Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

621–630 of 876 posts

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

#621

Post by JamesBarney »

bluntfang wrote: post #516
JamesBarney wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about squat and deadlift. I'm in my mid 30s and 20-40% of my friends who squat and deadlift had to stop because they injured their back in the last couple of years. All of them looked like they had great form and half had gone to a trainer as some point to make sure their form was good.

Is it possible they were going for ego lifts? From your examples, do you know the weight they were lifting for each exercise?

One was warming up, so he was dead-lifting 135 and he normally lifted 300 x 8.

And the other was squatting in the 400's which was around his 5 rep max.

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

#622

Post by beefield »

papreclip wrote: post #367
bitexploder wrote: post #35

I will share one that has served me well for over 20 years: learn RDBMS and SQL. Learn normal forms, good schema design, and how to write complex queries. NoSQL adopters often avoided schemas like the plague and ended up with unmaintainable messes after a few years. I have seen more than a few NoSQL -> SQL conversions by now. Data is the most important thing in your app. Give it a great design. Plus databases like Po…

>NoSQL adopters often ... ended up with unmaintainable messes learning SQL seems much more straightforward than learning NoSQL. personally I'd like to find a good resource that will help me use a non-relational database without creating a mess

> I'd like to find a good resource that will help me use a non-relational database without creating a mess

My plan for the day when someone requires me to use NoSQL is to say that postgres supports JSON/JSONB perfectly so I can use that as a NoSQL database and then use the relational part to keep me out of the mess...

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

#623

Post by dwild »

sharadov wrote: post #509
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…

We are becoming one trick ponies, only defined by the work that we do. There is something about cooking, doing things with your hands that is fundamental to the human experience. I cook, but I also like to order in, sometimes I just microwave stuff. It depends on your mood.

> There is something about cooking, doing things with your hands that is fundamental to the human experience.

I agree that doing more has plenty of avantage, but is there something specifically about cooking?

Have you ever sew piece of clothes that you regularly wear? Most people never did... yet for something that will be used for hundreds of hours, we pay 20$+ for it instead of taking a few hours to do it. Why are we arguing about cooking ourself but not sewing our own clothes?

Cooking our own food is simply a tradition that stayed with us, nothing else. It doesn't make more sense to do it ourself, than making our own clothes.

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

#624

Post by jyrkesh »

mywittyname wrote: post #568
quincy_daniels wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> where those who frequently cook almost can't tolerate food cooked by others. I suspect this is because people have a small repertoire of food which is largely designed specifically for their palette. I know that I have a very strong preference for the way I cook foods. But I also can't handle certain foods, notably olives, mushrooms, and raw tomatoes. > Further on the food front, people who cook seem to be more hea…

Another N=1. My (horrendously self-destructive) MO is usually to:

1. Fast all day out of laziness: no food in the house, in the middle of something, one more thing, etc. etc.

2. Get incredibly hungry all of the sudden

3. Optionally push through for a couple more hours upon which my hunger subsides somewhat

4. Desperately need food, upon which I order out or walk down the street for something

I end up eating 1-2 meals a day, and while many tell me I'm basically doing an awesome job at intermittent fasting, it doesn't feel that way.

I'm trying to cook more.

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

#625

Post by friendlybus »

heavenlyblue wrote: post #309
friendlybus wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The meaning to the reader who believes this is, that poetry can fool and likely in interesting ways. I don't believe 'poetry is meaningless' as a interpretative structure, though the format has the capacity to convey that. I prefer Tolkein's applicability of art over auteur theory and allegory. A work of Art applies in many different meanings. Allegory and auteur theory exist as a valid interpretation and are too lim…

So why do people tend to shit on fine art of hacker news, but whenever they discuss writers there’s a certain love attached to it? Especially concerning self-help books: aren’t most of these books written for those who simply don’t have enough courage to listen to their own common sense?

It takes a while to understand what fine art is about because it's almost completely removed from education and cultural relevance for most of the populace. Fine art is a great art form and you need to be in a mental space that's open to interpreting it. Movies and games have superseded fine art's ability to excite the self. Paintbrush technology doesn't have many real world applications and does not excite HN. The construction skills that go into fine art and what it means to build a great piece of art is now something you have to seek out, rather than be taught or find in popular culture. Movies and computer games in particular are on the bleeding edge of what we can do. They are more exciting and more able to keep the viewer up to date on the current culture, technology and stories.

There is room for a minor hypocrisy in your average criticism of high concept fine art that seeks to express an idea that pushes the field forward despite it not being a complete, popular or useful product. Programmers are doing the same all the time in hobby projects and sometimes they blow up to a massive scale, the same in fine art.

Self help books hit multiple marks, it depends how broadly you see common sense. They help keep a very self-focused individual up to date with the culture and provide extra insight into common problems people can have. They can be used by the reader to explore a thought that is related to what is being read. They can be used as a reference point in a relationship. They can be a starting for point for people with psychological issues to begin the climb back up to a healthy state. They provide a window into another person's perspective on the world and that can be entertaining in itself.

This board is highly focused towards a certain set of goals and a certain set of outcomes. There are a bunch of perspectives that get trimmed in the comments, which is inline with the stated objective of this place as a technology incubator. Any derision or negativity to fields that don't have an immediate application in the tech field are going to be given more leniency than other windows into negativity, like flat-earthers, religious comments and lazy criticism of tech from other fields. That's part of what makes HN what it is. Independence in commenting (and content) has become a limited phenomena online.

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

#626

Post by TheCapn »

rewq4321 wrote: post #554
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…

+1 walks and cooking healthy meals. > Build something. Build something that the world actually needs. Something where you're using your unique skills and privilege to help improve the world a bit - help others who are a few rungs below you. Have a plan for how you're going to do the most good you can with the time you have left. Helping others (humans and sentient non-humans) is the best path to long-term happiness i…

A reddit user (which I cannot remember) said it best imo. The way they put it was (loosely quoted) "Create something. It doesn't have to be anything physical, you can create experiences for people".

If woodworking or car repair isn't your jam, volunteer to help the needy. Or if you like the stage join a drama club or comedy club or whatever else you can do to enrich other people's lives.

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

#627

Post by yakshaving_jgt »

baroomba wrote: post #242
BlueTemplar wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the most superficial level: It's easier to talk about snow or numbers in languages that have more words for these concepts than in languages that have less.

English includes a lot more words than most people use regularly. I imagine that's the same in any language. Just expanding one's working vocabulary in one's native language would probably be quite helpful for thinking and expressing oneself more fluently—not that learning another language isn't valuable.

Let’s be real though; so many words in English are completely superfluous.

For example: jentacular.

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

#628

Post by sixstringtheory »

kbrackbill wrote: post #463
andrewzah wrote: post #394

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s like coding but with none of the frustrations. You can’t get stuck midway because you have an incompatible version of carrots. All you need is ingredients and a good repertoire of recipes to draw from.

Huh, I feel the exact opposite- it's like coding with a bunch of extra frustrations like shopping and cleaning, and the possibility of messing up in an irreversible way (burning something, for example).

Software production involves planning, gathering requirements, estimating, testing, refactoring, evaluating acceptance criteria.... not just writing code. Personally, yes, the coding is one of the more fun parts. The others are like cleaning dishes, which I hate to do above all else. But I love to cook (and I love a clean kitchen) so I put up with the rest.

But I hear you on the burning. I've burnt plenty of things in my time. I think any cook worth their salt has. Story time: an executive chef I once worked for had a keychain that looked like a pewter ingot. She said one evening as they were finishing their shift, they thought they could leave a 30 gallon pot over very low heat to make a reduction over night. When they arrived in the morning, the pot had mostly melted and the stove was on fire. Her keychain was part of the melted pot, her reminder to never do that again. Live and learn (and hopefully don't burn the house down)!

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

#629

Post by stronglikedan »

ryugarden wrote: post #64

Learn how to make more friends. Communicate. Learn how to talk with people, how to be adaptive and contextual. Learn about yourself as much as you can, either via introspection or from other people. Learn what your values are, and what makes them satisfied. "You are your own ally, when you make yourself an enemy even though you should trust yourself, you become the victim hit the hardest". Learn agency. Remember that…

> Learn how to make more friends.

I've heard a lot lately about how having fewer, closer friends is better. Just an alternate viewpoint to consider.

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

#630

Post by throwawaypa123 »

yibg wrote: post #612
tnel77 wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!”

I used to eat out almost every meal as well. It wasn't because I didn't know how to cook, and I even like cooking. The economics (monetary and time) just didn't work out for one person. I can't buy in bulk (at least not fresh produce) because there is only one of me, so the cost is about the same as eating out. It also takes me a while to cook, clean etc, which takes more time than just eating out some where or getti…

I bought food to cook for 2 days at a time. Requires 3 visits to grocery store per week. Given your shopping list is small doesn't take that much.
Post reply on HN