Drinking a glass of orange juice every morning. That stuff is full of sugar. Actually managing sugar intake in general. I'm 30 and just starting to do something about it.
Try slightly chilled or root temp water with a lime squeezed in it.
Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
951–960 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#952One of the worst thing I did for many decades was drink bottled water and/or tap water. For many years I bought bottled water for home consumption. I eventually learned about under-sink reverse-osmosis water filtration systems and invested in one. For the last ~15 years, I've used such systems, following scheduled filter replacements. The water tastes and feels better than bottled water. Last year, my county water ut…
Can you recommend a brand? They are expensive and there are the usual low quality, planned obscelesence game playing techniques to sort through.
I own an iSpring under-sink RO system and it's been working fine for the last 8 years. I'm replacing filters every 6 and 12 months, and RO membrane every 3 years. I also replaced the RO tank once when pressure couldn't be restored. I don't think you're going to be able to sort through planned obsolescence schemes for water filtration systems. The money is made in the filters, not the under-sink systems. There are generics for just about every part.
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#953My 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."
Wim Hof would disagree. I always start and end my showers with 1 minute of full cold (in Canada, so cold = 8°C)
I'm sure we can find a bizarre cult/motivational speaker/pyramid scheme to disagree with anything though.
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#954Chef knives are designed to be held by pinching the blade between the forefinger and the thumb, and wrapping the rest of your fingers around the handle. I used to wrap all my fingers around the handle, until Jacques Pepin showed me how to do it properly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMA2SqaDgG8
Frankly, it's however it feels comfortable and allows you to cut well. Do whatever you want.
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#955Not my whole life but stuff I’ve discovered: Realizing that sitting for 8 to 12 hours per day coding is catastrophic for my health. Understanding the incredibly high and hidden cost of conflict and anger. Films romanticize fighting the good fight. Avoiding a fight (legal, arguments, etc) until you absolutely can’t is worth a lot. Creativity and intellectual progress happen in a quiet relaxed and happy environment. Le…
> Understanding the incredibly high and hidden cost of conflict and anger. Films romanticize fighting the good fight. Avoiding a fight (legal, arguments, etc) until you absolutely can’t is worth a lot.
This is known to be great project management advice _and_ terrible relationship advice.
For interpersonal relationships, signaling misalignment early, directly, openly, with a sympathetic and reconciling demeanor, has been the best choice for me. Can't find sources anymore, sorry.
For projects, I won't expend more effort than what I have to.
Where does the project work stop and the interpersonal work starts, that's a vague art that demands a bit of intuition.
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#956Wearing modern shoes. As a society, we have somehow led everyone down the path that feet must be wrapped in socks that constrict the feet, then placed in shoes that are designed for looks and not anatomy. It's led to generations of people that have weak feet, and unnecessary pain all throughout their body because the base of what they stand on has been weakened. Wearing toe socks and minimalist shoes, combined with g…
I suggest flip flops for almost everything. I hiked to Annapurna Bass Camp in a pair and was the only one in my trekking part not suffering from chronic foot pain.
I would guess that was more about people having rushed out for fancy new boots they'd never worn (and 'broken in') before, rather than the comparative quality/appropriateness of footwear?
I've never walked in flip flops, but I always take a pair to change into when we stop. People sit around in hot sweaty boots and socks, best case they're wetter & smellier than they need to be for the next day; quite likely to start rubbing and give sores; at worst promoting nasty fungal/bacterial goings on.
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#957I 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 don't think they're missing out. I just think they're deluded. It's not the worst thing in the world to be deluded - and frankly I just don't care what they do and say unless it starts to impact me and mine. It's not religion per se I dislike - people are free to live their lives as they see fit, it's the control-structure scam of an organized religion that reels in the gullible, the poor, the disadvantages, those…
I think you'll find many of them believe more in values than in what you're calling delusions in their own right.
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#958I have always taken my good relationship with my father for granted. Not sure how to properly express this in english, but I don't remember having issues with him. We were present in each others' lives but while at the same time not connected. Yesterday while visiting him it just struck me like a lightning strike that I had no connection with him. Our world views are so fundamentally different that I might have disre…
The big difference between most people's relationship with their father and their mother (at least for us of a certain age) is that fathers historically were not involved in caring how their children felt. The traditional role of the father was to lay down the law of the house and to provide income. This comes all the way back from the initial formulation of the nuclear family, which was an imitation of the royal fam…
That is a great observation and fits properly with my situation. My father is "old style", while I strive to overcome sexism and develop an emotional bond with my son. I am proud to be involved in his care for his first year and a half: bathing, diaper changing and sleep were all my duties. That is indeed half of the picture. The one I am proud and hopeful about.
The other half involves religion. This is the lost cause. His whole world view is built on top of dogmatic religious practice, which I have long rejected. Up to this point it didn't bother me at all: I respect his religious practices and even engage while visiting. But I won't hide my lifestyle choices because of this. I try my best to be considerate, but something will leak. I am not going to deceive him.
There was a brief moment when he was disconnected from his practices. I was maybe 19 at the time. We talked about life and I got some "father advice". It didn't last long, and now all advice is tainted by religion. It is not useful nor practical. I can accept it, be considerate and try to adapt it, but it is ultimately useless. This drives us apart slowly.
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#959Not waking up earlier to the fact that the meat section in the supermarket is a product of systemic, gruesome torture of intelligent beings. Like probably many of you who read this, I usually felt a bit guilty when I was confronted with the ugly facts we are all vaguely familiar with. I justified my meat consumption with specieist arguments (humans are so much better than pigs, cows, etc). My wife challenged me to wa…
I can think of worse evils than the animal consumption industry: child sex slave trade, starvation and death of millions, genocide.
I get your point and don't disagree that animal suffering is terrible, but I wish people were more moderate in their language and not so quick to jump to hyperbole. No one can care about everything, and everyone's thing is 'the worst thing'.
Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?
#960I used to always cut open packages in the kitchen with a sharp knife (typically a steak knife). When I got married, my SO was a big fan of kitchen shears, so I was introduced to them. Using shears is a far better experience, and they're useful for pizza too.
> kitchen shears
I had to search for that, not really sure what I was expecting, but that's just 'scissors' right? Is this a US/UK thing, everyone's replying talking about 'shears' too.
(I'd call the action shearing, but 'shears' just makes me think of what I suppose you'd call 'garden shears' - or I think in sewing/upholstery they distinguish between scissors (small) and shears (larger).)