HN Explorer

Ask HN: You've got one month, what's your challenge?

45 points by mezod ↗ HN
As simple as that, you have a month, what challenge do you tackle?

Typical examples: - write a book - code a game - train to run a marathon by the end of the month

99 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 163 ms ] thread
tjw
Come home from work and do one productive thing, every day. I'm tired of feeling lazy but not feeling motivated to do anything but play video games and generally be a slob.
mezod
I think being more precise on what that one productive thing should be would help!
AznHisoka
devils advocate but perhaps playing video games helps take uour mind off work and makes you more productive in the long run
andars
Make one cool demo or write a post about something fascinating each week. Bonus level: twice a week.

This week's: https://andars.github.io/dynamic-system/

Unsure if I can do it, but I am going to try.

mdcox
Just a heads up, your javascript doesn't work for me in Chrome because it's assigning to a global `history` variable. `window.history` is read-only so the js errors out. If you scope your function or rename the variable it should work. Nice challenge! Good luck!
andars
Thank you. Should be fixed now.
mezod
really cool stuff, so you started this week?
foobarbax123
Find a better place to work. Just started as a software engineer, fresh out of college. I come home and I am constantly learning, which I enjoy, go to work and introduce new ideas and am shot idea not because of my ideas but beucasue im a newbie. Over the past couple of month has eatten away at my confidence and starting to just blow it off. :(
votr
Read The Originals; in particular, the chapter on the CIA agent.

Yeah it sucks, but if you insist on the security of a larger company (my assumption), that's how it works.

bloodorange
If you learn to think about the company's perspective on things, you can start finding ways to 'sell' ideas. Unless you can make it sound like good business, it's hard to 'sell' something to a business.
slindsey
So I'm in charge of a software development group and I have a guy who is like you. I shoot down his ideas all the time. I don't like it. I try to encourage him. We hired him because he is "constantly learning" and seems to enjoy the work and do things on his own time just like I do and just like you do.

But I shoot him down because his ideas don't fit in our group. We mostly do boring CRUD stuff for internal customers. Most things are very similar and having 7 similar projects all built in different ways with different technology is NOT maintainable. The other developers wouldn't be able to work on things that he built. Yes, the other developers should get up to speed on different technologies, but different isn't always better and I can't change them all.

Anyhow, my point. Maybe your ideas aren't shot down because you're the "newbie". Maybe they don't fit that organization. Keep learning. Keep enjoying the tech. Keep an open mind and maybe the old-timers where you are might teach you something and hopefully you can teach them something also, someday. Mostly, don't get discouraged and keep your eyes open for something better.

WayneBro
Finding a better job isn't the only way. You can build stuff at home that you think can make money and ty to turn it into a business.
AznHisoka
generally speaking, if you are new to a company and a young grad, i would take more time to learn how the company works for a long period of time before introducing new ideas. perhaps theres a valid reason why they do certain things that may seem awkward to you.
fgandiya
Finish this Flask web app I've been putting off. And applying for internships.
Matachines
Master stoicism and Deep Work.
ak93
That is really great! I am doing the same thing too. I am reading Bhagvad Gita which stresses on a similar idea and reading Deep Work by Cal Newport! Any books you wanna suggest!?
dominotw
A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy

That one is pretty good.

I also like Jiddu Krishnamurthi a lot but ppl here seem to be not big fans of him for some reason.

ak93
I have read Jiddu Krishnamurthi's work and I find it really interesting , rather helpful. I didnt know that ppl dislike his idea!?
Matachines
I've been reading the "primary" sources for stoicism, so Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, etc. the book the other commenter recommended is a good start and overview though.
arvinsim
For stoicism, The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday.
mezod
I'm not sure this qualifies, how is this a challenge, or how can you accomplish it in 30 days? :P

The only answer that actually served the purpose of my question so far, which was to discover a new topic of interest :-)

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
egypturnash
Get back to working on the comics pretty much every weekday. I've been bogged down in printing stuff and writing pitches and I just wanna get back to drawing some fucking comics.
smnscu
Wow – your art (and website, by the way) looks amazing!
votr
Become location independent.
amyfransz
Hey, I took the leap from my corporate job earlier this year...it can be genuinely easier than you think! (disclaimer: I run ´The Remote trip´ - see profile for link), I´m currently putting together a 'remote worker' starter kit to help people make the transition like I did, it may help you out if you're interested.
tdy721
finish http://videopoker.academy

* Get a trainer version playable without sign in

* Add history and stats interface

* Work up a tutorial

* Integrate Stripe

* import style + FX from https://poker.hyprtxt.com

mezod
cool idea... would I be able to learn poker decently in one month? :P
Chos89
Depends on the amount of quality hours you manage to put in
elnado
Ugh, regardless of what we say we wish to do on this post, what I'm sure many of us lack is external motivation to do it. One app to help solve that is called Spar, developed by a friend of a friend (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spar!-get-better-at-stuff/id...). You set a goal with your friends, e.g. read a chapter every day, and put 20$ or so in the "pot". Whoever does the best at meeting the goal, gets the pot, and if you slack on your goal you lose the money.
brendoncrawford
When the incentive to finish a goal shifts from the innate satisfaction of completion to a fear of financial penalty, is it possible that the goal itself will unintentionally change in subtle ways?
mezod
good point, the goal will vary for sure... for the bad
Akarnani
its called the Token Economy Problem. tl:dr; using tokens as an external motivation mechanism transfers away from buidling internal motivation. (e.g.,$5 for each book a kid reads gets a kid to read books for $5 bills and not for love of reading/imagination/thinking. $5 tokens run out? Kid stops reading.)
mezod
I see what the friend of a friend did here :P Does it work? I'm not sure that kind of motivation would work for me
bgroat
I'm trying to build my email list to 1,000 people.
wuschel
Finishing a seed 2 fundraising campaign.
pvsukale3
I would work on the job board site that I have been dreaming about for months. As soon as I'm done with the exams I will go to work on that site. Target : launching MVP by the end of first week of December.
welder
There's already a ton of job board sites, why not just use one that already exists instead of building your own?
mezod
what will be special about your job board site? :)
pvsukale3
I want it to be very simple to search jobs. and You should be able to find EXACTLY what you are looking for. I know ton of others exists but it would not be a problem to implement one as a side project and see if people like it :)
user7878
I have one if you want to use.

jp.sapterc.com

contact me in my email in bio.

dyim
* Get 100 active customer support agents on Panel Ninja [www.panelninja.com]

* Send cold emails to 1,000 potential customers

* Cut 15 seconds off my mile time

* Run 4 experiments to iterate on the cold email process

* Watch the Eagles beat the Giants, Falcons, Seahawks, and Packers :)

code_champ1
I would compete on some crazy competition like MIT's battlecode (which usually is a month long event) ! I have worked several years, but none has given me the challenge/satisfaction of programming an AI Bot and compete with similar folks
mezod
this sounds like a cool challenge. How does it work, like your code competes against others code I understand, but how?
ak93
Completing my indroduction with ML and doing one small challenge based on ML!
boyter
Id like to get searchcode.com into the top 20,000 Alexa website ranking's. To do so id like to refresh the code results on it more quickly and add project pages.
40acres
Well, I have an interview with Google on November 29, so for the past few days it's been that.
nolite
Build a SPA in Vue.js
mattchamb
I did a 1-day project Vue.js yesterday and I really enjoyed it. A lot of the ways they approach things make sense to me.
adimitrov
After 10 years of depression, carry over my good streak from last month and finally finish my studies so I can have a better job.

Whish me luck.

movedx
All the best mate. Keep up the great work and good luck!
bloodorange
Good luck. I hope you climb out to a pleasant place.
egypturnash
Good luck. Depression is nasty shit that will actively fight you doing a ton of things that will get rid of it.
noescape
Keep studying. I hope you have more success in the future.
sn9
You could take a self-paced MOOC and master its contents in a month.
mezod
that could be a nice idea. Because you seem to have understood the goal of my question, I'll dig deeper. I need ideas on the WHAT. Like what would you take a MOOC on? The idea is that there's so many things I might not have even thought of that you might consider...!
sn9
Well the two general things to look for would be things which you've studied in the past and wish to review or things which you've never studied.

In general, it's probably a better idea to strengthen one's foundation as they serve as the prerequisites for more advanced subjects. Google's guide to technical development [0] is a good place to start.

As far as just finding courses to take, you could just search the course catalogs of sites like Coursera, edx, Udacity, and Stanford's online offerings [1].

[0] https://www.google.com/about/careers/students/guide-to-techn...

[1] https://lagunita.stanford.edu/courses

mdevere
play playstation all day for 30 days
mezod
that sounds like the easiest suggested challenge so far :P
tylerpachal
I'd like to enrol in a culinary arts class to learn more about cooking! I think a month would be enough time to complete some courses at one of my local colleges.
mezod
that looks like a good idea! I bet your stomach agrees :P Yeah a month should cover you on at least 5 or 10 recipes!
n2dasun
Trying to participate in NaNoWriMo right now.
mezod
cool! Great to find that at least one person understood the question :D
kwikiel
Build Flask app for tracking using wifi beacons (backend)
abstractbeliefs
Fascinating, I've done exactly this!

I based mine on a collection of ESP8266 modules talking to again, a Flask app. They'd watch for both DHCP broadcast packets and also the visibility of the device on it's own radio. It also would regularly try to ping known devices to track "sessions".

What plans do you have, what tech are you using, and where can I follow along?