Hi HN,<p>I am proposing a little community-brainstorming here and I am very curious about your answers to this very simple (and purposely broad) question:<p><pre><code> What is your biggest problem right now?</code></pre>
My lack of focus. I pair programmed with a colleague the other day and her ability to focus without losing sight of a goal was incredible. We were debugging for like 3 hours without dropping a beat and i can't go without a distraction for like a half hour. I'm guessing you're asking about this to generate business ideas though
That people don't just give me tons of money.<p>On a more serious note, I would say people in power not following the rules. That includes managers at companies violating policies to the detriment of their employees. Another example is law enforcement and politicians breaking the law, violating procedures/regulations, or making mistakes that negatively impact citizens and not taking any responsibility or steps to make it right.<p>I list this as the biggest problem because it has so many problems throughout the system and very little recourse for when it happens (you're asking the very system that f'd you, to make it right).
I have to fix my ADHD cause I can barely work. Think my meds don't work anymore and I'll end up going abroad to buy different ones. (only 1 kind locally)<p>BD (bipolar disorder) interferes too, can't find stability. Had to change meds (difficulty recalling words & little dumbed down) and just went ~1.5 month depression. Am kinda stable again, but not really normal stable (starting to forget how life was before BD).<p>Together with those have to fix my NPD personality disorder. Now this is a tough one.<p>But can't fucking read a fucking NPD book cause of the ADHD. It's complex.
Being unemployed. i have over 2 years experience as a content writer for blogs and websites. But I don't know how to communicate with clients as a freelancer. Currently i have no new projects and is depressed. I live with my father and i do not contribute anything to the monthly budget.
I'm in my early-mid 20's and I feel dispassionate/disinterested doing much other than gaming and consuming content after work. There's no real "community" that I am a part of outside of work.<p>I'm working on losing weight right now to build confidence and get into more things but until then it's just work -> gaming -> consume content -> sleep -> repeat.<p>I feel like I need to find something outside work to enrich my life and make new friends...
Right now? I have a neighbor in my apartment building whose door I literally must walk past in order to get to my apartment. That neighbor assaulted me, on video, and my landlord doesn't want to do anything about it, except... put up a surveillance camera.
Lack of time. Taking graduate courses in mathematics and economics, working part time in a bank, working out 3-4 times a week, spending time with my family (transport time). I don't really have time to pursue those odd ideas or just really dive deep into a new hobby or subject.<p>I guess you have to pay price for everything - so maybe in the future I will change my priorities.
I find little meat in life that is offered as standard.<p>I mean: work, produce, consume, agree and enjoy the show (only if you keep dancing and only as long as it lasts).<p>Where is the joy? How much joy am I neglecting to follow standards I have not chosen?<p>I am looking for alternatives such as more dedication to my people, hobbies and joyful knowledge, finding that this has little overlap with the expected way of life.
To further my career at the company i have been at for a long time i have taken over more diverse responsibilities (Lead, Architect, PO, Consultant, Coach), which in turn reduces the time i use to code more and more.<p>Now there are some interesting opportunities that pay a lot more, but i have the feeling that there is a mismatch between my CV and my current engineering skill level due to all this other stuff.<p>Could be imposter syndrome tho.
I know what would get me closer to my goals, but despite many efforts I frequently do not want to do them. Most often this looks like a few days of effort and then a collapse of exhaustion where I feel like I cannot work or do what I ought to...
The entire world losing their effing minds at once!<p>I'm halfway joking, but the USA has gone from "Land of the Free, Home of the Brave", "Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness," "From Sea to Shining Sea," to a boot stamping on a human face forever in less than one year. It's gotten to the point where I don't feel safe raising children here.
Keeping my weight under control.<p>I've gained 20 pounds over the last year. It doesn't help that I bought a stand mixer and love baking. Cycling alone doesn't seem to keep things under control. I either need to do bigger riders or supplement it.<p>The one good thing is my eating out has been drastically cut. But there is still work to be done there.
I feel like I chose my career path too early, i think i wasnt mature enough, and is a career that wont make me much money, add to that that im poor and in a 3rd world country, and soon to be on my own, a perfect combination for disaster. I think my biggest problem would be getting by(money).
That neither of the two countries my family is from will give one set of us permanent residency, splitting the family across countries.<p>And the lack of countries that allow permanent residency without tying it to large investment or domestic employment.
I need more money from projects that I build fast. So I guess I need a project that has a high chance of success with a decent amount of cash that comes with it. Sucks to have a lot of skills and time but not a big/fast to produce project.
i dont know who or whom would be wanting to be lurking in my devices. As far as i know no harm has been done, but odd situations and conversations seem to be occuring that have to do with my personal life. The individuals within the conversation and situations should not even have knowledge of. <i></i><i></i>* not on drugs or a weirdo ..been going on for a few months now
Figuring out how to get back to being a freeloader.<p>For maybe the last 15 years or so I've been blocking or avoiding ads. uBlock origin is probably the most valuable product I use as well as AdBlock Plus before that. I know I know! I'm morally bankrupt! Thats how people make money on their content. That's what makes the internet go round. But I can't help myself. I just can't stand advertisements. Where I can I pay to avoid ads like Netflix or Youtube Premium I do. But beyond that I've used ad blockers and various tricks over the last decade and a half to nearly completely avoid advertisements in my life. It has been delightful. I feel like I'm happier for it and have saved who knows how much time and attention by doing so. I've always said that for any given service if I couldn't figure out how to block the ads I would just stop using it and read more books or something instead. Short of that there is almost no ceiling for how much I am willing to pay to use an ad-free version of a service.<p>That strategy has been pretty effective and continues to be today. But whereas the deal used to be "we have content you want, but the trade is that you have to look at our advertisements" it seems like that deal has shifted a bit in the last couple years. Now it's more like "we have the content you want, but it's in a walled garden of really addicting algorithms." So even though I don't see ads on Reddit, Youtube, or whatever - thats no longer enough. I'm still finding my time and attention being taken up by this really addicting content that is optimized for engagement and leaves me no more informed and usually less happy.<p>The thing is the good content is still out there! In fact there is probably more of it than there ever was even though it doesn't feel that way now. For now I've stopped using reddit and feel much happier for it. I try all these little tricks with Youtube to use it in a way where I don't get sucked into that engagement trap but it's pretty tricky.<p>All the well known tricks like uninstalling the app and using it in the browser or turning off notifications feel like trying to smoke 3 cigarettes a day or eat just one potato chip. They work moderately well but I often find myself slipping. It's also a constant willpower battle that is it's own drain on time and attention.<p>I've considered giving up the lot of it like I used to threaten I would do if I couldn't block ads anymore. Just read more books and so on. But I don't want to! What I want is to have my cake and eat it to. I want to go back to being a freeloader where I get the interesting content that I love without paying for it with my time, attention, and well-being, in a labyrinth of engagement.<p>I want an algorithm blocker that works like an adblocker. Maybe using machine learning to identify content that fits the bill. It seems somewhat unrealistic honestly. I'm not exactly sure what you're training the algorithm on in order to get that. Also maybe ML isn't the path there. Maybe there is another clever way to do it. I'm not sure. But I do think about it from time to time.<p>Short of that I've also considered trying to shift the sources to sites that have interesting and novel content without being so addictive and negative. Random wikipedia articles or random github repositories, that sort of thing.<p>Thinking about the biggest problem I have this was the most concrete one I could come up with. It's hard to quantify just how much value I would get out of a solution if it was as big of a benefit for me as adblockers have been up to now.
dicipline, I am trying to loose weight and have good sleeping habits. But it all fails because of the amount of effort i need to put in to keep a routine.