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Tips for a Better Life

ideopunk.com

211–220 of 488 posts

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#211

I think the compassion section has the most wisdom in it, especially the reasoning behind the recommendation: 82. Call your parents when you think of them, tell your friends when you love them. 83. Compliment people more. Many people have trouble thinking of themselves as smart, or pretty, or kind, unless told by someone else. You can help them out. 84. If somebody is undergoing group criticism, the tribal part in yo…

I will exercise these tips for an otherwise sophomoric article

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What would be a better advice?

Realize that the days of quickly finding good information on the internet are gone. Search engines are gamed, product review sites are gamed, most popular forums such as reddit are gamed, many blogs are gamed.

Seeking out niche enthusiast websites, authoritative sources, mailing lists, or actually doing your own research at the libarary are about the only ways you can get anything remotely reliable. If it's easy, it's probably been gamed.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#213

"8. When buying things, time and money trade-off against each other. If you’re low on money, take more time to find deals. If you’re low on time, stop looking for great deals and just buy things quickly online." I'm finding, as I've gotten older, that almost every time I've chosen money over time I've made a bad decision. And I see this among my family and friends, too. There's a mentality that emerges when exchangin…

It's easy to recognize this but there really is something you miss by not having things you maintain yourself. It certainly doesn't have to be everything but if you outsource too much it's a lot easier to get depressed.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#214
I really liked #48, "Keep your identity small." There is a lovely and profound story, the culmination of which is "he heard a still small voice." It occurred to me recently that this is something that can be internalized. A person can become still and small, and so become ever so much more aware.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to search videos for recipes. It's reassuring when I can see whether the author is capable of cooking, and whether the result looks appetizing (to me subjectively). For instance, I've found that Jamie Oliver, despite his big names, makes food that doesn't make sense to me. If I only read the recipe, I might not figure that out. But watching him cook and seeing the product, I'm pretty confident that I won't l…

I just watch Kenji Lopez-Alt's late night gopro videos. The guy has epitomized bachelor meals (though he's married). His tortilla pizza is brilliant.

I like Kenji, too. His analytical approach is very helpful for a home cook.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#216
post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really, I was just responding to the prior. They drove the pseudo-rationalist line. I do think there is a toxic culture in rationalism, but I tend to blame it on neoliberal economic reductionism, or libertarianism. I don't think rationalism per se is at the root of it, pseudo-rationalism, what would that even be? purported rationalism but actually.. over-arching asocialism? self interest? Anyway, I saw religiosity as…

There's more than one counter-case to rationalism. Atheists, liberals, Democrats, progressives can all be irrational or pseudo-rational. What would pseudo-rationalism even be? Purported rationalism, yes, but the rationalism would be just a smokescreen for positions that are not rationally derived and therefore not addressable by means of rational argument. I don't understand why you think asocialism or self-interest…

I guess because I see secular humanism as being rooted in a rationalist outlook, and the a-social claimed rationality of the Ayn Rand rugged individualists just leaves me cold, as does most libertarian rejections of society and social equity, collectivism to me is the highest form of rationalism.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#217

I think the compassion section has the most wisdom in it, especially the reasoning behind the recommendation: 82. Call your parents when you think of them, tell your friends when you love them. 83. Compliment people more. Many people have trouble thinking of themselves as smart, or pretty, or kind, unless told by someone else. You can help them out. 84. If somebody is undergoing group criticism, the tribal part in yo…

#82 is a Pinegrove lyric, great song.

I am a Pinegrove fan myself, but that song sounds like Smashmouth sadly. "So what's wrong with taking the backstreets"

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#218
Nice article, I found many gems.

I do disagree with a few, in particular the one about not talking to cops. I say this because like everybody else the vast majority are good people; they are public servants; and the day you need one you will realize how wrong the idea really is.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#219
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's also important to be precise about what "it" is. Most MP3 players at the time had around an hour's worth of storage. The Creative NOMAD was 64 MB. That means those products were from a user experience perspective in the same category as Walkmen and Minidisc players. It was a writable music player that held about an album. It let you make your own mixtapes, but selecting media while at home was a fundamen…

For what it's worth: Creative Nomad with 64MB was just the first one. The one with 6GB of storage came out about a year before the iPad. Hence the iconic "No wireless, less space than a Nomad. Lame." by CmdrTaco. iPod hadn't won on the storage alone.

product market fit is tricky like that

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#220
Does anyone know what comment/discussion software lesswrong uses on their site ?

I sort-of-kind-of remember that they maybe built it themselves ? I find it very aesthetically pleasing ...

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