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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?

#751

Post by abecedarius »

komali2 wrote: post #741
kragen wrote: post #707

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the progression for push-ups? I was doing 1½ sets of ten wide push-ups on Friday (to failure, thus the ½) and today thought maybe I'd try a one-arm set. Couldn't do a single one, even on knees. Then I tried a set of narrow push-ups with the hands moved a bit footward, and could manage, like, four. On my knees. Is there a good guide to push-up progressions and resistance ratios?

There's a good subreddit on it, a quick google should get you there

I guess you mean bodyweightfitness.

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

#752

Post by kamaal »

themodelplumber wrote: post #735

Professional communication skills are worth a look from time to time. Understanding how to keep your personal fears out of your next message or email, and yet keeping after your concerns with appropriate management of both technology and emotion. Learning how to be assertive without inadvertently raising the stakes. And keeping a project on track without causing a blame-fest. Another one is learning to set boundaries…

Can you recommend a good book to learn this?

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

#753

Post by danenania »

komali2 wrote: post #749
hombre_fatal wrote: post #602

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I drank a lot of the Reddit/HN koolaid that you can't get big/ripped on bodyweight fitness until I moved into a new place with an amazing back patio will full sunlight all day where I felt bad exercising anywhere else. Much less under the fluorescent lighting of my local gym. For a year I've been exercising in my backyard with a podcast in my ears, maybe during a group phonecall for work, while thinking between progr…

Well, I'm curious to hear out your experience, do you think the amount of time you spent bodyweight training was equal to the amount of time someone would need to do resistance training for similar results? This is why I chose resistance training - the gym is on my way to work and I am willing to spare about an hour and a half daily to fitness. My research indicated I'll get better results with that time at the gym l…

In my experience, bodyweight training is actually quite efficient in terms of time spent because you do a lot of compound movements that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. You can definitely get a good full-body workout done in an hour and a half.

It can also be less efficient though in the sense that it can sometimes require a pretty big jump in both strength and technique to go from one progression to the next, so you can get stuck for awhile. With weights you can of course just keep adding a little bit more. But the plus side of this for bodyweight training is that apart from just strength, you also get improvements in muscular coordination, balance, flexibility, and body awareness.

You don't really have to choose though--you can do both! They complement each other quite well.

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

#754

Post by danenania »

kragen wrote: post #707
danenania wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the need to keep adding resistance, though as my sibling commenter says, I think you're understating the potential of pure bodyweight progressions to increase strength. Exercises like one arm push ups, one arm chin ups, hand stand push ups, planches, pistol squats, nordic curls, etc. can be equivalent to seriously heavy weights and there are plenty of options for gradually progressing toward them. Lots o…

What's the progression for push-ups? I was doing 1½ sets of ten wide push-ups on Friday (to failure, thus the ½) and today thought maybe I'd try a one-arm set. Couldn't do a single one, even on knees. Then I tried a set of narrow push-ups with the hands moved a bit footward, and could manage, like, four. On my knees. Is there a good guide to push-up progressions and resistance ratios?

Yeah check out https://reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/ as mentioned. There are lots of good resources there and you can find advice on just about anything by searching within the sub.

One arm push ups are way harder than normal ones. It's not something I've tried working on yet myself, but I think you build up by doing things like archer push ups with the other arm assisting less and less until you don't need it anymore.

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

#755

Post by Enginerrrd »

smileysteve wrote: post #347
geddy wrote: post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny thing about those people is they constantly complain about how expensive everything is, yet they spend frivolous amounts of money on what's probably the highest marked up item: food. Meal prep for a week for ~$75 and you're set. It would cost probably 4 times that (at least, depending on where you eat) to eat out, not to mention you don't know how it was prepared, and it's probably wildly unhealthy compared to…

$75 is even an exaggeration. It might be more bland, but eggs, chicken breasts, some veggies should get you through a week for < $30.

$120/month for food? Sorry, but no. That is the exaggeration.

Maybe if you're scraping the bottom of the barrel in ingredient quality and buying a lot of rice and beans.

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

#756

Post by Enginerrrd »

yibg wrote: post #649
nske wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And lentils with bread -most people look down on them for some reason, unless it's a side of some sort, but I find them just beautiful as proper dinner!

I'd love to cook and eat more lentils. They taste pretty good to me, are cheap and fairly easy to cook. My problem is, they tend (for me at least) produce a lot of undesired gas.

I have found two things improve this: the first is ensuring they are well cooked to the point of full softness. The second is freezing and rethawing seems to eliminate a lot of this issue. I've no idea why, chemically that works, but it does.

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

#757

Post by sangd »

chrissnell wrote: post #637
sangd wrote: post #531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have done all of the above except the classical music. I find spending time to do meditation is more useful. All of the above, I find cooking is an incredible skill that many people underestimate greatly. Here are the things that I do for my cooking for every week or every two weeks. + 30-45 minutes grocery shopping including driving. + 30-60 minutes per day to cook daily dinner and prepare breakfast. + 10-15 minut…

That's awesome! I forgot to mention this in my top-level comment but if you're ever interested in cooking some Tex-Mex, I have a recipe book for you. My grandmother wrote this in the early 1970s and it was regionally famous in the part of Texas where I grew up. She died when I was young and my aunt inherited the ownership of the book. I asked her for permission to make it freely available and she said OK. I had plans…

Those are delicious recipes, I might want to try in the future. Thank you.

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

#758

Post by kragen »

danenania wrote: post #754
kragen wrote: post #707

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the progression for push-ups? I was doing 1½ sets of ten wide push-ups on Friday (to failure, thus the ½) and today thought maybe I'd try a one-arm set. Couldn't do a single one, even on knees. Then I tried a set of narrow push-ups with the hands moved a bit footward, and could manage, like, four. On my knees. Is there a good guide to push-up progressions and resistance ratios?

Yeah check out https://reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/ as mentioned. There are lots of good resources there and you can find advice on just about anything by searching within the sub. One arm push ups are way harder than normal ones. It's not something I've tried working on yet myself, but I think you build up by doing things like archer push ups with the other arm assisting less and less until you don't need it anym…

Thanks! Yeah, I'm not even close to being able to do one. I collapsed onto the floor and laughed at myself.

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

#759

Post by byproxy »

samsolomon wrote: post #699
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…

A few tips I learned from a professional chef that changed everything: — Mise en place (Get everything you need prepped) — Clean as you cook Get a bunch of small glass dishes and get all the ingredients you need measured, chopped and placed into those dishes. This will make combining them effortless when cooking. If you've done prep, you'll have some down time while cooking. As you finish using pans and utensils wash…

Prep is like 90% of the work when it comes to cooking. Putting it all together on some heat for a specific amount of time is the easy part!

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

#760

Post by byproxy »

smilekzs wrote: post #675
dillonmckay wrote: post #669

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yeah, besides chain restaurants (which probably use a bunch of prepackaged, microwaved stuff), most places stock their kitchen with pretty fresh ingredients. Probably from a big restaurant retailer like Sysco or Restaurant Depot, but I doubt it's worse than what you can get at a grocery store.
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