Ask HN: What types of knowledge are worth knowing? - bad_ramen_soup
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sethammons
I feel this question is overly broad. As I take it, it means, "what should I
know?"

It reminds me of the Robert A. Heinlein quote:

“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a
hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a
wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act
alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a
computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization
is for insects.”

A broad range of knowledge can scaffold together to reach new heights. Some
knowledge that at once seemed useless can come back later (in light of other,
newer knowledge) to become quite useful.

~~~
Jtsummers
> A broad range of knowledge can scaffold together to reach new heights. Some
> knowledge that at once seemed useless can come back later (in light of
> other, newer knowledge) to become quite useful.

This is synthesis, and to feed it you have to (as you point out) have a broad
range of knowledge. You don't need deep knowledge in every area, sometimes
just knowing the surface is sufficient. But by having a wide enough knowledge
base you can draw on those other areas when needed or make those random
observations that reduce seemingly intractable problems in one domain to
solved problems from another domain.

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beenBoutIT
If you're pragmatic and interested in being happy, I would recommend knowing
as little as possible. If you keep learning, there's a point at which you'll
know far more than a most people are capable of understanding. From that point
forward, communicating with most people will become progressively more
challenging and less satisfying. The finite pool of people that you can
communicate with effectively will shrink. To survive in the world you'll need
to actively work at dumbing your initial thoughts down to simple sentences
that don't require a broad range of knowledge to understand.

~~~
8bitsrule
If you're pragmatic and interested in being happy, I would recommend knowing
as much as possible. If you keep learning, you'll be able to understand much
better what motivates and hinders other people. The depth of your
understanding will enable you to convey complex but practical information in
everyday language. Your value as a helpful and effective teacher will be
widely recognized. The most effective writers also fall in this category.

~~~
jsoc815
I'm sorry to say that _beenBoutIT_ is spot on. As someone who actually values
learning about a broad range of things, I find the more I learn the fewer
people I can interact w/. This is because 1) it becomes more difficult to
tolerate the nonsense that the avg. person is steeped in; and 2) because
people aren't that interested in knowing things that contradict their imagined
existence, their perception of self.

> _Your value as a helpful and effective teacher will be widely recognized_

Not so much. Think of it w/respect to a bell curve. Most of the people on the
curve aren't going to give two hoots about learning. Of the rest, they may
thirst for knowledge, but may not appreciate that someone who isn't them has
what they perceive to be _superior_ knowledge. All of this is very
"interesting" to see play out when you start introducing 'variables' like age,
sex, ethnicity/race, even professional titles. And even if you are recognized
as being a "helpful and effective teacher," people will not take kindly to not
being able to access you _on demand_ , for the most obvious of mundanities.

I spare everyone a religious example and go w/one of my favorite scenes from
the Matrix trilogy. IIRC, in pt.II, there's the scene w/ the guy who betrays
Neo and co., because he hates his life in Zion. He wants to return to 'life'
_in_ the Matrix. He's seated @ a table with a 'steak dinner and a bottle of
red wine'. As he takes a bite of the steak, he mentions knowing that the steak
isn't really there, but he loves thinking that it is.

I find that character to be representative of a great many people. Sure there
are those who don't realize that there is a Matrix, but there are many more
who are aware of it, and purposefully choose to pretend otherwise. And they
don't take kindly to people saying anything that denies them that steak
dinner.

So, learn for your own fulfillment with the understanding that the cost is
quite high.

BTW, w/ regard to the OP, I think broad conceptual knowledge is best. Try to
know a little about many things so that you can dig into subjects as needed.

~~~
godelmachine
I agree with you and beenBoutIT

The Matrix scene you are referring to is “Ignorance is Bliss” scene.

~~~
jsoc815
Thanks for your support. The Matrix Trilogy, IMO, is highly underrated. The
'action' (and lack thereof in parts 2 & 3) really distracted people from
understanding what the whole thing was about. And of course, because of its
age, I meet many people who've never seen any of the films. Oh well, I guess.

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drakonka
I can't comprehensively answer this question as it is very broad, but one type
of knowledge that sprang to mind immediately when I read the question is
knowing what you don't know.

I think after we work with something for a long time it is easy to assume we
know almost everything about that thing, or at least everything that matters,
even though much of the time we are only exposed to a small subsection of it.
We may be very effective and knowledgeable in an area in the context of our
day to day work and lose sight of how much more there may be to learn about
it. This is a shame because we may be missing out on more exciting and useful
knowledge in an area we care about. Remembering that there is always more to
learn and recognising that we may not know as much as we think we do about
something is in my opinion important and can help guide further learning
decisions.

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Viliam1234
It is tempting to say "everything", but acquiring knowledge takes time, so you
need to prioritize. I would recommend the following areas: (note: the order
does _not_ imply priority; I would rather recommend to do this in parallel,
like get the most useful 20% of everything first and then go deeper)

* Keeping your body alive and healthy: what to eat, how to exercise properly, how to avoid diseases, how to avoid crime.

* Keeping your mind sane: how to think rationally, how to avoid mental traps (cults, scams, political mindkilling, superstition... i.e. various forms of manipulation and self-manipulation), what makes you happy and productive, how conditioning works.

* Gathering power: social skills, financial skills.

* Meta skills: how to acquire skills faster, prioritizing and managing your time...

And perhaps computer programming as a starting skill -- something that will
nicely pay your bills until you become sufficiently great at the remaining
skills.

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cottonseed
I feel like when people post on Ask HN, they should describe what they've
already done to answer the question. Many posts seem like the height of
laziness and the SN is terrible.

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tmaly
I think once could benefit well from learning about mental models and
cognitive biases. They affect how we think and make decisions.

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bsvalley
Learn how to learn. I think it'll be a great investment. If you can develop a
framework for yourself that will help you learn quicker and more efficiently,
you'll be able to add more stuff in your "knowledge" bag. How? I'd start by
googling "learn how to learn".

------
zaptheimpaler
Chasing knowledge for its own sake, without a broader goal is ultimately
useless. If it makes you feel good, go for it. If it makes you feel superior
and "smarter" than others, you are just feeding your ego.

Knowledge is best used in service of a bigger goal. If you have no goal, work
on that instead.

------
dugword
History. Of the world, of your country, of your profession and other
industries.

Things are the way they are because of how they used to be.

That context paints everything. The more you understand it, the better you
will be able to work within it, and predict what will happen next.

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motiw
Beyond your profession, I think history can be interesting, provide
perspective on current events, and contribute to a good conversation

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hacalox
Learn about philosofy of life (like stoicism for example) . This is a very
practical knowladge that will help you live a better and happier life. It
might also help you find what next you wanna learn.

------
Kagerjay
Depends what you want to achieve with that knowledge.

What I do care about is things in direct persuit of goals I wish to achieve. I
like building things, so naturally I graviate towards the following:

\- web & software development

\- math

\- computer science

This isn't to say I just learn those topics only. There are a number of other
fields that do not directly correlate to those topics, but the insight you
gain from it is beneficial. Things like music & music theory are a good
example, which ties into math.

Whenever I think of what is "worth" knowing I like to think of the Valve New
Employee Handbook. There's a diagram called "T-shaped" people based on Team
Fortress 2

Its on page 47 here.
[https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployee...](https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployeeHandbook.pdf)

Essentially, it states a person should have a large breath of knowledge of
many topics, but should have a specific depth of few related topics. Because
people naturally seek others with specializations, but you need to understand
other perspectives other than your own.

In this same example, my model "T" based model on the shallow side looks like
thusly. Each of these shallow concepts complement the other "core" skillsets
as well

\------------------------------------------------------------------

\- Welding & Woodworking & 3D modeling - It helps to know how to build
something with your own hands, there will come a time where you will need
this. It makes you realize that sometimes the best solutions are just
hardware-based, you don't need software

\- Understanding of how other industries work on a business-level, because the
knowledge is applicable anywhere. I do business case studies almost everyday,
industries include healthcare, nonprofit, education, restaurants, tech,
startups, service-based companies, oil & gas, simulation based training, 3PL
logistics, real estate, history, among many others. Knowing how other
industries work gives you a wide variety of tools to work with, because many
times solutions in one industry overlap with others.

\- Fixing things. I do my own plumbing and do my own car maintenance many
times. It relates to software development by having you getting used to
knowing how to work with other existing systems, and familiarzing yourself
with technical documentation across many things include reading AWS docs etc

\- Cooking. Knowing how to cook properly highlights the importance of
following directions properly before you mix up your own changes. You can't
build that amazing recipe until you've made the base version, and done A/B
testing for flavor enhancements. You can draw analogies to software A/B
testing as well

\- Art. Knowing how to draw helps you highlight the importance of sticking to
one convention. Much like coding, you don't want to change your styleguides
down the road. You need to know what type of art you are making - is it
building design using vanishing points, or something more freeform like a
portrait design? Its all about setting requirements and executing skillfully

\- Playing Musical Instruments. Music is important in teaches you discipline.
Unless you practice it everyday much like programming, you end up losing the
ability to play it well. There's other analogies to draw here as well, related
to math.

\- Fighting. I did Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai. Its all about
perspective and quick analysis when fatigued. You learn how you perform in
times or stress because your getting clocked in the face in a jab. You learn
about paralysis analysis pretty quickly here, and learn about project
management practices as a result

\- Video Games. I learned alot of things growing up here. What it taught me
related to my main interest is how many different perspectives go in making a
final product. There's storyboarding, art, design, QA testing, programming,
and much more. Software development is more or less the same, storyboarding is
userstories, art is UX, design is frontend, QA is unit testing/CI, programming
is backend. It might not be 1:1 but you get the point

\- TV Shows / Animes / Fiction. You can learn a lot of life lessons here as
well, assuming the plotline is realistic and believable. The military actually
recommends the fiction novel "Enders Game" as part of its reading list for
good reasons. [https://www.businessinsider.com/commandants-reading-
list-201...](https://www.businessinsider.com/commandants-reading-
list-2014-7#enders-game-by-orson-scott-card-4)

\------------------------------------------------------------------

There's many more fields you can draw analogies from. You gain wisdom learning
many different fields, and have a larger "catalog" of things to pull from to
know what is right and what is not.

Because you see so many things you'll just instantly know a lot of patterns.
For instance, if you've tried hundreds of software packages, you'll know there
is always a file menu bar uptop in every app. You'll know what the "window"
pane for pane customization is usually always the 2nd to last option in many
applications (adobe), and "help" is the last option here. The left pane is
almost always some sort of folder tree structure pane for navigating on the
larger scale. If its not its going to be a toolbar set instead.

If you learn adobe software suites, you'll know things like affinity designer
, sketch, etc are all based on the same sort of UX layout, but different.
Artboards will make sense, export personas, etc. If you learn one CAD package
like CATIA,SolidWorks is simple to understand. The underlying logic is the
same, and you realize its just applications of linear algebra.

Learning many fields makes learning other fields easier.

When you learn many fields you recognize the most important metrics that
matter. You'll look at an item, and see many use cases that others don't see.
A good example of this is an XBOX controller. You can buy a simulation
military grade controller for 1000xs that price, or an XBOX controller for
military controls. You can buy shelving, or buy cheaper shelving used at
restaurants that do the same thing. You can make pasta and bread using a
powerdrill with specialized attachments for 10xs less whatever it cost at
stores. Because it runs the same type of motor. You can use a restaurant
ticket rail as a paper holder. You can fix a coffee maker with inverter issues
by turning on a blender because its windings increases inductance of the
circuit the kitchen applies, filtering out higher frequencies used by a cheap
inverter _pulled from a hackernews comment_.

\------------------------------------------------------------------

You start to see how some items can be used in multiple applications. These
include things like magnets, zipties, 10 different types of tape _(industrial
double side sticky tape, friction, gaffer, painters, magnetic washboard,
ruler, duct, scotch, packing, note-colored tape)_ pinederby weights,
cardboard, paracord, plastic bags etc. A good example is in First Robotics
(e.g. students who compete in high school robotics), metal tape measurers are
commonly used as a pole extension arm due to the fact you can use actuate it
with just a gear pulley and still withstand its shape. You don't see items
anymore as simply just what they are at face value, but rather by their
functional properties (stick things together, store things) instead and meta
data (weight, size, etc).

You start to see how some software has many types of applications. Another
example is a macro app I use called phrase-express (similar to autohotkey /
applescript). Its used to transcribe medical data entry correctly. But its
used in so many other ways of automating, I use it to automatically write code
snippets, screenshot things, text macros, etc. I use my bookmarking tool
(pinboard) as a text backup of long posts I make, since it points to the right
URL. I CTRL+A, CTRL+C to save documents via text-clip management tool called
Ditto. I turn on captions on youtube videos all the time, so I can "speed-
read" the video at 2 to 16xs playback speed, depending on content complexity
and what I hope to get out of it.

You also realize that sometimes people use a piece of software for many
unintended uses. In videogames, sometimes these bugs become features _super
smash bros & iframes, street-fighter and block cancellation, speedrunning_.
Another good example is the omnibar on the browser, that was not its intended
use for using it as a google search. People will find to make things work for
them as best they can. People will make full blown SaaS solutions with just
excel, since that's all they know how to use.

You also realize the power of good formatting and storytelling. Mostly from
reading too much terrible fiction from terrible authors, but occasionally
finding some authors who make masterpieces. You take those ideas, and bring it
to your own writing.

You start to realize who is and who is not worth following as well. You start
to see who shares the same mindset as you, even if you've never met them. This
could be tiny bits of metadata on someones github repo, all the way to just
what they put on their blog. Many companies naturally use this as part of
their cultural fit and hiring processes.

\------------------------------------------------------------------

As a result you are able to unique generate novel ideas that sometimes are
better than anything you find off the shelf. Sometimes these ideas become
plugins and extensions that many users use, othertimes it becomes a business
that no one else has thought of that you end up doing instead. Because you
already are familiar with so many things, you don't need to do any research.
Competition is validation. You can filter out what is garbage advice and what
is not. You've seen what works & what does not, its pure instinct now. You
rely on your own set of experiences across many fields to make the assessments
for you. You can instantly crowd source solutions to ideas on reddit, youtube,
amazon etc, without ever asking anything, because its all there already. You
learn when reinventing the wheel is a good thing and when its a bad thing.

Learning different fields is one of the fastest way to gain wisdom and
experience to make better informed decisions

~~~
acutesoftware
Well said, but of course it takes many years of learning to achieve this
breadth of understanding - but completely worth it.

And I am still surprised by how many programmers also love woodwork.

~~~
Kagerjay
It does take a long time and its an ongoing process everyday, but I find
learning new things to be fun.

I don't do much woodwork right now _don 't have space for a woodshop_, but I
really enjoy watching Matthias Wandels creations here.
[https://www.youtube.com/user/Matthiaswandel](https://www.youtube.com/user/Matthiaswandel)

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krapp
Carnal.

And all the others, too.

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meiraleal
Biology / Nutrition / Fitness and the basic of medicine.

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godelmachine
IMHO only that knowledge which can be directly applied as a real world
application.

~~~
lainon
Might you elucidate why you think so?

~~~
godelmachine
Because the ROI is tangible and corporeal.

