Two Things

http://www.csun.edu/~dgw61315/thetwothings.html

by coupdegrace • 14 years ago

117 46 14 years ago

csun.edu

twiceaday• 14 years ago

Brevity is the soul of wit.

cwe• 14 years ago

Brevity is... wit.

zeynalov• 14 years ago

Dentistry:

1. Everybody hates Dentists.

2. Dentists hate everybody.

AznHisoka• 14 years ago

#1 is true until you have unbearable pain and he gets rid of it for u

philwelch• 14 years ago

I like the concept, but some of the particular examples posted here are questionable or just plain wrong.

ISeemToBeAVerb• 14 years ago

Agreed, I like the concept but much of the responses are just flippant. There are a couple useful gems in there though.

zdw• 14 years ago

Two things about Hacker News:

1. You will spend too much time here

2. You will discover noprocrast

jpdoctor• 14 years ago

1. You will discover noprocrast 2. It won't make a difference.

sukuriant3• 14 years ago

Computer Science:

1. Your code always does exactly what you tell it to and never anything more.

2. You probably don't actually know what you're telling it to do.

dmm• 14 years ago

An alternative 2. Solve big problems by breaking them into smaller problems.

sukuriant3• 14 years ago

I actually like that one a lot more.

Alternatively: 2. Underneath, everything is a graphing problem

ryanbraganza• 14 years ago

3. It's never a bug in the compiler (except when it is).

sukuriant3• 14 years ago

You know, I sincerely considered that one, but the contradiction in the sentence made me afraid to put it up there...

6ren• 14 years ago

"There are only two hard things in Computer Science: cache invalidation and naming things" - Phil Karlton http://people.famouswhy.com/phil_karlton/ (NB: "hard" things)

While we're being flippant: Every problem in computer science can be solved by adding another level of indirection - except for the problem of too many levels of indirection

jasonkostempski• 14 years ago

and off-by-one errors http://martinfowler.com/bliki/TwoHardThings.html

pjscott• 14 years ago

Electrical engineering:

1. Maxwell's equations

2. Information theory

It's amazing how much you can derive from just these two things, if you're willing to do a lot of math.

gm2• 14 years ago

The answers in the article are pretty cool, except for the programming ones. Just like in programming, people try to get cute with conciseness and end up making pretty unfunny jokes. Once you have heard the word "idiot" in anything having to do with programming, subsequent mentions are yawners.

But the whole idea of narrowing down everything to two core principles is awesome; so +1 from me, certainly.

gmisra• 14 years ago

I suspect that "the answers are pretty cool, except for <the ones regarding the subject I know a lot about>" is itself the most common reaction.

gm2• 14 years ago

No, there were a few about topics such as economics (one each?), and a ton about programming.

cgs1019• 14 years ago

Set Theory:

1. ZF

2. C

Set Theory:

1. Everything is a set

2. Not everything is a set

ZephyrP2• 14 years ago

Axiom of Choice has been on shaky ground for the past 50 years and really only continues it's existence through inertia. The second one has some deep wisdom in it though :)

tikhonj• 14 years ago

Two things about minimalistic programming:

1. lambdas 2. there is no second thing

digitalboss• 14 years ago

Wow - this is awesome and uber old, good find....adding to it.

Two things about Social Media:

1. Content is King

2. Everyone's an Social Media expert :P

ZephyrP2• 14 years ago

Mathematics:

1. Everything you thought you knew about the fundamental structure of the universe before will only make you ashamed.

2. It's all just vanity

Tichy• 14 years ago

Hate to break it to the HN crowd, but for most subjects there are really more than two things you need to know. This article is nonsense.

kevinh• 14 years ago

I don't think you read the article. It is only saying that there are two things you need to know in jest. If you looked at the article, you'd see that many fields, such as CS, have more than one set of "two things" that you need to know.

sopooneo• 14 years ago

I will not comment on whether most fields can really be boiled down to just two notes, but you'll notice that the author states that one of the "things" about his rule of two things, is that everyone you ask will give you a different two. Since the multiple CS entries are all (I think) from different people, they do not violate the author's assertion.

jacques_chester2• 14 years ago

I think it's meant to be humorous, perhaps a light-hearted source of insight.

Boiling complex fields down to flippant levels of brevity helps the summariser to develop deeper understanding. It can also save a lot of time.

See also: "Desert island" lists of books, movies, music, art, software etc.

mahmud• 14 years ago

Statistics:

Central Limit Theorem

Law of Large Numbers.

larrydag• 14 years ago

Statistics: 1. Correlation does not lead to causation 2. We like to think it does

dsr_• 14 years ago

Startups:

Your product must be something people want.

Your product must be something you can make.

jaekwon2• 14 years ago

on Two Things:

1. There are only two things you need to know for any subject

2. When there appears to be more than two, divide the subject

jaekwon2• 14 years ago

on The Correctness of Two Things:

1. There are only two things you need to know for any subject

2. Sometimes there are exceptions

jacques_chester2• 14 years ago

Shorter list:

1. There are two things you need to know for two things.

2. One of them is recursion.

discipline• 14 years ago

MIT graduate I met 30 years ago told me he had a professor tell him that there are 3 things in life:

  1. things divisible by 3 
  2. things not divisible by 3
  3. other things

pazimzadeh• 14 years ago

For Biology, "Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny" is wrong. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recapitulation_theory

Instead I would say: 1. Some things can replicate better than others. 2. Things replicate imperfectly, causing change over time.

envane• 14 years ago

When I got to that quote, I laughed and stopped reading. This list has clearly not been fact checked.

akazackfriedman• 14 years ago

Wow, I've never seen an article both prove and disprove itself so well simultaneously.

Clanan• 14 years ago

Worth reading for this:

The Two Things about Biology: 1. Evolution is the process through which genetic structures that are better equipped to reproduce viable copies will tend to proliferate. 2. Except for the Platypus.

dreamyogi• 14 years ago

On life (from the movie "How Do You Know"): 1. Figure out what you really want. 2. Learn how to ask for it.

twopi• 14 years ago

Two things about The Game:

1) You are playing The Game 2) You just lost The Game

alanfalcon• 14 years ago

1) 391. 2) XKCD is your friend.

morsch• 14 years ago

Obviously the premise of "two things" is fairly ridiculous, but I bet it's an interesting thing to ask people at parties. I cannot stand party small talk, and the most fun I've had socialising with strangers were when I ask them straight questions like these.

Another thing I ask people, just out of curiosity since it's not insightful at the same level, is to just go through their average day. Sort of like a bottom-up description of their work/study/whatever live, instead of the top-down answer you get when you ask "so, what do you do".

Some people may think it's weird, though.

gfodor• 14 years ago

Two Things involved in making life changes, like exercise or learning:

- Do it today

- Repeat

Mavyrk• 14 years ago

Teaching:

1. There are no safe assumptions.

2. Relate.

tate• 14 years ago

Programming:

1. As it gets complicated add indirection/abstraction

2. Its about talking to people not machines

Two Things

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