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Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

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Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#141

Post by barney54 »

momokoko wrote: post #76

In the modern era the single most important skill is to manage distractions. There are so many things, this site included, that can prevent you from accomplishing your goals via distraction. Obviously a little distraction and fun is good. But these days it easier than ever to waste an entire day or two watching Netflix and staring at your phone.

I want to emphasize this one. When I'm on deadline, I am amazing at avoiding distractions and as a result, I'm super productive. When the deadline is far out, I yield to distractions. Avoiding distractions is a key way for me to be production.

Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#142

Post by reddog »

biren34 wrote: post #124

1. How to spend less than you earn. Lots of people desire “financial freedom”, meaning they can spend what they want when they want it. Solving this via revenue leads to the hedonic treadmill, and you’ll never out earn your growing wants. Instead solve this by controlling your wants, and you’ve achieved financial freedom immediately. 2. How to take risks. Finding the balance between recklessness and absolute risk avo…

“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six , result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery”

― Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#144

Post by swader999 »

jka wrote: post #6

If you're in an environment where cycling's viable, I'd rank that alongside or even above driving (it can be cheaper, healthier, more sustainable, consumes less parking space at home and in the community, produces less pollution, and generally provides easier self-maintenance options)

Just walking the last mile, taking the stairs consistently at work can be enough if biking isn't practical.

Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#145

Post by vcanales »

bob1029 wrote: post #104
kpmcc wrote: post #94

Cooking cooking cooking. You’ll eat probably until the day you die. Might as well figure out how to feed yourself in a way that sustains you and brings some joy to you and possibly to others.

This is by far the most important thing I can think of, followed shortly by being able to maintain a regular, high-quality exercise regimen. Meal prep is the key to keeping the discipline in terms of cooking cheap, high-quality meals for yourself. If you understand some fundamentals about how to store food and scaling recipes up, you can leverage your time very well. In a given week, I spend ~2 hours in the kitchen t…

Cooking is essential. Jumping into meal prepping for there, is another thing. Meal prepping saves you some time, but if you actually like cooking and enjoy fresh meals, this is not necessarily a good thing.

Meal prepping falls into the productivity porn category for me.

Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#146

Post by swader999 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #84
sys_64738 wrote: post #80

Have a viable exit plan from working life. You don't always get to choose when you can no longer work.

Eerily timely advice for me. I've developed a persistent pain in my right wrist over this weekend. I guess RSI is finally getting me :/.

Mouse ball helps too. Theragun and learning all the trigger points to release for carpal tunnel has kept me out of the surgeon's office so far.

Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#147

Post by gdubs »

A lot of my ideas are already listed, so I’ll add Drawing. A lot of things can be made so much clearer through a drawing, and learning to draw effectively is easier than you might imagine. That doesn’t mean anyone can easily become a master — but practicing fundamentals can get you from 0-1 pretty quickly, in terms of being able to express ideas.

Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#148

Post by swader999 »

lwhalen wrote: post #98

Take a cue from Uncle Bob (Heinlein) and start working on his list: A human being should be able to: - change a diaper - plan an invasion - butcher a hog - conn a ship - design a building - write a sonnet - balance accounts - build a wall - set a bone - comfort the dying - take orders - give orders - cooperate - act alone - solve equations - analyze a new problem - pitch manure - program a computer - cook a tasty mea…

Build a bike wheel. Thanks Sheldon Brown.

Re: Ask HN: What are good life skills for people to learn?

#149

Post by jeffreyrogers »

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #126
bob1029 wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is by far the most important thing I can think of, followed shortly by being able to maintain a regular, high-quality exercise regimen. Meal prep is the key to keeping the discipline in terms of cooking cheap, high-quality meals for yourself. If you understand some fundamentals about how to store food and scaling recipes up, you can leverage your time very well. In a given week, I spend ~2 hours in the kitchen t…

I am envious of your food budget. A mere pound of chicken breast at my local grocery store costs ~$10/lb, though they range from about ~$5-10lb. However, at the cheaper end, the meat is a demonstrably lower quality, with odd texture issues due to chickens growing so fast (the condition is called 'woody chicken'). Your budget would get me 15 lbs of protein. That's just not enough food for 2 people (my household size).…

My grocery expenses are similar to yours for two people, and we do most of our cooking at home as well. I have the same problem with meat that you do. It's hard to buy good meat cheaply.
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