[HN Gopher] Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student
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Advice from a 104-year-old PhD student
Author : hmart
Score : 61 points
Date : 2021-01-09 20:10 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.bbc.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.bbc.com)
| submeta wrote:
| Truly inspiring. I am in my late fourties, and I was wondering if
| I have enough time to learn Haskell, now I have no reason not to.
| layoutIfNeeded wrote:
| My dad is a 55 year old mechanical engineer. He have called me
| 3 times today with various questions regarding C++. He's
| learning it by writing a program to draw Bezier curves.
|
| Maybe at 55 I'll pick up mechanical engineering as a hobby.
| fortran77 wrote:
| Hey! I'm 58 and just starting a new contracting position
| writing software for Software Defined Radios, which I never
| did before. Started working with Matlib. Need to
| learn/relearn some math, too. 55 is certainly not too old to
| learn C++.
| [deleted]
| xwdv wrote:
| It's never too late to learn anything. The problem is, are you
| ever going to be able to put it to good use before forgetting
| much of it?
|
| I've wasted so much time in the past decade learning random
| shit that I never used, it's been a poor ROI compared to just
| continuing to hone the skills and languages I use daily. Really
| demotivating.
| pbourke wrote:
| If you're a working programmer using a mainstream language,
| then I feel that spending some time with an ML-derived
| language such as Haskell and a Lisp will pay dividends in
| your day to day practice.
|
| There are some keen insights about computing that are
| revealed by these languages - and those insights are
| transferable to your daily work in JS, C#, Python, Java, etc
| to some degree.
| st1x7 wrote:
| > and those insights are transferable to your daily work
|
| Some people say this, others say that it makes your daily
| work worse because going back to a language that isn't on
| the cult-approved list is so difficult.
| xwdv wrote:
| Can you give any examples?
| jimbokun wrote:
| Looking backwards, I dug pretty deeply into Clojure for a
| while.
|
| When Streams came to Java, I felt like I was already an
| expert in that paradigm, and was able to adopt it
| immediately in ways that made my Java code clearer and
| more concise, and maybe even more performant in some
| cases. (Streams can allow you to transform a very long
| sequence of data, without needing to realize the whole
| sequence in memory first, as one example.)
|
| I also use immutable data structures by default wherever
| possible, unless I know I really need to mutate the data.
|
| I try to make the output of a method dependent only on
| the inputs, wherever possible.
|
| You shouldn't take it to extremes, but incorporating
| paradigms from one language into another can pay big
| dividends.
| [deleted]
| hombre_fatal wrote:
| It sounds like your problem is a certain outcome dependency.
| A better mindset is to learn things out of curiosity. You
| could level your criticism at learning anything that doesn't
| help you in the cubicle tomorrow.
| trangon wrote:
| Do it. You never know where it will lead. For example I started
| screwing around with C a few months ago and now I playing with
| microcontrollers and cameras because of that.
| bitexploder wrote:
| I started playing with Linux and C in 96. I was just an
| ignorant teenager. I didn't know C was "hard". I didn't
| really care that Linux was different from Win95, I just knew
| Linux had fvwm2, gedit, and C compilers I needed for hacking
| on MUDs. I didn't know chasing down obscure memory leaks was
| hard, I just linked libefence and did it. I was just playing
| and learning. Then I got offered a job doing web development
| with ColdFusion while still in high school. I was amazed at
| how easy the language was compared to C. Every "wow they must
| have a lot of time" project is often some other hacker
| playing and learning. Play and finding a way to make
| programming and computers not seem like work is how you
| develop a life long love of hacking and learning :) (this is
| not follow your passion advice, I think that is terrible
| advice, but if you can make your work feel like play and your
| play very intentional you will struggle to burn out or find
| it hard to sit down and write code any given day) :)
|
| Edit: also, in 96 the Internet was very different. Many
| problems were solved by reading man pages, reviewing library
| source code, and thinking hard about what was happening.
| Modern Internet and stackoverflow /can/ make you more
| efficient in the short term but in the long term, it's worth
| not rushing to google every error or weird problem. Give it a
| few minutes. If you're writing a web app for example, in say
| Django or Rails go peek at the source code (they are
| beautiful projects). It's almost a crime to not review the Go
| standard library source code, it is one of the cleanest out
| there. Etc, etc.
| djeiasbsbo wrote:
| That's awesome. I am currently an ignorant teenager and I
| started messing around with C around this time last year.
| If I had to describe this current age I'd say it's driven
| by endless curiosity; I can't wait to start studying later
| this year. I don't think there has been one day in 2020 on
| which I haven't tinkered/hacked around. The latest thing I
| did was looking at the AArch64 reference manual and
| studying the structure of ELF binaries and then
| disassembling them manually.
| bitexploder wrote:
| This is good. Computers are very simple at their core.
| One of the first questions I used to ask people in
| interviews, for highly technical programming and
| information security roles, was "How do computers work?".
| The number of people, even those with years of
| programming experience, who could convincingly answer
| that question was low. It was often hand-wavy answers
| about processors and memory and stuff. When someone could
| walk me down to logic gates, that was great. The odd
| electrical engineer or computer engineer who started
| taking about silicon doping was great, but I would stop
| them there lol. Never let the computer or it's components
| be a mystery to you! Those fundamental skills and
| understanding will pay off over a long technology career.
| It's not like everyone needs to be a systems programmer,
| but it's a competitive and enjoyment advantage in my book
| :)
| every wrote:
| I'm a mere youngster at 71. I had to wait until retirement before
| I could spend the time I wanted on things that interested me.
| Currently that is the Unix Toolkit. There should be enough there
| to keep me busy for a while...
| vuciv1 wrote:
| Eat fruit and take cold showers. The last time this was posted,
| someone said cold showers were the secret to looking young
| forever.
|
| I can't find much convincing official research (just blogs) to
| support that cold showers are beneficial to skincare, but I've
| been taking them nonetheless, and honestly, my pores have looked
| better :)
| martamorena2 wrote:
| There very likely is zero correlation. But potentially, people
| who take cold showers represent a biased subset of the
| population, which is statistically more inclined to look young.
|
| This applies to pretty much EVERYTHING that is not done via
| high quality double-blind studies published in reputable, peer-
| reviewed journals.
|
| Point being: Repeating single actions of successful people
| statistically does not make you successful.
| jiggawatts wrote:
| Why is this being downvoted?
|
| As an example, there was a study that eating a handful of
| almonds every day is correlated with a bunch of positive
| health outcomes. Then a follow-up paper determined that this
| is simply because nuts are a relatively expensive snack, so
| they're eaten regularly mostly by wealthier people. It's well
| established that being poor is bad for your health, and
| conversely being rich tends to allow healthy lifestyles in
| general.
|
| The kind of people that take cold showers are the "health-
| nut" types that prioritise healthy living over comfort.
| They're a rare, self-selecting subset of the general
| population.
|
| It's extremely difficult to do good science based on
| statistics of self-selecting groups, or groups highly
| correlated with wealth.
| zekrioca wrote:
| It is easier in tropical countries like Colombia, where "cold"
| is basically "warm". In colder (northern) countries, I tried
| this but it is very hard because "cold water" (i.e., non
| heated) is way too cold (like minus temperatures).
| vuciv1 wrote:
| I'm in a cold area and experienced this recently. My hair
| started to harden and freeze. I started just putting the heat
| knob just the tiniest bit.
|
| But I guess it depends on your knobs shower knobs.
| CBLT wrote:
| It's certainly easier in tropical countries because you can
| just use the cold knob, but it's doable in colder places as
| well. Even using both hot and cold sources to get a
| comparable temperature, it isn't as easy to get into the
| shower when the weather is colder. I've noticed that the
| coldness of the water only bothers me for the first 20
| seconds of the shower, so I'll use a bit more heat then turn
| it colder.
| desiderantes wrote:
| Colombia has a huge range of climates. His city, Medellin, is
| a bit chillier than what you would expect.
| vecinu wrote:
| Medellin has highs of 28C and lows of 17C every month,
| pretty much.
|
| Seems really warm!
| Drdrdrq wrote:
| > minus temperatures
|
| Nitpick: it is difficult to take a shower with water in solid
| form (ice).
| soheil wrote:
| Not if the water has enough salt mixed in it.
| Jap2-0 wrote:
| > > minus temperatures
|
| > Nitpick: it is difficult to take a shower with water in
| solid form (ice).
|
| Nitpick: having a temperature below zero does not
| necessarily mean that it is in a solid form; for example,
| it could be at a high pressure or not have a nucleus to
| freeze around (supercooling).
| ninja3925 wrote:
| Just googling for RCT, I found one convincing example:
| https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5025014/
| vuciv1 wrote:
| Ah, I never thought to force RCT in the search to find
| evidence. Thanks for that.
| vecinu wrote:
| Inspiring story, I'd love to hear more.
|
| I was really hoping he would mention having a social life as a
| secret to longevity, referencing the Harvard study on happiness
| and living long. [1] He briefly mentions his friend from Canada,
| I wonder if they still go on walks together or if he passed away
| and made new friends in the mean time. Getting old is hard
| because your friends pass away.
|
| [1] https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/04/over-
| nearly-8...
| helmholtz wrote:
| I just submitted my own doctoral thesis in fluids to Manchester!
| This is absolutely stunning, and my day (and life) is better for
| it.
| gspr wrote:
| Congratulations, doctor!
| freshpots wrote:
| not yet
| helmholtz wrote:
| Yet :) It was last year actually. My futzed up brain is
| still failing to understand that it's 2021
| jimbokun wrote:
| Heh, you should drop him an email and compare notes! :)
| kowlo wrote:
| I took cold showers for 2 months in the UK recently but it got
| too cold... and then, I got a cold! I had to stop (or wanted to)
| djedr wrote:
| wow, an exceptional character
|
| what caught my attention is that when asked about his secret to
| longevity, he said that he eats lots of fruit and takes cold
| showers
|
| not the first time I'm hearing about cold showers being
| beneficial; been doing that myself regularly for a few months and
| I definitely find benefits
|
| this is definitely encouraging to continue
|
| does anybody have a longer experience with cold showers and can
| share any findings?
| inglor_cz wrote:
| David Sinclair, one of the researchers in the longevity field,
| takes cold baths and goes to hot sauna. His theory is that this
| kind of stress on tissues kicks the self-repair mechanisms into
| action.
|
| https://notunhealthy.com/david-sinclair-the-researcher-who-w...
| djedr wrote:
| I've seen some clips of his interview on the Joe Rogan
| podcast. I didn't catch the cold bath part.
|
| I imagine a cold bath means immersing most of your body in
| water. So another variant.
|
| Theory sounds plausible. Curious if you happen to know any
| actual research that backs it up?
| inglor_cz wrote:
| There is some research on effect of sauna on health. It
| seems that going to sauna is associated with lower
| mortality.
|
| https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fulla
| r...
| xwdv wrote:
| I keep hearing the secret to longevity is exercise.
|
| Maybe cold showers would help you _look_ younger though. But a
| lot of things will help you look younger.
| johanneskanybal wrote:
| If you're 104 and takes long walks everyday that's the more
| extreme element rather than cold showers. But sure a great
| morning routine with the adrenaline boost from cold water
| might give you the edge to actually take that morning walk.
| djedr wrote:
| yeah, definitely it works like this; it has a stimulating
| effect
|
| in many ways better than a coffee, although not pleasant
|
| like a slap in the face
|
| helps you locate your socks, to quote a classic
|
| but yeah, no reason why just taking cold showers alone and
| then sitting around should have any magical effect
|
| so perhaps it should be seen as a catalyst to being active;
| that's already significant
| forgotmypw17 wrote:
| cold showers are some of my earliest memories as a child.
| "zakalka", or "tempering", is well known in slavic culture. i
| can vouch for them being one of the keys to including mood and
| mental state, immune function, and overall wellness.
| asxd wrote:
| I'm on mobile at the moment so will have to watch later, but it
| looks like this is a video. It maybe should be marked as such
| labster wrote:
| If this guy is lucky, maybe he'll get tenure by the time he's
| 120. Then he'll be set for life!
| dzink wrote:
| You can trial the cold shower experience by just a washing your
| face with cold water after you wake up every morning. Growing up
| in Bulgaria that was a standard practice for my whole family. It
| does wonders for the skin and is very refreshing.
| ngold wrote:
| That sounds awful. I think I'll give it a try.
| kecupochren wrote:
| Or you can start by turning on the cold water for couple of
| seconds at the end of your regular shower. Holding your breath
| helps. Gradually you will be able to stay in the cold water for
| longer and longer. A cool side effect to this is that you won't
| feel cold when you stop the water.
| superdeeda wrote:
| [video]
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