 months before he started drawing, building,
tinkering. After getting all this free time back I decided to cut off all
notifications on my phone except phone calls and text messages.

It was hard giving up my Instagram account, which I had grown to over 500
followers for my pottery side work, but even though I wasn't much of an
Instagram person, I still would find myself checking it randomly when I was
bored. Each thing I cut off helped with the next thing. Once I got all this
stuff cut off, I realized that the important things I wanted to know about in
the world I could just directly check their website once a week and be good to
go. So I usually start my Monday off with my deep work in the morning, then I
read things that are important to me.

What is amazing is when you cut it all off, how much you still think about it.
You reach for your phone then realize you uninstalled all addictive apps. It
has been a long time now, and sometimes when I wake up in the middle of the
night, I still reach for my phone before realizing the only thing on my phone
is my email and I only get email from personal people as I have unsubscribed
from everything that isn't positively influencing my life. This includes
marketing stuff because they are just really good at making me want things
that I don't need.

I know I sound absolutely crazy, but this AskHN question really sparked my
interest. I tell people all the time who ask me why I am so happy, positive,
etc, and I tell them, "I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, I do some sort of
exercise daily(mostly gardening right now), and I am not on any social media,
negative news, and I have no TV." People will look at you like your absolutely
nuts, but let them, I feel 1000x better than I have ever felt in my entire
life. If you want a place to start, just take your phone, uninstall anything
that you feel you need to check that doesn't:

1\. Make you money

2\. Brighten your day 100% of the time when you open it

3\. Isn't a huge time suck for no mental or physical gain

Once you do this, DON'T go back. Surround yourself with things you love, eat
good food, exercise and spend time in the sunlight. Any politics you feel
strongly about, find their website and check it when you start your week or
end your week.

Last of all, you can do it!

~~~
dmode
Awesome. Thanks for sharing. I don't know if I can cut out 100% of the
negative influence, but at least it is a good guide to start. I already
deleted reddit on my phone. Let's see what's next

~~~
97s
I don't think the goal is to isolate yourself from every thing, but if your
able to minimize it more then it won't build up. It's like pouring grease down
your kitchen sink. The less you do it the better off your pipes are. Sometimes
you just gotta take what you can. Good luck and keep up the hard work.

------
DoubleGlazing
For me I have learned that there comes a point when you need to work
differently in order to protect your health and family well being. Big
salaries are great, but when the price for that is massive amounts of overtime
that takes you away from your family it just isn't worth it. Now I work for
myself and I love it.

Hobbies are vitally important to keeping you happy and healthy, don't neglect
them.

When you get a speeding ticket and the GPS co-ordinates in the photo imply the
camera van was miles away, the court won't care.

My son was diagnosed with ADHD. A relief to know what it was, but also a
burden in terms of managing it.

Falling down the stairs after slipping on a Nerf gun hurts. It really, really
hurts.

Family comes first, always.

~~~
noxToken
> For me I have learned that there comes a point when you need to work
> differently in order to protect your health and family well being. Big
> salaries are great, but when the price for that is massive amounts of
> overtime that takes you away from your family it just isn't worth it.

>...

>Family comes first, always.

I didn't learn this in the past 12 months, but a recent event has definitely
reaffirmed this: stick to your 35-45 hours and leave. I start getting pretty
useless as the day drags on. After a certain time, there is a sharp decline in
my productivity. If I push through it, I just make mistakes that I have to fix
later.

If you're not in a company that values your personal time[0], then start
looking for another job. The burn out just isn't worth it. 6-figure salaries
with equity and free breakfast/lunch/dinner just isn't worth it when you
realize that your 50s will be filled with a distinct lack of motivation to
ever leave the house.

[0]: I am with a company that values my personal time, but I voluntarily took
on extra work to help another team meet a critical production deadline. I was
compensated with quite a bit of extra time off in return. However, the stress
and headache of being a duo that saved another team's ass (and possibly their
jobs) and their constantly expressed anxiety was barely worth it. I actually
snapped on one of those team members during this time period, and I said some
things, within earshot of very many people, that definitely was not work place
appropriate.

~~~
DoubleGlazing
I've been seeing this trend for a few years, but it was only in the last year
that I said to myself that enough was enough.

Over the last ten years it has gone from no overtime to "Can you do a wee bit
of overtime?", then "You are working this weekend" to not even asking me and
just expecting me to be in the office working late.

It came to a head last August when I was at a big-4 consultancy. The usual
email about ordering dinner went around, that was code for we are all working
late tonight. I said "Sorry, I don't need any I'm off home". Within a minute
the project manager was at my desk saying "Well, we clearly have a problem and
you need to fix it now." They were always so careful to not actually say the
word overtime, it was all code such as asking us what we wanted for dinner or
telling us that the security man would be locking up late and the like.

That was the point when I knew that I had to change things.

The worst thing was that I had told that company I could not work late as my
wife worked evenings and we have kids. I got a note added to my contract
acknowledging this, but they wouldn't honour it. They even went as far as
suggesting that I hire a babysitter or ask my wife to give up her clients.
They were oblivious to the fact that I would rather be with my children than
earning €100k.

I should have done it sooner. About five years ago I was a company that
claimed to be family friendly, but was anything but. During my annual review I
was marked down for not "Giving Time to the Company" basically not doing
overtime. I said that expecting me to give away my skills for free was
unprofessional. I was told that I was unprofessional for even thinking that.
That is when I should have taken the plunge to go it alone, but I held out
hoping for a better employer.

~~~
sangnoir
> I said that expecting me to give away my skills for free was unprofessional.
> I was told that I was unprofessional for even thinking that.

Haha, what's this fallacy? I've seen a variation of it: "You're the one who is
racist because you notice (and call out) racism."

------
yakshaving_jgt
\- Many well known people in tech are charlatans.

\- There is no integrity in keeping silent when witnessing wrongdoing, even
when speaking out may harm your current business prospects.

\- Most "interesting" ideas in tech currently simply aren't.

\- "Software Craftsmanship" is a scam.

\- Programmers are far less logical than they would themselves believe.

\- Non-tech project managers in tech teams are beyond useless; they're often
plainly harmful to the business.

This is not an exhaustive list, and I didn't learn all these things in the
past 12 months. Some have just been beaten into me more over the past year.

~~~
philangist
\- Many well known people in tech are charlatans.

I'd love if you could expand on this topic. What do you mean by charlatans?

~~~
Clubber
I'm not the OP but I would guess it's because most of the tech leaders aren't
there because they did something great and are all knowing, but more because
they were at the right place at the right time and met the right people. You
could replace any of those people with 10,000 other people with similar
qualifications and they would do just as well.

~~~
yakshaving_jgt
Pretty much this, with the added nuance of them using social capital (which
can be engineered, e.g. Twitter following) and good old-fashioned persuasion
as a stand in for real competence.

The 'Appeal to Authority' fallacy creates a feedback loop here too. They
mislead to gain authority. They use that new authority to gain more
opportunities to mislead.

------
openfuture
Most people will not be able to judge status based on more than one metric at
a time and the first metric will often be money.

The world is a maze and you always have more options than you realize.

Doing what you think would be best (i.e. learning Russian) is most often not
as good as doing something similar that fits your routine better (i.e. there's
a Polish guy in your building that's willing to teach you Polish). Another
formulation: Don't force your dreams but rather take (with gratitude) what is
given/in front of you.

If what you think is best is worth it then change your life so that it can fit
comfortably into your routine.

Time doesn't exist but causality does. Whatever you are doing don't beat
yourself up when your focus drifts to something else. You will find yourself
drifting back to it when you reach a catalyst, so the things you really want
to do will eventually see the light of day.

Relaxing is more powerful than tensing, you can get further and faster (This
one I keep learning over and over in new contexts).

Everyone is obsessed with fashion and how you look says more about you than
you yourself are able to comprehend. This is because there are people that can
see everything they need to know about you from how you look, you are familiar
with this phenomena but from the other side. Resist it.

You are fundamentally alone.

~~~
philangist
> Doing what you think would be best (i.e. learning Russian) is most often not
> as good as doing something similar that fits your routine better (i.e.
> there's a Polish guy in your building that's willing to teach you Polish).
> Another formulation: Don't force your dreams but rather take (with
> gratitude) what is given/in front of you.

I love this statement. To me it seems to be another expression of "don't let
perfection be the enemy of good".

------
koliber
You can put more effort in and potentially make more money. You can not make
more time, no matter how hard you try. You can pay someone to do something to
free up a portion of your time, which you can then use as you see fit.

You need to prioritize how you spend your time. This is not a one-time
exercise. It's an ongoing process.

You look at the things that you do in a given day, week, month, and year. You
see how they benefit you, your family, friends, community, and society. You
weigh that against your goals and happiness. You make little adjustments to
how you spend your time.

Concreted example: I like gardening. Not any gardening, but growing heirloom
tomatoes in particular. They are a finicky bunch and are often not the easy-
to-grow varieties. This is OK. I fail a lot. I need to dedicate more time to
this in order to succeed. People tell me to not try growing from seeds, but
get some seedlings and start from there. That would not satisfy me.
Unfortunately, I have other things that I value greatly so I decided that
after this season, I will put growing tomatoes on hold. I'll get back to it
once some of my current priorities pass and I have more time.

Over time, your life will begin to look more and more in tune with your goals
and expectations, and you will be a happier person.

Fill in your own details and don't try to copy off of others. Everyone is
different. And don't try to grow heirloom tomatoes with kids, a full time job,
a side business, and an active social life--the day is too short for all of
that.

~~~
xchaotic
Don't give up on tomatoes! You say that they do need maintenance, but you
plant them, water them, give them sun - I bet you can automate a lot these
steps - watering and nutrition, for example. You can give them extra boost
with some artificial light and heat. You can do it!

~~~
theyinwhy
I am not sure the goal was to swap gardening with engineering gardening
automation ;)

~~~
gargravarr
For every problem, there is an engineering solution.

The inverse is not necessarily true :)

~~~
groby_b
The statement itself isn't true, either. And our industry suffers through it
time and again, thinking that a social problem can be solved with engineering.

It never can, but you can sure burn a lot of money trying.

~~~
gargravarr
I used the term 'solution' loosely and somewhat ironically, because it's
usually put forward by people who think it is a solution, but in fact it just
makes the problem worse :)

------
polski-g
Life is short, so is the life of people you care about. Don't take it for
granted.

People lie.

Typed languages are better.

------
zuzuleinen
Some self-promo: I run a weekly newsletter with lessons gathered from HN
[https://lessonsofhn.com](https://lessonsofhn.com)

Here are some things I learned in the past 12 months:

* economics are more useful to me than politics. Stop reading news on politics, but rather financial news

* my biggest flaws are lack of patience and a big ego. Was hard to see this even though most of my life problems originated from these two

* sleep is damn important

* knowing yourself is an illusion. You can have the feeling that you know yourself, but you'll be amazed how many things you can still learn about yourself.

* is very important to avoid resentment. This means talking or doing uncomfortable things, but is such a relief afterwards

~~~
soalian
What kind of financial news do you read to inform your judgment on larger
issues? I feel I tend to get overwhelmed with short-term and often irrelevant
news on finance/global economics/markets with my current curation routine, as
I read daily sources that focus on immediate markets news with little in-depth
substance (Reuters/WSJ/Bloomberg...)? Do you also read more in-depth analysis,
featured in weekly or monthly magazines such as The Econommist or other?

~~~
zuzuleinen
I'm quite ignorant at the topic and just at the beginning.

Right now I started to read The concise guide to economics[1] As the title
says it's a really simple and concise book which explain basic terms from
economy. I find it quite good for beginners like me.

In the future I plan to add these to my reading list:

Financial Times blog[2]

Paul Krugman's blog[3]

The New York Times

The Economist

[1] [https://www.amazon.com/Concise-Guide-Economics-Jim-
Cox/dp/19...](https://www.amazon.com/Concise-Guide-Economics-Jim-
Cox/dp/1933550155)

[2] [https://ftalphaville.ft.com](https://ftalphaville.ft.com)

[3] [https://www.nytimes.com/column/paul-
krugman](https://www.nytimes.com/column/paul-krugman)

------
aloukissas
Ideas are cheap, execution is everything.

Product-market fit is hard.

Keeping razor focus is harder.

Excercise, good sleep, and healthy food pay big dividends.

Don't bother disagreeing with people on social media.

Finally: I can build way more things than I thought I could 12 months ago.

~~~
LawnDart1
"Don't bother disagreeing with people on social media."

You should put that on a tee-shirt, or maybe a billboard.

~~~
Double_a_92
Why not? Some of their arguments might change your view for the better, and
vice versa.

~~~
tudelo
But what chance do you think there is to actually have a real conversation
with someone over social media (or even text)? Most of the time seems to be
spent on making the wrong assumptions about what you think someone means or
just straight up disagreement over the pillars of an issue.

~~~
rc-1140
> But what chance do you think there is to actually have a real conversation
> with someone over social media (or even text)?

Based on the context of the original comment, they probably believe the chance
is very low. After thinking on it a bit based on my own experiences over the
years, even after using niche forums for hobbies and just plain socializing,
it's often very rare to have a real conversation.

One example I can provide right now are a few people I've seen on one of those
aforementioned niche forums who basically copy-paste all of their "opinions"
on software and technology from a different forum and are dogmatic to the
point where interaction with them is exhausting and counteractive towards the
light-hearted and positive nature of the forum; it's not worth it to even try
to align the messages of both parties based on their biases because the
dogmatic ones are looking to be "right" and believe that those who aren't in
agreement haven't been shown the light. It quickly becomes more prudent to
simply ignore that person/those people, but not everyone does, and those who
do choose the path of tuning out leave the area that much more barren.

Of course, I'm not talking about things that are reflexively grouped under
"social media" like Twitter and such. Still can't figure Twitter out.

------
iuguy
A few days ago last year, my heart imploded. We still don't know what caused
it. We don't know if it'll come back (I've had a shitty couple of months
recently with the same symptoms but they went away at the end of last week),
and I had major knee problems at the same time.

Still working on improving my health, but coming to terms with this being a
part of life rather than something I'll get over completely.

If anything, the last 12 months has taught me that your health is the one
thing you can't replace. Enjoy living while you can, because when your
health's gone, it's gone.

~~~
sus_007
I firmly believe that no matter how healthy you think you are, how young & fit
you feel today, you should never underestimate the complexity of human body
biology. It is unpredictable and there's nothing we can do about it, but try
our best to minimize the risks.

So sorry to hear about your misfortune. How is the recovery going ?

~~~
iuguy
It's more management than recovery, sadly. But I'm at the point where I'm
getting on with living with it as best as I can.

------
rroriz
I didn't know happiness until I had a daughter. I thought I had a pretty happy
life until she was born.

After that, i learned to value my lonely hours :)

~~~
nrjames
As the father of two girls, I relate to all of this. I'm sure you've heard
this 1000 times, but they grow up fast, so enjoy they time you get with your
daughter.

~~~
isolli
A random stranger once shared this piece of wisdom with me: "the days are long
but the years are short".

Sometimes at the end of a long day I try to remember this :)

------
prawn
Embrace the process!

I'm really bad at finishing things. I have a lot of side projects on the go
when perhaps I should focus on just one venture. But I've learned to just
embrace trying to do everything at once (even if far from perfectly), and
enjoying it rather than beating myself up about failing to consolidate. Might
limit potential, but I like it more this way.

(I've run my main business for 20 years. I co-run a co-working space. I have a
SaaS project, sports forum, involvement in some apps, a vanlife showcase, an
aerial photography side business, etc. About to add something else. List of
the main things here:
[http://www.isaacforman.com.au/](http://www.isaacforman.com.au/))

------
nsb1
* The larger a company is, the more internally screwed up and annoying it is to work for

* Cliche, but worth repeating: Money doesn't buy happiness, it buys choices, some of which may make you happier than others.

* Intimate relationships are like spinning plates: Hard to get started, easy to maintain once they are, but they DO require maintenance or they will eventually crash. Do nice things for your significant other and you will always have a refuge from the other crap that happens in your life.

~~~
randcraw
Until I worked for a fortune 100 company, I never understood how true Dilbert
was. Alas, the real world isn't as funny.

------
toomanybeersies
Geez, I could write a book about what the past 12 months taught me. But here's
the main points:

* Learn when you have to move on, sometimes some things are out of your control and there's nothing you can do about it.

* We all have our own story, don't judge people for their vices and flaws unless you know their story (there are exceptions to this rule)

* Sometimes you just have to take the jump, quit your job, move overseas, and survive on your credit card until you find a new job. Otherwise in a years time, you'll be in the same shitty place you are now.

* Seasonal Affective Disorder is a right bitch, and alcohol is not a cure.

* Corollary from the above: You may not feel it sometimes, but people do care for you, despite your head telling you the opposite.

~~~
qntty
Can you expand on the third point?

~~~
toomanybeersies
It's a bit tongue in cheek, I don't really recommend that everybody moves
overseas.

But for me, I was in a city that I didn't really like, and a job that I didn't
really like. I wasn't going anywhere and I wasn't saving any money. Basically,
my life was on hold. I had worked at my job for a year, and had saved a total
of zero dollars, my boss was never going to give me a pay rise, and I was
feeling like shit at work.

I realised that if I stayed where I was, in a years time, I was going to be in
exactly the same situation and there weren't a lot of other jobs in my city
that would've put me in a better situation.

So I decided that I'd quit my job and move to Australia, which for New Zealand
citizens is as simple as getting on a plane and flying over (essentially it's
visa free). I didn't have much in the way of savings, but I figured I had 3
months of runway if I used my credit card.

I found a job within a month, and everything else has fallen in place quite
nicely.

The main takeaway is that sometimes you need to be able to realise when you're
in a situation that you can change, and then do what you need to do to enact
that change, even if that means moving way outside your comfort zone.

~~~
grassclone
This is a really inspiring.

It reminds me of a buddy who moved out here from the east coast to live here
in the Bay with essentially nothing.

He racked up a bunch of credit card debt and slept on our couch for about
three months but ultimately was able to land an amazing gig in SF and is now
doing great.

Wondering when I'm going to fold my hand a do the same type of thing.

------
thorin
* All the stuff that's important to you can disappear in a few hours and there is likely nothing you can do about it

* Trying harder will not always change someones mind about things and may make stuff worse

* You need to rely on and trust and respect yourself first before others due to the above

* Mindfulness, exercise and nature can be your best friends, don't ignore them

* Keep in touch with old friends and make new ones when you can you never know when you might need them

* Reading is good, specialization is for insects, be good at lots of stuff and don't be too upset if you don't feel you can't master anything

* Be kind, everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle

------
beat
Read a lot. I had largely fallen out of the habit of reading, in part due to
attempting to switch to Kindle by using it on my iPad/iPhone. But the
temptations of the Internet are _right there all the damn time_.

Last year, I went back to reading paper books, and it was a revelation.
Suddenly, I could immerse myself again! And after a while of this, my spouse
gave me her unused Kindle Paperwhite - all the advantages of ebooks, only
without Internet access on the device. Easy to read in bed at night without
keeping her up with a light, too.

I'd almost forgotten the pleasures of chewing through big, intense works of
nonfiction, the richness and depth of book-level arguments of history,
science, biography, and more.

------
saheb37
It takes a long time to create something rare and valuable. Patience is
priceless.

Going all the way for your dream (or something you believe in); it doesn't
matter how many times you fail, and only you should be responsible to decide
when to let it go when you think it's time to move on. Doing what you want,
for as long as you want, is what life is all about.

Only one or maybe two things are really important at any point in your life,
rest of them just seem important, but they are not.

Boredom is the biggest problem of our generation.

~~~
vertigolimbo
Can you expand on the last one?

I reached the conclusion that I am the most creative, productive and feeling
the best when I am bored. But there is price to pay - it takes a lot of effort
to get bored.

Our generation is constantly distracted and getting bored is actually a skill.
From that perspective, it's the lack of boredom which is the biggest problem
of our generation.

Are we thinking along the same lines?

~~~
Clubber
I think maybe the reason every generation today is constantly distracted is
they are constantly bored and there are lots of frivilous things designed to
fill that boredom. They are constantly distracted by things that are designed
to give you something to do when you are bored.

I'm bored, lets see what's on TV. I'm bored, lets see what my Facebook friends
are doing. I'm bored, let's see what I can buy on Amazon or eBay. I'm bored,
let me see what's on HN.

I think a better alternative would be: I'm bored, I'll paint a painting. I'm
bored, I'll write up a POC of an idea. I'm bored, I'll read a book. I'm bored,
I'll create something. I'm bored, I'll learn something new. I'm bored, I'll go
outside and play.

Maybe hide your browser icon and put your code editor / paint / word processor
icon in it's place.

------
throwaway713
Before we got married, my wife said she would move with me to California if I
ever got a good offer from a major tech company.

This year I got an amazing job offer, and my wife threw a giant fit, told me
she's not coming, and said "I took a gamble and lost. I never thought you
would actually get an offer".

Now she's refusing to get a job, wants me to continue paying for our house
that she's living in on the east coast (in addition to rent for my apartment
in the Bay Area), wants me to pay for 20 flights per year across the country
so she can visit friends and family, and has called me every mean name in the
book.

So my career is going great but my marriage is falling apart.

~~~
goatherders
It's over. You can either admit it now or wait. But from experience I'm
telling you it's over. This is your one life. One trip around the stars.

~~~
NamTaf
I agree entirely. That sounds like an absolutely unhealthy relationship if she
couldn't be honest with you in the first place regarding where she stood on
relocation if you got a job. She basically called your bluff and lied to you,
betting (wrongly) that she'd not have to pay it out.

~~~
goatherders
When my first company went down the crapper my now ex-wife said "you had your
chance. We are never doing that again. You will get a job like the rest of the
world." But before we were married she and I talked often about
entrepreneurship and building things and how my path was different. Our
marriage was over at that point, but it wouldnt end for several more years.
Wasted time.

------
Mandatum
Go with my gut more often, stop taking other people's advice against my gut
feeling.

I'm in a pretty good position based on my own merits.

But I moved in with a friend at the advice that I'm too young to be living
alone. I'm starting to miss it.

I would have earned a lot more and be much further in my career, potentially
already employing people, if I hadn't listened to my peers and mentors when it
comes to career advice. I should have looked at their position, given their
age and compared it with my own. Technically they're amazing, career and
money-wise, they should be much, much further ahead than I.

Save more. Get better with finance administration. Set hard goals and break
them. Just because you earn almost 10-fold your first job, doesn't mean you
should be spending more than you were before. Money drives business drives
ideas drives change.

------
skipthemeat
Luck plays such a major role in life that:

1) You're better off looking at things probabilistically.

2) You should seek ways to put the odds in your favor whenever you go up to
bat and forget about the outcome.

3) When things are going your way, don't get arrogant. And when things aren't,
don't get despondent.

4) You should keep going up to bat and let the law of averages work things out
in your favor.

~~~
adventured
I strongly agree with the stray luck / good fortune factor. I'll add that I
think there is the considerable potential to enhance the access to lucky
outcomes and or the rate at which you can run into good luck events.

Simple, rather obvious things like doing (do a thing, take action) and asking
(if you never ask...), dramatically improve your odds of causing and or
colliding with good luck outcomes. They often take very little time as well.
The biggest cost in asking, is typically being shot down; if you can handle
that, then the sky opens up.

I used to be really mediocre at the asking aspect. I remember my mother
telling me, when I was a teenager, that I was just like her, I never asked for
what I wanted, and she lamented that the squeaky wheel always get the grease.
That pissed me off, the projection of her flaw/weakness/non-action choice onto
me. I've tried to remind myself since then, to routinely stab at the universe
for stray opportunities by inquiring, asking, etc.

The first time I raised venture capital, it was because I sent a cold email to
a billionaire. I didn't think they'd reply, and the email only took ten
minutes to craft late one night. They replied and were interested in what I
was building, and I raised capital from that person shortly thereafter. All I
had to do, is do something (build), and ask (network the action I took out
into the wider world), and I made a good luck outcome possible. Absolutely
nothing would have happened without the ask; such a simple thing.

~~~
skipthemeat
Great story and agreed. If you can handle any perceived psychic/ego damage
from being rejected, then asking for things is essentially "free luck".

Other ways to put things in your favor over the long term:

\- Keep increasing your capacity to do things. Learn ubiquitous skills such as
sales, basic accounting, negotiation, speaking, etc.

\- Keep increasing your network. Asking is a huge part of this.

\- Improve your signalling. Signal your achievements, your opinions...share.

\- Grow your assets. Even if it means putting a little bit of money away or
cutting down on expenses.

~~~
sophacles
I'd add:

Unless you have a good reason to say "No" [1] to stuff, say "Yes". Doubly so
in outside of a "work task" context[2]. More experiences/involvements means
more opportunities for fortune to look your way.

[1] Good reasons to say "No" \- already committed, the ask will hurt you, I
_need_ rest, i can't afford that. Bad reasons - this is odd/out of my comfort
zone/not interesting, it violates a routine, "I'm waiting for..."

[2] I really really mean "outside of work tasks" because just saying yes to
every little request at work can result in work overload and the inability to
do life. The point of work is to enable life, not to spend the entirety of it
staring at $IDE.

------
alchemism
* When the CEO dumps the CTO and folds the job into his own, the startup is dead, no matter for how long it continues to turn a profit.

* Freecamping in Europe has shown me as an American that America is not nearly as free as we were taught to think. Great place to make money, though.

* There are definitely better things to experience in life than playing with more money than one really _needs_.

~~~
wj
Just as an FYI you can camp free on national forest land in Oregon. I had a
friend that did that for two summers.

~~~
workinthehead
You can camp for free on national parks and most state parks as well. So I'm
wondering what exactly OP is going on about unless being super edgy.

~~~
zbentley
I interpreted OP's statement as referring to other, unsaid aspects of (US)
American life that they saw in contrast while camping in Europe--not as
referring to the "free" in "freecamping" as a significant difference between
the two regions. I'd be interested in what those differences were, though.

~~~
CalRobert
In some regions you are permitted to camp _on someone else's private property_
given you adhere to specific, and somewhat strict, rules.

[https://www.scotways.com/faq/law-on-statutory-access-
rights](https://www.scotways.com/faq/law-on-statutory-access-rights)

------
dagw
I spend way too much time doing pointless things on my phone (like this) and
it's really hard to stop.

~~~
jmts
Decide on some things you would rather do with your time than waste it on
pointless things like this. Allow yourself to do the pointless things only
once you've done something less pointless with your time. Keep trying.

------
amb23
The most pernicious, nastiest habit to get into is to think that you are stuck
in your situation and there is no alternative. True for individuals and whole
societies.

------
throwawayME123
I've been working in the tech sector since forever. A year ago I took a gig in
the Middle East, working for a logistics company. This not being a tech
company, plus the lack of tech talent in this region means that the company
isn't anywhere as sophisticated as my past companies. Very few people here
could get a job at any of my previous companies.

However, it's growing like crazy, hitting revenue goals we never were able to
hit in my previous companies, because there is such a huge demand on the
market here for logistics/deliveries.

Lesson learned = do something the market wants, you don't even need to be that
good to be successful (wrt growth).

------
mail2vks
* Always change your job if you are not happy in the current one for any major reason.

* Always talk to your seniors/manager for advice when you are stuck

* Move away from the habit of instant gratification as you move up

* Buying a used car is always better than buying a new one. Save on taxes and not much fear in crashing it.

* Any app with infinite scroll is made to glue you in and waste your time

~~~
lotsofpulp
Buying a used car is not always "better" than a new one. It depends on how
much your time is worth, and what utility you get out of your vehicle.

For example, if you live with a family and 1 person does not NEED a car, then
they can be passed the oldest car, and when it's ready to junk, you buy a
brand new one where you don't have to worry about the history of the car.
Rinse, repeat, you will maximize the value obtained from each vehicle and not
have to worry about how previous drivers or mechanics treated it.

This biggest expenses in cars are the surprise ones where you end up shelling
out for towing or emergency repair or paying extra to buy a one since you are
time constrained and can't shop. But if you have a spare car, then you have
the luxury of using it until it's dead, and leisurely shopping for a deal when
you need another.

~~~
Raz2
Why whoud you pass a car to a person who doesn't need a car?

~~~
lotsofpulp
I meant need in the sense that it's mission critical, for their work pretty
much. But suppose it's for retired grandparents, or a stay at home parent then
it's not needed, but it is useful.

------
sidcool
That pure technical prowess won't help you reach the next level. It's very
important to know the right people, and even butter them. I always believed
your works speaks for itself, but no, self-promotion is an important skill.

------
wildmindwriting
* Writing on a consistent basis is both rewarding and eye-opening.

* Bumbling a tech interview can still bowl me over and make me feel inadequate, even though I've been in tech for 15 years.

* International travel is life-changing. Seeing the world outside of my American bubble for the first time a few months ago altered me in a way I didn't think possible.

* Not all titles mean something.

* Do things for the sake of doing them, not because there is an end goal.

* Time is more important than money (but pay off your debt).

* Words and intent matter.

------
rivenfall
1\. Society (at least in Paris) rewards people who buy their own (humble)
home, stay there, and don't own a car. \- if you don't buy now you might as
well rent forever, because inflation is not some BS tailored number like 2% :
prices can go up 10% in a year \- real interest rates to buy property are
negative because of inflation \- speculating or trading is BS and doesn't
cover for inflation \- investing is ok but not as good as investing in your
own home \- renting costs more than owning property \- if you are not patient
enough selling property costs more than renting \- cars real cost: buying,
maintaining, parking, insurance, energy, freeways, possible accidents...

2\. It's easier to get up early if you're alone, and it might even be easier
to fall asleep

------
nickstefan12
I've learned that the housing crisis is really just a wealth inequality
crisis. Basically every city in America now thinks it has a housing crisis.
Big. Small. Cheap. Expensive. Seriously, talk to people in every city and
state and they all think their city has its own special housing crisis.

I think as long as there are people with deep pockets, anywhere desirable will
be expensive regardless of supply. Like when dieting, "you can't out exercise
the fork", you can't out build the wealthy and multi property investors.

The housing crisis is a wealth inequality problem. Trying to build out of it
destroys the character of cities and their access to nature and for what? To
appease the always too deep pockets of people buying up multiple houses...

------
goatherders
Being nice to people is easier than being rude. And life opens more doors than
you can imagine when you are kind to people.

------
lightwin
We undervalue ourselves most of the time.

We overestimate our fears most of the time.

An idea is nothing. Execution is everything.

~~~
darkmighty
The extent to which we usually overestimate danger (i.e. are fearful) in non-
physical situations can hardly be overstated.

We often behave as if some social triviality or temporary financial issue were
actually life threatening, when indeed near-worst case scenarios are almost
inconsequential. That person will judge you for a week or so then forget about
it; if you fail financially you can rely on family, friends, savings, social
security to not go homeless. The probabilities of bodily harm or true social
outcasting are often very remote (and even outcast is often a but choice,
since there are always other accepting people elsewhere).

Compare that with how much we fear climbing a simple step ladder -- we
wouldn't give it much thought at all. But the probability of falling and
having major bodily harm or even head trauma is perhaps much greater than the
probability of poor outcomes from frightening daily situations. No that you
_shouldn 't_ fear climbing ladders, just to give a perspective of how
incongruent our intuitive fear can be to reality unless we police and adjust
ourselves.

~~~
scandinavegan
I heard somewhere, probably in a children's movie, something that I've talked
to my kids about: Being brave is not feeling no fear, but to act even when
you're afraid.

Some fears are rational, but as you say, a lot of fears are totally out of
proportion. It's important to not exaggerate any negative consequences that
might arise from a situation.

Another neat thing I heard in a podcast on writing was that the author fought
her fear of talking in front of an audience with the fear of missing out. She
knew that if she declined the invitation to speak at a convention, she would
later regret missing out on the experience. So she used the latter fear to
fight the former.

It's important to not attempt to remove all fear from your life, as that's
bound to fail anyway and make you more anxious, but to learn to live with fear
on a low enough level so that you still keep acting.

------
KozmoNau7
Don't forget to enjoy life. Travel, go to restaurants, go to museums, go see
music live in concert, go to festivals, hang out with friends, get drunk (if
that's your thing), forget about your worries for just an hour, a day, a week,
to clear your mind and get a fresh perspective. Throw off the shackles of
modern civilized life once in a while. "Forget" your smartphone, you can live
without constant social media updates and news articles. It's perfectly OK to
be bored, don't be afraid to be alone with your own thoughts for a while.
Daydreaming is healthy.

Everything is all fucked in the end, anyway. Might as well remember to live
life while you still can.

------
eldavido
How important it is to be proactive about career management - don't always
take the easy path, even if it pays well.

Doctors are exorbitantly overpaid relative to the value they provide.

How little money matters once you have a few hundred K.

~~~
Lordarminius
_Doctors are exorbitantly overpaid relative to the value they provide_

Really ?

~~~
sus_007
Read this with _a grain of salt_ :
[https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/10/25/doctors-
sal...](https://www.politico.com/agenda/story/2017/10/25/doctors-salaries-pay-
disparities-000557)

------
dagorenouf
There is no silver bullet when it comes to programming.

No matter how simple a new framework promises to make things, you end up
having to learn as much as with any other to achieve a non-trivial result.

When I realized this, I started looking at frameworks and languages not based
on hype, but based on the style I would enjoy learning the most with.

------
oceanghost
Love isn't as strong as mental illness, and that no amount of hope and heart
can solve problems for someone who won't admit they have them.

~~~
obelix_
In my experience getting ppl to admit their issues isn't the way to go.
Showing them a path exists to overcome the issues, without a requirement for
them to admit anything is. Understanding that is love.

And that's hard work. "Work is love made visible"

~~~
oceanghost
Tried this for 7 years.

Thank you though.

------
owaislone
\- You can make genuine friends at work and these friendships don't have to
end when people go their separate ways. One great way to stay in touch is to
have weekly, bi-weekly or even monthly 1-1s with friends you don't work with
anymore. It helps to stay in touch and keep the friendship alive, and you gain
fresh perspectives on problems from time to time.

\- No matter how much transparent, rewarding and fair an organization thinks
it is, just producing great work is never enough to get what you deserve in
return. Ask for what you think you deserve, be it a promotion, a raise, more
responsibility, etc. Don't wait for it to be handed to you.

\- No matter how much fair a company is, if you are not vocal enough about
your contributions, you'll not get as much recognition as you deserve. That or
you need someone to do that for you like your manager or colleague but that is
very rare.

\- If people you look up to leaves the company, seriously re-think if you want
to continue there. People leaving no matter how close to you will not badmouth
the company so you won't know something is wrong.

\- If a founder leaves, get out ASAP and look for something better.

\- If you are not a founder and are the best person at your job in the
company, get out and work with people you think are better than you.

\- You are worth much more than you think. If you want to make more money, you
almost always can.

------
derwiki
Happiness is a choice. I'm not saying bad things happening are a choice, often
you're not in control of that; but you are always in control of how you
respond.

~~~
gunnyguy121
"The problem isn't the problem, the problem is your attitude to the problem"\-
jack sparrow

------
dbasedweeb
Most people believe whatever they want to believe, and it’s a massive waste of
the limited time that is life to try and change their minds.

Peanut butter is best in savory applications.

~~~
eldavido
This is a really important lesson to internalize (the first one).

In order to change peoples' minds, they have to want to see that they're
wrong. I think certain personality types are innately more disposed to the
sort of introspection necessary to evaluate one's beliefs and throw out what's
wrong.

Really it comes down to how much you care about truth. Coming from the hard
sciences, it's surprising how far you can get in this world without caring
even a tiny little bit about truth in many fields, most of which involve
"people" and not "things": politics, sales, marketing.

~~~
dbasedweeb
_This is a really important lesson to internalize (the first one)._

The second is too! I’m telling you, peanut butter is an amazing savory
ingredient! You don’t have to go full Hemingway (peanut butter and onion
sandwiches), but at least satay is the way. Peanut butter is especially good
when it’s spicy.

Plus yes, the other stuff, but I just can’t say enough about peanut butter.

~~~
sevagh
There's a type of Haitian spicy peanut butter, sold under the brand Manba in
Montreal. I loved that stuff.

[https://manba.ca/T31jCjVS/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Box-
of-...](https://manba.ca/T31jCjVS/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Box-
of-6-800px.jpg)

------
iamwil
It's really important to put feedback loops in place in your life to change it
in the direction you want it to go.

~~~
thetrumanshow
I want to know more...

~~~
antoineMoPa
Not sure if thats the kind of thing that OP meant, but I have a sheet of paper
where I note all the sport I do, which motivates me to do more since I started
it ~3 years ago.

~~~
lsiunsuex
I'm taking it as OP saying as ideas are a dime a dozen, so are people's
opinions. Put them in place (meaning, get some from people, or cut them out of
your life, if their bad) so you can get feedback.

This is double edged. I left my wife about 3 months ago now - I was really,
really, not happy and I finally had enough after 8 years. Everyone had an
opinion. People I thought were very good friends turned on me, gave me shit
for leaving (friends of mine; not friends of ours) and others were very
supportive (mostly family). Sometimes to many opinions are a bad thing; but to
few can be bad also though.

Take the opinions you can get; run a filter or 2 on them and go with your
heart.

(I don't talk to the people that gave me shit for doing it anymore; and I'm
much more happier now, both without the wife in my life, and without those
friends in my life)

------
newfoundglory
Quit earlier. I stuck around in a screwed up project until I couldn't stand
talking to anyone else involved, I would have been way better off if I'd
committed to leaving about four months earlier than I did - when I could see
that the fundamental requirements and plans were being faked for management,
and everyone else was OK with that. By the time I did leave I was having
actual nightmares about work.

~~~
Clubber
I learned this lesson 9 years ago, then implemented it last year. Steady
paychecks are nice, but plan so you don't need them to live month to month if
you can swing it. Once the company turns sour and you're always angry, it's
past time to move on to something fresher. I took a nice 3 month sabbatical
and it was the best summer since college. Life is too short.

~~~
newfoundglory
I definitely could have afforded to quit, but I kept on believing that I could
fix it and I just had to explain things to the right people...eventually my
manager delivered me a glowing written performance review while telling me in
person that he wanted to put me on a PIP, and asked if I wanted to transfer to
another team. Total mindfuck. If I hadn't had a solid reputation through the
company and with her management chain already I'm sure he would have tried to
fire me.

------
grassclone
Life is dangerous.

We are not defined by our intentions (no matter how noble) but rather our
actions.

------
excalibur
"Give me liberty, or give me death" is admirable as a philosophy for precisely
as long as your own life is the only one being wagered.

~~~
LyndsySimon
> Benjamin (father): When you have a family of your own, perhaps you'll
> understand.

> Gabriel (son): When I have a family of my own, I won't hide behind them

^ The Patriot

~~~
excalibur
King George didn't have the ability to wipe out the human race in the event of
an impeachment, or any other event that might damage his fragile ego beyond
repair.

------
vishalsharma
> Changed the job , stuck into since 5 Years. Learning => Make your decisions
> faster , dont overthink.

> Became a father of a daughter. Learning => Be happy and spend little more
> time with family , value time and spending time effectively.

> Bought a home with so much of efforts. Money is hard to earn, dont waste it
> for anything, and important if you are losing money , dont regret for it.

------
jageen
I fail two interviews one is from Google and one is from Facebook. now I am
rethinking about my ability towards coding and algorithms.

~~~
johnnybGawd
I got rejected by Google even though I thought my coding interview went well.
I bombed the interview with Amazon and somehow they gave me an offer as an
SDE1 even though I wasn't a fresh grad and had 3 years experience.

My director refers to me as a rock star. My total comp this year is just north
of $240K. I was promoted about 13 months in. I'm told repeatedly I'm one of
the top engineers in my org and admired and reputable for my ownership, bias
for delivery, and quality of work.

The interviews you passed or failed mean absolutely nothing. Any company who
rejects you can fuck right off. Take it from me.

~~~
harperlee
As a manager, I recommend everyone to internalise this idea from the parent
post: sometimes the quickest career, and being promoted earlier, might not the
best path long term.

The "first impression" that the parent created is a powerful image that can
burn in the brain of the surrounding people and follow him throughout his
career, in exchange for perhaps 1 year lag in "official" experience and
remuneration during 1 or 2 years early in his career. On the other hand, being
promoted too early and fucking up can unfortunately have an analogous effect,
and throw a career overboard.

This is not fair, but people's brain work like that.

------
xaedes
1) You can't do everything. Even when you COULD do each single thing there is
only so much time. Saying "no" is important to get things done.

2) The world is absolutely unfinished. Really I sometimes wonder why
everything not just breaks down with all the issues and broken solutions.

3) Teaching people is wonderful and fulfilling

4) Sales people and development people are .. different

------
__john
ClearCase is a terrible version control system.

~~~
nayuki
Relevant reading: [https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1074580/clearcase-
advant...](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1074580/clearcase-advantages-
disadvantages)

------
beaconstudios
\- Consistent disciplined work is more productive than bursts of inspired
work, over any meaningful time frame. For example, your side project will be
much nearer to completion in 6 months if you put in 3 hours of pre-planned
work every night, as opposed to 12 hours of frantic inspired work every week.

\- Do the things you have to do first.

\- You have two mental modes of operation - "manager" mode and "worker" mode.
Batching your tasks by this dichotomy reduces stress caused by context
switching between the two. In other words - when you're planning, plan. When
you're doing, do.

\- Software features don't mean shit unless you're designing the workflow
around them. Tools that work based on journeys and flows are better than tools
that provide disconnected capabilities and make you implement the journeys in
your head.

------
tonyedgecombe
* That I probably shouldn't ride my bike so aggressively now I'm in my mid fifties.

* That the NHS is much better than it's portrayed in the media.

* That my political opinions are way out of alignment with the majority.

* That I don't much like my software, the platform it runs on or a substantial proportion of my customers.

------
wonderwuzzle
Worries are temporary.

Doing things with cold logic will get them solved, but doing them with your
heart will make you grow.

Bad days are important too.

Everyone struggles, but not everyone manages that properly. Justifying shitty
actions with past experiences is no justification alone.

Taking care of both yourself and others is incredibly rewarding.

------
jbms
It's recognised that money doesn't change you but it amplifies who you are.
I've realised intelligence or ability is the same - it amplifies what you can
do but doesn't itself change you.

Living in Scotland, vitamin D daily really helps mood.

There are people who lie and manipulate. Don't be naive and dismiss or justify
the incongruities.

Investigating incongruities will always teach you something, as there's an
unknown reason for the incongruity.

Problems need holistic solutions - e.g. sorting posture by increasing muscular
strength isn't enough if you also need to work on loosening muscles and
increasing flexibility. Hence the need to persevere more.

A lot of people struggle with keeping the bigger picture in mind (e.g.
thinking about the user when designing a part of a system).

------
sbarker
There's plenty of cake, if you're hungry get a slice. Oxycodone makes me throw
up violently. I like helping people more than I thought.

------
superasn
It's far more important to do something and finish it than to do it right or
perfectly.

------
j0hnml
Live closer to work. An hour+ commute is just not worth it in the grand scheme
of things.

~~~
rivenfall
this usally means pay more for space : so you have to convince your partner
not to be messy

------
jwbensley
Take more desk breaks were you get up and wall around. Getting he blood moving
just by walking round the flat for a couple of minutes actually makes a
difference.

I work from home so I'm on the phone a reasonable amount - I always walk
around on my calls. It also gives you a screen break and really helps with
problem solving.

I've also become more away of my dips in productivity. Unless you're doing
something mundane you can't smash out great results for 8-10 hours every day.
Switch tasks, go for a walk (outside this time), make a tea etc. Make sure
your lunch break is something totally different to give your mind a break (I
go watch TV).

~~~
jwbensley
Jeez - typo central! Sorry, I was actually walking around on my phone when I
posted this :)

------
phonebucket
I am willing to work on something if and only if either of the following
holds:

1) I find it interesting 2) It is important to my family.

------
vfinn
That there isn't much/anything outside of rationality, so what you should be
doing, is get better at being rational / make more rational decisions. This
applies to interaction with other people (what kind of interactions should you
have), what you should be doing or not doing, etc. I feel there are many
(silly/unreasonable/invalid) reasons why people oppose to being more rational.
One could be thinking that being too rational is inhumane or that they "just
don't care". Both cases should be alarming to oneself.

Edit: What I'm trying to say is that: 1) If you look back, what you appraise
are the well-thought decisions you made in most cases; 2) What's between these
well-thought decisions are often more clutter than there should be, and in the
end you end up making the rational decision anyway. You're just often
postponing it; 3) Being rational is not often an energy intensive decision,
but there are other factors (faults that are in the field of your general
rational decision making, fears/lack of tuning your machinery/proneness to
procrastination etc.); 4) All of these previous faults fall into the category
of self-conscious behavior / betterment of your self-consciousness, which both
are in the field of rationality... what's the core realization/ignition for
the beginning of this process? Maybe it's that there's not much outside of
rationality, and that "all you are" is a direct result of your rationality.

------
RickJWagner
Hollywood has no foundation for offering opinions about morals, family, love
or anything else.

------
scott911rs
There are some people with more stories than time to tell them

------
Rayzar

      * There is life after failing at a startup
      * When building a business, being organized matters more than being smart
      * Most things in life work out better when taken one step at a time, no matter how slow it feels
      * Things happen in life all the time. It gets easier when you can identify the ones you can change, which ones you can only change slightly and which ones you have no control over

------
swanlyk
I began watching streaming documentaries instead of shows. Listening to non-
fiction audiobooks instead of music. Not exclusively but much more so.

------
csomar
In no particular order:

\- You can't travel enough. I visited 9 new countries in the last 12 months.
Way too little.

\- Try to experience new things instead of just seeing and selfi-ing them. [
If you go to a new country, go to the rough edges of the city. Go to events
but also to night clubs. Talk to people. Go with them on a trip. (Don't do
crazy things and don't harm yourself. I'm not suggesting stupid behavior). ] [
If you try a new dish, try it again at another restaurant. Learn the recipe.
Try to cook it ]. etc...

\- Push yourself. As much as you can. Don't set expectations. I've learned
that expectations are what makes you burn out not hard work.

\- It's high time to learn a new language. I master 3 and can understand 4.
I'd say you should at least speak 5 fluently and understand 8.

\- The reason most people are poor/struggle is because they choose to. The
reason some people are poor is because they are in a transitional phase.
(Barring health conditions and quantum randomness)

\- Money is very easy to make. But you only realize that once you master the
skills/processes to make it flow.

------
ironjunkie
Business is business. Don't expect managers//companies to be fair with you. If
they can get away with an easy lie, they will.

------
misterioss
In every area, there will be two types of people: who likes you and who hates
you. It doesn't matter who you are and what you do.

------
Theodores
That frontend web development is usually executed extremely poorly. The HN
crowd is different, however, your average agency is still using processes that
pre-date the iPhone, hiring average 'designers' that create pretty pictures
with placeholder copy, average frontend developers that have little interest
in accessibility and evolving web standards and project management that keeps
backend developers in the dark, all tasks sliced and diced because it is
'agile'.

This represents great opportunity as it is 4x quicker developing with content
and the customer first. Clients need not be infuriated by expense, lack of
progress and the agony of getting their online business making money.

Biggest discovery is thanks to 'Lighthouse' \- it seems most average websites
think it is okay to bundle a megabyte of scripts with a page and ten to twenty
thousand lines of CSS, 97% of which is not used.

------
soontobemd55
There is a real need for technologic improvements in medicine.

~~~
lightwin
Can you elaborate a bit please?

------
minikomi
Yoyos and bicycles are a great ways to spend your free time.

------
jxub
Passing a driving exam in Spain may suck and not work on the 1st (or the 6th)
try, but gosh it leaves some funny stories to tell afterwards.

Use a trackball instead of a mouse. Your wrists will thank you for it.

People share their feelings more often than I thought. Maybe opening up isn't
as bad.

~~~
randcraw
You can take my trackball only from my cold dead hand...

------
icc97
After 8 years I've finally come to the end of struggling with working
remotely.

I'm going back to 2 hour daily commutes.

The flexibility of remote work can be a real problem. It causes arguments
because you don't have a 3rd party to blame for when you have to be in work or
not.

~~~
baby
Not sure I understand. Why do you need to blame a third party?

~~~
icc97
Same thing as using a GPS rather than a map. If you get lost or something goes
wrong it's the fault of the GPS rather than the person reading the map.

The company you're working for fixes the working hours so there's no
discussion about doing 'just this one thing' at some random point in the day.

------
USANEEDSHELP
When have been diagnosed with cancer, you hope for a little more time with
your loved ones.

------
hatsunearu
* Maintaining a C library _actually_ used by many people within the organization taught me how to organize code, release code, take feedback, and make it better.

* Same as the above, but for Python.

* SIMD Intrinsics for C to add some extra juice to my code.

------
jeandejean
I learnt that having a kid would not be the end of my freedom, but rather the
end of procrastination: changed jobs, bought a home and I can't count how many
great and little things I eventually dared and took time to do.

------
ronald_raygun
* I find mentoring to be one of the most rewarding things I can do

* People wait too long to quit a job or get out a bad situation

* Being very deliberate about what you do and who you spend your time with is worth it

* Sleeping masks really improve you quality of sleep

------
jensvdh
Chronic diseases suck, and you can definitely get them in your 20's.

------
hutzlibu
Letting go.

There are things that you really want and things that you think you want. The
more you focus on the latter, the less likely it is that the things you really
want and need, come to you.

But after I could let go of arbitrary wishes and ideas, the things I needed
came easily.

Secondly, even in moments of intense emotional stress(like death of a close
one) - never "don't give a f __* ". You still breath as natural as possible,
you still try to find to keep your center, your equilibrium. Not also in those
moments, but especially in those moments.

------
HelloFellowDevs
You're health is really more important than time, so invest time into your
physical and mental health and it'll pay dividends. Few medical scares helped
me come to this conclusion.

------
jessemillar
\- It's okay to write code that isn't "perfect" but gets the job done.

\- Make efforts to simplify things and make them maintainable for the future,
but not at the expense of your health, well being, or the cohesion of your
team.

\- Stress will kill you and mess with the people around you (especially your
spouse). Learn to understand yourself and how you react to emotional stimuli
so you can "roll with the punches".

------
yoaviram
We've ether passed, our will pass in the near future several points of no
return with regards to our dependence on technology. There's a good chance
that this will be to our detriment. Here's a talk I have about the topic
recently with more details:
[https://youtu.be/q5x7njMMugw](https://youtu.be/q5x7njMMugw)

------
kd5bjo
Avoiding stressful situations is a mistake; it means you stagnate and never
get the joy that comes when the situation is resolved.

------
nabn
That the solution to anxiety and panic attacks isn't "Deal with it! You're
making others uncomfortable."

~~~
tech6
Any thoughts on what is effective to handle anxiety

~~~
cvaidya1986
Three meals daily, with a banana replacing breakfast

No air conditioning

100 push-ups daily

100 sit-ups daily

100 squats daily

Run six miles daily

1 hour Meditation

Talk to 1 new person daily

~~~
Lordarminius
What's wrong with air-conditioning ? I'd absolutely refuse to work if I don't
have my AC. It's my guilty pleasure.

------
sp527
Your ego will tell you your character cannot be meaningfully altered by the
people around you. Your ego is a liar.

------
ainiriand
Product is king.

Execution > idea.

All good things in life are hard to get.

------
adgulacti
my small family's health and happiness above all. first, second and third most
important learning.

if i feel i need to resign, i need to resign immediately. job hunt is never
easy. recruitment process is shit in most companies, almost in all startups.
self-motivation is most important. stop depending on external verification.
sleep & wake at the same time, spend some time outdoors early in the day, take
a look at the sky, smile at the people in subway, say "bless you" when they
sneeze. smile especially when you feel bad about the work, smile when the
others don't smile, help people. stop wasting stupid money, save and spend on
what will make the family feel better. berlin, its startups and founders are
overrated. still there are some that shine.

------
kamaal
Should have learned statistics early.

------
CalRobert
* Babies are ten times more time consuming than I thought.

 __I knew they took all of your time but I never understand what life is like
when you have to schedule a task that takes ten minutes for the weekend

 __But it gets easier and they (well, mine at least :-) ) are absolutely
wonderful, or can be at least.

* I thought if Trump won I would be glad I left the US. And I am, but it's overpowered by a pervasive, ever-present sadness and despair.

* Facebook is (was, rather) probably a net negative in my life.

------
thom
99% of anything is something else.

------
jrs95
A CTO and a VP of Engineering with overlapping functional roles is a very,
very bad thing.

------
KnightOfWords
Never underestimate a company's ability to work against its own interests.

------
LTjoker
Food is to share. If not as sustenance, than as the energy to build something.

------
scottlegrand2
While money isn't everything, it does seem to _change_ everything...

~~~
gunnyguy121
Having money isn't everything. Not having it is

------
abvdasker
It's important to vote.

~~~
yumraj
Yes, but unfortunately because of the electoral college some folks' vote
matters more than others'.

~~~
ottootto
The National Popular Vote bill is 64% of the way to guaranteeing the majority
of Electoral College votes and the presidency to the candidate who receives
the most popular votes in the country, by changing state winner-take-all laws
(not mentioned in the U.S. Constitution, but later enacted by 48 states),
without changing anything in the Constitution, using the built-in method that
the Constitution provides for states to make changes.

It simply requires enacting states to award their electoral votes to the
winner of the most national popular votes.

All voters would be valued equally in presidential elections, no matter where
they live. Candidates, as in other elections, would allocate their time,
money, polling, organizing, and ad buys roughly in proportion to the
population

Every vote, everywhere, for every candidate, would be politically relevant and
equal in every presidential election. No more distorting, crude, and divisive
and red and blue state maps of predictable outcomes, that don’t represent any
minority party voters within each state. No more handful of 'battleground'
states (where the two major political parties happen to have similar levels of
support) where voters and policies are more important than those of the voters
in 38+ predictable winner states that have just been 'spectators' and ignored
after the conventions. We can limit the power and influence of a few
battleground states in order to better serve our nation.

The bill would take effect when enacted by states with a majority of the
electoral votes—270 of 538. All of the presidential electors from the enacting
states will be supporters of the presidential candidate receiving the most
popular votes among all 50 states (and DC)—thereby guaranteeing that candidate
with an Electoral College majority.

The bill was approved in 2016 by a unanimous bipartisan House committee vote
in both Georgia (16 electoral votes) and Missouri (10). Since 2006, the bill
has passed 36 state legislative chambers in 23 rural, small, medium, large,
red, blue, and purple states with 261 electoral votes. The bill has been
enacted by 12 small, medium, and large jurisdictions with 172 electoral votes
– 64% of the way to guaranteeing the presidency to the candidate with the most
popular votes in the country

NationalPopularVote

~~~
abvdasker
Very glad to see the NPVIC getting the attention it deserves. It's surprising
how few people know about it despite it having been around for so long.

------
pontifier
Judges can rule however they want regardless of the law in question.

Politics is a popularity contest, and nobody cares about corruption and the
issues.

Nobody will stand up for you.

If you stand up for yourself, there will probably be consequences.

The FBI is scary.

------
deathanatos
* It doesn't matter _what_ you set your desired location to in LinkedIn. Recruiters are going to look at what you've done in the past, and assume you want _more_ of that.

~~~
dzek69
Not true. I've written I'd like to learn Python someday, and I got an offer to
bacame team leader of Python dev team.

~~~
deathanatos
YMMV. The question was what has the past 12 months taught _you_ , and that's
what I've learned. I continue to get stuff that doesn't even match the basic
preferences LinkedIn _knows_ about, let alone the free-standing text in the
profile. (I've _never_ had anyone reach out indicate that they've read that,
and have something related.)

Python appears to be somewhat popular, so what you say isn't terribly
surprising. I'm trying to break a very common mold.

------
kahlonel
Not eating healthy, and not doing enough exercise seriously messes up the
brain functionality. It isn't apparent if you're young, but it keeps adding up
until it explodes.

------
meiraleal
Life can be great and very fun and we always have time to get fit.

------
gunnyguy121
Some math, some coding, some physics, and way more about Abraham Lincoln than
I'll ever need to know(I'm still a student). Moving on isn't as easy as it
seems.

------
koosnel
Spending extra on a good mechanical keyboard is worth it.

------
jwally
Outsourcing a problem because you don't understand it or want to work on it
will make the problem worse and you poorer.

------
Tade0
People in this industry are generally competent and willing to work.

Leadership is a variable though. And it can make or break a project.

~~~
Clubber
There's 2 main parts of tech management / leadership, IMO. The P&L part and
the people part. Many people in my experience are good at one and not the
other.

------
serpix
Enough sleep comes before everything and everyone.

Optional typing (like clojure. spec, plumatic schema) beats static typing.

------
ironjunkie
when you feel it is time to move, move fast and don't wait X more months to
confirm it and make sure of it 100%. (talking about job here more
specifically)

Life is short, there is no time for procrastination for a shitty job, relation
or anything else that doesn't bring you anything anymore

------
shankr
I need a relationship and it doesn't come easy when you are brown gay living
in a white country.

~~~
Mane
Why do you "need" a relationship?

Generally, I'd advice on being so comfortable with yourself that you don't
ever feel like you "need" a relationship.

~~~
shankr
I have been single for about 5 years now. Earlier, I was moving around more
looking for better career. Now, I am more stable with a good job. I wanted to
say, I want to be in one. Obviously, I don't "need" one just for the sake of
having one.

------
youdontknowtho
I'm not cynical enough.

I still have the capacity to be surprised by the mundane.

It not only can get worse, it is getting worse.

------
andersthue
That self betrayal is the root of all my suffering.

Read the “The Anatomy of Peace” for full explanation.

------
factorialboy
Invest in yourself.

If your work is too important, then invest in yourself some more.

More performant self = Better output.

------
momentmaker
There is a life force (energy) that's powering every living thing on this
planet.

~~~
vinchuco
Is it sunlight, perchance?

~~~
yakshaving_jgt
That would exclude fungi at least.

------
amorphid
That confronting one's fears head on can be an amazing way to build
confidence.

------
canterburry
The same the 12 months before did... That I know a lot less than I thought I
do.

------
clintonb
Heroes can be disappointing.

------
tugberkk
That I should have not started to pursue a PhD degree here in my country.

------
chadcmulligan
How to recognise and safely ignore narcissists, thanks president trump!

------
spookyuser
This thread is pretty cool, could be a standalone site.

------
GrumpyNl
Cryptos are a scam.

------
cygned
Communication is the key factor for success.

------
ojr
contrary to popular belief, rushing to the market with a product you don't
feel is ready can hurt more than help

~~~
uh_what
Would love to hear the story behind this lesson if you're willing to share.

------
bsvalley
Crypto currencies are a hell of a ride ;)

------
orschiro
To do less but focus deeply.

------
frankthrowaway
I learned a lot about the habits of intelligent affluent people. My sample
size is very low, but it was an interesting year in that regard since I've
never seen anything quite like it. Some things seem obvious, some didn't,
you'll learn them a lot faster if you're somehow in the middle of it.

Warning: based on anecdata

* Look at a cosmopolitan city center. Everyone who owns a house debt free there is rich.

* Look again at said center, most likely the owners aren't from your country (except US probably).

* Conservative rich people invest heavily in the housing market.

* The amount of rich people having some emotional understanding of working on a per hour basis, or working for a normal wage in general, is low.

* I've seen people in a relationship from different income classes, some definitely have it tough to understand each other. I haven't seen anyone break because of it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened with a fraction of them. Hypothetical example, combine it with stereotypical gender ideals (e.g. man must pay) and a SO (woman) that has expensive hobbies, the working-class man cannot keep up.

* My prediction on: the rich friend determines what's going to happen if he/she pays was dead on. I also predicted it might erode such a relationship when money comes too much into play, which I was partially right about.

* The claim that most wealth is inherited seems to be true from my personal experience. Consequently, most people don't know how to get rich but how to stay rich.

* Some rich people get a really amazing education and are polymaths by the time they get into their twenties. Some rich people are more the opposite.

* All in all, I feel money is a multiplier on a lot of things. I know that, for me, money will be a multiplier on the expression of my personality. If you are into new age stuff, then as a rich person you have a new age house, for example. If you're a sci-fi person, then you'll have a techy house.

\---- Jobs \----

* People don't value your computer science degree at all if they studied a shitty study program (any) and hate university because of it and don't have experience with hiring CS grads. It turns out, that's still a rather large group.

* Corollary: people don't evaluate your experience in the right way.

* When people see the word "internship" they see it as no experience, despite the fact that the programming work was more demanding than most employees there.

* Interviewing in startups doesn't follow any sane process. To do: I need to figure out how to to get some understanding on a startup's culture in less than 2 hours.

Thanks for the question, these 12 months have been emotionally weird. I guess
I needed to vent a bit. Dealing with income inequality from so close all of a
sudden feels tough, but I'm fine right? So why should it be? Hence it's weird.

------
gargravarr
Never.

Trust.

Computers.

------
bradlys
If they're not hiring engineers for the company after the engineers quit -
they're never going to. It's just a show and they'll continue to make up
excuses.

Look up the past experience of new management and the makeup of the company
they were at. It's likely that new management was brought in to bring the same
kind of management they were doing. i.e. if they outsource engineering at the
previous company, they're probably going to do it to yours. This is your way
of finding out what is coming before they actually announce it.

If a sexual harassment lawsuit comes out against the company or people in the
company and anyone is even partially guilty - no matter who they are - fire
anyone involved and replace them even faster. If you're an employee that is
not involved with the issue, leave the company ASAP. It's unlikely the company
will do the former until it's too late and thus you will see every possible
metric plummet.

If management has a tendency to not replace people _very quickly_ \- they are
either never replacing them or they just don't give a shit. Either way, get
out.

If management is making their calendars private - they don't value
transparency no matter what they say. Something is probably happening that
they don't want you to know - and it's never something good.

I need to study technical interview problems on a more regular basis if I want
to get a new job. Big Company interviews are harder than ever.

$500k/yr is kind of obtainable in the bay area for a single earner. It's also
the only way I'll ever afford the region (in terms of a family w/ a home). I
need to start thinking about alternative plans.

I've learned that I need to optimize for financial gains at a much faster rate
than I have. I'm now giving up on every other goal for the moment because they
just don't matter in comparison. I've realized now I should've held out for
better offers and studied harder last year. My $30k/yr jump in comp could've
been $100k and I should've studied harder and interviewed at more big
companies. I've also learned I should not stay at a company for a year in
hopes to "learn something". Just optimize for $$$ because experience will
follow no matter where you go.

If your partner is a drama queen or just gets upset all the time (short of you
giving 100% of everything you have to them) - it's definitely them and not
you. You have to let them grow up and focus on your own shit. You can't let
another person suck all your energy away - they should be giving you energy
and not taking it all away.

If you've been waiting to get something for a decade or what not - the
inevitable getting of it is probably going to be wildly underwhelming. You
spent too long waiting for it. :( In my case, it was a motorcycle. I had
wanted one for 8+ years but inevitably when I did get one - it was and still
is underwhelming. Unfortunately, I don't get to ride it much now anyway since
I'm so focused on studying and don't see that changing for a while.

------
kszxgz
(1.) Peace through humility.

* The humble live in continuous peace, while in the hearts of the proud are envy and frequent anger.

(2.) Establish constructive, rational ways of thinking.

* Constructive thinking is defined as "the degree to which a person's automatic thinking ... facilitates solving problems in everyday life at a minimum cost in stress."

* The more constructively you think, the happier you feel, and the better your emotional adjustment.

(3.) Strive for joy and contentment, not happiness.

* It’s important to make a distinction between joy and happiness. Happiness is circumstantial, like the pleasure that comes from eating ice cream on a sunny day at the beach. Such happiness is slippery and can vanish in a second. But joy is different. At the very least, it isn’t based on circumstances, which means it can’t be taken away

(4.) Enable contentment.

* “Though a good dinner is not to be despised — yet it is not worthy to be compared with a contented mind, which is a continual feast.”

* Contentment may be particularly useful for counteracting problems that stem from fear and anxiety.

(5.) Be patient.

* That’s what patience is. It’s being able to have this sense, in the middle of craziness, that all is not necessarily well according to circumstances, but all is well. Patience is being rooted in something outside of yourself, even when our hearts are weak and frail.

* Listen patiently and with an open mind.

(6.) Reduce negative emotions.

* Distorted evaluation of our performance in front of other people is the reason for depression and anxiety.

* Most negative emotions are completely useless. Resentment, bitterness, hate, and jealousy have never improved the quality of life for a single human being.

(7.) Purity and simplicity give freedom.

* “Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature.”

* The happiest homes in the world are not those in which are the finest carpets, the costliest pictures, the most luxurious furniture — but those in which glad, peaceful hearts dwell.

(8.) Build beautiful habits.

* Most of the choices we make each day may feel like the products of well-considered decision making, but they’re not. They’re habits.

* Create healthful, beautiful habits to live sustainably and achieve long-term goals.

(9.) Exercise regularly.

* Regular cardio exercise can help you sleep better, feel more alert and energetic, and enjoy reduced risks for cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis.

(10.) Eat healthily.

* The key public health challenge today is to reduce intake of all highly processed carbohydrates in favor of whole carbohydrates (fruits, vegetables, legumes and minimally processed grains) and healthful fats (like nuts, avocado and olive oil).

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bechampion
showing up wins.

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BJanecke
humility

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icantdrive55
The unemployment numbers don't mean much. This economy is hanging on by by a
few sectors that are barely successful. The 1% won. And when I watch Norma Rae
--I realize that movie couldn't be made today. The cotton owners just moved
the machines to another county--eliminating unions, and workers.

Oh yea, opiate addiction is not due to befuddled doctors, and corporations.
It's due to a country wide depression. People are misserable on so many
levels, while spirituality is kinda dead.

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anoncoward111
That love and freedom are 1000000x more important than money, career, and
status

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yukidaruma90
* Write technical posts are a good way to learn. * Use less SNS and do more useful work.

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potatoblaster
There is a difference between engineers and developers. Engineers are annoying
AF.

~~~
peterkelly
Care to elaborate?

~~~
potatoblaster
Mechanical keyboards :)

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RHSman2
Having started a business/startup solo, gained traction and moved to a company
with all my IP and experience (into a senior equity bearing role) I have
learnt more in one year than the rest of my 40 years. However, I’d distill it
into:

Our lives are our own making. We are given where we landed on this earth but
the rest is up to you and how you deal with the challenges.

