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There's one takeaway - no pun intended - that leaps out from this. Learn. To. Cook. I run a small, scrappy company that's been in startup mode multiple times

There's one takeaway - no pun intended - that leaps out from this. Learn. To. Cook. I run a small, scrappy company that's been in startup mode multiple times over the last 20 years. Being a good cook might well be the most valuable skill I've used over those years. It lets you drop to very low personal expenditure very easily - far lower than you could manage on all but the junkiest of ready food - whilst still eating well and keeping your health up. Thinking about it, would a "How To Cook For Hackers" video / ebook / webseries be of use or interest to HN? With the right instrumentation, absolutely anyone can learn to cook nutritious, tasty, cheap meals.

tegeek 12y ago
It also helps your brain to release stress & depress. Over the years I've discovered that cooking is the most enjoyable hobby that saved me going into constant stress & depress.
- frownie 12y ago
  Amen. As a "hacker", I think a lot, all of the time. So I cook to think about something else. Washing the dishes without dishwasher is also a moment where I let my mind wander. Definitely not some time lost (to be honest I don't enjoy washing the dishes as much as cooking, of course, but I feel that connecting my brain on something "easy" is rahter good for me, else I'd jump on my computer right after eating...) stf
  - tegeek 12y ago
    I actually learned almost entire lambda calculus, partial application, currying & tons of other theoretical CS while cooking. I usually buy a book (these days I'm reading "Elements of Programming") read a chapter and then build the mental model while cooking. Cooking is a double edge sword for me.
  - ruidelgado 12y ago
    I've never thought of it like that. That comment helps, thanks.
- chao- 12y ago
  Same here w.r.t. destressing. And when I need to cook but am not particularly in need of the mental break, I'll load up Ruby Rogues or another dev podcast and get some learning or inspiration added to the mix.
- ruidelgado 12y ago
  Thanks! I really hope I get to that level. I don't enjoy it so far, but I will do it until I do.
mseebach 12y ago
> Thinking about it, would a "How To Cook For Hackers" video / ebook / webseries be of use or interest to HN? What's the hacker angle on cooking? In my experience, cooking is much more of a craft than an intellectual exercise, which doesn't make it very 'hackable'. Personally, I'd recommend start with something like these [1][2] - good, fast, cheap, nutritious food has been focus for many others than hackers, for quite a while. 1: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/category/books/jamie-s-15-minute-meals/ http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/category/books/jamie-s-15... 2: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/columns/dinner_tonight/ http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/columns/dinner_tonight/
- MrMattWright 12y ago
  http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Chef-Learning-Anything/dp/0547884591 http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Chef-Learning-Anything/dp/0... is quite fun and as much a book about learning to learn as about cooking. It's sort of a hackers guide to cooking. Or agreed...Jamie is a good start too. One of the original ones (http://www.amazon.com/Return-Naked-Chef-Jamie-Oliver/dp/0718144392/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420632858&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=the+return+of+hte+naked+chef http://www.amazon.com/Return-Naked-Chef-Jamie-Oliver/dp/0718...) got me started.
- ncarroll 12y ago
  I always thought the hackable angle on cooking is patterns. A whole lot of stuff that you might cook for everyday eating is, in fact, a pattern and once you know that, you can riff off whatever is in your fridge. Take soup, for instance. You need a certain amount of liquid, veggies and meat are optional in their type and amounts and you need to apply the correct methods and tools. I've had a domain and plans to write about this for years but never gotten around to it. Maybe 2015 is the year - even casual interest around here would hitch it up on my priority list.
  - wanderingstan 12y ago
    I second this. For years I thought recipes were secret inalterable incantations. Once I realized that there were basic patterns (soup, casserole, curry, etc) I found joy in "hacking" food. It then became a challenge to use the contents of my fridge in the tastiest way.
ruidelgado 12y ago
You're absolutely right and thank you for your suggestions! I would totally see a "How To Cook for Hackers" video series.
borski 12y ago
You may enjoy a Pantelligent: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hevans/pantelligent-intelligent-pan-cook-everything-perfe https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hevans/pantelligent-int...
- aw3c2 12y ago
  Prominently displaying the quote by pg while the whole thing is YC backed felt dishonest to me.
TarpitCarnivore 12y ago
> Thinking about it, would a "How To Cook For Hackers" video / ebook / webseries be of use or interest to HN? With the right instrumentation, absolutely anyone can learn to cook nutritious, tasty, cheap meals. The need for cheap, healthy and delicious meals isn't mutually exclusive to "Hackers." In fact there are many sites out there that have this aim already. One such site is called Budget Bytes [1] which my wife and I use all the time. 1: http://www.budgetbytes.com/ http://www.budgetbytes.com/
- thenomad 12y ago
  Very true - there are lots of excellent cooking resources out there already. I'm a fan of Delia Smith's stuff, personally. "Hackers" / startup guys / whatever you want to call them tend to have similar patterns of thought, which can be applied to cooking to make it easier to learn. For example, we tend to get on well with science and chemistry, which means that it may be easier to teach high-quality meat cookery based on Mailliard reactions, denaturing of proteins, conversion of connective tissue, and so forth. Hence the question of whether a specifically focused course might help or appeal to the HN crowd - despite the many cookery courses out there, I do see people (like the OP) mention that they haven't found cooking easy to learn.
  - TarpitCarnivore 12y ago
    > For example, we tend to get on well with science and chemistry, which means that it may be easier to teach high-quality meat cookery based on Mailliard reactions, denaturing of proteins, conversion of connective tissue, and so forth. These things are fine to learn, but they're not essential to learning how to cook. Knowing about the connective tissues isn't going to suddenly make you better at cooking a steak or braising short ribs. Time, practice and patience is what's going to help. Realistically the easiest and simplest way for anyone to cook is with a crock pot. There are a million recipes out there for basic crock pot cooking. And even better it lets you make large enough batches for multiple days.
    - thenomad 12y ago
VLM 12y ago
I'm not entirely disagreeing, but learn WHAT to cook. Woe is me, I cannot bake a cake from scratch and my souffle always collapses, well, off to McDonalds for a double cheezeburger. OK, well, its pretty hard to mess up the "cooking" involved in making a salad. Oh you want a snack instead of a meal and its too hard to scratch bake homemade cookies so you'll just drive to krispie kreme and eat a dozen donuts, nope, go eat a carrot. Let me describe the "cooking" steps in preparing a raw carrot snack. Wash off the dirt. Optionally cut off the green end or just don't eat it. If you're lazy and wealthy you can buy a bag with carrots in it where this advanced "cooking" has been taken care of for you. I can provide similar "cooking" recipes for grapes, apples, pears, bananas, cherries, blueberries and many more. Meat is microscopically more complicated, but not much worse. Put raw chicken parts in slow cooker. Do not lick hands until after washing them. Dump BBQ seasoning packet (for those who can't handle mixing 8 or so cheap, practically free, dry ingredients by themselves...) on chicken. Put cooker on high for 5 hours, or follow packet directions. Its about that hard. Another "what to cook" problem is you'll get into huge arguments with people addicted to junk food, because taco bell 35% "meat", which they call beef filling and there have been lawsuits filed to forbid them from calling it "beef", in a shell, is a lot cheaper than seared kobe beef tenderloin, and thats the only option for cooking at home, therefore its too expensive to cook anything at home, so welcome to taco bell for all meals. Edited to add another common anti-pattern heard continuously on HN is insisting on comparing fake food to out of season organic imported hydroponic food. I live near blueberry country so I'm used to paying about $2/pound once a year. Yet out of season, you can easily pay over $15 per pound. Invariably someone will use as an example, blueberry flavored kool aide vs out of season organic hydro grown imported blueberries at $15/pound at whole foods, which isn't all that fair. My brilliant solution to the annual variation in blueberry prices is not to eat them when the price is above $5 or so per pound. And I can and freeze them. Freeze them on a cookie sheet THEN bag them so they don't clump up.
- thenomad 12y ago
  I'd completely agree. In fact, I'd say a big part of learning to cook is learning what to cook, what not to cook, and why.

tegeek 12y ago

It also helps your brain to release stress & depress. Over the years I've discovered that cooking is the most enjoyable hobby that saved me going into constant stress & depress.

frownie 12y ago
Amen. As a "hacker", I think a lot, all of the time. So I cook to think about something else. Washing the dishes without dishwasher is also a moment where I let my mind wander. Definitely not some time lost (to be honest I don't enjoy washing the dishes as much as cooking, of course, but I feel that connecting my brain on something "easy" is rahter good for me, else I'd jump on my computer right after eating...) stf
- tegeek 12y ago
  I actually learned almost entire lambda calculus, partial application, currying & tons of other theoretical CS while cooking. I usually buy a book (these days I'm reading "Elements of Programming") read a chapter and then build the mental model while cooking. Cooking is a double edge sword for me.
- ruidelgado 12y ago
  I've never thought of it like that. That comment helps, thanks.
chao- 12y ago
Same here w.r.t. destressing. And when I need to cook but am not particularly in need of the mental break, I'll load up Ruby Rogues or another dev podcast and get some learning or inspiration added to the mix.
ruidelgado 12y ago
Thanks! I really hope I get to that level. I don't enjoy it so far, but I will do it until I do.

mseebach 12y ago

> Thinking about it, would a "How To Cook For Hackers" video / ebook / webseries be of use or interest to HN? What's the hacker angle on cooking? In my experience, cooking is much more of a craft than an intellectual exercise, which doesn't make it very 'hackable'. Personally, I'd recommend start with something like these [1][2] - good, fast, cheap, nutritious food has been focus for many others than hackers, for quite a while. 1: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/category/books/jamie-s-15-minute-meals/ http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/category/books/jamie-s-15... 2: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/columns/dinner_tonight/ http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/columns/dinner_tonight/

MrMattWright 12y ago
http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Chef-Learning-Anything/dp/0547884591 http://www.amazon.com/The-4-Hour-Chef-Learning-Anything/dp/0... is quite fun and as much a book about learning to learn as about cooking. It's sort of a hackers guide to cooking. Or agreed...Jamie is a good start too. One of the original ones (http://www.amazon.com/Return-Naked-Chef-Jamie-Oliver/dp/0718144392/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420632858&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=the+return+of+hte+naked+chef http://www.amazon.com/Return-Naked-Chef-Jamie-Oliver/dp/0718...) got me started.
ncarroll 12y ago
I always thought the hackable angle on cooking is patterns. A whole lot of stuff that you might cook for everyday eating is, in fact, a pattern and once you know that, you can riff off whatever is in your fridge. Take soup, for instance. You need a certain amount of liquid, veggies and meat are optional in their type and amounts and you need to apply the correct methods and tools. I've had a domain and plans to write about this for years but never gotten around to it. Maybe 2015 is the year - even casual interest around here would hitch it up on my priority list.
- wanderingstan 12y ago
  I second this. For years I thought recipes were secret inalterable incantations. Once I realized that there were basic patterns (soup, casserole, curry, etc) I found joy in "hacking" food. It then became a challenge to use the contents of my fridge in the tastiest way.

ruidelgado 12y ago

You're absolutely right and thank you for your suggestions! I would totally see a "How To Cook for Hackers" video series.

borski 12y ago

You may enjoy a Pantelligent: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hevans/pantelligent-intelligent-pan-cook-everything-perfe https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hevans/pantelligent-int...

aw3c2 12y ago
Prominently displaying the quote by pg while the whole thing is YC backed felt dishonest to me.

TarpitCarnivore 12y ago

> Thinking about it, would a "How To Cook For Hackers" video / ebook / webseries be of use or interest to HN? With the right instrumentation, absolutely anyone can learn to cook nutritious, tasty, cheap meals. The need for cheap, healthy and delicious meals isn't mutually exclusive to "Hackers." In fact there are many sites out there that have this aim already. One such site is called Budget Bytes [1] which my wife and I use all the time. 1: http://www.budgetbytes.com/ http://www.budgetbytes.com/

thenomad 12y ago
Very true - there are lots of excellent cooking resources out there already. I'm a fan of Delia Smith's stuff, personally. "Hackers" / startup guys / whatever you want to call them tend to have similar patterns of thought, which can be applied to cooking to make it easier to learn. For example, we tend to get on well with science and chemistry, which means that it may be easier to teach high-quality meat cookery based on Mailliard reactions, denaturing of proteins, conversion of connective tissue, and so forth. Hence the question of whether a specifically focused course might help or appeal to the HN crowd - despite the many cookery courses out there, I do see people (like the OP) mention that they haven't found cooking easy to learn.
- TarpitCarnivore 12y ago
  > For example, we tend to get on well with science and chemistry, which means that it may be easier to teach high-quality meat cookery based on Mailliard reactions, denaturing of proteins, conversion of connective tissue, and so forth. These things are fine to learn, but they're not essential to learning how to cook. Knowing about the connective tissues isn't going to suddenly make you better at cooking a steak or braising short ribs. Time, practice and patience is what's going to help. Realistically the easiest and simplest way for anyone to cook is with a crock pot. There are a million recipes out there for basic crock pot cooking. And even better it lets you make large enough batches for multiple days.
  - thenomad 12y ago

VLM 12y ago

I'm not entirely disagreeing, but learn WHAT to cook. Woe is me, I cannot bake a cake from scratch and my souffle always collapses, well, off to McDonalds for a double cheezeburger. OK, well, its pretty hard to mess up the "cooking" involved in making a salad. Oh you want a snack instead of a meal and its too hard to scratch bake homemade cookies so you'll just drive to krispie kreme and eat a dozen donuts, nope, go eat a carrot. Let me describe the "cooking" steps in preparing a raw carrot snack. Wash off the dirt. Optionally cut off the green end or just don't eat it. If you're lazy and wealthy you can buy a bag with carrots in it where this advanced "cooking" has been taken care of for you. I can provide similar "cooking" recipes for grapes, apples, pears, bananas, cherries, blueberries and many more. Meat is microscopically more complicated, but not much worse. Put raw chicken parts in slow cooker. Do not lick hands until after washing them. Dump BBQ seasoning packet (for those who can't handle mixing 8 or so cheap, practically free, dry ingredients by themselves...) on chicken. Put cooker on high for 5 hours, or follow packet directions. Its about that hard. Another "what to cook" problem is you'll get into huge arguments with people addicted to junk food, because taco bell 35% "meat", which they call beef filling and there have been lawsuits filed to forbid them from calling it "beef", in a shell, is a lot cheaper than seared kobe beef tenderloin, and thats the only option for cooking at home, therefore its too expensive to cook anything at home, so welcome to taco bell for all meals. Edited to add another common anti-pattern heard continuously on HN is insisting on comparing fake food to out of season organic imported hydroponic food. I live near blueberry country so I'm used to paying about $2/pound once a year. Yet out of season, you can easily pay over $15 per pound. Invariably someone will use as an example, blueberry flavored kool aide vs out of season organic hydro grown imported blueberries at $15/pound at whole foods, which isn't all that fair. My brilliant solution to the annual variation in blueberry prices is not to eat them when the price is above $5 or so per pound. And I can and freeze them. Freeze them on a cookie sheet THEN bag them so they don't clump up.

thenomad 12y ago
I'd completely agree. In fact, I'd say a big part of learning to cook is learning what to cook, what not to cook, and why.