[larrykubin]

I'd probably spend less time on Hacker News. The percentage of programmers in the world who have actually finished SICP and CLRS is really small. I have copies of both sitting here next to me and have only finished a couple of sections. No reason to feel bad about it. Also, plenty of people have been out of work for over 2 months.

I also recommend getting outdoors and doing things besides worrying about whether you are the best hacker. Last year I was working with a small company with an uncertain future and was really anxious and worried the whole time. This year I quit and moved to Oregon. Since then, I have spent a lot of time visiting parks/waterfalls/the gorge, and lately the goal of being the richest/greatest/most elite programmer hasn't seemed very important.

[dazedconfused]

Thank you.

Sadly HN has become like a drug to me... I have tried several times to ignore and stop coming back here but it has never worked and when I procrastinate I always end up coming back.

[beaumartinez]

Edit your hosts file to block news.ycombinator.com—

    127.0.0.1 news.ycombinator.com

On Unix-like systems it's /etc/hosts

[adrianwaj]

Have you been a lurker all this time? Maybe you should start writing.