Ask HN: 2018 resolutions? - <AUTHOR> <comment><USER3> Less consuming, more creating. Doesn't matter what it is, doesn't matter if it's bad.

<comment><USER4> Good luck! We can all do this. Create and create and you will eventually catch up with your taste.

I have a personal theory that unhappiness is due to too much consumption, not enough personal creation. Even if it just a sketchnote or a doodle... that is enough.

> Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone told me. All > of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But > there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it's just not > that good. It's trying to be good, it has potential, but it's not. But your > taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste > is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. > They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through > years of this.

> We know our work doesn't have this special thing that we want it to have. We > all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in > this phase, you gotta know it's normal and the most important thing you can > do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you > will finish one story. It's only by going through a volume of work that you > will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I > took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I've ever met. It's > gonna take awhile. It's normal to take awhile. You've just gotta fight your > way through.

-Ira Glass

Video version:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wLP0izeJE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2wLP0izeJE)

[https://youtu.be/E1oZhEIrer4](https://youtu.be/E1oZhEIrer4)

<comment><USER5> This reminds me of a famous quote by Chuck Jones[1]: "Every artist has thousands of bad drawings in them and the only way to get rid of them is to draw them out."

In the same way, we probably all have thousands of bad programs/scripts/classes in us. Code 'em out.

[1] I've also seen this attributed to others and phrased differently

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER6> I found this line in an old blog post from 2013 in my drafts folder.

> But honestly, I've been thinking back, trying to remember the last time I > felt like I was really in control and being the person I wanted to be.

That was 5 years ago and I now realize I've felt like that almost the whole time, with brief breaks. My goal is to treat this as a real problem and solve it.

<comment><USER7> Let me guess you are employed? I was in a similar situation and quitting my job helped me get out of this. Beginning was bumpy and I regreted it somewhat for some time, but I don't even think about it anymore. It's ok if you don't have a plan or a project, you need some curiosity and general area of what you are interested in (a stack of unread books counts).

You aren't betting on your project but on your skills. Like if you spend a year doing a thing, you'll be a beast. And even if your thing doesn't work out, you'll be fine.

Email me (<my username>@gmail.com) if you need someone to help you plan it. I don't have all the answers but I have some. This counts for anyone else reading this as well.

<comment><USER6> I left my job early in 2017, did an internship for a few months, moved to another country at the same time, lost the job I was supposed to get after the internship, came back to my home country, and got another job. I'd say I've done my "year off", looking for stability at the moment.

I like the idea though. The thing is, I'm not super self-motivated to work on programming. It's fun when I'm getting paid, but when I'm not getting paid I'd rather play outside. I'm a lot more interested in management-type stuff, running projects and working at a higher level. Any idea how to practice that on your own time? So far my best idea is to throw parties and activities for my friends, which is fun, but hard to put on a resume.

<comment><USER7> I know where you are coming from. Since quitting, I've been contributing to a lot of open source on github. It solves the resume problem. And strangely enough, these contributions turned into social events, I've met people working on this one project called audiokit that I contribute to.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER8> I don't like resolutions. They are lies we tell ourselves, false promises from our present self about our future self. If you actually believe you can accomplish your resolutions, you don't need a manufactured holiday, like New Year's, to decide to change your life. Any day of the week should work. Don't wait until 2018 - start today.

<comment><USER9> If resolutions were so powerful, why not have monthly, weekly, daily, or hourly resolutions? Imagine the things we could accomplish if all it took was to attach a goal to a discrete unit of time. My new day resolution is to get some more sleep.

<comment><USER10> I set monthly reminders to keep me on track this year and they helped a bit, I might try weekly too this year. Course correcting once a year is definitely not enough.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> I'll be doing a slightly-silly personal challenge that I made up: walk 7,777,777 steps, write 777,777 words, do 77,777 jumping jacks, 7,777 press- ups, eat 777 different types of fruit, achieve target weight of 77kg, and run 7 10K races.

[https://medium.com/@7sevens/the-seven-sevens- challenge-c7b7d...](https://medium.com/@7sevens/the-seven-sevens- challenge-c7b7d669bf95)

<comment><USER12> Do subvarieties of apples count?

<comment><USER11> I'm counting species, not varieties. I wrote more here: [https://medium.com/@7sevens/1st-january-2018-fruit-and- runni...](https://medium.com/@7sevens/1st-january-2018-fruit-and- running-f530333642b)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER13> * Exercise Everyday (intensity/duration may vary, but never ever miss)

* Make healthy diet changes one at a time (Very very hard to do. Try to do multiple stuff and drop them all. ) First change, start with raw veggies in the morning.

* Delta-debug how to get into flow state as many time and as fast as possible (Kramer's rule from below, couldn't be better stated). For starters, work on one and only one thing at a time. Suffering from analysis-paralysitis and spread-too-thiningitis

<comment><USER14> I advise against daily workouts. You'll end up overtraining. You need days of rest for your muscles to grow.

A common advice is either 3 days of general exercise, or 2 leg days + 2 upper body days. Note some exercises can't be pidgeon-holed that way, like swimming.

This is currently my favorite training program: [http://www.50pullups.com/](http://www.50pullups.com/)

You get the essential exercises: pushups, squats, pullups, with advice how to train, how to rest, how and when to advance.

<comment><USER15> I'm only seeing a pullup training program on your link - is there a supplemental program for the squats etc?

<comment><USER14> There should be green icons on the left.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER16> Learn new tech stacks , and get into Big data & ML. TO not be a generalist dev anymore, and get into either Amazon or Microsoft. May be find the right girl and get married. Lesser Netflix , more reading books and writing (blogs/Medium).Not to laze around on weekends and invest that time into building new skills and advance my career. As always lots of stuff to do and hope I can achieve the maximum possible till Jan 1 2019. Happy New Year HN !

</comment><comment><USER17> Ask out a girl in person and forget about online dating.

Get my hiking rate of ascent to 2,500 ft/hr.

<comment><USER18> I haven't found a greater thrill in life than meeting a girl in day-to-day life (like at the supermarket). Always a mixture of deep fear and excitement, despite any attempts to rationalize the heart-pounding away.

<comment><USER19> I know. That's a bit of a problem. Once you get into it there is nothing that can replace that adrenaline rush. You are getting so bored when you are in a relationship and have to stop doing it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER20> Improve my Spanish vocabulary by extensively reading at least one million words of Spanish. I'm currently at the level where I can read about 12 pages of Harry Potter per hour without a dictionary, or faster with Readlang. One million words is about the length of the entire Harry Potter series.

Continue my porn-free streak to prioritize real life sexual experiences.

<comment><USER21> Good luck on learning a new language. Be careful that when writing in Spanish you also have someone check that your Spanish is correct. Otherwise, you may be practising something wrong.

<comment><USER20> Thanks. I feel like the hard part is over now that I can read and watch Spanish tv and follow enough to enjoy it. Bootstrapping myself by cramming the first 1500-2000 words or so of vocabulary felt like a lot of work.

I almost never practice speaking and writing because I don't want to become fluent in my mistakes.

I like the way [antimoon]([http://www.antimoon.com/other/myths- mistakesbeg.htm](http://www.antimoon.com/other/myths-mistakesbeg.htm)) writes about this aspect of language learning.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER22> Health

\- Undo minor case of hip impingement ( sitting down too much! )

\- Connect with more people / foster better relationships. Who knew making friends in a city could be so hard?

Programming

\- Finish SICP. Made it through four chapters with co-workers, and then everyone dropped off.

\- Continue exploring functional programming

\- Finish my homegrown Japanese kana / kanji language learning tool

Other:

\- Take some of the wisdom from this thread[1], and make myself more "marketable" through blogging, giving talks, etc.

\- Pass the JLPT 3 test

[1] - [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15994410](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15994410)

<comment><USER23> "Who knew making friends in a city could be so hard?"

I've never found a place where it was easy to make friends, though the easiest has seemed to be language class full of other immigrants. We all had that one thing in common.

<comment><USER22> > I've never found a place where it was easy to make friends, though the > easiest has seemed to be language class full of other immigrants. We all had > that one thing in common.

Learning and/or shared discomfort has seemed to foster the closest relationships I've had to date. Perhaps, it's time for more classes.

Coming from the countryside, it's such a strange paradox -- to be surrounded by so many people, but alone at the same time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER24> Get a Higher resolution display (around 4k maybe) and be more ergonomic in general.

Release an Open Source Project and develop it for a year.

Turn my comments into blog posts instead of just comments.

But most important to have fun!

<comment><USER25> So, is this a meta resolution? :)

<comment><USER24> Yes, thats the joke :)

I would like to get a 4k display and have it partition itself into a different set of aspect ratios but I'm not sure that is possible.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER26> 1\. Ship every day - keep momentum going (talking to new customers, fixing bug, building new feature)

2\. Be more accountable - write on Skype every day to my business partner what I will work on today.

3\. Stay focused - Keep putting the gas on the 1 or 2 things taht work.

4\. Stop seeking perfection - find 90% of results with 10% of efforts.

And of course:

5\. Travel more - I plan to visit South Korea, Japan, China, Russia, Ukraine, Estonia this year!

<comment><USER9> How do you plan on shipping every day, being more accountable, and staying focused when you take enough time off to visit 6 different countries in one year? Sounds like resolution #6 should be to stop bullshitting yourself.

<comment><USER27> We've banned this account for repeatedly violating the HN guidelines and ignoring our requests to stop.

If you don't want to be banned on HN, you're welcome to email email@example.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.

<comment><USER28> Honest question - if this user creates another account and keeps violating the rules, how would he be stopped?

<comment><USER29> Blacklisting their IP address would be my guess.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER30> I'm not going to burn my personal life programming any more.

</comment><comment><USER31> Probably try for a Master's degree since my employer would essentially pay for it.

I've been wondering what the next step is for me after 5 years as a (professional) web developer. I still enjoy it but I can't help but think that there's something after. I work on a very modern stack (React, Redux, TypeScript, etc.) and I imagine many here would be satisfied with that. But lately I keep trying to define the value that I bring to the table and it's hard to verbalize, when it shouldn't be. So learning to express that is also on the table.

I've also been getting my feet wet with crypto, machine learning and FinTech. They may turn out to be 2017 fads but so was JavaScript and jQuery back in the day.

</comment><comment><USER32> 11 years ago my resolution was to stop making resolutions. So I've got some great resolution ideas but am screwed because I never fail to deliver on a new years resolution.

</comment><comment><USER33> \- Continue with habit forming practice

\- Run and exercise at least 3 times a week

\- Delta-debug how to get into flow state as many time and as fast as possible

<comment><USER34> Good post-- looks like a recipe for success to me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER35> I'm spending more time working on things that I can touch. That means more woodworking, electronics projects without any software attached, and customizing real-world tools like my desk, coffeemaker, and bass amp for what I want them to do.

I'd also like to get my bench press up from 170 to 225 and cut carbs down, but not eliminate them.

</comment><comment><USER36> 1\. Build a 2d side scroller. 2\. Build the website currently codename saw. 3\. Up my CS game. 4\. Build a robot that will at least pickup one object. 5\. It is time I buy that school bus to live in for a while.

</comment><comment><USER37> Alex Vermeer's guide "8,760 hours" [1] could be helpful if you didn't already come up with your resolutions: Its method gives you a framework how to analyze and prioritize your long term goals for this or the next year.

[1]: [https://alexvermeer.com/8760hours/](https://alexvermeer.com/8760hours/)

HN post: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13249796](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13249796)

</comment><comment><USER38> Here is what I'm going to focus on in 2018:

\- Work less, achieve more

\- No alcohol

\- Read more

\- Write more

\- Practice my Mandarin

\- Produce 1 song/week ([https://weeklybeats.com/](https://weeklybeats.com/))

\- Continue to make one thing every day

<comment><USER39> You know what, screw it, I'm joining weekly beats. Thanks for this. I always wanted to learn to produce music, let's try it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER40> \- Introduce at least another 30,000 developers to StdLib [1]

\- 1,000lbs combined 1RM on Squat, Bench, Deadlift

\- Run two half-marathons

\- Spend more time with my girlfriend and my dog

Hold me to it, HackerNews.

[1] [https://stdlib.com/](https://stdlib.com/)

<comment><USER41> Just signed up for StdLib! Looks cool, so it's basically a streamlined version of AWS Lambda + API Gateway?

<comment><USER40> Thanks! Yep, you can think of us like that. Our first prototype (launched in August 2016) was really just a shim layer on Lambda, but we've grown to much more in a really short amount of time. Developer response has been nothing short of amazing. Tens of thousands of developers and growing rapidly.

Our core thesis is we aim to turn remote function calls into first-class citizens of your development environment, with all that entails. We'll have some _very_ exciting news in the New Year about this, so definitely stay tuned!

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER42> #1 Blog more

#2 Work on my book

#3 Grow all my own food

#4 Sell everything (already in motion)

#5 Backpack in Europe for 90 days: Switzerland, Germany, Scandinavia

Optional:

#6 Interview at a bunch of places abroad

#7 Work in a language I enjoy (Clojure, Erlang, ect ect)

</comment><comment><USER43> 1\. Get a job

2\. Finish a side project

3\. Go on a date with a girl

4\. Finish an NES game on my backlog

5\. Read the second book in The Chronicles of Narnia (I've only read The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe)

6\. Relax

<comment><USER44> The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is actually the second book in the series, even though it was written first :)

<comment><USER43> Thank you as I didn't know this. I guess I need to read the first book in the series. Should I read them in chronological or publication order? Perhaps I'll stick with publication order since I've already started that way.

I found this link: [http://www.narniaweb.com/resources-links/in-what-order- shoul...](http://www.narniaweb.com/resources-links/in-what-order-should-the- narnia-books-be-read/)

It reminds me of Haruhi Suzumiya [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruhi_Suzumiya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haruhi_Suzumiya) (also excellent series)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER45> No porn

Less comment reading, more article reading.

<comment><USER7> Comments aren't as bad as you think and articles aren't as good as you think.

<comment><USER45> Given that I read both I find that hard to believe.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER46> Mid 2017 I started reading more and I ended up reading 30 books. It has been incredibly fulfilling, my head is constantly full of new ideas and I find myself a better person.

I want to continue with this trend and read 50 books and write a review for each of them.

Additionally, as I just moved to Berlin, I want to make new friends here.

</comment><comment> FLUX-YOU Die a bit more slowly

</comment><comment><USER47> No alcohol for a year.

While getting ready for exams this november-december, I had to quit all social activities and as a side effect, I haven't had any drinks for a month or so. While it did not improve my studying or sleep significantly, it helped me realize the effect alcohol has on my body. Couple of drinks after the last exam gave me quite a hangover, something i did not experience much before. Now the interesting observation is that my hangovers got much easier to a point of almost disappearing as I got into drinking again. The realization of this semi-permanent effect combined with studies showing connection to cognitive impairment (memory, concentration etc.) got me into trying a year without alcohol.

Edit: formatting

<comment><USER48> Ran into something like this with caffeine. I used to drink four to six pops a day. You wouldn't think it'd be a big deal, but cutting that out for a month took me from being tired all the time and getting up twice a night to take a piss, to sleeping through the night and actually feeling decent in the morning.

While I'm sure doing the same with alcohol would be different and potentially deadly (so I've read anyways), it couldn't hurt to cut it back or out completely. Livers definitely like it according to my doctor.

<comment><USER49> > getting up twice a night to take a piss

Highlighting this for a quick PSA: _this is not normal_. People (at least Americans) seem very eager to dismiss this as a thing that just happens for no particular reason, or because you dared to have a small glass of water within 4 hours of going to bed. It's not highly specific to any condition, but it points to an abnormality in some physiological process [1]. It can be anything from lifestyle factors (e.g. high caffeine or alcohol use, or unusually high sensitivity to them) to chronic disorders, to having no identifiable cause. For me it was sleep apnea.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturia#Causes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nocturia#Causes)

<comment><USER48> Oh no I totally agree with you that you are right it's not normal at all. For myself lowering my sugar levels (my diet consisted of high amounts of sugars and salts....a great combo I know), more psychial activity, and lowering caffeine levels resolved the issue. This was after doing a few checkups including dealing with a urologist (not pleseant at all, but better safe then sorry)

So ya in a nutshell, if this is happening to you, dont' ignore it. Because your'e right, it's not normal.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER50> Learn things that benefit me, not my employer.

</comment><comment><USER51> 1\. Complete my SaaS projects and generate enough revenue to become ramen- profitable.

2\. Keep up the habits I have finally developed:

\- Clean diet - staying away from bad food, coffee, nootropics.

\- Exercise - running every day.

\- Coding every day - learning from courses or adding features to my projects.

\- Writing every day - working on blog posts, video scripts, or at least writing quora answers.

\- Writing at least 4 jokes per day. Striving to post them regularly (tweet, use them in my articles, write routines).

\- Info diet - reading, staying away from reddit, consuming news only through RSS and HN.

That's pretty much it. I want to stay healthy, make money, and get better at my craft. Nothing else needed.

<comment><USER52> > staying away from coffee

Huh? Why?

<comment><USER51> I was drinking too much of it, it became a problem - tolerance, withdrawal, messed up sleep cycles. Also I've read that it stresses adrenal glands and may cause cortisol issues.

Bottomline is - I want a sustainable lifestyle, and with coffee it became unsustainable.

This year I've learned that to achieve my goals I have to learn to think long term, treat it as a marathon, not a sprint. From a big picture point of view, steady, measured, consistent pace is better than short term highs followed by inevitable lows.

Green tea is fine tho =)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER53> \- Read a ton. In about six months I'll be applying for a masters degree programme in literary studies, and from this year september I'll have about an academic year to stabilise the topic of my thesis. But as a rather late-comer to literature (I was all about IT my late teens, interested in humanities when I was 19-20, and re-started undergrad education in the faculty of letters a bit later), I find my knowledge rather shallow. I've been reading lots of books, both fiction and things like major philosophical works, ancient literature, the scriptures, art history, theory of art, etc., but much slower than the rate I'd like to maintain. This year I'd like to read about a hundred books, and complete reading the scriptures (I'm reading it cover to cover, takes some time...), the Odyssey, the Histories, and maybe a couple more. The coming 6-7 months will probably be the last ones where I can postpone working as a 24-yrs-old, so I must make good use of them.

\- Fix my sleep cycle. For lots of time I've been sleeping every now and then, randomly, and the last months I feel like I can't do so anymore, especially can't wake up with little sleep. I should get to sleep more regularly.

\- Learn at least one of French or Portuguese. Certify my knowledge of English and Italian (both foreign languages I know).

\- Do some travelling, both to shake off some stress and to find a cosy place for my PhD.

</comment><comment><USER54> Less HN!

<comment><USER55> Seriously, it's so addicting.

<comment><USER56> Coding as a vocation is somewhat unique because of our access to high quality global discussion forums. It can be a bit too much fun, but it's also a really interesting part of life.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER57> "I don't make resolutions, I set goals" (TM) (A purposely eye-roll inducing quote I've been saying to myself for a few years). But:

\- Contribute to Swift

\- Finish 6 books

\- Ship 2 iOS apps

\- Run 10km in under 50 minutes

\- 195 lbs

</comment><comment><USER58> My 2017 resolution was to become involved with my local and regional community (outside of tech). It has been a tremendously fulfilling experience. My 2018 resolution is to do more public speaking/teaching in it. I am done doing the usual fitness, diet, etc. ones. I either do them already or not at all. But these new ones that took me three decades to try have been more fulfilling and more fun than anything else.

</comment><comment><USER59> bash-scripting:

23:20, I was waiting on a public event for new year to happen. There was no big countdown screen visible. I checked my android phone if there is any clock with seconds, nope (iOS has something I think). I usually would download an app but I am on holidays and there was no Wifi. So I thought, 40 minutes to go, lets fire up termux with ruby and make a oneliner. I discovered that I didn't install ruby yet. Ok, I need to use bash. MAN is also not installed yet. Termux thankfully has a 'help' command. It offers for "while": "while COMMANDS; do COMMANDS;> { COMMANDS ; }". I tried for 30 minutes, but there was always a syntax error.

Another solution would be "watch -n1 echo $(date)", but then I would have an update only every second. Also this somehow didn't work because of some buffer issues. It always showed the same time.

23:56, I give up.

Now at home, I lookup the syntax for while and here it is: "done" was missing. Easy to find out, unless you never use bash for scripting. I tried tons of keywords and combinations, but just couldn't remember that it was "done".

<comment><USER56> Your "watch" command didn't work because the first thing that happens is that your shell expands the $(date) word into the current date, and then it runs "watch -n1 echo 'Mon Jan 1 ...'".

You should have just done "watch -n1 date".

BTW, the manual for bash is really good: [https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.pdf](https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.pdf)

</comment></comment><comment><USER60> To host more dinner parties!

</comment><comment><USER61> \- Self study cryptography, algorithms, linear algebra, machine learning

\- Work on some side project either being a startup or open source project - this will take priority over self-studying if I can find the right thing to work on

\- Get a treadmill so I can run every morning when it's too cold to go outside

\- Hit savings goals for retirement and buying a home

\- Spend some time abroad

\- Do a combination train/biking/camping trip

</comment><comment><USER62> If you forget the grandiose ideas and keep them simple they are more likely to happen.

I'm left handed and my resolution last year was to use my right hand more. I had to make a conscience effort to do so, but that effort has stuck with me. I still think about which hand to use before performing a task, something I didn't do before the resolution.

Keep them simple.

<comment><USER63> Did you notice any benefits from doing this? I imagine challenging yourself to do familiar things in an unfamiliar way has some cognitive benefits, but I'm curious about specific examples.

</comment></comment><comment><USER64> 1\. Get back under 200 lbs (~225 right now so should be doable with some diet and routine changes)...

2\. Create a money generating side project.

</comment><comment><USER65> no alcohol before breakfast and try to remember to change my underpants at least once a week. no seriously, I like kramer1416 idea of figuring out how to get into flow state on a regular basis. I reckon that would be an overall win for personal productivity. Also, lose weight through exercise and learn how to brew cider.

<comment><USER23> Ritual. Some of this helps with sleep, too, if you do it before bed.

Choose a smell, music, a special way of sitting. A cup of coffee, a snack. A combination of things. Perhaps use headphones. The more often you do this before time you have flow, the more likely it is that your body and mind will view that ritual as a signal to get into a flow state.

Resource: Occultism. Some mind states used with occultism are likened to the state of flow and folks work some time getting to those states faster.

</comment></comment><comment><USER48> Work on my health, release an application, hopefully have some stability life and employment wise, maybe do some talks at a conference or two. Hell maybe release a book.

Depending on how all that goes, maybe i'll go back to school. Maybe I'll see the world. Hell maybe I'll get married. Stranger things have happened.

</comment><comment><USER66> This year I sat down to write some 2018 resolutions and realized that I've either already been successfully beeminding them for a few months, or am waiting to add beeminder goals in the next few months.

I wrote down resolutions before and never stuck to them. Beeminder is a gamechanger.

</comment><comment><USER67> \- Finish two intermediate songs I've been trying to cover on guitar and vocals by 2019, and create some of my own.

\- Do a grocery shopping every week and spend less on food/eating out.

\- Finish a side project related to application of AWS and GCP deployment strategies and put it on GitHub.

\- Get promoted at current job.

</comment><comment><USER68> Most likely: raise money, start a business and spend the rest of the year dealing with GERD.

I don't know how people do such things so nonchalantly, so oblivious to the near-certainty of total failure. I never feel ready enough for anything. There is always more to check, elaborate, investigate, experiment, compare, prepare, plan, ponder, defend ... I am never ready enough. Never.

But I also don't feel like playing "what if?" for the rest of my life. I've already spent a lot of it spinning wheels and I currently have relatively little to lose. If not this year: when? There's no less-shittier time, really.

So if you were sick of me talking about BOSH, Cloud Foundry and Pivotal, buckle up. At some point you'll be sick of me talking about Robojar.

<comment><USER69> Any tips for dealing with GERD? My doctor hasn't really helped at all.

<comment><USER68> I may have been using poetic license. For me it's usually responded to medication.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER70> Leave the house at least five days a week. Previous years I was going to the gym every workday but that gym is now closed and I plan to continue exercising with my trainer in the modest exercise room of our condo and I am really scared of becoming a total recluse.

<comment><USER35> Do you work from home? If you do just find a different gym on the way to/from work; if not can you find a gym near a good workspace (like a library or good coffeeshop)?

</comment></comment><comment><USER71> Have a better relationship with my dad by being more kind and accepting.

Proper exercise 2-3 times a week.

Less time reading random stuff online and social media, more time writing and learning.

Switch jobs to learn more and progress in my career, don't get comfortable and stuck in one place.

</comment><comment><USER72> To stop consuming and start creating. Also to actually interact with people online. I haven't really commented online or been social online since the late 90's and I want to try and change that and actually create and interact again.

</comment><comment><USER73> I'm trying to take a middle of the road approach to resolutions. They aren't the most important things, because it should go without saying that I should try to do them, regardless of what year it is, but they aren't frivolous either. Mine are:

        1. Go for a 10 mile run each month
        2. Study Spanish for at least 10 hours each month
        3. Run my first triathlon

I posted them to my blog several days ago: [https://benatkin.com/2017/12/28/2018-new-years- resolutions/](https://benatkin.com/2017/12/28/2018-new-years-resolutions/)

</comment><comment><USER74> Ship something written in Scala, Rust and Haskell.

<comment><USER75> All three for one project?

</comment></comment><comment><USER76> Eat almost no sugar [http://www.theage.com.au/interactive/2017/what-sugar- does-to...](http://www.theage.com.au/interactive/2017/what-sugar-does-to-your- brain/)

</comment><comment><USER77> Figure out how to get more consistent freelance work and then do that. Keeping it simple -- 2017 was a pretty good year for me otherwise so I don't need to really add anything to the mix so to speak other than this.

Share more things that I create.

</comment><comment><USER78> Personal:

Watch less TV and read more. I have a list of books to read, and shows I'd like to keep at/below 2 half hour, 2 hour long per week.

Complete /r/photoclass_2018

Learn Swedish spoon carving. Make at least one spoon I'm happy with using. Get good enough to attempt a dala horse.

Relearn Spanish using Fluent Forever ideas/products. Get good enough to help translate for Spanish speakers in stores.

Lose weight. At 260, my goal is 199. Going to use a mix of weightlifting and metcon-style workouts.

Work:

Focus more a la Deep Work

Learn more AWS and Docker stuff

Lead refactoring of our code base

Help guide the core philosophy changes we need to move from survival mode startup to strong engineering culture

Edited to put some more specific targets around my personal goals.

</comment><comment><USER79> 1\. Expand my development horizons. I've been a .NET developer for most of my career, and I've recently taken a job at a company that is mostly Node/Ruby. This year, I want to learn enough RoR, Django, and Node to be able to contribute wherever needed.

2\. Compete at blue belt at a BJJ competition. I've a fresh blue belt, so my training needs to be more consistent in order to hang at that level.

3\. Learn to enjoy travelling more. For the first time in my life I've got the money to travel and see the world, and rather than being constantly anxious of being somewhere different I want to embrace it.

</comment><comment><USER80> Remain committed to reason, especially when emotions run high.

Grow more willing to stand up to bullies, including on HN.

Be kind to people, including myself.

Cause 10% less animal suffering through my eating habits.

Spend at least one week in a country and culture I don't understand.

<comment><USER81> By standing up to bullies you're likely to become one yourself. Maybe consider trying to have more empathy towards others and realize their opinions and behavior are formed largely by their own life experiences. Learn to accept people will be wrong often and you'll be happier.

<comment><USER80> > "By standing up to bullies you're likely to become one yourself."

I don't subscribe to that point of view. I believe it is those who submit to being victimized by bullies who are most likely to become bullies themselves.

> "Maybe consider trying to have more empathy towards others and realize their > opinions and behavior are formed largely by their own life experiences."

Please don't be condescending. My biggest pursuit in life has been learning, understanding and empathizing with others.

What past experience has lead you to believe submitting to bullies makes the world a better place? Do you find yourself bullying others after resisting bullies?

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER82> Blog much more, especially in a exploratory, engineering-notebook-y kind of way, detailing my thoughts, ideas, and failures. I've found those kinds of articles fun to write and even more fun to read.

I think this is because code doesn't live in a vacuum–it has a story behind it. Sometimes I like to read git histories of people's personal projects, to see how some of the stuff I use daily came to be. That's the kind of stuff I want to share with people.

</comment><comment><USER83> Be more mindful. Try to smile more.

</comment><comment><USER84> I put together a list of questions to ask yourself questions about your past year, and the new year

[https://www.deepthoughtapp.com/packages/130/new-years- reflec...](https://www.deepthoughtapp.com/packages/130/new-years-reflections/)

This is a site I developed to really help me understand myself better

</comment><comment><USER85> A few things I want to try to accomplish this year:

1\. Read fiction slower. Sometimes I just read to get to the ending and I miss _a lot_.

2\. Read more non fiction. I read 1 or 2 non fiction books in 2017. I want around 30% of my reading to be non fiction in 2018.

3\. Go to the gym at least 3 times a week. I've started this two weeks ago and I hope to keep going :)

4\. Finish a side project.

</comment><comment><USER86> Contribute to an open-source Project.

Read at least 30 books from my reading-list (mostly non-fiction).

Run a half-marathon by mid-year.

Travel to an unknown place unplanned.

</comment><comment><USER87> Working on my amount of energy i put into answering to other people when i'm irritated by there 'stupid/simple/obvious' questions.

I have that sometime, that i'm answering to short (=properly harsh?) but i do think i have the time to answer someone else properly and spend more energy in doing so.

</comment><comment><USER88> \- minimise food wastage (realised that I throw away a lot of food but still keep buying stuff)

\- no gadget purchases (I have enough)

</comment><comment><USER89> \- make my company profitable by focusing more on sales and marketing

\- build new winery (building for production, lab and so)

\- extend my body flexibility: after decades of sitting I am able to just reach my knees while standing. I want to be able to reach toes by the end of this year. Also work on my posture and remove my back pain.

<comment><USER90> Build new winery? Can you please explain this a bit more? how are you planning to achieve this?

<comment><USER89> I am making wine for 5 years. During this time I was subletting small part of another winery, but now it is time to move to my own place.

Winery can have many different forms, mine is going to be oversized garage/small warehouse. I hired architect who did many of those projects and we are currently waiting for building permission, which is very tricky. After that I will simply pay contractor to build whole thing and then move in my equipment.

As you see it is not that complicated, it just cost a lot of money. There is also going to be phase two which will add tasting room and underground cellar for aging and storing wine, but thats a project for another year.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER91> Make an effort to say something nice to someone on the internet every day.

I have never been uncivil online however I've also never been especially good at voice my positive feelings either. Therefore I will make the effort of putting mentioning positive things and not just nod approvingly at home.

</comment><comment><USER92> Socialise more. Get a girlfriend. Commercialize a side project. Run the New York Marathon!

</comment><comment><USER93> I'm resolving to produce a lot less garbage, cardboard, and plastic recycling, and plant 50 trees. Probably the biggest problem is going to be my Amazon habit. Does anybody have suggestions for reducing packaging from Amazon?

<comment><USER94> Use the waste packaging to craft stuff for your home and workplace. Start a forum/slack with makers interested in stuff like this and share ideas. You can probably build a lot of eco friendly solutions to your everyday problems with the high quality packaging.

<comment><USER95> This is an excellent idea! I often 'save' packaging from Amazon in case it comes in handy but honestly don't usually find a use for it. The best I've done is to reuse the thin packages as padding for devices in backpacks and cases when travelling.

If this forum existed I would definitely use it.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER96> 1\. Spend less time on binance.com

2\. Spend more time on a side project I have that solves a real problem and that I've been neglecting

3\. Commit new code every day

4\. Decide whether dating a current girl should continue or not.

5\. Talk to your family members more, especially grandma and sister

</comment><comment><USER97> Make a success of my website, WikiFork[1], an inclusionist fork of Wikipedia.

1: [http://wikifork.org/mw/index.php/Main_Page](http://wikifork.org/mw/index.php/Main_Page)

</comment><comment><USER98> A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other

</comment><comment><USER99> I want to leave my teaching job and work as a developer full-time: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16042744](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16042744)

</comment><comment><USER100> Try to keep my add in check even more. Less smartphone use(that is a though one, I get crabby and irritated if I don't look at it every few minutes...). Try to draw every day for at least 30 minutes.

</comment><comment><USER28> Hike again this year, and hike beyond 150 KM.

Positively impact at least 50 people. I'm not sure how to measure that, be it teaching a thing or two, helping homeless people, or talking to friends...

</comment><comment><USER101> \- Provide mentorship to 4 Students

\- Support a non-profit with technology

\- Travel to 14 new places

\- Write 40+ blog posts

</comment><comment><USER102> Get some IT/programming certificates, skill up to a job with a wage to get out of debt faster, and start a side project I've been wanting to get off the ground for a while.

<comment><USER103> What's the gist of the side project? If you don't mind answering of course.

<comment><USER102> Go-playing robot. I'd gotten some parts about a year ago but fell short on cash so it's been sitting in my brain for a while. Should revisit it around tax return time.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER104> Talk to more customers, at the same time as building. The first couple of versions are really a glorified mailing list, for people to talk to you about what they really want.

</comment><comment><USER105> I quit my job yesterday, going to start working full-time on a personal project of mine. Got a two-year long runway, looking to have my first customer in 6 months...

</comment><comment><USER106> \- Complete my IT Diploma with Cum Laude. 5 Subjects left out of 30 \- Lose 10kg \- Grow my side project which is currently making $1,000, to make at least $10,000.

</comment><comment><USER107> No buying books on Google Play. All the books I read will come from the library this year.

Get back into a weight lifting program.

Revive some of my open source projects that I've abandoned.

</comment><comment><USER108> Same resolution I've made every year for the past ten years: when I see a way to change my life for the better, make the change as soon as reasonable

</comment><comment><USER109> 3840 x 2160

<comment><USER110> I hope you aren't planning to combine that with Linux because they don't mix that well yet.

</comment></comment><comment><USER111> \- Abstain from sugar (already into week 3!).

\- Release a new programming experience that can at least make me more productive (if no one else).

</comment><comment><USER112> My resolution is to stop worrying about my career and stop doing Python in my spare time and instead focus on GNU Guile code!

</comment><comment><USER113> My new years resolution was not to make a new years resolution. Hmmmmmm maybe i need to think about that a bit more.

</comment><comment><USER114> Less carbs. Study for GRE every day until I take it. No reddit. No procrastination. Make my GF smile every day.

</comment><comment><USER115> 1) Grow my Search startup company cognifly.com 2) Learn Rust and Kotlin. 3) Contribute more to open source projects

</comment><comment><USER116> I'd like to slow down time but that's definitely not going to happen in 18. Routine = quick time passage

</comment><comment><USER117> Implement a Haskell compiler from scratch.

</comment><comment><USER118> 1) Freshen up my open source backup system (Snebu) 2) Take a second shot at creating a programming language

</comment><comment><USER119> I'd like to play more guitar. Get a better grip on my habits and my health. Graduate university.

</comment><comment><USER120> 2018: #Blockchain 2017: #CloudNative 2016: #Kubernetes 2015: #Microservices 2014: #ApacheCamel

</comment><comment><USER121> Put work into starting a podcast.

Make some progress on my reading list (just kidding, it'll grow forever)

</comment><comment><USER122> Eat less sugar. Drink less coffee.

</comment><comment><USER123> \- Learn: Machine learning, Deep learning

\- Build: Plant 100 trees

\- Teach: Programming lessons for parents

\- Be: Healthy. Workout 3 times a weeks

</comment><comment><USER124> Run a 5k, help flip Washington's 5th and 8th congressional districts, get better at baking.

</comment><comment><USER125> Smoke weed and find recursive patters in music and nature! ;)

Also finish Godel, Escher and Bach

</comment><comment><USER126> New Year resolution? Keep to goals I already kept and started from last year.

</comment><comment><USER127> -Learn how to finish things.

-Be on time more often.

-Walk more.

</comment><comment><USER128> * Read more.

* Become more fit.

* Travel more.

* Avoid sugar, caffeine, social media.

* Take meaningful conversations offline.

* Help more.

* Get better at Spanish.

* Become more aware of passing time.

</comment><comment><USER129> Sorry

<comment><USER130> Comments from a couple of people who left tech and started life over:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16043552](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16043552)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16043669](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16043669)

Offered as food for thought from someone who has spent a lot of time suicidal. Maybe part 1 of your goal can negate part 2.

</comment></comment><comment><USER131> Write a short tech book and publish on github. Related to front-end dev

</comment><comment><USER132> No more push notifications

<comment><USER133> This really is a great one. Life feels so much calmer without constant notifications.

</comment></comment><comment><USER134> Don't quit my (shitty) job, and bank the (awesome) money.

</comment><comment><USER135> 1\. lose 15 kilo,

2\. keep doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, ideally, get a blue belt,

3\. learn Clojure.

</comment><comment><USER136> Start planning my time in blocks.

Don't spread myself too thin

Start commenting on HN

Sleep before 12am

</comment><comment><USER137> Still 1920x1080 :(

</comment><comment><USER138> * Clean up what's left from my dead startup.

* Get a job.

</comment><comment><USER139> Work consistently on my startup.

</comment><comment><USER140> Get certified RHCSA - <USER2>

</comment><comment><USER141> Audentes Fortuna Iuvat

</comment><comment><USER142> Start teaching yoga.

</comment><comment><USER143> Eat less sugar.

</comment><comment><USER144> abs, 100k in the bank

</comment><comment><USER145> 2018 will be 1334-by-750-pixels at 326 ppi for me. Same as last year. No real need for upgrade.

<comment><USER146> Oh you poor thing, at least invest in an external monitor!

</comment></comment><comment><USER147> 1\. Stop chasing girls 2\. Complete projects 3\. Stop paying bonus to people in my company, just because I like their attitude or face.

</comment><comment><USER148> Improve attractiveness by 10x

<comment><USER149> Why?

<comment><USER150> Maybe he wants to run for President?

<comment><USER151> I don't think that's a criterion now.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER152> run a half marathon</comment>


Why Facebook Can't Become Twitter: Its Closed Nature  - <AUTHOR> http://techdirt.com/articles/20090504/0206304731.shtml <comment><USER2> This post seems to assume that Facebook wants to be more like Twitter, without bothering to support that. Let's take a look:

\- Facebook likely has 20-30x the number of users that Twitter does, despite only being a couple years older.

\- Facebook brings in hundreds of millions in revenue; Twitter brings in zero.

\- Facebook is composed of real people, many of which have rich and deep connections in real life. A comparatively large percentage of the users on Twitter are corporations, marketers, and spammers.

\- Facebook has tens of thousands of applications on its platform; Twitter has hundreds.

\- Facebook has raised hundreds of millions on valuations in the billions; Twitter has raised tens of millions on valuations in the hundreds of millions.

\- Facebook has twice the retention rate that Twitter does.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of both services, but this post is a clear example of being blinded by the latest hype (and yes, I'm aware that Facebook is high on hype as well).

<comment><USER3> MySpace had 20-30x the number of users that Facebook did not so long ago.

<comment><USER4> Looks like you'd have to go back to 2006, but yes, that was the case not too long ago.

[http://www.google.com/trends?q=myspace.com,facebook.com&...](http://www.google.com/trends?q=myspace.com,facebook.com&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0)

<comment><USER2> Dumb question, but doesn't Google Trends cover searches, not traffic on the actual domain? Are we just assuming that the ratio of searches:traffic is pretty much the same for both sites?

<comment><USER4> Yes, you're absolutely right. I made that assumption, and justified it by seeing that Compete's numbers matched up well for the past 12 months (Compete unfortunately only goes back 1 year, hence I went to Google Trends).

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER5> Next up on HN:

Why an Orange Can't Become an Apple: Its tough orange skin

</comment><comment><USER6> Next week's article:

How Facebook Can Become Twitter: Open up

I mean come on, it would be a weekend project to allow public posts and "follow" instead of just "add as friend".

The real interesting part is if Facebook/Twitter can actually make money.

<comment><USER7> Become a "fan" of a Facebook page = "follow"

</comment></comment><comment><USER8> Really? In the course of about a month and a half Facebook has caught up on nearly every single feature that makes Twitter distinct and interesting. I haven't seen a compelling reason to think that they won't be able to finish the job and go even further than what Twitter is capable of in the future.

</comment><comment><USER9> Great, so Twitter is different from Facebook because Facebook is "closed".

I don't see an argument re: which is more desirable (to the common user) though, an open system or a closed one. Without that argument, this article is mostly useless and uninteresting.

</comment><comment><USER10> Facebook - self-updating Rolodex

Twitter - real-time news</comment>


BitTorrent Inventor Demos New P2P Live Streaming Protocol - <AUTHOR> http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-p2p-live-streaming-110119/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Torrentfreak+%28Torrentfreak%29 <comment><USER2> I hope he builds cryptography and maybe better privacy features in the protocol from the ground up this time. If wikileaks proved anything it's that we need a more distributed web, that's probably one of the only things that could guarantee any form of net neutrality.

<comment><USER3> That is far easier said than done. If the streaming is point to multi-point then the crypto can get tricky, if you allow people to join and leave the group at random it gets tricky, and keeping it all working without providing a list of the participants to each peer is tricky. With BitTorrent Bram started out with a system that had strong crypto and privacy (Mojo Nation) and stripped most of it out because it increased the complexity for little benefit.

Strong crypto and privacy have costs, both in end-user resources and bandwidth implications. Getting it all correct is hard and if you screw up a little it is usually worse than starting from the position that privacy and a secure channel is something that the user has to bring to the table if they really want it.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> There doesn't seem to be very much public information about how this protocol actually works. How does it deal with NAT? Will it work on mobile networks? Does it require a native application?

<comment><USER5> Any p2p requires a native app as the browser can't act as a server.

<comment><USER6> That is not necessarily true. With websockets, you can write a full- functioning p2p client in the browser.

<comment><USER7> WebSockets is only TCP. Bram is using his own networking stack based on UDP.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment> andrewl-hn Actually, p2p streaming is patented by Spotify (likewise, p2p voip is patented by Skype).

<comment><USER8> You don't happen to have a link to that patent?

<comment> andrewl-hn-ncp Here they are (after a small googling):

[http://v3.espacenet.com/searchResults?locale=en_EP&IN=eh...](http://v3.espacenet.com/searchResults?locale=en_EP&IN=ehn%2C+andreas&ST=advanced&compact=false&DB=EPODOC&submitted=true)

Specifically take a look at these claims: [http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/claims?CC=US&...](http://v3.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/claims?CC=US&NR=2009019174A1&KC=A1&FT=D&date=20090115&DB=EPODOC&locale=en_EP)

I'm not really sure whether those are actual patents or patent applications, but even in later case the chance of them being rejected are very low.

<comment><USER8> Priority date 2007, I'd be surprised if there wasn't any prior art by that date. I know I was working on a P2P streaming system in 2006, for example.

<comment><USER9> There are many p2p networks for streaming content - they seem to be popular in Asia for watching English and European football, and I think many of these existed prior to 2007.

I'm sure there's a mountain of other prior art covering the concept. It isn't novel to anybody with half a brain. I was streaming audio in the 90s and clearly remember thinking about a p2p network then, because of the expense and legal threats I was receiving. All I wanted to do was enable football fans living abroad to listen to the local radio station on match days.. I thought I was doing the BBC a favour by extending their broadcast range! Yeah, I was just a naive kid. :)

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> So is this going to be an open source competitor to Abobe's Octoshape?

<http://www.octoshape.com/addin/about.php>

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octoshape>

Can it be made to work with Flash somehow? Because that would definitely be a winner.

<comment><USER7> It probably cannot be made to work with flash (without Adobe's help.) To build a p2p system like this, you need greater access to the OS than the flash sandbox will allow. The only way to get this is through a browser plugin. Octoshape had a special deal with Adobe where the flash player would install the Octoshape plugin, without the user having to do anything. This was because the code was signed by Adobe.

</comment></comment><comment><USER7> Sounds a lot like <http://esm.cs.cmu.edu/about/index.html>

btw, I hope he doesn't plan on making money on this. Rinera (now Conviva) tried and failed. Media company executives freak out at any mention of P2P. I bet they freak out even more when they hear P2P and Bram Cohen in the same sentence.</comment>


Startup or Shutup – A talk I gave for people thinking of beginning a startup - <AUTHOR> A few months ago, I gave a talk at a local LaunchUp event in Las Vegas.  The format was meant to be about my startup; however, I deviated and instead gave a talk about all the hurdles I encountered and how you need to be prepared if you intend to tackle the joy and disaster of entrepreneurship.
I didn't realize it at the time that my friend recorded the talk.  So I decided to upload it and see if it would be of value to anyone.
The video link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0ppRm4lUiM
I'd really appreciate any feedback, thoughts or discussions here or in the video comments.
Thanks! <comment><USER2> "Quitting is lying to yourself." That resonated. No matter how hard it is to build a startup and face the roller coaster of entrepreneurship...I guess in the end I'm a masochist :D

Thanks for sharing, Taylor.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks for the comment! You know you're an entrepreneur when you get hit hard cry it out and get back up.

<comment><USER3> I think this type of advice is silly and in the end dangerous to those it seeks to help.

Life is complex and blanket dogma such as "never quit no matter what, screw the haters!" is detrimental. There ARE situations when you SHOULD quit. Recognizing those situations may be hard, but it's still worthwhile to consider quitting.

I don't care what fantasy of glory you're trying to chase, but for the love of god please be pragmatic about it and consider the entirety of the situation before making a decision that can impact your life in a big way, for better or for worse.

<comment><AUTHOR> Not sure if you watched the video or not. The advice, in context, described what happened after my first startup failed. The first startup was recognized as a failure and I had to admit defeat and let my staff go. This is, to your point, acknowledging when it simply won't work.

However, the message of "Quitting is Lying to Yourself" is that if you have the spirit of an entrepreneur, telling yourself that you'll never do it again is lying to yourself because you know you will find a passion and feel the desire and need to build something new.</comment></comment></comment></comment>


Tesla Powerwall: not much cheaper and also a bit wimpier than existing batteries - <AUTHOR> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/05/04/tesla_powerwall_the_game_change_flavoured_battery/

<comment><USER2> Seems like the original article is way more positive than the click-baity title by The Register:

"So to get 1 kWh of usable storage in a lead acid battery you are looking at spending closer to $800. This makes the Tesla more like 2/3 the price per 'usable kWh' compared to good quality sealed lead acid batteries. Not bad. But wait, there's more…

2) Battery Life The Tesla battery comes with a 10 year warranty and an optional 10 year extension. This is huge. Most lead acid batteries come with a 1 year warranty. Let's assume the battery gods smile upon you and your lead- acid battery lasts as long as it's specification (1,200 cycles). You have only got 3-4 years out of it until you need a new one.

If your Tesla battery is going to last 3 times longer, then its practical cost over 10 years is actually less than a quarter of a comparable lead acid battery. Now we're talking!"</comment>


Sun to Distribute MSN Toolbar with Java - <AUTHOR> http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/sun_to_distribute_msn_toolbar.php <comment><USER2> Remember when language runtimes were composed of a few libraries that didn't interfere with the rest of the stuff installed on your system?</comment>


Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion - <AUTHOR> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson%27s_law <comment><USER2> I've been thinking this phenomenon is so common it should have a name. Traffic expands as to fill the time people are willing to spend in traffic. Software slows down as to be as slow as we can bear and grows to be as big as the medium it's transferred allows. It seems like we are good at collectively optimizing systems for the least individually bearable optimization; natural- born procrastinators.</comment>


Building the MySpace backend - <AUTHOR> http://www.metafilter.com/104479/Im-not-quite-certain-who-this-space-belongs-to-any-more#3752867 <comment><USER2> The problem with MySpace wasn't technical.

The problem was, it was a better GeoCities. Vanity blogs for people with internet friends.

Facebook used real names, so it helped people connect with their real friends; even the ones they weren't confortable being "internet friends" with.

I'm not saying this was genius. It was probably just luck. Or the result of Facebook being optimized for a single college, which was a microcosm of the real world - getting everyone to sign-up was only possible using real names.

Of course, it helped that Facebook has stayed small, and stayed pretty close to its pragmatic hacker roots.

</comment><comment><USER3> I thought it would be more technical. Instead it was mostly:

The scale was a new challenge to most people back then, we did the best we could - which most of the time was more than good enough - learnt a lot of good lessons and had a great team. In the end, we lost because we focused on advertisers and increasing the companies headcount for the sake of it.

<comment><USER4> It's a reply on a general forum in a pretty non-technical thread. I thought he actually did a good job juggling between the two audiences, fwiw.

</comment></comment><comment><USER5> The Data Relay project referenced in his comment: <http://datarelay.codeplex.com/>

</comment><comment><USER6> Later in the MetaFilter comments, Erik posted a link to video+slides of a session he co-presented at MIX 10. This session had technical content about the architecture of some of MySpace's stack:

<http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/MIX/MIX10/EX04>

</comment><comment><USER7> It annoys me a bit that people talk about scaling problems as being brand new then. A lot of the first generation of dotcoms had them too (Amazon, eBay, Yahoo, etc).

In general they were solved similarly - build custom middleware and go as distributed as possible.

Now I realize that's a simplistic answer to a very complicated problem but really guys, this isn't unprecedented and the hardware is a lot more capable and cheaper than the 1997 equivalents.

<comment><USER8> I think the scaling problem MySpace faced (and social sites in general face) was somewhat different than the sites you mention. Every page is dynamic, and requires real time updates. You could probably cache an amazon product page for a week. Also, the information on a page in a social network in much less siloed than a product page on amazon, or an auction on ebay. You are pulling in user information from across your base. So it doesn't lend itself as easily to a basic shard and cache model.

</comment></comment><comment><USER9> You know MySpace lost when you see a "Connect with Facebook" button on its homepage.

<comment><USER10> The same way Google releases iPhone version of its apps before the Android version? :)

<comment><USER9> iPhone started out with a lead, so it's not the same thing.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER11> Ok, but wasn't MySpace in ColdFusion? I don't know if they had anything today that is scalable on their backend.

Was NoSQL around back then? They're right about the custom hacking that is required and that Facebook does (i.e. MySQL).

Good web technologies existed at the time. They may have not had Rails or Django but servlets were certainly an option.

<comment><USER12> _Ok, but wasn't MySpace in ColdFusion?_

That's like saying Facebook is PHP or Twitter is Rails. Sure it started that way but when the shit hit the fan they probably went heavy and deep into lower level languages working much closer to the metal to solve the problems they were having.

</comment></comment><comment><USER13> I had to ask myself what MySpace was and clicked on the link to find out, then I remembered. Wow. It's like remembering that other old website Digg.

MySpace and Digg, now its Facebook and Reddit, what will it be next? HN still seems to be too intelligent for the main-mainstream to invade luckily.

<comment><USER7> I have fond memories of Digg, at least. Loved the user activism around the HD- DVD key days. That's kind of the last thing I remember was really awesome about that site.

I'd be really curious to see a good analysis or even set of anecdotes about why it went downhill. Seems like basically they ignored their userbase.</comment></comment>


Ask YC: Built a great social media site, but need a recommendation engine. Any ideas? - <AUTHOR>

I've developed a website / Firefox toolbar that allows people to surf the web by topic or within specific domains. I think it has huge potential and that I'm on to something big here, but its usefulness relies on having a powerful recommendation engine behind it, something I cannot build myself. It's similar in many ways to stumbleupon (at least in regards to how the rec engine needs to operate. new content is introduced by users who fave websites from their toolbar and should be introduced to more and more users as it gains popularity within a period of time).
I've talked to a few recommendation engine providers (loomia, strands, etc). Strands is the only company that may be able to provide a back-end recommendation service that could work for my service (great API, content agnostic, ability to filter by item tags).
But still, I'm not sure a 3rd party service like this could ever provide the flexibility that I would eventually want (For instance, how could I control the rate at which new content is spread and eventually stops being recommended? how would I address potential issues of gaming?).
I'm not that knowledgeable about how rec engines operate. If anyone here understands the technical details regarding rec engines (or has experience building them) I would love to hear what you think. A third party system could potentially allow me to launch this thing very soon and would alleviate many scaling issues. But maybe it would be smarter to try to get a team together and build it from scratch so that I have complete flexibility. <comment><USER2> I just read "Designing for the Social Web" and there's a chapter on "Collective Intelligence" (Chapter 6) [http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Social- Voices-That-Matter/dp...](http://www.amazon.com/Designing-Social-Voices-That- Matter/dp/0321534921)

It doesn't get into any technical implementation details but does cover design, strategy, and issues you should consider.

You might want to browse that chapter at your favorite bookstore.

Also check out "Programming Collective Intelligence" by Oreilly. I haven't read it yet, but it is sitting on my shelf.

<comment><USER3> I'll second the "Programming Collective Intelligence" recommendation. It's a good introduction to the field.

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> Collective Intelligence book has some examples - [http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Collective-Intelligence- Bu...](http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Collective-Intelligence-Building- Applications/dp/0596529325/)

I am not sure which technology you've used to develop your site, but Project Aura being developed by Sun developers looks really promising and is open source. Here is a link to their PDF from this year's JavaOne, they are suppose to launch it within the next month. [http://developers.sun.com/learning/javaoneonline/2008/pdf/TS...](http://developers.sun.com/learning/javaoneonline/2008/pdf/TS-5841.pdf)

</comment><comment><USER5> You don't have to do anything too sophisticated to get some great results for your users.

Check out this article and collaborative filtering library:

[http://www.igvita.com/2007/01/15/svd-recommendation- system-i...](http://www.igvita.com/2007/01/15/svd-recommendation-system-in- ruby/)

I actually want to play with this more, so if anyone wants to create a google group to share implementation approaches, etc., just reply to this and I'll create it.

</comment><comment><USER6> <http://gravityrd.com/> \- Guys from Gravity team in the Netflix prize.

</comment><comment><USER7> I'm sure you'll find many a great solution here but for what it's worth, I've dealt with the Strands guys and they have a terrific team. I'm sure they'll try to work out your issues with you if they see potential...

</comment><comment><USER8> It turns out this is a really hard problem. If you haven't seen it already check out <http://www.netflixprize.com/> to set your expectations appropriately.

<comment><USER9> In Netflix's case it's not that baseline recommendation (whether based on collaborative filtering or something else) is such a hard problem, it's that getting something statistically better than what they have is so hard. Decent recommendation based on CF was a well-understood problem over ten years ago.

</comment></comment><comment><USER10> We've build our own, contact us if you're interested (link in the profile).

</comment><comment><USER11> Good question - I'd also like to know if anyone has had any success in building or interfacing with one of these external services like Strands.</comment>


The 10-Step Google Login Process from Hell - <AUTHOR> http://blog.fairsoftware.net/2010/11/15/the-10-step-google-login-from-hell/

<comment><USER2> I've had an @gmail.com account for many years now. At some point, though, I realized that if Google went all Skynet on us, I would lose control of my incoming e-mail account. So, I used Google Apps to create an @maxcantor.net account, and forwarded it to my main gmail account.

This has led to confusion.

Since my @gmail.com account has always been my "primary" account, I use it for Google Talk. I use it on my Android phone. I use it to get into Hacker News. It's my primary OpenID account.

Obviously, this means that 90% of my friends & family send e-mails to _both_ accounts, because (unsurprisingly) no one can remember which one is the "right" one. Of course, the punchline is that neither is "right," because they both end up in the same inbox.

In my darker moments, I have dreamt of phasing out my @gmail.com account entirely, using the @maxcantor.net account for logins, for Google Talk, for OpenID, etc. However, the tenebrous depths of Google's "account" architecture are both mysterious and sinister to me. Will I lose 5 years of e-mail history? Will a non-gmail account lead to unexpected behavior with Google talk or OpenID or any of the other billion places I use my Google account? Will Google Apps go the way of Buzz & Wave the day after I make the transition, forcing me to either put up my own mail servers @maxcantor.net or switch right back to @gmail.com? My heart is filled with terror, comrades. I see the path of simplicity before me, but it is beset on all sides by the bloodletting hellhounds of You Get What You Pay For.

</comment><comment><USER3> 1\. You tried using a YouTube account that was merged into a Google account.

2\. You tried to use a Google account that does not have a YouTube account associated.

3\. Since the Google account is not associate with a YouTube account it gives you the option to create a new one or merge with an existing one.

4\. You tried to merge with a YouTube account already associated with a different Google account.

5\. You tried to merge with a YouTube account already associated with a different Google account with the wrong password.

6\. You attempt to reset the password of your YouTube account that is already associated with a Google account.

7\. Google is protecting your accounts security against bots.

8\. You submit the password reset form for your YouTube account that is already associated with a Google account.

9\. YouTube won't reset a Google account password so the email tells you where you can do that.

10\. You tried the Google account that was correctly associated with the YouTube account.

While Google should definitely work on their usability the fault is ultimately yours for not remembering the correct account.

<comment><AUTHOR> _the fault is ultimately yours for not remembering the correct account._

Except I know my YouTube account and password. That account name is what YouTube displays on every page when I'm logged in. Why Google doesn't let me in is beyond me.

I usually go by the belief that blaming the user is the wrong attitude, no matter how "technically justified" you may be.

<comment><USER3> Once you merged your YouTube account with your Google account the separate entity of the YouTube account ceased to exist. For everybody that realizes this it is a security risk to leave the YouTube password enabled since all of those users will never think to change or security going forward.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I was thinking this exact thing earlier today. Someone sent me a link to a Youtube video that wanted me to sign in to see risky content. I signed in with my Google account, which apparently wasn't enough, because I had to also have a Youtube account to link it to. I already have a Youtube account so I entered that info, but apparently it was already linked to a different Google account. So I clicked on the 'create Youtube account' link and was sent to an absolutely massive signup form which doubtless required some sort of email confirmation and my mother's maiden name. At that point I just said 'Fuck it, I don't want to see that video that badly' and left.

</comment><comment><USER5> This kind of thing actually keeps me from using a lot of Google services. I had accounts on a couple before Google Accounts was around, or at least became mandatory. I was never a Gmail user, so when I was forced to create Google accounts, I'd sometimes use different e-mails having forgotten which I used before. Now I have to go through a login/logout cycle multiple times to find out which Google accounts will log me in to which site.

</comment><comment><USER3> It is not a login process. It is a poorly designed account merge system.

<comment><AUTHOR> But I swore it said "login" right there in the dialog box :-)

How can they tolerate such a poor system? They have known about these issues for at least 2 years. If it were any other company, I would accuse them of mediocrity. But it can't be the case at Google, so what is going on?

<comment><USER6> You call people based on what they do and not who they are. :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER7> It's a shame to see Google + Youtube fall into the same trap as Yahoo + (Geocities|Flickr|Delicious)

</comment><comment><USER8> If you think that's bad, try logging into Hacker News.</comment>


Publicly Available Tools Seen in Cyber Incidents Worldwide - <AUTHOR> https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/AA18-284A <comment><USER2> I wonder if the code for these tools is easily accessible - like on Github? I'm not joking... I would love to understand a bit better how these things are written. Didn't see any links to code in the alert...

I suppose "publicly available" != "open source"</comment>


Kim Dotcom Megaupload case falters over sharing Canadian data - <AUTHOR> http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/kim-dotcom-megaupload-case-falters-over-sharing-canadian-data-1.3030991 <comment><USER2> Hiring one Canadian is prohibitively expensive, so instead they fight a legal battle to be able to send a team of Americans? That seems like a red flag to me. Even computer forensic professionals can't be that much more expensive than police officers and lawyers.

<comment><USER3> Yeah, it is pretty clear they intend to bend/break rules the Canadians would hold them too and say "Oops".

</comment></comment><comment><USER4> And in the meantime, Megaupload is caught in regulatory limbo, shut down in favor of its competitors' exponential growth.

Guilty until proven innocent.

That's why many companies try to avoid getting there, by lobbying for OPPOSING major parties, for instance.

<comment><USER5> [https://mega.co.nz/](https://mega.co.nz/) seems to be perfectly fine.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> > On Jan. 18, 2012, an Ontario judge granted a search warrant to seize 32 > servers in Canada — equivalent to the amount of data stored on 100 laptops, > according to Megaupload lawyers.

Wait what??? Neither servers nor laptops have any sort of "average HD size". This comparison seems quite stupid. It's not only apples and oranges to compare the two but provides no meaningful data at all....

<comment><USER7> Pedantry is the top-voted comment yet again. Welcome to Hacker News.

<comment><USER8> Calling something pedantic typically comes with a negative connotation. The above comment raises a fairly reasonable point, pedantic or otherwise.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER9> Just imagine all the tax dollars wasted ruining this guy's business.

<comment><USER10> His "business" that made about $200,000,000 off obviously copyright infringing material. Kim Dotcom is as sleazy as they come. I think he deserves to sit in a prison cell. Other folk may disagree with me, and that's fine, but he very much deserves to face a jury so that they can decide.

<comment><USER11> Personally, I agree with you but how Dotcom gets there is very important. We cannot tolerate methods that are not only illegal but violate the basic of principals of our legal code and society. Kim Dotcom is as sleazy as it comes but he does have rights and if he loses his, we will lose ours.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER12> Its before my morning coffee so maybe I am missing the reason but why can't it be indexed by Canadians? Is it because its an American case and they are only permitted to hold potential evidence, not assist in the investigation?

<comment><USER13> I don't think you'll find many Canadians that will gratuitously invade the privacy of others for the benefit for the US government.

<comment><USER14> Don't worry, we're just as crooked as Americans.

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER15> Note the journalistic bias - describing Kim Dotcom as "notorious".

<comment><USER16> That sounds like a fair description to me, and I want him to win this case.

<comment><USER17> Notorious implies he did something _bad_. In this case, the definition of _bad_ means different things to different people.

<comment><USER18> He's already been previously convicted of doing bad things, so the description is just fine.

<comment><USER17> "youthful foolishness".

<comment><USER18> Hardly.

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER19> The site is shut down so the people involved have achieved their goal. I doubt that the defence is claiming that there was no copyrighted material in the users data stores. The case is really about refusal to pursue copyright enforcement. All the prosecution needs to do is drag this out to win.

So if you don't toe the line all your equipment gets seized. If you ever get it back it will be obsolete. You will also be tied up with legal stuff for a long time. That is the real message being sent here. The facts of the case don't matter.

</comment><comment><USER20> Why do they need humans looking at files? Can't a program be created that scans disk contents and classifies them in whatever way they need it analyzed?

<comment><USER17> I think that's what the "humans" would be doing - using software tools to scan, analyze and report on the data contained.</comment></comment>


Browser autofill used to steal personal details in new phishing attack - <AUTHOR> https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jan/10/browser-autofill-used-to-steal-personal-details-in-new-phising-attack-chrome-safari <comment><USER2> this was already discussed last week [0]

0: [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13329525](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13329525)</comment>


That's a Lisp Machine in Your Pocket - <AUTHOR> https://hackaday.com/2018/12/19/thats-a-lisp-machine-in-your-pocket/ <comment><USER2> Z80 is not a Lisp Machine.

But the 1M memory is not in the address space and maybe there is some external CAR/CDR-processing, so the Lisp-part is actually executed elsewhere.

It is quite sad however that the Z-generation had to waste their time redoing old stuff instead of inventing something totally new: [http://timonoko.github.io/jemma/smuisti.html](http://timonoko.github.io/jemma/smuisti.html)

<comment><USER3> This is an eZ80: a 24 bit processor backwards compatible with the Z80, which can address 16 megabytes of external memory. It's called "8 bit" due to the data bus width, but the programming model is 24 bits. It has 24 bit registers and can load, store and operate on 24 bit quantities. It runs at 50 Mhz and is pipelined, so that in Z80 mode, it runs 3X faster than the original Z80 at the same clock rate.

I think that a decent Lisp implementation is possible on this machine, with useful embedded applications.</comment></comment>


Ask YC: Trying to use Google Apps to e-mail users but confused. Please help!? - <AUTHOR>

Hi All - I'm tearing my hair out. I want to use Google Apps for sending e-mails to our user community. I know some people here use it so I have a few questions:
1) Do you use the "e-mail list" functionality. Or do you merely route your e-mail through Google within the daily limits? i.e. using the standard gmail functionality?
2) Is there any point in using the premium edition apart from the 2000 email limit? Its not enough for us anyway, so we'll have to break down into smaller chunks.
I was just on the phone with a Google "power user" and they said e-mail lists were not for mailing lists but for internal distribution. So I'm pretty confused. If anyone is willing to clarify, I'd be super appreciative. <comment><USER2> You can always add your users' emails manually & create groups for them. So next time when you want to mass mail them, just send an email to that group.

Tried it. Works fine. Just a hassle to add the users' emails manually

<comment><AUTHOR> You can add users in bulk to Gmail Groups in your contact via a csv file. But you can only send 500 e-mails a day from each e-mail address. So its not really a sustainable solution.

<comment><USER2> Use Icontact or Mailchimp then.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks! MailChimp looks awesome. First one that Ive seen that it's the YC mold... fun, modern, easy. The rest of the services are all dinosaurs from the Web 1.0 stone ages.

I wonder what MailChimp's delivery records are like. Do you know if they have agreements with ISPs like the others?

<comment><USER2> According to their website, they have agreements with ISPs.

<http://www.mailchimp.com/learnmore.phtml> See: Deliverability

Here's a nice comparison of them vs IContact: <http://www.mailchimp.com/compare/>

On an unrelated note, i like the clean design on Newscred. (Yeah. Nothing to do with the post but just thought I let it out)

<comment><AUTHOR> Thanks... unexpected feedback is always welcome. And positive feedback makes us want to just work harder to continue to delight you guys!

</comment></comment></comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER3> for mass emails, you're probably better off using either a service or installing appropriate software. especially if you're breaking past the 2k limit on premium.

<comment><AUTHOR> Thats what I'm starting to figure out. I was just confused because I saw a lot of startups say they use Google to manage their mailings to users.

Back to iContact or Constant Contact or one of those I guess...

<comment><USER4> Probably because its free; but, things like MailChimp are a lot simpler.</comment></comment></comment>


Apple is first public company worth $1 trillion - <AUTHOR> https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45050213 <comment><USER2> well done to apple. Great design, great product and they found an impressive way to sale in hundreds of millions. I suspect that in 10 years we won't be using phones much so it will be interesting to see what direction Apple takes with the emerging tech (AI, Virtual Assistants, VR/AR). In each of these, they seem to be behind the competition.

<comment><USER3> Which is interesting, because at its most fundamental the value of a firm should be no different from the net present value of its future dividends (or other monies payable to the shareholders). These are the most fundamental of 'fundamental' valuations. Presumably (assuming the Efficient Market Hypothesis or some approximation thereof) investors are convinced that those discounted earnings will be forthcoming, whichever the successor technology may be. This in turn implies they (in aggregate) have faith in Apple's ability to develop and bring to mass-market at premium prices whatever comes next for several generations.

<comment><USER2> yes, perhaps. Much of that belief is based on the track record. Which in Apple's case is impressive but most of their products are derived from a similar concept which will run its course and will fundamentally change due to tech and user habits. You can easily imagine in the near future (which is also supported by many studies) most information being channeled through virtual assistants with visuals being handled through augmented reality so no need for screens, phones, watches, TVs... I imagine Apple is already investing heavily in all of these but all talk in on the latest release of an iPhone.</comment></comment></comment>


Cold-Water Swimming - <AUTHOR> https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/01/27/the-subversive-joy-of-cold-water-swimming <comment><USER2> Last summer I ran to the beach and went for a swim in the ~58 deg f ocean almost every day. I love it—you feel amazing after. From casual googling, it seems that the cold water triggers an adrenaline response, causing lower adrenaline levels afterward, i.e. less stress. I find the effect to be pretty dramatic. I also noticed a significant increase in my tolerance for cold in general.

<comment><USER3> I regularly do cold water swims in spring and fall months, and wholeheartedly agree with the amazing feeling after a good 10-20 minute dip.

I find the first few minutes of the swim are the hardest, as your body is adjusting to the cold, surface blood vessels are constricting, etc. The next 5-15 minutes are fantastic! I don't usually push it much beyond that.

But any discussion of the benefits of cold water swimming also needs to highlight the risk. If you're thinking of trying it out, make sure you're acutely aware of the temperatures you're dealing with, how long you're planning on being in the water, and that you understand the body's reflexes to cold water submersion. Here's a good resource covering these points: [http://seagrant.umn.edu/coastal_communities/hypothermia](http://seagrant.umn.edu/coastal_communities/hypothermia)

<comment><USER2> Very good point on the risks. I recommend immediately running, biking, or doing something else to warm your body up after getting out, especially if it's not a hot day. It only takes a couple minutes of running to warm up again, but if you stay still you can be shivering for an hour after.

I've also noticed that there are a few phases you go through. First there's the initial shock--that lasts a few minutes as you say. Then you adapt and it starts feeling good. But if you stay in for long enough, you can start feeling cold _again_ in a deeper more full-body way that indicates your overall body temperature is decreasing. That's when you want to get out :)

</comment></comment></comment><comment><USER4> I used to race triathlons, and I've dived into my fair share of chilly lakes and rivers at 6 AM. I guess this is a different thing than a leisurely swim, but the main thing I remember is the pain in the temples and around the crown of the scalp from submerging the head in ice-cold water. Something like a brain-freeze from eating ice cream too fast.

<comment><USER5> Muscle contractions that likely mirror the effects of tension headaches.

I've noticed this occasionally when I take a really cold shower.

</comment></comment><comment><USER6> For anyone in SF, I'd recommend checking out the Dolphin Club if you're into swimming in cold water – it's right on Aquatic Park in Fisherman's Wharf and has saunas that you can jump into right after your swim. It's probably my favorite place in the city and is open to the public every other day.

[https://www.dolphinclub.org/](https://www.dolphinclub.org/)

</comment><comment><USER7> [http://archive.is/1SnoS](http://archive.is/1SnoS)

I am surprised NewYorker started to block anonymous access to articles in Incognito mode.

<comment><USER8> chrome://flags/#enable-reader-mode

Firefox has this feature enabled by default and displays an icon in the address bar that you can click to reload the page in reader mode.

<comment><USER9> That is not a flag for me in version 79.0.3945.130 on Mac. What OS / version of chrome are you using?

<comment><USER8> Huh, I just updated to that version and I no longer have the flag either, guess they got rid of it... One more reason to primarily use firefox.

Looks like there are extensions in the chrome store that essentially do the same thing though.

</comment></comment></comment></comment><comment><USER10> >A year later, Walnut Tree Farm was bought by a couple, Jasmin and Titus Rowlandson, who have maintained his commitment to ungentrified country living...it is warmed by an Aga stove.

There's not much more gentric than an Aga

<comment><USER11> It could be an old one. Wikipedia claims [1] they hang around for decades.

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGA_cooker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGA_cooker)

</comment></comment><comment><USER12> I can totally recommend everyone at least _try_ a cold shower once. It's has a bit of a lower barrier to entry than cold water swimming.

If you've never been under a cold shower for more than a few seconds it's hard to imagine what it's like. It's more than _just_ cold. Your entire body has a visceral reaction to it. Your heart rate goes up, your breathing quickens, fight-or-flight kicks in hard. It's not exactly fun but boy is it a good way to start your day. I've never been more awake than after a cold shower.

Of course the tricky bit is to actually get yourself to _do_ it. Personally I tend to shower nice and warm, and then finish it off by turning off the hot water. It's always a challenge to see how long I can last under the cold water. Big advantage of showering like this is that you still get to have a nice comfy long warm shower but getting out of the shower isn't cold anymore. Room temperature is positively pleasant after a cold shower ;-)

</comment><comment><USER13> I wonder how this differs form dipping in chilled water at a typical Russian Banya. I can't swim well in cold water but experienced a great effect on my body at a russian spa. After alternating between sauna/steam room and quick dips in a small tank with chilled water (near freezing point) and all i could say is after the initial shock I felt absolutely fantastic.

</comment><comment><USER14> If you don't live near cold water, I find that taking an ice-cold shower has a similar physiological effect.

<comment><USER12> Seconded. It's pretty wild how much a cold shower affects you physically. The only comparable things is fight-or-flight stuff like your chair almost tipping backwards or the top of a lift hill on a roller coaster. You'll definitely feel awake and alive after!

</comment></comment><comment><USER15> If you are interested in this, you should probably take a look into Wim Hof. He has made a process out of using coldness for improving day-to-day condition.

PS: His practice is mostly (power) breathing and cold showers/swims/etc.

<comment><USER16> I took 1000 consecutive cold showers after studying the Wim Hof technique. It was awesome, and I still sometimes take a cold shower instead of hot, just for fun.

Did I gain any super human abilities like Wim claims he can teach? Nah, I just enjoy the cold. I'm that weirdo that wears shorts all winter, shovels the snow barefooted and dresses inappropriately for the weather, according the the comments everyone seems to need to tell me.

</comment></comment><comment><USER17> East coast winter surfer here. After that initial shock (anyone have ideas on how to minimize this??), it's a great feeling. Almost as good as the coffee and burrito after the session. Highly recommended.

<comment><USER18> If you have time, just enter much more slowly. Let your feet get cold then move up to your knees after the feet aren't so cold. Then nuts, then belly, then nips, then shoulders.

The real hurdle is when the water is high enough that my hands are in the water too. The whole time I'm slowly splashing and rubbing water over my body to prepare for submersion. I can tell which areas are still dry and upon their first exposure to water its slightly uncomfortable but well worth it. I get my hair wet with my hands as well.

Finally I get up to my neck and after awhile I feel like I'm in a nice cool pool. I don't wear a wetsuit.

</comment></comment><comment><USER19> "it is warmed by an Aga stove and an enormous open hearth, over which dinner is typically cooked" I guess this produces way too much greenhouse gases, as compared to more modern ways.

<comment><USER20> Compared to what?

Are you accounting for the greenhouse costs of producing and shipping all the equipment that it is replacing? A stove, ducts and vents, cabling, a heating furnace and the production of all the energy sources that run these?

You might find that answer is not so clear.

<comment><USER21> "...consumes thirty-eight times as much as a standard gas oven and hob"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGA_cooker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGA_cooker)</comment></comment></comment>


Russell Simmons: 3 Simple Ways Meditation Will Make You a Better Entrepreneur - <AUTHOR> http://tryary.com/news/1072/russell-simmons-3-simple-ways-m

<comment><USER2> Less Buddhist-specific: [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/22/meditation- does-it-...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/22/meditation-does-it-help- e_n_972369.html)

</comment><comment><USER3> Right on. I have been meditating for almost 40 years, and yes, I agree with RS that it is a secret weapon for happiness and success.

</comment><comment><USER4> I spend 45 minutes driving to work and back every day. That's meditative enough for me.</comment>