<story><title>Ask HN: Did reading HN bring anything valuable into your life?</title><text>I&amp;#x27;m trying to figure out my motivations behind specific online habits. One of them is reading HN.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m curious if reading HN bring anything valuable into your life or is it just pure entertainment. Did you learn something valuable, found a job, meet your wife. :)</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>hirundo</author><text>I was lying flat on my back for the third straight day. Lower back pain. There was a great amount of pain when I just rolled over, and standing up to go get water or to relieve myself was barely at the edge of possible.&lt;p&gt;This wasn&amp;#x27;t the first time I had gone through this, and it seemed to be happening more often. So I remember lying there and wondering if the politest way to commit suicide would be on a plastic tarp in my car in the parking lot of the coroner&amp;#x27;s office. If I could make it there.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s a tablet mounted on an arm on my headboard that I can read on my back. I got to an Ask HN item asking what books had most changed your life. The top post at the time was about Dr. John Sarno&amp;#x27;s book, Healing Back Pain. I&amp;#x27;ve read a lot of books in that genre, but I was desperate and figured, if it helped one guy it might help me. So I surfed over to Amazon.&lt;p&gt;The book ad pressed all my skeptic buttons. No drugs or exercise. Talk therapy for back pain. This isn&amp;#x27;t all in my head damn it! But I saw so many hundreds of positive reviews on Amazon and elsewhere, and the book was $6.99 on Kindle, so I bought it and downloaded it immediately.&lt;p&gt;Maybe an hour later I had finished the intro and chapter one. I slowly and painfully got up out of bed and started waddle&amp;#x2F;stomping around as best I could. Collapsed into bed a few minutes later. Got up again, rinse, repeat. A few hours later I was basically functional again. A week later I had to pay attention to notice the pain. Now a couple of months later I still get twinges, especially when doing heavy yard work. But the fear has subsided. I&amp;#x27;ve been able to work through it.&lt;p&gt;That doesn&amp;#x27;t mean the pain won&amp;#x27;t come back. And I&amp;#x27;m positive that this approach won&amp;#x27;t work for everyone. But I&amp;#x27;m doing great. And my yard looks much better. That one HN post lifted me up and saved me, not quite literally, but almost.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>twistedanimator</author><text>Funny you should mention seeing a book recommendation on HN that changed your life. I have experienced the same thing, but with a different book.&lt;p&gt;A month ago I read a comment[0] about the book This Naked Mind and how it helped him&amp;#x2F;her with their alcohol consumption. Getting serious about my alcohol consumption has been on my todo list for a while, so after seeing it had 4.7 stars on audible I bought it. I listened to it in its entirety in 3 days during my commute and haven&amp;#x27;t had a drop of alcohol since.&lt;p&gt;To give you an impression of my level of drinking. I&amp;#x27;m not a heavy drinker, but I am a habitual drinker. I drink either 2 or 3 high alcohol beers or a bottle of wine almost daily. I&amp;#x27;ve always been worried about the sheer amount of empty calories I&amp;#x27;m consuming and if just by cutting out alcohol I&amp;#x27;d lose weight for free.&lt;p&gt;Today is day 25 since I&amp;#x27;ve had any alcohol and I&amp;#x27;m just so pleased with the outcome. Maybe the book can help you too!&lt;p&gt;[0] - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=17834081&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&amp;#x2F;item?id=17834081&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Did reading HN bring anything valuable into your life?</title><text>I&amp;#x27;m trying to figure out my motivations behind specific online habits. One of them is reading HN.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m curious if reading HN bring anything valuable into your life or is it just pure entertainment. Did you learn something valuable, found a job, meet your wife. :)</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>hirundo</author><text>I was lying flat on my back for the third straight day. Lower back pain. There was a great amount of pain when I just rolled over, and standing up to go get water or to relieve myself was barely at the edge of possible.&lt;p&gt;This wasn&amp;#x27;t the first time I had gone through this, and it seemed to be happening more often. So I remember lying there and wondering if the politest way to commit suicide would be on a plastic tarp in my car in the parking lot of the coroner&amp;#x27;s office. If I could make it there.&lt;p&gt;There&amp;#x27;s a tablet mounted on an arm on my headboard that I can read on my back. I got to an Ask HN item asking what books had most changed your life. The top post at the time was about Dr. John Sarno&amp;#x27;s book, Healing Back Pain. I&amp;#x27;ve read a lot of books in that genre, but I was desperate and figured, if it helped one guy it might help me. So I surfed over to Amazon.&lt;p&gt;The book ad pressed all my skeptic buttons. No drugs or exercise. Talk therapy for back pain. This isn&amp;#x27;t all in my head damn it! But I saw so many hundreds of positive reviews on Amazon and elsewhere, and the book was $6.99 on Kindle, so I bought it and downloaded it immediately.&lt;p&gt;Maybe an hour later I had finished the intro and chapter one. I slowly and painfully got up out of bed and started waddle&amp;#x2F;stomping around as best I could. Collapsed into bed a few minutes later. Got up again, rinse, repeat. A few hours later I was basically functional again. A week later I had to pay attention to notice the pain. Now a couple of months later I still get twinges, especially when doing heavy yard work. But the fear has subsided. I&amp;#x27;ve been able to work through it.&lt;p&gt;That doesn&amp;#x27;t mean the pain won&amp;#x27;t come back. And I&amp;#x27;m positive that this approach won&amp;#x27;t work for everyone. But I&amp;#x27;m doing great. And my yard looks much better. That one HN post lifted me up and saved me, not quite literally, but almost.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>superasn</author><text>Wow the very same thing happened to me too. 20+ years of back pain fixed in few weeks.&lt;p&gt;Now I always tell everyone about Dr. Sarno&amp;#x27;s as a means of helping others even if it sounds to good to be true. His books have given me my life back too.</text></comment>