Ask HN: What are the highest compounding life habits?
24 comments
I'm on the other side of it. I'm horrible at this. I can confirm that being horrible at this is putting a big limiter on my potential output.
IMO this is more important than exercise. I find exercise very important as well, and easier to implement (even when sleep deprived), but resting well simply gives more bang for your buck.
IMO this is more important than exercise. I find exercise very important as well, and easier to implement (even when sleep deprived), but resting well simply gives more bang for your buck.
The only thing to keep track of is to not push yourself such that you then stop resting well and break the positive feedback loop.
What is the number one gamechanger for sleep?
Probably the easiest and most painful trick cure for insomnia is to wake up really early (around 4 AM), take a cup of coffee, and by night time, you'll fall asleep.
Learning to meditate helps too. A lot of us are kept awake by stress or caffeine. Meditation helps to reduce stress levels, often to the point you fall asleep.
Learning to meditate helps too. A lot of us are kept awake by stress or caffeine. Meditation helps to reduce stress levels, often to the point you fall asleep.
Not OP, but definitely being consequent in when you go to bed. It'll make falling asleep heaps easier.
The second thing is probably making sure you get enough. Yes some people thrive on less than 8 hours of sleep. No that isn't you. Keep in mind too that 8 hours is a minimum. Aim to spend at least 8.5 hours in bed to account for time spent wrestling with blankets and actually falling asleep.
The second thing is probably making sure you get enough. Yes some people thrive on less than 8 hours of sleep. No that isn't you. Keep in mind too that 8 hours is a minimum. Aim to spend at least 8.5 hours in bed to account for time spent wrestling with blankets and actually falling asleep.
Exercising. Can't stress on this enough! It's known to improve mood, lend a hand in fighting depression and helps your brain health and memory[1] so that you can find other compounding habits
[1] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-benefits-of-exercise - this article has citations embedded.
[1] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/10-benefits-of-exercise - this article has citations embedded.
I think it was Shannon, or Knuth, or someone of that stature in a lecture, where he said the following (paraphrased from memory, I'm sorry for butchering this whole quote, I hope the idea gets across):
At Bell Labs, I figured out that the best researchers worked 9 hours instead of 8. I wondered why that was and realized that the final 9th hour compounds over time. In the beginning, you won't produce more research output, but 10 years from now, you will.
At Bell Labs, I figured out that the best researchers worked 9 hours instead of 8. I wondered why that was and realized that the final 9th hour compounds over time. In the beginning, you won't produce more research output, but 10 years from now, you will.
Given the Bell Labs mention, you may be thinking of Hamming's talk “You and Your Research” (https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/YouAndYourResearch.html), where that idea is mentioned:
> Now for the matter of drive. You observe that most great scientists have tremendous drive. I worked for ten years with John Tukey at Bell Labs. He had tremendous drive. One day about three or four years after I joined, I discovered that John Tukey was slightly younger than I was. John was a genius and I clearly was not. Well I went storming into Bode's office and said, “How can anybody my age know as much as John Tukey does?” He leaned back in his chair, put his hands behind his head, grinned slightly, and said, “You would be surprised Hamming, how much you would know if you worked as hard as he did that many years.” I simply slunk out of the office!
> What Bode was saying was this: “Knowledge and productivity are like compound interest.” Given two people of approximately the same ability and one person who works ten percent more than the other, the latter will more than twice outproduce the former. The more you know, the more you learn; the more you learn, the more you can do; the more you can do, the more the opportunity - it is very much like compound interest. I don't want to give you a rate, but it is a very high rate. Given two people with exactly the same ability, the one person who manages day in and day out to get in one more hour of thinking will be tremendously more productive over a lifetime.
Slightly edited in the version published at https://d37ugbyn3rpeym.cloudfront.net/stripe-press/TAODSAE_z... (linked from https://press.stripe.com/):
> Now to the matter of drive. Looking around, you can easily observe that great people have a great deal of drive to do things. I had worked with John Tukey for some years before I found he was essentially my age, so I went to our mutual boss and asked him, “How can anyone my age know as much as John Tukey does?” He leaned back, grinned, and said, “You would be surprised how much you would know if you had worked as hard as he has for as many years.” There was nothing for me to do but slink out of his office, which I did. I thought about the remark for some weeks and decided that while I could never work as hard as John did, I could do a lot better than I had been doing.
> In a sense my boss was saying intellectual investment is like compound interest: the more you do, the more you learn how to do, so the more you can do, etc. I do not know what compound interest rate to assign, but it must be well over 6%—one extra hour per day over a lifetime will much more than double the total output. The steady application of a bit more effort has a great total accumulation.
Looks like there also exists a video of the talk: https://youtu.be/a1zDuOPkMSw
> Now for the matter of drive. You observe that most great scientists have tremendous drive. I worked for ten years with John Tukey at Bell Labs. He had tremendous drive. One day about three or four years after I joined, I discovered that John Tukey was slightly younger than I was. John was a genius and I clearly was not. Well I went storming into Bode's office and said, “How can anybody my age know as much as John Tukey does?” He leaned back in his chair, put his hands behind his head, grinned slightly, and said, “You would be surprised Hamming, how much you would know if you worked as hard as he did that many years.” I simply slunk out of the office!
> What Bode was saying was this: “Knowledge and productivity are like compound interest.” Given two people of approximately the same ability and one person who works ten percent more than the other, the latter will more than twice outproduce the former. The more you know, the more you learn; the more you learn, the more you can do; the more you can do, the more the opportunity - it is very much like compound interest. I don't want to give you a rate, but it is a very high rate. Given two people with exactly the same ability, the one person who manages day in and day out to get in one more hour of thinking will be tremendously more productive over a lifetime.
Slightly edited in the version published at https://d37ugbyn3rpeym.cloudfront.net/stripe-press/TAODSAE_z... (linked from https://press.stripe.com/):
> Now to the matter of drive. Looking around, you can easily observe that great people have a great deal of drive to do things. I had worked with John Tukey for some years before I found he was essentially my age, so I went to our mutual boss and asked him, “How can anyone my age know as much as John Tukey does?” He leaned back, grinned, and said, “You would be surprised how much you would know if you had worked as hard as he has for as many years.” There was nothing for me to do but slink out of his office, which I did. I thought about the remark for some weeks and decided that while I could never work as hard as John did, I could do a lot better than I had been doing.
> In a sense my boss was saying intellectual investment is like compound interest: the more you do, the more you learn how to do, so the more you can do, etc. I do not know what compound interest rate to assign, but it must be well over 6%—one extra hour per day over a lifetime will much more than double the total output. The steady application of a bit more effort has a great total accumulation.
Looks like there also exists a video of the talk: https://youtu.be/a1zDuOPkMSw
Ah yea! It was Hamming! I recognize the lecture.
Yup. This is like when people work 60 hours a week for their whole 20s. By the time they reach 30, anyone who wasnt working like that has almost no shot at catching up. Assuming they were actually productive..
Lift weights (plus some cardio). Start your day happy with what's looking back in the mirror.
It's become a foundation habit (a habit that is the basis for other habits), leading to healthy eating, a positive attitude, and stronger discipline.
I bought 5-50 bar bells (core home fitness) and a folding bench early this year and use FitBod for customized workouts and tracking streaks.
I used to be focused on cardio only (running and rowing) and adding weights was a game changer for me.
It's become a foundation habit (a habit that is the basis for other habits), leading to healthy eating, a positive attitude, and stronger discipline.
I bought 5-50 bar bells (core home fitness) and a folding bench early this year and use FitBod for customized workouts and tracking streaks.
I used to be focused on cardio only (running and rowing) and adding weights was a game changer for me.
Continually making some progress on areas of your life that are important but not urgent.
Actively learning from your mistakes and successes.
Orienting your life towards having the most energy available. Although time is the ultimate resource, the lack of energy will always be the first limiting factor. Therefore prioritizing health, sleep, exercise, and other such aspects will always pay off far more than what you sacrifice on them.
Actively learning from your mistakes and successes.
Orienting your life towards having the most energy available. Although time is the ultimate resource, the lack of energy will always be the first limiting factor. Therefore prioritizing health, sleep, exercise, and other such aspects will always pay off far more than what you sacrifice on them.
Interesting question these aren’t in any particular order, just wanted to see how many I could think of...
1. Technical Education / Skills
2. Core soft skills (for eg. Negotiation, selling, connection, etc.)
3. Developing Classic virtues (patience, focus, determination)
4. Long term relationships with solid people
5. Healthy habits and knowledge (exercise, diet, skincare, stretching)
6. Investing your money wisely / using debt wisely
7. Getting Adequate Sleep
8. Going on an “information diet”
9. Releasing past emotional trauma
10. Assessing your own strengths and weaknesses accurately
11. Hacking your mind’s experience reality to see through the subject / object duality
12. Avoiding addiction to stuff that doesn’t add value to your life
13. Thinking bigger
14. Regular and thorough Hand washing
15. Practicing gratitude
1. Technical Education / Skills
2. Core soft skills (for eg. Negotiation, selling, connection, etc.)
3. Developing Classic virtues (patience, focus, determination)
4. Long term relationships with solid people
5. Healthy habits and knowledge (exercise, diet, skincare, stretching)
6. Investing your money wisely / using debt wisely
7. Getting Adequate Sleep
8. Going on an “information diet”
9. Releasing past emotional trauma
10. Assessing your own strengths and weaknesses accurately
11. Hacking your mind’s experience reality to see through the subject / object duality
12. Avoiding addiction to stuff that doesn’t add value to your life
13. Thinking bigger
14. Regular and thorough Hand washing
15. Practicing gratitude
Learning how to cook. Its a great hobby and you get better every time you do it. Its a creative process and nothing is more relaxing for me after a long day spent staring at screens than cooking a nice meal.
Investing is one that is pretty easy to visualize/quantify. You could also say reducing unnecessary expenses and using that money to invest could be good too.
I'm not sure that there are many other things in life that truly compound. Pretty much any skill gets easier to do after you gain basic knowledge/practice of it (your knowledge seems to compound), but eventually it starts to plateau as you reach your knowledge/skill limit.
I guess you could view it from an overall process efficiency prospective and find the longest poll that could be reduced. Sleep is a huge one, but it's also important. You might be able to reduce this one by getting higher quality sleep but for a slightly shorter duration (better sleep habits, the right mattress, etc). That time (30-60 mins maybe) could be spent on productive things, like a new hobby or devoting more time to exercise and health. Exercise and health could be another overall efficiency factor (hence the 'compounding') - extending your useful years by staying in shape potentially gives you more overall time to devote to other activities.
I'm not sure that there are many other things in life that truly compound. Pretty much any skill gets easier to do after you gain basic knowledge/practice of it (your knowledge seems to compound), but eventually it starts to plateau as you reach your knowledge/skill limit.
I guess you could view it from an overall process efficiency prospective and find the longest poll that could be reduced. Sleep is a huge one, but it's also important. You might be able to reduce this one by getting higher quality sleep but for a slightly shorter duration (better sleep habits, the right mattress, etc). That time (30-60 mins maybe) could be spent on productive things, like a new hobby or devoting more time to exercise and health. Exercise and health could be another overall efficiency factor (hence the 'compounding') - extending your useful years by staying in shape potentially gives you more overall time to devote to other activities.
Pain tolerance.
You can increase your pain tolerance by pushing yourself physically and by doing martial arts. This decreases your aversion to pain and your risk tolerance increases. I find this compounds over time, and even if you take long breaks the pain tolerance is still there on some level. At least it is for me.
Saving (and passively investing) money
Working out
Proper sleep (should probably make your days more enjoyable and productive)
Spending money on experiences and memories (preferably with loved ones)
Reading books
Nutrition?
Working out
Proper sleep (should probably make your days more enjoyable and productive)
Spending money on experiences and memories (preferably with loved ones)
Reading books
Nutrition?
In what way does spending money on experiences compound?
Lessons learned (journaling)
Can you expand on that? I got journaling down but it’s not going anywhere.
Social distancing can have a compounding effect for people that are bad at managing relationships. If you just maintain space, most of your relationships can remain in neutral status for a long period of time. This is good for long term networking professionally.
Lately I’ve being doing worse because I compounded all these healthy (as healthy as can be) connections at work but fell into the trap of talking too much with them. Need to scale back and stick to the process.
I know this sounds sociopathic, but the amount of problems you can avoid by just shutting the fuck up and maintaining space (against all of our instincts to socialize) can be healthy for everyone.
This thing pays dividends in the long run since neither party will feel any which way about the other. If it wasn’t for HN, god knows how much of my bullshit I’d be dumping onto others.
Lately I’ve being doing worse because I compounded all these healthy (as healthy as can be) connections at work but fell into the trap of talking too much with them. Need to scale back and stick to the process.
I know this sounds sociopathic, but the amount of problems you can avoid by just shutting the fuck up and maintaining space (against all of our instincts to socialize) can be healthy for everyone.
This thing pays dividends in the long run since neither party will feel any which way about the other. If it wasn’t for HN, god knows how much of my bullshit I’d be dumping onto others.
Are you concerned that over time you will become unhealthily isolated?
Babies will usually cry because they're too tired to sleep and can't sleep because they're too tired from crying all night. Adults sort of fall into this pattern too, especially when they feel like they need to sleep more, and get too stressed out to sleep. Some of the most productive people and fastest learners know how to fall asleep as soon as they want to, and how to get enough rest.
Siestas too.
Besides sleep, there's relaxation in general. Social media is probably the worst - it floods the brain with things, that aren't all that relaxing, but some mistake it for relaxation because it's mildly entertaining and unproductive. Everyone has a form of relaxation that's refreshing for them, and a form that's unhealthy and addictive. I relax well with Netflix, but many feel stressed out with it and binge on bad shows.
The better you rest, the more you enjoy life, reduce depression, and the harder you can push yourself.