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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?

#151

Post by allannienhuis »

sizzzzlerz wrote: post #89

Learning to play piano later in life. I'll never be close to being professional but I've spent enough time and effort in practice to become proficient enough to confidently play in front of others. My only regret is why I didn't start earlier.

Same experience for me with the guitar. I really don't know why I waited so long. I picked it up in my 50s; I wonder where I might be now if I'd picked it up in my 20s.

Until I started learning something as hard as the guitar, everything I'd had to learn in the past had come pretty easily to me, so I didn't need to study hard in school, etc, but that meant that I just passed on the really hard things (like advanced math). I think I lost out on the life-lesson about how effective diligent practice is at improving skills. I might have tackled even harder things earlier in my life.

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

#152

Post by Buttons840 »

tchalla wrote: post #37
lwansbrough wrote: post #32

I’m still very much in the earlier stages of learning, but I’ll say negotiation. Recognizing that virtually any situation involving an “exchange” between two interested parties can become a negotiation has been a great insight into control for me. People often think of negotiation as business, however it can be much more personal than that and can be very useful for your interpersonal relationships as much as it can…

> I bought Chris Voss’ book on negotiating and it’s been really pivotal for my understanding of, well, humanity to a certain extent. Highly recommend it to anyone who wants to make a stronger person out of themselves. For people wondering, Chris Voss is the former lead international kidnapping negotiator for the FBI. Here's a podcast where he talks about negotiation [0] and the link to the book the above comment refe…

On thing that has bothered me about some other negotiating books is that they seem to focus on [what I call] "psychological tricks", then one day you get two people who've read the same book together and they just go back and forth trying to play tricks on each other and nobody gets anywhere.

Chris Voss' book teaches [among other things] that listening is the most important and most difficult negotiating skill. That's a "scaleable" approach to negotiation, if you happen to get two people together who both believe in listening to the other, that works.

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

#153

Post by leesec »

sridca wrote: post #120
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'd recommend calisthenics instead of going to a gym. Far less chances of getting injuries with bodyweight exercises. This book is a good start: https://www.reddit.com/r/overcominggravity

I'll counterpoint this and say chances of getting injured can be pretty low if you take your time and study up on your form.

I'll also say as someone who thought he didn't need the gym because I would do calisthenics/yoga/barbell exercises at home, my back pain never went away until I started lifting heavy weights. I'd say likely because it stregthened my core which supports the back, but I'm no sports scientist.

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

#154

Post by kaycebasques »

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

Check out Principles by Ray Dalio. Specifically, the Life Principles chapter.

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

#155

Post by toptal »

Sound engineering. If you're a good sound engineer, you can basically get any album or record signed. All major labels look for excellent sound engineering first, and creativity second. This may sound counterintuitive, however if something is very creative and sounds unprofessional, they won't sign it. If it sounds excellent though very uncreative, it's still professional so there is a high chance of them signing it.

Of course you need both, much like anything great, however a well engineered track will get you significantly further than a creative track with poor engineering.

If you can do both, you will be a rockstar, literally.

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

#157

Post by jcomis »

sizzzzlerz wrote: post #89

Learning to play piano later in life. I'll never be close to being professional but I've spent enough time and effort in practice to become proficient enough to confidently play in front of others. My only regret is why I didn't start earlier.

how did you get started? just bought my first keyboard and not really sure what's next.

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

#158

Post by stareatgoats »

Planting fruit trees on the property. Fruit trees require little maintenance and can, when mature and when things have been done right, produce amazing yields year after year for several decades. The previous grass lawn mono-culture has given way to several rows of apple and cherry trees, thanks to a few hours spent learning how and digging the holes. I know of nothing more rewarding as a function of the (tiny) time and money invested.

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

#160

Post by neya »

nicoburns wrote: post #69
neya wrote: post #20

I'm going to say something out of the blue - Building speakers. Building speakers look complex from the outside, but are pretty rewarding once you know the basics (Thiele parameters, enclosure design and tuning). You can put together your own speaker with just a couple of parts from eBay or anywhere else on the internet really and sometimes can end up with really high quality boxes that can outperform much more expen…

Oo, this is something I'm pretty interested in getting into (I love good sound systems, and enjoy building physical things). Do you have any pointers on where to find information on how to design speakers / pick sensible component combinations?

Sure.

Books: There are many technical books, some are so complex in their wordings that you'd feel like giving up even before you start.

The best book I've found that's short and sweet (but requires a little bit of math background) is this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Building-Testing-Speaker-Pr...

Courses:

Coursera has an Audio Engineering course which the professor explains in really crisp detail. It's from University of Rochester.

The course title is: "Fundamentals of Audio and Music Engineering: Part 1 Musical Sound & Electronics"

Link: https://www.coursera.org/learn/audio-engineering

I audited the course and didn't pay any money. There's not much difference unless you want a certificate (and of course want to support Coursera too).

YouTube:

I like Kirby meets audio. He does some really nice stuff with speaker boxes. He mostly sells kits for his speakers, but I don't recommend them. They are from parts express mostly.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOuow_HIYmeaIqi42zVs3qg

I LOVE John. He reviews most of the cheap amplifiers from China and teaches you what's wrong with them electronically and how to fix them. HE's very knowledgeable as well.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8SPQG7er2RJhz4E8xvFEtw

Where to buy parts:

If you're buying speakers, AliExpress usually sells good quality speakers for cheap. You may also want to search for the same model (sometimes under different brand names) on eBay as eBay can be cheap sometimes as well.

Contrary to popular belief, most speakers are actually made in China. Simply because China possesses most of earth's natural magnetic ore required for making speakers. That and Neodymium too. For example, look at the quality of this Aluminium cast speaker: https://www.instagram.com/p/BjZN5XKggOt/. It's definitely hundreds of notches higher quality than what you can buy commercially from say, Sony or Philips in the consumer market. And it also costs really less.

Nanjing in China has most of these speaker factories and I visited a few last year. If you are able to make a trip to China like I did, it's best to form a personal relationship with someone there and you can order directly through them. The price difference between AliExpress/eBay and these factories direct can be as huge as $50-100 depending on the model and size of the speaker.

For amplifiers, I recommend eBay or AliExpress. Both carry decent models.

If you'd like to build your own, hands down the best model to get started with and easiest to hack one in a weekend is TDA 7297 by ST MicroElectronics. The good thing is, you can even power it with your USB! And the sound quality is REALLY good. It's the same IC used by a lot of companies (Creative for example) and resold to you for $700 (Creative actually has a model that uses this IC for this price, I can't remember which one). Many companies like Bose also use similar models from ST as well. That's when you realize stuff you buy from the consumer market is actually something you could have built yourself too, with a little more effort :)

Some other popular amplifier models (plug and play) are chips based on TPA 3116D2. They come in different configurations 2.1, 4 channels or good ole' stereo. Pick the ones you like.

Finally, don't be intimidated by all the complex terminology, sometimes you can just start with what you like or find combinations on the internet that are popular. Here's my earliest build: It's a mix of art + audio (attempt to): https://www.instagram.com/p/Bet9CA-FxHs/. But even after so many years, I'm still proud of it :)

Hope this helps :)

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