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I wish caffeine made me feel anything.

I would need over 24 oz of coffee for anything.

But at that point I'm pushing potentially unsafe levels..

I wish we were taught more about taking drugs. Use caffeine since it's legal, for an example.

"Don't have caffeine 2 days in a row. Ask yourself if you really need the energy or are thirsty/bored. Etc...."

You could apply the same to alcohol to reduce alcoholism.


You might have adhd. I fall into extremely high doses because a high level of stimulant use is needed to get to a “normal” baseline.

Of course tolerance is also a factor. I’ve been reducing my intake, for a while it was well over 1g/day, and that wasn’t really about trying to “feel” anything.


>I wish caffeine made me feel anything.

(intentionally NOT quoting the remainder of your post)

The only time I ever felt anything from caffine:

I was working the midnight shift. (At a service industry job, there were no customers so it was dead.)

I took:

  2 caffeine pills
  4 coffee's
  2 cans of coke
It worked. I was very jittery, and had the shakes. But I survived the shift, and by the time the shift was over (7am) the sun was up, and I had a 1 hour drive to get home.

I was also surprised to learn while driving Truck, that some US States outlawed caffeine pills. (Ohio) It might have been available at a drug store though, I only had access to truck stops.


As someone with kids and side projects, I have doubts about "not having time".

I could do 2 hours of productivity after the kids go to sleep and I'd still have 2 hours for entertainment. I exercise too.

So let's make it even more reasonable. How about 30 minutes, 4 times a week?

>Meaningful progress

So then do an hour or 2? I make progress in 30 minutes and sometimes keep going. If the point is for a resume, you could even do a 1 or 2 week sprint.

I suppose you could even work on it while the kids are awake. My kids love Alphablocks.

If you don't have a personal side project, the issue isn't children. It's desire.


I work on something which will either be a side project for CV or a small business if I'm lucky - in either case most of the work at the time relates to development. On a typical week I put 30 - 40h into it (I don't work full time so I can afford it) and it still goes so damn slow. And the project is not anything crazy, just a standard Electron desktop app.

I can hardly imagine how someone could build anything at 2h/week. 30 min is barely enough time for the brain to switch gears.

I fully get how someone does not have time for side projects - they have life besides work, while I barely do.


The trick is to cheat: Pick side projects which you know you can make substantial progress on in a small amount of time given your unique set of skills and experiences.


I can either build a consumer friendly embedded project, or I can build one that I need to recompile when it's time to change settings.

Both count for the interview purposes.


Now it's not a side project: it's resume building.


Completely disagree: building side projects that you can ship quickly is just a more fun way of doing side projects.

Coincidentally I wrote some notes about resume building a few days ago: https://simonwillison.net/2021/Jul/17/standing-out/


it's not that i don't have time -- i do have time. but i don't want to write code as side projects anymore.

i much rather do something else. play a videogame, read a book, watch series. i already work 8~10h a day, after that, i want chill and think about something else that is not code.


Sure. The parent claimed there wasn't time.

Btw have you considered something drastically different than your current code? Embedded comes to mind, it's half electrical engineering and lots of instant gratification.

But in general, nonfiction books could help you ace an interview. I wowd some people by merely talking taoist philosophy and how despite having diverse skills, there's something to be said about sticking to your role.


> The parent claimed there wasn't time.

You forgot the second part of my sentence:

> or who choose to pursue non-IT hobbies to keep a work-life balance


I do find that I have time for side projects even with my wife and I working full time with a one year old but some / most weeks I feel like Im going to drop dead and that is in part because I find myself with little time for exercise and other self care. I just think its worth regurgitating the adage that every child really is different and so is every tech job. My friends that end up working till 9pm and on weekends regularly or have more demanding children are living in completely different realities and my heart goes out to them every day. With all this said my side projects end up being very consuming and not necessarily geared towards looking good on a resume.


I should put an astrik that this is only feasible when working 40 hours a week.

Beyond that and the burnout is real.


You're right that it's not always about time. Some people, like me, are just idea poor. Or, our brains are so overworked from the day we can't concentrate at 10pm at night enough to do anything coherent.


Just like they opened their patents?

I'm not holding my breath, company lost my Trust a few years ago.


>iOS

Apple doesn't advertise much outside the United States, and given Android is significantly more developer friendly, there isn't a reason for a student to learn on iOS.


I'm in a train station in Berlin right now and every billboard is Apple.


I see your name every time Apple are mentioned, did they hurt you or something?

If you don’t want to buy their gear that is fine but this crusade you’re on is boring.


Yep. I'm against unethical behavior. Seems like HN generally agrees.

I'm also against medical cartels too.

I don't like Samsung or Nintendo for the same reasons I don't like Apple.

Any specific questions?


What is unethical about Nintendo that you mention it among Apple and Samsung? Honest question here.


I'm a vocal anti advocate. Hope you do too.


Did something similar. I didn't care if the fee was like $30. But I needed their investment/small business tier and it was in the multiple hundreds of dollars.

Switched to a different service.

I know people want privacy, but I'd sell my income and personal company finances for $500. Where is that tax company?


I think many people are trying to determine policy decisions.

Do you shut down a country, causing starvation and lack of medical care OR do you attempt business as usual with masks?

People are going to die, the question is how to limit it, and who gets priority.


This is irresponsible. Especially as policy decisions are made from it.


What's irresponsible is making policy decisions based on numbers that are clearly not useful for that purpose.


I was literally flagged on HN last year from pointing out potential side effects of lockdowns.

It was weird being pro science and seeing this turn political. It really showed which of my friends could think scientifically for themselves, and which repeated what authority said.


I think the difference is between people who see science as a process and people who see science as a priesthood.

A true pro-science position is to follow the conclusions from scientific observations wherever they may lead however uncomfortable that may be. Someone who is not pro-science but merely adopting the aesthetic of science will claim "obey the science" as though it's a doctrine rather than simply a tool.


I find that these people don't read studies but rather treat scientists as Science.

Scientists are Authority, not science.

It was mind boggling how many scientists made this mistake.


[flagged]


The discussion on this topic here is just opinion and speculation, as are the votes. I think of the upvotes and downvotes in a discussion like this as nothing more than a poll of HN readers' opinions.


   Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills.
From the guidelines https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html


I read/listen to lots of nonfiction books(30 so far this year) and the only benefit of buying books instead of using a Library is being able to write notes in them.

With digital copies I'll screenshot a page.

Not sure what is better, both seem to have their problems. Underlining requires flipping through every page. Screenshotting gives you more and less information than you need.

But library digital books are free and don't require transportation to obtain.

As a side note, read science, history and philosophy books. It's mind boggling how much better these books are than social media. If a book sucks, move onto the next one(or tell yourself you will read it later).


To me, the main benefit of buying books is that I can keep them for reference, I often use technical books for years. Old books also have a sentimental value for me and I'm having a hard time getting rid of them.

BTW, I would never write anything in a book. I wonder if I'm the only one.


I rarely write in a book besides my name in pencil in the front. But when I see an error that I can't ignore, I'll make a copyediting mark or note in the margin so I can move on. Very occasionally I'll get a book that I need to argue with, and then the margins get filled, sorry to anyone who eventually finds these.

I think my reluctance is mostly about keeping a book in the state I got it, since I do frequently mark up interesting sections of PDFs in my e-reader.


It varies. I grew up not writing in books, because until high school most of the books I handled were either school books, mine to use for the school year, or library books. That was a while ago. These days, I have no scruples, but I tend to write only in work that requires some concentration, mostly philosophy. I read a fair bit of history and fiction, but don't tend to write in them.


> BTW, I would never write anything in a book. I wonder if I'm the only one.

You're not. I don't consider myself the final owner of the things I possess.


I like seeing little notes from prior readers. References to other works, question marks, and angry exclamation points are all fun to see.

Underlining or highlighting can be interesting to see what the other reader thought was important. Highlighters can be distracting when they overdo it, but even then it can be fun to see where the highlighting tapers off were the prior reader just gave up.

But dog ears or times when someone folded a whole page in half is just painful.


I don't imagine myself to be the final owner of the things, but I am definitely the current user--and chances are the future user, and writing in the book makes the use better. Somebody may wear some of my clothes someday. Does that mean I can't have them altered for better fit?


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