Hacker News: martopix

New comment by martopix in "The happiest I've ever been"

martopix — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 09:50:50 +0000

> There’s an entire generation of mostly childless adults who are shocked to find they enjoy contributing to others’ happiness.

This is very well put.

I think the culture today is what pushes us towards that: we have a very individualistic culture, which I think comes from the US. I'm from southern Europe, where family used to be very important, whereas now we've adopted a much more individual-centered view.

We have "freedom" as a value, but it's hard to tell what to do with it. You are privileged, therefore you can do whatever you want. But what is it that I want? What do I do with my freedom, privilege, options? We also need an objective, and "to be happy" is not a good objective, because we humans are very bad at predicting what will make us happy. Seeing stereotyped photos of happy people on tropical beaches on Instagram makes it even harder to remember what happiness is.

For happiness you need objectives, things you believe in, a sense of purpose.

New comment by martopix in "The happiest I've ever been"

martopix — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 09:45:34 +0000

I think this is an oversimplification of a much more general social phenomenon. In much of the world, the mainstream social message is still that kids are what you should get your life's purpose and fulfillment from. Maybe not so much for men, but very much so for women. There is a reaction to that social expectation, which is independent of Reddit (it's true even in China etc).

I'm myself very happy I don't have children. I'm gay and can't adopt in my country, so I'm also happy I don't have any desire to have children, because that would be a problem. However I do really like working with teens, and it's very important to me on a gut level.

New comment by martopix in "The happiest I've ever been"

martopix — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 09:36:01 +0000

I've quit my career in academia three years ago and teach high school kids instead. I can totally relate, I'm just so much happier: I love those four things he listed, except the fourth for me is physics instead of basketball.

New comment by martopix in "The True Size Of"

martopix — Thu, 01 May 2025 09:29:13 +0000

I recommend trying Antarctica! It's tiny compared to the Pacific. I didn't expect it to fit into the Indian ocean.

New comment by martopix in "“Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System"

martopix — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 13:50:47 +0000

No, for me knowing certain mind-blowing scientific facts is, personally, as cool as listening to Beethoven.

New comment by martopix in "I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)"

martopix — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 13:46:34 +0000

Writing the address on the envelope was awkward, as I haven’t used a pen in several years;

Really??

New comment by martopix in "Mark Zuckerberg says social media is over"

martopix — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 11:46:03 +0000

It depends on what you mean by "preference". If you show me a pic of a hot guy and the picture that a friend took while hiking, I'll probably look at the hot guy for longer, so one could claim I prefer it. But that doesn't mean I think it's better to spend my time like that.

New comment by martopix in "Mark Zuckerberg says social media is over"

martopix — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 11:43:36 +0000

Instagram actually used to be quite nice when it was pics of friends. Now I find it scary.

New comment by martopix in "“Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System"

martopix — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 15:49:42 +0000

What's the practical benefit of Beethoven?

New comment by martopix in "“Most promising signs yet” of alien life on a planet beyond our Solar System"

martopix — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 09:43:31 +0000

It depends what you mean by "civilization building". I think we gloss over that a bit too much. We're not the largest population, not the largest total mass, not the only one that builds large structures. We're the only one that sent stuff outside of Earth, yes, and a few other things. But discussing the definition is itself interesting

New comment by martopix in "Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton [pdf]"

martopix — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 18:15:23 +0000

Not the poster, but I don't understand the downvotes: this is exactly right. Higgs was awarded the Nobel after the mechanism he theorized was experimentally confirmed, and that is 100% the reason it took so long.

New comment by martopix in "A $1k Wheelchair"

martopix — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 13:13:12 +0000

Same here.

"Spirituality is not the same as being happy"

martopix — Sun, 29 Sep 2024 10:22:25 +0000

Article URL: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jun/03/yes-praying-and-posing-can-bring-joy-but-true-spirituality-demands-something-more-of-us

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41686332

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by martopix in "French prosecutors say Telegram CEO freed from custody, will appear in court"

martopix — Wed, 28 Aug 2024 16:07:44 +0000

St Kitts and Nevis is notorious for giving out citizenships to those who can afford to 'invest'

New comment by martopix in "How fast can a human possibly run 100 meters?"

martopix — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 14:51:53 +0000

I would say the _majority_ of people would not reach that speed on a bike in normal situations

New comment by martopix in "Ask HN: What is in C-00000291*.sys?"

martopix — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 12:40:53 +0000

> Crowdstrike is finished

Boeing is still there... we'll see

New comment by martopix in "Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing is a dystopian nightmare"

martopix — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 10:46:20 +0000

Small government => big corporations (claim of the previous comment)

is not the same thing as

Big corporations => small goverment (the argument you're trying to disprove)

New comment by martopix in "The case against morning yoga, daily routines, and endless meetings"

martopix — Tue, 02 Jul 2024 13:30:01 +0000

This makes a point against the "CEO morning routine" kind of approach, but from my point of view, it is not that different from that perspective on life. It still talks about "proactively moving towards #1 or top 25%", "be so good they can't ignore you", "10x work", "something extraordinary" etc.

Take that direction if that's what makes you tick. I've decided that that's not how I want to live my life, quit a 'prestigious' position, left the competitive career, and I now work as a teacher with "10x personal satisfaction".

New comment by martopix in "Ambitious but at peace"

martopix — Fri, 17 May 2024 15:01:29 +0000

At some point I had a post-it that said "happily unsatisfied" next to my desk. My bf had told me to think of making the changes I needed, with a timespan of five years, not "asap". That helped a lot.

New comment by martopix in "Bunk beds in aircraft cabins: the realistic prospects"

martopix — Sat, 23 Mar 2024 19:12:02 +0000

The amount of cabin luggage we bring is too much anyway. You can impose small bags only, the rest in the hold.