Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#831

Post by maerF0x0 » Wed, Nov 20, 2019, 8:03 PM UTC

Your true hourly income (something like days worked * average hours - costs of your job) and then automate/outsource anything worth less than that so you can focus on increasing your income/salary.

Hypothetical -- 240 days / year , 10hr days ("gotta hustle!") , + 2 hours of commuting, +30 mins of preparation you wouldnt do if it werent for your job ==> 3k hours per year.

say you make 90k per year => $30 an hour.

   * Automate healthy meals for $15 per saved hour? Do it.
   * Automate maid services for $25 per saved hour? Do it. 
   * Fix your care in 8 hours when the shop quotes you 3*125 an hour? => Do it.
   * Clip coupons for an hour to save $12? Skip it.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#832

Post by kleer001 » Wed, Nov 20, 2019, 8:03 PM UTC

undoware wrote: post #768

This post occasioned me to coin "dunning-krugerbait". If you think you have cooking sussed in an hour, you're doing it very wrong

OP said "learn" not "master"

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#833

Post by SllX » Wed, Nov 20, 2019, 8:05 PM UTC

SkyMarshal wrote: post #821

mantap wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IPA is also amazingly useful if you want to learn another language or even just learn to say someone's name correctly. Having a notation for sounds helps you to understand and speak foreign languages, because you can think of what someone is saying in IPA and not in some flawed English transcription.

What's IPA? Googling that is gonna show a of links for beer.

Also a little life hack that has served me well for over ten years, and rarely fails me: Wikipedia’s disambiguation page for those hard to Google acronyms. The format will be something like:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPA_(disambiguation)

If there’s a long list, generally it will be organized by context.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#834

Post by 0xffff2 » Wed, Nov 20, 2019, 8:06 PM UTC

JMTQp8lwXL wrote: post #576

harrisonjackson wrote: post #16

CPR/Choking/First Aid course is probably close to an hour. How to change your own oil - probably lots of other money-saving home and auto DIY things... Speed reading and memory tricks can be a multiplier on learning other skills. How to use automation tools like Zapier and IFTTT - again, a force multiplier. You might be interested in this book https://www.amazon.com/First-20-Hours-Learn-Anything/dp/1591... - the auth…

I've always been under the impression that for people living in multifamily housing, changing oil yourself isn't an option. It isn't "your" driveway (everyone else parks their car in the same garage), and I've never seen anybody do it. Lease terms might actually prevent oil changes, but I haven't confirmed that any place.

My lease in the bay area explicitly forbids it. That said, my neighbor does all kinds of work in the carport and no one has narced on him yet.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#835

Post by Jarwain » Wed, Nov 20, 2019, 8:06 PM UTC

wyxuan wrote: post #767

slowhand09 wrote: post #763

Learn how to get out of debt!!! https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/how-the-debt-snowball-method... Step 1: List your debts from smallest to largest regardless of interest rate. Step 2: Make minimum payments on all your debts except the smallest. Step 3: Pay as much as possible on your smallest debt. Step 4: Repeat until each debt is paid in full.

Dave Ramsey had been called out for questionable advice, and it's not something you could change and learn in an hour

From what I understand, there are two ways to optimize the climb out of debt: optimizing for financial efficiency and optimizing for motivation

Financial efficiency typically calls for paying off the debt with the highest interest first, followed by the next highest, so on and so forth. This minimizes the amount a user has to pay in the long term. However, some people have trouble following this kind of abstract strategy, staying motivated and continuing to pay off their debts.

Dave Ramsey's advice focuses on optimizing for motivation. Pay off the smallest debts first, get those easy wins before tackling the harder debts. In the long term, this might be more expensive for the individual, but for some it is a more effective technique for staying motivated and continuing to pay off their debt.

Ultimately, people should do whatever works for them. Either way is a valid path to becoming debt free

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#836

Post by Anon84 » Wed, Nov 20, 2019, 8:07 PM UTC

maerF0x0 wrote: post #831

Your true hourly income (something like days worked * average hours - costs of your job) and then automate/outsource anything worth less than that so you can focus on increasing your income/salary. Hypothetical -- 240 days / year , 10hr days ("gotta hustle!") , + 2 hours of commuting, +30 mins of preparation you wouldnt do if it werent for your job ==> 3k hours per year. say you make 90k per year => $30 an hour. * Au…

This should be calculated on the "take home" pay not the pre-tax value

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#837

Post by larrywright » Wed, Nov 20, 2019, 8:08 PM UTC

RobertRoberts wrote: post #212

Pandabob wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this as a worthy skill to have, but there aren't many dishes you can become really good at making just in an hour. At least anecdotally, just the process of learning to make a great french omelette is pretty brutal.

Watch this, incredibly simple method that made me actually like omelettes. (I hated them growing up) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s10etP1p2bU "Really good" is subjective. It's the very notion something is possible and that you can do it that I see as valuable. Practice makes perfect, nothing can be perfect the first time you learn it.

This video with Gordon Ramsay is just as good. These two videos together will teach you basically everything you need to make scrambled eggs and omelettes.

https://youtu.be/PUP7U5vTMM0

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#838

Post by Pandabob » Wed, Nov 20, 2019, 8:10 PM UTC

52-6F-62 wrote: post #769

Pandabob wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I second this as a worthy skill to have, but there aren't many dishes you can become really good at making just in an hour. At least anecdotally, just the process of learning to make a great french omelette is pretty brutal.

Binging with Babish has a great series on basic dishes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBGoJUxxRqU He covers the American omelette which is my go-to. Usually with spinach, red bell pepper, red onion and sometimes mushroom filling. Often with some old cheddar and they are monstrously simple to make mediocre and not too difficult to make very well.

I'm a big fan of Babish! I'd also recommend the Bon Appetit Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/BonAppetitDotCom and Chef John from Food Wishes https://www.youtube.com/user/foodwishes

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#839

Post by AnimalMuppet » Wed, Nov 20, 2019, 8:12 PM UTC

enriquto wrote: post #525

If it is the last hour of your life, learning music is the certainly wise choice given by Socrates. I don't see how it can be different for any other spare hour.

If it was the last hour of my life, I'd spend it making sure that certain people knew that I loved them.

Re: Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?

#840

Post by larrywright » Wed, Nov 20, 2019, 8:13 PM UTC

mrzool wrote: post #773

RobertRoberts wrote: post #176

How to cook for yourself, really, really good food. I no longer crave restaurant food, and all of the really important things I learned about cooking take just the time to read it, hear about it and then try it. All without any special hardware. A few examples: 1. Cooking jasmine rice: rinse it first, 1 c. water to 1 c. rice ratio. Bring to boil, turn down heat to lowest setting. Leave lid /the entire time/. Fluff th…

Happy to see this rose to the top. I mean, knowing about compound interest and how to coil cables is cool and all, but the art of preparing food for oneself and others is by far the most important skill listed in here. As someone once said, “if you don’t know how to cook you’re loosing at life”.

It’s also a relatively easy way to impress a potential romantic partner. Learn how to make a few basic dishes (and perhaps a decent breakfast if you’re optimistic).

I’m years beyond being young and single, but being able to cook and being able to dress yourself (and for the occasion) will set you apart from the crowd.