I thought training doesn't increase intelligence. Does it?
Even if that is the case, what you are basically saying is: "Why try getting better at anything?". I can't see that as a functional path through life.
Ask HN: How do you stay sharp?
31–40 of 87 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay sharp?
#32Careers and jobs and employers and technologies all come and go. Figure out what interests you yourself, whether you want to go somewhere or do something, and how you might get there. What's important to you. If your current job can or does line up with that, great. If not, then start working toward your target and toward a different role at your employer, a different employer, or self-employment. Have enough cash an…
Excellent advice, this should be handed to kids as soon as they graduate from HS, and constantly referred back to.
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay sharp?
#33I thought training doesn't increase intelligence. Does it?
It may not directly increase intelligence but it will solidify what you know. Explaining something to others requires a deeper level of understanding in my experience. It will also show you what areas you don't know and give you opportunity to learn those things as well.
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay sharp?
#34I wasn't interested in studying at a university, so I have plenty of things to learn. I usually work from home and I learn a ton every day. That's primarily because I always have a book or two around and read about new stuff on HN. Luckily, the world of programming is huge, so there's always something to learn. In my opinion, at least reading a book on general programming is beneficial to everyone, especially managers.
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay sharp?
#35I thought training doesn't increase intelligence. Does it?
Even if that is the case, what you are basically saying is: "Why try getting better at anything?". I can't see that as a functional path through life.
Well, I meant different things. He probably should apply a right tool to the problem? Like take a vacation, skiing or something, read non-technical book, sleep more etc?
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay sharp?
#36Go outside your comfort zone, learn a functional language and give a talk on it. Learn higher-level maths. (IMO) There's satisfaction and clarity to be found there if your current path isn't challenging you. You might find that it takes you into new roles too.
For me, staying sharp was never an issue because I have an addiction to 'toys' and learning.
By Toys, I mean new concepts and tech-stacks.
Unfortantely, I don't control it. It could be the most useless thing, or something valuable. I haven't figured out what 'actuates' it.
Been everything from replacing FSM with Behaviour Trees, to learning game development, A*, Steering Forces[0] to just toying with Redis and Obj-C.
[0] I really, really, really recommend http://natureofcode.com
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay sharp?
#37- Write prose. I find my verbal fluency (and my inner monologue) become far more dull when I haven't written anything in a while
- Keep alcohol consumption to a minimum, even a single glass of wine impacts memory formation and recall.
- Get lots of sleep
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay sharp?
#38I find that having a voracious appetite to explore as many associated fields and topics to your area of work or interest is not only interesting and enjoyable but gives your mind some pause on the close-at-hand stuff while you gain the very important pieces that inform a big picture view of what you are doing. Plus, you can often get new outside-the-box ideas this way.
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay sharp?
#39>I read. I work on side projects. I learn new programs like Sketch, take classes on Udemy and Coursera Sounds like you are already doing more to improve than most! >I'm not learning that much on the job anymore, just adding value to the company. Do you feel like you are often the smartest person in the room where you currently work? If so, time to move some place where that isn't the case. I find working with people…
What if you're the smartest person in the room and also highly paid? It may be more strategic to stay put, save as much as possible, and spend your time getting intellectual stimulation outside of work.
Re: Ask HN: How do you stay sharp?
#40I don't particularly enjoy online courses. The density of technical information is very low. I prefer reading papers and then doing a nose dive on related papers to fill in the knowledge gaps. Papers are like nodes of knowledge with edges to relevant information (references). For things usually not covered in universities, papers are pretty much crucial. For example, I found it a lot more useful to read the original or early b-tree and octree papers as opposed to looking them up in text books. And these directly affected my code. The DynamoDB paper was another one that affected my work thinking, even though we don't do a lot of distributed systems.
There are many famous papers out there (search on HN, the topic gets posted frequently). I highly recommend you choose a topic, and just look up the important papers in that topic (google scholar is a great tool for checking citation numbers).