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What Is the Most Valuable Thing You Can Learn in One Hour?

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Re: What Is the Most Valuable Thing You Can Learn in One Hour?

#271

Post by Cephalopterus »

justaguyhere wrote: post #206
riffraff wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is generally useful and true, but it was more so when boring and safe investments (e.g. government bonds) were paying significant interests. As of now, a 10y US treasury bill will pay less than 2%, and 2% compounded is still not much ("your $1000 saved today will become $1999 if you don't touch it for 35 years!"). Learning to save in general is probably the more fundamental information, imho. EDIT: obviously inv…

There are places where you get 5-10% interests on fixed deposits (mostly Asian countries). At approx 7%, you can double your money in 10 years. At 10%, you can double in 7 years approx and so on. It all depends on where one is living, I suppose. I can't find anything in the US market though - bank interest rates are a joke, treasury/bond % is too low. Stock market is on fire, but most stocks are so expensive that it…

You shouldn't be comparing nominal returns between markets, what you should be comparing is the inflation adjusted real returns. That's why even if Japanese banks offer nearly no interest the currency is deflating and as a result holder might end up with a net profit

Re: What Is the Most Valuable Thing You Can Learn in One Hour?

#272

Post by sandov »

dcolkitt wrote: post #191

I don't know about the most valuable. But the most impressive thing (at least to the average person) to learn in an hour is probably either juggling or lock-picking.

In that same vein: learning to pronounce Hangul (Korean writing system). You won't understand a thing of what you're saying, but it's kinda fun anyway.

Re: What Is the Most Valuable Thing You Can Learn in One Hour?

#273

Post by zackmorris »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #268
mathieutd wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with this. You should pay your higher interest rate debt first.

I agree, you should pay the highest interest rate debt first. But, you should also not miss out on higher returns on your money to pay debt. Specifically in the US, I mean 401k matching from your employer. If they match 50% on your first 6%, then the 50% return on that money is going to be greater than a 22% credit card debt.

Thank you, I never made that connection! (not being sarcastic)

So the government allowing usurious interest rates is a ploy to incentivize working for employers, similarly to how employer-provided insurance works.

So one of the steps to liberate us from corporate work is to limit interest rates along with offering public healthcare.

Not saying this is good or bad, just something to keep in mind while viewing the issues from alternate perspectives.

Re: What Is the Most Valuable Thing You Can Learn in One Hour?

#274

Post by capableweb »

77544cec wrote: post #190
caseyw wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's all good, but can you quit it? Sorry, had to be cheeky!

For those who don't get it: https://stackoverflow.blog/2017/05/23/stack-overflow-helping...

Shocking stats about trying to exit vim:

> In the last year, How to exit the Vim editor has made up about .005% of question traffic: that is, one out of every 20,000 visits to Stack Overflow questions. That means during peak traffic hours on weekdays, there are about 80 people per hour that need help getting out of Vim.

Re: What Is the Most Valuable Thing You Can Learn in One Hour?

#275

Post by tcoff91 »

OGWhales wrote: post #251
xwdv wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vim commands are more than just typing. It’s searching, deleting, replacing, selecting, moving entire lines of code. I can get to any location in a massive codebase within seconds . I can drop the cursor to any character I see damn near instantly. I can construct entire macros on the fly and repeat them endlessly until I’m satisfied and destroy repetitive tasks. I can move entire sections of code to anywhere else I p…

I'm trying to learn vim, thanks to this thread. How do I "drop the cursor to any character I see damn near instantly." I'm digging moving things around quickly and all that. But I don't know how to get my cursor where I want it quickly.

First of all, I recommend that you turn on relative line numbers AND also normal line numbers. This means that the line the cursor is on will show the absolute line number, but lines above and below will show how many lines away they are from the current line. :set relativenumber :set number

This makes it really easy to get to the line you are looking at. You look at the relative line number, see it's 9 lines above, so you start out with pressing 9k to jump up 9 lines.

Let's say you're trying to get to an instance of the 'a' character. The character is to the right of your cursor, so you press fa to jump to the next instance of the 'a' character. However, it turns out that there are multiple instances of the 'a' character before the one you are trying to get to. So you repeatedly press ; to keep going to the next 'a' character until you get to the one you want. You've accidentally passed the one you want, so you press , to go back one.

So all together you something like 9kfa;;

Also related to the f motion are the F, t, and T motions. I use the t motion all the time. t and T are like f and F but they put you on the character before the one you specify. Very useful for jumping to the first character before the next parentheses and things like that.

purely for putting the cursor exactly where you want it there are more powerful things like the emacs acejump plugin or easymotion for vim but they aren't all that necessary IMO.

Re: What Is the Most Valuable Thing You Can Learn in One Hour?

#276

Post by rayhendricks »

soygul wrote: post #161
Moodles wrote: post #10

First aid is good. Also general investing in index funds like VTSAX and VTIAX. It is so simple, yet most people I run into on a regular basis just save their money in a checking account earning 0.01% APY. Follow the reddit personal finance flowchart. Learn about Roth and HSAs and ESPP and the benefits of diversification. We’re literally talking about multiples of your net-worth over your life if you invest compared t…

> reddit personal finance flowchart Woa it's really good. Didn't even know that it existed. For future wanderer: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/commontopics

It’s a good explanation for someone who is just trying to understand how personal finance works.

What I think would be more valuable would be to list college majors by future earnings perennial and also the idea of compound interest. So many people who graduate college still don’t have any idea about this. But as a society we’ve been drilling into everyone’s heads that going to college is a good idea when most people it is questionable at best.

Re: What Is the Most Valuable Thing You Can Learn in One Hour?

#277

Post by GnarfGnarf »

Here it is: when your wife/girlfriend comes to you with a problem, she is not looking for you to propose a solution.

She will work out the problem herself. She just needs you to be a sounding board. Listen and nod. Be patient. Pay attention. Shut up unless you are asked a direct question.

This is the secret to a successful relationship.

(Married thirty-three years)

Re: What Is the Most Valuable Thing You Can Learn in One Hour?

#278

Post by scottmotte »

ethanbond wrote: post #14

Taking this also as a bit of an Ask HN: Easily the Tiny Habits habit formation regime created by Stanford researcher BJ Fogg. A lot of the addictive design patterns you see in apps like Snapchat, Instagram, etc. are built off his research. Quite nefarious use of psychology for advertising/“engagement”, but the plus side is you can use the same strategies to build habits you want to build. Step 1: Consider the habit y…

> take on stress

What a wonderful mental model. Thank you for that phrasing.

My tendency, and I think most people's tendency around me, is to discuss stress in terms of how to limit it.

Taking it on changes my relationship to it (at least in my mind). Taking it on, gives me control over it.

Re: What Is the Most Valuable Thing You Can Learn in One Hour?

#279

Post by zozbot234 »

GnarfGnarf wrote: post #277

Here it is: when your wife/girlfriend comes to you with a problem, she is not looking for you to propose a solution. She will work out the problem herself. She just needs you to be a sounding board. Listen and nod. Be patient. Pay attention. Shut up unless you are asked a direct question. This is the secret to a successful relationship. (Married thirty-three years)

> She just needs you to be a sounding board. Listen and nod. Be patient. Pay attention.

I think figured out the actual problem there. Your wife/girlfriend needs a rubber ducky!

Re: What Is the Most Valuable Thing You Can Learn in One Hour?

#280

Post by Reedx »

nordsieck wrote: post #149

IMO, the single most important thing I've ever learned is: try to be effective when you're communicating. I used to feel an obligation to correct other people if they had false beliefs. This was not an endearing trait, and even worse, I was never particularly successful at convincing the other people. One day, I read a passage from "How to make friends and influence people". It said something along the lines of: "The…

Yeah, it also helps to frequently remind yourself of the times you thought you were entirely correct, only to later discover you were completely wrong. It happens to everyone, many times throughout our lives. Though we tend to forget them.

Another thing that I've found helpful is to adopt a frame of mind where you don't want to be wrong for a moment longer than necessary. Therefore open to being incorrect, and would rather be corrected than continue being wrong. When your model has been updated, view it as a positive.

Steelman instead of strawman. Seek the strongest opposition to your idea.

It can be hard to do, but worth trying as much as possible.

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