Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Teach me something new

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

301–310 of 782 posts

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#301

Post by rawoke083600 »

ok I'll have a go !

Here is my favorite mental-model for problem solving (and my favorite analogy)

So I have this problem:

I love eating scramble eggs, I hate cleaning up the pan and have been trying over the years many different techniques to make sure the egg's doesn't stick to the pan. (No I don't want teflon thanks).

So I tried different oils, temperatures and techniques, all with the goal of getting those delicious eggs not to stick in my pot/pan afterwards.

Then one day it hit me, I'm solving the wrong problem. The problem to be solved is not "EGGS NOT STICKING TO PAN", it's "FINDING A BETTER WAY TO CLEAN" the pan !

And I have found it, it's using a different type of plastic-scrubber. It looks like steel-wool, but it's all plastic.

So whenever I'm stuck on a problem for too long, I try and model the problem as an "eggs-in-pan" problem statement.

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#303

Post by someweirdperson »

remus wrote: post #243
onion2k wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably there's a reason why it's hard to prove either true or false, right?

Depends what you mean by a good reason I guess. A lot of very capable mathematicians have put time in to the problem and it's proven to be pretty resistant to a solution. I think problems like this often feel a little incongruous because they are so simple to state but so hard to solve.

It is easy, we can spit it into two parts: Proving that all even numbers end up in that loop and proving that all odd numbers do.

I'll take the even ones. Who works on the odd ones?

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#304

Post by gonzo41 »

rawoke083600 wrote: post #301

ok I'll have a go ! Here is my favorite mental-model for problem solving (and my favorite analogy) So I have this problem: I love eating scramble eggs, I hate cleaning up the pan and have been trying over the years many different techniques to make sure the egg's doesn't stick to the pan. (No I don't want teflon thanks). So I tried different oils, temperatures and techniques, all with the goal of getting those delici…

Try cooking on a cast iron pan that's been seasoned, i cook eggs on these and I can clean it in about ~1 minute with a soft sponge.

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#305

Post by rawoke083600 »

andrei_says_ wrote: post #212

What we call “free will” consists of a multitude of forces we have no control over. Look at your choices and try to find an independent entity making a decision. You will likely notice your conditioning and preferences, beliefs, emotions, thoughts, physiological and psychological state in the moment, your environment, habits, trauma patterns, all collaborating toward one thing or another. “Free will” is a shortcut fo…

>What we call “free will” consists of a multitude of forces we have no control over.

Yea I also noted that, I always thought, I like red meat, but it was not my decision to like red meat. Sure I can control the urge or desire to have it or not have it. But I never "decided" to like red meat !

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#306

Post by someweirdperson »

PartiallyTyped wrote: post #281
mhh__ wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's proven then we can add a new pointless compiler optimization (some of them are already allowed to assume some things never terminate, even)

llvm skips it entirely. https://twitter.com/badamczewski01/status/142826257042792857...

It can easily be proven for all valid values of int (of a specific limited size).

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#307

Post by kmarc »

modernerd wrote: post #190
schoen wrote: post #132

In the 1800s, scholars who knew a lot of languages (including, often, several modern and ancient European languages, and increasingly also Sanskrit) started to notice some amazing patterns about similarities in words among all of these languages, including languages from very far apart and that had no visible connection at all from the point of view of their present-day speakers. As these patterns were explored, they…

This language tree infographic seems to illustrate your points about the various branches well: https://www.openculture.com/2015/06/the-tree-of-languages-il...

As a Hungarian, I love and hate this infographic at the same time.

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#308

Post by DavidSJ »

b0ner_t0ner wrote: post #280

Humans might just be the stupidest animals on the planet when it comes to seasonal migration, we get tied down by our monetary system, taxes, government policies, borders, etc., while polluting our planet with patchwork solutions like air conditioning for the summer or burning fossil fuels to heat our surroundings in the winter. We can't simply just "move" to a different location like other animals.

I think it's the opposite. We can move, but we have the intelligence to tame our environment so we don't have to.

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#309

Post by Jowsey »

pxeger1 wrote: post #145

Double-clicking on text selects the whole word. Double-clicking and dragging selects text word-by-word. Triple-clicking selects the whole paragraph. Middle-clicking a link opens it in a new tab. Middle-clicking a tab closes it. Middle-clicking in general often has useful functionality!

Shift+Arrow keys can be used to select text as you navigate through it

Ctrl+Arrow keys navigates through whole words at a time

Ctrl+Shift+Arrow keys can be combined to select whole words

Ctrl+Backspace can be used to delete whole words

Re: Ask HN: Teach me something new

#310

Post by Jowsey »

Jowsey wrote: post #309
pxeger1 wrote: post #145

Double-clicking on text selects the whole word. Double-clicking and dragging selects text word-by-word. Triple-clicking selects the whole paragraph. Middle-clicking a link opens it in a new tab. Middle-clicking a tab closes it. Middle-clicking in general often has useful functionality!

Shift+Arrow keys can be used to select text as you navigate through it Ctrl+Arrow keys navigates through whole words at a time Ctrl+Shift+Arrow keys can be combined to select whole words Ctrl+Backspace can be used to delete whole words

Oh, and most code editors I'm aware of will switch out the whole-word functionality of Ctrl/Double-click with whole-syntax-element, if that's more your thing
Post reply on HN