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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?

#861

Post by marnett »

Pandabob wrote: post #838
52-6F-62 wrote: post #769

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Binging with Babish has a great series on basic dishes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBGoJUxxRqU He covers the American omelette which is my go-to. Usually with spinach, red bell pepper, red onion and sometimes mushroom filling. Often with some old cheddar and they are monstrously simple to make mediocre and not too difficult to make very well.

I'm a big fan of Babish! I'd also recommend the Bon Appetit Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/BonAppetitDotCom and Chef John from Food Wishes https://www.youtube.com/user/foodwishes

food wishes is single handedly the most valuable cooking resource I have ever come across. cannot recommend enough.

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

#862

Post by RobertRoberts »

omar12 wrote: post #825
RobertRoberts wrote: post #176

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…

These are good tips, thank you! For rice, the rice:water ratio I follow is 1:1.25. I add a teaspoon of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. For eggs, I'm going to try running the egg under warm water. One thing I've observed improvement in quality of eggs when mixing it is the material of the bowl (copper provides best results) and how much air you introduce when mixing the eggs. Try making a meringue, it's fascinati…

I have tried lots of ratios rice/water, and I think the brand/type of rice, stove and pot properties all greatly affect the results. Not to mention the subject "goal" for the results we all like. (maybe you like your rice wetter/stickier than I do?)

Do you add the oil, salt and pepper before cooking?

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

#863

Post by anotherevan »

erikcw wrote: post #691
unlinked_dll wrote: post #28

How to properly wrap cables. A/V and cable techs are super anal about this and it takes just a few minutes to learn, it will change your life. Cables should never be coiled in the same direction. It creates kinks when unwound and make it extremely likely for knots to form (ever leave your headphones in your pocket?). If a cable isn't being installed permanently it should be "wrapped" using a technique called "over-un…

I’m also a fan of the chain sinnet[0] (or daisy chain) - works really well for storage, including semi rough handling such as tossing in the trunk... Here is another guide [1]. Note that for longer lines, it is helpful to first fold the line in half to shorten. Also works great for extension cords since both the male/female end are handily together [2]. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chain_sinnet [1] https://www…

For multi-cored cables such as extension leads I would worry about the wear on the cable of all those smallish loops.

For a bit of rope it would be fine, though.

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

#864

Post by anotherevan »

bArray wrote: post #104

Do nothing. Seriously. Allow yourself to become bored and you'll find your brain has suddenly got time to work on all the problems you mentally shelved. There's a good reason why a good number of ideas happen in the shower.

Going to church as a kid and young adult taught me how to sit and do nothing for an hour or so every Sunday morning.

I distinctly remember one time I was sitting there, mind aimlessly wandering when the solution to a bug I was having in my code on Friday popped into my head. I wanted to go straight into work to fix it!

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

#865

Post by mrpoptart »

allworknoplay wrote: post #624
bArray wrote: post #104

Do nothing. Seriously. Allow yourself to become bored and you'll find your brain has suddenly got time to work on all the problems you mentally shelved. There's a good reason why a good number of ideas happen in the shower.

Great answer. I'm frequently crushed by the weight of day-to-day things, and only recently identified that it's when I intentionally separate myself from them to the point where I'm literally not sure what to do with myself that I get find inspiration and energy to go and do the really interesting, valuable things.

name checks out.

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

#866

Post by RobertRoberts »

pjmorris wrote: post #859
WillDaSilva wrote: post #546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mentioned cooking jasmine rice using a 1:1 ratio of water to rice, but rice generally can't be cooked using a linear ratio like this. As you increase the amount of rice being cooked, and change the size/shape of the cooking vessel, more of the water will be lost as steam. It's easiest to use a rice cooker, which will allow you more flexibility with regards to how much water/rice you used, but if you don't have a…

The rice cooker is easiest, but there's another scheme: use an abundance of water and cook the rice like spaghetti. I learned the technique from a Lynne Rossetto Kasper cookbook, and it's never failed me.

I had never heard of cooking rice like pasta before. (going to try it next time I cook rice, thanks!) I think this is a good example of a small piece of knowledge that can possibly have a larger effect.

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

#867

Post by monkeycantype »

pvinis wrote: post #90
rootsudo wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hiragana and Katakana.

I don't think any of these are something you can learn and remember in one hour. It's a good start though.

I think you can learn to recognise the base hirigana characters with 95% accuracy in an hour. I had expected it to be much more difficult. I used the app ‘pastel’ I think it will take vastly more time than that to have the fluid instant recognition I have with Latin characters

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

#868

Post by ghaff »

ken wrote: post #394
harrisonjackson wrote: post #16

CPR/Choking/First Aid course is probably close to an hour. How to change your own oil - probably lots of other money-saving home and auto DIY things... Speed reading and memory tricks can be a multiplier on learning other skills. How to use automation tools like Zapier and IFTTT - again, a force multiplier. You might be interested in this book https://www.amazon.com/First-20-Hours-Learn-Anything/dp/1591... - the auth…

> CPR/Choking/First Aid course is probably close to an hour. What can you teach in only an hour? I work with some people who teach basic first aid, and the shortest course any of them does is 4.5 hours.

A broad first aid course will take more than an hour. (The Wilderness First aid courses I've taken are a full weekend.)

However, you can cover a lot of the basic things you're likely to encounter in civilization pretty quickly (if very cursorily). Probably most important is the basic approach to take, things to watch for, blood safety, etc. It's not going to be a real first aid course but a quick familiarization of things to watch for and actions to take. (Cleaning wounds, etc.)

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

#869

Post by ghaff »

eschneider wrote: post #722
harrisonjackson wrote: post #16

CPR/Choking/First Aid course is probably close to an hour. How to change your own oil - probably lots of other money-saving home and auto DIY things... Speed reading and memory tricks can be a multiplier on learning other skills. How to use automation tools like Zapier and IFTTT - again, a force multiplier. You might be interested in this book https://www.amazon.com/First-20-Hours-Learn-Anything/dp/1591... - the auth…

Without a doubt, CPR.

I'm not so sure. You're probably a lot more likely to actually save someone's life with an abdominal thrust than you are with CPR--outside of some specific scenarios like drowning.

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

#870

Post by fractalf »

dougweltman wrote: post #440

Learn how to use Google Search effectively. It's a "language" we use every day. Mastering its few features can make any search so much more effective and precise: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433

Or even better, use duckduckgo!
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