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Ask HN: I feel like helping somebody out, what can I help you with?
30 points by jiblyyyy 3272 days ago
Let me help you. Just ask. Anything, as long as it's reasonable and I can actually make it happen, yo. No strings attached, just a random act of kindness, I guess.

Edit: Some already started sending me emails (email is in my profile). That's ok if you think it's better vs the comments section.

19 comments

I could use some encouragement and life advice. I apologize if this ends up being long and whiny.

I feel like I'm stuck on the outside of the part of society where all the meaningful intellectual work happens.

Since I was a child I have always aspired to learn from the scientists and engineers and humanitarians so that I could be like them one day. I've read Hamming, Feynman, Norvig, Herbert Alexander Simon, and felt that those were the people who have gotten it right, that that's what life should be about. Explore the world, do hard, honest work of figuring things out and building something new that helps people realize their potential and live better. Find the math behind the mundane and harness it to improve the human condition.

But I've been struggling with depression for years and I'm ashamed of how I spent my time in university. I feel that I haven't found a mentor or path of my own. I've constantly felt overwhelmed and let down by myself and by the system. I feel that I don't have the skills or the resolve to just plow ahead and do things. I feel that whenever I try to do research, or write, or even think out loud it ends up with a mockery of the real thing.

Right now I've graduated from a five-year course in computational linguistics, did half a year of antidepressants, half a year of advanced math seminars and moved to Israel for a change of scenery. I would really like to find a collective here where I could learn and solve real problems. Join a startup or do a PhD.

I still have a crippling case of impostor syndrome and occasional panic attacks. If any of you here have suggestions — however specific or general, — I would really appreciate it.

Thanks for the honesty, let me give you some practical advice and maybe a birdseye view of your situation (or at least how I think about it)

- From your wording, I think you're looking too far ahead in the future, emphasising the long journey ahead of you.

- What I'd suggest you doing, is, kind of like this little post, start extremely TINY.

1. Pick a field you're interested in. Don't overthink it, you don't have to spend the rest of your life with this one decision. Just pick 1 thing in the next 8 seconds. It's just a tiny little experiment.

2. Find a non-profit organisation within that category that you can support with voluntary work. Again... don't overdo it. Just helping them spread the word, or simply sending them an email of appreciation for the work they're doing is a great start.

3. From the action you take in step 2, use the positive feeling you've gained to do an other tiny act of goodness. Potentially write about each tiny action you take, and keep a blog about those positive feeling/findings/etc.

I'm curious to follow your journey.

Small steps ahead, and before you know it, you can look back at a long trail of awesomeness, appreciating how you got there. Instead of looking to the future, not knowing how to get there.

Thank you!

I've just send a note of appreciation to the Centre for Effective Altruism. Let's hope that's a first step. I'll try keeping track of them @ https://mastodon.xyz/web/accounts/75086

Use the positive feeling to propel myself forward, you say? I'll go help my housemates with the chores and do a writeup on formal correctness proofs.

Sure beats feeling bad about not applying for jobs here more aggressively.

I'll keep in mind your suggestion of starting tiny, starting over instead of staying stuck, and not overemphasizing the big picture. I'm grateful you took the time to answer.

The most specific, and yet still very general, advice I can give is meditation/mindfulness. it works even separated from more fundamental perspectives on life, but I'd argue it's especially valuable in that context.

EDIT: what I like about characters like Feynman and the stories they tell is that they seem to really confirm this approach to me. Feynman struck me as a person not too inhibited by introspection, but rather propelled by curiosity. If I meditate or let my mind rest and give up on the 'demands' of the world, I cannot help but feel that the resulting state is the kind that Feynman actively cultivated (without realizing it, perhaps). There's other stuff I feel like sharing, but honestly I believe that if you focus on this, and not just as a cool new idea but actual practice, it's likely to be worthwhile enough to make the rest inconsequential in comparison.

Can I ask you to work excellently in your job & donate some % of your income to a charity for some amount of time (not just a one time thing) ? ;)

Any charity with good reviews in http://www.givewell.org/ and https://www.charitynavigator.org/ are OK.

I actually already do that. Not specifically through those websites though. I wish more would do the same.
One of the things I am interested in is quantitative finance. I don't have a math background, however. I'm fascinated by it all and want to be able to read scholarly articles on the subject and understand what they're saying, as they are heavy in math. Do you think 36 is too old to take a few online advanced mathematics classes and indulge in my interests?
Taking a little side road here, but the question of being 'too old' for something is a limiting belief you should squash, right now! Here's a super inspiring infographic that answers the question 'Am I too Old to Start', in the context of entrepreneurship. Browse through those names and ages. You'll find motivation to pursuit your own things, despite your age.
You can help us make a search engine to visualise all of world's knowledge with mind maps.

The search engine is open source : https://github.com/learn-anything/search-engine

We use Javascript, React, Redux and Webpack to build it together with D3.js for visualisation.

We wrote about why we are building it here :

https://medium.com/@NikitaVoloboev/the-invisible-mountains-b...

I'm an ex-engineer, now pediatrian who would really like to be a founder in healthcare technology after residency (2 more years left). Can you show me how to get started? I'm in Seattle. My limitations are that I hope to stay sane, avoid sacrificing all of my time away from a family of 4 children, and be able to start in the light of a significant amount of educational debt (>100k). I know it's quite a specific request, but you said ask anything!
I don't know a lot about your specific market, but here's what you could do:

- Start writing. A blog, newsletter, what ever. Start today

- The goal is to build an audience around your writing. Focus on what you know best, and write for a specific type of customer

- Don't focus on getting thousands of readers, having 20, 50, 70 people is enough to learn about the problems people have in your industry - identify the problem, build a solution for your group of readers (could be a course, SaaS, etc.) product may not be free. Put a solid price tag on it.

- If people pay, and your product seems to solve a real pinpoint, focus more effort on promoting it and attracting more of the same kinds of customers. Go at it slowly.

- Don't take investments, loans or other things that will only put more weight on your shoulders.

- Start spending just 2-3 hours a week, today and just stick with it.

If you have any social media presence (or know someone who does) some signal boost on my against-the-grain front end library would be much appreciated:

https://github.com/LeadDyno/intercooler-js

I have some articles up explaining some of the theory behind it on the blog:

http://intercoolerjs.org/blog.html

Do you know, or know where to research, a tool that would allow private tagging of Facebook users? Say you were developing a product and wanted handy way to flag people as likely (or unlikely) future customers to based on your personal impression, rather than FB's approach of selecting characteristics and having your ad served to a list of users.
I have an opportunity to connect a leading IoT vendor with public agencies to impact homelessness... I need an InfoGraphic that depicts who/what/how/why/when/where IoT can positively impact the lifecycle of homeless mothers. Thx for your generous offer!
I have an opportunity to connect a leading IoT vendor with public agencies to impact homelessness... I need an InfoGraphic that depicts who/what/how/why/when/where IoT can positively impact the lifecycle of homeless mothers. Thx for your generous offer
I want to build a fantasy draft soccer app with node and react. I guess I would need socket.io for the draft, but I've never done any real-time app before. Can you help me out in explaining in the overall architecture of the system? Especially the real-time aspect of it.
Why don't you build a tiny real-time app first. Maybe this will help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FPkN6ETqes
Thanks for the cool video, I'll definitely start small first.
Help me find some reading material for this evening — post the best thing you've read recently
Reread the Count of Monte Cristo [1] last week, as well as nonjon's "Where in the World is Harry Potter" series [2][3][4] (HP fanfiction, comedy and AU, mature content). Highly recommend both.

[1] http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1184

[2] Where in the World is Harry Potter? https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2354771/1/Where-in-the-World-is...

[3] The Untitled Cheekquel Project https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2477165/1/The-Untitled-Cheekque...

[4] You Did What! https://www.fanfiction.net/s/2630300/1/You-Did-What

I'm currently reading this: https://www.amazon.com/Creativity-Sale-Wearing-T-Shirts-Pass...

It 's seriously a fun, easy and inspiring read. I would recommend for any maker/hacker. (That's not an affiliate link nor am I connected in any form or shape to the author)

Maybe listing things you're competent at might help for people to know what to ask for.
I didn't want to limit what people would ask for and even if I'm not able to do it myself, maybe I could point people in the right direction.
I'm trying to adopt another special needs child from bulgaria and save them from orphanage hell. This time we can't do it without raising money, we have a fundraising site and I can pm if interested.
send me an email
Please donate any amount to the OpenBSD foundation: https://www.openbsd.org/donations.html
done
Help a schoolteacher through http://donorschoose.org .
Make someone smile today!
My daughter has been smiling all day. I guess that's mission accomplished :D
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