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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?

#341

Post by kluck »

kodablah wrote: post #175
mattlondon wrote: post #142

Computer Science degree. Sure, lots of us "learnt" programming in our bedrooms or whatever by doing our own thing and messing about in whatever language. I went into my compsci degree arrogantly thinking that I pretty much knew how to code already so please just give me the bit of paper saying I have the degree and I'll be on my way thanks very much. I was very wrong. Although I was pretty good at the coding (or at l…

While I have no doubt this paid dividends for you, I'm not convinced that the cost/benefit is greater on the whole than alternatively spending those 4 years doing real-world development. Subjective, sure, but from my perspective there are too many amazing self-taught developers and too many subpar ones with degrees to automatically justify the 4 year time and money cost for the average person (concerning skill, caree…

Studying does involve a big chunk of practial work, so you get both theory and practise. If you don't know the basics it would be very hard to do any "real-world development". So why do you think, 4 years are better spent trying desperately to coble some scripts together with a boss behind you than spending those 4 years surrounded by experienced teachers and like-minded students in an environment that focuses on learning?

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

#343

Post by strls »

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

Where's the less chance of injury part coming from? It's much easier to master and incrementally load a fundamental weightlifting movement than a corresponding bodyweight progression. This means better form and more control - fewer injuries. I have tried both types of training for a while, and have concluded that weights are superior in every way. Unless the goal is mastery of a specific bodyweight skill.

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

#345

Post by dcraw »

gdubs wrote: post #340

A lot of mine have been covered here already, so I’ll keep it to Drawing. No matter where you’re at — even if you can only draw stick figures — working on drawing skills is an incredible, compounding investment that pays continual dividends.

Sounds interesting, but not obvious to me. What are the dividends?

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

#346

Post by why_only_15 »

svat wrote: post #214
treydey wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an extremely interesting perspective. I actually had the opposite experience. I was forced to learn sanskrit throughout my high school career and I absolutely hated it. I'm an extremely practical person and I have no use for the language at all.

There is no contradiction actually. While talking about the state of Sanskrit in school education, Chamu Krishna Shastry says[1] that schools are factories for producing students who hate Sanskrit. IMO, whatever other reasons there may be, a most compelling reason for learning a language is its poetry (Robert Frost defined poetry as that which gets lost in translation), and here Sanskrit poetry is unlike anything in…

Are you the editor of the essays, "SHREEVATSA R."?

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

#348

Post by rubicon33 »

codr4 wrote: post #336
rubicon33 wrote: post #322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to know, oh wise one, which of your many assets is going to help you when you have no means of securing a roof over your head, no means of a meal every night, no means of healthcare, or safety. I'm going to go ahead and agree with OP. Your ability to make money is your greatest asset, and one you should protect.

There are plenty of people who are managing that without making any money at all, despite all sorts of prolonged efforts to turn their way of living into hell. Integrity, being surrounded by loving people, being in good health, having the freedom to be all that you are. Those are all more important from my perspective. We've been carefully conditioned to believe that this game is the only alternative, it's not.

I don't believe it's the only game, rather, I believe it's the best. The alternatives are theoretically wonderful, but when you lose the security of regular meals, a roof over your head, a shower, etc... Suddenly I'm not convinced.

Judging from the fact that you too are posting from a computer, running on the internet, I can assume you haven't adopted the virtuous life of income free bliss that you speak of?

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

#350

Post by kluck »

m90 wrote: post #147
mattlondon wrote: post #142

Computer Science degree. Sure, lots of us "learnt" programming in our bedrooms or whatever by doing our own thing and messing about in whatever language. I went into my compsci degree arrogantly thinking that I pretty much knew how to code already so please just give me the bit of paper saying I have the degree and I'll be on my way thanks very much. I was very wrong. Although I was pretty good at the coding (or at l…

I'd be interested in a few real world examples of these cases where you are able to apply the CS knowledge in your day job. Would you mind sharing one or two?

I would argue it is not about the little facts, such as specific sorting algorithms, but its more about learning how to approach a CS task, how to abstract and how to reason about code. The colleagues I know that were not as lucky and could not study CS, often they just hit a "wall" when they would have to argue about a certain SW architecture for example or when they were presented with an abstract problem, such as implementing some generic behaviour. And learning how to do this is a process that continues after the study, but it is important to get a basis. It is hard to really be specific here but if you do not have a good foundation of knowledge in a field, you will sooner or later (if you are not self-delusional of your abilities) regret it.
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