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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?

#501

Post by Spooky23 »

snikeris wrote: post #496
learnstats2 wrote: post #410

On the contrary, it has taken me years to unlearn compound interest. When you start with relatively little, compound interest is relatively very unhelpful - it compounds wealth and benefits people who have started with something more than you. Twice as good at nothing is still nothing.

Sure, on an absolute basis, someone who started with more than me will end up with more. But why does that matter to me? I only have my current resources to consider. We all have some resources at our disposal. Understanding that slowly growing them over time can really add up is helpful regardless of where you start. In fact, I'd argue that knowledge of compounding is more helpful for those with little. Wealthy peop…

Habits are hard to break, it’s important to seed good ones.

Saving that $300 puts you in a better place than someone who squanders all of their cash. When I was starting out at work, nothing irritated me more than people bitching about how underpaid and poor they were, who somehow found the cash to burn up their earnings in cigarettes and to be out drinking all weekend.

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

#502

Post by jumbopapa »

learnstats2 wrote: post #410

On the contrary, it has taken me years to unlearn compound interest. When you start with relatively little, compound interest is relatively very unhelpful - it compounds wealth and benefits people who have started with something more than you. Twice as good at nothing is still nothing.

One of my favorite Charlie Munger speeches seems relevant [1].

> I have a friend who carried a big stack of linen cards about this thick, and when somebody would make a comment that reflected self-pity, he would take out one of the cards, take the top one off the stack and hand it to the person, and the card said, “Your story has touched my heart. Never have I heard of anyone with as many misfortunes as you.

Sure, you might not start with as much as someone else. That doesn't change the effects of compound interest - you can still have have an exponential return.

[1] - https://jamesclear.com/great-speeches/2007-usc-law-school-co...

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

#503

Post by skocznymroczny »

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.

How to call an ambulance, what kind of info to give, how to put people in a safe position, how to determine if they're breathing or not, how to protect yourself when offering first aid to someone else.

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

#504

Post by cecilpl2 »

tzebby49 wrote: post #480
tlight wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 'rule of 72' is a quick and easy rule of thumb to determine how long an investment doubles, and improve how you think about compound interest. For example it takes approx. 10 years to double an investment at 7%, or 7 years at 10%.

We are currently in a world where it is very difficult to find interest rates >2%. I found a tezos staking pool at approximately 5% recently.

The S&P500 with dividends reinvested has averaged a real (post-inflation) return of 7% annually over the last 100 years or so.

It's currently up 24% YTD.

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

#505

Post by gbear605 »

tzebby49 wrote: post #480
tlight wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 'rule of 72' is a quick and easy rule of thumb to determine how long an investment doubles, and improve how you think about compound interest. For example it takes approx. 10 years to double an investment at 7%, or 7 years at 10%.

We are currently in a world where it is very difficult to find interest rates >2%. I found a tezos staking pool at approximately 5% recently.

That’s only if you need almost no risk. The whole US stock market is definitely risky (it could go down fifty percent or more in a year), but it has averaged significantly over 2%, even after inflation, even in the last few years.

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

#506

Post by cecilpl2 »

muzani wrote: post #428
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 anything is powerful. Interest is... really slow these days though. Seems to be around 3% return after inflation. And with all the countries taking really high national debt, who's to say it will get better? The whole compound concept applies very well to startups though. 3% a week adds up.

The S&P500 with dividends reinvested has averaged a real (post-inflation) return of 7% annually over the last 100 years or so.

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

#507

Post by nroets »

smaddox wrote: post #12

Mindfulness meditation. Sitting with your thoughts and emotions, experiencing them, and understanding them, rather than avoiding them or distracting yourself from them can have a dramatic effect on your life. And 10 minutes a day for a week can get you far enough to see some real benefits, like reduced stress and increased awareness of unhelpful thought patterns.

I upvoted, but I found that it's a bit different from what you describe: It's a technique to stop obsessing about the past and the future.

For example, many people are so focused on planning for the future that it's unhealthy. Mindfulness can help to distract their minds for the unhealthy though pattern.

Either way it's good to work through a few different courses and find something that works. For example MBCT.

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

#508

Post by heipei »

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…

Since really grasping compound interest I've noticed it apply across almost all aspects of life, which is what OP is saying. It shouldn't be reduced to the financial aspect which is probably the better-understood aspect of it.

Think about things like your education, your professional skills, your interests and hobbies, your health, your friendship and (professional) social network, hell, even your kids. Whatever little you put into any of these today will compound over time.

If I set some time apart today to better learn a programming language (or a text editor) I will be more productive with it over the next few years. If I develop a healthy exercise and nutrition regimen in my youth, I'll have less trouble maintaining that as I get older and a better starting point. If I try to go out and meet people then I'll have a large network of contacts to draw from if I'm ever looking for something specific in the future. If I've dabbled with a number of different hobbies in my youth then I'll have all these experiences which shape, and ultimately improve the outcomes that I have when tackling a problem today. And lastly kids: If I spend quality time with my kids in their very early formative years (reading, singing, talking) then by the time they enter school they will already have an above-average level of education and that difference will continue to compound for them in their life.

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

#510

Post by psychoslave »

pzumk wrote: post #405
psychoslave wrote: post #299

Meditation. Seriously. Take time to focus on your focus. For me, it's a really hard exercise, and before I really started to practice it daily, I always had this a priori that spending time on "doing nothing" was just a waste of time. I couldn't have been more wrong, of course. I still feel like I have much progress to do, but now I understand how practicing the art of focusing on focus (aka "concentrate on here and…

Meditation isn’t something to learn within an hour, unfortunately. It took me really much time to actually learn how to meditate but now as I know how to do it it’s awesome.

Well, there is two side of it: - of course, meditation is an art that you don't master in the minute (and that most likely can always be further strengthen); - anyone which has a bit of free time can practice it, all it asks is the will to improve its meditation skill to quickly feel practical benefits.
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