I would suggest learning juggling a basic 3 ball cascade. It’s great for training concentration and coordination, and also quite addictive.
+1
Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
101–110 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#102Meditation
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#103How to properly wrap cables. A/V and cable techs are super anal about this and it takes just a few minutes to learn, it will change your life. Cables should never be coiled in the same direction. It creates kinks when unwound and make it extremely likely for knots to form (ever leave your headphones in your pocket?). If a cable isn't being installed permanently it should be "wrapped" using a technique called "over-un…
I gotta try this next time I stow an extension cord
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#104Do nothing. Seriously. Allow yourself to become bored and you'll find your brain has suddenly got time to work on all the problems you mentally shelved. There's a good reason why a good number of ideas happen in the shower.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#105If you're going overseas, learn a little bit of the local language. 1. Hello 2. Goodbye 3. Please 4. Thank you 5. Me 6. You 7. Him/her 8. This 9. That 10. Here 11. There 12. Do you have this? 13. Where is this? 14. How much money is that? 15. Where is the toilet? 16. Digits (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) You'll be surprised how much of the language you pick up naturally just by memorising some basic words and using them.
I always try to learn how to say, "I'm sorry, I don't speak X" in language X. When I was in Japan I got an unbelievable amount of leverage out of being able to say, "Sumi masen, Nihon-go hanasei masen" which, of course, means "I don't speak Japanese" in Japanese. The local's faces would light up and often they would respond in Japanese despite the fact that I had just told them that I don't speak Japanese.
Similarly, Excusez-moi; parlez-vous Anglais? is how you get a French person to speak English.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#106If you're going overseas, learn a little bit of the local language. 1. Hello 2. Goodbye 3. Please 4. Thank you 5. Me 6. You 7. Him/her 8. This 9. That 10. Here 11. There 12. Do you have this? 13. Where is this? 14. How much money is that? 15. Where is the toilet? 16. Digits (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) You'll be surprised how much of the language you pick up naturally just by memorising some basic words and using them.
I always try to learn how to say, "I'm sorry, I don't speak X" in language X. When I was in Japan I got an unbelievable amount of leverage out of being able to say, "Sumi masen, Nihon-go hanasei masen" which, of course, means "I don't speak Japanese" in Japanese. The local's faces would light up and often they would respond in Japanese despite the fact that I had just told them that I don't speak Japanese.
Haha, I wonder if they assumed you were doing something that's very Japanese, namely having much more humility about your skill level than is actually justified. So they just assumed you're perfectly fluent but you were being very Japanese about it.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#107If you have even a small amount of math talent, you should be able to grasp the key ideas in Bayes's Rule that quickly iff you read https://arbital.com/p/bayes_rule_guide .
> iff
You're certain there is absolutely no other way? ;)
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#108Memorize important phone numbers (eg, close friends and family). Memorize at least one of your credit card numbers.
It's not uncommon to find yourself in a situation without a phone or wallet. Can't tell you how many times a would-be tricky situation was easily resolved by having a particular number in memory.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#109Mindfulness meditation. Sitting with your thoughts and emotions, experiencing them, and understanding them, rather than avoiding them or distracting yourself from them can have a dramatic effect on your life. And 10 minutes a day for a week can get you far enough to see some real benefits, like reduced stress and increased awareness of unhelpful thought patterns.
I don't want to sound ridiculous, but I've gotten the same benefits that you seem to describe (I have never tried mindfulness) since I started to smoke weed.
Both things change how you think temporarily. I think they both do so in such a way that you can identify and emotionally deal with stuff that would otherwise remain unresolved.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#110Logical fallacies - how not to think. Kelly criterion - what can you afford to invest. Polya's problem solving method. Salary negotiation skills. Rich Hickey's Hammock driven development (for non programmers too). No Limit Holdem Poker flop and turn odds calculation.
If you play blackjack for money, you can improve your EV significantly by devoting an hour to learning (most of) basic strategy. If you already know basic strategy, you can learn the basics of card counting in an hour. (Actual card counting requires significant practice after you "know" it in order to maintain a correct count under stressful conditions.)