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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?

#381

Post by ricg »

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.

Listening to people you disagree with.

This. A follow-up suggestion: try to truly understand the motivation and concerns behind the other person's arguments.

Useful tools are asking "Why?" multiple times to dig deeper. If the conversation seems to dead-end in a broad claim, ask "Can you give me a specific example of …? to continue your quest.

This is especially useful (and interesting!) when talking about politics.

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

#383

Post by OJFord »

Spellman wrote: post #371
OJFord wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sous vide to your tastes, then in a hot pan on each side for 3-4 minutes Cook a steak, and then put each side in a hot pan for 3-4 minutes?!

Yes, it's the reverse sear, and proven to be better by SCIENCE

I'm not objecting to the order; a raw steak after 3-4 minutes each side is (fairly well!) done - no sous vide needed!

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

#384

Post by iansowinski »

- First Aid - if you don't know it, you should learn it ASAP.

- History and theory of modern and contemporary art - then it's easier to understand everything in the museum and you won't ever say "I don't get modern art" and "Modern art is a shit".

- New language - I believe trying and learning only few words is worth it!

- How to dress (including how to buy clothes).

I still have a lot of misfitting shirts in my wardrobe and this old masculine perfume my grandma gave me when I was 16.

I see why I wasn't comfortable with these. It takes some time, especially if you don't want to spend a lot of cash at once. But when you know how to dress, you feel more confident look good and feel better with yourself.

By "how to dress" I mean finding your style, not having suit 7 days a week.

Here is a nice article about fabrics: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/sustainable...

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

#385

Post by oh-4-fucks-sake »

tnel77 wrote: post #225
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…

What blows my mind is how much I took my ability to cook for granted. So many people my age (millennial) can barely cook anything. I have friends who eat out every single meal of every single day. People give me weird looks when every single workday I have the same answer to “you wanna go out and get some lunch?” “Nope. I have leftovers!”

I guess I understand how many people dislike cooking, I guess. For me, it's a very creative, relaxing, rewarding, (and necessary) process in my life. For me, it's like coding, but with ingredients. Take a bunch of relatively trivial components, and combine them creatively into something complex, useful, even beautiful--inspiring. You generally follow "industry best practices", but there's plenty of room for interpretation or establishing your own patterns.

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

#386

Post by the_gastropod »

astura wrote: post #288
tnel77 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What blows my mind is how much I took my ability to cook for granted. So many people my age (millennial) can barely cook anything. I have friends who eat out every single meal of every single day. People give me weird looks when every single workday I have the same answer to “you wanna go out and get some lunch?” “Nope. I have leftovers!”

> I have friends who eat out every single meal of every single day. I have friends who do too but it's not because they don't know how to cook, it's because they don't like to and don't wanna bother and can afford the luxury of having someone else to do it for them.

I have a suspicion this kind of living, in part, explains why so many people are miserable. I feel like removing every inconvenient thing from your life, and "having someone else do it for you" must make your ability to handle discomfort atrophy to the point where the tiniest unpleasantness feels like a catastrophe. Like muscles, your brain, your immune system, etc., we need a little discomfort / struggle once in a while to grow. Systematically removing all discomfort from our lives seems both expensive and self-destructive.

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

#387

Post by abledon »

bradgnar wrote: post #192
deepGem wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will add Kettlebell swings to Squat and deadlift. They are one of the best all round exercise for muscle development particularly around the lower back and for cardio as well. In fact, I haven't come across a full body muscle building and cardio exercise that can match Kettlebell swings.

TURKISH GETUPS!!

Well which one is it — getups or swings ?

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

#388

Post by komali2 »

Spellman wrote: post #371
OJFord wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sous vide to your tastes, then in a hot pan on each side for 3-4 minutes Cook a steak, and then put each side in a hot pan for 3-4 minutes?!

Yes, it's the reverse sear, and proven to be better by SCIENCE

Scientists better get their hypotenuses straight before they take on my stomach

But, what science?

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

#389

Post by ravenstine »

Anon84 wrote: post #256
ravenstine wrote: post #217

Here are my suggestions: - Learn to fast. I'm not talking about intermittent fasting, one meal a day, or fake fasting like juice fasting. I'm talking not eating for 48 hours, 72 hours, or more. With electrolytes, it becomes a lot easier than you think. Once you can comfortably achieve 72 hours of no eating, it will seriously change your perspective on food. You'll realize that you've been throwing your money away eve…

Any recommended resources on learning how to fast?

I wouldn't say there's any one good resource. Most people preach intermittent fasting, which I've found is okay for maintenance and health but it's not nearly as beneficial nor will it lose you as much weight as fasting for days on end. But here's some material I went over to educate myself and convinced me that it's perfectly safe:

Fasting vs. Eating Less: What's the Difference? (Science of Fasting)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APZCfmgzoS0

Dr. Jason Fung - 'Therapeutic Fasting - Solving the Two-Compartment Problem'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIuj-oMN-Fk

Beginners Guide to Prolonged Fasting | 24-72 Hour Fasting Instructions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5W1XBf8d-I

^^ Not exactly a fan of Thomas DeLauer but there's some good information there.

If you aren't faint of heart, check out some videos on the "Snake Diet" channel on YouTube. Cole is kind of a lunatic, constantly swears, and holds nothing back. He does this to be motivational. He's wrong about a few things(he thinks fasting cures everything and also thinks vaccines are bad), but when it comes to fasting properly he's pretty spot on. I just took from him what I thought made sense and left the rest behind. The best idea I got from him was the "snake juice", which is really just an electrolyte mixture you can make at home. It really makes all the difference.

Overall, I wish there was someone who could preach this stuff without the Cole's level of insanity, but there you have it.

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

#390

Post by komali2 »

Spellman wrote: post #372
komali2 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're getting the pan out, oiled, and hot anyway. You're gonna have to clean it. And while on the pan a rare is slowly turning to well. Why not just do it all on the pan??

Because not everyone can get the timing right and heat consistent enough to properly cook from start to finish in a pan. Especially as you get to thicker cuts. Sous vide takes out the guesswork for getting the insides to the right temp. Then just get the pan as hot as possible for quick sear in a pan for the outside.

> Because not everyone can get the timing right and heat consistent enough to properly cook from start to finish in a pan.

I understand this point, the point of sous vide is consistency, but I disagree that not everyone can get the timing right. With practice, anybody absolutely can get it right. And if they have hundreds of dollars plus the counterspace to throw at a sous vide machine, they have the resources to cook a couple "bad" steaks before they start getting it right.

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