Ask HN: What can I learn/do over the next 12 days that will make life better?

If you don't know any assembly, I'd suggest learning one.

Read a book.

Maybe you don't learn anything.

It sounds like you have a good opportunity to pause and reflect on your life and do what you mentioned in the OP: reading, running, and exploring the area.

Health-wise, I would recommend you to find the closest river and start with cold water immersion.

If not possible, start with cold showers.

Your future self will thank you.

There is this ever present desire to constantly learn. I have no idea where it comes from. Haven't always felt that way but I know it affects most people I interact with. Some point to social media and the constant need to keep up. Maybe that's it. In any case, I've found it to be an issue. Continuously trying to learn has brought me to a point where I was skipping around too much and not learning anything. Depth of engagement got a lot better when I stopped to focus on things I was doing.

This led me to take a break at the end of November. I have classes I'm planning to take in January. But so far the last few weeks have been nice forcing myself to _not_ look up tutorials or read articles on new tech stacks or project. I'd recommend it to anyone else who feels that weight of learning. Or anyone who may be trying to squeeze training into small segments of time. I guess I'd call it learning downtime.

Come January though, I'm jumping into self studied math (which I haven't studied since college), a bit of web dev (probably Rails), and a new language (maybe Russian).

I plan to spend the next few weeks doing my yearly review of goals, priorities, and my habits.

Mostly, I want to tighten up spending, hit the weights again, lower sugar and processed food consumption. Play less video games and read more quality fiction. Write more in my journal and a bit of fiction each day.

Career wise, I want to continue to challenge myself and learn new technologies-- even ones that seem difficult. I need to stay optimistic, and learn quickly, become more productive, without burning out. It's a fine line to walk.

Inter personal skills. Learn how to get a long with people and make friends will involve skills that will be useful until your last days. The skills involve both understanding yourself as well as others.

Try reading up on the neighborhoods in your new city, figure out where stuff is, and just go walk around and explore and see the place. Maybe that means parking somewhere each day and then walking from there; try to write enough directions on a napkin that you can find your way back without using your phone.

Day 1: read Marcus Aurelius Meditations.

Rest: apply it to your life

If I could tell my 26 year old self to get into something, it would be meditation. I started with the Headspace app but I think Waking Up by Sam Harris is better - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.wakingup.a....

Most days I do 20 mins first thing when I wake up. With 12 days, you could finish the beginner course if you do 1 session in the morning and one in the evening.

You can try to learn not to do anything. Try to create awareness that how mind is keeping us busy all the time.

I think that your plan to read, run and explore the neighborhood is just enough. I don't know if you are an introvert or extrovert but you could also spend some time in meeting new people if you are new to this city. With the end of the year and all of the festivities there might be some interesting events near you. In any case, I hope that you will have great 12 days!

Switch your phone off and go for a lunchtime walk. Magic.

Listen to The Huberman Lab Podcast.

walk the city and find some nice coffee shops that are friendly to working at. It is nice to have a change of pace if you are working remote