Taking this also as a bit of an Ask HN:<p>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 <i>want</i> to build.<p>Step 1: Consider the habit you want to build, e.g. “I want to meditate 10 minutes every day”<p>Step 2: Make it the absolute smallest possible version of itself; so small that it requires zero motivation/willpower, e.g. “I want to close my eyes and take 3 deep breaths every day”<p>Step 3: Place this habit <i>immediately</i> following an existing habit, e.g. “After I brush my teeth in the morning, I will close my eyes and take 3 deep breaths”<p>Step 4: Do this activity, and after each time you do it, reward yourself with a small celebration. It sounds ridiculous but I literally just say “Victory!” and force a smile on my face. The small rush of good-feeling-chemicals will keep you coming back.<p>I’ve used this method to pick up daily meditation, journaling, and flossing (acquired simultaneously!) after years of struggling to pick up any one of them. The first two habits have been monumental in my ability to learn, take on stress, and improve virtually every one of my relationships.<p>A shameless plug for BJ because he’s a great guy: his book, Tiny Habits, happened to be released <i>today</i> (what a coincidence!). I haven’t read it but if this is remotely interesting to you, I’m sure it’ll be extremely useful and engaging. It’s on Amazon, you can find it!<p>Sidenotes:<p>* Don’t worry about the habit scale down, it will naturally grow over time into its fuller form. I spent a month of the year just flossing 1 tooth each night (ridiculous, I know!), then 5 months just flossing 1 row (better!)<p>* Part of the trick is finding a good habit to put your new habit after. You probably already have a lot more habits than you know, since the whole point of a habit is to be automatic.
IMO, the single most important thing I've ever learned is: try to be effective when you're communicating.<p>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.<p>One day, I read a passage from "How to make friends and influence people". It said something along the lines of:<p>"The point of an argument is to convince the other person of something. If what you're doing is not working, then do something else."<p><i>BAM</i><p>I'm not perfect, but these days, I try to listen a lot and speak a little. And the little I do speak is designed to appeal, as much as possible, to my audience.<p>As a small bonus: I really try not to get drawn into arguments with people who just like to argue (instead of those arguing in good faith). "OK" is an amazing response to shut those kinds of interactions down in a hurry. You can't out box the heavy bag.
Gratitude. Look around you and consider all of the things that are going well for your. Your nice remote gig, your fridge full of your favorite beer, the sunny day outside, your healthy family.<p>Do that at the start of every day and really meditate on awesome it is that you have those things. Sincerely and quietly thank whoever you feel is responsible for them.<p>You'd be amazed how that 3 minute exercise changes your perspective.
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 to saving in a normal bank account. No, it is not gambling. It is riskier not to invest in the long-term.
Here it is: when your wife/girlfriend comes to you with a problem, she is not looking for you to propose a solution.<p>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.<p>This is the secret to a successful relationship.<p>(Married thirty-three years)
Take an hour to sit in a quiet room without any stimulation. You'll learn a lot about your mental situation, and understanding where you are is really helpful for understanding where to go (if anywhere).
How to speak (Professor Patrick Winston from MIT)
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unzc731iCUY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Unzc731iCUY</a>
Hi all,<p>This is an article that I've composed based on a previous HN discussion (<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21581361" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21581361</a>) and other discussions on the net.<p>There are things like cooking, first aid & CPR, setting up a Raspberry Pi, cable management, etc. that you can learn in an hour and can make a meaningful difference in your life. Both article and video mention many topics and gives tips on them.<p>* Article: (as posted above) <a href="https://quanticdev.com/articles/most-valuable-thing-to-learn-in-one-hour" rel="nofollow">https://quanticdev.com/articles/most-valuable-thing-to-learn...</a><p>* Video: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F_srpzXQ6o" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F_srpzXQ6o</a><p>If you have any ideas, I will add them to the article.
Vim.<p>I think it can be in the list as well. It takes a long time to properly learn. But one hours is defiantly enough to get to know the main Vim bindings, to be as productive as in other editors. In the end it makes you super productive.
Compound interest. Simply starting early in some boring find/investment and not obsessing over daily stock prices will do wonders for one’s health and finances
This year I learned to knit and I would say it took about an hour of watching videos and just trying. Of course like the article mentions it wasn't until more practice that I became pretty good at it. If anyone has thought about knitting, it is very easy and I find it relaxing on my mind to just take my focus off of something.
If you have a laptop with a trackpoint, become proficient with it. You can switch between mouse and keyboard without moving your fingers away from the home row.
Original poster here:<p>I am thrilled with the discussion up to this point. I cannot update the video any more but I will incorporate the suggestions into the article. Thanks for all the tips!
Kinda weird to say that learning cooking takes an hour. Maybe learning one dish?<p>I guess the nice thing would be to have actual articles that would show some principles in an hour
For me in 2019, it is learning to get started to write and just write.<p>Ideas to long form content that is fully developed, fully formed and fully proofchecked content is an extremely laborious process.<p>PG had a tweet out once ... just write ... publish or not publish is secondary. (something like that). I tried to implement and do that now.<p>Just beginning to write can be learned easily in an hour and the return on effort is, IMHO, fantastic. It can commercially be pretty useful but the mental clarity itself makes it worth it.<p>The second is meditation ... read The Mind Illuminated ... just the first stage (the author lays out a lot of progressive experience). Jump straight to the first stage chapter and just do it and repeat! I don't even try to progress further in practice ... it's pretty tough! The first stage is itself worth it.
Pivot tables in Excel.<p>Manager came to me and showed me this spreadsheet he spent 2 weeks making. ( he was very proud ).<p>I asked why he didn’t use a pivot table. He’d never heard of them.<p>60 seconds later I had recreated his report from scratch.<p>I’m a programmer and I still use them to try out ideas before going to code.
Learn how to get out of debt!!!<p>Step 1: List your debts from smallest to largest regardless of interest rate.<p>Step 2: Make minimum payments on all your debts except the smallest.<p>Step 3: Pay as much as possible on your smallest debt.<p>Step 4: Repeat until each debt is paid in full
The difference between necessity and sufficiency, particularly in regard to causality. This series of questions:<p>Assuming A actually causes B:<p>Can A alone cause/explain B? (sufficiency)<p>Can anything else also cause/explain B other than A? (necessity)<p>There's a lot more than that, but those are the basics and they'll get you far with critical thinking. Pretty much any logical fallacy in those never-ending "lists of logical fallacies" can be rephrased in terms of causality, necessity, and sufficiency.
Say something good to someone that has been hard/impossible to say in the past. (learning to communicate by doing it)<p>Many people can just say how much they appreciate someone in their life or "I love you".<p>It may start to open up something in your relationship that either has been lost or missing.<p>It's hard to do, but a good exercise in fighting against self destruction and takes less than an hour.
Watch this 5 times then spend ten minutes passing it on:<p><a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gD_dZvPwAj0" rel="nofollow">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gD_dZvPwAj0</a><p>Questions in this thread about real estate, "investing" etc. Comprehend it with the above.
One thing i‘m missing is a bit a generic one, but here goes:
What are the principles that make a democracy?<p>(e.g. freedom of opinion, freedom of press, separation of powers a.k.a. checks and balances, Rule of Law etc.)
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.
I can’t criticize the list because it’s so hard to think of something that might fit in but it seems exercise should have a role in one of the categories.