
Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing that you've ever learned? - _kyran
Not just in terms of the latest framework. But interested whether it&#x27;s a life lesson, concept, language, theory, tool or trait.
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patio11
In terms of raw impact on life, probably the Japanese language.

In terms of "clearly weaponizable in one's business/career", it's "measurement
and leverage" from PG's wealth essay.
[http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html](http://paulgraham.com/wealth.html)

In terms of "things which I wish I had known when I was much younger", I'll
pick "In most things you will become the average of your five closest friends,
so choose your peer group carefully." and "Dating is a sales and marketing
exercise, with all that that implies." (Granted, telling myself that when I
knew nothing about sales or marketing probably wouldn't have helped that
much.)

~~~
_kyran
Can you elaborate on how Japanese has benefited you? I'm heading over there
for a few weeks next year and am considering learning Hiragana/Katakana before
I go.

~~~
patio11
Subsequent to learning the language I immigrated to Japan, worked in a
Japanese company for a few years (not recommended), married my wife (highly
recommended, but sorry, she's taken), and in general built a happy little life
here for myself which would not have happened absent learning the language.

If you have a little bandwidth to study Japanese prior to coming you'll get
the highest bang for your buck from drilling self-introductions and basic
conversations ("$ITEM kudasai.", "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu", "$LOCATION doko
desu ka?") until you're blue in the face. Knowing just hiragana and katakana
is of limited utility for navigation, since the places where it suffices will
likely be English-friendly. (They're great to learn for mind expansion, just
tough to operationalize as a tourist.)

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jasonkester
"You are more valuable to your employer than they are to you".

That is, once you prove you're good at writing software, you can spend the
rest of your career picking and choosing between employers as they suit your
whim. There is very little you can do to sabotage your ability to find good
gigs in this market (again, once you have established yourself as capable of
doing the work).

That means you can treat work as a source of capital to bootstrap the rest of
your life, picking it up and dropping it as need be. As you get more valuable,
you can ramp down the number of months you need to work to save up the runway
you need to last out the rest of the year. And you can spent the rest of your
time doing whatever you want.

Personally, I spent a dozen years of that extra time traveling the world,
climbing rocks, and building the software product business that's finally
letting me skip the "employer" part entirely.

Start doing that when you're 25 and you will have a very fun 30s and 40s. Good
luck!

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kleer001
That most people rarely think of you. People tend to think most of themselves,
you included, me included. Not family, or loved ones of course, but the 95% of
the mass of people we see on any particular day.

It's very easy to see one's own shabbyness of clothes or behaviour. Well,
because you're right there, up close, all the time. Now, do I recall any
stains on someone's pocket or thread hanging down on a dress. Maybe, but it's
rare, and I have to be looking quite closely.

This isn't license to be smelly and gross, not bathing and wearing clothes
with great greasy stain all over them. Instead it's about the +/-5% of wiggle
room we get from not being under the great sharp spotlight that it feels like
we're under because, well, we're ourselves.

All that said, it's a great idea to pay special attention to one's self for an
interview. Because you'll be under great scrutiny at that point, naturally.

------
insoluble
In terms of financial success, technical skills and know-how cannot overcome
poor social skills or lack of connections, no matter how good you are
technically. Outside of rare exceptions, social skills and networking are thus
inescapable requirements for financial success. Money is by-and-large a social
construct that has only limited correlation with quantity _or_ quality of
work. In my early years, I unfortunately thought that hard work alone equaled
financial success.

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cpach
Reading tptacek’s and patio11’s advice on salary negotiation has improved my
personal finances quite a bit.

