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…
Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?
441–450 of 876 posts
Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?
#442Earlier quoted context omitted.
From this list, the thing I struggle most with is conversations with strangers. Any suggestions on how to improve that?
Read "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Let go of pride and ego. Find something the person may be very interested in, and get them talking about it. "I can't help but notice that watch, can I ask you about it?" (Anybody asking about my watch is an instant friend. WHY WONT ANYBODY NOTICE MY WATCHES??) "This might be weird but I need a new barber, where do you get your haircut?" "Yooo where did you get that swe…
If some randomer approached me in public, especially on my commute, and dropped any of the above lines or any others about some material item I had on me, I’d write them off as a grifter looking for an angle to play.
Especially the “yoooo dawg lemme see that watch!” kind of vernacular.
As such I refuse to believe any of your recommendations come from personally successful experiences.
Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?
#443Starting 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.
Starting conversations with strangers. But how? I have anxiety and it's really difficult to talk to strangers. Edit:I would also like to mention. I talk very less reason being whenever I tell people honestly about my feelings. Later or sooner they use it against me.
Start simple - ask people on the street what time it is. It’s a simple opener that should help you with your anxiety, and you’ll see nothing bad happens.
Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?
#444Earlier 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 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…
My taste is broken, once used to chef, and do cook daily still, but when you do not enjoy food - it just becomes a bind.
Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?
#445What I would call "quantitative environmental consciousness" - things like estimating energy consumption and carbon footprints.
Topics like energy policy and CO2 emissions will become increasingly critical in our lives, and yet you don't find many people reasoning about them in a lucid and informed way.
A great place to start is the SEWTHA book by MacKay: https://www.withouthotair.com/
Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?
#446Some 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 cook or eat left overs 6 nights a week at this point. Beyond saving a massive amount of money it's shocking how much better the steak I make myself is than one I can get out. Most cities have kitchen equipment stores (not just Bed Bath) that actually have cooking courses you can take.
Now "home made pasta" starts with flour and eggs.
Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?
#447Some less usual things people do that I think are very high value but boring (hence why they're not usually done): - Understanding taxes, the importance of savings and baseline personal finance literacy. - Reading the political programs of a few parties running for elections in you country - Reading a few yearly report / financial statements for a public company, an NGO/non-profit/state agency/local government and tr…
Actually getting a proper handle on my finances has been the single thing I did last year which has contributed most to my general mental wellbeing. Historically I've been terrible at it, I'm paid incredibly well compared to most of the population, but because I wasn't consciously budgeting I'd end up running down to the last few pounds in my bank account every month. Putting an effort into setting actual budgets at…
> Historically I've been terrible at it, I'm paid incredibly well compared to most of the population, but because I wasn't consciously budgeting I'd end up running down to the last few pounds in my bank account every month.
I'll pile on a recommendation for YNAB. This sounds exactly like me. Having a better handle on my money and where it's going has definitely improved my mental health this year.
Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?
#448Earlier 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…
This is why I have a cold shower every morning.
Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?
#449Starting 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.
Starting conversations with strangers. But how? I have anxiety and it's really difficult to talk to strangers. Edit:I would also like to mention. I talk very less reason being whenever I tell people honestly about my feelings. Later or sooner they use it against me.
I also have anxiety. The way you deal with it is to talk with strangers. Start by expressing yourself more with the people you are already comfortable with. Something you might normally not share. Then start with chit chat with people who are less familiar. You will be chatting comfortably with people you don't know in no time. Isolating yourself is the wrong way and will lead you to dark places. I know. I'm better. It's scary, uncomfortable and totally worth it.
Re: Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?
#450Earlier quoted context omitted.
The health risks of not doing deadlifts far outweigh the risk of doing them. It's the only thing that has resolved my back pain and improved my posture. Disclaimer: hire a trainer to learn the correct form
this is probably one of the most absurd comments I've ever read on HN
I think it might appear that way to anyone who doesn't lift, but OP is not too far from the truth.
I'd say the same for barbell squats. You don't want to be 45 and not be able to get off the toilet without holding onto something...