Hacker News with Generative AI: Personal Experience

I outsourced my memory to an AI pin and all I got was fanfiction (theverge.com)
There’s a glimmer of a good idea here. But after a month of testing, I’ve never felt more gaslit.

Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Personal Experience, Memory

25 points by petemir 20 days ago | 16 comments

What are smartphones stealing from us? When mine was taken away, I found out (theguardian.com)
A few Thursdays ago was a wrap. For my brief acting career, that is. One of the benefits of having a writer’s schedule in a city like Paris is the ability to say yes to the flurry of random opportunities that pop up.

Technology, Personal Experience, Social Impact

5 points by pseudolus 24 days ago | 0 comments

Why did I move to New Zealand? (sive.rs)
I get this question a lot, so here’s my honest answer.

New Zealand, Personal Experience, Migration

9 points by saikatsg 32 days ago | 1 comments

I'm starting to suspect my work is incompatible with a full-time academic job (humprog.org)
It's time to admit that I'm in a mess too.

Academia, Work-Life Balance, Personal Experience

75 points by luu 33 days ago | 87 comments

50 Years of Travel Tips (kk.org)
I’ve been seriously traveling for more than 50 years, and I’ve learned a lot.

Travel, Life Hacks, Personal Experience

295 points by marban 46 days ago | 210 comments

The True Costs of Being on YouTube (carlalallimusic.substack.com)
I started my YouTube channel in earnest in October, 2021, shortly before That Sounds So Good, my second cookbook, came out. A little over three years later, on January 29, 2025, I uploaded the 177th episode of Carla’s Cooking Show. That video, for a cheddar burger named after my mom, is my last for now, and possibly forever.

YouTube, Content Creation, Social Media, Costs, Personal Experience

84 points by exolymph 46 days ago | 69 comments

Why I'd never apply for a job online again (hottakes.space)

Job Search, Career Advice, Personal Experience

30 points by rwmj 46 days ago | 8 comments

My Seventh Year as a Bootstrapped Founder (mtlynch.io)
Seven years ago, I quit my job as a developer at Google to create my own bootstrapped software company. Every year, I post an update about how that’s going and what my life is like as an indie founder.

Entrepreneurship, Startups, Software, Indie Development, Personal Experience

45 points by mtlynch 57 days ago | 8 comments

A layoff fundamentally changed how I perceive work (mertbulan.com)
It happened on the afternoon of May 4th. A message from a colleague—who has since become a good friend—popped up on my screen, urging me to check my emails. When I opened my inbox, there it was: an email from the COO. The email announced an impending company-wide layoff and mentioned that, within a few minutes, I’d receive another email letting me know whether I was impacted. A short while later, the second email arrived.

Layoffs, Work Culture, Personal Experience, Technology Industry

1041 points by mertbio 66 days ago | 960 comments

I am a better therapist since I let go of therapeutic theory Essays (aeon.co)
After decades of practising psychotherapy, I believe it has little foundation in science and often causes harm

Therapy, Psychology, Science, Personal Experience

4 points by rbanffy 71 days ago | 1 comments

Programming Languages I've Used (rubenerd.com)
I’m not sure what the spark was for this post; maybe it was my recent adventures with Python. I haven’t been a full-time developer for a while, and I’ll be there are more languages I’ve forgotten. I started writing these in order of when I first used them, but then went a bit all over place.

Programming Languages, Software Development, Personal Experience

4 points by rbanffy 71 days ago | 0 comments

The day Garmin saved my life (reddit.com)
It was a normal day. After lunch I went to bed, but after an hour of sleep my watch woke me up with a notification. High heart rate. What? I look, 140bpm?! I start measuring my heart rate manually on my wrist. Excellent, 3 beats per second…. I get up, heart rate 190bpm. I call an ambulance. For the next three days my resting heart rate averaged 95bpm instead of my usual 52bpm. Tachycardia. I am 36 years old.

Health, Technology, Personal Experience

7 points by wslh 74 days ago | 0 comments

The Los Angeles wildfires are self-inflicted (wordpress.com)
I don’t ordinarily write about events “in the moment” but for this I will make an exception, as I was personally affected. Caveats aside, my family and I are safe, we evacuated for several days, and due to heroic efforts by professional firefighters and psychotically brave neighbors, my house and most of my neighborhood escaped destruction. We were the lucky ones – by far.

Wildfires, California, Climate Change, Personal Experience

67 points by surprisetalk 75 days ago | 25 comments

Tell HN: I'm a programmer who bought a typewriter (ycombinator.com)
I have been programming for the last 7 years professionally. I like computers from my early age. My father bought me Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ when I was in the first grade. Since then, computers were part of my life, significantly. I stare at my screen almost whole day. One day there was some voice in me saying "Buy a typewriter". I listened to the voice and bought Smith Corona Silent from 1946.

Programming, Retro Tech, Personal Experience

59 points by sasha_fishter 82 days ago | 56 comments

Do It in Jeans First (gkogan.co)
It was six months after my trek through the cloud forests of Peru when I learned I'm not supposed to hike in jeans.

Hiking, Personal Experience, Travel

7 points by aberoham 88 days ago | 0 comments

My takeaways from 12 months of therapy (cauldron.life)
Therapy had been a buzzword amongst some people I know and on the web. Honestly, I believed it to be a waste of time and money. I gave therapy a try first in 2021, but it was short-lived and not so great. In 2024, I again got curious about the mental health space and started paying more attention to the issues I was facing in my daily life.

Mental Health, Therapy, Personal Experience

46 points by whitefang 90 days ago | 88 comments

I think I may be putting my schizophrenia into remission (feelingbuggy.com)
About 4 months ago I started my journey with the ketogenic diet to improve the symptoms resulting from suffering from schizophrenia since I was young. For my surprise my focus and clarity of mind improved, my energy levels throughout the day increased a lot and on top of that I lost 30kg (66 pounds). See Finding Hope After Decades of Struggle.

Mental Health, Ketogenic Diet, Personal Experience

3 points by arijo 103 days ago | 0 comments

I Stopped Using OpenBSD (dataswamp.org)
Last month, I decided to leave the OpenBSD team as I have not been using OpenBSD myself for a while. A lot of people asked me why I stopped using OpenBSD, although I have been advocating it for a while. Let me share my thoughts.

Operating Systems, OpenBSD, Personal Experience

54 points by patrakov 130 days ago | 78 comments

I Stopped Using OpenBSD (dataswamp.org)
Last month, I decided to leave the OpenBSD team as I have not been using OpenBSD myself for a while. A lot of people asked me why I stopped using OpenBSD, although I have been advocating it for a while. Let me share my thoughts.

OpenBSD, Operating Systems, Personal Experience

9 points by signa11 133 days ago | 14 comments

Leaving Amazon (2023) (lbrito.ca)
I’d like to preface this by stating that Amazon is obviously a huge company, and my opinions are just that, one person’s opinions. There will probably be some people that share my frustrations while others have had a completely different experience.

Amazon, Personal Experience, Opinions

33 points by lbrito 133 days ago | 5 comments

Blogging Through the Decades (dtrace.org)
Over the summer, I hit an anniversary of sorts: I’ve been blogging for two decades (!).

Blogging, History, Personal Experience

63 points by mooreds 136 days ago | 18 comments

Buddhist Retreat: Why I gave up on finding my religion (2003) (slate.com)
For a 2,500-year-old religion, Buddhism seems remarkably compatible with our scientifically oriented culture, which may explain its surging popularity here in America.

Buddhism, Religion, Personal Experience, Culture, Science

35 points by whereistimbo 136 days ago | 76 comments

What I learned from 130 hours in a Waymo (mattbell.us)
Over the last year I’ve spent over 130 hours in a Waymo. I have used it for my daily commute for much of that year, and I also generally favor it for personal use whenever the wait times are not too long. It’s a revolution in personal transit, and not just for technological reasons. Here’s what I’ve learned.

Transportation, Autonomous Vehicles, Personal Experience

4 points by rwmj 137 days ago | 1 comments

Looking for a Job Is Tough (kaplich.me)
Since the beginning of September, I’ve been searching for a job after being laid off from my previous role at the end of June.

Job Search, Personal Experience

184 points by skaplich 140 days ago | 275 comments

Ask HN: How to deal with a serious mental health breakdown? (ycombinator.com)
I am dealing with a delicate problem concerning my housemate who has recently had a very serious mental health breakdown.

Mental Health, Advice, Relationships, Personal Experience

162 points by _qjno 141 days ago | 100 comments

Things I learned from my own cancer – Cory Doctorow (pluralistic.net)
I've got cancer but it's probably (almost certainly, really) okay. Within a very short period I will no longer have cancer (at least for now). This is the best kind of cancer to have – the kind that is caught early and treated easily – but I've learned a few things on the way that I want to share with you.

Cancer, Health, Personal Experience, Learning, Life

9 points by sundarurfriend 141 days ago | 0 comments

Recovering from a kidney donation (sjer.red)
I donated my kidney to a stranger on October 30th. I’m writing this to share my experience and hopefully to encourage others to donate, too. It’s not very exciting which is the point — donating a kidney is something that any (healthy) person can do without major risk or long-term consequence.

Health, Organ Donation, Personal Experience

86 points by shepherdjerred 143 days ago | 110 comments

ADHD Productivity Report 2024 – Personal (futile) journey of (no) improvement (0xff.nu)
After realizing and being able to label the issues I was personally experiencing as ADHD, I finally knew which information and resources to seek out, which have allowed me to make quite a few adjustments to how I operate and organize myself and my day-to-day.

ADHD, Productivity, Self-Improvement, Personal Experience

15 points by hxii 145 days ago | 6 comments

What I learned from 3 years of running Windows 11 on "unsupported" PCs (arstechnica.com)
When your old PC goes over the Windows 10 update cliff, can Windows 11 save it?

Windows 11, Operating Systems, Hardware, Upgrading, Personal Experience

13 points by isaacfrond 160 days ago | 1 comments

I got dysentery so you don’t have to (eukaryotewritesblog.com)
This summer, I participated in a human challenge trial at the University of Maryland. I spent the days just prior to my 30th birthday sick with shigellosis.

Health, Personal Experience, Research

157 points by l1n 162 days ago | 78 comments