Hacker News with Generative AI: Personal Experience

Authy corrupted my 2FA backup and all I got was this lousy blogpost (weblog.lol)
Had a fun scare over the weekend, and wanted to write up a post that hopefully someone will find via Google if they have the same issue.

Security, Blogs, Personal Experience

25 points by CameronBanga 3 days ago | 26 comments

Ask HN: What's the best advice you ignored and later wished you hadn't? (ycombinator.com)
Ask HN: What's the best advice you ignored and later wished you hadn't?

Advice, Regret, Personal Experience, Life Lessons, Hacker News

13 points by sylm 15 days ago | 15 comments

Knowledge-based society, my ass (mihaiolteanu.me)
Right after I get admitted, I inform Professor that I also have a full-time job. He insists that we must start working right away. I quit as a result and instantly breathe a refined air. I am now a scientist! A week later I approach Professor and let him know I'm ready for work.

Academia, Personal Experience, Work-Life Balance

370 points by molteanu 24 days ago | 102 comments

What It Feels Like to Get Stronger (troynikov.io)
I am now the strongest I’ve ever been. I’ve lifted weights on and off for about a decade, making incremental progress several months at a time, with this latest stretch being about six months long. Over the last several weeks I’ve gone beyond my previous peak, and continue to improve.

Fitness, Strength Training, Personal Experience

4 points by jxmorris12 37 days ago | 0 comments

What my stroke taught me (2017) (nautil.us)
In my memories of the Scottish hospital, the sky is always blue, though I know that can’t be completely accurate.

Personal Experience, Health, Memory

118 points by blegh 39 days ago | 72 comments

An iPhone, Swiped (spyglass.org)
The iPhone was right there in my hand and then it was gone...

Theft, Personal Experience, Technology

11 points by u8 40 days ago | 2 comments

Is Technology Terrible or Am I Just a Grumpy Old Man? (cnet.com)
At 37 years of age, I've come to realize some things about the gadgets I use every day. But maybe I'm the problem.

Technology, Opinion, Personal Experience, Aging

8 points by donnachangstein 49 days ago | 3 comments

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 70 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 74 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 83 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 84 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 96 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 97 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 97 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 108 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 116 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 121 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 121 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 125 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 125 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 133 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 139 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 140 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 153 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 181 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 183 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 184 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 186 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 187 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 188 days ago | 1 comments