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Pat yourself on the back for working a couple of hours then go online and write comments about lazy homeless people looking for handouts.

technofiend 8y ago
Don't forget to upvote any thoughts and prayers threads. Slacktivism at its finest. But seriously although I hate to delve too deeply into stereotypes the fact of the matter is many people like me on HN and elsewhere may be somewhat introverted by nature. And yet to answer the original poster's question I find volunteering or otherwise doing something to get me out of my shell invigorating when taken in small doses. This is something I never would have discovered on my own: my wife's crowbaring me out of my comfort zone is the only reason I know. But even volunteering aside there are many things you can do that (stereotype again, sorry) satisfy our predilection to learn new things and if not solve problems then learn how others solve problems. For instance two of my favorite things I've done were taking Citizen's Fire Academy and Citizen's Police Academy put on by the City of Houston. I don't want to be a firefighter or policeman. But getting to see the behind-the-scenes view into their world was fascinating. And when else will you get to go up in a ladder truck, ride in a police helicopter or put on bunker gear and watch as flames roar by a few inches over your head? They actually present what they do in great amount of detail and are happy to take questions and even demonstrate their equipment and techniques. For a nerd like me it's damn entertaining. It made me better appreciate what those people do for a living and and very thankful for the opportunities IT afforded me. It's a little more concrete for me that I'm very unlikely to be set on fire or shot while learning how to integrate CEPH and Kubenetes. Tl;Dr: If you're bored or unmotivated with a side project do something completely different and outside your comfort zone to get perspective.
- extralego 8y ago
  No objections to this! As a very introverted person myself and clearly not against posting comments on the Internet, my intentions here are merely to inspire consideration of challenges in overcoming prejudice. I love the HN community but I doubt the HN community loves me back. I really struggle with the libertarian Darwinism so popular here. This thread concerns what it might call a weakness but I would call a necessary element in beauty. It’s like ‘negative space’ in motivation. If we were always inspired, we might not be any different than drones. To lack a sense of purpose or connection with a task is useful to society. It makes a space for connection. When we engage with new things, it can improve our society. But it can also do the opposite; particularly when resources don’t allow for new engagements. Such is the case for homeless people! Humor is not always funny, and I know my kidding here is not entertaining. I just hope for a better world for my children and I believe in the people of HN to make that possible. I just fear them missing the opportunities to do so in the name of pride and self-justification. This post gives me hope. And your comment as well, although I know it was meant as a lesson. And to be certain, it was that too.
dang 8y ago
Please don't do this here. Edit: it looks like you've been using HN primarily for political battle. That's not what this site is for, and we ban accounts that do that (as described in https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). Can you please not do that? Explanations of how we approach this can be found at https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20primarily%20test https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... if anyone wants to read them.

technofiend 8y ago

Don't forget to upvote any thoughts and prayers threads. Slacktivism at its finest. But seriously although I hate to delve too deeply into stereotypes the fact of the matter is many people like me on HN and elsewhere may be somewhat introverted by nature. And yet to answer the original poster's question I find volunteering or otherwise doing something to get me out of my shell invigorating when taken in small doses. This is something I never would have discovered on my own: my wife's crowbaring me out of my comfort zone is the only reason I know. But even volunteering aside there are many things you can do that (stereotype again, sorry) satisfy our predilection to learn new things and if not solve problems then learn how others solve problems. For instance two of my favorite things I've done were taking Citizen's Fire Academy and Citizen's Police Academy put on by the City of Houston. I don't want to be a firefighter or policeman. But getting to see the behind-the-scenes view into their world was fascinating. And when else will you get to go up in a ladder truck, ride in a police helicopter or put on bunker gear and watch as flames roar by a few inches over your head? They actually present what they do in great amount of detail and are happy to take questions and even demonstrate their equipment and techniques. For a nerd like me it's damn entertaining. It made me better appreciate what those people do for a living and and very thankful for the opportunities IT afforded me. It's a little more concrete for me that I'm very unlikely to be set on fire or shot while learning how to integrate CEPH and Kubenetes. Tl;Dr: If you're bored or unmotivated with a side project do something completely different and outside your comfort zone to get perspective.

extralego 8y ago
No objections to this! As a very introverted person myself and clearly not against posting comments on the Internet, my intentions here are merely to inspire consideration of challenges in overcoming prejudice. I love the HN community but I doubt the HN community loves me back. I really struggle with the libertarian Darwinism so popular here. This thread concerns what it might call a weakness but I would call a necessary element in beauty. It’s like ‘negative space’ in motivation. If we were always inspired, we might not be any different than drones. To lack a sense of purpose or connection with a task is useful to society. It makes a space for connection. When we engage with new things, it can improve our society. But it can also do the opposite; particularly when resources don’t allow for new engagements. Such is the case for homeless people! Humor is not always funny, and I know my kidding here is not entertaining. I just hope for a better world for my children and I believe in the people of HN to make that possible. I just fear them missing the opportunities to do so in the name of pride and self-justification. This post gives me hope. And your comment as well, although I know it was meant as a lesson. And to be certain, it was that too.

dang 8y ago

Please don't do this here. Edit: it looks like you've been using HN primarily for political battle. That's not what this site is for, and we ban accounts that do that (as described in https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). Can you please not do that? Explanations of how we approach this can be found at https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20primarily%20test https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... if anyone wants to read them.