Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
341–350 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#342History is a pretty much endless well in this regard. Pick some era or focus, and read the major wikipedia articles on it. For example the Franco-Prussian War or the reign of Augustus or the early history of vaccinations.
In 60 minutes, you can pretty much become more educated on about a specific historical event than 95% of people you'll meet.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#343Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#344Understanding compound interest thoroughly. Compound interest is probably the most powerful "force" governing out lives. It is crucial when borrowing money, especially for longer terms. It is crucial when saving and investing. It is crucial in self-development, where a tiny 5% improvement in some area of your life per year can mean that you are twice as good at something in 15 years. It is important when evaluating a…
compound interest is where the bank say's its 3.5% interest but if you do the math you're paying 180% for a house. I don't have any idea how that became acceptable/the norm.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#345I'd say basic CPR, you never know
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#346How, and why, to invest in a simple portfolio of index funds. Split between equity and fixed income based on your risk tolerance, and diversify equities globally. This will give you a low-cost, set-and-forget investment portfolio that you can add to over time without ever having to worry about what you should buy or what the market might do. Just add to it regularly over time, and end up with solid retirement savings…
I think the market needs better, easier portfolio tools for the lay person. Tools that can help coach the user as well
Does it get much easier than target date retirement funds? Vanguard’s TDF basically have no fee at sub 0.1% expense ratios.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#347implementing min max in every language you know. it surprisingly encourages you to both use a ton of language features as well as allowing you to see patterns across all programming languages. this is probably more fun if you build tic tac toe on top of each implementation
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#348The value in doing nothing, just observing with a clear and patient mind.
I believe that has been lost and it's also very important.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#349Understanding compound interest thoroughly. Compound interest is probably the most powerful "force" governing out lives. It is crucial when borrowing money, especially for longer terms. It is crucial when saving and investing. It is crucial in self-development, where a tiny 5% improvement in some area of your life per year can mean that you are twice as good at something in 15 years. It is important when evaluating a…
compound interest is where the bank say's its 3.5% interest but if you do the math you're paying 180% for a house. I don't have any idea how that became acceptable/the norm.
You need to adjust for inflation.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#350I'm convinced the gist of any given unix command can be nailed in an hour.