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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?

#421

Post by LaGrange »

kerkeslager wrote: post #307
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…

Okay, this is a narrative that is occurring in your head, but it's not occurring in everyone's head, and if you happen to talk to someone who has this narrative occurring in their head, who cares? You're not going to please everyone. You're not going to befriend everyone you talk to, but you're not going to befriend anyone you don't talk to.

> Okay, this is a narrative that is occurring in your head, but it's not occurring in everyone's head,

Oh, for sure, I'm not saying this approach won't work for you. I'm saying that if you're using that approach you're being using strategies designed mostly by abusers, that are inherently abusive (now, whether you are an abuser depends on whether you realise that and whether you stick to it after realising that), and that you _shouldn't do that_.

> You're not going to befriend everyone you talk to, but you're not going to befriend anyone you don't talk to.

I don't have to try and befriend everyone I meet. There are social contexts specifically designed for making new friendships, and quite helpfully they usually also provide a framework for approaching new people. And between meetup.com, OkCupid, interest-specific subreddits, Discords and Twitter, it's easier than ever to find should spaces that are tailored to however specific your social needs are. There's zero excuse for cold approach.

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

#422

Post by falcolas »

komali2 wrote: post #388
Spellman wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Hypothesis: Sous vide followed by a sear results in an evenly cooked steak (regardless of thickness) with an awesome crust.

Experimental results: drool

Experiment status: success.

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

#424

Post by ravenstine »

komali2 wrote: post #220
tashoecraft wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If sous vide is tasting really bad to you, you’re doing it wrong. Almost certainly you’re not doing the final step, finish in a pan. You shouldn’t take something right from the sous vide to the plate, hit it in the pan at the highest heat you possible can to get the Maillard reaction and develop the crust.

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 with a skillet on high heat, it really doesn't take long to sear a steak and still keep it pretty rare. It also depends on the kind of pan you're using. A cheap pan will have a different heat distribution than a cast iron skillet.

Yes, you have to clean the pan. This is precisely why I use a torch to sear my meat. Even with the few times I use a pan, I prefer it because the reduced time on the pan means less oils splattering around my stove top, and I do think that the pan is still an easier clean this way. But that can all be avoided by using a good torch.

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

#425

Post by simplify »

Prolog. You'll discover what it feels like to have a language that actually does hard work for you (except string manipulation...), instead of having to guide it through every little detail.

Logic programming isn't actually that hard, and more people learning it will help move the state of programming forward.

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

#426

Post by ravenstine »

komali2 wrote: post #390
Spellman wrote: post #372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 coo…

Right, but not everyone wants to. One of the reasons I gave up cooking steaks the normal way was because I can easily get distracted by checking something on my computer, a few minutes go by, and then the steak doesn't come out the way I wanted. This is a personal failing, but at the same time doing it sous vide helps avoid that problem. Hours can go by and a steak will still come out pretty good.

> And if they have hundreds of dollars plus the counterspace to throw at a sous vide machine

Exactly how much counter space do you think a sous vide machine takes up? Maybe there's some out there that are huge, IDK, but most of the consumer grade ones sold are like half the size of a wine bottle and can be attached to any container. You could probably even attach it to a kitchen sink if you wanted to.

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

#427

Post by take_a_breath »

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.

Have you tried grilling instead? I find that the flavor fixes a lot of the over-cooked mistakes.

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

#429

Post by 38932ur98u »

bryanmgreen wrote: post #345
snarf21 wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've come to believe that introspection is the one true real superpower. Here is an exercise for the reader. Every year on your birthday, write down what you "know" to be true about life, work, love, politics, money, meaning, happiness, environment, etc. and then seal it. Now read what you wrote last year and see how dumb you used to be.

Right now I’m completing an “In My 20’s” document tracking numbers of big things (is: how many countries visited, music festivals attended, pieces of furniture built, jobs had, dollars saved, etc), feelings, observations, lessons and questions. It’s pretty powerful. I can track my progress, see the speedbumps, but I think the biggest thing is that despite having all this data, it is not predictive. I have zero idea w…

I'm interested in this. Do you have a template?

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

#430

Post by clSTophEjUdRanu »

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!”

Same. Started cooking out of frugality and anything I can order or comes packaged is unhealthy. Cooking feels like the default, what normal people do. I was so wrong. None of my friends can cook even a simple meal without step by step instructions. Some can grill, and that's it. They just order food or eat something from a box every single day.
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