Teaching.
Odd because I hated school, teachers, and public speaking.
Spent money to learn public speaking.
That was one hurdle that I couldn't figure out without help.
Ask HN: What one skill are you proud of developing on your own?
31–40 of 50 posts
Re: Ask HN: What one skill are you proud of developing on your own?
#32Remaining uncertain. I’ve seen many people becoming anxious or abnormally curious in any sort of uncertainty. One word, one question, one event and they can’t help but rush into investigating. Happens at all scales. From “You know, X said something about you yesterday” to “Why the universe exists”. I learned to be indifferent until the data comes out naturally. Otherwise you’re prone to manipulation at all scales, e.g. social life, religion and pseudoscience.
It’s sometimes funny when you tell “okay” to anything supposedly intriguing and they go crazy asking why don’t you care. Enjoy your manipulation failure anxiety.
How
Idk. Probably by self-education in general and by looking at how many things that were uncertain cleared up in a non-obvious way.
Re: Ask HN: What one skill are you proud of developing on your own?
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you elaborate on the specific steps you took towards becoming more earnest? Also, how do you define "earnestness"?
Haha you are sharp and rightly identified that I sort of sidestepped that important question in the previous reply. Honestly it is still really hard for me to sort of put into words the mentality and the behaviour I am alluding to. "Earnestness" comes closest and I am defining it as "sincerity". Essentially it comes down to taking a look at reality as it really is, learning things and testing what you have learnt in…
Sorry, but to me this answer still seems to be largely full of generalities. I get the sense that what you're trying to say could simply be distilled to "I stopped skating by and started to focus on figuring out what works." Am I wrong? Is there more?
Re: Ask HN: What one skill are you proud of developing on your own?
#34How to cook not only good food, but also how do it so efficiently that you never get burned out on doing it. I started applying a lot of engineering principles I picked up from semiconductor manufacturing to my kitchen. You'd think this sucks all the joy out of it, but I have found the exact opposite to be true.
The #1 sub-skill in cooking that really keeps me going it is the practice of "mise en place", which is effectively just the preparation you do before you turn on the range. If you break the effort of cooking everything into multiple stages: Preparation, Execution, etc, you can make the overall experience significantly better. The mental barrier to "make stir fry" is pretty big. If you decompose that into "lets dice some chicken and then carrots and we're done for the day", its a lot easier negotiation.
Another theme for me is to batch as aggressively as you can. Even if you skip the pre-prep, economies of scale are amazing if you own a freezer and some pyrex. If you are making 1lb of taco meat, why the hell aren't you making 2? Do you like cooking everything from scratch every day? Most stuff still tastes just as good (and sometimes better) after a trip through the freezer.
Re: Ask HN: What one skill are you proud of developing on your own?
#35On being earnest. I have a feeling that being earnest might be the actual "unlock" that unlocks everything else. A meta unlock if you will. For the longest time in my life, I was very good at things but because of that I sort of never trained or practiced anything earnestly. I hit my ceiling when I jumped into entrepreneurship and quickly found out that my skills which helped me with my career weren't enough. I tried…
This! Also for Japan lovers "makoto". And to more or less the same extent "isshin deshin".
Re: Ask HN: What one skill are you proud of developing on your own?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Haha you are sharp and rightly identified that I sort of sidestepped that important question in the previous reply. Honestly it is still really hard for me to sort of put into words the mentality and the behaviour I am alluding to. "Earnestness" comes closest and I am defining it as "sincerity". Essentially it comes down to taking a look at reality as it really is, learning things and testing what you have learnt in…
Sorry, but to me this answer still seems to be largely full of generalities. I get the sense that what you're trying to say could simply be distilled to "I stopped skating by and started to focus on figuring out what works." Am I wrong? Is there more?
Another way of looking at this is: putting the reps in vs making sure every rep counts. The former does help but the latter is really where everything changes.
Re: Ask HN: What one skill are you proud of developing on your own?
#37I taught myself programming, at my first job I got up at 4AM every morning and practiced coding until leaving for work at 8AM. Then home at 7PM and programming until 10PM. Repeat until I could get a job as a programmer.
I taught myself Deep Learning. I saved my money until I could afford to take 3 months off, I jumped in the deep end (haha) and immersed myself in practice projects and papers for the whole 3 months -- 12+ hours a day, until I was employable as a Deep Learning engineer.
I taught myself Quantum Chemistry (and computational chemistry in general) by the same method, immerse myself in papers and code and just try stuff out, then I build https://atomictessellator.com to satisfy my own curiosity and scratch my own itch of poor comp. chem tooling.
Same with applied math, sink myself in papers and practice.
I got a job as a quant about 6 months ago, same thing, just immerse myself in the latest papers and code and practice until now - my models are the most profitable in the company.
I'm self taught the whole way, with no university debt, although I would admit that it takes a lot of willpower and disclipline, so isn't for most people.
I really enjoyed that scene in game of thrones when Sam shrugs and just says "I read the books and followed the instructions" -- thats all I do.
I think the thing that stops most people is they resist learning new infomation because every time there's something new there's a non-zero percentage chance in the new thing that they will not understand it and therefore be judged as inadquate, so people prefer the comfort of their little boxes, but once you shed this fear and develop an insatiable (I mean that literally) case of curiosity, everything becomes interesting, then you must develop disclipline so that your attention is not fragmented by the multiplicity of your interests.
Re: Ask HN: What one skill are you proud of developing on your own?
#38[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: What one skill are you proud of developing on your own?
#39How to cook not only good food, but also how do it so efficiently that you never get burned out on doing it. I started applying a lot of engineering principles I picked up from semiconductor manufacturing to my kitchen. You'd think this sucks all the joy out of it, but I have found the exact opposite to be true. The #1 sub-skill in cooking that really keeps me going it is the practice of "mise en place", which is eff…
Cooking good food is really simple when you break it down like this! Also, cleaning as you go can be crucial to avoiding the nuclear disaster that can be left in a kitchen after cooking.
Re: Ask HN: What one skill are you proud of developing on your own?
#40Stick-to-it-iveness.
I'm 35 and only recognized two years ago that I had developed the ability to commit to something. I found out that my key skills, which make my resume unique, were all gained through pursuing my interests and working hard on those skills: podcasting, video editing, graphic design, engaging with strangers both online and offline, understanding complex ideas, and so on. Now I advice anyone willing to listen that the number one thing that will guarantee adaptability when life inevitably throws lemons at you is the ability to "maneuver under fire" during uncomfortable choke points in life and still come out on top.