Hacker News Reader

Comment by jierenchen | Hacker News Reader

The funny thing about knowledge work is that it sits somewhere between additive and compounding.

Additive like: Let's say you shovel sand into a pit and you shovel 1% more than your peers every day for a year. By end of year, you will have shoveled 1% more.

Compounding like: You're a derivatives trader and make 1% more returns every day for a year than your peers. By end of year you will have made 3780% more.

Knowledge isn't perfectly compounding, but it must necessarily build upon previous knowledge. Abnormal levels of investment and dedication in learning definitely pay off in the long run and compound faster than you would think.

View on HN

Handy people can truly appreciate how true that statement is.

If you fix enough things, you build a collection of tools and techniques that let you fix just about anything. You also build a lot of confidence in your own repair skills.

Two years ago, I bought my first motorcycle. I was afraid to change the oil on it. I'm currently rebuilding a motorcycle engine. A lot of that knowledge carries to bicycles and cars, so in a sense, it compounds.

Great idea. As a beginner i struggle with this. Since you have thought about this, Any tips on how to achieve the compounding? Thank You.

What I've found is that the real challenge for a beginner is making continuous and sustained progress. The key number in the (1.01)^365 equation is the ^365 part. Do something difficult every single day.

Beyond just sticking with it, you also need to continually challenge yourself. Avoid staying into the comfort zones that fear and ego will shunt you into.

These are very difficult to do as a beginner because you're going to encounter so many demoralizing roadblocks. I still remember when I first started writing code. It was incredibly painful. Things that now take me minutes would take days.

The real key here isn't some technique that will make the learning easier, it's in getting the emotional fortitude to push through these struggles. Your struggles will be unique and it's impossible for me to prepare you with solutions for every novel challenge you face. "Ask not for lighter burdens, ask for stronger backs" and all that jazz. There's a lot of resources online, esp. on Youtube, about increasing mental discipline. Cold showers, fasting, mental discipline, stoicism, etc. I recommend investing some time into trying these techniques for improving pain tolerance.

Every fact worth learning will be useful in the application of some particular skill, and will be of little use outside that context. Skills are the part of this equation that compound with each other, and sometimes in unintuitive ways; the more and varied mental skills you’re able to acquire, the easier it gets to learn new ones.

Spend time looking for absolutely well curated, well reviewed learning texts regarding a topic that interests you, often in the form of a university course or a blog on a specific topic. Then dedicate time every day to go through it, really be present, make notes and finish. Try learning approaches like spaced repetition learning.

If you want to solidify your knowledge, make a 30-min talk for your peers about the topic. Commit to make it perfect and be prepared for their questions.

And remember that friendship must be actively maintained.

Make more mistakes. I learned to cook by messing up dishes. I've messed up enough dishes to know how not to mess up.

You have to be comfortable with making mistakes and being bad at things, because it happens a lot when you're just getting started.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com