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68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

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Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#201

Post by Anthony-G »

ibiza wrote: post #151

> Buying tools: Start by buying the absolute cheapest tools you can find. Upgrade... Strong "no" on this one. Always buy quality tools. These are priced at a premium, but unlike "inexpensive" tools will: • Do the job expected of them w/o creating a new problem • Be enjoyable to use • Last a long time (often, a lifetime)

Once or twice I’ve spent a lot of money on a tool but I’d only end up using it once or twice at best.

On the other hand, I’ve been burnt a lot more by buying the cheapest tools. When I was younger (student days) and couldn’t afford quality tools, they would not “do the job expected of them without creating a new problem”. These new problems (usually rounded off nuts, screws, Allen bolts, etc.) would usually cost more money and time to resolve. I also recall quite a few minor injuries to the hands when a badly fitting tool suddenly slipped from the part it was working on.

Now that I’m older and somewhat wiser, I certainly wouldn’t recommend the cheapest – though often, there may well be no need to go to the opposite extreme of buying the most expensive.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#202

Post by V-2 »

wpietri wrote: post #195
projektfu wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, so perhaps it extends to journalism. It's a sentiment I would have agreed with wholeheartedly when I was in software, and here in veterinary medicine I know that training is difficult, people with seemingly high aptitude often don't help you train them, and experience is a great measure of someone's ability.

I think it makes more sense in the context of the full quote: "Experience is overrated. When hiring, hire for aptitude, train for skills. Most really amazing or great things are done by people doing them for the first time." He's pretty clearly talking about creative work here, where the goal is to make new things. Whereas the goal of most of medicine, presumably yours included, is to reliably do a known thing. If I'…

> He's pretty clearly talking about creative work here, where the goal is to make new things.

Isn't it a tautology then? If the goal is to make something you haven't before, then obviously it's accomplished the first time round, by definition.

And in a broader sense, is it really true? Are debuts usually the best art pieces?

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#203

Post by oconnor663 »

steveklabnik wrote: post #158
ibiza wrote: post #151

> Buying tools: Start by buying the absolute cheapest tools you can find. Upgrade... Strong "no" on this one. Always buy quality tools. These are priced at a premium, but unlike "inexpensive" tools will: • Do the job expected of them w/o creating a new problem • Be enjoyable to use • Last a long time (often, a lifetime)

You cut out the meat of the advice. The point is that you may not need the tools to last a lifetime; you buy a cheap set first, and then replace the ones you actually use with the quality ones, for the reasons you explain. This prevents you from spending excess money on tools you don't use.

On top of this, before you get some experience using a tool, you might not be able to judge whether it's high quality. And you might not know which dimensions of quality matter most to you. But you can tell pretty quickly whether it's cheap :)

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#204

Post by oconnor663 »

fergonco wrote: post #32
helsinkiandrew wrote: post #7

> Learn how to take a 20-minute power nap without embarrassment I've found the lockdown great for trying this - a run, lunch then 15 minutes on the sofa. It's like rebooting the day.

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…

Maybe this is just true of all advice, but I think this one's going to vary substantially from person to person. I find that setting an alarm in the morning helps keep my sleep cycle from drifting, so I get tired at the right time at night instead of staying up later than I'd prefer.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#205

Post by wpietri »

V-2 wrote: post #202
wpietri wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it makes more sense in the context of the full quote: "Experience is overrated. When hiring, hire for aptitude, train for skills. Most really amazing or great things are done by people doing them for the first time." He's pretty clearly talking about creative work here, where the goal is to make new things. Whereas the goal of most of medicine, presumably yours included, is to reliably do a known thing. If I'…

> He's pretty clearly talking about creative work here, where the goal is to make new things. Isn't it a tautology then? If the goal is to make something you haven't before, then obviously it's accomplished the first time round, by definition. And in a broader sense, is it really true? Are debuts usually the best art pieces?

This seems to be veering into tiresome nitpicking and willful misunderstanding, but I'll give it one more go.

I suspect you already understand that novelty is not the only goal of creative work, so I'm just going to go on past your first bit. Let me know if you truly don't get it.

He didn't say that debuts are usually the best art pieces. One, you have the flow wrong. He's more saying that the best art pieces were debuts. But two, he's not saying that either, because "things" is broader than art, and "best" is different than "really amazing".

As an example, look at Hamilton. I'd call it both amazing and great. But it wasn't done by somebody with decades of training and experience. Miranda started work on it when he was 28. It was not his 10th or 20th rap-influenced historical musical. It was his first. And only his second produced musical period.

The good thing about experience is that it gives us habits that work quite well. But that's also the bad thing, because it's very hard to approach the top fresh, to do enough things that don't work on the way to finding something novel that does work. So a lot of great creative work is done by the relatively young and inexperienced. And as Kelly says, we should give them the room to try.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#206

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

jk563 wrote: post #200
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a number of months? I'm 56 and have spent some fraction of my entire life devoted to the hardshell question. For me, my current Berghaus (bought while visiting the UK) ticks every box. Just perfect. But that took 40+ years to get to, not a few months.

Please do share the shell you got to after 40 years!

Berghaus Rupal

https://www.blacks.co.uk/mens/206840-mountain-equipment-men-...

(of course, they don't make it anymore, I think. But the Extrem 5000 is very similar. They added a pocket, moved the other two)

For years before this, I had been reasonably happy with an old North Face goretex jacket. It last about 15 years, but had a lining and in the end the exterior water shedding ability (not waterproofness) was shot.

The Berghaus is just what I always wanted: single layer, goretex, lightweight but very heavy duty fabric, the perfect hood design.

I wore it to hike the 230 mile Cape Wrath Trail last year, and verified once again that it was completely waterproof, very comfortable, perfect in every way (for me, at least).

If you forced me to make one criticism, I'd like a slightly larger patch of slightly softer material where the neck/hood comes up over my mouth/chin when it's fully "on". But even 2 weeks of wearing it every day (sometimes all day) in Scottish rain didn't really make that much of an issue.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#207

Post by jerrre »

brlewis wrote: post #174
jerf wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Doctor, it hurts when I do this." "Don't do that." The standard recommendations for buying a house, in my opinion, are recommendations for buying a house you can barely afford. I recommend buying houses you can comfortably afford, and put some extra principal payments in towards the beginning if at all possible. (Especially if you're just starting now-ish... I suspect the whole "but you could have put it in the stoc…

>I recommend buying houses you can comfortably afford This is great advice. In addition to paying less mortgage, the more affordable house is likely smaller, costing less to heat and maintain. I'd be really interested to see a TCO breakdown for various sizes and ages of house.

Where I live cheaper houses are more likely to be old (ie 80+ years) and badly insulated, costing more to heat and to maintain....

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#208

Post by JoeAltmaier »

crankylinuxuser wrote: post #162
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes even that isn't enough. You have to read it twice. I was having a text exchange with a manager on the road. Hard to come to a consensus that way. So I wanted to talk when he got back to the shop. I texted "We can talk some more when you get it." One letter. The issues it caused lasted for years.

Damn. Sure would have been nice if they assumed a automiscorrect rather than a nasty comment.

Yeah I never talked to that manager again. They wouldn't return my calls or emails.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#209

Post by amiga_500 »

ashtonkem wrote: post #142
SloopJon wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The majority of my mortgage payment goes towards ownership of a product - my house For many (most?) people that's not true. Even ignoring that mortgage payments often include property taxes and/or private mortgage insurance, you can expect to pay more interest than principal for the first fifteen years or more of a thirty-year mortgage.

I think we can put property taxes aside, you’ll have to pay your landlords property taxes if you rent after all. If you can afford the cost of a down payment (more on that later), then buying a home does have some utility in wealth generation. You’re right that most of the initial mortgage payments go towards interest, but even collecting 25% of your monthly payment towards your own net worth is a big deal compared t…

Incorrect. Property taxes are not part of the price setting.

You pay the max you are willing to pay for renting a place. You won because everyone else was willing to pay less.

If your rent is 2000 and property taxes are 200, and they go up to 300, are you willing/able to pay more?

Land taxes carry no dead weight.

http://wealthandwant.com/themes/Not_Passed_On.html

In general prices are set by the ability to pay, not by the input costs + some "fair profit".

Many landlords have no mortgage, and are clearing loads of profit every single month. Are they charging lower rent because they only need "fair profit"? No, they charge the market rate.

Re: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice

#210

Post by beckingz »

sojournerc wrote: post #133
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #107

Here's one I heard elsewhere, and isn't in the list. If you're searching for something important, search until you find one that satisfies all your requirements. Then, don't stop, keep searching until you find a better one. Then stop. This raises you maybe a whole standard deviation in quality, without taking exponential time. Works for all sorts of things. A new pair of shoes; a favorite dish in a restaurant; a spou…

Good luck searching for your next spouse while you have one ;)

Better than job searching while you currently have one?
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