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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?

#431

Post by exdsq »

andrewzah wrote: post #394
oh-4-fucks-sake wrote: post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 interpret…

It’s like coding but with none of the frustrations. You can’t get stuck midway because you have an incompatible version of carrots. All you need is ingredients and a good repertoire of recipes to draw from.

I love cooking but I’m not very good at it. I can assure you there are ways to get stuck halfway :P

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

#432

Post by JamesBarney »

brodouevencode wrote: post #343
JamesBarney wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about squat and deadlift. I'm in my mid 30s and 20-40% of my friends who squat and deadlift had to stop because they injured their back in the last couple of years. All of them looked like they had great form and half had gone to a trainer as some point to make sure their form was good.

Almost certainly mobility issues. Im almost 40 and still squat at least once a week.

This or bad form is what everyone says after the fact, this is exactly what they said until they threw out their back.

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

#433

Post by exdsq »

take_a_breath wrote: post #420
the_gastropod wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 w…

I am also skeptical of "optimizing" every part of our lives. Cell phones allow us to do so many things more efficiently than in the past. But what are people actually doing with that freed up time?

Scrolling hacker news...

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

#434

Post by JamesBarney »

kerkeslager wrote: post #322
JamesBarney wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about squat and deadlift. I'm in my mid 30s and 20-40% of my friends who squat and deadlift had to stop because they injured their back in the last couple of years. All of them looked like they had great form and half had gone to a trainer as some point to make sure their form was good.

Any athletic pursuit is going to injure you eventually. Not pursuing any athletics is going to kill you and make the late years of your life frustrating a you lose capabilities. And you'll probably get injured as your body deteriorates. You choose.

Sure, but there are ways to start active and keep your core, lower back, and legs strong that have lower injury rates than deadlifts and squats.

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

#435

Post by nske »

pranit10 wrote: post #405
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

The reality I've seen is that most doctors can only help with small/very specific issues of this kind if it's something they happened to had encountered before. Otherwise they will send you on a trip for multiple exams and in the end tell you there's nothing particularly wrong and should just bear with it till it becomes worse. Doing our own research or reaching out to others -none of which is mutually exclusive to consulting doctors- often pays out. Remember the experience of Patrick Volkerding? http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/pipermail/ilugc/2004-November/01390...

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

#436

Post by MehdiHK »

bitexploder wrote: post #35

I will share one that has served me well for over 20 years: learn RDBMS and SQL. Learn normal forms, good schema design, and how to write complex queries. NoSQL adopters often avoided schemas like the plague and ended up with unmaintainable messes after a few years. I have seen more than a few NoSQL -> SQL conversions by now. Data is the most important thing in your app. Give it a great design. Plus databases like Po…

This. Specially if you work with Node.js. The JavaScript community is susceptible to ignoring all previous knowledge, experience, wisdom and tries to reinvent everything. I appreciate the energy, but it is often misguided. Understand the difference between merit and marketing bullshit (stack names that include Mongodb?). Understand context. If you are using Node.js in green field project, you are probably better off using Postgres. Understand Lindy effect. Sql isn't going away, but the vendor specific query language that you are spending time with and hoping will replace sql is probably going to.

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

#437

Post by ohithereyou »

nske wrote: post #392
smileysteve wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$75 is even an exaggeration. It might be more bland, but eggs, chicken breasts, some veggies should get you through a week for < $30.

And lentils with bread -most people look down on them for some reason, unless it's a side of some sort, but I find them just beautiful as proper dinner!

People with glucose issues will probably want to avoid the bread and go for something like brown rice (a slower carb) or a veg, but it's a good suggestions nonetheless!

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

#438

Post by clSTophEjUdRanu »

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…

Funny. When I shipped to Marine boot camp I was frightful my minor knee pain would get worse. Turns out I was just a wimp. Pain disappeared with exercise. I also had acid reflux and stomach problems for years that disappeared.

Every single ailment that I've had that is not an injury disappeared when I got into shape (and read Sarnos book).

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

#439

Post by MehdiHK »

ngsx wrote: post #285
bitexploder wrote: post #35

I will share one that has served me well for over 20 years: learn RDBMS and SQL. Learn normal forms, good schema design, and how to write complex queries. NoSQL adopters often avoided schemas like the plague and ended up with unmaintainable messes after a few years. I have seen more than a few NoSQL -> SQL conversions by now. Data is the most important thing in your app. Give it a great design. Plus databases like Po…

Do you have any recommendations on how to learn RDBMS/SQL? I'm currently using NoSQL at my day job (and agree with your points on it), but have struggled to find a good side project to really dig into RDBMS/SQL. I have used SQL briefly in the past (side projects/class projects) but I'm looking to really cement the skill in my mind.

Tutorial format: https://mode.com/sql-tutorial/

Books: 1) SQL Antipatterns https://pragprog.com/book/bksqla/sql-antipatterns

2) Effective SQL https://learning.oreilly.com/library/view/effective-sql-61/9...

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

#440

Post by mudlark »

the_gastropod wrote: post #386
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 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 w…

If I could afford it, and there were nice eateries, I would love to eat out.
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