Learn any martial art, to any level of competence, at any time of your life. This will give you 100 times more self esteem and leave you feeling more centred than any self-help book you could ever buy.
Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?
111–120 of 173 posts
Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?
#112If you're a shy person who would like to do better in social situations - learn to dance. Becoming a dancer opened up all sorts of doors for me. It made me comfortable in social situations from small-talk in intimate groups to public speaking in front of large ones. I even ended up married and living in a foreign country. Currently I'm learning the language and making some progress. All of which I can trace fairly di…
How did you learn how to dance?
Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?
#113Learn how to take care of yourself first. That includes: * learning to cook and prepare your own food. * learn proper sleeping habits and make a routine that feels comfortable. * learn to exercise - pick an activity and do it consistently with some goals in mind. * learn to budget money and manage expenses. * learn to groom yourself and maintain a regular cleanliness routine * learn to entertain yourself alone - with…
It's a bit bewildering how many people (mostly men) there are around that cannot cook properly. They have lived their entire life depending on others to eat something decent. Learning to cook is often cited as a way to impress and woo others, but the primary beneficiary is oneself. Being able to cook well is freeing. It's easy to practice because you have to eat anyway. When you end up with leftover ingredients, come…
I disagree. Some people cut their own hair or build their own furniture and would say everyone needs to know how to do that stuff instead of depending on and paying someone else. There's a reason cooking is also a profession, and there's nothing wrong with depending on them.
People who like to cook don't seem to understand that others (like me) just hate cooking and have zero interest in learning since it wouldn't bring me any benefits. I can order healthy food, I'm not overspending, and I can eat stuff that would be a pain in the ass to cook at home. On the other hand, I also hate exercising, but it brings health and mental benefits that are undeniable.
In summary, just like I don't want to cut my own hair or building my own furniture, I have no problem paying a professional to prepare my food.
Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?
#114I'm reminded of: “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ~…
I would also add, "build a fire", "set an effective snare" and "catch a fish". The TV series _Alone_ is a great insight into what are the absolute minimum requirements for survival.
Bonus points: Start a fire with feathersticks and a ferro rod.
Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?
#115I'm reminded of: “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ~…
All useful except butchering a hog - a human being does not need to eat hogs to survive and thrive.
Perhaps, but a life without bacon isn't a life worth living.
Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?
#116If you're a shy person who would like to do better in social situations - learn to dance. Becoming a dancer opened up all sorts of doors for me. It made me comfortable in social situations from small-talk in intimate groups to public speaking in front of large ones. I even ended up married and living in a foreign country. Currently I'm learning the language and making some progress. All of which I can trace fairly di…
Can't recommend it enough. I suspect most developers will enjoy the pattern orientated nature, and being able to strip things down to their building blocks and create something new. Once it starts to make sense to you, the possibilities become truly endless. I had planned to learn a decent amount of cha in the last 18 months... that never quite happened, but I became a mean Kizomba dancer instead.
Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
> - Learn confidence and humility by mastering a common physical skill like an instrument, singing, or performing monologues, etc. Not stupid tricks, but something where other people are objectively way better than you are and plan to be embarrassingly bad at it for at least a decade. I would personally recommend martial arts for this. You get a useful skill (eventually), there is no skill ceiling, and there are alwa…
I mean, whatever floats your boat really, but when exactly are martial arts useful? The average person might use them once in a lifetime. A year's worth of voice lessons and pretty much any non-trained person will love hearing you sing along to any song, and you will make them want to sing. It's a way to relate to people and make friends in nearly any social situation. Even if you're just more into the kinesthetic wo…
Martial arts are useful especially because when you are proficient, you are less likely to use the art.
Not being afraid of a confrontation makes you more confident, serene, and less likely to have a confrontation. I am skilled in a martial art that's quite popular these days, and which had an unmistakeable, positive effect on my demeanor; you don't use the martial art once in a lifetime, but every day for a lifetime without actually using it. (I also enjoy dancing. Both martial arts and dancing are good activities to make friends)
Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?
#118The skill of energy. Energy is the one metric to optimize for by default. Energy to me has been health and excitement. Health is sleep, nutrition, movement, mindset, and relationships. Excitement is doing something that I enjoy, often seemingly providing more energy than it takes. The skill of recognizing the need for difficult conversations, then having them. A 20 second awkward, difficult conversation saves 20 days…
I would love a whole essay on your “skill of energy”! Can you expand on this with examples. This is a lifelong question for me and I’d be grateful for any advice you can add on the topic.
Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looking at my monthly eat-out cost is a real wake up for me. If I don’t have prepared food or a snack it’s very easy to be tempted to grab something quick and overeat.
Quarantining made me realize just how much I spend on food and alcohol. And while don't get me wrong, I love a good meal and a night out with friends, we will definitely be reeling that in a bit even after all restrictions are lifted. And a night in cooking a great meal and opening up a nice bottle of wine (that is much cheaper than anything we could buy at a restaurant) can be very satisfying too. One thing that is…
> my discretionary spending has dropped by 95% and my bank account has swelled at a rate that I could have never imagined without much drop in my overall happiness at all and this is likely to lead to changes in spending patterns for years to come.
this is somewhat inherent in the system. they message you that you need to be out and about to be happy. it's the capitalistic way. Also a bit of why a lot of jobs work you so hard so you are too tired to form any thoughts on the system at large.
I think a more sustainable economy is what america (and the world) needs. the growth at all costs has been very, very bad for our world. for instance, one unintended consequence of mass manufacturing of food is that to get reliable, consistent bread they stripped everything that made it good (including time spent fermenting) and then added in a few choice macro nutrients and now, I suspect, those types of products are causing problems health wise on a macro scale. if people went down to their local baker and bought naturally leavened breads with more wholesome flours instead of wonder bread et al we might as a country be less sick. there are other examples of long term costs associated with short term thinking. (rise in allergies and planting male only trees because of a 1940s department of agriculture recommendation come to mind but there are others) not to say it's all been bad but there have been many bad outcomes.
Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?
#120I'm reminded of: “A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.” ~…
All useful except butchering a hog - a human being does not need to eat hogs to survive and thrive.
*In your current environment.