dood

The suggestion to ignore academic studies of the lives of people in medieval Europe because they contradict your experience of villages in 21st century China does not make sense.

Things were different in the past. Most people's lives involved far more leisure than today, for long stretches of the medieval period. source: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/rauch/worktime/hours_w...

I think that is a bit harsh. Some people find saving very difficult. Interest rates are rock-bottom anyway. This is a service which, for a small fee, helps you to save if you are really bad at it. It's not for me, but I can see this being a starting point for someone who has never managed to save successfully.

In my experience the double-bind is typically a result of doublethink/cognitive-dissonance, which explains why people react poorly when it is pointed out.

Of your 3 solutions the first two are non-starters for me, and have found the third very tricky. So I prefer two other options - walk away from the situation, or calmly accept and subsequently ignore chastisement.

The latter solution is interesting, since often anger expressed by the person doing the binding is because they themselves are also in a (potentially self-inflicted) double-bind. They want to express their anger at you, but don't necessarily feel ill-will toward you, knowing subconsciously that your actions are reasonable and rational. Of course, dealing with this is a lot easier said than done, and I'd seek to walk away as soon as possible if it happened with any regularity.

Was a senior backend/full-stack Python developer, now considering career options, thinking about contracting or perhaps finding a remote position.

On the side I'm playing with Elixir/Phoenix and working on an experimental knowledgebase.

He isn't doing this thinking he will become The Rock.

From http://rockingfor30days.com/why-im-eating-and-training-like-...

"I admire that level of discipline. And want to see if I can do it myself, if only for a month. This isn’t about the physical results a schedule like this might deliver. I have no grand plans to become huge or bulk up like The Rock. This is about testing whether I have the will and discipline to spend a month walking in the shoes of “the hardest worker in the room.”"

I like this thinking, it's good to challenge yourself sometimes, even in ways that might seem a bit crazy.

Personally, I've found myself sleeping better and feeling happier when I manage to stick to an early start, regardless of whether I'm working or when.

For a long time I generally got up as late as I could get away with, but am now very glad I managed to coax myself into being a (relatively) early-riser.

Yup, they must be about a mile apart.

This makes a great deal of sense. How would an average dev, with experience of fixing sales/marketing/etc, go about becoming this kind of consultantant?

Mindfulness in Plain English is what you are looking for. You can read online but there are OCR errors: http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html - I'd recommend buying a copy.

Script which approximates the effect, paste into your browser's console (epilepsy warning):

    document.body.innerHTML = ''; setInterval(function(){document.body.style["background-color"] = 'black'; setTimeout(function(){document.body.style["background-color"] = 'white';}, 100)}, 200)

You'll need to turn the lights in the room off, sit in front of the screen and close your eyes to get the effect.

A while ago I switched to drinking plain old green tea instead of tea/coffee. Great stuff, feel clearer-headed, more relaxed, more energetic, and more productive. All of the good effects of tea/coffee, but without the unnecessary caffeine highs, lows and tweakiness.

This is interesting. What happens when you lose the right to the land your home or factory is built on?

Are there common provisions for renewing the land-use right? Do people expect that their land-use right will be renewed?

Yes, this is the source: http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=18097...

It seems respectable and concludes:

"Clinicians should be aware that meditation programs can result in small to moderate reductions of multiple negative dimensions of psychological stress. Thus, clinicians should be prepared to talk with their patients about the role that a meditation program could have in addressing psychological stress. Stronger study designs are needed to determine the effects of meditation programs in improving the positive dimensions of mental health and stress-related behavior."

This directly contradicts the GP's claim that meditation is ineffective, and supports the OP's claim that meditation is a good way to deal with "psychological worries".

Amazingly, you have cherry-picked the part of your source that agrees with you.

This is the full quote, including the bits you left you:

"Mindfulness meditation programs had moderate evidence of improved anxiety... depression... and pain... and low evidence of improved stress/distress and mental health–related quality of life. We found low evidence of no effect or insufficient evidence of any effect of meditation programs on positive mood, attention, substance use, eating habits, sleep, and weight."

The same source goes on to conclude,

"Clinicians should be aware that meditation programs can result in small to moderate reductions of multiple negative dimensions of psychological stress"

That meditation research has historically been inconclusive and of poor quality does not mean it doesn't do anything.

Also, meditation research has come a long way since the studies cited in your source. Something I dug up quickly: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/americanbuddhist/2014/01/the-ef...

Reddit's source is available: https://github.com/reddit/reddit

I'm looking for a simple text editor for a side project. I hacked something together with contenteditable, but am quite frustrated with it for various reasons.

Recommendation for a simple text editor that doesn't get in the user's way?

Why not use execCommand?

Different traditions recommend different breathing techniques, but the most common teaching (that I've come across) is to not make any conscious effort to modify your breathing, instead concentrating on simply observing the breath as it is.

I'm reminded of the origin of Youtube - loads of video startups tried a similar thing, until the underlying tech became sufficient, and Youtube found the sweet spot of product-market fit (with enough capital to run at a loss for long enough).

These kind of video portals may not be quite viable yet, but it seems like they are right around the corner. I entirely share your sentiments about cable TV.

Something like this (like Youtube in it's time) seems inevitable - it's exciting to imagine the effect this sort of thing will have on the world.

It should be noted that this is a fairly unusual practice, quite different to the more common concentration, insight, and awareness meditation systems.

I use the approach from "Mindfulness in Plain English" [http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html], where the object of meditation is your breathing, and the purpose of meditation is cultivating mindfulness.

Here are the key conceptual passages I noted down last time I read it:

“When any mental state arises strongly enough to distract you from the object of meditation, switch your attention to the distraction briefly. Make the distraction a temporary object of meditation... You switch your attention to the distraction only long enough to notice certain specific things about it. What is it? How strong is it? and, how long does it last? As soon as you have wordlessly answered these questions, you are through with your examination of that distraction, and you return your attention to the breath.”

“[D]istractions are actually the whole point. The key is to learn to deal with these things. Learning to notice them without being trapped in them. That's what we are here for. The mental wandering is unpleasant, to be sure. But it is the normal mode of operation of your mind. Don't think of it as the enemy. It is just the simple reality. And if you want to change something, the first thing you have to do is see it the way it is.”

“Whatever it is, don't try to repress it. Don't try to force it out of your mind. There's no need for that. Just observe it mindfully with bare attention. Examine the distraction wordlessly and it will pass away by itself. You will find your attention drifting effortlessly back to the breath. And do not condemn yourself for having being distracted. Distractions are natural. They come and they go.”

“From the point of view of mindfulness, there is really no such thing as a distraction. Whatever arises in the mind is viewed as just one more opportunity to cultivate mindfulness. Breath, remember, is an arbitrary focus, and it is used as our primary object of attention. Distractions are used as secondary objects of attention. They are certainly as much a part of reality as breath. It actually makes rather little difference what the object of mindfulness is. You can be mindful of the breath, or you can be mindful of the distraction. You can be mindful of the fact that you mind is still, and your concentration is strong, or you can be mindful of the fact that your concentration is in ribbons and your mind is in an absolute shambles. It's all mindfulness. Just maintain that mindfulness and concentration eventually will follow.”

“The purpose of meditation is not to concentrate on the breath, without interruption, forever. That by itself would be a useless goal. The purpose of meditation is not to achieve a perfectly still and serene mind. Although a lovely state, it doesn't lead to liberation by itself. The purpose of meditation is to achieve uninterrupted mindfulness.”

Anyone can submit such a post, though I don't know if job offers are frowned upon, or even upvoted. Adding a fun puzzle/challenge will probably help though ;)

There are also the monthly "who's hiring" posts.

The Simpsons has joked before about being made in Korean sweatshops.

But more importantly this is a big win for Fox. They get the cred for getting Banksy (whatever that is worth), and more importantly loads of talk & coverage for their show.

Whatever downside there is (which I think is pretty insignificant) is easily outweighed by the upside.

Makes sense, thanks. Seems a shame that there is no reasonable way to invest in the companies which have good potential for growth and profit, but have no clear exit.

Can you imagine a future where investors somewhat like yourselves (if not necessarily YC) invest considering their expectation to likely be a combination of dividends and some possibility of exit?

Or perhaps better phrased, do you see dividends playing a role in angel/YC-like investment decisions anytime in the nearish-term?

Couldn't find anything to support it with 5 minutes of googling. Most like made up. Fun story though.

Not so in the case of Holland.

There is an incentive to lace it with anything that will increase weight and not be obvious to the user.

There was a news report in the UK a while ago about people adding glass (or something like), IIRC it was well substantiated.