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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?

#591

Post by sdinsn »

langitbiru wrote: post #223

Here are what I am learning in 2020. I try to be a holistic person. So I am learning technical skills, business skills, and social skills. Technical: Blockchain programming (mostly on Ethereum). I believe Ethereum is the future. Programmable money. How cool is that? However if you think blockchain is fad, you could replace it with cybersecurity. Business: Corporate finance (stocks, bonds, future contracts, options, e…

> Programmable money. How cool is that?

Not cool at all, to be honest

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

#592

Post by hombre_fatal »

astura wrote: post #489
Invictus0 wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like you're projecting the habits of your personal circle onto the masses: most people are nowhere remotely near the point of removing every inconvenience from their lives. I don't know a lot of miserable rich people either.

Yeah, seems very weird to judge someone so harshly for simply not wanting to cook and then go on to accuse them of being miserable. I mean, does someone who's spouse does the shopping and cooking get the same judgement? Absolutely not! Neither do people who hire a landscaper instead of doing their own yardwork. Nor do people who drive a mile to the store instead of walking or biking there. Nor do couples who have mul…

To me it's just ascribing all these benefits to your little hobby horse that other people surely lack since they don't share your interests, even going so far as to hint that it's evidence of some sort of decline in society. I've seen HNers say the same thing about people who don't care how computers work to people who can't take a walk without headphones on.

Just seems a bit convenient and masturbatory.

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

#593

Post by m3kw9 »

quincy_daniels wrote: post #524
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 agree with your general sentiment. However, in my anecdotal sampling of people who frequently cook vs frequently eat out, tolerance for discomfort is greater in those that frequently eat out. Especially in relation to food, where those who frequently cook almost can't tolerate food cooked by others. Further on the food front, people who cook seem to be more heavily affected by fasting, or less willing to tolerate i…

I think a lot of people frequently cook 1. because they know what really tasty food is made off 2. They know is cheaper/they are trying to save.

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

#594

Post by jackdeansmith »

mamcx wrote: post #150
vasco wrote: post #59

Some 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…

> Understanding taxes, the importance of savings and baseline personal finance literacy. Ok, what could be a good resource for this? The problem with finances is alike eating: You get so much talk from shaddy "experts" that is hard to see where the good info is.

The personal finance subreddit is extremely good and has accessible wiki articles about the most common topics. The "Prime Directive" is a good place to start: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics.

There's also a flowchart which works well for 90+% of people: https://i.imgur.com/lSoUQr2.png

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

#595

Post by m3kw9 »

Hitton wrote: post #473
dfansteel wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Saving massive amount of money? Judging just from demographic that uses hackernews (mostly tech workers), I think it's actually cheaper to eat out if you measure price of your time by how much money would you earn in that time while working compared to shopping for the ingredients, cooking and doing dishes.

Recipe for burnout if you work those hours where you’d have cook. Unless you do other leisure activities. Burnout will cost you money

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

#597

Post by mannykoum »

tnel77 wrote: post #225
chrissnell wrote: post #100

Some 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!”

What made my post-college mental state so much better (as well as my friends' quality of life) was that I forced my flatmates to cook with me all the time and we would have people over for lunch/dinner like I used to do back home, in Greece. Our stomachs and wallets are still thanking us to this day.

For context, I studied in the US and moved to London for work right after graduation.

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

#598

Post by NortySpock »

cmdshiftf4 wrote: post #442
komali2 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This only really should be used in parties or social events where there is a host, like a dinner party at someone's house. Or a work office lunch, or meet-and-greet.

You wouldn't use it out and about on the street or the bus, unless you were really personable.

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

#599

Post by m3kw9 »

Learn some time management, track where you use your time the most.

Learn finance management, track all your finance and learn where your money goes.

Learn to cook a meal that you would always eat and easy to cook.

Learn about How to be a good listener.

But all the above must be done in practice to be learnt

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

#600

Post by djannzjkzxn »

akerro wrote: post #263
chrissnell wrote: post #100

Some 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…

>- Listen to classical music. This one didn't come to me until my 40s but I finally realized: there's a reason that this music has been popular for 300 years. Opera is great, too. Listen to Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro". Download the KUSC app and listen to the amazing Metropolitan Opera broadcast every Saturday morning at 10 AM Pacific. How is this a skill?

Appreciating anything that you aren’t already a fan of is a skill. You can also develop the skills of enjoying hip hop, metal, spaghetti westerns, rock climbing, etc.
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