These are amazing, and worthy of being deliberated upon often. I'm going to add these to the message-of-the-day thing I keep.
68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice
81–90 of 286 posts
Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice
#82I can confirm that one shouldn't trust all-purpose glue. Bought a tube of it a year ago, and out of about 10 times I've tried to use it, I don't remember a single one not needing re-gluing with something else later. All except your fingers of course - glue them, and they're sticky for weeks.
Cyanoacrylate (super glue) works best on fingers. So well in fact that it can be used as an alternative to stitches. Medical grade cyanoacrylate is a bit different (less irritant) but in an emergency, the regular household kind can be used.
I did that after a metalworking incident (large greasy shaft with a burr slipped through my fingers), you can't even see the scar and my finger was cut open all the way to the bone.
Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another unsolicited advice, from a 40yo this time: do not use alarm clocks to wake up. The pressure shifts to the evening because you have to go to sleep early if you want to wake up early. And then it magically happens that you sleep as much as you need. Being a long time supporter of naps I find myself not doing them at all. Of course this applies only if you have flexible hours to work, don't have appointments, et…
40 y.o. here as well. My life has improved after I started getting up extremely early (0400) four or so years ago. And that doesn't happen without an alarm clock. My point is not to say that you are wrong but that we might be better off trying different solution for ourselves instead of believing in authorities here or elsewhere. (I'm not saying you shouldn't listen to normal advice like getting good sleep etc, but d…
I think the most important point is not so much that you should never use an alarm (I do regularly), but that if you're unsure of whether you actually get enough sleep, it is worth finding out how much sleep you need, and ensure you get it, whether by adjusting your bedtime or your alarm time, or ensuring you compensate every few days.
Too many people don't know how much sleep their body would want if unconstrained by alarms. Once you know, you can get decent results of manipulating when you get that sleep with alarms. But if you don't know it's very easy to be near constantly sleep deprived.
Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice
#84Would anyone mind sharing their take on this? > • Trust me: There is no “them”.
It is both the hardest bit of advice on the list to follow, and the most profound. Many religions have some version of a holy man/woman going to a mountain/cave/ocean/forest and coming back with divine/enlightened wisdom. What they all have in common is some version of 'Unity: we are one'. It makes violence much harder, among other things. What left hand wants to shoot the matching right hand?
Pragmatically, this means whenever you are thinking with the us vs them mentality you can try to realize that there is some value of us which includes you and the ones you consider 'them', a common ground. A possible first rule is that this is the key step in any negotiation. A possible second rule is that everything is a negotiation.
Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another unsolicited advice, from a 40yo this time: do not use alarm clocks to wake up. The pressure shifts to the evening because you have to go to sleep early if you want to wake up early. And then it magically happens that you sleep as much as you need. Being a long time supporter of naps I find myself not doing them at all. Of course this applies only if you have flexible hours to work, don't have appointments, et…
This is good advice, but there's a caveat - it will ruin your weekends because you'll be awake for your 'normal hours' then too.
I don't really find this a problem. If I want to stay up very late, I'll take a short nap early in the evening, timed based on how long I want to stay up. But generally I like getting up early during weekends too. Less so when I used to go clubbing, of course, but then napping in the afternoon to prepare worked well. That, and caffeine.
Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice
#86> Pros are just amateurs who know how to gracefully recover from their mistakes. This is very true. Last year I saw a motorcycle stunt display in the Isle of Man. It was all very impressive, and the chap had extremely good control of the bike, but the time that his skill was most apparent was when he had the rear wheel of the bike on a car bonnet and it started sliding off to one side. I thought he was for sure going…
> The hood (North American English) or bonnet (Commonwealth English excluding Canada) is the hinged cover over the engine of motor vehicles that allows access to the engine compartment
In case anyone else wasn't familiar with the term.
Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If only doing the same at work was this easy… Never understood employers who had a problem with this. I have people scheduling a small conference room we have to take 30 minute naps, or going to their car, or sleeping under their desk. Why should anyone care about that as long as they are generally productive and get the work done? (probably should note I don't overwork my employees, make them keep 80 hour schedule…
Well, there’s one part where it’s kind of awkward to ask to take a nap or have a coworker find you sleeping (“should I wake them up or wait to get my PR reviewed?“) but another part of it is that it’s not really comfortable to sleep at work unless there are ample soft couches or something. At home I can just jump into bed…
At a past job my solution was to go sit in the local park with mirror shades and my hands in a prayer position... It was far from ideal, but on an estate with plenty of security roaming so felt safe and the hand position is an effective trick to prevent people from bothering you (e.g. I use it also if meditating somewhere public). Unless you slump over or snore, I guess.
Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another unsolicited advice, from a 40yo this time: do not use alarm clocks to wake up. The pressure shifts to the evening because you have to go to sleep early if you want to wake up early. And then it magically happens that you sleep as much as you need. Being a long time supporter of naps I find myself not doing them at all. Of course this applies only if you have flexible hours to work, don't have appointments, et…
40 y.o. here as well. My life has improved after I started getting up extremely early (0400) four or so years ago. And that doesn't happen without an alarm clock. My point is not to say that you are wrong but that we might be better off trying different solution for ourselves instead of believing in authorities here or elsewhere. (I'm not saying you shouldn't listen to normal advice like getting good sleep etc, but d…
I recently did a stint of waking at 0500 to work on my side projects. This was a big transition from waking at 8:15 and hitting the sack after midnight. But getting the important stuff sorted early and having such a consistent routine, including a bedtime routine was intoxicating. Since moving and being in complete lockdown Ive returned to my old ways for various practical and also disfunctional reasons but I look back at my structured early-riser days with envy. I guess I am a morning person after all. Many years of distraction and lack of direction trying to be productive in the evenings behind me. It wasnt ADD it was just not the right time of day! This is coming from a 30 year old.
Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice
#89Stunningly accurate but greatly exceeds promised 68b limit.
Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice
#90There is a lot to be said for "never get involved in a land war in Asia"
The author (Kevin Kelley) travelled a lot in Asia between 1972-1979 when he was young and took many photos which he later published in a book (https://asiagrace.com). I think he has seen and understood first hand many of the complex geopolitics in Asia.