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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?

#511

Post by sidjun »

majortennis wrote: post #357
koolba wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good example why one should understand compound interest. Through in a payment schedule and amortization as well. The bank is giving you $X to buy the house. You’re paying off a piece of it each month (your mortgage payment). Part of that goes to the interest on the loan, the rest goes to principal. The interest each month is based upon on the remaining principal. That means your payment starts off being mo…

Just seems like a massive scam thats become the norm. You're paying off interest on the first month, as if you've already had the money for 20 years. They take liberties from day one.

Let's break this down with a simple example: You get a 30yr mortgage for $100,000 at 5%

If you paid $0 on principal your first year, the interest would be $100,000x0.05=$5000

Make it monthly: $5000/12=$416.67 rounded up to $417

On an amortization schedule, the fixed payment is calculated at $537, with $120 going to principal and $417 going to interest on your first payment. Exactly what you would expect to pay. The interest isn't front loaded, it's just the actual accrued interest of what you have borrowed.

When you pay the $120 in principal on your first payment, your debt reduces to $99,880. $99,880x0.05/12=$416 rounded. Therefore, your next payment, still at the fixed rate of $537 is now paying $121 in principal, and $416 in interest.

In short, when you have a large debt, you pay larger interest, when you have a smaller debt, you pay smaller interest. This isn't exploitation, just mathematics.

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

#512

Post by cyborgx7 »

truculent wrote: post #451
joshspankit wrote: post #439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I dislike seemingly knee-jerk contrary statements against “known-good” knowledge, I feel that there is an important point here: aggressively attempting to compound interest is a poor use of time when you only have, say, hundreds of dollars. Better to focus on compound interest “in the background” while optimizing for growing capital or income-generating skills.

So, essentially: compound interest is something wealthy people are good at because it's useful when you are wealthy. Not because learning about compund interest will make you rich?

I find that most legitimization attempts for wealth end up being circular if followed to their logical conclusions.

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

#513

Post by astura »

yread wrote: post #343
funklute wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's super useful if you're on the phone, having to spell out a list of letters, e.g. a postcode

If the other side also knows NATO alphabet. There are too many uncommon words for the average helpdesk operator

^---- yes, this is exactly it. Especially since most CSRs you're going to be talking about don't have English as their first language and don't have the same cultural background as you.

That's why the people I know who use it at work don't use it while on the phone with Comcast.

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

#514

Post by Sammi »

tzebby49 wrote: post #480
tlight wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/042415/what-average...

"What is the average annual return for the S&P 500? ... roughly 8%"

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

#516

Post by lordgrenville »

xouse wrote: post #121

People think touch typing takes a long time to learn, and getting good does take a while, but it only takes about an hour to memorize the alphanumerics and which finger types what well enough to break the hunt and peck looking at the keyboard cycle forever. Once the cycle is broken just typing casually is enough to eventually achieve mastery. It's only that one or two hours that really suck, and then that week or so…

I really need to do this. At one point I got pretty far on https://www.typingclub.com/, but slid back to hunt-and-peck as soon as I stopped it. I'm learning Vim now (which has a similar effect where you get immediately much slower before you get faster), and one of the guides I was reading said not to waste your time with Vim before you can touch type.

That said, Vim is easier because as soon as you understand how to switch in and out of insert mode it works as a regular text editor. Touch typing really brings me to a standstill.

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

#517

Post by clarry »

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…

A bit of calculation would show that a lot of people have no chance of building "great passive income" in 10 years. They simply do not have enough income to save that much.

"I started with $200" tells us nothing useful.

I can start with $5 and have great passive income if I'm making $100k and wife is making $70k and both of us are capable of saving a good chunk per year.

I can start with $5000 and have little more than extra pocket money after 10 years if my salary is in the $20k to $30k range and I'm capable of saving $100 per lucky moon.

GP is absolutely right, compound interest does not do much if you don't have much. There is nothing ridiculous about it.

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

#518

Post by gbear605 »

majortennis wrote: post #493
PeterStuer wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I didn't say interest on a loan was a scam I think compound interest on mortgages is. A fixed price interest would make sense like you borrow £100 , you pay back £110. 10% interest. But my understanding on a compound interest mortgage is the bank says something like 2% interest. and they take the £100 and x by 1.02 and just spam ='s on the calculator until the actual interest percentage is like 180%. You shouldn't ha…

The thing about loans is that they should also be cheaper if you pay them off sooner. I could believe that they should be simple interest instead of compound, but that’ll get to 200% in only a bit longer (50 periods of 2% interest instead of 35), and banks would want higher interest rates on simple interest anyway, making it equal out. Plus, there are many great loan calculators online to use too.

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

#519

Post by thewelder »

jackbarclay wrote: post #414
oeuviz wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So let us proceed to the real challenge: christmas lights. How can you avoid the guaranteed swearing the following year?

Wrap them around a piece of scrap cardboard.

then cut some 1" slits in it to keep them in place.

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

#520

Post by Kye »

Read through Farnam Street's list of mental models: https://fs.blog/mental-models/

They won't change your life overnight, but as you read one or more will likely click with some tricky problem you're in the middle of. For me, that was inversion. Flipping things works for digital artists, and it works for thinking about problems.

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