The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday • Hacker News Board

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#161

Post by telchar » Wed, Jul 14, 2021, 4:48 PM UTC

munificent wrote: post #40

I've written two books over the past decade as well as learning some other skills and hobbies and this is absolutely the most vital lesson I've learned. There is an incredible power in simply pouring a little time into something every day over a long period of time. It feels like a superpower when you see it start compounding. The Grand Canyon was created by little drops of water bouncing off rocks for millenia. Cons…

Not to take away from your point, but from what I have read, the Grand Canyon was most likely not formed by little drops of water, but instead by occasional torrents of water. There is ~70 feet of boulders and detritus at the bottom of the Colorado River. Only a flood powerful enough to get all that material moving at once will erode the bottom of the river bed and carve the canyon deeper. The slopes and walls probably erode more continually though.

And in geological time, an every-10,000-year event may as well be like every day to us.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#162

Post by teekert » Wed, Jul 14, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

kjerzyk wrote: post #84

spideymans wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Knowledge usually works like this. When I first got into home cooking a few years ago, the learning process was painfully slow. It must've taken several attempts spread across a week just to learn how to make basic scrambled eggs the "proper" way. Now after a few years of experience, every ingredient I learn to work with seemingly unlocks a dozen more dishes that I can easily assemble. The rate of learning accel…

Would you mind sharing what you used to learn cooking? My main struggle is recipe books that teach you the recipe rather than cooking. But I'd love to learn HOW to cook, not WHAT to cook.

I think in this quantity is important, you’ll learn how long to boil/cook/bake/sauté/season to perfection with trial and error. You’ll also learn what you like, it’s pretty personal. I liked Jamie Oliver’s “in 15 minutes” book, I never finished any in 15 minutes and I changed the recipes a lot but there are a lot of simple tasteful things in there. Also on his website. And you learn techniques that make you faster/more efficient.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#163

Post by roland35 » Wed, Jul 14, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

schnevets wrote: post #120

deeviant wrote: post #79

This type of sentiment generally makes me feel that literally nobody understands why business work or don't. I remember pitching the idea of a fantasy financial league to a friend who is a teacher, as a way of teaching kids about the stock market and finance. His reply instantly gelled with me and let me know they actually understood much more than I about both teaching and finance: He said it will teach exactly the…

I really like this analogy, especially while WSB-style "YOLO" has become a life philosophy over the last 5 years. That said, I wonder if the "fantasy financial league" game can become a lesson by selectively choosing a handful of stocks over a 30 year period. Tell the kids about the economics of the period (let's say the 1960s - 1990s) and provide a few companies with the tickers, names, and descriptions replaced. Wa…

I think it is a great idea, but if you want to reward a more sane investing strategy (ie low-cost broad index funds) you could maybe accelerate historical or simulated data and anonymize the ticker IDs?

Obviously there will probably be one lucky YOLO player but you could rank everyone and also factor in risk-adjusted returns.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#164

Post by mtberatwork » Wed, Jul 14, 2021, 4:50 PM UTC

mattjaynes wrote: post #89

If you haven't read or listened to this book yet, I highly recommend it: Daily Rituals: How Artists Work[1] It's a collection of daily routines of many famous and prolific artists. The surprising thing about so many of the artists is that they only work 2 or 3 hours per day, then spend the rest of the day walking around, socializing, etc. But they consistently show up and put in the work and it adds up to some amazin…

> The surprising thing about so many of the artists is that they only work 2 or 3 hours per day, then spend the rest of the day walking around, socializing, etc. But they consistently show up and put in the work and it adds up to some amazing things over time.

Artists don't have stand ups, team meetings, planning sessions, one-on-ones, commutes and whatever other office distractions to deal with though. I suppose figuring out how to survive as an artist is distraction enough.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#165

Post by j1elo » Wed, Jul 14, 2021, 4:52 PM UTC

aidenn0 wrote: post #19

tut-urut-utut wrote: post #3

This is excellent advice. Just by doing something, the habit gets created and the longer it gets, the easier it is to get started.

This has literally never worked for me with any habits I've tried intentionally cultivating. I'll pick something and do it every day for several weeks. Then I stop. Am I doing it wrong? Am I just weird that I can't seem to form good habits? I sincerely think I wouldn't remember to brush my teeth in the morning if my mouth didn't feel so gross, and I've been doing that every morning for over 30 years!

Meh I don't think you're doing anything wrong unless you suffer some kind of condition or attention deficit.

One thing about these motivational speeches or techniques is that sometimes we just think we'd like doing something new, but deep inside our mind we really do not want to have that new habit. In those cases what we typically really want instead is to be the person who had already cultivated the habit for a long time. Thus if you think about your objectives and realize this description matches how you feel, that's a signal that you don't really want to do that, it maybe just feels cool to imagine yourself doing it.

A practical example. Not sure if here on HN or where, but I heard once this principle applied to playing the guitar, which I've always wanted to do. After asking myself I realized that I don't want to learn how to play the guitar... what I really want is to be the guy who already knows!! :-) And that explains why I tried learning guitar... like 5 times already in my life. And always ended up stopping practice after some time. I was just misguided by the cool imagination of me taking out a guitar and playing a song, but in the real world that takes practicing regularly, which I'm not willing to do (even though when I'm at it, it feels fun, but clearly not enough to keep me persevering).

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#166

Post by covercash » Wed, Jul 14, 2021, 4:52 PM UTC

roganmurley wrote: post #90

kjerzyk wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind sharing what you used to learn cooking? My main struggle is recipe books that teach you the recipe rather than cooking. But I'd love to learn HOW to cook, not WHAT to cook.

I would recommend "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking". It has a great focus on the fundamentals rather than specific recipes.

There’s also a 4 part Netflix series of the same name featuring the author, each show tackling one of the four elements in the title. It’s not a replacement for the book but it’s a good visual companion.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#167

Post by nly » Wed, Jul 14, 2021, 4:53 PM UTC

TheAlchemist wrote: post #85

Reminds me of these equations: 1.01 ^ 365 = 37.78 0.99 ^ 365 = 0.03

Yup, and the difference between putting your 401K in a fund charging 1% instead of 0.25% a year, over 30 years, is having about 20% less in retirement.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#168

Post by shoemakersteve » Wed, Jul 14, 2021, 4:53 PM UTC

kjerzyk wrote: post #84

spideymans wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Knowledge usually works like this. When I first got into home cooking a few years ago, the learning process was painfully slow. It must've taken several attempts spread across a week just to learn how to make basic scrambled eggs the "proper" way. Now after a few years of experience, every ingredient I learn to work with seemingly unlocks a dozen more dishes that I can easily assemble. The rate of learning accel…

Would you mind sharing what you used to learn cooking? My main struggle is recipe books that teach you the recipe rather than cooking. But I'd love to learn HOW to cook, not WHAT to cook.

There's a ton of great content on YouTube to learn the basics. There's a channel called "Pro Home Cooks" that's definitely more focused on teaching you the basics as well as techniques, tips and tricks, etc. That's what I watched to get me started.

They have a couple of "Basic tips & tricks everyone should know" type videos and I definitely recommend those. It's stuff like, "pat down your chicken before cooking it or the water will make it steam instead of sear", "tenderize your meat so that it cooks evenly", "salt your veggies to reduce the water content, it will cook better and faster", "adding salt to boiling water doesn't just season it, it makes it boil faster too".

Lots of good stuff that you definitely won't get from recipes.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#169

Post by nine_k » Wed, Jul 14, 2021, 4:53 PM UTC

andrewmcwatters wrote: post #135

deeviant wrote: post #79

This type of sentiment generally makes me feel that literally nobody understands why business work or don't. I remember pitching the idea of a fantasy financial league to a friend who is a teacher, as a way of teaching kids about the stock market and finance. His reply instantly gelled with me and let me know they actually understood much more than I about both teaching and finance: He said it will teach exactly the…

No idea what you’re trying to explain here. A business works when revenue exceeds expenses, not whatever you’re trying to talk about here. I’m pretty sure “literally everyone” understands that, and not “literally nobody.”

If it were so simple.

A pizza place may generate more revenue than it consumes in expenses all the time, and barely provide enough for the owners to get by.

A unicorn startup can have its expenses exceed revenue all the time (see Uber) and make its owners very rich in the process.

Re: The unreasonable effectiveness of just showing up everyday

#170

Post by klausjensen » Wed, Jul 14, 2021, 4:54 PM UTC

nly wrote: post #152

scarmig wrote: post #2

Is it generally easy for people to get permission from their day job to code on the side, without assigning all rights to the employer?

Most employers couldn't care less whether you cease exist once you leave the company, let alone track what you're up to. As long as you're not competing directly with them just leave your day job just as your side project ramps up commercially, and it'll likely never be an issue. Most are only worried you'll leverage their IP, insider knowledge, steal employers, or somehow cause reputational damage to them - they don…

This is dangerous advice. Depending on your contract and jurisdiction, your code could belong to your employer.