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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?

#521

Post by scohesc »

blahedo wrote: post #351
mtlynch wrote: post #33

Staying 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…

I've known this one for years and years but it always surprises a few of my students (who come from warmer climates) when I mention it: The scarf goes on the inside of the coat. If you put the scarf on the outside, like you think you've seen in TV and movies, it's just decoration. Put it on the inside and it's an insulation layer and it blocks the cold air from blowing down your front. Absolutely game-changing. (Also…

I found out if I tie the scarf around my face with the knot at the back of my neck, so the scarf covers the front of my face (mouth/nose/part of ears) and the loose ends loop around and get tucked between my jacket and my chest - I've been infinitely warmer since!

Hollywood doesn't know what winter is :P

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

#522

Post by viggity »

xyzelement wrote: post #19

I 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.

You've discovered a (large) group of people who have torn down Chesterton's Fence without fully appreciating why it was there to begin with. Same with people who "smash the (patriarchy|capitalism)", they end up extremely discontent to realize that other things end up filling the vacuum and they're often worse, much worse.

https://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Chesterton%27s_Fence

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

#523

Post by raldi »

mabbo wrote: post #35

My 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."

There's a clever product that you can screw inline with the showerhead that lets cold water through at full blast but when the water gets hot, something pops (presumably using metal-expansion properties the way old thermostats did) and the flow is reduced to a trickle, so you only use just enough water to keep it hot.

Then when you get in, you pull a cord and it releases the full pressure of nice hot water.

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

#524

Post by yamtaddle »

lucb1e wrote: post #496
yamtaddle wrote: post #479

Oh! Another! Car side mirrors. I spent more than a decade of driving adjusting them wrong. You want them so you don't see cars behind you at all in your side mirrors until they're transitioning off the edge of your center rear-view mirror. This gives you far more coverage of your sides, and every car is still visible in at least one mirror at all times. For me, where I put my seat, this usually means setting them as…

That's not what I was taught. It sounds logical but before I take an internet stranger's word on changing one of the likeliest things in life to kill you or those around you, did you read somewhere that this is a good idea based on research xyz or is this something you came up with?

IIRC I read it somewhere long after I learned, tried it, and it was so much better I was certain it was correct. All but completely eliminated my blind spots (I still turn and look, but pretty much never see anything that wasn't already in a side mirror, now). Turn them farther in and you're losing side visibility to gain redundant rear coverage.

[EDIT] I think I read about it in the context of correcting a common misconception or mistake, actually. Correct adjustment of the mirrors was described as watching a car leave your rearview mirror, and ensuring they show up on your sideview just as they're leaving the rearview—so if you can see cars on your sideviews before they're starting to slip off the edge of your rearview, you've got those adjusted too far in. For me, given how far back I put my seat, this ended up meaning I should adjust the mirrors all the way out in most cars. The idea is both to not have a gap in the sideview/rearview coverage, while maximizing side coverage within that constraint. So, if you can see cars in your sideview while they're still solidly in your rearview, that means you've got less side coverage than would be ideal.

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

#525

Post by hangonhn »

scythe wrote: post #355
adastra22 wrote: post #329

I apparently hold chopsticks incorrectly. I am a white guy so it’s not like this is my culture—I just started holding them the way I do as a kid in sushi restaurants and no one ever corrected me. I found out when I married my wife, who is from Taiwan. Here’s the kicker though: I’m more dexterous with chopsticks than even she is. I can pick and place a single grain of rice, or hold the most slippery noodles with ease.…

Do you hold the moving one like a pencil and let the other one rest on your ring finger? I had always done this and was eventually told that you're really supposed to use only three fingers. But after trying it that way for a while, I found it limited my dexterity quite a bit, and went back to the pencil method. Surprisingly, I did it in China for a month-long work trip and nobody batted an eye.

My family is ethnic Chinese and I grew up using chopsticks. I hold it using the pencil hold and no one has ever corrected me. It works well like 98% of the time. I may not be able to delicately pick up a tiny grain of rice or an entire salt shaker like my uncle who was demonstrating the proper hold but honestly those are such edge cases. The pencil hold is just way more natural and easier adoption may outweigh the benefit of handling some edge cases.

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

#526

Post by SimonPStevens »

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.

On the subject of monopoly, it's also interesting that it's roots are in a game created to teach the negative aspects of monopolies. The original game that modern monopoly is based on had two sets of rules, one that rewarded all players for wealth creation, and a second with the goal of creating a monopoly to crush opponents.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly_(game)

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

#527

Post by satvikpendem »

rjmill wrote: post #152

When my then-gf/now-wife and I first moved in together, I got really mad at her because she kept "hiding" my stuff when I left it out for more than a day. I couldn't find anything! At some point, I yelled, "It's like you don't even want to see any of my things when I'm not using them!" Then I stopped for a second. For the first time in my life, it made sense. The whole point of putting things away is to hide them! No…

There is a book I read recently called Goodbye, Things. It's like a more interesting version of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, as it talks more about the feeling of being a minimalist than TLCMTU does, which is more practical.

It talks about needing less space in general and being more free, simply by having fewer things, since things beget things; the more things you have, the more organizational containers you need, in turn creating yet more things and yet more space to store them in. Since then, I've tried to actively limit the amount of things and space they take up, since I hate clutter, but I hate organization as well.

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

#528

Post by jjice »

Frost1x wrote: post #132
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.

On a similar dental hygiene note, I was told I should brush before having breakfast, coffee etc. It always stood to reason to me that it makes more sense to just eat my first meal and drink, then brush, to keep a cleaner state of my teeth for longer but supposedly according to a few dentists I spoke with, the protection you get from the first brush is more significant than removing those first food particles. Chances…

I couldn't imagine consuming anything before brushing my teeth, but this is coming from a retainer wearer so I think that might have something to do with it.

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

#529

Post by gpderetta »

tootie wrote: post #483
rjmill wrote: post #152

When my then-gf/now-wife and I first moved in together, I got really mad at her because she kept "hiding" my stuff when I left it out for more than a day. I couldn't find anything! At some point, I yelled, "It's like you don't even want to see any of my things when I'm not using them!" Then I stopped for a second. For the first time in my life, it made sense. The whole point of putting things away is to hide them! No…

I used to complain to my mom that I left stuff on the floor on purpose because I could find it faster. 30 years later my daughter said the same thing to me and I just nodded and shut her door.

I mean, that's obviously LRU caching.

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

#530

Post by pancrufty »

LVB wrote: post #173

Not using a bidet. I was enlightened the first time I traveled to Japan, and an affordable ($50) add-on has been installed in our master bath ever since.

All hail the bidet. Even the European-style bidet is kind of an inconvenient waste because you're still supposed to use plenty of paper before moving onto it. In Asia you use toilet paper only to dry.

The Japanese one is nice but the one common across South East Asia is the best because it doubles as a bowl cleaner: No need for a toilet brush.

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