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Tips for a Better Life

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Re: Tips for a Better Life

#71

Post by alkonaut »

Jtsummers wrote: post #60
seveibar wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can easily implicate yourself at the scene of the crime by speaking to an officer, but in the U.S. you have the "right to remain silent". The article is generally referring to cases where you are guilty of something or could be guilty of something.

It's not about being guilty or not being guilty. For worse, the police in the US have become (or are perceived to be) generally antagonistic towards the communities they police. It's not a universal truth, but it is a common truth. Just like you wouldn't volunteer everything to a rival in the office, you don't volunteer everything to someone who has the authority to arrest or fine you. Especially when they know all t…

Exactly. US centric. If you trust that the policeman is a well trained professional there to serve you and with only your best interest in mind, why would you be scared to talk to them?

To put it another way: if a policeman isn’t the best (safest, most informed, whatever...) person to talk to among hundreds of strangers you could talk to, isn’t that a sign that the police force in question has failed completely?

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#72

Post by AnimalMuppet »

closeparen wrote: post #40

>77. If you haven’t figured things out sexually, remember that there isn’t a deadline. If somebody is making you feel like there is, consider the possibility that they aren’t your pal. What do you think this means?

I think it could mean at least two things.

1. If someone is pressuring you to sleep with them and you're not sure whether you want to, they're not your friend.

2. If someone is harassing you because you're still a virgin, they're not your friend.

[Edit: It's in the relationships section. So I guess it means "If things aren't great yet in the bedroom, and someone's making you feel inadequate because of that, the someone in question isn't your friend."]

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#73

Post by redleggedfrog »

alkonaut wrote: post #71
Jtsummers wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about being guilty or not being guilty. For worse, the police in the US have become (or are perceived to be) generally antagonistic towards the communities they police. It's not a universal truth, but it is a common truth. Just like you wouldn't volunteer everything to a rival in the office, you don't volunteer everything to someone who has the authority to arrest or fine you. Especially when they know all t…

Exactly. US centric. If you trust that the policeman is a well trained professional there to serve you and with only your best interest in mind, why would you be scared to talk to them? To put it another way: if a policeman isn’t the best (safest, most informed, whatever...) person to talk to among hundreds of strangers you could talk to, isn’t that a sign that the police force in question has failed completely?

My experience, in being in a fair number of non-US non-European countries, is that cops can vary considerably, and many of them are worse than US cops in many ways.

"...isn’t that a sign that the police force in question has failed completely?"

Sad, but true, in a lot of cases. Hence the suggestion not to talk to them.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#74

Post by Jtsummers »

alkonaut wrote: post #71
Jtsummers wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about being guilty or not being guilty. For worse, the police in the US have become (or are perceived to be) generally antagonistic towards the communities they police. It's not a universal truth, but it is a common truth. Just like you wouldn't volunteer everything to a rival in the office, you don't volunteer everything to someone who has the authority to arrest or fine you. Especially when they know all t…

Exactly. US centric. If you trust that the policeman is a well trained professional there to serve you and with only your best interest in mind, why would you be scared to talk to them? To put it another way: if a policeman isn’t the best (safest, most informed, whatever...) person to talk to among hundreds of strangers you could talk to, isn’t that a sign that the police force in question has failed completely?

> isn’t that a sign that the police force in question has failed completely?

Yes, yes it is. And that's the current state of policing in the US. With the irony of police committing acts of brutality against people protesting police brutality, and the officers and their enablers being too ignorant or too hateful to recognize the stupidity of the action and how 2020 has set them back decades in getting people to trust them.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#75

Post by AnimalMuppet »

> 41. Selfish people should listen to advice to be more selfless, selfless people should listen to advice to be more selfish. This applies to many things. Whenever you receive advice, consider its opposite as well. You might be filtering out the advice you need most.

I think of this with parenting books. The parents who tend to be strict read the books telling them to be strict, because those are the books that resonate with them. But what they need are the books telling them to love more and be harsh less. And those who tend to be lenient need the books that tell them that kids actually do need discipline, but they tend to read the books that tell them that kids really need to be given room to do their own thing.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#76

Post by throwaway0a5e »

Gualdrapo wrote: post #18

> If you want to find out about people’s opinions on a product, google reddit. Type " site:reddit.com" instead (without the double quotes). That way Google will only return results it found in reddit.com

Maybe this was good advice in 2015. This is terrible advice in 2020. Reddit is astro-turfed up to it's eyeballs and the parts that aren't are people with little to no experience in niche X giving generally bad and nuance-free advice on niche X. The more niches you develop proficiency in the more you will see this.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#77

Post by locusofself »

softwaredoug wrote: post #30

> 5. If your work is done on a computer, get a second monitor. Less time navigating between windows means more time for thinking. I really don’t do well with a second monitor, because humans suck at multitasking. Invariably slack or email end up on the second monitor, not real work. Better advice IMO: don’t task switch, stay in the shell as much as possible. Serialize your work to the limitations of human attention

I have tried dual monitors many times and I really don't prefer it over one large, high-resolution monitor. I have a 2019 5k iMac, which I run both macOS and Windows (for work) on, and it's damn near perfect.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#78

Post by leetcrew »

alkonaut wrote: post #71
Jtsummers wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about being guilty or not being guilty. For worse, the police in the US have become (or are perceived to be) generally antagonistic towards the communities they police. It's not a universal truth, but it is a common truth. Just like you wouldn't volunteer everything to a rival in the office, you don't volunteer everything to someone who has the authority to arrest or fine you. Especially when they know all t…

Exactly. US centric. If you trust that the policeman is a well trained professional there to serve you and with only your best interest in mind, why would you be scared to talk to them? To put it another way: if a policeman isn’t the best (safest, most informed, whatever...) person to talk to among hundreds of strangers you could talk to, isn’t that a sign that the police force in question has failed completely?

"don't talk to cops" doesn't mean you should be afraid to ask a police officer for directions or something like that. if I'm on foot and see that a street is blocked off, I will sometimes ask an officer nearby what is going on. this is fine. what you shouldn't do is volunteer unnecessary information. maybe this is just american myopia, but it's hard to imagine that anything could be gained by giving police more personal information than you are legally obligated to share.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#79

Post by ericsoderstrom »

alkonaut wrote: post #52

Beware that some of these are US-centric (or I simply don’t get them) like “don’t talk to cops”. Why not? Mine would be “talk to cops whenever you have a chance. They’re nice”.

Yeah, that one was weird. If you follow the link it leads to this [0] lecture about why you should exercise your 5th amendment right to remain silent if being interrogated by authorities. Which seems like more sensible advice than "DON'T TALK TO COPS", though still out of place on a list of general everyday life tips

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#80

Post by mottosso »

Raphmedia wrote: post #21
leetcrew wrote: post #3

> Cooking pollutes the air. Opening windows for a few minutes after cooking can dramatically improve air quality. is this based on the assumption that I am using a gas stove, or is it more generally true? I would be surprised to learn that, eg, simmering a tomato sauce is itself harmful to the air quality in my apartment.

Any cooking will decrease it. I have several air sensors and even using the oven will change the air quality from "green" to "yellow". Even just frying veggies with a bit of oil on an electric cooktop sends my air quality into "red". Overheating oil sends it into the "purple" level which is "unhealthy".

I would love to know which air sensors you use.
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