Ask HN: What simple lessons have disproportionately impacted your life?

[mohamo]

Sometimes simple ideas can have a huge impact on your life. Here are some of the top lessons I’ve learned. 1. It’s possible to retire WAY before 65 as long as you save and invest WAY more than the average person. 2. If you create a product that people are searching for and genuinely want/need, it practically sells itself. 3. Happiness isn’t just about positive emotion. Martin Seligman created a model for subjective well being called the PERMA model which stands for positive emotion, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. You need all 5 components to have long lasting happiness.

What simple lessons have disproportionately impacted your life?

[mdcds]

Making little bit of progress consistently every day will get you very far in the long run.

If you read 10 pages a day, you'll finish a typical book in about a month.

Personal impact: I think I've accomplished many things over the years by just chipping away at them slowly.

[sn9]

For easy math, if you assume the average book is 365 pages long, then how many pages you read per day on average will tell you how many books you're likely to read per year (e.g., 10 pages/day => 10 books/year, 50 pages/day => 50 books/year, 100 pages/day => 100 books/year).

[codegeek]

Do things with a Goal in mind. This always helps me stay sane and focussed on things that matter to me. If something is not my goal, I don't bother. I don't compare with others even though we all have that tendency being human.

Whenever I have done things with a goal, I have succeeded. Whenever I go wandering around without any goals, I have no idea where I am going or what I am doing. I don't usually go with the flow. I like to define my own flow (exceptions at times which is also needed for balance).

[mohamo]

I totally agree with this. When I was in undergrad I learned about goal setting and had some of the best years of my life. After I had a couple of kids I forgot to set goals, and felt lost. Then, it finally dawned on me that I didn't have any big clear goals. After setting some and starting to take action towards them I felt 10 times better about everything. Goals are so powerful.

[warrenm]

"BeAnAnd" - don't just be a programmer, be a programmer and a lawyer; don't just be a plumber, be a plumber and a baker; etc

[mohamo]

I love this. Also, can't help thinking about a plumber fixing my toilet and then baking questionable brownies.

[yuuu]

Why the fuck would a plumber be a baker.

[tomcam]

In the USA that pairing in particular is so common they are called plakers.

[sol2k]

Did you mean blumbers?

[tomcam]

Nice!

[is_true]

plumbing gets clogged with grease from time to time

[warrenm]

Why not?

[joshxyz]

book us now at calendly.com/bakedplumbers

[MahajanVardhan]

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Don't panic.

Here are some quotes that have positively impacted my life (some of them are cheesy). I have a list of life philosophies as well, but I keep those private.

“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

― Dale Carnegie

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you"

— Maya Angelou

"We didn't realize we were making memories, we just thought that we were having fun" - Pooh

"grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference"

"Everything you see around you was made by people no smarter than you" -Steve Jobs

"It always seems impossible until its done" - Nelson Mendela

"it is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that things are difficult" - seneca

"the worst thing you can do is see a problem you can solve and do nothing about it"

"Use what talents you possess - the woods will be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best."

Henry van Dyke

Buddhist quote: Don't believe everything you think

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.

"The first draft is just you telling yourself the story." - Terry Pratchett

"When seeking revenge dig two graves." - Confucius

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes it is a quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow." -Maryann Radmacher

“There’s not a lot of things worth caring about.”

“Graveyards are full of irreplaceable people”.

"It's possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not weakness. That is life."

—Captain Jean-Luc Picard

"I've had a lot of worries in my life. Most of which never happened." - Mark Twain.

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

You train people how to treat you, unconsciously or not.

Don't set yourself on fire to keep others warm.

“Draw a monster. Why is it a monster?”

Just because it's not your fault doesn't mean it's not your responsibility.

"I wish there was a way to know you were in the good 'ole days, before you’ve actually left them".

- Andy from The Office

Honesty without kindness is brutality.

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity” - Hanlon’s Razor.

There are two paths you can go by, but in the long run there's still time to change the road you're on. -Led Zeppelin

“If you’re trying to break a habit, don’t say ‘this is the last time I’m doing it’ to yourself. Instead, say ‘this is the first time I’m not doing it’.”

Don't put off the important in favor of the urgent.

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way"-Viktor Frankl

“This too shall pass”

"Whoever fights, can lose. Whoever doesn't fight, has already lost".

“Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.”

I often regret that I have spoken; never that I have been silent. - Publilius Syrus

Despair is the failure of the imagination.

Show me a guy who's afraid to look bad, and I'll show you a guy you can beat every time. -Lou Brock

[goethes_kind]

I love these quotes. The last two go a bit against each other. In truth, I do not think silence is highly valued unless you already command the respect of everyone in the room. If you are a nobody it seems better to follow the last quote and have the courage to say something, even if it may turn out to be stupid.

[beckingz]

Most good wisdom conflicts with other good wisdom.

[MahajanVardhan]

yea, I think that is mostly because good advice is never black and white. It is always grey. And so, you can have good arguments on either side.

[tomcam]

I’m adding that to my book of quotes

[mohamo]

Wow, thank you so much for sharing these. So powerful! I really feel Maya Angelou's quote.

[MilnerRoute]

"Everyone you meet is in the middle of fighting a battle. So always be kind."

[lulzury]

For me, it is the unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday.

Discussed earlier in HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27833064

[borroka]

People in power do things, make changes, move needles.

People who are not in power do things that people in power tell them to do, they undergo changes, watch the needle being moved.

If you are not in power and want to do things, make changes, move needles, find a way, any way to be part of the "power." Very few changes come from the "outside," and if they come from there, it takes a long, long time.

We may think that the best idea will emerge, that what is right will be done, that the arc of promotions will tend toward competence, but that is not how this world (primarily) works. Maybe that's how the world should work.

-----

If you have options, you decide. If you have no options, others decide for you. Find a way to have options. For example, if you have no skills and are in debt, you must accept whatever your employer imposes on you. On the other hand, if you have skills and no debt, you can engage in negotiation.

By having more options instead of having none, your life will be a peaceful sail along the Mediterranean coast, instead of the crossing made by the sailor attached to the timber of the boat that is still floating in a stormy sea.

[treis]

>If you create a product that people are searching for and genuinely want/need, it practically sells itself

My adage is this but more generic:

It's way easier to sell someone something they want than to convenience them to buy what you're selling.

This applies to anything. The way to advance at work is to give your boss exactly what they want. The path to a happy relationship is to find someone looking for the traits you have (and vice versa). Sell winter coats in NY and not Fla. Buy the house that meets your needs. And so on.

[skydhash]

1. You can get what you want by being valuable yourself

2. Don't be afraid to discuss money. The client is always seeking the lower price and the budget is always higher than what was mentioned before.

3. Work so you live. It's never worth it to do overtime.

4. Learning is a shortcut to success. Most people stop seeking new information unless forced. You will be a step ahead of those.

3. There isn't much that do really matters in life. Act only on this small set and enjoy the rest as it is.

[imakwana]

"Use it or lose it"

Don't remember the source of this insight, it is often used in context of evolutionary adaptation in biology. This encompasses every activity in day-to-day life.

[makersmasher]

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. Viktor E. Frankl

[TurkishPoptart]

That reminds me of an Eckhart Tolle quote: “The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but thought about it. Be aware of the thoughts you are thinking. Separate them from the situation, which is always neutral. It is as it is.”

Meditation teaches this.

[tomcam]

> The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but thought about it.

Dude never woke up to a busted water heater

[beckingz]

All truth is incomplete. All wisdom is paradoxical.

[postalrat]

Still trying to figure out the fermi paradox.

[leobg]

Buy on fear, sell on greed.

[joshxyz]

health over wealth.