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Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

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Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#141

Post by jnfr »

abnercoimbre wrote: post #127
joshstrange wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not who you are replying to but I recently (2.5 months ago) started using YNAB again and have fallen in love with it. The last time I tried it was when it was desktop software but their newer web-based version with transaction import/sync is a game changer for me. As for food I can't really help there. I ended up writing my own app to manage/track expiration dates for what I have but that's barely the tip of the ice-…

Used YNAB a lot to develop discipline, then switched to Lunch Money [0]. It's being worked on by a solopreneur; she's awesome. The app is, I think, a natural evolution for the YNABer who got the discipline and now doesn't need to track every single dollar all the time. [0] https://lunchmoney.app

Thank you for the shoutout, and that's wonderful to hear! :D

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#142

Post by Shared404 »

memexy wrote: post #125
Shared404 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The average person might use them once in a lifetime. Depends on your perspective. On the one hand, I haven't had to fight anyone, and would like to keep it that way. On the other, I'd like to be able to if necessary. Martial arts is the only activity other then programming in which I have reached flow state. I suspect dancing/yoga/etc also reach this state, but I don't know because I've never done any of these ser…

Good explanation of the benefits of practicing a martial art. I think any type of activity that involves both coordinated motion and cardio is a good candidate for achieving flow states. Re: martial arts. What type do you recommend?

I've only studied Okinawan Karate at an OSMKKF school, so I can't speak personally to any others.

However, I have friends who have had good experiences with MMA, and Capoeira is on my bucket list to learn.

I honestly don't think the particular style is as important as the fact that you have proper training in that style.

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#143

Post by 082349872349872 »

pluto9 wrote: post #132

Surprised no one has mentioned learning a second language yet. I'm currently learning Spanish (one of the easier ones for native English speakers like me to learn, especially being from the American Southwest) and finding myself suddenly understanding conversations between people I walk past at WalMart has been one of the more gratifying experiences I've had. It's hard to say whether this skill will afford me new opp…

¿Hola, qué tal?

As to new opportunities, having multiple languages certainly makes it easier to vote with one's feet. (two years to acclimatise as a fresh immigrant may seem like a long time, but that may well be very short compared with the timescale of political change in one's birth country.)

Languages can not only be explored in breadth or in depth, but also open up side quests of culture, music, etc. I would say one of the most significant benefits of attending an international school (presumably the Asker is past this point, however) is learning to habitually rephrase, paraphrase, gesture, etc. in order to accomplish things with people with whom one shares little vocabulary and not necesarily much more culture. Surprisingly, one may find these skills even come in handy when attempting to communicate with people who nominally share one's mother tongue and national culture...

(It's also rewarding because the learning curve is relatively quick. At the beginning, one is only able to understand the sorts of conversations mothers have with very small children at WalMart, but before any of those children reach university age, one has gained the ability to read authors in the original.)

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#144

Post by ogou »

The ability to pause before reacting and realize you have the option of saying nothing. It allows for more self awareness in a conversation. You don't always have to have something to say. A lot of engineers I've worked with fail to grasp this and come across as know-it-alls who over share.

Learn how to write a 650 word summary, pitch, or blog post. Really learn it and focus on concise and engaging writing. My ability to write well at that length has helped me so many times in my life with blog posts, cover letters, documentation entries, marketing, raising money, and web content.

A surprising resource for this was a book called Manly Art: They Can Run-But They Can't Hide by George Kimball. It's a collection of boxing writing. Stories about boxing matches are usually quite short, about 650 words. Conveying the stakes and action of a boxing match in short form is hard to do well. This book demonstrates the balance between brevity and color.

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#145

Post by momenen09 »

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Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#146

Post by randomchars »

diehunde wrote: post #135
cweagans wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't _require_ furniture or a haircut (i.e. you can survive without them). Everyone _needs_ to eat. Opting out of knowing how to take care of your own basic needs just because you can currently pay someone else to do it seems very shortsighted.

Fair enough. So assuming you need a house to survive, do you need to know how to build one? If your toilet breaks, do you know how to fix it? Again, some people would argue that calling "the guy" is always shortsighted and wasteful because you can do it by yourself. Cooking is no different. Maybe a couple of decades ago, but not today.

The difference here, that parent was pointing at, is that you eat every single day. You might need to fix your toilet one day, or get a house a few times in your life, but eating is something that you can't get around.

Just like you shouldn't depend on someone to dress your, bathe you and wipe your ass for you (even though that's a whole profession too), depending on someone else to cook for you because you can't, puts you in a vulnerable spot.

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#147

Post by alltakendamned »

adventured wrote: post #24

Being able to read and digest a profit & loss (P&L) statement and a balance sheet. It's not a common skill and yet it's also not particularly difficult; with a small bit of self-training you can do it extremely fast. You'll be able to scan the financials for a public company in a minute or two and get a good overview of its financial condition. It's a critical skill for investing and financial independence over time.…

it's something I've been meaning to learn for a while but never quite found out how to go about it. Pointers are welcome.

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#148

Post by 4weekoldroses »

motohagiography wrote: post #8

- Learn to edit well, it's how to write well. Nothing opens doors like clear writing. For sources of quality edited writing, read The Economist, Quanta, and the first novels by authors who wrote 20th century literary fiction. Their later ones had less editing. - Negotiation + game theory. Learn the traditional methods, and then forget everything you know about them because the real world has changed and broken the as…

What are the best quantitative resources on learning negotiation?

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#149

Post by kevstev »

weaksauce wrote: post #119
kevstev wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quarantining made me realize just how much I spend on food and alcohol. And while don't get me wrong, I love a good meal and a night out with friends, we will definitely be reeling that in a bit even after all restrictions are lifted. And a night in cooking a great meal and opening up a nice bottle of wine (that is much cheaper than anything we could buy at a restaurant) can be very satisfying too. One thing that is…

> my discretionary spending has dropped by 95% and my bank account has swelled at a rate that I could have never imagined without much drop in my overall happiness at all and this is likely to lead to changes in spending patterns for years to come. this is somewhat inherent in the system. they message you that you need to be out and about to be happy. it's the capitalistic way. Also a bit of why a lot of jobs work yo…

I hear you- I think an alternate way to view this is that I had acclimated myself to preferring the short-term dopamine hit of going out to a nice meal or having drinks with friends over the long term happiness of being more financially secure. I do truly feel a lot of this stems from my single days when you had a zero percent chance of meeting someone unless you were out someplace. Now its just a very antiquated habit.

I do a lot of cooking, and agree there as well. We have a lot of processes that sped up our food preparation and maintained say 90% of the original quality of the product, but those losses add up and while there is much we can measure in terms of what makes our food good in terms of taste and nutrition, there seems to be much we can not. There may only be a subtle difference between chicken soup made with canned stock or bullion when you are sitting at the table, but I make my own stock, and often find a bowl of soup made from it for lunch will fill me until dinner easily, a can of Campbell's, not so much.

Especially since quarantine started, I have done tons more cooking, often of rich "slow" food. My friends have asked how much weight I have gained, and I have actually lost a few pounds despite getting much less activity in. I find myself much more content with smaller portion sizes, perhaps the net calories are actually fewer.

Re: Ask HN: What are some skills you have that are worth learning?

#150

Post by motohagiography »

4weekoldroses wrote: post #148
motohagiography wrote: post #8

- Learn to edit well, it's how to write well. Nothing opens doors like clear writing. For sources of quality edited writing, read The Economist, Quanta, and the first novels by authors who wrote 20th century literary fiction. Their later ones had less editing. - Negotiation + game theory. Learn the traditional methods, and then forget everything you know about them because the real world has changed and broken the as…

What are the best quantitative resources on learning negotiation?

I didn't encounter much in the way of quantitative stuff other than DeMesquita's "Logic of Political Survival," and related papers and code, which is what people should understand after they have read the foundational books like Getting To Yes, Influence, Never Split the Difference, the guidebook to negotiations A-Z from The Economist, etc.

People who haven't read laterally in it tend to only have one or two tools that have worked for them up to their level. Haggling, bargaining, and auction models aren't really negotiation. Reality is, it's the process of price discovery, often with people who are looking for rules they can break and points of leverage.

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