Hacker News: S_Bear

New comment by S_Bear in "I Don't Know, Timmy, Being God Is a Big Responsibility"

S_Bear — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 15:14:23 +0000

I read this every couple years or so and enjoy it every time.

New comment by S_Bear in "Guilty Displeasures"

S_Bear — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 18:53:10 +0000

I work as a librarian (and have been one for 25+ years), but I kind of hate the things that librarians should care about. I got into this business because I like helping elderly people in my community with their smartphones and tablets, and getting children to read. I don't care about cosplaying as a social worker or lawyer, fighting injustice and challenging assumptions; I just want to help Mildred w her iPad so she can zoom with her grandkids.

New comment by S_Bear in "Guilty Displeasures"

S_Bear — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 18:35:32 +0000

Other people's dogs are my favorite dogs.

New comment by S_Bear in "The US is flirting with its first-ever population decline"

S_Bear — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 22:49:53 +0000

And wife and I are both old and wrinkly and happily child free. Childfree people aren't just hedonists.

New comment by S_Bear in "The US is flirting with its first-ever population decline"

S_Bear — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 22:40:00 +0000

I cut my parents out of my life as soon as I was able. Depending on the 'vibrancy of family life' when you're old is often a bad gamble.

New comment by S_Bear in "Eddie Bauer declares bankruptcy"

S_Bear — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 22:18:57 +0000

I used to have a 'Rugged Indoorsman' shirt. Loved that one.

New comment by S_Bear in "The Boomcession: Why Americans Hate What Looks Like an Economic Boom"

S_Bear — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 20:31:27 +0000

My home insurance jumped from $600 a year to $2300 a year from 2019 - 2025. A big boost for consumer spending indexes, but I feel really ripped off. (I shopped around last year and every company was charging the same amount)

New comment by S_Bear in "Young adults report lower life satisfaction in Sweden"

S_Bear — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 21:43:34 +0000

My parents are poor boomers, but if they had to live as I do, they'd be rich boomers. They have no financial discipline and burned through cash like crazy. If they would have saved even a little bit in the 80s and 90s, they'd be in a much better situation.

New comment by S_Bear in "Ozempic is changing the foods Americans buy"

S_Bear — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:11:54 +0000

For all the effort we put into science education, cooking is applied science we do every day. We should start in elementary school and keep at it through high school, in my opinion.

New comment by S_Bear in "Scott Adams has died"

S_Bear — Tue, 13 Jan 2026 21:57:39 +0000

That book killed Dilbert for me. I enjoyed every Dilbert book up until that one, then it just faded away for me.

New comment by S_Bear in "Are we tired of social media? (2025)"

S_Bear — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 16:23:38 +0000

My wife has been on the same minecraft server for 15 years. We meet up with the other members fairly regularly; a few of them even flew out to Hawaii with us for vacation last year. This year we're going to Canada for vacation, and we'll probably have a group of 7-8 of the Canadian members meet up and go do stuff.

New comment by S_Bear in "Vietnam bans unskippable ads"

S_Bear — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 18:59:07 +0000

My favorite mobile game ad was for Jeep, which was 3 seconds of the word JEEP on a black background. My wife and I laugh about it, but we remember it. It was actually really effective in that regard.

My second favorite was for some pirate game, but the ads were basically the setup for an adult movie, with tons of hammy overacting. I thought they were so funny, I was really sad when they stopped.

New comment by S_Bear in "Ask HN: What would you do if you didn't work in tech?"

S_Bear — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 18:14:56 +0000

I'm not 'in tech', but I am a technology librarian and a large part of my job is teaching senior citizens how to use their devices. I don't make a ton of money, but I get a lot of social capital in my community, as well as a bunch of fresh baked goods this time of year.

New comment by S_Bear in "How getting richer made teenagers less free"

S_Bear — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 17:24:20 +0000

I was at a conference in St Cloud, MN a few years ago, and I could see the Panda Express from my hotel. Took around 40 minutes to walk there because I couldn't get the timing right to frogger myself across the 6 lanes. Got stuck in the island in the middle for a good 15 minutes because the slip lane always had cars in it.

New comment by S_Bear in "Autism's confusing cousins"

S_Bear — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 17:00:33 +0000

When I was starting in retail, I had several notebooks I made of conversational flowcharts. They helped a lot back when I was in my late teens, and, along with some improv training, I can put on a pretty convincing performance now (my customer service skills are top notch). The only problem I have is when people veer too far off of my training.

New comment by S_Bear in "First recording of a dying human brain shows waves similar to memory flashbacks (2022)"

S_Bear — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 21:16:29 +0000

Yeah, mine was count down from ten. Made it to eight, then I was in a different room and an hour had passed. Closest thing to time travel.

New comment by S_Bear in "I spent the day teaching seniors how to use an iPhone"

S_Bear — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 14:36:49 +0000

I'm a technology librarian and I spend around 20 hours a week helping seniors with their devices. I really wish that phone and TV engineers could shadow me for a few weeks and see what problems people really have using their devices (yes, people drag their TV to the library for me to look at). The number 1 complaint by far is getting rid of the home button on iphones and ipads. I've had a few patrons switch to android because it has fewer touch controls.

New comment by S_Bear in "Rising young worker despair in the United States"

S_Bear — Mon, 04 Aug 2025 17:10:47 +0000

The Internet thing is true. I live in a town of 2,000 in what would be considered the middle of nowhere, and have a local ISP that's better than anything I had available in the large metros I lived in prior.

New comment by S_Bear in "Why Is Geographic Mobility Declining?"

S_Bear — Thu, 15 May 2025 16:27:52 +0000

Yes, but not having a mortgage is huge. And it's a giant leap from the 90k my house is currently valued at to the $299-350k that a comparable home in a metro area would fetch (I live in the middle of nowhere).

New comment by S_Bear in "Why Is Geographic Mobility Declining?"

S_Bear — Thu, 15 May 2025 16:01:47 +0000

I bought my house in 2018 for $40k and it's paid off. I used to move frequently (every 5 years or so), but now I'm kind of trapped because housing has gotten so bonkers since then. Instead I'm throwing all my extra money into retirement so I can be done @ 55.