Ask HN: What Are You Thankful For?

Public healthcare (and public education).<p>Over the past 12 months I&#x27;ve been engaged with metastasised testicular cancer. It started with a radical unilateral orchiectomy, followed by 1 round of BEP&#x2F;3 rounds of EP. I just got back to work and found out it was back and had 4 rounds of high dose TICE 2 of which included stem cell recovery. I was meant to have lung surgery to reduce the risks of later spread through dead tissue but am instead scheduled for radiosurgery on a machine they are trying to fix.<p>I don&#x27;t know where you live but I&#x27;ve always understood my tax contribution has been insufficient, this health crisis is sweet confirmation bias for me, public healthcare is a true blessing for me and no matter if I win&#x2F;lose&#x2F;draw this battle I hope those who come after me in some way benefit from me going through treatment just as I have in theory benefitted from others persisting with treatment.<p>In my personal view greed is a waste of time, be comfortable if you can and figure out what kind of contribution to our community would mean something to you. every headline these days seems to point to how greedy the current crop of big tech is (which probably includes those tech luminaries in Google such as Urs and Jeff Dean).<p>Much love in your journey, Lostletterbox

My life.<p>I have a job I enjoy doing, a home I love coming home to, a partner whom I want to share the rest of my life with, and an extended family whom I all love.<p>Besides this, I also study my greatest passion and have time for hobbies, along with great friends to share my hobbies and studies with.

A few months ago I got very sick, I was briefly hospitalized.<p>I don&#x27;t want to share all of the details, but somehow that set into motion a chain of events that lead to me doing better than I&#x27;ve ever been. I was struck that I didn&#x27;t plan for things to turn out this way - and they&#x27;ve turned out better than I have the cleverness to plan for.<p>I&#x27;m trying to do things a little differently. I&#x27;m studying zen and taoism and learning that things work better if I don&#x27;t try so hard to control them.<p>Life is strange. I&#x27;m grateful for to be here, and I&#x27;m grateful that it&#x27;s strange.<p>Take care, HN.

My partner. She continues to be my best friend, my most trusted advisor, my team mate, my teacher, and my moral inspiration. I love her dearly, she&#x27;s incredibly principled, and absolutely hilarious. We&#x27;re trying to save up to buy a house together currently and I am so very thankful I&#x27;ve found someone I feel so relaxed with - enough to start planning together into the future.

The many people who risk&#x2F;tank their career to speak out about injustice in the world, specifically Gaza in this case but in general.

Today, surviving and growing through so much trauma that I understand the meaning and beauty of life is its futility, and from there I find peace in the wisdom I’ve acquired and will apply the rest of my time here on Earth &#x2F; in this energy state.

Though I am poor have hungered for many things, I&#x27;ve never known hunger of the belly. For that, I am very thankful.<p>I am thankful for my favorite piece of technology: plumbing. I also appreciate that it&#x27;s quite simple and probably the most useful technology available to me. When people squabble and salivate for the latest glitz and gadgets, when I find myself doing the same, I am reminded of the infinitely more useful, simple, and life-changing technology that is modern plumbing.

Living in a developed country. If I was living outside the US or Europe, on average, I&#x27;d be earning less than 1&#x2F;5 of what I earn doing in the US (and that&#x27;s for basically any job I&#x27;d be doing - as a math teacher, etc).<p>My favorite outlet for gratitude is giving money to cost-effective charities. I give at least 10% of my pre-tax income. Join thousands of others doing the same: <i>Giving What We Can</i>.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.givingwhatwecan.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.givingwhatwecan.org&#x2F;</a>

I&#x27;m thankful for all my friends, family, various communities of which I&#x27;m a member, including you-all here, and the society that surrounds us. We&#x27;re never going to reach our aspirational goals, but they give us all an agreed upon direction to travel.<p>I&#x27;m thankful or engineering and science, and all that flow from it, mostly for the good, but not all, of course. I&#x27;m thankful for the arts and humanities that help us all relate and take meaning from the world.<p>I&#x27;ve seen computing go from IMSAI boxes to magic slabs of glass that are phones, computers, and cameras, all in one, that can easily outperform the VAX 11&#x2F;780 that I thought was almost magic back in 1981, and the Cray-I that was unobtanium back in the day. I&#x27;m thankful for those advances, and I hope I can help push computing even further in my own small way.<p>We&#x27;re in the future, and it is amazing, despite all the flaws. I&#x27;m glad I&#x27;ve lived long enough to see the first tests, and the possibility of a new physics that will get humanity off this one precious world, and out into the stars.<p>---<p>Personally, on 7&#x2F;7&#x2F;7, my Gall Bladder declared war on my Pancreas, and thanks to modern medicine, I&#x27;m a man with no Gall, and still alive. I&#x27;m thankful for all the extra time I&#x27;ve been given here to spend with family, friends, and y&#x27;all.

I am thankful for my Father introducing me to a variety of school books and helping me inculcate the habit of reading. Whatever I am today, is due to my reading habit. In school I read a lot about Science and Scientists and their lives. Helped me develop non-linear ways of thinking which has helped me grow in my career and be exceptional in thinking of weird but effective solutions.<p>Also grateful to all my mentors, especially 2, both my seniors in my 1st job, who instead of answering my complex questions asked me to search on the net (way back in 2004 when the internet was lot more cleaner and less noisy.) Due to this sometimes I learned things which even they didn&#x27;t know. God bless them you too, Somesh Sir and Manish Sir. Am not still not a graduate but yet know more than my peers due to this habit you guys inculcated in me.<p>And am grateful for humanity to be on the path of peace and progression. Had I had been born 100 years earlier, would have been dead in some stupid battlefield fighting for some stupid purpose (please don&#x27;t argue with me on this.)

This year? Leaving a relationship I was thankful the previous year

Whoever made the nuclear bombs so that we haven&#x27;t started a third world war yet.

The internet. It connects the world and is an endless source of knowledge. Although it can definitely have negative impacts on people’s lives, it’s overall a benefit to humanity and I’m thankful to be around to see it!

Life. Existence. That, and whatever time remaining I have to spend here.

People and dogs in general, my people and my dogs specifically. The amazing live music my wife and I have had the privilege of attending this year

Thankful for all the struggles that have made me come this far and the ones yet to come. Happy Thanksgiving.

You. and HN. and Python. and Urbit. and Krsna. and Now!

Nothing really. Who should I be thankful to? There is nobody to thank.

Pretty much everything.

My bidet.

Someday the dream will end