For people building websites, learning what the experience is like for your users with old hardware or limited bandwidth. Buy an old used Chromebook (< $100 shipped), and use the bandwidth throttling feature in Chrome's dev tools to ratchet down to low end DSL speeds. See if your site is still usable.
Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
421–430 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#422Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is a good example why one should understand compound interest. Through in a payment schedule and amortization as well. The bank is giving you $X to buy the house. You’re paying off a piece of it each month (your mortgage payment). Part of that goes to the interest on the loan, the rest goes to principal. The interest each month is based upon on the remaining principal. That means your payment starts off being mo…
Just seems like a massive scam thats become the norm. You're paying off interest on the first month, as if you've already had the money for 20 years. They take liberties from day one.
Why should there be no charge for borrrowing the money for 20 years? That doesn’t make sense, you have had the money for 1 month when you make the first payment, and so you are charged for it.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#423If you've been married for a while, learn who your spouse is now . (I mean in a good way, by taking an hour to rediscover what his/her hopes and dreams are, what interests they've gained / lost, etc.) He/she is probably a pretty different person than the one you married. It's easy to overlook that.
The implication being that you just don't communicate between the time you first met and now?
After many years and kids you start to take each other for granted. If you are together around your 20's, people might have changed when they are in their 30's. Values might have shifted etc.
I learned this lesson the hard way after my wife told me she was getting a divorce. By then it's too late to fix it.
Talking to each other about practical stuff is still different than asking how you see your life.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#424CPR/Choking/First Aid course is probably close to an hour. How to change your own oil - probably lots of other money-saving home and auto DIY things... Speed reading and memory tricks can be a multiplier on learning other skills. How to use automation tools like Zapier and IFTTT - again, a force multiplier. You might be interested in this book https://www.amazon.com/First-20-Hours-Learn-Anything/dp/1591... - the auth…
> CPR/Choking/First Aid course is probably close to an hour. What can you teach in only an hour? I work with some people who teach basic first aid, and the shortest course any of them does is 4.5 hours.
The American Red Cross has Adult CPR/AED/First Aid classes where the classroom portion is only an hour. There's an online component that you have to do beforehand, so the whole class is probably closer to 4 hours, but I think if you took only the classroom part you'd come out with a decent idea of how to perform CPR.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#425The Cyrillic script is fairly easy to learn and will let you phonetically read a bunch of languages (Ukrainian, Russian, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Mongolian, and Serbian to name a few.) Each language has a few unique letters and pronunciation can vary slightly, but for the most part they are the same. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrillic_script
I'd like to tag on Hangul (Korean script). It might not take an hour, but you can definitely learn in less than a day. The script was created to be simple. As the inventor, King Sejong said: "A wise man can acquaint himself with them (the letters of Hangul) before the morning is over; a stupid man can learn them in the space of ten days."
A couple of years ago I saw a cartoon for learning Korean script. Unfortunately I did not save that. It was similar to the cartoon posted by HN user rococode about Cyrillic script down here.
Anybody here knows what I am talking about?
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#426If you're going overseas, learn a little bit of the local language. 1. Hello 2. Goodbye 3. Please 4. Thank you 5. Me 6. You 7. Him/her 8. This 9. That 10. Here 11. There 12. Do you have this? 13. Where is this? 14. How much money is that? 15. Where is the toilet? 16. Digits (0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) You'll be surprised how much of the language you pick up naturally just by memorising some basic words and using them.
I was just in Japan, and really felt my lack of basic language. I picked it up quicker than I expected, but without having someone who knew both English and Japanese it was hard to know if I was getting it right. By the end of the trip I had a few interactions in Japanese and it felt great, I really wish I had learned before going over to get the most out of the knowledge.
A few items to learn I would add to your list:
* Sorry, I do not understand
* May I (take a picture/sit here/...)?
* That was delicious (or simply the word for delicious)
* I only understand {my language}
The reason I mention the last one over simply "I do not understand" is it makes it clear that not only do you not understand, you probably won't understand if they try again. It also lets them know a language you would understand so they can get out a translating app. It was easy enough to translate from English to Japanese up front, but nearly impossible to hear the Japanese, write it out, and translate it to English. So you'll need the native speaker to translate in that direction.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#427Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't want to sound ridiculous, but I've gotten the same benefits that you seem to describe (I have never tried mindfulness) since I started to smoke weed.
Mindfulness is a lot cheaper :)
Depends. I get better effects from meditation after having just completed a ten day course. But it takes a lot of time to get there and to keep doing it on a daily basis. If you used that time for something that earned you money I doubt it would work out cheaper.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#428Understanding compound interest thoroughly. Compound interest is probably the most powerful "force" governing out lives. It is crucial when borrowing money, especially for longer terms. It is crucial when saving and investing. It is crucial in self-development, where a tiny 5% improvement in some area of your life per year can mean that you are twice as good at something in 15 years. It is important when evaluating a…
Compound anything is powerful. Interest is... really slow these days though. Seems to be around 3% return after inflation. And with all the countries taking really high national debt, who's to say it will get better?
The whole compound concept applies very well to startups though. 3% a week adds up.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#429Learning how to solve a Rubik's Cube using the "beginner's method." Maybe not as valuable as you were hoping, but getting the methods down feels good and gives you a new hobby of competing against your own best times.
I learned how to solve Rubic's cube when I was in high school as some kind of party trick, with the beginner's method. Years later, I still remember the movements and recall them in a short notice. Couple of months ago I attended a conference where companies where giving out swag and gift cards to those who give their contact details or watching a demo. After the demo, they told that if I can solve a Rubic's cube and be one of the first 20 to do it, they will give $25 gift debit card. I solved it in a couple of minutes and got my card and had delicious Buffalo Wings with it, so, definitely worth it :)
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#430Earlier quoted context omitted.
Actually, if you are together, you might not have taken changes into account as they happen gradually. What OP meant is a means of an additional self-reflection. Which happens on top of current communication (or lack thereof). It is also not just that the person you're with changes. You change as well, and you might not be aware of that. I mean, we all age. Society changes, too. For example, we're all running around…
The self-reflection part hadn't actually occurred to me, but it makes sense. When I met my wife, "PDA" meant "public display of affection." I prefer that to my cell phone any day, albeit not with a bunch of radios. Only a HAM operator would be into that kind of thing.
Yeah, for my partner that is also what PDA stands for (both non-native English speakers).
As for the radio comment: cell phones, smartphones, laptops, smartwatches, IoT in general. It all has radios these days. If not merely Bluetooth or WiFi.