Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020? • Hacker News Board

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

#401

Post by the_gastropod » Tue, Feb 04, 2020, 5:28 PM UTC

jdgiese wrote: post #369

astura wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 love cooking sometimes, but then again, other-times I would rather spend my time working on a client project. When you add up the time spent: 1. planning meals (may be minimal if you can ad-hoc quickly) 2. walking/driving to the grocery store 3. cooking 4. cleaning It can easily be more expensive for an individual person (or even a couple) to cook than it is to eat out. (I think this makes intuitive sense too, sinc…

If you care about it, it's easy to save money by cooking yourself with this one crazy trick: leftovers. It takes very little extra effort to make a much larger batch of whatever you're cooking. It's pretty simple to cook ~10 servings of a solid meal that costs ~$0.25 (e.g., Chana Masala w/ brown rice) each with about ~2 hours of time all in with grocery shopping + cooking + cleaning. Sure, if you're making $200+/hour and would do none of these things, it might be slightly cheaper to get delivery. But... I suspect that scenario is very uncommon.

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

#402

Post by bluGill » Tue, Feb 04, 2020, 5:30 PM UTC

baroomba wrote: post #242

BlueTemplar wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm told that English will create words for where other language create grammar. (which can be anything, from a new tense to prefixes to other things I cannot imagine because I don't know the language)

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

#403

Post by grvdrm » Tue, Feb 04, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

geddy wrote: post #332

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!”

Funny thing about those people is they constantly complain about how expensive everything is, yet they spend frivolous amounts of money on what's probably the highest marked up item: food. Meal prep for a week for ~$75 and you're set. It would cost probably 4 times that (at least, depending on where you eat) to eat out, not to mention you don't know how it was prepared, and it's probably wildly unhealthy compared to…

Totally agree. It's so easy to overthink cooking. Take off the exec-chef-in-restaurant apron and focus on the simple stuff:

- Add salt/pepper/spices by hand if you can. Shakers/larger-volume canisters lead to over-application, but it's so easy to grab a little bit of salt, apply, taste, and do it over again until you hit the right mark

- Learn how to cook in a single pot - stews/soups/etc. Saves on cleaning, and broths packed full of nutrients

- Use a crock-pot/slow-cooker. Dead simple, very low risk, produces significant quantities of food

- Learn about portion sizing. So much of over or under cooking is applying the same technique and timing to two different quantities of food. 16 oz of steak cooks differently than 8, same for veggies. Buying the right portions consistently solves so many problems

- Given the point above, learn about an oven -- convection vs. radiant heat. Convection cooking is fast, easy, and awesome.

- Learn how to store stuff properly. You'll spend a fortune if you regularly trap your veggies in air-tight containers. Many of them don't need and are worse-off in those containers. Learn what stuff should be near or away from other vegetables. Good example: if you put your avocados and tomatoes next to your cucumbers, kiss the latter good-bye -- they'll go bad way faster due to the gas emitted by the two others

- Finally, it goes without saying -- not everyone likes what you do, so it's ok if your most exquisite dish doesn't go over perfectly with everyone.

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

#404

Post by dsego » Tue, Feb 04, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

jsjolen wrote: post #258

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.

He shattered his spine? Was he 80 years old and his spine calcified?

I do not know the exact injury. Something broke and it required surgery to fix it.

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

#405

Post by pranit10 » Tue, Feb 04, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

localhost wrote: post #291

I would say focus on building a solid, functional body vs. say focusing on goals like "how much can I lift?" or "how much do I weigh?" or "how fast can I go?". Those goals, while laudable, can also cause you to break down your body in your quest to achieve them. An example from literally yesterday. Over the past few months, I struggled with medial knee pain that was limiting my ability to walk up stairs and do other…

you had a medical issue and instead of going to doctor you went on the Internet? hmm not sure I am going to take any advice you give

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

#406

Post by yters » Tue, Feb 04, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

drngdds wrote: post #376

yters wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thomas Nagel, David Berlinski, and David Stove are all atheist/agnostic philosophers who find the arguments of intelligent design worth considering. They don't agree with inferring a deity from the findings, but they do think there is something special about mental causation, and it seems to show up in biological history, which is the core of ID theory. Theological inferences are a tertiary matter that is not fundame…

It's hard to see religion as "tertiary" to intelligent design when the concept was invented by Christians to make their religious beliefs sound more scientific. Hell, the first thing that came up when I googled "dependency graph of life" was an article from a site owned by the Discovery Institute, an organization founded to promote conservative Christianity. Berlinski also works for them.

There are certainly a large number of Christians involved in the intelligent design movement, many of whom are quite likely involved because of the perceived religious implications. But, for that matter, most of the founders of modern science were Christians, who often came up with their theories as part of apologetic arguments they were working on. If we were to dismiss all scientific theories invented by Christians for that reason, there wouldn't be much left to modern science, or mathematics for that matter.

However, it is possible to separate the theories from the apologetics, as mainstream science has done.

The Discovery Institute itself is run by a mix of atheists, Jews, Catholics and Protestants. All whom are involved because they think there is a real scientific problem. Many of them do use ID to further argue for religious conclusions, but the theory itself is religion agnostic, and is also compatible with atheism, as demonstrated by the atheists and agnostics involved.

I would suggest you not dismiss the theory itself merely because of your dislike for the religion of many of its proponents. Doing so is the genetic fallacy. Additionally, some of the earliest proponents of ID type arguments, such as Paul Davies and his fine tuning argument, are not themselves Christians.

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

#407

Post by dsego » Tue, Feb 04, 2020, 5:36 PM UTC

Tehchops wrote: post #278

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.

>My friend shattered his spine doing deadlifts Sorry to hear that. I'm curious what the context was though. At what weight did this occur? Was he a seasoned lifter? Novice?

He was a regular in the gym for at least a few years, trying to loose weight. I don't know the weight he was lifting, but I suspect he moved to heavier weights before developing the proper technique.

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

#408

Post by valtism » Tue, Feb 04, 2020, 5:36 PM UTC

TheHegemon wrote: post #360

nautilus12 wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rock climbing and/or swimming are great ways to achieve these goals. The nature of the sports are such that it pushes the body hollistically. Plus rock climbing is fun and mentally challenging, like chess with your body.

I would second this. I took up bouldering and it's amazing how much more energy I have. My lower-back pain from sitting has nearly disappeared. It's a true full-body workout (including the brain).

It's not so good for lower body or cardio. Supplementing it with something like cycling can really help get the whole shebang.

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

#409

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Feb 04, 2020, 5:36 PM UTC

neuroticfish wrote: post #294

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've been trying to learn to cook off and on for years now and I get so discouraged all the time because I'm still either overcooking or undercooking something, still not getting the flavors right, not using the right amount of oil despite the recipe's prescription. I can't be alone in feeling that way.

[deleted]

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

#410

Post by LaGrange » Tue, Feb 04, 2020, 5:37 PM UTC

jpamata wrote: post #354

LaGrange wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Hi , my name is .. . What you've been up today?" ...why is this guy randomly talking to me? Are they selling something? > - Start conversion with something you notice about the other person, the event, the surroundings ("the color of your watch matches with your sweater - stylish!", "is this stuff boring or is it just me?", "you know why they put that thing over there?") ...oh god, this is boring... > - Topics: Fa…

> ...why is this guy randomly talking to me? Are they selling something? People assume that even at networking, social gatherings, or speed dating events. Doesn't matter what their initial impression is as you can change their later impression. > ...oh god, this is boring... That can be said for anything. The point is to make them contribute and prevent a one-sided conversation. > ...this is wildly veering _super_ bo…

> People assume that even at networking, social gatherings, or speed dating events. Doesn't matter what their initial impression is as you can change their later impression.

They literally wrote "cold approach," so no, this does imply approaching strangers in random situations.

> That can be said for anything. The point is to make them contribute and prevent a one-sided conversation.

It implies tying people in an unwanted conversation and then trying to leverage inevitable anxiety to get them to say something personal.

> That's why progression matters. You can also refrain from asking them directly, like for example: "let me guess, you're an arts student/interior designer"

Jesus christ, who talks like that.

> Most people respond friendly. If they are part of the contrary, move on.

I too respond friendly to potential axe murderers. Angry axe murderers are more likely to axe murder you.

Seriously, though, there are _multiple_ red lights for abusive and exploitative behaviour in that advice. Yes, it _will_ work, abusive behaviour often works. But also, if you ever meet someone like that - or if you try it on someone with life experience that taught them _both_ what abuse and respect look like, they'll most likely smile, say something safe, and then leave to warn others about you.

I sure would.