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Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

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Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#391

Post by lanstin »

giantg2 wrote: post #175
SamReidHughes wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope. You could call that basic logic... and you'd be wrong, because it's not basic logic.

How so? The comment clearly states that they aren't doing any formal calculations, not using numerical methods, and just getting approximate insights. If I'm wrong, show me I'm wrong and post a substantive comment. Snarky comments like that are not inline with HN guidelines.

Not doing numerical analysis, but that's not the same as not doing formal analysis. I was thinking of things such as this fascinating paper, particularly the shape of the overall manifold that gives rise to Figure 2: https://sigops.org/s/conferences/hotos/2021/papers/hotos21-s...

The insights from these topics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dynamical_systems_and_...

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#392

Post by minimoose »

vorpalhex wrote: post #390
dmos62 wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> that would be a bad gym session. The goal is to push yourself. Not to injure yourself but to go until failure. Umm. Actually, as far as I know, that's completely false. What you're describing is a bad way to train your body. If you're failing reps, you're training your body to fail. I.e. "one more rep" culture is misguided. You don't want stress or exhaustion hormones in your system. If your goal is enhancing your…

I don't love the marketing "feel" of this source but it is a good and comprehensive guide on what failure means in a lifting context: https://athleanx.com/articles/should-you-train-to-failure You don't "train your body to fail". You may be training bad form - and form failure is failure.

That's great if you're in a body building competition, but you're training to have a heart attack at 65.

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#394

Post by yesenadam »

noduerme wrote: post #90
brianhorakh wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you share or summarize the blueberry muffin email?

Uh, if you really want. This is probably boring as fuck until I get emotional around the third paragraph ;) --- I'm putting this down here because, even though it seems obvious, it's not; if you spend 10 or 20 hours really thinking seriously about what happens if people write early reports or late reports - the initial conclusion was just count how many they wrote into how many they sent, and tell if they need to sen…

I found that fascinating, thanks for sharing!

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#395

Post by raffraffraff »

vorpalhex wrote: post #371
raffraffraff wrote: post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There comes a point in your life where this may not still be true. At 70 I doubt I'll be pushing "to failure" in training sessions. In fact, I'll probably consciously reduce the intensity of my training sessions and use them to maintain muscle mass for as long as possible into old(er) age. The same goes for work. I'm a hard worker, but I'm not gonna bust my balls at some startup so the CEO and his buddies can make a…

You've confused personal growth and "the hustle". You should, as a person, work to grow and be stronger no matter your age, whether that's squatting 400lbs or doing your water aerobics. Work the correct weight for you. You should not bust your balls at some startup so someone else can get rich. That isn't helpful. Don't do that, regardless your age.

Busting your balls for someone else's start-up is a rite of passage unfortunately, but as long as you don't burn 10 years of your life before realising that your stock is worthless, you're ok. That mistake shouldn't cost 10 years.

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#396

Post by muzani »

kalev wrote: post #226
dmos62 wrote: post #67

- Writing as form of (or tool for) thinking; Leslie Lamport said (maybe quoting someone) that if you're thinking, but not writing, you only think that you're thinking; - High tolerance for feeling ignorant, confused, silly, inadequate, a novice: none of these states should phase you: you should not have a comfort zone: let your mind feel at ease in not understanding something: go to the eye of the storm and weather i…

> High tolerance for feeling ignorant, confused, silly, inadequate, a novice: none of these states should phase you: you should not have a comfort zone: let your mind feel at ease in not understanding something: go to the eye of the storm and weather it: you'll come out being more capable; I’d love to be more at ease on uncomfortable situations. Any tips?

I have a friend who took anti-anxiety meds and was immediately extremely productive.

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#397

Post by rmellow »

amboo7 wrote: post #279
rmellow wrote: post #252

Making assumptions & cutting down on scope are immensely powerful tools. There is a tendency among engineers to create systems that are universal and work in all sorts of environments, when in fact, this is not what is absolutely immediately needed, or is closer to a "nice to have". A widespread example of this is linear regression analysis. Mathematically, it only works because we make assumptions about the data (an…

If only such assumptions were ever written down.

In scientific circles they usually are:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_regression#Assumptions

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#398

Post by garfieldnate »

Buttons840 wrote: post #308

The ability to type 30+ WPM. This is a pretty low bar to cross. About half the people I have worked with when faced with the task of writing a 40 character line of code will do something like find a similar line and copy and paste it, and then change a character or 2, and then go find a 6 character variable that they need to type and instead of just typing the 6 characters, they highlight another copy of the variable…

This honestly blows my mind. It's very difficult for me to imagine a programmer who is bad at typing. Do you live somewhere where personal devices are uncommon? They made us learn to touch-type in high school (when I was 15), and it made it so much easier to interact naturally on AIM. It was the most immediately-useful course I'd ever had.

Re: Ask HN: What bits of fundamental knowledge are productivity multipliers?

#399

Post by garfieldnate »

escapedmoose wrote: post #215
futureshock wrote: post #21

I think the true 10x multiplier is not a technical skill at all. It is the ability to quickly cut through irrelevant tasks and actions to focus on the thing that will move the business goal forward fastest. It is enshrined in the concept of the MVP and the short iteration cycle. Quicky building something that does not solve a business problem is not productive. Work=force*displacement. No movement, no work. A closely…

Absolutely this. I was a chronic procrastinator prone to intense anxiety and breakdowns just before deadlines. Then I took a really good ~3 hour course on time management, and it seriously changed my life. I can’t even describe how much more productive I am. It’s changed how I approach every task, professional and personal. I can’t even remember the last time I felt any sort of stress or anxiety about my to-do list.…

I'd like to second the recommendation for Dave Crenshaw's courses. I never realized before that I wasn't actually managing my time; I was just desperately chasing the non-existent end of my entire life's to-do lists. I'm still working on getting through my initial in-box (the one you create by going through his trigger lists), but all the important stuff got done, and I have confidence that the things I haven't gotten to yet aren't important enough for me to panic about (otherwise I would have done them!).

The "time management tips" one is a kind agglomeration of his advice on managing your time, your relationships, your reports, etc., and is a good follow-up. He has a course on having productive meetings, as well, which is well worth the time. It may make you hate meetings at your work, though XD.

Honestly his courses provided a lot of relief and validation to me, as well as hope for a future working in companies. I can't recommend them enough.

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