Hacker News: claylimo

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

claylimo — Sun, 05 Apr 2026 22:29:52 +0000

I used oatmeal with water and it has always spiked - every body is different. How much less did it spike when you used fenugreek ? What other blood sugar spike hack do you use? Others that I know of — frozen bread changes starch, or extra virgin oil and almond butter are high in oleic acid so with the right amount it won’t spike as much

New comment by claylimo in "Show HN: I built an AI conversation partner to practice speaking languages"

claylimo — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 01:16:01 +0000

I pay for LinguaTalk and I also took a close look at TalkPal… how does your feature set compare to theirs?

New comment by claylimo in "Show HN: Personalized Duolingo (kind of) for vocabulary building"

claylimo — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 20:39:17 +0000

Similar to LingQ there is Migaku which can do this for YouTube and other sites. It definitely has significantly aided my learning and made it a zero friction and even fun experience to learn another language.

New comment by claylimo in "Ask HN: How do you stay productive after work hours?"

claylimo — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 00:20:38 +0000

Find ways to take breaks at work. For me, having a calendar meeting/reminder in the afternoon that is 15 mins to force myself to go for a walk.

New comment by claylimo in "Ask HN: What's your secret diet tip you can share?"

claylimo — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 05:55:21 +0000

For me this is it. Just skip breakfast.

New comment by claylimo in "Ask HN: At which moment did you realise that you are built for computer science?"

claylimo — Thu, 28 Jul 2022 15:03:26 +0000

Same happened to me except one difference. I wanted to get out for around 15 years then I quit my job and lived in another country and travelled to try to leave it but I couldn’t find something else I enjoyed. then I came back to the industry and still hated the stress around it. Due to the pandemic I was forced to, in a way, face my fears around work. I stopped avoiding the parts of the work I found stressful and instead challenged myself. I stopped trying to do things in a half ass way when I knew what the right way was. In hindsight I think I was a pretty mediocre software engineer. And just recently got a new job that is the most challenging I’ve ever had but I chose into the job and sought something that felt very mission driven. So it took me roughly 20 years to get acceptance around the work and my relationship to it. Doesn’t mean work isn’t stressful but everything else around it has changed. I care a lot more about what I’m working on and participating in a deeper way.

So… the way out can mean being exactly where you are now

New comment by claylimo in "Life is not short"

claylimo — Sun, 26 Jun 2022 17:49:36 +0000

I talked with a financial advisor. He said for some of his higher end clients who have 25 million dollars that are simply sitting around in investments. The money is doing nothing for them except accumulate. He advises them to at least spend some of it.

New comment by claylimo in "Parents’ trauma leaves biological traces in children"

claylimo — Mon, 20 Jun 2022 04:13:51 +0000

The real work is facing your own fears. How? A lot of work. Meditation can help but you need a good teacher. Find people who are obsessed with and in the pursuit of “obtaining” enlightenment and I found people who know their inner thoughts and feelings at a deep and intimate level. I found people who want to be happy but ultimately need to find what is “getting in the way” of enlightenment. The irony though is that there is nothing in the way of enlightenment and “it” is already there but that’s a separate topic.

People do and can get to the bottom of what is ultimately is driving them in their own humanity.

You can go in circles trying different spiritual practices. You can have earth shattering changes with plant medicine too. You can do dream work with dream yoga too (google Andrew holecek). The rabbit hole is long and wide. I would not swear by ayahuascha. All of life is ceremony. It might help in the short term but what you are seeking is an active thing and high effort thing until it becomes effortless. To be curious about your pain, fear and anxiety. Even to see the beauty in them. To have humility. To listen. To surrender it all.

There is no magic pill though. I’ve tried many things. I’m not the same person. You can change. There is a way out but the way out is not what you might think it is. The way out is the way through.

New comment by claylimo in "Sleep helps process emotions"

claylimo — Sun, 15 May 2022 23:38:06 +0000

To do dream recall it is suggested to do keep a dream journal but if you instead before falling asleep right down the memories of your day AND do the dream journal in the morning… my experience was seeing very clearly the links between the dream content and the memories of the day previous. The unconscious mind trying to make sense of it all, sometimes going in circles.

New comment by claylimo in "Ask HN: Teach me something new"

claylimo — Sat, 30 Apr 2022 22:18:18 +0000

Should be clear: not every advanced meditator experiences this and is not a prerequisite to be “advanced”. It would just not be unusual if it did happen.

New comment by claylimo in "Ask HN: Teach me something new"

claylimo — Sat, 30 Apr 2022 05:47:04 +0000

Being aware while asleep is something that can happen to advanced meditators. The more aware you are the more you are there is no difference between being awake or asleep. I haven’t heard it brought up in any other contexts except maybe for lucid dream practitioners. I’ve also read accounts from those who have done dark room retreats where perception of being awake and asleep blur and the perception of what you are experiencing has a lot of mind generated in experiences that can seem very real, dream-like, or using Buddhist language, empty.

New comment by claylimo in "Ask HN: If you used to be socially awkward and shy, how did you improve?"

claylimo — Sat, 26 Mar 2022 20:42:22 +0000

Therapy, many meditation retreats, and knowing myself. My old reactions and feelings can still happen but they are more like phantom limbs

New comment by claylimo in "Ask HN: What is your “I don't care if this succeeds” project?"

claylimo — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 00:12:38 +0000

This is so awesome! thank you! It's a lot more challenging and fun than Wordle.

New comment by claylimo in "Doing too much work on one's own before looping in others"

claylimo — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 18:43:08 +0000

Where I work everyone will do their check-in but the important part is that everyone has a different personality. Like some people can be more confused and have a hard time explaining or even remembering what they did before so it's helpful to ask questions during their check-in to see if they need help. Some people might work on the same task for weeks. People are often afraid to ask for help. Or, maybe their task needs to be broken into something smaller given new information. The daily check-in is also a way for them to connect with someone else in the team who can actually help them. I'll tell them to either hang out at the end of standup or schedule a meeting with each other.

Having someone leading the standup, if done correctly, can help hold people more accountable for what their progress is toward the sprint goal and remove obstacles. This is one of the responsibilities of a scrum master although you don't need to be a scrum master at all to do this.

New comment by claylimo in "Surgical Programming"

claylimo — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 06:12:15 +0000

I do something similar except I just stub in comments with a description of the functionality I think may need to exist there. It really does feel like surgery and allows for more high level planning before committing to write a line of code.

New comment by claylimo in "Meditation and the Unconscious"

claylimo — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 00:00:56 +0000

Mahasi noting is the most meticulous practice I've ever done. It's easy to do wrong and should be done with a trained teacher. There are Mahasi centers that offer month long retreats which are worth exploring (at least when the pandemic is done).

The first time I did a noting type practice (way before doing the Mahasi style of noting) I became nearly instantly depressed and disassociated. Noting is, for me, a very agitating practice. If someone is reading this, this doesn't mean Mahasi is a 'bad' technique. But you may want to steady yourself in a shamatha practice before considering noting.

New comment by claylimo in "Thich Nhat Hanh has died"

claylimo — Sat, 22 Jan 2022 00:00:56 +0000

I have done a number of solo retreats. Many solo 10-day retreats, and a month long retreat usually in my apartment or place that I was living at the time. I would speak to my teacher on the phone typically every other day, or everyday for 10-45mins depending on what was happening. I didn't immediately jump into the longer retreats. I built up to it. Initially doing 1 day solo retreats, then 3-days, then doing many 10-days then a month long.

So, why can't you just do it? A solo retreat is not for everyone. People often need help or support to meet them where they are. Different personalities have different needs. A retreat can also be quite destabilizing and having someone to help in person to navigate the emotional territory or insights is valuable. Now, let's say that you think you can do it. In my opinion, you absolutely need a teacher for a longer retreat but for a shorter retreat (1 day, or _maybe_ 3-day) it is not entirely necessary. You end being your own worst enemy on a retreat. A friend of mine was doing practice for 10-12 hours a day without a teacher for 6 weeks and only eating a little bit of bread everyday. This is a bad idea. The mind plays some amazing tricks on you. So, if a solo attempt is done please have a teacher and have a lot of vital context around what you are doing otherwise you will practice wrongly.

New comment by claylimo in "Thich Nhat Hanh has died"

claylimo — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 23:45:06 +0000

There are many many retreats out there so knowing what the right one for you is not easy.

I know of an upcoming in-person retreat based on TWIM (Tranquil Wisdom Insight Meditation) south of San Francisco:

https://www.suttavada.foundation/physical-retreats-suttavada...

The retreat is located here: https://www.suttavada.foundation/venue/stfrancis/

What is TWIM?

https://www.reddit.com/r/streamentry/wiki/twim-crash-course

Here is a book about the practice: https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B06WRPZZQF/

New comment by claylimo in "Ask HN: For normal sleepers, what is your sleep experience?"

claylimo — Sat, 08 Jan 2022 06:55:31 +0000

I had an intensive daily meditation practice at the time which made it easier to do while in the sleep posture. It's definitely not a panacea since everyone has different needs.

Overtime I learned a lot of different techniques to help to bring my mind back into the body. I became obsessed because of how I had been avoiding my feelings for my whole life.

For me, I got extremely curious about what I was feeling either good or bad. That overall curiosity and desperation in a way forced me to pry open the dirty and grittier parts of my feelings and let them go.

I hope CBT or other techniques continue to help you. Definitely curious to know what other techniques may work for you.

New comment by claylimo in "Ask HN: For normal sleepers, what is your sleep experience?"

claylimo — Fri, 07 Jan 2022 21:59:17 +0000

I'm responding to this since I believe I was in your shoes once:

I used to have middle of the night wake ups (intense anxiety or pain in the chest, or waking up and being unable to return to sleep)... then, I got very intensively into meditation. I didn't get into meditation to help with sleep though.

When I would wake up in the middle of the night then would do a body scanning technique. Scanning through the body and investigating the emotional state in the body. Really this is about bringing the attention of the mind to awful feelings. The more you fend off negative feelings the worse your life your overall well being will become (at least based on my experience). Initially when I started doing this body scans might last an hour. Body scanning is not fending off negative thoughts but instead embracing them. In a lot of ways it is like exposure therapy. So over time the body scans got shorter and shorter. Eventually I switched to a noting style of practice and at times I would wake up in the middle of the night and very rapidly note whatever was happening in my experience then almost immediately return to sleep.

So, while I still do sometimes wake up in the middle of the night, the duration of wakefulness is typically much shorter compared to how it used to be. When I look at my mom she has a kind of similar sleep pattern as me and nowadays only sleeps around 4 hours a night.