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Ask HN: What things have richly rewarded the time invested in mastering them?

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Re: Ask HN: What things have richly rewarded the time invested in mastering them?

#121

Post by psiegman »

bemmu wrote: post #111
elorant wrote: post #90

The subtle art of small talk. There are so many benefits, from flirting to sales and whatnot. Especially in business relationships it helps smooth the process and make people feel comfortable with you. Over the years I've noticed that people who are very good at sales are masters of small talk.

How did you go about learning this art?

My algorithm:

1. Start by saying something, something neutral/positive or a compliment: "Nice weather, eh?", "Great party!", "Nice tie"

2. Ask questions: "How are you doing ?", "What brought you here ?", "What line of work are you in ?"

3. Repeat #2 until you find something that you have something to say about. Could be that you discover you're in the same line of work, grew up in the same town, etc

4. Keep your talking time to 50% or less, be sure to throw in questions here and there and respond to the answers.

5. Profit !

Re: Ask HN: What things have richly rewarded the time invested in mastering them?

#122

Post by bartlomieju »

ritoune wrote: post #110

Learning to learn. Being able to go from "I know nothing about this subject" to 80% in a year or so for the most complex subjects has completely changed how I approach professional challenges.

Can you reveal how you did that?

EDIT: typo

Re: Ask HN: What things have richly rewarded the time invested in mastering them?

#123

Post by justtopost »

glass_of_water wrote: post #95
MarkArts wrote: post #43

Learning to make/compose music. I's very rewarding to listen to your own music, mostly because you make the stuff YOU like. And being able to play whats in your head on an instrument makes playing allot more fun. And there are a some extremly valuable lessons to be learned from spending hours a day practicing. 1) I learned how to practice efficiently (which made learning porgraming languages and university for me all…

How did you go about learning to compose?

By doing mostly. But theory eventually creeps in as you figure it out. For the lazy, yt channels like 12tone, jazz duets, and 8bit music theory, lay it out quite well in differing but succinct manner.

Re: Ask HN: What things have richly rewarded the time invested in mastering them?

#124

Post by bemmu »

srik wrote: post #8

Penmanship & Calligraphy. One of my non-computer fascinations that turned out to be spiritually rewarding. Once one gets past shallow modern trends, there's so much to discover, study, learn, practice, master and let loose with. It's really fun. I don't necessarily ship or sell anything, at least as of yet, but still the act itself is kinda like meditation.

Sounds like calligraphy is an activity you enjoy for its own sake.

For some reason I've often been focused on what the benefit from doing an activity is. For pure enjoyment I would just consume movies or video games. Somehow I missed the idea that there are many activities that might be beneficial, but that even without the benefits would be enjoyable activities to engage in.

For example many programming tasks are enjoyable enough in themselves, even if they result in no outcome. Maybe that's why "this guy made $10 million with this app"-type of stories might be harmful, as they makes you forget that programming in itself is often an enjoyable task, never mind the other rewards.

Besides programming, I would say messing around with music creation programs (Ableton Live is my favorite) and 3D modeling software (Blender) can be as much fun as gaming, even if you aren't any good. I've also experimented with drawing, but I find that a bit harder to enjoy while having no skill. Maybe there is a base level of competence you need to attain before an activity starts being enjoyable for its own sake.

Re: Ask HN: What things have richly rewarded the time invested in mastering them?

#125

Post by maxwell »

idrios wrote: post #94
h1d wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't have been the programmer I am now without learning English. Everything starts in English. Every other languages catch up after a few years.

What's your native language? A year ago I started learning Chinese and I'm wondering if there will ever be a day that it helps me be a better engineer or programmer.

I use ECharts from Baidu, and have actually seen error messages in Chinese.

Re: Ask HN: What things have richly rewarded the time invested in mastering them?

#126

Post by smithmayowa »

jobigoud wrote: post #22

Blind typing on a keyboard.

I up-voted because of your keen sense of humor hurrah jobigoud, this made me laugh.

jahbdcbf vmbfkv mfvrm ervj ewrm v,m erwhj v wer vj er,m vj we,m vkjljsdkhdugercrk xioeg opacxugseifcm elfrhf; ckrv

sorry i blind typed that.

Re: Ask HN: What things have richly rewarded the time invested in mastering them?

#127

Post by msluyter »

Readline —- I’m sometimes amazed at the number of relatively seasoned developers who don’t know simple commands like ctrl-r. This one really pays off because almost all shells and repls like ipython or the mysql client implement it.

Sample cheat sheet:

https://readline.kablamo.org/emacs.html

You don’t have to learn it all, but mastering the basics like moving to the end/beginning on the line, moving/deleting by word, yank, history search and the like will pay off handsomely.

Re: Ask HN: What things have richly rewarded the time invested in mastering them?

#128

Post by inetsee »

bartlomieju wrote: post #122
ritoune wrote: post #110

Learning to learn. Being able to go from "I know nothing about this subject" to 80% in a year or so for the most complex subjects has completely changed how I approach professional challenges.

Can you reveal how you did that? EDIT: typo

Coursera has a course with exactly that title. The course can be found here https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn . It is one of THE most popular courses on Coursera.

Re: Ask HN: What things have richly rewarded the time invested in mastering them?

#129

Post by enitihas »

monster_group wrote: post #55

Learning Sanskrit. I have spent the last few years learning it and it's been tremendously rewarding. Sanskrit is a beautiful language. Learning it is a great mental challenge and gives great satisfaction (to me). Before learning Sanskrit I had never really pursued a hobby this seriously. Since I have been doing this I no longer feel like a machine who just goes to work, eats and sleeps. Before this, I used to feel gr…

I too have been interested in learning Sanskrit for some time. Can you tell me what resources you used?

Re: Ask HN: What things have richly rewarded the time invested in mastering them?

#130

Post by afarrell »

ohyes wrote: post #72
wallflower wrote: post #71

Going to a gym two to three times a week for small group training sessions. In terms of investment, it is not as expensive as private training and it keeps you on track. The real investment is in you. Your most important asset is your ability to produce income. Having a healthier body helps maintain that ability. The damage that I do through typing is only barely counteracted by these training sessions. I don’t take…

I find that getting good exercise also helps me think. I feel more creative and happy if I’m getting my 30 minutes a day. But it’s also about discipline, this sort of thing can only be accomplished with discipline, which is what really lets you accomplish things.

> discipline

For the benefit of my past self: discipline isn’t about punishment or being harsh with yourself. Discipline is the practice of saying to yourself “this is hard. This is scary. This is worth it and so I’m going to do it because I’m stronger than I think” and then following through with action.

EDIT: Sometimes the "following through with action" bit also involves knowing what you need to set yourself up for success (e.g. good food, enough sleep, encouragement from friends, the ear of a therapist, guidance from a coach, clarity on a goal) and enduring the discomfort that comes from the decisions required to get those.

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