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Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?

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Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?

#241

Post by rchaud »

balfirevic wrote: post #75
vasco wrote: post #59

Some less usual things people do that I think are very high value but boring (hence why they're not usually done): - Understanding taxes, the importance of savings and baseline personal finance literacy. - Reading the political programs of a few parties running for elections in you country - Reading a few yearly report / financial statements for a public company, an NGO/non-profit/state agency/local government and tr…

> Reading the political programs of a few parties running for elections in you country I too recommend reading more fiction in 2020! (Sorry, I was just a little bit struck with how little this would matter in some countries, mine included).

If it doesn't matter in your country, you could look at the voting records of the people running for leadership positions, and thereby separate their words from their actions.

Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?

#242

Post by baroomba »

BlueTemplar wrote: post #69
silicon2401 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a fellow language lover I second the suggestion, but not the reasoning. What's your evidence for "some thoughts only make sense in a given language"? From what I've read, this isn't agreed upon in the linguistic community. As for Esperanto, it's heavily biased towards Western speakers, so it wouldn't necessarily be easy to start with for someone whose native language is non-Western.

On the most superficial level: It's easier to talk about snow or numbers in languages that have more words for these concepts than in languages that have less.

English includes a lot more words than most people use regularly. I imagine that's the same in any language. Just expanding one's working vocabulary in one's native language would probably be quite helpful for thinking and expressing oneself more fluently—not that learning another language isn't valuable.

Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?

#243

Post by danenania »

komali2 wrote: post #174
danenania wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apart from the cardio, is there added strength value to doing burpees specifically instead of squats and push ups separately?

Your strength will never go up that much until you force more resistance into the picture, either via bands or weights. You will be getting a shitload of hypertrophy with all this bodyweight exercising though so you'll look shredded if your body fat is low.

I understand the need to keep adding resistance, though as my sibling commenter says, I think you're understating the potential of pure bodyweight progressions to increase strength. Exercises like one arm push ups, one arm chin ups, hand stand push ups, planches, pistol squats, nordic curls, etc. can be equivalent to seriously heavy weights and there are plenty of options for gradually progressing toward them. Lots of muscle bound guys who can lift a lot of weight still aren't strong enough do any of these advanced bodyweight moves.

But anyway, what does that have to do with comparing burpees to squats/push ups? :)

Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?

#244

Post by gozzoo »

billfruit wrote: post #138
chrissnell wrote: post #100

Some suggestions: - Build something. A new workbench for your office. Fix up an old car. Build a pull-up bar in your garage. Use your hands, cut some wood and metal, and treat yourself to a new tool or two. Do this with every project and you will have a nice tool collection before you know it. - Learn to take pictures on a manual camera. You can do this with a modern automatic camera if it has a manual mode. Learn ab…

Learn to enjoy poetry. There is so much of great poetry in English, but I think it is not being read and appreciated enough. It is a kind of mental challenge like doing a puzzle, to unlock the full vivid meaning. Also reading fiction, though how exactly it helps one is beyond me, but it offers glimpses into other worlds. For example I read recently 'The French Lieutenant's Woman', I doubt its richness of detail, and…

I've been trying the same and each time I failed miserably. I just don't get it and certainly can't enjoy it. Can someone recomend good poetry sutable for highly analytical mind or a book about apreciating poetry?

Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?

#245

Post by Normal_gaussian »

dsego wrote: post #212
kerkeslager wrote: post #9

Starting conversations with strangers. Squat and deadlift. Eating healthier. Doing something kind for someone else every day. Honesty. Listening to people you disagree with. Driving safer (this is the most dangerous thing we do on a regular basis). Meditation.

I would never recommend deadlifts. Those are really dangerous and easy to do wrong. My friend shattered his spine doing deadlifts and needed surgery and months of recovery and he still can't bend down or sit in certain positions.

To be somewhat insensitive; it sounds like he was doing it wrong.

I'm recently on a kick to take my fitness more seriously; for me that means a three month stint with a personal trainer, bringing in a dietician soon, and planning on rounding out with a running coach.

As a note, all of this isn't that expensive - its just coming out of most peoples holiday and expensive treat budgets.

Doing it like this means you consult with real experts, who will tell you what you're doing wrong that you didn't think to ask about.

Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?

#247

Post by victords »

shartshooter wrote: post #236
dsego wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would never recommend deadlifts. Those are really dangerous and easy to do wrong. My friend shattered his spine doing deadlifts and needed surgery and months of recovery and he still can't bend down or sit in certain positions.

This is wrong. Deadlifts can be as safe as any other exercise if done properly. Find a coach, practice, maintain form and take your time.

I don’t think this goes directly against the parent comment. They aren’t inherently dangerous, but they’re really easy to do wrong and cause a lot of damage.

Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?

#248

Post by bsmitty5000 »

cushychicken wrote: post #239

I'm trying to write more! I forget where I originally read it, but I think Ben Horowitz said something to the effect of "Clear thinking is best expressed in writing, so you can refer back to it later and see if your logic was correct." Been blowing up Confluence at work like a fuckin' fiend, and been blogging a lot more on my personal site. I don't have any objective measures for this, but I think it's helped me a lo…

I just found this blog post a couple days ago that seems relevant to your post:

https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2018/12/14/think-better/

Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?

#249

Post by [deleted] »

yters wrote: post #208
iron0013 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I haven’t watched every 9-hour-long flat earther video on YouTube either, but I’m still pretty certain that the world’s not flat.

Is flat earth promoted by mathematicians and scientists with PhDs from Princeton and Cambridge, and published in mainstream IEEE journals? At any rate, you seem to be saying you have not read any of the relevant papers. I encourage you to look at least at one of the papers I mention (not just the criticisms others have written), and make up your own mind as to its validity. Most are free PDFs hosted online, and are n…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?

#250

Post by yters »

bufferoverflow wrote: post #234
imjustsaying wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>pseudo-science I'm not sure why you mention this as a contrast. Macro evolution also does not follow the scientific method as there is no repeatable experiment you can design to falsify the hypothesis. This is well-known among evolutionary biologists.

Stop spreading pseudoscience. There's no macro-evolution, there's just evolution. Pick up a biology book instead of your Bible

Try typing "macro evolution" into Google scholar. You'll see plenty of mainstream evolutionary biologist using the term.
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