Hacker News with Generative AI: Personal Stories

I spent five years building a webapp and got my first $1 (2022) (codingcafe.jp)
This is the story of five years spent wandering around the JavaScript tech stack, wasting time, getting lost, and finally taking off.
Web Development, Personal Stories, JavaScript, Entrepreneurship, Startups
280 points by sillysaurusx 20 days ago | 98 comments
How I Got Here (pthorpe92.dev)
My name is Preston Thorpe, I’m 31 years old and I’ve spent just under 10 years of my life in Prison (all for non-violent drug crimes.)
Personal Stories, Prison Reform, Criminal Justice
34 points by jrhey 33 days ago | 3 comments
"Twelfth Night Till Candlemas" – A 40-year book-quest (davidallengreen.com)
This post is about finally finding a book from one’s youth forty years later – and after nearly thirty years of searching.
Books, Nostalgia, Personal Stories
183 points by ColinWright 43 days ago | 55 comments
The Unisys Icon: One Canadian Xennial's Memories of Ontario's Obscure Computer (postgamecontent.com)
One topic that often comes up in retro gaming circles is how aspects of gaming history not part of the American story don’t get enough attention. I personally feel it’s mostly up to the people to whom the stories belong to tell them. So I am going to follow my own advice today and tell the tale of a computer that statistically speaking almost no one has used, and some of that computer’s software.
Retro Gaming, Canadian History, Personal Stories, Computer History, Software
80 points by ecolonsmak 48 days ago | 35 comments
It's okay to code on nights and weekends (tej.as)
I’ve been wrestling with this for a long time (my entire life): I love coding and building software. A lot. I started when I was 8 years old. My nervous system developed wrapped around a computer.
Software Development, Personal Stories, Passion
84 points by tejaskumar_ 52 days ago | 80 comments
The Story of Stent (om.co)
Today is my 17th re-birthday. If you’ve been a longtime reader, you know why I call it my re-birthday. If you are new around here, well, here is a short recap. Just after I turned 41—17 years ago—a life of poor habits and family genetics caught up with me. I had a heart attack and was in the hospital for a few days. The doctors discovered all sorts of problems, and I ended up on the operating table.
Health, Personal Stories, Heart Disease
69 points by rmason 54 days ago | 5 comments
Perfect Desk (wordpress.com)
Early in my computer related life – that means being 15+ years old – especially at parents house – I had a prefabricated desk with stand for monitor and for all other possible things. Printer on top. CD/DVD all over the place. Things like that.
Personal Stories, Workspaces, Technology
4 points by vermaden 57 days ago | 2 comments
I Was a Health Insurance Executive. What I Saw Made Me Quit. (nytimes.com)
I left my job as a health insurance executive at Cigna after a crisis of conscience.
Health Insurance, Personal Stories, Business
30 points by bookofjoe 60 days ago | 13 comments
My Colleague Julius (ploum.net)
Do you know Julius? You certainly know who I’m talking about!
Humor, Personal Stories, Work
599 points by dabacaba 60 days ago | 129 comments
Talking over a wall changed my direction as a programmer (thecodist.com)
I started my programming career in October 1981 at a large defense contractor (GD). At the time, my goal was to work for a couple of years and then continue my education with a Ph.D. in Chemistry (I had already been accepted).
Programming, Career Advice, Personal Stories
147 points by fagnerbrack 64 days ago | 72 comments
I Was a Health Insurance Executive. What I Saw Made Me Quit (nytimes.com)
I left my job as a health insurance executive at Cigna after a crisis of conscience.
Health Insurance, Business, Ethics, Personal Stories
10 points by johnny313 65 days ago | 0 comments
A Decade Without a Drink (eieio.games)
Alcoholism, Personal Stories, Health, Addiction, Games
34 points by LorenDB 66 days ago | 11 comments
How a young Dutch woman's life began when she was allowed to die (theguardian.com)
At the last minute, Zoë decided to call off her euthanasia. But how do you start over after you’ve said all of your goodbyes?
Euthanasia, Life Choices, Personal Stories, Death, Netherlands
8 points by kawera 66 days ago | 4 comments
The Order of Anarchy (aeon.co)
In the summer of 1999, with nowhere to go between my second and third year in college, I decided to stay with my sister who was living with a couple of roommates in an apartment in Berkeley, California.
Anarchy, Personal Stories, Philosophy, California
4 points by paulpauper 72 days ago | 0 comments
DSQL Vignette: Aurora DSQL, and a Personal Story (brooker.co.za)
It's happening.
Databases, Aurora, Personal Stories
17 points by daigoba66 80 days ago | 0 comments
I Did Not Go to Jail (2014) (a16z.com)
A lot of people have been asking me what my upcoming book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, will be like. Here’s a piece that I wrote for the book that did not make the cut. I still think it’s a pretty good story and gives you a flavor.
Entrepreneurship, Books, Personal Stories
33 points by Tomte 84 days ago | 5 comments
Bryan Johnson – The World's Most Expensive Eating Disorder (desmolysium.com)
In my early twenties, I had a two-year-long period during which my body fat was ultra-low (4.8% on the only DEXA scan I had done during that time). I became very obsessive and tolerated an unbelievable amount of self-torture to reach my goals. I also developed very weird eating habits and was rigid about my meal timing – I could not stand breaking my fasts by even a few minutes.
Health, Eating Disorders, Personal Stories, Biohacking
18 points by collected 85 days ago | 9 comments
A new start after 60: I became a 'hummingbird' for people with dementia (theguardian.com)
At 63, Ann Thomas-Carter stepped into Framland care home for the first time and was immediately taken aback. “It wasn’t like a care home at all; it was this beautiful old manor house overlooking the Oxfordshire countryside and there were only 21 residents,” she says. “It felt like a big family, especially since everyone calls the residents ‘family members’. I fitted in right away.”
Dementia, Care Homes, Aging, Personal Stories, Human Interest
161 points by bookofjoe 88 days ago | 44 comments
Ayfkm: Painful bureaucratic journeys of a multicultural family (ayfkm.blog)
So it has come to this. We already had the idea of starting a blog like this back in 2020, when it was becoming clear that getting married for us would have been an ordeal, but we didn’t consider it interesting or complicated enough back in the time (obviously we were wrong).
Life Experiences, Immigration, Relationships, Personal Stories
6 points by lollobomb 92 days ago | 0 comments
Teach yourself to echolocate (2018) (atlasobscura.com)
After losing his vision as an infant, Kish taught himself to move around with the help of echolocation.
Blindness, Echolocation, Disability, Personal Stories, Human Abilities
247 points by Anon84 97 days ago | 75 comments
ReiserFS and the Art and Artist Problem (corecursive.com)
Have you ever known someone whose technical brilliance was overshadowed by personal failings? This is the story of Hans Reiser, a software developer driven to create a superior Linux filesystem, but whose difficult personality got in the way.
Software, Linux, Biography, Personal Stories
74 points by quick_brown_fox 103 days ago | 101 comments
Experience: I graduated from art school at the age of 90 (theguardian.com)
I have always been passionate about art, but I had no money, and with 13 children to feed and educate, being an artist wasn’t an option. I was 83 when I finally enrolled at art school.
Art, Education, Personal Stories
18 points by aguaviva 112 days ago | 0 comments
Get me out of data hell (mataroa.blog)
It is 9:59 AM in Melbourne, 9th October, 2024. Sunlight filters through my windows, illuminating swirling motes of dust across my living room. There is a cup of tea in my hand. I take a sip and savor it.
Data Management, Personal Stories, Technology
698 points by pavel_lishin 113 days ago | 300 comments
I wanted to live cheaply, I bought a boat, moved in to travel the world (theguardian.com)
After his 92-year-old mother died in 2019, Stephen Payne decided it was time for a change. But having spent the previous six months at her home in Torquay, where he is from, and the 27 years before that living in Los Angeles, Payne, a 60-year-old photographer, wasn’t sure where to go next.
Travel, Lifestyle, Personal Stories, Retirement
5 points by tosh 116 days ago | 0 comments
An interview with someone who left Effective Altruism (mathbabe.org)
C: Tell me a little bit about your college experience. How did you get interested in this work originally?
Effective Altruism, Interviews, Philosophy, Personal Stories
5 points by kreyenborgi 120 days ago | 0 comments
Goodbye to an old spreadsheet (rubenerd.com)
This is a silly story to tell for one lowly spreadsheet workbook, but it’s been such a dependable and significant part of my life for so many years that I feel like it deserves a send off.
Software, Personal Stories, Technology
15 points by Tomte 132 days ago | 10 comments
The Wes Cook Archive (wescook.art)
Hi, I’m Cabel. I was driving to Seattle and got hungry, so I stopped at a McDonalds in Centralia, WA. And when I went inside, I saw something incredible.Here, let me tell you my story:
Personal Stories, Art, Photography
78 points by zdw 133 days ago | 8 comments
The lengthy story of how I left the Tech industry and started washing miso jars (write.as)
Workers these days are quitting the Tech industry in droves. They are quitting their programmer or sysadmin job, or maybe just the startup world and its craziness. Some are quitting because of market conditions. Others because they are exhausted. Many more feel disillusioned by the empty promises of the Tech oligarchs, blasting their propaganda on Twitter and LinkedIn. Each one of us has different motivations and each story is different, so I wanted to add mine to the pile.
Tech Industry, Career Change, Personal Stories, Work Culture
20 points by chobeat 135 days ago | 25 comments
Cassie LaBelle: "eBay completely destroyed my life" (twitter.com)
Social Media, Personal Stories, eBay
89 points by vintagedave 136 days ago | 78 comments
Woman gets reply about job application – 48 years on (bbc.com)
A woman who spent 48 years wondering why an application for her dream job was never answered has finally found out why.
Job Applications, Career, Long-term, Personal Stories
24 points by adrian_mrd 137 days ago | 7 comments