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Sukotto | 3 years ago | on: Ask HN: What are some of your “buy it for life” purchases?

A traditional "Guernsey" wool seaman's sweater in navy blue. I've had mine for 30 years.

A "Bar style" blender. (Very powerful motor and the jar has the blades permanently attached).

A full set of Henckels knives. Keep them sharp. (I use a stone, but it doesn't really matter... You can even use an old mousepad with a sheet of automotive sandpaper glued to it.)

Hardcover versions of the books I like.

Sukotto | 3 years ago | on: Ask HN: What's your secret diet tip you can share?

>What is [a] secret you can share ?

One especially powerful secret is "decide in advance".

You will have some eating plan in place... then there will come a day when the food available does not match your eating plans, or some social/cultural event, or when you simply have a bad day and "fall off" your eating plan.

The secret is to anticipate/expect these things to happen. Decide now, when you can be dispassionate, where you can compromise, for how much, and how you will get back on track afterward.

Will you eat cake at the birthday? How much? You fall off the plan. How will you coach yourself back onto it? etc.

Waiting until the heat of the moment is how a small misstep (I planned to have one small handful of [whatever], and I just realized I've eaten half the bag) turns into a disaster (screw it! I already broke my diet. [insert bad self-talk and self destructive behavior here]. I'll just finish the damn bag)

Advance planning is how a small misstep is acknowledged (oh crap, I ate half the bag), then recovered (ok. I ate too much. What's done is done. I can't change that but I CAN stop the damage here so it doesn't get even worse.)

Sukotto | 3 years ago | on: Ask HN: What habits did you achieve this year?

I also successfully set up a "three times a week" running program and typically run 5km each time and sometimes 10km on the weekend. Today I completed Year 2, Week 52, Run 3. So I'm feeling pretty good about that.

>I'd love to know how you pulled this off...

Here is what worked for me. Maybe some or all of it will work for you.

The foundation rule is: I will not injure myself. (I'm pushing 50 and don't heal like I used to)

To avoid all-or-nothing thinking I explicitly decided against making this a lifetime commitment. Instead I would re-evaluate at 4-week intervals if I wanted to continue. Knowing there was a GO/NOGO milestone in the near future really helped me get through the first few weeks. (After the first few cycles I had integrated the jogging habit into my lifestyle and didn't need the GO/NOGO milestones anymore)

Then, I sat down and figured some stuff out in advance. Namely:

1) Deciding (and committing) what days and times I will jog.

For my schedule, Tue/Thu/Sat mornings before work was best.

2) Decide what I will do if the weather is bad, or there is some other reason why I could not go at the scheduled time.

3) Define a set route to follow.

I follow the same route every time. I never need to think about it and I don't get bored since there are several unique stretches of environment along my route. Also all the plants and things change through the seasons which is something to notice and appreciate.

What worked best for me was to follow a set path until mid-way through my run, then turn around and retrace my steps. (Setting a countdown timer on my watch to beep when I was halfway through the session, rounding the session time up a bit if necessary.)

4) Follow an established program.

I chose the popular "Couch to 5K" program. Using the "NHS Choices 5K" podcast with Coach Laura.

5) Set the bar for success as LOW as possible.

For me, a run "counts" if I put on my jogging clothes and shoes. Then step outside my front door and walk even a single step away from the house. Seriously. I can turn around right then and go back inside and it counts as a win.

For my personality, consistency and reliability are FAR more important than time spent or distance travelled.

6) Accept that I'll need to repeat episodes. Let go of needing to progress through the program at the pre-determined pace.

The important thing was getting out and moving. The program is advertised as taking 9 weeks. It took me a lot longer than that but I accepted that up front so it didn't bother me.

--

I quickly found that carrying my phone in my hand was uncomfortable, so I bought an armband holder for about $10.

I also found using wired earbuds was a hassle (the wires) and maybe dangerous (they block environmental sound). So I bought a pair of "AfterShokz" bone conduction headphones for about $150. They're great and I'm glad I got them.

Finally, I should note that I only started the jogging plan after I got my weight down to under 200lb. For that, I went with the "Slow Carb" eating plan since it was simple to follow, seemed sustainable long-term, and gave me a "cheat day" once a week. Honestly, as far as I can tell, just about any popular eating plan will work. So if you need to lose some fat (like I did), just pick one and try it for a few months to see if you like it.

Sukotto | 3 years ago | on: Ask HN: What's your greatest enjoyment in life?

Screenwriters for "Conan the Barbarian" (1982) might have got it from Part 2, Chapter XI of "Genghis Khan The Emperor Of All Men" by H. Lamb (1936).

https://archive.org/details/genghiskhantheem035122mbp/page/n...

  One day in the pavilion at Karakorum he asked
  an officer of the Mongol guard what, in all the
  world, could bring the greatest happiness.

  "The open steppe, a clear day, and a swift horse
  under you," responded the officer after a little
  thought, "and a falcon on your on your wrist to
  start up hares."

  "Nay," responded the Khan, "to crush your enemies,
  to see them fall at your feet -- to take their 
  horses and goods and hear the lamentation of 
  their women. That is best."

Sukotto | 4 years ago | on: Ask HN: How much are you making in Vancouver?

I'm originally from Victoria but have lived abroad for a past few decades.

Tentatively planning to move back next year or maybe the year after.

May I contact you for some advice? (There is no public email in your HN profile so I'm asking here in a comment)

Sukotto | 6 years ago | on: Dow Falls 2997 points worst drop since 1987 crash

One edge case to consider.

If you have stocks in a pre-tax retirement account like a traditional IRA in the US (or RRSP in Canada?), now could be a good time to sell them, move the money into a post-tax account like a ROTH IRA (or TFSA?), then buy the equivalent number of stocks there.

You will pay reduced taxes because the value of the stocks is relatively low, then pay no tax when you finally withdraw from the ROTH. (All else being equal and imho, the market is likely to recover over time)

That is, if you don't mind the risk that the market might massively rebound in the middle of the transaction.

There are a bunch of assumptions here. Do your own research and don't blindly believe a stranger on the Internet. Make sure you understand the taxes, fees, penalties, or whatever you will have to pay.

Sukotto | 6 years ago | on: New York City is a mall

>Just look at Tokyo ... Every major transport hub is filled with shopping and food.

They are designed that way.

New transit construction is often the result of a joint venture between a rail company and one or more shopping construction companies / real estate companies.

They work together to identify where they can profitably build a new station, with attached (or nearby) shopping + residences. Then work with financing companies to pay for the land acquisition, construction, and advertising.

Sukotto | 6 years ago | on: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News

I've been enjoying the "Against the Rules" podcast [1] hosted by Michael Lewis [2]. It's related to moderation so I'll post it here.

The show is series of stories/reports on the work of refereeing fairness in different parts of life. With views into how those referees are changing, and in some cases, outright disappearing.

Fascinating stuff from an author who really knows how to tell an engaging story about a potentially dry topic. (Moneyball, The Big Short, Liar's Poker, etc.)

[1] https://atrpodcast.com/

[2] https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/776.Michael_Lewis

Sukotto | 6 years ago | on: HBO's Chernobyl may yet become the highest rated TV Show ever

Personally, my "go to" list for movie rankings is http://www.phi-phenomenon.org/ which is a labor of love project attempting to generate a forced ranking of all-time best movies.

The main downside of it is that it discounts recent (past 5+ years) movies. This is partly due to the infrequent updates, and partly because films take a while to appear in the data sources the site uses for its statistical analysis.

(I am not affiliated with that site. I'm just a long-time, satisfied user of it)

Sukotto | 7 years ago | on: Ask HN: What do you struggle with?

Every day is a struggle.

For several years I've struggled to learn enough Japanese for daily living. (Spouse is Japanese and we moved to Japan a few years ago with our 3 school-aged kids). Very little success on this. しょうがないね

My wife is out of town anywhere between 3 days to 2 weeks each month for her job. While she is gone, we rely heavily on her parents (with whom I cannot communicate directly). They take care of laundry and dinner for the kids. I take care of all the other housework and breakfast.

I work at a large corp (English speaking technology department, Japanese company) with very little career progression without business-level Japanese skill. My dev skills feel rusted and I try not to despair about my career.

So what do you do? Do you double down on Japanese and try to get some level of fluency and let your dev skill rot? Or do you focus on polishing those dev skills and push the language learning back even farther? You get maybe an hour a day for this purpose.

Unfortunately I own a house where the mortgage exceeds the value of the property. So I am not in a position to move to greener pastures.

As an added bonus, I've hit mid-forty now and my body is starting to go. Exercise and diet help, but ifaik there is no cure for aging/degrading biologic systems.

...

But here's the thing: As a man -- and especially as a white, English-speaking, North American man -- nobody gives a shit about my problems. Sure, family and old friends care that I have troubles, but from the perspective that they hope the problems go away. (to be clear, I mean this as a general case, not specific to this country)

I painting myself into a corner, and just have to keep working to make things better.

It's simple, but not easy -> Keep working hard. Do whatever you can to improve yourself and your situation. Ask for help when you can. Don't complain.

---

Edit to add:

Thank you everyone for your kind comments. I appreciate it very much and will carefully consider your suggestions.

Sukotto | 7 years ago | on: DoD: Turn Off Your Fitbit, Garmin, Apple Watch GPS 

  >that's going a bit too far into the dystopian realm.
Imagine it's the year 1999 and someone tells you what flying in 2018 will be like.

I expect you'd say the exact same thing. And yet here we are. :(

People will get used to any degrading inconvenience if you claim it's for their own good and are willing to pay a lot of money to get the initial momentum going.

Sukotto | 7 years ago | on: Annoyed by Restaurant Playlists, a Master Musician Made His Own

Yes, me too. If you're interested, my current list is:

- A State of Trance with Armin Van Buuren (though recently he's started adding much more talking so I'm close to dropping it)

- Club Life with Tiësto

- Hardwell on Air

- Corsten's Countdown

- Afrojack: Jacked Radio (this one is really hit-or-miss for me. I skip maybe half the episodes)

As an aside:

- the "Song Exploder" podcast is a fascinating view into what goes into making music though that one falls into the "Talk" category

- I love the old "Timeless Mixes" by the (now defunct) DJ River. Which are helpfully all available as a podcast, so once in a while I'll mark a few of them as unplayed so my player will download them and add them to the playlist.

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