Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#261

Post by mturmon » Wed, May 06, 2020, 10:35 PM UTC

abetusk wrote: post #156

dilippkumar wrote: post #58

The Central Limit Theorem. It's hard to explain the precise way in which an understanding of the central limit theorem has changed my life. However, knowing how any random distribution sums up to a Gaussian has subtly changed how I perceive and comprehend the world around me. Over time, this has added to a significant number of choices and decisions that I've subconsciously made, informed only by rough estimates of a…

Just a word of warning, the central limit theorem is a bit misleading. Assuming the sum independent and identically distributed random variables converges to a distribution, that distribution is not necessarily the Gaussian, but a larger family called the Levy-Stable distributions [1]. Levy-Stable distributions are "heavy-tailed" in that far away from zero they behave like (inverse) power laws. This is probably why y…

On the other hand, for many systems the energy is related (in some way) to the square of the value. For example, voltages, currents, photon counts, etc. So if energy is finite, then you get CLT behavior.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#262

Post by quezzle » Wed, May 06, 2020, 10:35 PM UTC

NewEntryHN wrote: post #162

ncfausti wrote: post #146

The Growth Mindset. To briefly sum up the findings: Individuals who believe their talents can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset. They tend to achieve more than those with a more fixed mindset (those who believe their talents are innate gifts). This is because they worry less about looking smart and they put more energy into learning. Along with this goes em…

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. But if talent starts working hard, it's game over.

This hits the mark.

Anyone can be moderately good at most things if they work and try hard.

But to be truly exceptional it often requires built in talent.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#263

Post by reubenswartz » Wed, May 06, 2020, 10:37 PM UTC

We don't get a practice life. There's no "play again." Make the most of it.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#264

Post by imakwana » Wed, May 06, 2020, 10:37 PM UTC

Stumbling upon "Latticework of Mental Models" concept of Charlie Munger [1] really helped me over the years to develop mental clarity, ignore noise and focus on fundamentals in many aspects of life.

[1] https://fs.blog/intellectual-giants/charlie-munger/

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#265

Post by kladskull666 » Wed, May 06, 2020, 10:39 PM UTC

Toilet paper.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#266

Post by TeaVMFan » Wed, May 06, 2020, 10:40 PM UTC

"Write Once, Run Anywhere"

* The concept is powerful, and at the time Java popularized it, Java was the only practical system where it worked. C, C++ and scripting at the time were heavily environment dependent, with little hope of non-trivial code running unmodified elsewhere.

* The effort Sun put behind it (compatibility testing, enforcement, massive testing suite using a wide range of hardware and operating systems) made it actually work.

* It continues today in frameworks like TeaVM (http://teavm.org) that let Java and other JVM languages target the browser.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#267

Post by searchableguy » Wed, May 06, 2020, 10:42 PM UTC

Selfishness is a strong motivator and one that remains consistently in your life.

You will change your country, city, neighbours, partner, community, and company once you are no longer satisfied with them.

The motivation to improve those is temporary. The motivation to improve your life and you remains till the day you die. The want to live healthier, happier, and better.

The distinction is important because motivation resulting from my selfishness is responsible for things I do for others. That means, I am only improving myself by bettering the environment I live in and everything that exists in it but my end goal still remains a better me.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#268

Post by lhuser123 » Wed, May 06, 2020, 10:45 PM UTC

gridlockd wrote: post #248

darkerside wrote: post #192

This might be super basic, but... assume positive intent. Your parent is not your enemy. Your teacher is not your enemy. Your boss is not your enemy. The other team at work is not your enemy. The corporation is not your enemy. The other political party is not your enemy. Or, more accurately, YOU are not THEIR enemy. At best, you're an NPC in their game. Many of them probably even want to help you, because you are ano…

I think that's bad advice. Enemy is too strong of a word, but there are conflicts of interest between you and your teacher, your boss, your team members and even your parents. What's best for you is not necessarily what is best for them. They may help you to achieve what's best for both of you, but not what's best for you alone. Those are often not the same things. Assume people are acting in their best interest, not…

> Assume people are acting in their best interest, not yours.

This. And even people that actually cares about you, could be wrong due to biases, beliefs, etc.

I guess it depends a lot on the type of environment you were raised.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#269

Post by nicoburns » Wed, May 06, 2020, 10:45 PM UTC

aaron_seattle wrote: post #79

peterangular wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...And with abuse patterns a lot of us had that ingrained at a super young age as a control lever our parents/guardians installed. I think a hard part of this is that people commonly abuse these mechanisms for control in social structures. I grew up with it, I experienced it in school, I've experienced it in relationships, and I've experienced it professionally. In so many ways it's human social nature to subvert eac…

That sounds really rough man, I'm sorry to hear that. I too have struggled with being on the receiving end of other people's power trips. My curiosity on "what's really happening here, at the level of the brain" lead to some interesting reads. Chimpanzee behavior: when a higher ranked member is smacking and harassing a lower ranked one -- the higher ranked one is literally experiencing a rise in serotonin. Their domi…

I'd try not to read too much into chimpanzee behaviour. While they're genetically the most similar to humans, they have quite different behavioural patterns. IMO Orangutans are much more similar to humans behaviourally.

Re: Ask HN: Name one idea that changed your life

#270

Post by brian_cloutier » Wed, May 06, 2020, 10:46 PM UTC

ghayes wrote: post #233

aazaa wrote: post #193

Favor interrogative-led questions over leading questions. A leading question attempts to get the listener to agree or disagree with a premise you feed to them. An interrogative-led question often begins with the words: who; where; what; when; why. Imagine the responses to these two questions: - "Did you like the movie?" (Leading) - "What did you think about the movie?" (Interrogative-led) How do each of these questio…

I also find a similar technique useful when searching online. If you search "do Aliens exist?" or "does teflon cause cancer" you're guaranteed to find articles that match the bias of your question. Instead, search "extraterrestrial life" or "teflon health effects" or similar terms that are likely to match articles that both agree and disagree with the premise in question. You will end up significantly more informed f…

The most significant time that I made this mistake was during the attempted coup in Turkey.

I was living close to Istiklal Street, and I was woken up by a very loud boom. I was pretty sure it was a sonic boom but wanted to make sure. The smart thing would have been to search for "Explosion Istiklal" or maybe even "Boom Istiklal". Instead, I searched for "Bomb Istiklal", and of course I found the 7 people who had leapt to conclusions.

It took me a while to realize I also needed to search for other alternatives, that was a good lesson in the availability bias.