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Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

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Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#812
Learn how to juggle 3 balls.

Not only is this a lot of fun, it will also train your reflexes. It's like having a hidden superpower. The next time you are about to drop something, you'll be amazed how quickly you'll be able to reach and catch (don't try this with sharp objects, obviously).

Lots of resources available on how to start. Here's one: https://youtu.be/x2_j6kMg1co

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#815
Understand what "cost" means to an economist.

To understand cost in economics you'll learn topics like externalities (positive and negative) as well as internalities and their meaning. You'll dive into concepts like opportunity cost as well as fixed vs sunk costs.

Once you get at truly what cost means to an economist you will be so much better informed in making business and personal decisions. In my line of work (software development) so many products and daily decisions hit the sunk cost fallacy of wanting to hang onto projects we are in love with. Other ideas like negative externalities really are the underpinning of understanding why climate change is out of control.

Cost is always oversimplified. Spending some time to understand it deeply and learn the concepts and common language is incredibly valuable.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#816
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always try to learn how to say, "I'm sorry, I don't speak X" in language X. When I was in Japan I got an unbelievable amount of leverage out of being able to say, "Sumi masen, Nihon-go hanasei masen" which, of course, means "I don't speak Japanese" in Japanese. The local's faces would light up and often they would respond in Japanese despite the fact that I had just told them that I don't speak Japanese.

Please don’t learn “I don’t speak X”, this is useless and it kills the interaction. Instead, learn a movie quote. This will get people to joke with you and will start off a discussion, “Where did you learn that” and all. — “Pas de palais ? Pas de palais” - see here for example: https://youtu.be/ghiMU3seRVM - “Je m’appelle Juste Leblanc” — or even asking for a local celebrity is more fun.

I think people have varying opinions on this. Many of us don't really want to launch people into a phony conversation -- you convince the other person that you understand the language, then they talk for a while, and then they realize that you didn't understand anything they just said. Now your newfound friend thinks you like wasting their time.

This happens all the time in other contexts. "Have you seen movie X?" "mm yeah" "what did you think about the part where " "oh you know I didn't actually see the movie I just didn't want to say no". The reason people do this is because they hate saying no, and 50% of the time having seen the movie / heard the song / know the celebrity / is not actually relevant to the anecdote. But when it is, you sure look like an idiot.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#817

How to cook for yourself, really, really good food. I no longer crave restaurant food, and all of the really important things I learned about cooking take just the time to read it, hear about it and then try it. All without any special hardware. A few examples: 1. Cooking jasmine rice: rinse it first, 1 c. water to 1 c. rice ratio. Bring to boil, turn down heat to lowest setting. Leave lid /the entire time/. Fluff th…

Jasmine rice hack - put whatever amount of rice you want in the pot, level it off, place your index finger so it's barely touching the top of the rice and fill with water up to your first knuckle (the first crease on your finger, palm side).

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#818

How to cook for yourself, really, really good food. I no longer crave restaurant food, and all of the really important things I learned about cooking take just the time to read it, hear about it and then try it. All without any special hardware. A few examples: 1. Cooking jasmine rice: rinse it first, 1 c. water to 1 c. rice ratio. Bring to boil, turn down heat to lowest setting. Leave lid /the entire time/. Fluff th…

> Leave lid /the entire time/.

Leave lid what the entire time? On? Off? Untouched? Steamed-up? Half-on? Cracked? Ajar? Weighed-down?

I'm assuming "on", since I have cooked food before, but then how is there 12-15 min of cooking, 25% variation, if you're emphasizing "the entire time"? If you can't look at it or touch it until after it's done, and you can't tell when it's done by the time because the time varies, then when is done?

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#819

How to cook for yourself, really, really good food. I no longer crave restaurant food, and all of the really important things I learned about cooking take just the time to read it, hear about it and then try it. All without any special hardware. A few examples: 1. Cooking jasmine rice: rinse it first, 1 c. water to 1 c. rice ratio. Bring to boil, turn down heat to lowest setting. Leave lid /the entire time/. Fluff th…

to add on to that... learn how to cut correctly where the blade rests on your curved knuckles. it pays dividends on your cooking making the prep work go very fast.
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