9 ms·

Ask HN: What are the changes you made in your life and never look back?

95 points by bearwithclaws 16y ago

I'm interested to hear what are the changes fellow HNers made in their life and never look back again. It could be anything. For me: * Inkjet Printer => LaserJet Printer * PC => Mac * Monthly Gym Membership => Home Gym * Sitting all day => Standing Desk * Shall-not-be-named-sucky-cloud-storage => DropBox

Akuma99 16y ago
easy! ... * Cancer => No Cancer * Corporate Jungle => Self Employed (in that order)
astrofinch 16y ago
I plan out every day the evening before.
hboon 16y ago
PC -> Mac Over-the-counter banking -> Internet banking Feature phone -> Smartphone Mouse with no wheel -> One with wheel (and currently Magic mouse) Own hosted email/Yahoo -> Gmail (or Google Apps for Business) Dock at the bottom (both Windows and Mac) -> Dock on the left Unmanaged music collection -> iTunes No specific editor -> MacVim
- follower 16y ago
  > Dock at the bottom (both Windows and Mac) -> Dock on the left Yeah, I did that quite a while ago and have found it great on my laptop but I've just started using a 1900x1200 monitor and am starting to think about switching back.
  - hboon 16y ago
    I hardly use the Dock since there are utilities like Spotlight/AlfredApp/LaunchBar/Quicksilver, so I auto-hide it. I'm using an external 1440x900 side-by-side with my built-in 1440x900, but if I even get a tall enough built-in LCD, I'd still leave the Dock on the left. There's never enough vertical space for code for most programming languages. I guess laptop-only -> laptop + external mon counts too.
kolinko 16y ago
When did you change to the standing desk? I heard people grow tired of it after a couple of months. 3G internet connection => Hardline Living in suburbs => Living in the city center
- bearwithclaws 16y ago
  I've changed to standing desk for more than 9 months. Couldn't live without it now.
  - missn 16y ago
    I'm curious, how do you handle long periods of standing? Just resting? I can't imagine standing for hours doing computer work.
    - bearwithclaws 16y ago
      I work in short burst -- maximum 2 hours at a time. After 2 hours, even if my legs weren't tired, I would starting to lose focus. I would then take 15 - 30 mins break to have a tea/walk my dog/yoga/weight lift/talk to spouse/jump rope/shoot hoops, and then continue back again.
  - dualogy 16y ago
    You should bring it to Starbucks for the next co-hacking session... ;)
Mz 16y ago
Husband => No husband Affluenza => Spartanism Car => No car Probably a whole lot of other things. Somewhere in there all that led to: Chronically Ill => Not Chronically Ill. Definitely don't plan to go back.
- ez77 16y ago
  Chronically Ill => Not Chronically Ill How did you achieve that?
  - Mz 16y ago
    Got rid of the husband, everything I ever owned, and my car. And also took a boatload of supplements, did a lot of reading about my medical condition, changed my diet, and a whole lot of other stuff. Some info on what I did is here: http://healthgazelle.com/ http://healthgazelle.com/ Not much info, mind you. I'm too busy getting my life back to spend much time on the site. Peace.
    - krmmalik 16y ago
      Amazing website. I'm at the "plateau" bit that you mention, and i'd love to learn more.
      - Mz 16y ago
        You know, much of the site was written as much as 5 years ago and I have become a combination of bitter about the reception I get in the CF community and busy getting my life back together, so I hardly look at the main site anymore (I do sometimes post to the new-ish blog). So please refresh my memory, maybe with a quote and/or link to the piece you are referencing. That might help me sound like less of a fool. And you can always email me sometime. Thanks.
        krmmalik 16y ago
        I really liked the CF sections explaining why lung infections are the "leaves" of the problem. Im in the process of moving house and getting married, but at some point i'll email you for some advice, and would really appreciate any assistance. Thanks again, and nice meeting you ;-)
jc123 16y ago
1. Moving to USA 2. Moving to Silicon Valley 3. Building a startup (TBD)
missn 16y ago
Mouse => Wacom Tablet Saved me from carpal tunnel syndrome (I already had the early signs). Inkjet Printer => LaserJet Printer Didnt't realize how much I was missing. The time savings alone makes it worth it. Design Major => Psychology Major Sometimes it's true what they say, everything in moderation. Once I left art school, I found my passion for design again.
- smhelp 16y ago
  what wacom tablet did you get, and are there any drawbacks of using it as a mouse ?
  - missn 16y ago
    I got the basic one (Bamboo) with the smallest possible size (I think it's the 4x6 one). If you're doing design and other complex tasks, it's probably better to have those large ones. For me though, since I only use it for general computing and the occasional design work, having a small one makes it portable (and it fits on my desk!). Unfortunately though, after years of getting used to the mouse, I do find it hard doing detailed work in Photoshop (i.e. tracing something/colouring something). It probably has to do with me not being used to the tablet but in times like those, I (using the tablet) still don't have the dexterity to manipulate things as well as when using a mouse.
lukifer 16y ago
Platter drive => SSD 9-to-5 => Gig with flexible scheduling Strongly typed languages => Weakly typed languages
- eru 16y ago
  Do you mean dynamically typed, or really weakly typed? (K&R C is weakly typed for example.)
edanm 16y ago
Random off the top of my head: No backup/storage => Dropbox 50gb (paid) <--- !!!!! Probably the best computing upgrade I've ever made. Same password on every site => Keepass (Also an incredible thing) No serious exercise => Starting to exercise (gym, started playing a new sport I love, etc.) Old phone => Smartphone (iPhone 4)
- follower 16y ago
  > started playing a new sport I love What was the sport?
  - edanm 16y ago
    Hockey. I've been playing basketball every week for years, but it's not a very high-intensity game (with my group, at least!). But I haven't played Hockey since I was 15, mostly because I didn't know where (Hockey is not very popular in Israel). But I finally found a group that plays, and joined them and had a very draining, but amazingly fun time playing. I've missed it.
edanm 16y ago
Could you talk about your conversion to a Home Gym? I'm perhaps interested in following your path, but I'm not sure where to start.
- dualogy 16y ago
  Read "You are your own gym". All you need to get started for the first 1-2 years.
- bearwithclaws 16y ago
  Inspiration: http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library/cfjissue1_Sep02.pdf http://www.crossfit.com/journal/library/cfjissue1_Sep02.pdf (PDF) I've got myself (one at a time): a few dumb bells, a long bar, yoga mat, kettle bell, gym mat, fit ball. Plenty enough to do a lot of exercise right at my home (I'm working from home) -- instead of commuting to nearby gym. I could workout multiple times a day whenever I wanted.
dclaysmith 16y ago
US => Ireland .NET => php/python 1 monitor => 2 monitors Car => No Car
- simonswords82 16y ago
  As somebody who is in the UK, looking to spend some time in the US working/living and then grow old in Ireland your "upgrade" from US to Ireland interests me. What made you move?
daimyoyo 16y ago
Flip phone => smartphone Smartphone => iPhone PC => Mac Using public wifi => private Internet connection The biggest one: bike => car.
mkramlich 16y ago
landline => mobile blah clamshell cellphone => iPhone PC/Windows => Mac/OSX Java => Python The Man's corporate cubicle => home office => my business office 9-to-5 salary grind => my own schedule, ROWE, contracting/consulting used cars => new 2010 Hyundai backpack 4 laptop => padded laptop bag => hard shell reinforced briefcase SVN => git laptop's boot filesystem on magnetic platter hard drive => SSD TV for visual vegging => the Web living on the 70th floor => living on ground floor sharing walls & ceilings with neighbors/drummers/blind-elephants => not
- follower 16y ago
  > hard shell reinforced briefcase Do you have a link to what you have? What were the benefits to the change (particularly from laptop backpack)?
- maayank 16y ago
  living on the 70th floor => living on ground floor why?
  - lacerus 16y ago
    The next item on the list suggests he/she bought a house.
    - mkramlich 16y ago
      yeah that was part of it
  - mkramlich 16y ago
    it's 2am, high wind, tower starts to sway back and forth and you can feel it fire breaks out on 60th floor both happened to me. not fun. never again. interesting experience to have at least once though. :)
TamDenholm 16y ago
Windows > Linux CD-R backups > Dropbox Two monitors > One 30" Dell Monitor (Best purchase ever btw) Pirating Music > Spotify (I even pay a subscription) TV > Youtube, BBC iPlayer, other steaming services (and now no TV licence fee) Crap diet > Learning to cook Paperwork > iPad IDE > gEdit Landline > Mobile I'm sure there are others. One thing i'd love to do is live totally off the grid, reuse water, generate own electricity, grow own food, live in middle of no where. The only thing i cant figure out how to do is a decent net connection...
- mise 16y ago
  I'm with you on the > gEdit (well, I use Scribes instead). You need an editor that gets out of your way.
- HelloBeautiful 16y ago
  >> and now no TV licence fee Nope, if you're watching TV programs on your computers or smartphones (iPlayer) you still have to pay UK TV licence.
jbm 16y ago
Montreal, Qc => Tokyo, Jp. Never felt more liberated in my life. I can't describe in words how good it felt.
- cubix 16y ago
  Can you elaborate as to why? I would have expected the exact opposite.
  - jbm 15y ago
    Wish you had an email :/ jbm @ ordisante.com if you want to continue this. I feel like less of a foreigner in Japan than I did in Quebec. Does that blow your mind like it does mine? The politics & lack of hope in Quebec is stifling. A lot of economic boom cycles were missed because of the squabbling and identity politics that plague the province. I can honestly say that I don't recall a single time where I felt like everything was going "OK" in MTL as a worker. The positive things I have to say about Montreal is about the quality of cheap food, the quality of education I received, and the quality of the people I knew. Not insubstantial, but not enough to ever tempt me to come back. Perception problem? Maybe. I'm not going to struggle against that when there are much better things to do with my time. As per Tokyo; you can do whatever you want if you exist outside the salaryman system. I play the role of the "brilliant system engineer" (whether I am or not is another story). I work normal hours (10 hours a day on rare occasions) and get paid quite well. I have no major complaints. It does seem to be going down the same road of ruin, but I don't plan on being here forever either.
wladimir 16y ago
DOS/Windows => Linux CDs/DVDs => Downloading/Streaming Perl/PHP => Python Harddisk => SSD SVN/CVS => GIT/Mercurial Academia => Business
barrydahlberg 16y ago
Stable salaried jobs -> Contracting, business, chaos. It suits me better.
- Maro 16y ago
  I really like the "chaos" part. I think it's a very down to earth description to how it is in practice =)
  - mkramlich 16y ago
    related: when I worked for Cheaptickets (started as a smallco, turned into BigDumbCompany eventually) I was in a group called "Car, Hotel, Air and Other Stuff." You can see why I liked the acronym. I specialized in the Other Stuff (jvm, monitoring, troubleshooting, performance, thread issues, etc.)
bfung 16y ago
make this into a site, akin to threewords.me?
- phpnode 16y ago
  done, http://3changes.me/ http://3changes.me/
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base 16y ago
PHP > Ruby Prototype > Jquery SVN/CVS > Mercurial Eclipse > Netbeans
arethuza 16y ago
Academia -> Real World Drive to work -> Walk to work Prepared food -> Cook from basic ingredients Radio 1 -> Radio 4 Java -> Anything else Expensive SUV -> Sensible economical car Paper books only -> Kindle & Audible Being a bigot about particular operating system and languages -> Not really caring anymore (apart from Java) [Edit: The thing about Java is more today with my own, in retrospect, slightly embarrassing "advocacy" of the language in the period '95 to '00 - rather than the issues the language has as the new Cobol].
jkahn 16y ago
New Zealand => Australia Windows => Mac Spinning rust => SSD Of course, there are tons of technology changes that have been great. The things that have made a huge impact in my life are: Pure techie => Learning sales Employee => Business owner Sales is all psychology. It totally changes your view of the world. It's not about how things should be, but about how things are regardless. A business degree didn't teach anything that mattered about that.
- follower 16y ago
  > New Zealand => Australia From where in NZ did you leave and where in Oz did you end up? What were the improvements you found? Do you think you would've found them moving to some country other than Australia? Curious. :)
  - jkahn 16y ago
    I moved from Auckland to Brisbane. The weather and lifestyle are better, people are generally more upbeat and opportunities are better. New Zealand has a major case of tall poppy syndrome. Australia doesn't have this so much. Most people generally want you to succeed, and help you out.
- krmmalik 16y ago
  I'm really surprised by the number of people that have enjoyed the move to Mac. I went to Mac for about 6 months and then ended up coming back to Windows 7. Thats not to say one is better than the other, i just found it difficult to get used to the little differences. Although, if i was programming more often the mac would probably have been more useful.
kaka189 16y ago
Windows - > Linux , Large Company -> startup , somemail -> gmail , orkut -> facebook :)
robfitz 16y ago
Working at home --> working at cafes Video games --> hobby projects Following my natural social inclinations --> going out most days Developer --> Developer who can do sales & biz
petewailes 16y ago
CDs/DVDs/BluRay/Consoles etc... => Spotify/HTPC + serious GFX Parkour => taekwondo Monitor(s) => Very large Samsung TV Notepad++ => Sublime Text Walking => running TV => competitive gaming No 3 item todo list => 3 item todo list Single project focus => multiple open-ended projects Books => Kindle
- sharadgopal 16y ago
  What is the best way for someone to get into parkour ?
  - D0rkvsMaximvs 16y ago
    Find a second-story window and jump out of it. If, in the next hour, you aren't in the hospital or morgue, CONGRATULATIONS!!! you're now into Parkour!.
  - liuhenry 16y ago
    If you can find a parkour gym like Primal Fitness [1] or Tempest Freerunning [2], that's the best option. They're not in a ton of areas, but if you can find a gymnastics gym to take a class, many moves and techniques will overlap. Otherwise, most of the moves aren't incredibly technical; they just need strength, balance, and coordination. You can find a lot of tutorials on Youtube, and just get out there and practice, but a gym will make it easier to build up the physical skills and also get over the mental fear. 1: http://www.primal-fitness.com http://www.primal-fitness.com 2: http://www.tempestfreerunning.com/the-academy http://www.tempestfreerunning.com/the-academy
    - petewailes 16y ago
      Agree with most of this. As Liuhenry correctly says, it's heavily dependent on two things: 1. Physical fitness 2. Mental control With regards to the former, I'd suggest looking at things like callisthenics and gymnastics, in order to get stronger, combined with running (couch to 5k is a good way to get started) to work on stamina and running. As to the latter, it's more about accepting that you're going to get hurt now and then, and being willing to start small. Don't go jump off a 20ft roof and break roll tomorrow, jump off a secure bench, and go from there. Other than that, I'd say practice movements over and over, until you do them without thinking, and find someone (or better still, a group - there's a fair number around the world so you should be able to find one) locally who can help you learn, and teach you how to move.
cubix 16y ago
Car => motorcycle + AutoShare (shared car service) Work at office => Work from home
ujjvala 16y ago
Windows to Linux Book to Kindle gEdit to gVim Word to LaTeX
cmullaparthi 16y ago
C++ > Erlang
Gorm-Casper 16y ago
Living far away from work => Living within biking distance (Best decision of 2010) Desktop computer => Laptops TV => No TV (Best decision of ~2003) Studying human stuff => Studying IT stuff (Best decision of 2009) In my studies: Focus on academia => Focus on real world problems Taking myself seriously => Not taking myself seriously Living in multiple countries => Living in Denmark (the country I grew up in) gEdit => Vim multiple folders, commented out code, etc => Git + github Facebook => Github, Twitter, Hacker news, meetups, etc
sleight42 16y ago
Federal Government Contracting => Startup/Commercial Freelancing (US Government couldn't care less about spending tax dollars well...) Living next door to the 'rents (for help with wife's health care) => Living 150 miles away Java => Ruby (and almost any language, including JVM languages, other than Java) PC => Mac (huge +1) Friends who don't respect my life choices => Friends met through the Ruby community HDD => SSD
k00k 16y ago
Land Line => Mobile TiVo => WMC7 (with Ceton 4 stream cablecard) Briefs => Boxers (like 25 years ago but still) Thinning hair => shaved head Klonopin => nothing Working for the man => Being the man
unignorant 16y ago
Sitting => Standing Desk: The effect this has had on my productivity is surprisingly large. Typical "Healthy" Diet => No Processed Foods or Sugar: It's hard to disambiguate placebo effects, but I generally feel pretty awesome. Laptop Screen => Cinema Display: This has definitely enhanced my productivity. Shoes => No Shoes: Of course I need to wear shoes occasionally, but when I do, they are "minimalist" and have flexible soles. On everything else I default to barefoot, including when I go for a run. This has been great for my posture, and it's made me seemingly immune to most common running injuries.
- generalk 16y ago
  Which minimalist shoes are you using? I've been looking for good recommendations.
  - eru 16y ago
    Not the original poster; but I am using Vibram Five-Fingers and they suits me quite well. (I do prefer barefoot running when possible.)
thibaut_barrere 16y ago
Navy officer => Startup => Freelancing/Bootstrapping PC => Mac Paris => Small village No kid => kid
- niels_olson 16y ago
  Were you in the French Navy? My neighbors were the French exchange officers and their wives (two couples, serially), while I was on staff at Annapolis. If so, I'll dig up their last names (I can only remember first names right now).
centdev 16y ago
Comfy + working a typical 9-to-5 => More Stresses + Running own company + more personal time
abhishekdesai 16y ago
Windows XP on Dell -> Mac OSX on Macbook Pro Nokia -> iPhone Noise (Techcrunch, GigaOM, ReadWriteWeb) -> Signals (37svn, AVC, Seth Godin)
kaiwen1 16y ago
Drinking whenever => No drinking => Drinking two days per month Drinking too much sucked. Drinking not at all sucked. Drinking two days a month lets me enjoy my wine/beer/sake and whacks me with the occasional hangover to remind why I opted for this damn policy in the first place. It is drinking in perfect balance.
agentultra 16y ago
vim => emacs layered window manager => tiled window manager mouse => no mouse no wife => wife music career => programming career inactive => active Best thing I did for my health was to get a bike and get into sports. The first thing I got into was martial arts. Now I rock climb, run, and cycle. Nothing gets the brain going like a good work out. I never look back. Emacs was a big paradigm shift that took many months too. Update: thought of a couple other things...
blackcadillac 16y ago
Drinking sugar => Water
k7d 16y ago
Two best decisions I've ever made 1) working for a bigco -> startup 2) single -> married with a kid It took me a while to come to these 2 points but I've never looked back.
dustinupdyke 16y ago
Listening to others => Believing in me
bromley 16y ago
Multiple big projects on the go at once -> Dedicated effort to finish one before getting too distracted by the next Valuing money more than time -> Valuing time more than money Trusting only logical reasoning -> Trusting my gut instinct as well Thinking it's wrong to turn down opportunities -> Happy to turn down opportunities if they don't appeal much or I've got too much on my plate already Running all email through my own mail-server -> fastmail.fm Keeping my email client open all day -> Opening it only every hour or two so I can focus on real work Cleaning teeth straight after food -> Waiting 30 minutes or more first, to reduce enamel erosion White rice -> Brown rice (~5 times the fibre) Cooking rice in a saucepan -> Using a rice cooker
Dilpil 16y ago
salesman => college student => software engineer
gommm 16y ago
* Working in a big R&D company in japan => Working for a small company in Japan => Working as a freelancer => Starting my own company (It's very exiting and a bit stressful, but working in japan is a good preparation for how to deal with stress and long hours) * Windows => Debian => Gentoo => Mac at home, Gentoo on servers (I tried ubuntu on servers but I always end up having to compile and install from source too much stuff) * HDD => SDD (Amazing the different it makes) * Paperbooks => ereader (used to use a pocketbook 360 which was really great but it was stolen :-( currently looking for a new one) * Backup on dvds => Tarsnap
pitdesi 16y ago
* Car => Bicycle * Management Consultant => Startup
xutopia 16y ago
There are a bunch of things that really improved my life and they aren't all tech related. Java/.NET => PHP => Ruby Laundromat => Owning my own * single most amazing change Not caring about personal finances => Saving up Sit all day => Geekdesk (I stand about 1h30 every day) Pharmaceutical programming => Startup programming Restaurants => Cooking classes Playing WOW => Quitting cold turkey Windows/Linux on home built boxes => Mac Seeing my wife clean the house all the time => Paying for cleaning
edw519 16y ago
English literature ----------> mathematics cook ------------------------> programmer newspaper -------------------> internet mall ------------------------> internet land line -------------------> cell phone phone -----------------------> email desktop ---------------------> laptop 14" CRT ---------------------> 19" flat screen CDs -----> thumb drives -----> cloud radio -----> CD player ------> Ipod ie --------> Firefox --------> Chrome Yahoo mail ------------------> Gmail low level code --------------> applications building for myself ---------> building for my customers kissing customers' asses ----> properly serving customers suit & tie ------------------> jeans & shirt calling Mom -----------------> visiting Mom Pittsburgh Pirates ----------> Pittsburgh Steelers Simpsons --------------------> Family Guy USAir -----------------------> Southwest weight lifting --------------> bodyweight exercises eggs for breakfast ----------> fruit for breakfast McDonald's ------------------> Five Guys Reddit ----------------------> Hacker News lurking ---------------------> posting
- smhelp 16y ago
  Why "eggs ---------> fruits" Isn't there more benefits of eating a protein rich breakfast ?
  - maayank 16y ago
    meta: now that only the poster can see his/her post's score, others can't tell if a post with a question interests many in the community or not. Previously, edw519 (or others) could gauge using the question's score the community's interest. In a pragmatic sense, it's not far fetched to assume that a question that you can see interests many people (but only few can answer) will have more chance of being answered than a question that appears to interest only Joe User. Now, if I want to show interest in the question, edw519 can't see my upvote(1) and thus it's useless in the "showing public support" sense. The only thing I can now do to show public interest is a "me too!" or a "yes, do tell!" post, which I guess all of us would like to avoid. (1) maybe with enough karma you CAN see everybody's score, idk, but the point still stands
  - bluesnowmonkey 16y ago
    There are for me. Having eggs in my breakfast, instead of just foods like fruit or breads, easily adds 10 points to my IQ that day. Easily.
z303 16y ago
Male => Female
- trurl123 16y ago
  my condolences
  - z303 16y ago
    Well transitioning was something I wish I hadn't needed to do and has made my life more complicated but I'm happy now and the whole process has made me a more understanding 'better' person, so really you have nothing to be sorry about
krmmalik 16y ago
* Gym in the evening => Gym during the day (extended lunch break) * One monitor => Two monitors as an extended desktop * Never checking my finances => Using Zetabee cashflow to manage my finances * Reading blogs only => Reading books (on anything) and audiobooks (in the car) * Hot showers => Occasional Cold Water dips * Cow's Milk => Goat's Milk * Microsoft Outlook => Gmail * Wasting time on the internet => Writing a journal or creating a list of things to do when im bored in advance * Irregular work pattern => Aiming to achieve a minimum of 5hrs of focused productivity a day with 3min breaks every 60mins * Friends that are negative or with no ambition => Limiting contact with them * Trying to spend time with successful people or ambitious people => Setup my own Mastermind Group * Green Tea => White Tea * Manual version control => Mercurial using TortoiseHG as the GUI * No programming skills => Started learning Javascript * Relationship issues with colleagues and friends => "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie plus being more direct without being confrontational * 20hrs of TV a week => Choosing 1 or 2 shows and following them only * Poor quality of air in the house => Air purifier * Back pains => Got a very simple chair, improved posture and regular back exercises Cant think of anything else. Hope the list didnt bore any of you. Its fun to share.
- slindstr 16y ago
  Out of curiosity, why'd you change from Cow's Milk to Goat's Milk? I temporarily switched to Almond Milk because it doesn't have lactose (which doesn't promote estrogen production), has the same amount of protein, more vitamins, and at the time it was way cheaper than organic whole cow's milk. The biggest drawback was that it tasted kinda gross, which I remedied with a bit of cinnamon, but now that it's fairly expensive I switched back to cow milk.
  - bromley 16y ago
    You could try soya milk, rice milk, or oat milk as well. Personally I like soya milk, though only the unsweetened kind. For some reason most soya milks are sweetened and consequently taste like some kind of watery pudding. (I gave up dairy a few years back when I discovered that I had a mild allergy to it.)
  - 16y ago
vitolds 16y ago
listening podcasts and audiobooks on normal speed => listening at 2x speed
diamondhead 16y ago
The City I was staying with my family ==> The city with software industry (2007) [Financially Secure But Unhappy Two Years] The city with software industry ==> A Village With A Physics School (2009) The village with physics school ==> The city with software industry (2010) The City With Software Industry ==> San Francisco (Left everything in my country to just be here, attend Google IO) (2011)
lux 16y ago
The big ones: * Moving away at 18 to a new province. Best thing I ever did. * Lost my job at 20, started a company. Never worried about money or looked back. This actually seemed incredibly natural. * Shut down said company after 10 years, just to move on to more interesting things. No regrets. I'm working on way cooler stuff now in a variety of areas and I love all of it. * Changed my eating/lifestyle, lost 35lbs. Keeping it off with no effort due to lifestyle changes. I don't really pay attention to small stuff. I wouldn't say CD->iPod->iPhone was a deliberate change, more of a natural progression...
- jpr 16y ago
  Care to elaborate on the eating/lifestyle issue?
  - lux 16y ago
    Sure! When I started working long hours behind a desk and not eating properly (teenage or stereotypical coder eating habits + sedentary lifestyle), the combo crept up on me but really hit me hard. I ballooned up before I realized it from 145 to 185 at the worst point. I started doing a variety of martial arts at that point, but didn't change my eating and couldn't lose a thing. After a while, I started looking at different things: buying fresh food as much as possible, portion control, walking, and less alcohol. The combo meant changing a lot of things over time, but if I didn't change a lot then one thing would negate the others. Now it's been almost 2 years that I've been back to 145. I weigh myself daily to keep track and adjust accordingly. I buy almost entirely fresh food (helps that I love to cook :), use smaller plates to trick myself into recognizing portions more easily, and I generally walk if it takes less than an hour. Gives me some much-needed time to think :) And I still drink... I love dark beers and wine, but I keep the quantity and frequency down now, and probably have even more fun now that I feel good about myself too.
jasonkester 16y ago
I hit my singularity when I realized that you can take as much time off as you want if you are prepared to take it unpaid. 1996: 3 weeks 1998: 10 weeks 1999: 4 weeks 2000/1: 20 weeks 2002: 6 weeks 2003: 36 weeks 2004: 32 weeks 2005-2010: ~36 weeks (9 months)/year The work equation changed to: (how much do I need to travel for another 9 months) / (hourly rate) = (hours I need to work on this next contract)
- maayank 16y ago
  Do you succeed doing that with sensible savings, health care, etc.?
  - jasonkester 16y ago
    Yes. During my heaviest years of contract/travel/contract/travel, I found I came out between $10k and $20k ahead in savings at the end of each year. Contracting pays so well, and traveling in the 3rd world is so cheap that there's just no way you can burn through your savings before boredom sets in and you need to work again for the mental challenge. Catastrophic coverage health care is $100/month if you're young and healthy. Travel Medical is on the order of $500/year to get you airlifted home when you get shot in the Congo. Those in combination will keep you alive for the duration.
- mattm 16y ago
  I'm currently in the process of leaving work now to take 3-6 months off to learn Japanese and maybe work on some of my own project ideas if I feel like it. Although I still have a little doubt about the switch, it is reassuring to see someone who has taken long breaks as well.
latortuga 16y ago
Interesting. I saw the title and my first thought was my experience of discarding religion from my life. Rejecting the backwards, totalitarian dogma of christianity was the most liberating experience of my life and I have never once looked back with anything other than joy at leaving it behind.
heathlilley 16y ago
Whining ---------------------------> Fixing Asking for permission -------------> Asking for Forgiveness (Professionally) Gaming as a hobby -----------------> Learning as a hobby Working hard ----------------------> Working smart Speculation -----------------------> Communication Competition -----------------------> Cooperation
paraschopra 16y ago
Working for someone else => doing a startup
highlander 16y ago
Boiling vegetables ----------------> Steaming vegetables Ready meals -----------------------> Eating mostly simple food (chicken, prawns, veg, brown pasta) Red meat --------------------------> Mostly white meat Smoked fish -----------------------> Unsmoked fish, also prawns and mussels Out of shape ----------------------> In shape (running, weights at home and weekly personal training) Wonky teeth -----------------------> Straight teeth No vitamins/cod liver oil ---------> Multivitamins (hoping for longer telemeres) and cod liver oil Work goals -----------------------> Also have personal goals (run half marathon, travel to a particular destination etc.) Dumb phone ------------------------> Smart phone Hotmail ---------------------------> GMail Paper to-do list ------------------> Online to-do list
pedrokost 16y ago
QWERY => Colemak
bconway 16y ago
* automatic => manual trans * Windows => Linux (1999) * Sysadmin => Developer (background is CS) * ignoring exercise since high school => treadmill, elliptical * iPhone => Android * bare metal => virtualization * most others => Python
benwerd 16y ago
An eclectic selection: * "Real" job => Starting a company * 24/7 working life => Switching off and becoming a published fiction writer * Self-doubt and low self esteem => Finding formal help * Teflon pans => Cast iron pans (seriously, look up how bad teflon is for you - and cast iron pans are way more fun to cook with) * Building things => Building companies
jpr 16y ago
studying my native language -> studying CS Windows -> Linux blub -> learning Lisp and Haskell not knowing C -> knowing C dial-up internet -> broadband random editors -> emacs 19" and smaller monitors -> 24" monitor
urza 16y ago
christian ----------------------------> atheist meat eater ---------------------------> vegetarian working for someone else -------------> working for me sitting in the chair -----------------> sitting on the ground reading eng. books translated --------> reading in english engaging in Win/Lin/Mac discussions --> I dont care anymore travelling with stuff ----------------> travelling light
atermon 16y ago
marijuana joints => vaporizer
dalenkruse 16y ago
Landline -> Mobile Phone Standard flip phone -> Symbian smartphone Symbian -> Android Windows -> Ubuntu Stuck on the ground -> Pilot license
mark_l_watson 16y ago
Working 40+ hour weeks > permanent switch to part time work Local email client > Gmail Paper calendar > Google Calendar iTunes purchases > full CDs (sometimes as MP3s) on Amazon Leased servers > Amazon EC2s Mostly paper books > Kindle Stopped trying to do the Linux desktop thing > Mac laptops, SSHing to Linux servers Mostly Lisp and Java > more Ruby
zarprey 16y ago
Working for a company -> Working for myself doing my own taxes -> tax lady designer -> entrepreneur saying yes to everything -> saying no trying to do everything -> focus
cmos 16y ago
normal american diet -> no meat, no dairy, no processed foods. dumb phone -> dumber phone 4 hours TV nightly -> no tv workaholic -> socialholic self doubt -> awesomeness technology lover and collector -> less is more friendster -> nothing Daily motto: "I'm the luckiest guy in the world, and it's a beautiful day"
- smhelp 16y ago
  how does one go from self-doubt to awesomeness or little or no self doubt ? thanks.
  - olegious 16y ago
    don't know what worked for cmos but for me it was recognizing that most of my self doubts stemmed from irrational fears such as being uncomfortable/scared around meeting new people. I'm a bit of a workout junkie so I decided to apply principles from working out to my psychology- I would take an irrational fear or something that made me uncomfortable and do incremental "mini-workouts" until I became comfortable and the fear disappeared. For example meeting new people- I started using every chance I had to start conversations with people I didn't know. Say you're standing in line at Starbucks and see someone wearing shoes that you like say "Hey, cool shoes, where did you get them?"
dualogy 16y ago
Not programming => Programming
pasbesoin 16y ago
Assign authority to expert opinions --> Suspect expert opinions until demonstrated to my satisfaction. Almost never accept anything as "proven".
grist 16y ago
Video Games, Junk Reading => After work home development Video Games, Junk Reading => Selfhero: sailing, diving, etc Wishing/Wanting => Doing. Immediate scheduling Unmotivated Friends => Adventurous Friends That's hard/difficult => That's worthwhile I'm over thirty, but like many of my friends, I still enjoyed video games way too much. Claiming they were a way to "relax" or "blow off steam" after a hard day at work, I finally admitted to myself that they had lost their original value and were now solely a time sink and addiction. This nagging thought kept troubling me until I gave it my full attention, and dealt with the reality of the answer: "If I spent this many hours a week practicing <insert game heroic skill> instead of playing a character with it, how heroic could I become?" I suddenly lost all desire to play video games, watch most TV, and read books (entertainment, not literature). Instead I have spent the last couple of years cultivating interesting and useful skills, and participating in my own adventures. I went from playing CoD and TotalWar to scuba diving with sharks, motorcycling, traveling and practicing/training my sailing skills with the goal of circumnavigating. Never looked back.
lacerus 16y ago
HDD --------> SDD PHP --------> Ruby Chair ------> Standing desk All others -> MacVim MTB --------> Singlespeed racing bicycle No hobby ---> Kitesurfing. Nothing beats flying over the waves while the sun goes down. Car --------> Westfalia James Cook motor home (for kitesurfing)
seven 16y ago
default bad mood => default good mood pessimistic => optimistic
- gallamine 16y ago
  How did you manage that? I think graduate school has given me a permanent scowl.
  - seven 16y ago
    I am struggling to give a good answer to this since some minutes... There is no special trick. I just realized that it makes no sense to worry about stuff I can not influence. And that if I have bad mood without obvious reason.. I could have good mood without obvious reason as well. I have no step by step instruction. It is just a decision you have to make for yourself. Focus on the good things instead on the bad. No matter how big you fuck up, chances are very high that you are still better off than most people on this planet.
neuroelectronic 16y ago
Virtualization -> Hardware
johnnytee 16y ago
cold fusion -> .NET -> php -> python -> ruby/rails
x0ner 16y ago
government contracting => engineer at university running => biking => bike racing pc => mac php => python (django) complaining about tools => writing my own or patching others no source control => github learning projects => practical development and products reading tech books => memoirs only bottled water => filtered pitcher => bottled water desktop => laptop local documents => google docs virtualbox => vmware individual => LLC
olegious 16y ago
-PC ----------------------------> Mac -Regular workouts --------------> CrossFit -Regular diet ------------------> Paleo -finance > law school > dropout-> techie + entrepreneur -being afraid ------------------> learning to fight
trurl123 16y ago
Finance organization => Software organization The Bat => Thunderbird => GMail Free => Married Black tea with sugar => Green Tea without sugar TV => Internet Meat food => Vegetables Fixed work schedule => Free work schedule Hard working, unhappy => Love to work PC forever! Hello from Izhevsk.