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Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

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Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#61

Post by jk7tarYZAQNpTQa »

antognini wrote: post #53
jk7tarYZAQNpTQa wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very interesting. I enjoy both astronomy and history, do you know any books/materials you would recommend to someone who is just an enthusiast? Also, would you share the title of your podcast?

I've found a couple of books that have been very good: A History of Astronomy by A. Pannekoek has a reasonably detailed and readable history of ancient astronomy, though as I've been diving into it I've found that parts are a little dated. But it's really good to get a high level overview of what the main problems early astronomers were trying to solve and how they were trying to solve them. Episodes in the Early His…

Thanks, glad to see you're on Spotify. I'll definitely check it out!

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#62

Post by Zealotux »

Back-end development! It's quite a paradigm shift from front-end, a lot of known unknowns and even more unknown unknowns, I'm trying not to panic too much as I'm deploying my Sass in production. I'll get good eventually (but the anxiety might never go away).

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#64

Post by Anon4Now »

colecut wrote: post #41
Anon4Now wrote: post #18

To sleep on my back. Being a life-long side sleeper has caused a lot of shoulder and upper back problems that sometimes make it hard for me to reach out and type. I wish I'd done this ages ago. It's one of the hardest things I've had to learn.

I'm normally a side sleeper, but while/after lying on an acupressure mat I often fall asleep on my back. I use the cheap Amazon one.

I've never heard of acupressure mats before. I might check that out.

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#65

Post by zhdc1 »

cknight wrote: post #51

I'm sure many here on HN did this long ago, but for me: Learning how to get by in a large org for the first time. 1 month ago I was responsible for the entire IT function of an SMB. I was the guy who knew everything required to get stuff done, and I reported directly to the CEO. A lot of processes were not formalised because the overheads of doing so weren't worth it. New job, now working for the government in a skys…

A couple of things I've learned over time:

- Soft skills matter, but performance (against your metrics) is still what matters in the end. Group dynamics only comes into it when you have a bunch of people at the same level of performance.

- You'll be ahead of a lot of your peers if you stay positive and don't gossip and don't do office "politicking" (in a bad sense).

- Plan your career around three year stints. At the end of each stint, evaluate your career progress against your long term goals. Don't be afraid to transfer jobs or take time off for learning (e.g., by getting a graduate degree).

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#66

Post by Anon4Now »

manjana wrote: post #49
Anon4Now wrote: post #18

To sleep on my back. Being a life-long side sleeper has caused a lot of shoulder and upper back problems that sometimes make it hard for me to reach out and type. I wish I'd done this ages ago. It's one of the hardest things I've had to learn.

The hard thing being to fall asleep or stay at sleep?

Both, but the biggest issue has been reverting to my side while asleep. I've re-aggravated my rhombus muscle a number of times doing that.

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#67

Post by Anon4Now »

alexcnwy wrote: post #42
Anon4Now wrote: post #18

To sleep on my back. Being a life-long side sleeper has caused a lot of shoulder and upper back problems that sometimes make it hard for me to reach out and type. I wish I'd done this ages ago. It's one of the hardest things I've had to learn.

How did you learn?

I stopped using a pillow under my head because back sleeping + pillow = neck pain. Then I got a thin, light pillow and placed it on my chest to mimic the "wrapped up in blankets" feeling I was used to.

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#68

Post by AndrewOMartin »

antognini wrote: post #40

Lately I have been diving deep into ancient astronomy, Babylonian astronomy in particular. I have a PhD in astronomy, but I've found that a lot of astronomers tend to have a somewhat superficial knowledge of the history of their field. To motivate myself to learn more about it I started podcasting what I learned with the schtick being that I release episodes every full moon to force myself to keep it up.

The reason we have a 7 day week, the names of the days, and the reason those names are in their particular order stem from Babylonian astronomy. It's one of my favourite stories.

Re: Ask HN: What Are You Learning?

#69

Post by yesenadam »

Brazilian music. Gilberto Gil, Chico Buarque, Milton Nascimento, João Donato, Toninho Horta, Yamandu Costa, João Gilberto etc etc.

There's a great youtube channel with hundreds of videos of guitarist Nelson Faria chatting and playing music at home with a different Brazilian musician each time, a lot with English captions. https://www.youtube.com/c/umcafelaemcasa/videos

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