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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?

#671

Post by 8ytecoder »

pawelk wrote: post #666
8ytecoder wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 on all of the above. I just want to add one thing - Learn an instrument. Just for fun. You don't have to play in an orchestra or a band. I came to this thread expecting it to be about tech skills, glad to see this comment at the top. Overall, I'm more grounded and happier for it (and less depressed).

I am a hobby (unplugged) woodworker with a quite large collection of vintage tools... it all started because I needed some basic temporary furniture for the new house and w were broke enough to not be able to afford it - the kitchen I built is still around after 7 years and I have developed a lot in this area. I use manual cameras, or digital cameras in manual mode / with manual lenses because that's how I learned ph…

I'm learning it with an electric guitar plugged into my xbox using the game/app Rocksmith. It's not the recommended approach for beginners. But I'm having so much fun with it that I'm going to see how far I can go before I signup for classes. That and JustinGuitar is how I'm approaching it. The whole investment was under $300 (not including the xbox). I'm assuming that music is going to take a while before I feel I have anything resembling mastery of it. My goal is different - I just want to blow off steam playing music instead of a video game or watching TV. It's a very modest goal at this point. YMMV depending on what you're trying to achieve.

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

#672

Post by patwalls »

thedayisntgray wrote: post #8

Marketing is a big one for me. Building a great product means nothing if you can’t reach your target audience. And I don’t mean learning how to used Facebook or Google to run ads, I mean the theory behind marketing. I would like to read more books similar to the 22 immutable laws of marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout

You might like marketingexamples.com

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

#673

Post by meowface »

the_gastropod wrote: post #386
astura wrote: post #288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have friends who eat out every single meal of every single day. I have friends who do too but it's not because they don't know how to cook, it's because they don't like to and don't wanna bother and can afford the luxury of having someone else to do it for them.

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…

Or freeing up time spent on minor inconveniences (buying ingredients, cooking, cleaning) gives me more opportunity to deal with more major inconveniences and challenges, or anything else I want to do.

I used to cook but stopped years ago. I like having a huge variety of food options on-demand. I like being able to order delivery, do something fun and/or productive while waiting for the food, and then continue as soon as I finish eating. Or I can walk to a restaurant and get some exercise in before and after eating.

I have a small kitchen and a short attention span. I could stockpile it with dozens of fresh ingredients every day and cook from 7 different cuisines every day of the week, but it's much easier if I don't have to do that. Time is the most valuable resource in the universe, and I don't get much enjoyment from cooking, so having the privilege to eat out for every meal has made me a lot happier on average.

I don't buy the argument that removing those sorts of obstacles and inconveniences makes you depressed. Maybe in cases where physical activity is greatly reduced, but that's just a correlation and not a given. If you're self-sustaining and not mooching off of others, I think you should do whatever makes you happy, and if that includes never cooking, cleaning, or driving again, odds are you'll be happier and better-off for it. If you enjoy cooking, go for it, but if you don't and don't have to, why do something that doesn't make you happy and erases a not-insignificant proportion of your entire existence? Life has more than enough hardships and inconveniences to throw at you in other ways.

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

#674

Post by anyfactor »

mesaframe wrote: post #270
kerkeslager wrote: post #9

Starting conversations with strangers. Squat and deadlift. Eating healthier. Doing something kind for someone else every day. Honesty. Listening to people you disagree with. Driving safer (this is the most dangerous thing we do on a regular basis). Meditation.

Starting conversations with strangers. But how? I have anxiety and it's really difficult to talk to strangers. Edit:I would also like to mention. I talk very less reason being whenever I tell people honestly about my feelings. Later or sooner they use it against me.

What do you talk about? Why even talk unless you have to sale something?

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

#675

Post by smilekzs »

dillonmckay wrote: post #669
Xcelerate wrote: post #662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love cooking and have recently become obsessed with it, but doing it well is extremely time consuming. The best equipment is all meant to be washed by hand (knives, aluminum baking sheets, cast iron and stainless steel skillets, etc.) and cleaning all this easily takes over an hour per meal, never mind the time to actually cook the meal (which, depending on what I’m cooking takes 1-4 hours of active prep time). Als…

What do you think the ‘somewhere inexpensive’ restaurant uses for ingredients and equipment?

A restaurant benefits from the economy of scale --- preparing food for a lot of people amortizes the effort spent on upkeep and $ on equipment. Also there's a team, vs. just yourself when you cook yourself, and specialization increases efficiency too. As for ingredients, well, YMMV; personally I frequent quite a few 'somewhere inexpensive' restaurants that minimally process quality ingredients.

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

#676

Post by meowface »

jyrkesh wrote: post #624
mywittyname wrote: post #568

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

You just described pretty much every day of my life for the past 8 years.

I think there's nothing wrong with this. (Though of course I'm biased.) The intermittent fasting seems to benefit my concentration and energy, even if the fasting happens to be unintentional and due to distraction or laziness. The only externality is if you end up eating a lot right before sleeping, which tends to impact my sleep and digestion. As long as you avoid that and are getting enough calories and nutrition, I don't see the issue.

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

#677

Post by bluntfang »

JamesBarney wrote: post #621
bluntfang wrote: post #516

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sounds link these folks were really pushing their bodies. I don't think these fall in the "get in shape" weight ranges, but I'd be willing to listen to why that's not the case. Id imagine there are a lot more factors than just form that go into your bodies safety when you're lifting that big regularly.

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

#678

Post by terry_y_comb »

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…

Agree. Cooking works out much better when in relationships.

I am surprised BlueApron isn't doing well as they taught me how to cook, what to get, in a relatively simple instructions.

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

#679

Post by cgh »

Floegipoky wrote: post #477
cgh wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution is to use a hex bar, which centres the weight under the hips and removes the health concerns related to poor technique. There is simply no exercise substitute for picking up really heavy things and everyone, particularly women, should do it regularly.

1. Trap bar deadlifts are not actually deadlifts. The defining characteristic of a deadlift is that the load is in front of your center of balance. Trap bar deadlifts are actually squats, because the load is centered on your center of balance. It's a fine exercise, I'm just trying to point out that it's far different from a standard deadlift than the naive impression many people form based on their appearance. I thin…

Not a squat and not interchangeable, that is true. They are their own thing and provide comparable benefits for non-powerlifters. Re safety, you are being pedantic. They are much safer than deadlifts.

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

#680

Post by amp108 »

whatshisface wrote: post #188
billfruit wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Learn to enjoy poetry. There is so much of great poetry in English, but I think it is not being read and appreciated enough. It is a kind of mental challenge like doing a puzzle, to unlock the full vivid meaning. Also reading fiction, though how exactly it helps one is beyond me, but it offers glimpses into other worlds. For example I read recently 'The French Lieutenant's Woman', I doubt its richness of detail, and…

Is there any evidence that poems have meaning? I could easily imagine a world where poets fool themselves into thinking the words they wrote contained their intentions, while readers fooled themselves into thinking they had uncovered those intentions.

Poetry has no more and no less meaning than language itself. The popular HN definition of a "hacker" is someone who digs deep into a system, understanding it and pushing its capabilities beyond what is commonly understood. Poets hack language. Sometimes the product is buggy, but sometimes it's an elegant hack.
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