mistahenry

I recently deleted social media from my phone. With nothing left, I found myself compulsively checking HN anytime I had a free moment.

That’s shifted now after a few weeks. I’m no longer filling those moments.

The wins are subtle but nice:

- when I watch a movie, I don’t feel the need to start scrolling

- I’m reading at night again. This is far more relaxing and gets me to bed at 9 - 10

- less doom / gloom

- consumption is more intentional. I consider what I am interested in then find, rather than be sucked down the algorithmic vortex of what’s proven to engage me

I mean, you've collapsed a complex, mixed system into a single negative narrative.

Examples of how I learn with LLMs:

- Paste sections from reading and ask questions / clarify my understanding / ask it to quiz me

- Produce Anki cards by pasting in chapter text and the culling out the goods ones

- Request resources / links for further learning

Basically, LLMs serve as a thinking partner. Yes, it's a fallible tool, not an oracle. But dismissing the idea that you can learn (and learn faster / more efficiently) with LLMs is reductionist

I agree that when it comes to portion size and whole foods, Europe makes it easy to follow by example. FWIW, I ate healthy in the US before because I rock climbed and needed to maintain a very lean mass. If I wanted to cut weight in Indonesia, it was easy: just eat their portion size, and I'd come in below maintenance.

What I've seen consistently amongst the non-healthy eating Americans is that they argue:

1. Dieting requires them to be hard on themselves and they're focusing on self-love, which they struggle with

2. They deserve a daily treat. They look forward to it, it brings meaning, etc

3. The taste of their food is super important to them, such that they can't imagine repetitively eating (meal-prep) or eating cleanly (no added sugar, monitoring sodium)

I lived in Germany and Indonesia. It’s easier for me now back in the US than ever to eat healthy.

I can buy pre-chopped Cole slaw, diced peppers / onions, etc. Whole Foods is best in class (Alnatura doesn’t come close)

While to me, the layman, it seems health regulation in general in Europe is more conservative about what can be put on the body / be consumed, I think it’s mostly Americans don’t want to eat healthy. And the portion sizes here are insane (just look at the evolution dinner plate. 1960s plates at an antique sale only pass for salad plates)

Cool project!

I run tech for a reverse logistics business buying overstock from Costco/Target/Walmart and we’re building a similar system for recognizing and pricing incoming inventory. I sent an email a few days ago to see if you might be open to chatting.

It would be great to compare notes or explore ways to collaborate. Totally understand if things are busy!

For the never-ending text file for todos and work journal, I've found great success with org-mode, especially since deadlines automatically end up in my calendar with org-agenda. The outline format of org-mode is quite nice and it took all of 1 day to learn the key commands for making / manipulating the outline, creating links, and cycling through TODO states (using Doom emacs made the start super easy since I already know vi and didn't have to also learn the text editing commands).

I've also found the concept of an "inbox" from the Zettelkasten method very helpful. Anytime something comes up that's not yet in my system, I add it to the inbox for later processing (org-capture on my computer, and beorg on my phone). This way, note entry doesn't require a full context switch. I then just make sure to regularly drain my inbox.

I don't use emacs currently for anything but org-mode but I'm far happier with this than I was with a never ending `.md` file.

If you get Berzerk, I’ll sign up :) that’s what I’m looking to read next, one way or another.

I really enjoy the Shonen Jump app on my iPad for reading One Piece so I’m definitely keen on a service like this with an expanding catalog!

Computer Networking: A Top-down Approach, Jim Kurose

I read this about 2 years into my study of CS. I found the design of the internet, at times intentional and very often emergent / working around constraints, absolutely fascinating. I couldn’t help feeling that algorithms were things I could pull off the shelf but protocols were something I’d need to be able to design well throughout my career.

I'm probably C2 comprehension, C1 speaking in German. I self-taught to high B2 (based off placement into that level in a Goethe Institut Intesivkurs) in 15 months of 2 hours a day. I studied 1-2 hours per day on average and did not miss a single day.

2 hours a week to B1 in German as an English speak seems totally impossible. I was probably B1 in 6 months at the level of study I described. I studied 5 years of Latin prior to starting so the case system wasn't an additional learning curve. Your pace honestly seems standard.

I moved to Germany as well and self taught German to a high B2 level in the 15 months before moving. That was enough where I was able to be conversationally fluent within 3 months of arrival

When I self taught, I primarily used Assimil and Pimsleur daily for the first six months. After completing those programs, I continued with the daily study (that’s the most important part!) and used Easy German the YouTube channel, watched a bunch of German shows, and worked on speaking just by narrating / describing random things and looking up words as needed.

This is why I always like to have a `status_history` or `audit` table. You don't have to have event sourcing to still want a trail of who changed what in the system when.

Kotlin does this, and I find it’s massively improved the readability of our codebase

I read Kurose’s book in college and recommend it as the perfect book for this topic. As a neophyte at the time, I remember really drilling into the details of TCP and just being in awe of how well thought out the whole system was. This book laid such a good foundation for my career as a software engineer.

Your reading of this is rather extreme, and I feel you've missed the point by thinking that Russell is advocating to avoid fun intentionally at times so as to preserve a happy life. I read it as more an observation that the boring times, those in which there's a lack of stimulation, are an important part of a balanced, healthy life.

A more modern take on his advice would be to avoid mindlessly surfing the internet every dull moment in which we are waiting a few minutes for some time to pass. If you haven't taken an extended, conscious break from the internet outside of your work needs (no social media, no news, etc), I recommend it. It was very enlightening for me to feel this lack of stimulation. I certainly enjoy my time on the internet when I'm there because I want to be there, not because I'm just looking for something to kill the time.

Similarly, I've stopped listening to music while coding because I realized that the listening without mindfulness was killing my passion. After doing so, the passion has been restored.

His words, too, remind me of the drug user's plight. My sister works in drug rehabilitation and has told me about the struggles many go through known as Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome. From my naive understanding, these people have adapted to the constant, unnatural amount of dopamine flowing through the brains during addiction by producing more dopamine receptors. When the drug is gone, those receptors are still there. But, the body is not capable of naturally releasing the dopamine required to fill these receptors even during the highest of natural moments, leading these people to experience serious anhedonia -- an intense lack of pleasure from everyday life. It takes a long time for these receptors to downregulate, which is the reason for such a high rate of relapse for certain drug types.

I think of Emerson's words a bit: "If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!"

I was specifically thinking banking and it’s exactly this type of spear phishing attack that happens (although with other types of tokens the Fido). In these scenarios, you only need to move the money once.

You definitely have a point with regard to non-transaction usage that requires long term access