Ask HN: What Skills to Acquire in 2020? • Hacker News Board

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

#721

Post by stakkur » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 2:00 AM UTC

cactus2093 wrote: post #634

stakkur wrote: post #491

Marcus Aurelius' Stoic idea of winning the morning. This means doing your best to make the most of the first part of the day: arise early and jump into doing the most important tasks of the day. Practice good habits. Then, as the day expands and becomes less in your control, you've 'won' the morning. I use 'win the morning!' almost as a mantra, and just that single, simple idea been life-changing.

I like the sound of this but what does it look like in practice? By "arise early" are we talking like 4 or 5am, or just early enough to get to the office slightly before 9am and be the first one there by a few minutes? By "jump into the most important tasks of the day", would you consider working out to be one of those? It's important in the long run to do consistently, but on a given day it's not usually what I woul…

You get to decide. Wake up early enough to get done what needs doing. Do the important things first. Make the most of the morning hours.

You might like this newsletter/podcast: dailystoic.com

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

#722

Post by xkcd-sucks » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 2:09 AM UTC

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…

But without the hunger pain how does one know it's time to stop working?!

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

#723

Post by DrNuke » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 2:12 AM UTC

At professional level, liberal arts intros to be able to combine technical proficiency with historical savviness and social awareness; at personal level and if relevant: drop stinginess, the most alienating attitude when dealing with acquaintances and friends in public.

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

#724

Post by asiachick » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 2:35 AM UTC

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!”

I tried to save money once by making lunch and bringing it to work. My SO at the time who was much more frugal than me pointed out that eating lunch out (socializing) was much more important to them than the savings which over the course of a month was not that much, especially if you factor in the cost of time and that there were way more effective ways of saving money than giving up socializing time.

It was also boring (for me) in that in order to save time and money I'd end up having to make a larger portion of one thing and then eat the same thing all week.

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

#725

Post by komali2 » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 2:38 AM UTC

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.

Lol read a crowd. If I was in a group of seventy year old white people I probably would adopt a different vernacular.

> As such I refuse to believe any of your recommendations come from personally successful experiences.

K, well, I'm not gonna work hard to prove anything lmao. Sounds like you just don't hang with a massively diverse group of people.

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

#726

Post by komali2 » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 2:39 AM UTC

NortySpock wrote: post #598

cmdshiftf4 wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I can and have. A smile and a genuine question can go a long way.

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

#727

Post by dnautics » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 2:45 AM UTC

asiachick wrote: post #724

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 tried to save money once by making lunch and bringing it to work. My SO at the time who was much more frugal than me pointed out that eating lunch out (socializing) was much more important to them than the savings which over the course of a month was not that much, especially if you factor in the cost of time and that there were way more effective ways of saving money than giving up socializing time. It was also bo…

In many cities in the us eating out is as cheap as cooking. I'm not 100% certain but someone told me it's because you have to consider economies of scale for an eatery and real estate prices and commodity level revenue streams for the supermarket.

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

#728

Post by brianna_dickey » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 2:47 AM UTC

jmeyer2k wrote: post #461

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…

The nightly walk part is really life-changing. We need time to process what happens in the day and a walk is a great way to do that.

Einstein walked on the beach when he needed to work out complex problems. Steve Jobs preferred to conduct meetings while walking. Tchaikovsky took a walk every morning, before sitting down to work on his music. Charles Darwin walked twice a day to process ideas... turns out that walking boosts cognition and creative thinking.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/how-think-about-exer...

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

#729

Post by ianai » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 2:51 AM UTC

yibg wrote: post #708

ianai wrote: post #700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real thing would be to have a freezer. Cook enough for now and freeze a cache for later. Do this quick enough and you’ll be able to stock up multiple recipes in the freezer with omit needing to cook once a week (for me, preferably). My trouble is my apartment won’t allow a freezer.

Not everything is freezer friendly though. Many seafood tastes pretty bad after being frozen and reheated. Ditto for anything that is supposed to be crispy / crunchy etc or any texture that’s not soft.

Somethings like fried foods heat up ok to great in the oven instead of microwave.

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

#730

Post by shpongled » Wed, Feb 05, 2020, 2:55 AM UTC

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…

Re: cooking -

What are you guys eating if you're not already cooking/eating leftovers 4+ nights a week? This is absolutely mind boggling to me... I eat out maybe 1-3 times per month, I don't think I would even want to go out more than that.

Are people actually eating out 3 or more times a week? I'm convinced that you aren't actually saving that much time vs cooking.