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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?

#481

Post by marc_io »

sjapkee wrote: post #292
smaddox wrote: post #12

Mindfulness meditation. Sitting with your thoughts and emotions, experiencing them, and understanding them, rather than avoiding them or distracting yourself from them can have a dramatic effect on your life. And 10 minutes a day for a week can get you far enough to see some real benefits, like reduced stress and increased awareness of unhelpful thought patterns.

>Mindfulness meditation Absolutely useless thing which for some reason is shoved into each thread.

I've learned some of the most useful things in my entire life through mindfulness meditation.

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

#482

Post by Waterluvian »

derpherpsson wrote: post #192
Waterluvian wrote: post #43

Learn NATO phonetic alphabet while in traffic. Keep a reference card in your car's visor and then read out loud every license plate you see.

WHY

Because life is fleeting and it's neat and what are you doing in traffic anyway?

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

#483

Post by bootloop »

geekus_maximus wrote: post #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.

Any good resources you know?

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

#484

Post by javajosh »

PeterStuer wrote: post #413
majortennis wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

compound interest is where the bank say's its 3.5% interest but if you do the math you're paying 180% for a house. I don't have any idea how that became acceptable/the norm.

I have many reservations and am very critical of the financial system. But the concept of interest on loans is not a "scam'. The interest in it's simplest form is just a value appreciation of the time value of money [1]. Would you rather have $100 today, or $100 next month? How about $100 today vs $102 next month? Still rather in the today camp? How about $105 next month? That is the interest. It is the value derivat…

Good comment. I sometimes describe borrowing as renting money, where interest is the rent. Its a mathematically interesting construct because, for one thing, the value of the thing you rented goes down with cumulative rent paid. It's kind of a degenerate money cycle if you loan money to someone who uses it to pay you interest on the loan. I suppose only taxes (serving as friction, removing energy) prevent this from being a kind of economic perpetual motion machine! I'd be stunned if this trick wasn't a) very old, and b) have about 1000 modern variations.

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

#485

Post by wila »

vgrigorescu wrote: post #472
wila wrote: post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

That's it!

Thank you so much.

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

#486

Post by Kye »

rfc wrote: post #474
learnstats2 wrote: post #410

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…

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

Two words: selection bias. That your path worked for you does not mean it's the only wise path for every circumstance. The path of most people around me is their savings get destroyed by surprise medical or repair bills because they were born into poverty and never get a chance to build meaningful savings. So it's better to spend it on something while you have it on things that can't be taken away in a bankruptcy.

Most people (in this context) make the mistake of spending it on drugs, worthless trinkets, junk food, etc. Most aren't encouraged to pursue skills that can pay the bills. Or they're actively discouraged. "Crabs in a bucket" is a real mentality. People I grew up around have it. I had to hide my interest in entrepreneurship just to protect it from sabotage.

I'm glad you were in a situation that enabled your path! It's great that you were able to thrive through early savings. I don't know when you came up, but cheap and functional cars are hard to come by in a post-Cash for Clunkers world and police are more aggressive with the homeless/car-homed. Your path is not as viable in the US in 2019.

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

#487

Post by jfim »

ihodes wrote: post #453
jbverschoor wrote: post #434

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3. Don't store eggs in the fridge, and don't frikking wash them!

This depends on how the eggs are processed prior to you purchasing them, so beware. Cf. https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/09/11/336330502/wh...

More specifically, eggs in the US and Canada are legally required to be washed prior to be sold to consumers in retail locations, and thus require refrigeration.

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

#488

Post by Sileni »

RobertRoberts wrote: post #176

How to cook for yourself, really, really good food. I no longer crave restaurant food, and all of the really important things I learned about cooking take just the time to read it, hear about it and then try it. All without any special hardware. A few examples: 1. Cooking jasmine rice: rinse it first, 1 c. water to 1 c. rice ratio. Bring to boil, turn down heat to lowest setting. Leave lid /the entire time/. Fluff th…

My partner really picked up cooking in the last couple of years. We hardly ever go out anymore. Every time we get a craving she says "Yeah, we could go to a crowded restaurant... or I could make it better". Without fail, she does.

I think the secret is, one of the most important aspects of good food is time to table. When you make it at home, you can eat as soon as it's done or rested. Along with the anticipation factor of having worked on it yourself and having the smells fill your home for a while beforehand.

Plus, if you're an introvert who's already burnt out for the day, you don't have to wear pants. Huge points for not having to wear pants.

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

#489

Post by bostonpete »

Fnoord wrote: post #396
DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #188

If 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.

I'd say that applies to being together, not necessarily being married. Nowadays, we don't all live in a religious dominant society (anymore) where it is required or normal to marry.

Marriage is not a strictly religious institution.

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

#490

Post by imtringued »

bionsystem wrote: post #336
tempestn wrote: post #144

How, and why, to invest in a simple portfolio of index funds. Split between equity and fixed income based on your risk tolerance, and diversify equities globally. This will give you a low-cost, set-and-forget investment portfolio that you can add to over time without ever having to worry about what you should buy or what the market might do. Just add to it regularly over time, and end up with solid retirement savings…

I would be very careful with financial advice in general and "set and forget" strategies are definitely among them. There is some controversy with ETF based allocation strategies (see Michael Burry's recent claims) that may or may not be valid, but in general I don't think there is any shortcut for financial education such as "just buy diversified ETFs" (and this applies to many other fields as well).

That doesn't change anything. 12 years ago I knew nothing about programming. Does that mean I shouldn't start with some easy language that might turn out not be sufficient as I get more experienced? No. Starting is the hardest part, gaining experience is something that happens during the journey.
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