101–110 of 187 posts
My trick for remembering names: When I meet someone new, I try and think of someone else I know with the same name (a friend, famous person, etc.), and picture the two standing next to each-other. With unique and foreign names I try and thing of an object or animal that sounds like that name. Sometimes I've had to get a bit more creative, like associating my Nepalese acquaintance Badu with Fred Flinstone (yabba dabba…
I used to be bad at names, but eventually I figured out if I repeat a name a few times within seconds of learning it, I generally remember it. "Hi Kevin, nice to meet you, I'm Pat. I was going over there to refresh my drink, you need anything Kevin?" It can sound a little weird, but it's made a huge difference for me, and people love it when you remember and use their name. Quit drinking so much soda, and switch to d…
Remember: not everyone needs to lose weight and/or cut their calories.
Saturday is my cheat day where I'm allowed to eat everything I want. I ate a pizza and drank a bottle of soda. The pizza was great, but the soda was way too sweet for me. I literary had to force myself to drink the rest (I don't know why I felt I had to empty it). Today I woke up feeling tired the same way I used to feel before I started eating/drinking better and with a huge pimple in my forehead.
Use a vertical monitor for your code editing. Having twice as many lines of code in front of you at once makes a big difference. Most skeptics haven't really tried it. Stop wasting time obsessing about the best coding setup and the best editor. I've seen very poor developers with incredibly advanced typing shortcuts that they spend hours perfecting. They still write shit code (maybe they do so faster...). I use the s…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
2) Writing letters - on paper, physical letters - is the most underrated professional skill there is. Every bureaucracy in the world is a machine to turn letters into things you want. When possible, hand-deliver the letter while wearing a business suit. (Not joking.) As intriguing as I find this idea, I couldn't help picture it a bit creepy to write and hand deliver(I can do one or the other). Then again, that's prob…
Immigration, taxes, landlord issues (the tpoic was "compelling reasons why, despite being a foreigner, I would be a poor option to steal from"), resumes (+), etc. + I think resumes are for suckers but if you're going to write one you might as well be a sucker in a business suit.
Two here. 1) Make the placebo effect work for you. There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that says that the placebo effect works. Deep down, I know that the placebo effect works, and that simply thinking that I'm getting better makes me better. So, whenever I feel like I'm about to get sick, I tell myself that I can make myself feel better - and I get better. I got this working a few years ago and I haven't had…
> Whenever you get a new program, hit every button Or you could just read the manual...
Look for force multipliers/secret weapons:
* Use an IDE. Yes, this contradicts the first point, but an IDE with intelligent context-based autocomplete (MSVC, IDEA, etc.), inline API references, and an inline debugger.
* Learn how to use a debugger. It's programming from the opposite direction: partition the problem space and drill down.
* Learn how to use a profiler.
* Learn your shell and those weird little commands like seq, find, awk, sed, perl -p -i -e, cut, tr, etc, and bash string manipulation.
* Scripting language!
Non-programming, work related hacks:
* Dress well. You'll be taken a lot more seriously if you have a well-tailored suit coat/sportcoat/etc. Even over jeans and without a tie. Watch what happens when you get on an airplane with a nice sportcoat. Make sure you understand accessories, too. Doc Martens don't go with "business casual," nor do white gym socks.
* Outline what you're writing. Whip up a quick outline then flesh it out. You'll save yourself revisions and write an organized email/document/paper first time through. I can write more in 30-90 minutes than most people can in two days.
* Master your grammar and spelling. Don't screw it up and you won't have to proofread. Learning two or three other languages (at least one romance language) will make this much easier.
* This has been said all over the place on HN, but be expensive. Their perception is your reality.
* Always have a point of view when walking into a discussion. If you need your outcome, keep feeding everyone until they come around to your way of thinking. Eventually you'll overcome everyone else's objections.
* Document presentation style is very powerful. Learn to use LaTeX with custom fonts (this ties nicely into outlining), or even Sweave to include R calculations, print it out on thick stock, and put it in a folder. I swear clay-coated 400dpi NeXTLaser output fom FrameMaker got me a +0.5 on every paper I wrote. Be consistent with this so people recognize your "brand". It makes it very difficult for people to sell your ideas as their own.
* Know a little about a lot. You never know when you'll have a chance to talk about Croatia when you're in the elevator with the CEO.
* Master Google-fu. It's amazing how many people don't know how to search effectively. If you can do it quickly enough, you'll appear to know everything. Email comes in at 10:04, you see it at 10:05, you reply with an answer by 10:10, and you're a wizard.
Home/life hacks:
* You can make whatever you want with wood, metal, acrylic, fabric, drywall with a jigsaw, dremel, table saw, heat gun, welder, cutting torch, sewing machine, etc. It's all hackable and doesn't require a lot of training. Your city probably has a coop with classes, or you can enroll at a community/junior college and get access to all kinds of crazy gear. Or you can tear something apart and see how it's made, then wing it.
* Buy clamps. C-clamps, vise grips, spring clamps, etc.
* Buy a globe and spend time just eyeballing it, spinning it around in your hands. Geography will imprint itself in your head.
* Always have something to read. Use any downtime to read it.
* Keep food stashed in your car, desk, etc. A Luna/Clif/Power Bar will get you through that low blood sugar phase, or more importantly, get your partner through it when they're cranky and they have no idea how close they are to being left in a ditch by the side of the road.
* Put your stuff away and keep your place clean. Hire a housekeeper to do this for extra points.
* Either have someone wash and iron your shirts (a couple bucks a shirt) or find a really good non-iron shirt (Brooks Brothers makes some that work really well). Ironing your own shirts is a waste of your life. Make sure they fit.
* Get exercise, especially cardio. Strength training isn't bad, either, but cardio will make you feel good all day.
* Learn to fight, or at least to defend yourself. Never be afraid of physical intimidation. The pain from just about any fight-related injury will go away in a day or two, and you'll heal not long after. Get that into your head and you'll come across as one of the people bullies should avoid.
* Always be creating something. I have two or three projects in some stage of completion. They can be pointless (a coat for your dog?) but it gives you something to focus on and get tangible progress.
* Compound interest. Friend AND enemy.
* Realize that everyone worthwhile has one or two peccadillos. Don't get hung up on them as long as the rest of the package is excellent.
* Daydream. With a piece of paper and pencil or pen nearby.
* Don't type too much on a frickin' community forum. You look like someone who has nothing better to do at 6am on a Sunday morning. (Oh yeah, DST...I wondered how it got so late.)
Use a vertical monitor for your code editing. Having twice as many lines of code in front of you at once makes a big difference. Most skeptics haven't really tried it. Stop wasting time obsessing about the best coding setup and the best editor. I've seen very poor developers with incredibly advanced typing shortcuts that they spend hours perfecting. They still write shit code (maybe they do so faster...). I use the s…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Immigration, taxes, landlord issues (the tpoic was "compelling reasons why, despite being a foreigner, I would be a poor option to steal from"), resumes (+), etc. + I think resumes are for suckers but if you're going to write one you might as well be a sucker in a business suit.
Really? What do you do instead of a resume? Just a cover letter?
Socks tend to become lonely, loosing their other half, which makes you end up with lots of single socks in the drawer. I ditched them all and purchased 20 pairs of the same socks. I never pair them up, but simply dump them in the drawer after washing. This way I don't have to pair them up and I never have to quest for "the lost sock(tm)".
Keep a reserve pair or two "fresh" (on the card stock) for those days when you forget to wash socks and you somehow run out.
Plan all your meals and everything else during the weekend. Buy stuff on the weekend. Then, your commitment is not to pay for anything Monday to Friday. No coffees, icecreams, drinks or whatever else you might be tempted to buy. If you feel like you need something desperately, put in on the list and buy when the weekend comes. Rinse and repeat.