Hacker News: ThrowawayP

New comment by ThrowawayP in "The underrated benefits of always having oatmeal at lunch"

ThrowawayP — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 21:47:19 +0000

All the accompaniments suggested are sweet so I'll say something I've said before: oatmeal works fine with savory accompaniments. If it's made at the normal porridge-like thickness, any toppings or add-ins that work with Asian rice porridge recipes (congee, dakjuk, etc.) will work with it. If it's made with a very thick consistency, it can be treated similarly to mashed potatoes or polenta

New comment by ThrowawayP in "Just two days of oatmeal cut bad cholesterol by 10%"

ThrowawayP — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 03:36:41 +0000

If you make plain oatmeal with less water so that it is thick rather than runny, it can be treated like a side dish like mashed potatoes or polenta in a savory meal. It can be a bit odd at first for people who are used to thinking of oatmeal as a sweetened food but it's something one can get accustomed to quickly and avoids the downside of consuming extra sugar.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "Flunking my Anthropic interview again"

ThrowawayP — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 20:50:08 +0000

Because sometimes having been "weird" is only recognized in hindsight. Attempting to project a persona, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autistic_masking, is already difficult at the best of times. It's especially difficult under stress, like being in an interview.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "Coding without a laptop: Two weeks with AR glasses and Linux on Android"

ThrowawayP — Sun, 18 May 2025 19:18:19 +0000

The issue with the "keyboard in front of huge monitor" type of arrangement for people who need to get their face really, really close to the monitor is they have to lean far in and hunch over the keyboard, putting their arms in an uncomfortable position. Speaking from my own experience, this causes RSI problems fairly quickly. And the keyboard can't be moved farther back to allow the person's arms to be in a more natural position because the base of the TV or monitor blocks the way.

A monitor arm of the right length and height lets you sit so that the monitor is close to your face, floating at or beyond the front edge of the table, and the keyboard is physically behind the monitor, letting your arms be in a more natural position for typing.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "Coding without a laptop: Two weeks with AR glasses and Linux on Android"

ThrowawayP — Sat, 17 May 2025 23:51:34 +0000

> " ...I have to be about 6 inches from a 27 inch screen. I'm tall, and I'm almost bent in half to do it ... The part that makes it so tough is monitor arms come in standard sizes and are nowhere near long enough or extend far enough for me to sit comfortably ... "

Google for "long reach" monitor arms; some models have a reach of 30 to 40+ inches. They're not exactly cheap since they come from ergonomics vendors but they allow you to bring a large monitor as close to your face as you like and, depending on the model, clamp to a table like a standard monitor arm. I've had various models of them for a couple of decades now.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "Father tries to block daughter's euthanasia in landmark Spanish case"

ThrowawayP — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 16:44:24 +0000

"My body, my choice" applies to more than one issue related to bodily autonomy. Others get no say in what an individual may do with their own bodies.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "What It's Like to Be a Sociopath"

ThrowawayP — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 16:45:40 +0000

> "It’s kind of a cliché that CS attracts antisocial nerds."

Say what? CS attracts asocial nerds.

antisocial = commits crimes and harms society

asocial = introverted or unsociable

New comment by ThrowawayP in "Is It Wrong to Cure Blindness?"

ThrowawayP — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 16:15:14 +0000

Not one of the people preaching about "ableism" are giving themselves disabilities because they're oh so wonderful and that tells you really all you need to know that nonsense. Disabilities suck, take it from me, and no, it is not remotely wrong to cure them.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "Shit life syndrome"

ThrowawayP — Sun, 20 Aug 2023 18:03:55 +0000

There is an earlier claim to coining of Shit(ty) Life Syndrome not mentioned in the Wikipedia entry, a ha-ha-only-serious parody diagnosis in a medical humor collection named "Placebo Journal": https://authenticmedicine.com/2019/08/did-i-discover-the-con... Skip down to the "Diagnosis: SLS (classical type)" section for the meat of the parody if you don't want to go through the miscellanea that goes with a clinical visit report, although those bits are interesting in their own way.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "[dead]"

ThrowawayP — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 06:35:07 +0000

"Ableism"? I'd give nearly everything I have to not have been born with my disability.

A thousand curses be on whoever came up with this nonsense and the sort who promulgate it.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "Why staring at screens is making your eyeballs elongate – and how to stop it"

ThrowawayP — Sun, 05 Feb 2023 17:46:55 +0000

I've always wondered whether using a projector as a computer display avoids the near focus eyestrain problem. Does anybody know? Granted, 4k projectors aren't inexpensive but they're not unmanageable either.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "What to do when you can no longer code?"

ThrowawayP — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 17:56:06 +0000

You don't necessarily have to stop coding. Various technologies such as voice recognition systems developed for users with disabilities exist and, with advancements in algorithms and the overabundance of processing power available on modern hardware, are much more capable than they were before. Businesses are also generally more receptive to accommodating employees with disabilities than they were in the past.

To address an uncomfortable point, yes, such systems are more awkward to use than typing and you may hate to have to use them and be unhappy to compare yourself against what you used to be able to do and what your peers remain able to do. I can only say, having a disability myself, that becoming disabled does indeed suck and that it may be of some small comfort to remember that everyone eventually becomes disabled by the progression of age.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "Ask HN: Is FAANG possible if you have a serious mental illness?"

ThrowawayP — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 17:26:22 +0000

Accommodations are available for illnesses and disability but it's worth remembering that FAANG and similar companies are highly competitive and it's "either up or out" until you're promoted to the terminal level where that's no longer required. If stress exacerbates your illness, keep that in mind.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "Scientists say they can read nearly the whole genome of an IVF-created embryo"

ThrowawayP — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 14:26:50 +0000

> "Blind or deaf people would probably feel pretty bad hearing 'you don't want a blind or deaf kid'"

I am legally blind. I would not want my children to have any disability whatsoever because it's difficult and miserable.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "Scientists say they can read nearly the whole genome of an IVF-created embryo"

ThrowawayP — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 02:46:32 +0000

> "Have you ever asked one of these people if they find their lives to be meaningless?"

I have a couple of disabilities and genetic diseases. They utterly, inarguably, and completely suck.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "I’m Single, & I’m Not Dating. Why Is That So Hard for People to Understand?"

ThrowawayP — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 22:12:57 +0000

Could be worse. People don't ask me why I'm single which, in my darker moments, kind of suggests that the reasons are sufficiently externally self-evident to obviate any need to even ask. ;)

Burnout Looks Different in Autistic Adults (2021)

ThrowawayP — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 04:48:51 +0000

Article URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/03/well/live/autistic-burnout-advice.html

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30081853

Points: 14

# Comments: 2

New comment by ThrowawayP in "Ask HN: Are most of us developers lying about how much work we do?"

ThrowawayP — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 19:01:38 +0000

I've also seen such behavior occur because of burnout/depression. Sometimes the person themselves is unhappy and embarrassed about it too.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "I just don’t want to be busy anymore"

ThrowawayP — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 02:24:02 +0000

> "My problem with the word 'burnout' is that it denotes some kind of final state."

It can be. Failing to heed the warning signs can result in a variety of long term medical issues, both physical and mental.

New comment by ThrowawayP in "Ask HN: How did you recover from a burnout?"

ThrowawayP — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 20:30:56 +0000

I think most people know the answer, really: one recovers from professional burnout by moving to a work environment that is mentally and emotionally rewarding to you, whatever that might be. That might involve changing your role, changing your job, or changing your profession entirely, any of which may require extreme sacrifices, and it might take several such changes before you find something that suits you. So you're faced with a hard choice: is your burnout is bad enough that you're willing to risk making a leap?