How to tie my shoes. If if loop around the other way than I normally do, the bow stands parallel to the ground plane instead of vertical and gets tighter over time instead of looser and undone. I don’t have to constantly retie my shoes anymore since figuring that out.
Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
391–400 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#392Staying warm. In the winter, I used to stay warm by turning up the thermostat. Then I discovered (via HN) the Low-Tech Magazine article, "Insulation: first the body, then the home." [0] The article argued that it's much more efficient to focus on heating yourself rather than your whole living space. I invested in high-quality wool clothes that I wear in layers and warm slippers. Now, I keep my home about 5 degrees F…
Yep. Took me over 20 years, but I got there eventually.
A sweater and warm socks are game changers, as is a warm winter jacket and a good scarf. Add some tea and candles and the winter isn't half bad anymore. It's much easier to get through the cold months if you don't dread being outside.
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#393My father said to me: "I like a shower better than a bath, but ugh, that first blast of cold water when you turn it on is always a bit shocking." Me: "Why don't you turn on the shower, wait for it to get warm, then get in?" Him, realizing he'd been using a shower wrong for over 6 decades: "... huh."
If you have a sink near the shower, run it full blast on hot to flush the cold water from the pipe.
This mainly saves time, but it also saves water if your shower mixer valve doesn't go to 100% hot. (It's generally good to keep the hot limiter below 100%, to avoid full-body scalding.)
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#394Pasta 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.…
Someone introduced me to making red sauce by basically just cooking tomatoes for as much time as I have, and it's now my go-to red sauce. Really amazing how good just well-cooked tomatoes are. https://www.seriouseats.com/frankies-tomato-sauce-recipe
Well that should also be how they make tomato sauce you buy in the store, it's just filtered so you don't get seeds and large pieces of peel in it.
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#395Typing. I've always been a self-taught hunt-picker, but for some reason, as a teenager I picked up a terrible technique that involves using thumbs for keys to the side of the spacebar. Later in life I trained myself into touch-typing (and then to use Colemak), but for some reason I can't seem to shake off this annoying thumb bit.
Is using your pinky really any better?
The only way to truly get an economically "correct" typing posture is to use a keyboard that actually has keys under your resting hands' fingers. That means using a keyboard that was designed to match the shape of hands, not the shape of a 19th century typewriter.
There is no ergonomical way to use a traditional keyboard. All you can do is pick your favorite compromise. Using a better layout (like Colemak) helps a lot, but it can't fix the whole problem.
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#396My doctor had me work on increasing the amount of water I drink in a day until I hit the recommended amount, and journaling the result.
Turns out, I had spent most of my life dehydrated. I feel so much better when I drink a ton of water.
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#397I used to assume the religious people were missing something and missing out on the latest and greatest. Now I am seeing that often it's us the non-religious that have lost something of value and are trying to replace it with things that don't work as well.
I was raised in a Christian community and went to a private Christian school all the way until graduation, though really stopped believing all the stuff by 11th grade or so. And it's wild the parallels I see between the modern political climate and religion. It really seems that in the process of masses leaving the church, they've gone on to adopt the exact same behaviors but worshipping other things - government, ad…
You might like Jordan Peterson's podcast. He talks often about the human need to believe in something outside of ourselves. This need can be satisfied by many things, not all of them good.
Dennis Prager is pretty good on this front too. But, he thinks that religion is a necessity for a happy life.
I don't follow any faith. There are too many religions for any one to be "correct". But I do see religion as a good moral guide, particularly in times of hardship.
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#398When making jam or cooking anything to keep for later, not touching the inside of the lid after to boil it to kill germs! I learned that when making jam with a friend who's a doctor in a hospital and it's so easy to accidentally touch something to then comes into contact with the food. Also, to properly kill germs, you need to cook stuff for 7 minutes...
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#399I 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-...
For more on how to lace and knot shoes, see Iain’s Shoelace Site:
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#400Pasta 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.…
Relatedly, I spent far too long cooking my pizza sauce, treating it like other red sauces.
You can just mix tomato sauce, oregano, salt, and pepper, then slap it on the pie. It cooks in the oven. No need to pre-cook it.
[EDIT] unless you're gonna use it for dipping. There's a reason places have a separate "marinara", often, for that purpose. Even giving your pizza sauce a quick simmer will make it a lot better for dipping. Raw pizza sauce is... palatable, but not great, for dipping.