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Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#472
post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

This? http://www.ryanestrada.com/learntoreadkoreanin15minutes/

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#473
Learn how to regulate your sympathetic nervous system with diaphragmatic breathing. I know that meditation has been mentioned various times, but breathing as a subset of meditation is useful whilst sat in a meeting or conference, as it's approaching your turn to speak. It has worked wonders for my state of mind before public speaking.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#474

On the contrary, it has taken me years to unlearn compound interest. When you start with relatively little, compound interest is relatively very unhelpful - it compounds wealth and benefits people who have started with something more than you. Twice as good at nothing is still nothing.

Alright, I'll bite. This is such a victimhood mentality and a ridiculous statement.

I wasn't wealthy when I started investing. Hell, the first dollar I put into my long term portfolio was when I was living in my car! I started with ~$200 that I made from doing a collection of odd jobs (mowing lawns, computer repair, moving dirt, etc.). Every extra penny I made went into investing into a moderate portfolio focusing on high yield dividends (4-6%).

As I've grown in my career, got married, etc., I've kept effectively the same principles. I now get great passive income after 10 years of doing this and it's only getting better with each dollar we put in.

It is possible with the right mindset. In an investing group that I'm part of, my story is the norm - not the exception.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#475

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find Sam Harris' Waking Up guided meditation lessons the most useful (can find it on mobile app stores, the 30+ lessons are free and start off short and simple). Until those, I thought meditation was inherently coupled with eastern mystic bullshit with zero benefits for anyone who didn't want to buy into a bunch of other baggage. He has a book by the same name as the mobile app. The first chapter (read out loud her…

Interesting that other cultural practices are dismissed as mystic bullshit by default, until a white man introduces it. That makes it more trustworthy other white people.

I think Harris's perspective is more like, "There's some good stuff here if you ignore the mystic bullshit." That's my take on it, and the message I get behind. I don't care if the person who introduced it happens to be an ethnically Jewish man. Incidentally I have the same take on Western religions, especially the one that I grew up with. I enjoy and appreciate practices from foreign cultures, the "foreign-culture-ness" of something does not lead me to dismiss it. The mystic bullshit part is what I dismiss, in every culture (especially my own).

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that other cultural practices are dismissed as mystic bullshit by default, until a white man introduces it. That makes it more trustworthy other white people.

No, the 'mystic bullshit' is very real in e.g. vipassana (for example, anything about "vibrations") regardless of the race of the speaker

There's definitely 'mystic bullshit' in Vipassana, but it's not the 'vibrations' part (the Vipassana course emphasizes over and over again that the sensations you're supposed to watch for are real, physical sensations - pressure on the skin, temperature, sweat, itching - nothing mystical)

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#479
post #231

Earlier 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 :)

And portable too.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#480
post #358

Understanding 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…

The 'rule of 72' is a quick and easy rule of thumb to determine how long an investment doubles, and improve how you think about compound interest. For example it takes approx. 10 years to double an investment at 7%, or 7 years at 10%.

We are currently in a world where it is very difficult to find interest rates >2%. I found a tezos staking pool at approximately 5% recently.
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