Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

801–810 of 1001 posts

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

#801

Post by RGamma »

makach wrote: post #142

It was when I was younger, I was independent and living alone that I realized that I had the power to change myself. In order to succeed there was only one person responsible for my happiness and good fortune, myself. I had to stop waiting for good things to happen, and make sure that I took faith in my own hands. This has led me to change employment, often, but not that often. It has made me approach many challenges…

Ech.. the "everything's your fault" view is typically American, but it's also pretty unbalanced. Sure you have to do things, yet interdependence exists. Also there's plenty situations where shit's stacked against you by heritage/law/social order quite unnecessarily.

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

#803

Post by BanazirGalbasi »

goodgoblin wrote: post #771

A couple of years ago I realized that the big metal rod inside the box that holds the knives is for sharpening.

As already mentioned, it's for honing. The difference is that sharpening involves removing metal to create a new edge, while honing simply bends the edge back to being straight. Although we think of steel as being a hard material, the edge of a knife is thin enough that it gets bent to one side or the other just through normal use. Using a honing rod to push the steel back to where it belongs means the knife feels sharper because you're now cutting with the actual edge.

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

#804

Post by The_Colonel »

vlunkr wrote: post #594
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.

As a religious person who has deeply considered leaving it, I've never understood the arrogance of some atheists. For me it was disturbing to try to internalize the ideas that the universe is uncaring, that good and evil are made up, that your consciousness is basically like the contents of a stick of RAM that will vanish when it loses its power source. Even the original "God is dead" quotes from Nietzsche sound mour…

> For me it was disturbing to try to internalize the ideas that the universe is uncaring, that good and evil are made up, that your consciousness is basically like the contents of a stick of RAM that will vanish when it loses its power source.

How is that arrogant? It seems humble to me to acknowledge that I as an individual and a society on the whole don't actually mean much.

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

#805

Post by crazygringo »

charlie0 wrote: post #429

Buying fewer more expensive items of clothing > buying more items at a much cheaper price point. I've noticed this the most with outdoorsy equipment, like my pair of wool socks (Darn Tough). They are 3x more expensive that cotton, but they keep my feet warm without overheating them, are thicker so I can comfortably walk around the house with no other footwear, they don't hardly get smelly, they also dry really fast.…

Funny, I've come to the opposite conclusion for most clothing.

My weight fluctuates, my clothing needs change, my style changes, I discover a new type of clothing item that obsoletes an old one. Or stuff shrinks, rips, gets stained, gets lost.

Expensive "long lasting" clothing isn't usually worth the investment in my experience for all of these reasons.

Outdoorsy equipment may be an exception, but I don't feel like it's the case for regular clothing or merchandise in general.

(Plus a lot of expensive stuff isn't actually any better quality than the cheap stuff, and it takes a lot of research to figure out when the expensive stuff actually is worth it and when it's not.)

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

#806

Post by ebjaas_2022 »

zander312 wrote: post #78

For the past 15 years or so, every night before bedtime I would proclaim “Time to hit the shack!” or “I’m going to hit the shack”. In reality it is a “sack” that you hit, not a “shack”.

I had a colleague some years ago, who consistently said 'add hook' instead of 'ad hoc'. I never had the heart to correct him.

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

#807

Post by mixmastamyk »

rpdillon wrote: post #482
KVFinn wrote: post #2

You aren't supposed to rinse your mouth with water after brushing your teeth. You're supposed to spit excess, but leave the toothpaste on to absorb.

Ahh, mine is an interesting counterpoint to this! I had canker sores for my entire life, well into my late 20s. I tried everything: changing toothpastes (more on this in a second), changing brushes, using mouthwash, being told my mouth was "dirty" and I need to brush more, etc. Turns out (at least for me) the sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) used as a foaming agent in (almost) every single toothpaste causes canker sores.…

TJs: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34584009

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

#808

Post by actionablefiber »

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…

It is nice to put away things - keeps down the mental clutter and keeps the area looking nice - but I have to say I viscerally disagree with the practice of moving other people's things without permission and without telling them the new location. It is bad communication and absolutely guaranteed to start a fight. Keeping each other up to date and setting common expectations on where things should "live" is important.

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

#809

Post by karaterobot »

rpdillon wrote: post #482
KVFinn wrote: post #2

You aren't supposed to rinse your mouth with water after brushing your teeth. You're supposed to spit excess, but leave the toothpaste on to absorb.

Ahh, mine is an interesting counterpoint to this! I had canker sores for my entire life, well into my late 20s. I tried everything: changing toothpastes (more on this in a second), changing brushes, using mouthwash, being told my mouth was "dirty" and I need to brush more, etc. Turns out (at least for me) the sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) used as a foaming agent in (almost) every single toothpaste causes canker sores.…

Yes, I had the same experience. Went 40 years brushing, then rinsing, then I read advice similar to the original commenter's and stopped rinsing. Shortly after that, I wondered why I suddenly had all these weird sores in my mouth, and finally connected the dots. They went away immediately after I started rinsing again.
Post reply on HN