How to play poker. It's the advice I'd give my younger self if I could go back in time.
An hour is more than enough to learn the rules and basic strategy.
Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
371–380 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#372Credibility of sources. I learned this in 40 minutes of a medieval history class. It is simply the constant habit of asking: Who is speaking? Why are they speaking? What have they to gain or lose from speaking? What have I to gain or lose from believing/disbelieving what is said? I actually by instinct tend to believe people are mostly speaking in good faith so this is a great corrective for me. Also I have a habit o…
Follow the money. If you can't see a person's motivations (esp. a politician), watch the result of their actions and assume that the outcome was their motivation and tell them that. Practically it doesn't matter whether they intended for that outcome to occur or not, because you still have to bear the consequences. If they predict the undesirable outcome, they should alter their behaviour. If the same behaviour repeatedly maps to the same outcome regardless of who is doing it, judge the person on the outcome. Drunk driving laws work like this.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#373Learn how to ask a question.
Think of all the times you've seen poorly worded questions on Stack Overflow, in support tickets, etc. Think of the power that being able to get answers to your questions has.
Most of us are good at asking questions where we're working within our comfort zones, but struggle when we're on unfamiliar territory (e.g. I'll ask a better question if I have some issue with my code than I would if I were talking to a mechanic about a problem with my car, since I don't know the terminology / worry more about appearing ignorant in the latter scenario). However, by taking time to consider what's useful to the mechanic & what I can report as fact vs my opinion, I can ask a cleaner question.
Related, it's also good to learn how to think about things as a collection of dependencies, and how to debug/analyse issues by testing different parts of that dependency graph to isolate variables and narrow down where in that graph an issue must exist. This both helps to ask cleaner questions, provide more background information, and often to resolve issues for yourself.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#374How 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…
Cooking is great but you cannot learn it in an hour.
Cooking is a skill one can develop their entire life, like most skills. But in my opinion it's perfectly achievable to go from zero to one or even a few basic meals in an hour. Even more so if you have a slow cooker and follow a recipe.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#375How 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…
Related: Some great tips and ways to think about cooking as you would other skills: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/25770528. Examples of some good tips from there...
When using a new ingredient, try it in something you're already familiar with, so you can isolate that ingredient, rather than introducing it in a completely new recipe where you can't easily tell what impact that ingredient has vs others in the recipe.
Think about how to setup your kitchen - is it better to have all your spice containers in a group with one another, where they all look similar, or to put them alongside the items you use them with (tumeric with your basmati rice, nutmeg with your pestle & mortar, etc) so that it's easier to find everything you need for a recipe.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#376Learn how to ask a question. Think of all the times you've seen poorly worded questions on Stack Overflow, in support tickets, etc. Think of the power that being able to get answers to your questions has. Most of us are good at asking questions where we're working within our comfort zones, but struggle when we're on unfamiliar territory (e.g. I'll ask a better question if I have some issue with my code than I would i…
Start answering questions. You'll automatically learn how to ask questions.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#377Regular expressions fall into this category. While they might take longer to master, you should know the basics after an hour. I've been surprised at how often people convert long lists line-by-line. You can sometimes take what was a multiple-hour task and complete it with a handful of cryptic characters.
I found this site fantastic for improving my RegEx skills - https://regexcrossword.com/. Most people find solving puzzles more fun than reading text books, and the hands-on experience / forcing you to think rather than just read, can really help things stick in your memory.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#378Understanding 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…
There is this nice book called "The Slight Edge" which builds on this whole idea in general and how it is applicable at every facet of life. It is really an insightful book and atleast you will slightly change about how you think about stuffs.
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#379I think the most valuable thing you can learn depends on what you already know.
If person A knows differential equations but not regressions or Python, and person B knows Python but not the other two and Person C knows regressions but not the other two then the most valuable thing they can learn in an hour will be different.
It might also depend on their goals (does person B want to learn data science of websites)
Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?
#380Earlier quoted context omitted.
While the short video series is indeed also criticizing the traditional econo 101 money account (I'll leave it to the discretion of the viewer whether that critique is deserved or not), it does also address and explain the traditional views in a concise and accesible way in under an hour.
I agree they explain basic concepts in an easy and accessible way, but there are a lot of missing pieces intentionally omitted. I don't know how many times refers 'creation of money by banks', but it was the essential point for sure, and totally wrong one. Rest of the video all depends on this.
Nobody disputes banks create the majority of the money. The dispute is on whether that amount is bounded (by some multiplier on Central Bank created money) or de-facto unbounded by a multiplier cooperatively controlled by the collective bankers, and probably even more specifically whether the latter has been impacted at all by the Basel accords.