Hacker Remix

Ask HN: Low Effort but Useful Activities

8 points by helloworlddd 2 days ago | 17 comments

Some activities need little mental effort such as playing certain video games. With practice, you improve at them. The same idea applies to useful skills like typing or solving maths problems, which have practical benefits. What other activities could someone do that are either helpful for an engineer or generally useful and need little thought?

daemonologist 2 days ago

This isn't quite what you're looking for, but you could label data. It's low effort (usually) and creates something useful, although it doesn't necessarily benefit you personally.

aynyc 12 hours ago

Cooking. You start by following recipes, and slowly absorb the techniques and taste into your daily life.

You can start cooking relatively cheaply. I do remember having sharp knifes and a good cutting board, some decent pans and you'll have a good time.

jfil 2 days ago

Pick up garbage at a local semi-wild area/walking path. Pay attention to nature and how the seasons change, as you pick up garbage. Enter trees and animals you spot into the iNaturalist app.

Ivan92 6 hours ago

I would generalize it to seeing trash in your daily walk. Not saying to to grab every piece of garbage, but even just one piece of trash tossed/recycled appropriately would make a difference.

turtleyacht 2 days ago

Copy paragraphs from textbooks. Time-consuming but forces one to slow down and think.

Memorization mnemonics. Shuffling through index cards to associate numbers to words. See Mind Performance Hacks (2006) from O'Reilly.

Make notebooks with cheap filler paper, high-capacity stapler, and duct tape. Use G2 pens or archival quality ink.

Make your own index cards: fold in half and then into thirds; cut those into rectangles. (Still on the lookout for good storage.)

Shade paper with crayon. Carpet is smoother than desks. Envelopes are a good way to iterate color combinations. Pick colors at random.

Convert mailed coupons into CSS. You get salable graphic designs and color palette for free.

Break down milk cartons for free cardstock.

Prime cardboard with paint for a cheap canvas.