Hacker News with Generative AI: Personal Experience

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

38 points by surprisetalk 2 hours ago | 14 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 7 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 13 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 15 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 28 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 56 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 58 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 58 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 61 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 61 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 63 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 65 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 66 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 66 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 68 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 70 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 85 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 87 days ago | 78 comments

Keeping Teeth Healthy (kokorobot.ca)
As an adult I am embarrassed to say that I learned very late how to care for my teeth. It is difficult to admit this publicly, but I am sharing my experience so that others like me won't repeat my mistakes.

Health, Dental Care, Personal Experience

28 points by mrzool 95 days ago | 7 comments

Bridge to Nowhere (depth-first.com)
On March 24, 2023 I was laying in a hospital bed for the first time in my life. I'd just been told that a team was being assembled for my upcoming brain surgery. I don't remember being asked if I wanted one. Rather, I was told that I would have one and that it would happen soon.

Health, Personal Experience, Medical Procedures

172 points by egorpv 101 days ago | 98 comments

Ask HN: Going to oncology (just for adjuvant chemo) how to prepare mentally? (ycombinator.com)
I had an orchidectomy due to a non-seminoma. Because of the histopathology results, just to be safe I'm going to have 1 round of adjuvant chemo (BEP regimen) in 10 days.

Cancer, Medical Advice, Health, Personal Experience

26 points by RicoElectrico 103 days ago | 8 comments

12 Months of Mandarin (isaak.net)
Estimates for achieving intermediate fluency in Mandarin Chinese range up to spending years and around 4000 total hours (2,200h classroom hours, 1,800 outside). I did it in 1500 hours total and less than a year.

Language Learning, Mandarin, Personal Experience

502 points by misiti3780 106 days ago | 295 comments

Seven things I wish I would not hear as an autist (superdurszlak.dev)
Among all the health conditions, diseases, disabilities and neuro-developmental challenges, it seems that Autism Spectrum Disorder is notorious for giving everybody a solid headache, no matter how they came to interact with it - as researchers, diagnosticians, autists ourselves or people who just are there around us as our family members, partners, friends or acquaintances.

Autism, Personal Experience, Disability

16 points by todsacerdoti 109 days ago | 16 comments

Brutal Startup Failure (ycombinator.com)
My first (vc backed) startep failed after three years.

Startup Failure, Venture Capital, Personal Experience

49 points by theHolyTrynity 110 days ago | 28 comments

What Michael Pollan Learned from Quitting Caffeine [video] for 3 Months (youtube.com)

Health, Caffeine, Personal Experience, Video, Experimentation

7 points by paulpauper 125 days ago | 0 comments

Hi-Tech Bifocals Improved My Eyesight but Made Me Look Like a Dork (gizmodo.com)
There comes a time in some adults’ lives when they have to grab a pair of bifocals to do some light bedtime reading.

Technology, Lifestyle, Personal Experience, Fashion

238 points by amichail 128 days ago | 105 comments

What was the most intriguing question you were asked during an interview? (ycombinator.com)

Job Interviews, Careers, Personal Experience

6 points by pervysage 140 days ago | 9 comments

I left Russia and moved to Florida. These were the 5 biggest culture shocks (msn.com)

Culture Shock, Russia, Florida, Immigration, Personal Experience

19 points by wslh 146 days ago | 4 comments

What I Learned Working for Mark Zuckerberg (noahkagan.com)

Mark Zuckerberg, Leadership, Business, Personal Experience

77 points by duck 151 days ago | 121 comments

Postmortem of my 9 year journey at Google (tinystruggles.com)

Google, Careers, Personal Experience

198 points by delive 153 days ago | 231 comments