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Ask HN: What can I learn right now that'll benefit me forever

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11–20 of 27 posts

Re: Ask HN: What can I learn right now that'll benefit me forever

#11
Speed-reading of nonfiction. It is possible to double or triple reading speed in a short time (days/weeks of intermittent practice).

Expansion of vocabulary and etymology by reading "old" books and papers: changes the "resolution", precision and context of thought.

Filtering of "content" into timeless classics (of which there are several centuries of reading) and likely timeless future classics. Much can be ignored. Social network analysis can cluster related material for inclusion, exclusion and comparative analysis of bias.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/brettnelson/2012/06/04/do-you-re...

Re: Ask HN: What can I learn right now that'll benefit me forever

#13
If a certain technology is very interesting/promising, then stop wasting large amount of time on Reddit/HN seeking advice/opinions about _whether_ you should learn it or not. Instead, find 3 or 4 hours to finish some introductory tutorials to actually get to know the thing.

This 3 hour work will relieve you from weeks, even months, of uncertainty/lurking, not to mention the possible anxiety due to not understanding people's conversations. By the end of the 3 or 4 hour studying, you actually learned something, and can decide confidently on your next moves.

For example, as a Vim user, I always wanted to learn Emacs, and god know how much time I have wasted in reading those fun editor war threads. Last month in one evening I finally installed it, finished the built-in tutorial in 2 hours. Then I installed Spacemacs which has been hot recently, I spent another 2 hours playing around, learning how to configure it. In 4 hours I gained a pretty solid idea about Emacs' setup, how to do common tasks, some useful packages, including the annoyingly frequently mentioned Org-mode (ok, it is indeed powerful, e.x., the calendar thing is pretty rad). Emacs is extensible for sure, but I know I don't have time to learn it now. I also know in the future I will start with default Emacs, not Spacemacs, if I renew my learning.

Anyway, I have this problem of waiting and lurking. IMO spending a few hours finishing one or two tutorials _today_ is a much better approach than weeks/months of evaluating through reading Reddit/HN posts. For example, even if you apply this method conservatively -- once every 15 days, you will accumulate _hands-on_ knowledge on more than 20 new technologies in a year.

Re: Ask HN: What can I learn right now that'll benefit me forever

#15
post #13

If a certain technology is very interesting/promising, then stop wasting large amount of time on Reddit/HN seeking advice/opinions about _whether_ you should learn it or not. Instead, find 3 or 4 hours to finish some introductory tutorials to actually get to know the thing. This 3 hour work will relieve you from weeks, even months, of uncertainty/lurking, not to mention the possible anxiety due to not understanding p…

This is really helpful, its been bouncing around in my head a lot often and this post convinced me I'm going to spend the weekend going through that rails book that everyone recommends even though I'm trying to make a nodejs app right now.

Re: Ask HN: What can I learn right now that'll benefit me forever

#17
Stay hungry, stay passionate, stay focused, be respectful. Life really is short. We all make mistakes. Forgive yourself, forgive other people. Work hard/smart enough so at the very least you aren't a burden on others, and at most, you can take care of others. We are all in this together. And learn how to code! :)
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