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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?

#581

Post by phyzome »

mabbo wrote: post #38
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 don't like wearing big layers of clothing. I like being in a very light t-shirt. I'm happy to pay the extra cost to heat the room I'm in with a space heater in the winter time.

I like eating chocolate and sleeping all day, but I also have responsibilities. One of my responsibilities is to not be wasteful. So I put on a sweater.

(But if you've got some kind of super-insulated house, then never mind.)

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

#582

Post by floor2 »

Jommi wrote: post #204
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…

FYI the above is american-focused healthcare language. There are no annual checkups in most other countries outside of certain age or risk groups. You might however get a health checkup from occupational healthcare sometimes! Just putting this a note here for non-american readers so they don't get confused.

That's kind of shocking to me. The normal narrative is about how much better the European model is for healthcare, but then you're saying it's missing one of the most fundamental and effective aspects of healthcare (preventative care & early intervention)?

Do you go to the dentist for regular cleaning & exams or only go if you have a toothache?

Annual checkups seem so critical to overall health outcomes- it's far better to catch cancer at stage 1 than stage 4, or to address blood pressure before having a stroke or heart attack rather than after, I'd have thought they'd be strongly prioritized and incentivized my government-controlled healthcare systems.

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

#583

Post by james_pm »

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…

"Staying warm" being the key! Your body generates plenty of heat. The idea is to trap it.

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

#584

Post by cja »

jmcmaster wrote: post #438
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…

ADHD weaker object permanence means that lots of people need to see their stuff to keep it in mind. “Hiding stuff” is problematic (and so is clutter).

Hiding the belongings of someone with ADHD is disabling them. Work with them, not against them.

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

#585

Post by racl101 »

That barring any real medical issue ... intermittent fasting is hard. We just think it is.

Every time I tried it, I'd sabotage my efforts not knowing by chewing gum, eating tic tacs, using flavored tea, etc this would just trigger my insulin response and I'd get hungry throughout the day.

All I had to do, is just simplify my intake to any of these: water, black coffee, black tea or any tea with a bitter profile.

And that's it. Fasting would get easier after that, especially after first few days.

And you could do 4h, 6h, 8h, 12h, 20h easy peasy. No problem.

And if you should experience the desire to eat during those periods, most of the time it was just psychological. Your body isn't dying. You are more resilient than that.

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

#587

Post by Striykur »

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…

I often see this technique used to eliminate your blind spot since side view mirrors are mainly facing the area where your blind spot is. I don’t recommend this:

1. When you set your side mirrors like this you are heavily relying on you rear view mirrors to see cars behind/around you in the other lanes. However your rear view mirror can easily get blocked by people or items sitting in the back of the car or large vehicles following closely behind who completely block your view of cars in the other lanes (remember side view mirrors will only show cars in your blind spot, not cars traveling in the other lanes that may be go significantly faster than you if you decide to change your lane).

2. Positioning your mirrors like this does not make all cars visible to you if you are on a road with more than 2 lanes and so you still must do a blind spot check by physically turning your head. This is because on a 3+ lane road and you are in lane 1, there may be a car in lane 3 moving into lane 2 while you are at the same time moving into lane 2 as well. Having your mirrors set so they only watch your blind spot you will not see that the car is moving towards the lane you are moving to until it’s too late. Doing a blind spot check you will be able to see a car 2 lanes over is trying to move to the same spot you’re trying to move to.

I like setting my mirrors so I just barely see the edge of my car when I look at the mirror. That way if there is a car behind me, their headlights aren’t constantly flashing at me from the mirror in my peripheral vision until I turn my head toward the mirror and then I can see his headlights near the edge of my car. I can see cars in the other lane but it doesn’t show cars in my blind spot (I still do a blind spot check). Another plus to this is that it’s easier to park backwards. The best of both worlds is also having a fisheye mirror on top of you regular mirror that shows you your blind spot but this is not a substitute for doing a blind spot check!

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

#588

Post by jedberg »

raldi wrote: post #523
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.

We just keep a 5 gallon bucket next to the shower and fill it up with the pre-warm water. Then we use it to water the garden (and sometimes to power flush a stuck toilet).

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

#589

Post by LVB »

alainchabat wrote: post #380
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.

which $50 one do you recommend?

Haven't looked in a long time, but I've had this one for almost 10 years with no issues: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A0RHSJO (only $35).
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