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Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

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Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#311

Post by 2-718-281-828 »

muzani wrote: post #29

Pasta and sauce are not meant to be separate. Once you cook the pasta, drain it, and immediately toss with the sauce. This is part of the reason it was meant to be al dente, to absorb and deliver the flavor of the sauce better. Unlike rice, it's fine to "soak" pasta in the sauce; it expands when freshly cooked but not when cool. Also most sauce recipes are probably overcomplicated. Most need less than 5 ingredients.…

and the secret spice of any sauce is ... sugar. yes, I'm very sorry. thank me later

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#312

Post by ariekachler »

Dismissing people as undesirable without any thought of why they became the way they are. It's very easy to quickly make up your mind about someone who you don't like without asking yourself "why did this person became such an a-hole or someone you just don't want to have any relation with". I have realized that most of these people have had lives that have made them whatever negative adjectives I would give them.

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#313

Post by arcticfox »

bxhsjbaian wrote: post #255
yamtaddle wrote: post #79

Not using an electric toothbrush. First time I used one it felt like I'd had a proper dental cleaning. An extremely half-assed effort with that kind of brush beats a thorough one with a manual brush. I thought they were a gimmick, but no, they're amazing.

I switched back from an electric toothbrush to a regular one. My biggest issue withthe electric tooth brushes, distractions. You have 2 mins, 30 seconds for each quadrant. If while I brush someone talks to me e.g. what do you want for breakfast, or you see something that distracts you e.g s spec of dust on the mirror that you quickly clean up. I end up feeling like I didnt do a good job on one of the quadrants. Yes y…

This reasoning is completely foreign to me.

You’re ditching it because sometimes you lose track of the time (and don’t want to push the button again) for something that doesn’t have a timer at all?

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#314

Post by LanceH »

throwawaysalome wrote: post #214

Monopoly. If the player elects not to buy the property he lands on, it gets auctioned to the other players. This oft unfollowed rule makes the game 100x more fun when followed.

That and free parking doesn't pay anything. Number of houses/hotels is also limited to the number that came with the game.

Play by the rules and the game will actually come to an end.

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#315

Post by jameal »

Expecting other people to reach out to me without making any real effort myself.

At some point I heard this thought experiment: If you could only have one, which is more important: To love or to be loved?

Now I understand that if I want to receive love and connection that I have to be able to give it. This shift has strengthened so many of my relationships and helped me build new ones as well.

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#316

Post by notacoward »

Multiple people beat me to the shoelace one, so here's one I don't see yet: running. At 48, I had hated running practically since I had first been able to do it, but I was in a situation where I decided to give it another try. I quickly figured out why I had hated it. I had been doing it wrong all my life. A little reading taught me about pacing and body lean and foot landings, and then ... well, it still kinda sucked TBH. But it sucked a lot less, in the way that anything hard will suck, and I've been able to stick with it year-round for almost nine years since. Still amazes me that I spent more than four decades doing something so basic so wrong. So much for being a smart guy, I guess.

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#318

Post by colordrops »

micheljansen wrote: post #307

I think I was in my late twenties when I found out I had been tying my shoes wrong all my life. There is a correct and an incorrect way to do it. This affects not just how the knot looks (straight vs crooked), but also how easily it becomes untied: https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/theres-a-better-way-to-tie-...

This has been a huge game changer for me since I switched as well

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#319

Post by kingnothing »

xwowsersx wrote: post #201
ralmidani wrote: post #125

Putting off an annual checkup with a PCP (I’m 42, and the last PCP I had was a pediatrician). I had long suspected my cholesterol and triglycerides were high due to family history and my excessive love for cheese, and last week that suspicion was confirmed. I’m now more resolute than ever on lifestyle changes (exercise, less red meat, getting most of my calcium from 2% milk). On the bright side, I also got reassuranc…

> less red meat IIUC, they no longer believe that lipid cholesterol levels are directly correlated with intake of dietary cholesterol. See, for example: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/what-should-you... > The biggest influence on blood cholesterol level is the mix of fats and carbohydrates in your diet—not the amount of cholesterol you eat from food. > Although it remains important to limit the amount o…

Red meat is a carcinogen according to the WHO.

https://www.iarc.who.int/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/pr240_E....

https://worldanimalfoundation.org/advocate/farm-animals/para....

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#320

Post by fedeb95 »

fedeb95 wrote: post #297
muzani wrote: post #29

Pasta and sauce are not meant to be separate. Once you cook the pasta, drain it, and immediately toss with the sauce. This is part of the reason it was meant to be al dente, to absorb and deliver the flavor of the sauce better. Unlike rice, it's fine to "soak" pasta in the sauce; it expands when freshly cooked but not when cool. Also most sauce recipes are probably overcomplicated. Most need less than 5 ingredients.…

The following is well known by Italians, but apparently not the rest of the world so I'll post here. I'll use italian names whenever I don't know the english ones so you can search them and make a cool impression on friends. This is the base of any tomato based sauce: 1. Choose your soffritto base. Onion or garlic are fine, more exotic variations include scalogno or porro. 2. Choose your tomato. Canned, fresh, whatev…

This is the basic: many variations are possible, like heating oil before putting in the onion, onion cooking temperature, adding spices (but the only one I really like added is pepper). Also risottatura times can vary: some recipes are so extreme as cooking the raw pasta directly in the sauce, but unless you're making those specific recipes this is not recommended. A good time is 4 minutes, also 1 is good, if you want you can skip risottatura but at least do a copule of turns to pasta with sauce to mix everything together.
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