4 ms·

What do you hate not doing?

33 points by nreece 17y ago

snitko 17y ago
I already have Derek's blog in my rss-reader (and I like it), so it seems a little weird and confusing that his posts reappear oh HN regularly and that often. I feel it somehow makes him less cool. Doesn't anyone feel this way too? Let's just all add his blog to our readers finally and not repost anything here.
- calvin 17y ago
  It's in my RSS reader and I follow him on Twitter, too. The reason it's on HN is so we can discuss it -- it's hard to do that on his blog where the post already has 87 comments and are not threaded.
  - SwellJoe 17y ago
    And comments on blogs, even good ones, are also generally afflicted with the dumb and just aren't worth wading through to find the handful of people who hate to look like gibbering idiots (and have the intelligence to avoid it).
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
WhyIsThisOnHN 17y ago
Why is this on Hacker News?
- deleted 17y ago
  [deleted]
- michael_dorfman 17y ago
  Because passion is a key part of hacking, and the way the question is phrased might be a good way at approaching some of the issues that arise when conceiving a start-up.
  - lurkinglurker 17y ago
    Do you realize that the reasoning you provided could be used to justify any submission, and therefore is unsuitable to use when deciding what belongs on HN? A hacker should be able to tell apart a scientific argument that rules certain stories in and others out from empty rhetoric that appeals to emotions. As an aside, hackers' concerns are not the same as those of people doing startups, and it's a mistake to equate the two. Lots of people involved in a startup are not hackers by any stretch of imagination, and vice versa.
    - petite 17y ago
      I think more that the submission guidelines are a catch-all for obvious stories that the entire community wants to avoid. These are stories that appear on large community sites, regardless of whether the core community has interest in them, and only appear to increase the demographic of the website. But I don't think Hacker News works the same way. Anyone is allowed to submit a story, and depending on the community interest, the story gets posted to the front page. This ensures that the stories of most interest to the community are most viewable to the community. So the way I understand your criticism, it seems more to be a critique on the entire community (or at least the ones who vote), rather than a critique on the poster not following the rules. "WhyIsThisOnHN" commented on articles about differing ways to look at literature, a painter who creates photorealistic paintings, a question posed to the HN community (this article), and one on the cause of death in cyclists. None of these articles strike me as something that merely exists to draw in eyeballs, but rather portray the varying interests of a group of highly motivated and intelligent people. Those are the types of articles I come here to read. If I wanted to read about computers and code all day, there are websites for that. If I wanted to read about startups all day, again, there are startup centric sites. I am interested in what people of like mind find interesting, but perhaps do not have the chance to expose myself to due to time constraints, and I think that this is partly responsible for the appeal of HN over other aggregate sites. note - sorry for the off-topic comment, this is just something that has been on my mind, and possibly exasperated by the WhyIsThisOnHN username
- cdr 17y ago
  Oh joy, gimmick accounts. You can keep those to reddit, thanks.
  - lurkinglurker 17y ago
    What you're calling a "gimmick account" may well be a way to shield oneself from the negative karma associated with asking questions that go against the downvote capacity of the unwashed masses. The parent is clearly making a statement that goes against what the recent wave of HN users seem to be upvoting. I have been a long-time lurker here, but felt compelled to create an account to post in support of the parent. There has been too many submissions lately where there is a low barrier to entry, inane discussion, and no connection to hacking.
    - weaksauce 17y ago
      That may have been true in the past when there was no restriction on downvotes, but now there is a -8 karma limit per statement. I believe it was done so that someone would not get overly penalized for a statement but they would still get the message that the statement was not within the guidelines of the community.
      - cdr 17y ago
        It's actually been halved to -4 now.
  - californiaguy 17y ago
    I don't give a shit about using my real account to speak my mind, I have no idea why people on HN are afraid of that. If I had my way the names seth godin, tim ferriss, derek sivers, or any number of these quack bloggers would never show up in HN. I come here for business and technology, not bullshit self-help articles on agenda-having auto-promotional blogs.
    - boggles 17y ago
      I dislike self-promotional bloggers too. But I believe Derek Sivers is pretty sincere and is actually doing stuff for love rather than money (if you know anything about his history, you should realize this even more). If you don't get anything out of his posts, obviously don't waste your time but I've noticed after reading his posts I always feel just a little bit more inspired to transcend myself. Doing a startup is as much about being able to stay inspired as it is about understanding the nuts and bolts of technology. Staying motivated and optimistic is key and any little bit of help we can get from each other's experiences will not go to waste as long as it's coming from the right place.
- lionhearted 17y ago
  You know, I saw your handle, and it reminded me of something. Maybe it'd be interesting to you. The samurai used to meditate to on their deaths daily - they felt it gave them purpose. The idea was that you'd try to live every single day so that if you died at the end of the day, you'd feel it was a good day. And whenever I remember this, I think a little about the fact that in not too long, I'll die, and most likely be completely annihilated. So I try to look around and take in my surroundings and appreciate them, eat a meal slowly that day, and call someone I love that I haven't talked in a while. Then I work on something meaningful and important to me. Thank you for reminding me of this.
  - petercooper 17y ago
    So I try to look around and take in my surroundings and appreciate them, eat a meal slowly that day, and call someone I love that I haven't talked in a while. Then I work on something meaningful and important to me. Nice sentiments but the problem with sharing this stuff is that the mere act of sharing causes you not to be following your own story.
    - SwellJoe 17y ago
      Sharing is often "something meaningful and important".
yan 17y ago
I hate seldom being able to do anything about hating not doing something I want to do.
- willhf 17y ago
  I hate not responding to comments which give me reason to hate the fact that english does not use s-expressions.
- bkovitz 17y ago
  What's stopping you?
njharman 17y ago
"What makes you feel icky, irritated, annoyed or off-track if you don't do it enough?" Showering. I'm not being flippant. In general, "dealing with life". I am prone to depression, the clinical kind, the kind that causes you to stay in bed or browse web aimlessly all weekend. The kind that makes it seemingly impossible to do the things that need doing, like finishing projects, calling friends, or taking a shower. I wonder if the many other prone to depression people have similar reaction as I to "life-hack", "feel-good", "aphoristic" blogs/articles/people like this one. The reaction you might imagine a poor person has listening to a top 1%er ponder "which of my seven houses do I not hate spending the summer in".
- PieSquared 17y ago
  > I wonder if the many other prone to depression people have similar reaction as I to "life-hack", "feel-good", "aphoristic" blogs/articles/people like this one. Erm, I found that minorly confusing as to what you meant. Could you elaborate?
  - californiaguy 17y ago
    Losers hate winners, no matter the context.
  - jodrellblank 17y ago
    He isn't driven to do anything, and is (somewhat) envious of someone who has a choice of things they are driven to do. ( I interpret his statement in light of my current state - in bed browsing the web aimlessly at 10am despite being on holiday in a hotel in a foreign city ) ( Incidentally, I saw Jodrell Bank from the plane on the way here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodrell_Bank_Observatory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodrell_Bank_Observatory )
  - njharman 17y ago
    Yeah, I've spent 20min trying think of a way to elaborate without much luck... People rarely view things from any perspective other than their own. It annoys me. jodrellblank isn't correct btw. I'm not envious. I'm very cognizant and thankful for everything. Cause despite how shitty and hard I may think my life is I know it's comparatively "charmed". People are starving to DEATH in refugee camps cause some fuckheads were trying to genocide them. I can't even comprehend there being so little food that people die from lack.
pbhj 17y ago
Um, sex!? Or was that to obvious.
bkovitz 17y ago
What a great exercise! It can be hard to think of what you really care about: starting that way often leads to trying to deduce what you "should" care about. What you hate, though, is easily accessible. Negative emotions are right in your face, and they lead straight to clarity about what you deeply desire, if you follow the emotional thread for two hops or so.
spudlyo 17y ago
I hate not reading stories on HN that are insightful, informative, or thought provoking.
10ren 17y ago
I hate not solving problems. It's that post-modern trope where the super hero realizes he needs the bad guys for his identity. I also hate not coding.

33 points by nreece 17y ago

I already have Derek's blog in my rss-reader (and I like it), so it seems a little weird and confusing that his posts reappear oh HN regularly and that often. I feel it somehow makes him less cool. Doesn't anyone feel this way too? Let's just all add his blog to our readers finally and not repost anything here.

calvin 17y ago
It's in my RSS reader and I follow him on Twitter, too. The reason it's on HN is so we can discuss it -- it's hard to do that on his blog where the post already has 87 comments and are not threaded.
- SwellJoe 17y ago
  And comments on blogs, even good ones, are also generally afflicted with the dumb and just aren't worth wading through to find the handful of people who hate to look like gibbering idiots (and have the intelligence to avoid it).

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

WhyIsThisOnHN 17y ago

Why is this on Hacker News?

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
michael_dorfman 17y ago
Because passion is a key part of hacking, and the way the question is phrased might be a good way at approaching some of the issues that arise when conceiving a start-up.
- lurkinglurker 17y ago
  Do you realize that the reasoning you provided could be used to justify any submission, and therefore is unsuitable to use when deciding what belongs on HN? A hacker should be able to tell apart a scientific argument that rules certain stories in and others out from empty rhetoric that appeals to emotions. As an aside, hackers' concerns are not the same as those of people doing startups, and it's a mistake to equate the two. Lots of people involved in a startup are not hackers by any stretch of imagination, and vice versa.
  - petite 17y ago
    I think more that the submission guidelines are a catch-all for obvious stories that the entire community wants to avoid. These are stories that appear on large community sites, regardless of whether the core community has interest in them, and only appear to increase the demographic of the website. But I don't think Hacker News works the same way. Anyone is allowed to submit a story, and depending on the community interest, the story gets posted to the front page. This ensures that the stories of most interest to the community are most viewable to the community. So the way I understand your criticism, it seems more to be a critique on the entire community (or at least the ones who vote), rather than a critique on the poster not following the rules. "WhyIsThisOnHN" commented on articles about differing ways to look at literature, a painter who creates photorealistic paintings, a question posed to the HN community (this article), and one on the cause of death in cyclists. None of these articles strike me as something that merely exists to draw in eyeballs, but rather portray the varying interests of a group of highly motivated and intelligent people. Those are the types of articles I come here to read. If I wanted to read about computers and code all day, there are websites for that. If I wanted to read about startups all day, again, there are startup centric sites. I am interested in what people of like mind find interesting, but perhaps do not have the chance to expose myself to due to time constraints, and I think that this is partly responsible for the appeal of HN over other aggregate sites. note - sorry for the off-topic comment, this is just something that has been on my mind, and possibly exasperated by the WhyIsThisOnHN username
cdr 17y ago
Oh joy, gimmick accounts. You can keep those to reddit, thanks.
- lurkinglurker 17y ago
  What you're calling a "gimmick account" may well be a way to shield oneself from the negative karma associated with asking questions that go against the downvote capacity of the unwashed masses. The parent is clearly making a statement that goes against what the recent wave of HN users seem to be upvoting. I have been a long-time lurker here, but felt compelled to create an account to post in support of the parent. There has been too many submissions lately where there is a low barrier to entry, inane discussion, and no connection to hacking.
  - weaksauce 17y ago
    That may have been true in the past when there was no restriction on downvotes, but now there is a -8 karma limit per statement. I believe it was done so that someone would not get overly penalized for a statement but they would still get the message that the statement was not within the guidelines of the community.
    - cdr 17y ago
      It's actually been halved to -4 now.
- californiaguy 17y ago
  I don't give a shit about using my real account to speak my mind, I have no idea why people on HN are afraid of that. If I had my way the names seth godin, tim ferriss, derek sivers, or any number of these quack bloggers would never show up in HN. I come here for business and technology, not bullshit self-help articles on agenda-having auto-promotional blogs.
  - boggles 17y ago
    I dislike self-promotional bloggers too. But I believe Derek Sivers is pretty sincere and is actually doing stuff for love rather than money (if you know anything about his history, you should realize this even more). If you don't get anything out of his posts, obviously don't waste your time but I've noticed after reading his posts I always feel just a little bit more inspired to transcend myself. Doing a startup is as much about being able to stay inspired as it is about understanding the nuts and bolts of technology. Staying motivated and optimistic is key and any little bit of help we can get from each other's experiences will not go to waste as long as it's coming from the right place.
lionhearted 17y ago
You know, I saw your handle, and it reminded me of something. Maybe it'd be interesting to you. The samurai used to meditate to on their deaths daily - they felt it gave them purpose. The idea was that you'd try to live every single day so that if you died at the end of the day, you'd feel it was a good day. And whenever I remember this, I think a little about the fact that in not too long, I'll die, and most likely be completely annihilated. So I try to look around and take in my surroundings and appreciate them, eat a meal slowly that day, and call someone I love that I haven't talked in a while. Then I work on something meaningful and important to me. Thank you for reminding me of this.
- petercooper 17y ago
  So I try to look around and take in my surroundings and appreciate them, eat a meal slowly that day, and call someone I love that I haven't talked in a while. Then I work on something meaningful and important to me. Nice sentiments but the problem with sharing this stuff is that the mere act of sharing causes you not to be following your own story.
  - SwellJoe 17y ago
    Sharing is often "something meaningful and important".

yan 17y ago

I hate seldom being able to do anything about hating not doing something I want to do.

willhf 17y ago
I hate not responding to comments which give me reason to hate the fact that english does not use s-expressions.
bkovitz 17y ago
What's stopping you?

njharman 17y ago

"What makes you feel icky, irritated, annoyed or off-track if you don't do it enough?" Showering. I'm not being flippant. In general, "dealing with life". I am prone to depression, the clinical kind, the kind that causes you to stay in bed or browse web aimlessly all weekend. The kind that makes it seemingly impossible to do the things that need doing, like finishing projects, calling friends, or taking a shower. I wonder if the many other prone to depression people have similar reaction as I to "life-hack", "feel-good", "aphoristic" blogs/articles/people like this one. The reaction you might imagine a poor person has listening to a top 1%er ponder "which of my seven houses do I not hate spending the summer in".

PieSquared 17y ago
> I wonder if the many other prone to depression people have similar reaction as I to "life-hack", "feel-good", "aphoristic" blogs/articles/people like this one. Erm, I found that minorly confusing as to what you meant. Could you elaborate?
- californiaguy 17y ago
  Losers hate winners, no matter the context.
- jodrellblank 17y ago
  He isn't driven to do anything, and is (somewhat) envious of someone who has a choice of things they are driven to do. ( I interpret his statement in light of my current state - in bed browsing the web aimlessly at 10am despite being on holiday in a hotel in a foreign city ) ( Incidentally, I saw Jodrell Bank from the plane on the way here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodrell_Bank_Observatory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodrell_Bank_Observatory )
- njharman 17y ago
  Yeah, I've spent 20min trying think of a way to elaborate without much luck... People rarely view things from any perspective other than their own. It annoys me. jodrellblank isn't correct btw. I'm not envious. I'm very cognizant and thankful for everything. Cause despite how shitty and hard I may think my life is I know it's comparatively "charmed". People are starving to DEATH in refugee camps cause some fuckheads were trying to genocide them. I can't even comprehend there being so little food that people die from lack.

pbhj 17y ago

Um, sex!? Or was that to obvious.

bkovitz 17y ago

What a great exercise! It can be hard to think of what you really care about: starting that way often leads to trying to deduce what you "should" care about. What you hate, though, is easily accessible. Negative emotions are right in your face, and they lead straight to clarity about what you deeply desire, if you follow the emotional thread for two hops or so.

spudlyo 17y ago

I hate not reading stories on HN that are insightful, informative, or thought provoking.

10ren 17y ago

I hate not solving problems. It's that post-modern trope where the super hero realizes he needs the bad guys for his identity. I also hate not coding.