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What to Learn

danluu.com

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Re: What to Learn

#21

Post by lukego »

Forth is an interesting case. It's really unproductive to build complex systems with. If you try, you will probably be frustrated. Instead it forces you to try really hard to find a cheating short-cut to solve the problem as few moving parts as possible.

Just one simple example. The 'struct' language feature is 1500 LOC in Lisp but only 10 LOC in FORTH (see below.) Are they equivalent? No, the Lisp one has lots of bells and whistles, while the FORTH one is minimalist in the extreme.

If you tried to write the feature-complete Lisp version in FORTH you would probably find it very difficult and unproductive. So you wouldn't do that. And this to me is what FORTH's peculiar brand of efficiency is all about.

If FORTH were a bar the only drink on the menu would be tap water. That bar would be extremely efficient to run.

Lisp: https://github.com/sbcl/sbcl/blob/master/src/code/defstruct.... FORTH: https://github.com/openbios/openfirmware/blob/master/forth/l...

Re: What to Learn

#22

Post by yesenadam »

borroka wrote: post #16
ksec wrote: post #10

>For example, this analysis of world-class judo players found that most rely on a small handful of throws, concluding1 >Judo is a game of specialization. You have to use the skills that work best for you. You have to stick to what works and practice your skills until they become automatic responses. >If you watch an anime or a TV series "about" fighting, people often improve by increasing the number of techniques the…

What about, and I say this as a long-term martial arts practitioner, the man who has practiced 3 kicks 3300 times each (with one rep to spare)? And I am not saying it provocatively, the one-10000, 10000-one is a straw-man of course, but how many techniques to add to your competition arsenal is not an easy question to answer. As far as I remember, Ono, one of the most successful judokas of the modern era, has maybe uc…

This thread reminds me of a joke:

What's the difference between a jazz musician and a rock musician?

A jazz musician plays 100,000 chords for 3 people. A rock musician plays 3 chords for 100,000 people.

Re: What to Learn

#23

Post by greenail »

Because people are social "who knows you" is also important and impacts your learning. Finding the right people who are open to you asking 4 levels of questions is critical. This often requires you offer them something back. How you build those relationships is something to learn.

Re: What to Learn

#24

Post by joyeuse6701 »

xyzelement wrote: post #19

I believe the thing we often need to learn is the thing we're afraid of learning. We often (always?) have weaknesses that can/do jeopardize our strength and closing those weaknesses is crucial. The famous Scott Galloway (whom I had as a b-school professor) made this point like this: if you are a great guy, great father, great boss, etc, but once in a while you get violently drunk and hurt people in your life - THAT t…

The author of the post does address your Scott Galloway example by stating that that is an obvious weakness that needs correcting.

I think if we're starting with an individual with no obvious weaknesses, perhaps they are just average at many things for example, the ROI is better for things one has a natural aptitude in.

Correcting an obvious weakness would generate a better ROI as per your examples.

Re: What to Learn

#25

Post by dugmartin »

ksec wrote: post #10

>For example, this analysis of world-class judo players found that most rely on a small handful of throws, concluding1 >Judo is a game of specialization. You have to use the skills that work best for you. You have to stick to what works and practice your skills until they become automatic responses. >If you watch an anime or a TV series "about" fighting, people often improve by increasing the number of techniques the…

See Bill "Superfoot" Wallace for a great example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Wallace_(martial_artist)

He injured his right knee very early in his career so he spent the rest of it specializing in kicking with his left leg. There are some pretty amazing videos on YouTube showing the incredible control and range he had with that leg.

Re: What to Learn

#26

Post by xyzelement »

joyeuse6701 wrote: post #24
xyzelement wrote: post #19

I believe the thing we often need to learn is the thing we're afraid of learning. We often (always?) have weaknesses that can/do jeopardize our strength and closing those weaknesses is crucial. The famous Scott Galloway (whom I had as a b-school professor) made this point like this: if you are a great guy, great father, great boss, etc, but once in a while you get violently drunk and hurt people in your life - THAT t…

The author of the post does address your Scott Galloway example by stating that that is an obvious weakness that needs correcting. I think if we're starting with an individual with no obvious weaknesses, perhaps they are just average at many things for example, the ROI is better for things one has a natural aptitude in. Correcting an obvious weakness would generate a better ROI as per your examples.

> I think if we're starting with an individual with no obvious weaknesses, perhaps they are just average at many things for example

I didn't mean that the weaknesses have to be obvious. I agree the first example I used was a blatant one, but in the other case the person had lived 5 decades without recognizing the impact that lack of communication skills had on his life. He always just thought "that's how I am."

So in your case, of someone who is "just average at many things" - perhaps there's a fear of chasing a direction, a reluctance to commit, an inability to focus, etc. that probably got them to "just be ok" and living below their potential, and probably overcoming that thing is a meta-skill that they need to gain.

Re: What to Learn

#27

Post by MA6 »

xyzelement wrote: post #19

I believe the thing we often need to learn is the thing we're afraid of learning. We often (always?) have weaknesses that can/do jeopardize our strength and closing those weaknesses is crucial. The famous Scott Galloway (whom I had as a b-school professor) made this point like this: if you are a great guy, great father, great boss, etc, but once in a while you get violently drunk and hurt people in your life - THAT t…

Pointing at the issues of someone and saying if only they fixed it is very similar to pointing at poor or disabled people and saying the same thing. Its is known as denial of personal responsibility.

You see someone who needs help, either go figure out how to help and help or shut the fuck up and keep walking.

Re: What to Learn

#28

Post by bla3 »

I think the answer depends on "why do you want to learn?". The implicit answer to that question for this blog post seems to be "to advance your career". That's a fine answer, but not the only answer.

Re: What to Learn

#29

Post by itsmemattchung »

blacktriangle wrote: post #20
nojs wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For a solo entrepreneur I would argue it’s more important to be fairly good at everything than e.g. really good at programming and having no understanding of other things like sales and marketing. Instead of perfecting your Haskell skills, you’re far better off learning the basics of how to construct a good sales funnel, even if it’s not a natural fit for you. Some knowledge is a lot better than none.

A bit paradoxically, being a generalist is a particular strength, and as the article points out one of the things you can do to do better at work is work in areas that best utilize your strengths. Ergo, if you're the kind of person who is good at quickly superficially learning a wide variety of topics, solo entrepenureship is possibly the best place for you.

This makes perfect sense. Beyond just writing software and architecting systems, I find the most challenging parts (and rewarding) learning how to build a sales funnel, communicating expectations and deadlines with customers, etc the most rewarding. And as you mentioned, solo entrepreneurship might possibly be the best place to exercise these wide array of skills.

Re: What to Learn

#30

Post by itsmemattchung »

nojs wrote: post #14
itsmemattchung wrote: post #5

> All of us have strengths and weaknesses and we spend a lot of time talking about ‘areas of improvement.’ It can be easy to feel like the best way to advance is to eliminate all of those I struggle with this. All the time. I always find it difficult to strike a balance between leveraging my strengths and filling gaps in my weaknesses. For the large part of my career, my attention was directed on the latter: constant…

For a solo entrepreneur I would argue it’s more important to be fairly good at everything than e.g. really good at programming and having no understanding of other things like sales and marketing. Instead of perfecting your Haskell skills, you’re far better off learning the basics of how to construct a good sales funnel, even if it’s not a natural fit for you. Some knowledge is a lot better than none.

100%. One of the conversations I've repeatedly had with my friend, a technical co-founder of his own company, is how difficult and challenging Sales really is. We don't really see eye to eye on this topic.

As a engineer and computer scientist, I appreciate all the work we do to build software that's robust, etc but to be honest, the more challenging parts (and equally rewarding, for me as a solo entrepreneur) is the Sales side of the house, business development, marketing.

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