Hacker News with Generative AI: Personal Experiences

My son has been rejected from all but 1 school (reddit.com)
My eldest son has been rejected by every college he applied to, except for our flagship state school, UMass Amherst. He is the singular brightest, most self-motivated, and most hardworking person I know.
College Admissions, Higher Education, Personal Experiences
5 points by htareque 2 days ago | 3 comments
Why I Got the Measles Vaccine at Age 63 (nytimes.com)
It’s full-on spring here in Middle Tennessee, and the world is suddenly blooming with infants.
Health, Vaccines, Personal Experiences
6 points by geox 11 days ago | 1 comments
I cured my Aphantasia, a detailed documentation (reddit.com)
I am a 27 year old male, a computer programmer, I run a successful software company that builds blockchain technology, and I was fully aphantasiac up until 2 days ago (June 5 2022). I have known I’ve had aphantasia for a few years and it’s always caused me distress, I didn’t even believe others were actually seeing for the first few months but after talking to enough people I concluded they weren’t exaggerating.
Aphantasia, Personal Experiences, Self-Improvement, Health, Software
15 points by red369 15 days ago | 2 comments
How My Six Months Working on the Railway Changed My Life (theatlantic.com)
The time I spent working on the Canadian National Railroad changed the course of my life.
Personal Experiences, Transportation, Railways
113 points by qkeast 19 days ago | 69 comments
My Heart Surgery vs. Y Combinator Interview (manidoraisamy.com)
It was April 2021. With just one week to go before my Y Combinator interview, I found myself sitting in my doctor’s office, facing an unexpected crisis. The doctor told me that I had a severe leak in my heart and needed open-heart surgery immediately. The estimated recovery period was two months—one month for preparation and another for recovery. That was almost the entire duration of the YC program.
Personal Experiences, Y Combinator, Healthcare
9 points by QueensGambit 19 days ago | 0 comments
Backyard Cyanide (suziepetryk.com)
There’s a bushy tree in my backyard with these dark red fruit — the kind that makes some primal instinct scream at you across millennia, but you can’t tell if it wants you to eat them or not.
Nature, Plants, Personal Experiences
138 points by tancik 23 days ago | 56 comments
Tailscale is pretty useful (6nok.org)
It’s probably old news for most, but I’ve recently started using Tailscale and wanted to share my experience with it.
Networking, Software, Reviews, Personal Experiences
804 points by marban 29 days ago | 404 comments
At 3 a.m., I Turned to AI for Comfort. That Was My First Mistake (thewalrus.ca)
Lying awake at three at night, I asked ChatGPT: “am I real?”
Artificial Intelligence, Personal Experiences, Technology, Existentialism
5 points by pseudolus 33 days ago | 0 comments
Ask HN: My father passed away. How do deal with the grief? (ycombinator.com)
It has been one month since he passed and i have been continuously crying. I am writing this with tears in my eye.
Grief, Personal Experiences, Advice, Support Groups, Death
37 points by gogo61 38 days ago | 26 comments
I Suddenly Lost My Enthusiasm for Interneting (durmonski.com)
As someone who has spent years contributing to the digital noise (via blogging), working in the IT sector, and existing long enough to remember when “going online” meant hearing the tortured screams of a dial-up modem, I have to admit – I’ve lost my enthusiasm for interneting.
Internet Culture, Personal Experiences, Technology, Social Media, Web Development
9 points by durmonski 38 days ago | 2 comments
My startup journey with BYBE (drewknight.com)
Every startup has a story. Regardless of the outcome, there's always something to be learned, something to be shared. Because here's the thing: the startup journey isn't linear. It's a roller coaster. You enter with an idea, only to hit dead ends, take wrong turns, and double back. It's messy, frustrating, and often humbling. But when you finally reach the other side, you see how every twist and turn shaped your company and your perspective.
Startups, Entrepreneurship, Personal Experiences
21 points by azhenley 39 days ago | 10 comments
Math Academy, part 1: My eigenvector embarassment (frankhecker.com)
This all started because I don’t know what an eigenvector is.
Mathematics, Education, Personal Experiences
84 points by gmays 44 days ago | 63 comments
The ideal candidate will be punched in the stomach (scottsmitelli.com)
What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done?
Humor, Personal Experiences, Creative Writing
394 points by smitelli 45 days ago | 252 comments
My Time at MIT (blogspot.com)
Twenty years ago, in 2004-2005, I spent a year at MIT’s Computer Science department as a postdoc working with Professor Nancy Lynch.
MIT, Computer Science, Academia, Personal Experiences
181 points by rrampage 46 days ago | 78 comments
I Paid $70 for an AI Boyfriend. It Was So Worth It (harpersbazaar.com)
Artificial Intelligence, Relationships, Consumerism, Personal Experiences
61 points by yo_yo_yo-yo 51 days ago | 80 comments
Sharing a ChatGPT Account with My Wife (startupbaniya.com)
I was curious to see how ChatGPT would respond to this question, and the answer was interesting because my wife and I share the same ChatGPT Pro account, but we use AI in different ways.
ChatGPT, Artificial Intelligence, Relationships, Personal Experiences
43 points by aman2k4 51 days ago | 62 comments
How A Skeptical Philosopher Becomes a Christian [Larry Sanger] (larrysanger.org)
It is finally time for me to confess and explain, fully and publicly, that I am a Christian.
Philosophy, Religion, Christianity, Personal Experiences
17 points by Boogie_Man 51 days ago | 9 comments
My Wife's Enemies Are Now My Enemies, Too (2019) (thecut.com)
Until about five years ago, I got along with basically everyone. Sometimes, I knew, people didn’t care for me, but my impeccable get-along instincts and crushing fear of confrontation prevented things from coming to a head very often. And if I didn’t like someone, I’d try to never let them know, because even if the sight of them made my stomach curdle, I still wanted them to like me.
Relationships, Personal Experiences, Conflict
38 points by mooreds 52 days ago | 62 comments
Escaping surprise bills and over-engineered messes: Why I left AWS (travisbumgarner.dev)
I love building side projects. They've been a way to push myself and explore new ideas and technologies. Each site has needed hosting. I started my hosting journey with WordPress. I moved on to raw Linux servers and finally ended up on AWS. Hosting on AWS felt like a badge of honor, but it also felt like a ticking time bomb of complexity and cost.
Cloud Computing, Web Development, Personal Experiences, Cost Optimization
129 points by theogravity 59 days ago | 155 comments
Three AM 911 call, 9 AM salesman (wholelottanothing.org)
A few days ago, the smoke alarms in my house went off at 3am, so we got up and took it seriously when we smelled smoke everywhere. But after 20 minutes of searching high and low, we couldn't find a source, so as a precaution, we called 911 to let our fire department stop by to check things out too.
Home Safety, Fire Safety, Personal Experiences
171 points by wawayanda 62 days ago | 83 comments
Living with Nausea: My Story in Six Charts (c82.net)
I used to have boring health. I never had more than the flu, been admitted to the hospital, and I could eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. In late 2023, that changed when I developed chronic nausea.
Health, Personal Experiences, Data Visualization, Chronic Illness
169 points by janpio 62 days ago | 84 comments
I use ChatGPT daily (scientist/coder perspective) (bartwronski.com)
We all know how the internet works—lots of “hot takes,” polarizing opinions, trolling, and ignorance.
Generative AI, AI Applications, Personal Experiences, Technology
3 points by davikr 65 days ago | 0 comments
My Impressions of Gleam (snarky.ca)
When I was about to go on paternity leave, the Gleam programming language reached 1.0. It's such a small language that I was able to learn it over the span of two days. I tried to use it to convert a GitHub Action from JavaScript to Gleam, but I ran into issues due to Gleam wanting to be the top of the language stack instead of the bottom. As such I ended up learning and using ReScript.
Programming Languages, Software Development, Personal Experiences
32 points by ingve 69 days ago | 71 comments
Cal Newport: What Happened When an Offline Person Tried TikTok (newyorker.com)
In 2013, I wrote a blog post titled “Why I Never Joined Facebook.” Social media had grown so ubiquitous that I felt obligated to justify my abstention; I pointed out that I didn’t need it because it didn’t solve any actual problems in my life.
Social Media, Personal Experiences, Cal Newport, Technology, New York
25 points by mitchbob 69 days ago | 8 comments
Ask HN: Have any of you become homeless? (ycombinator.com)
If so, how was it like? What happened?
Social Issues, Personal Experiences, Housing, Homelessness
13 points by thatxliner 79 days ago | 11 comments
What I Learned Failing to Finish a Game in 2024 (georgeallen.dev)
2024 didn’t go as planned. Despite the title suggesting I “failed,” I actually learned a tremendous amount about game development last year.
Game Development, Personal Experiences, 2024
106 points by grgaln 81 days ago | 72 comments
Reflections on 1 Year of (Trying to) Become Successful on YouTube (chaserensberger.com)
In 2024, my friend and I started making YouTube videos. This article is just some housekeeping I’m doing to keep track of progress for this channel. I hope that some people find it valuable. I offer some advice in this article, but everything should be taken with a grain of salt, as we are not (hopefully yet) a successful channel. If you’re interested in getting in touch, there is contact information at the end of the article.
YouTube, Content Creation, Blogging, Personal Experiences, Advice
36 points by ChaseRensberger 83 days ago | 31 comments
Narcolepsy is weird but I didn't notice (fortressofdoors.com)
There are certain kinds of experiences that most human beings know very little about because a) they are rare, b) they can only be felt from the "inside", i.e., by the people who have them, and c) not all of those people choose to, or are good at, writing about it.
Narcolepsy, Personal Experiences, Writing
284 points by bfelbo 84 days ago | 106 comments
VR Has Had a Phase Change and I Didn't Know It (jerf.org)
To set expectations, this is not a sweeping review of the entire industry; indeed, quite the contrary. This is just one guy’s story about his limited experiences with VR gaming.
VR, Gaming, Personal Experiences
20 points by kristianp 85 days ago | 5 comments
Ask HN: What is the Most "Impressive" Person you know working on? (ycombinator.com)
Ask HN: What is the Most "Impressive" Person you know working on?
Ask HN, Careers, Software Engineering, Personal Experiences
16 points by Jaedon_Proctor 85 days ago | 11 comments