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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?

#411

Post by prmph »

dmartinez wrote: post #366
PeterStuer wrote: post #220

Skills are gained through practice. To get good at non-trivial skills requires more than an hour. Knowledge is gained through insights. While a full understanding and implications of an insight can take a lifetime, an insight can be triggered in under an hour. Now which insights are most valuable? That is always going to be personal and relative. But one of the insights that touches all people and is almost universal…

I would argue that an even more insightful view of money is to go one level up to “wealth”. Paul Graham covers it nicely: http://www.paulgraham.com/wealth.html Skip down to the “Money is not wealth” section.

PG's arguments seem cogent enough, until you realize you need to still go up one level, to understand that wealth is power. No, not that wealth gives power, but wealth _is_ power in and of itself.

And power may not be a zero-sum game exactly, but it is close to it

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

#412

Post by cthor »

majortennis wrote: post #357
koolba wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good example why one should understand compound interest. Through in a payment schedule and amortization as well. The bank is giving you $X to buy the house. You’re paying off a piece of it each month (your mortgage payment). Part of that goes to the interest on the loan, the rest goes to principal. The interest each month is based upon on the remaining principal. That means your payment starts off being mo…

Just seems like a massive scam thats become the norm. You're paying off interest on the first month, as if you've already had the money for 20 years. They take liberties from day one.

Just as well, you get to start acting like you own the house from day 1.

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

#413

Post by PeterStuer »

majortennis wrote: post #344
koliber wrote: post #338

Understanding 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.

I have many reservations and am very critical of the financial system. But the concept of interest on loans is not a "scam'.

The interest in it's simplest form is just a value appreciation of the time value of money [1]. Would you rather have $100 today, or $100 next month? How about $100 today vs $102 next month? Still rather in the today camp? How about $105 next month? That is the interest. It is the value derivative of having the money 'now' vs having the money 'later'.

Where things can get scammy is in the complex type of credit products on offer (tying in all sorts of opaque references to things presented as neutral which are far from), and how things are communicated to the borrower.

Tip: If you are considering a loan, always ask for a full repayment plan showing you which payments are due each month, and the resulting reduction in the amount due (your payment first covers the interest accrued in that month, and only after that covers principal reduction). If there are variables in the loans formula, ask for simulations that cover the most likely evolution scenario, as well as the extremes. Every financial institution has such a payment plan calculator. Long ago I have written one which afaik is still in use today in a non-trivial financial services company.

[1] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/t/timevalueofmoney.asp

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

#414

Post by jackbarclay »

oeuviz wrote: post #391
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…

So let us proceed to the real challenge: christmas lights. How can you avoid the guaranteed swearing the following year?

Wrap them around a piece of scrap cardboard.

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

#415

Post by _emacsomancer_ »

ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #243
Symbiote wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half of Cyrillic is learned by the average HN reader if you tell them to think Greek rather than Latin. "P" is an "r" sound (rho), "П" is a "p" (pi), etc.

I always wondered why in English the constant and the letter π pronounced as /paɪ/ when the Greek letter is obviously /pi/. It really grinds my gears, there's no pie in π! Does Enlgish routinely localize foreign alphabet names? If so, it's bad practice. I believe no one in the world learns English alphabet pronouncing it arbitrary, and not as /ˈeɪ/ /ˈbiː/ /ˈsiː/.

It's a result of the Great English Vowel Shift which affected long vowels, and has affected pronunciation of Roman/English letter names (amongst other things) as well (think about the oddness of the name of the letter A in English, for instance) .

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

#416

Post by cko »

ryanschneider wrote: post #402
koliber wrote: post #338

Understanding 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…

I think a seriously overlooked application of this principle is in nutrition and dieting. Over- or under- eating by a small percentage of your required intake might not have a discernible effect immediately but really adds up over time, both for weight loss and gain.

You’re talking addition and subtraction, compounding deals with multiplication.

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

#417

Post by Fnoord »

I'm not exactly sure how to word it, but my suggestion is privacy related: the implications of publicly sharing information. Why? Because these days, once the cat is out of the bag, oh boy, is it out. I believe this is important for young and old.

Young, because statistically they still have a big life ahead, and realizing this will save them harm, and potentially make them more private about sensitive subjects. I'll hold my breath when my daughter gets in her teenage years. I doubt they'll teach her this at school (it absolutely should be taught though).

Elder, because society has changed so much, and once you're older it is more difficult to keep up (and part of you doesn't want to anymore). Getting on the bandwagon is difficult, and once they do, this part should be an integral part of say "how to use the Internet" (or "how to use your first smartphone"). It could also lead to higher participation of those who are afraid of new technology, thereby leading to more inclusion.

The lesson could have some good examples, could be a workshop, or an open dialogue. Perhaps even a game.

A more advanced lesson two could have a more advanced level of how sharing information privately can become public (by government, blackhats, "freindz", broken cryptography, etc).

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

#418

Post by username90 »

sshine wrote: post #173
Eliezer wrote: post #20

If you have even a small amount of math talent, you should be able to grasp the key ideas in Bayes's Rule that quickly iff you read https://arbital.com/p/bayes_rule_guide .

I know Bayes' rule, so I must have read this article.

No, he just said iff you learned it in an hour then you must have read that article. If it took you longer then you didn't necessarily read it.

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

#419

Post by _emacsomancer_ »

petargyurov wrote: post #290
ZoomZoomZoom wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wondered why in English the constant and the letter π pronounced as /paɪ/ when the Greek letter is obviously /pi/. It really grinds my gears, there's no pie in π! Does Enlgish routinely localize foreign alphabet names? If so, it's bad practice. I believe no one in the world learns English alphabet pronouncing it arbitrary, and not as /ˈeɪ/ /ˈbiː/ /ˈsiː/.

> Does Enlgish routinely localize foreign alphabet names? All the time. In terms of pronunciation, the English love adding extra vowels and elongating others when pronouncing foreign words, especially names. A classic example, which even the English are aware of and like to laugh about: "Una cerveza por favor" will turn into "Ooona cervezaa pour favor"

but that's because English lacks pure long mid vowels ('e' and 'o' are diphthongs in English). But has nothing really to do with op's question.

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

#420

Post by DoofusOfDeath »

Fnoord wrote: post #399
ralusek wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The implication being that you just don't communicate between the time you first met and now?

Actually, if you are together, you might not have taken changes into account as they happen gradually. What OP meant is a means of an additional self-reflection. Which happens on top of current communication (or lack thereof). It is also not just that the person you're with changes. You change as well, and you might not be aware of that. I mean, we all age. Society changes, too. For example, we're all running around…

The self-reflection part hadn't actually occurred to me, but it makes sense.

When I met my wife, "PDA" meant "public display of affection." I prefer that to my cell phone any day, albeit not with a bunch of radios. Only a HAM operator would be into that kind of thing.

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