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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?

#772
post #59

I realised most of my basic health routine was useless to detrimental: - Soap: it disrupt the skin microbiome. Only useful for hand washing and to clean private parts / the bottom. Even then use high quality soap like Marseille soap or Aleppo soap. Note: Also as mentioned in the comments if you avoid soap / deodorant you *will* probably need to shower two times a day even without doing physical activities. Three time…

Why though? What advantage are you getting from avoiding soap that would convince people to stop using it?

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

#773
post #59

I realised most of my basic health routine was useless to detrimental: - Soap: it disrupt the skin microbiome. Only useful for hand washing and to clean private parts / the bottom. Even then use high quality soap like Marseille soap or Aleppo soap. Note: Also as mentioned in the comments if you avoid soap / deodorant you *will* probably need to shower two times a day even without doing physical activities. Three time…

Ha, I learned about no soap on HN some years ago, a HNer claiming their lovers thought the no-soap skin smelled great. I guess it's likely that other bacterial species may thrive on your skin when not washing with soap (soap washing would remove more bacteria, only allowing fast-multiplying bacteria to repopulate the area, while water-washing would leave more different species). Not sure if the microbiome difference is better/healthier/nicer smelling. I jumped at the "my lovers loved it" recommendation and gave it a try (still used shampoo, no success excluding that, washed hands, used deodorant and paid extra care to smelly areas), and the armpits definitely smelled differently (but hardly like flowers) after a while of this practice, __to me__. As pointed out already, that may be have been my olfaction getting used to my newly acquired BO, like not noticing the smell of your own house, but others' houses smell different. My post-training clothes still smelled terrible.

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

#774
post #718

Mental health. Haven't seen it mentioned yet. Never think of yourself as wrong, invalid, defective or unworthy. That's wrong. Don't do it. For about 90 % of my life I've thought about myself as defective in many ways. - In puberty I thought I was defective because other boys were talking about their crushes, how they'd like to f--- this girl or that girl or how they got a boner just looking at them. Later almost ever…

Yes, knowing and understanding that you're not alone in your feelings and experiences is super important too.

Another piece is understanding your body's feelings and your emotions. Many people aren't taught how to understand their feelings and emotions, especially men. This is NOT automatic. It is not difficult, but it can be very hard and unpleasant. Everyone needs to be taught how to process emotions, emotionally healthy people are taught this as children.

But to balance this a bit.

You, as a person, are never wrong, but you are still accountable for your actions/words. This is an important distinction to keep in mind.

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

#776
post #23

Not telling my friends that I love them. I was 28 the first time a friend told me "I love you" in a pure friendship way (and while sober), and without being a part of a special situation. I've also done it afterwards, and because I had never told my friend i love them, it made the message even stronger. It feels wrong that we don't do this more often.

I don’t feel comfortable telling people I love them outside of a serious relationship, so this always makes me feel a touch weird. Like, my best friends, I love them in a sense I guess…but I wouldn’t say that. It just doesn’t feel natural to me. I’d characterize our relationship as close, and that I care about them a lot, but “love” isn’t something that comes to mind outside of my parents or someone I’ve been in a lo…

It's unfortunate that English doesn't have enough words for different kinds of love: lustful "love", romantic love, brotherly love, general love of humankind, appreciation for non-human things (e.g. I love these shoes!), different words for levels of love (e.g. between "like" and "love"), etc.

Instead they're all lumped into "love". Ugh.

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

#778
post #614

• Just be kind to women • If you like a girl, tell her she's pretty • Buy a girl some flowers and watch her appreciate it • Just make her laugh, women love a guy with a sense of humour • Just let her know how you really feel if you like her • Just hold the door open for her • Just ask her out, the worst she can say is no • Just find a girl that likes you for you • Just listen to her and show her you care • Just be a…

> Just make her laugh, women love a guy with a sense of humour

Tbh Im done being funny. People take me significantly less seriously and I just become a sort of “court jester” for whoever I’m hanging out with.

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

#780
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 disagree. I like to have all my possessions in clear view; that way, when I need them, I don't need to search for them.
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