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Tips for a Better Life

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Re: Tips for a Better Life

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

#1 is interesting. Does it imply malicious intent towards a romantic partner, if you would break off the relationship over a lack of sex? Or imply that you might? Seems to me like misaligned desires are more unfortunate than evil.

Misaligned desires are unfortunate. Pressuring the other veers toward evil.

Seems like that misalignment, if communicated, is inherently pressuring. Which would mean that the dissatisfied party is obliged to keep their resentment secret. Which is also a generically bad idea. I wonder what a healthy recovery from that situation looks like, if it even exists.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#242

"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…

I've applied this a lot in my life.

For example, holidays: Every day that I'm overseas, I lose about $1,000 because I'm a contractor and I'm not getting paid, plus the base expenses of the flights and hotel rooms. If I'm not getting a thousand dollars worth of value from a day, that money is wasted. Spending $50 at a normal restaurant is not "saving money", it's actually a waste of a day! Once you've sunk days into flying somewhere, and dedicated weeks of not working, you may as well spend $200-$300 on a really fancy dinner.

For a contrast, a friend of mine came with us on a trip and tried to save money by buying the exact same $5 takeaway budget pizza that you can get here. He got food poisoning from it and spent several days of his trip in his room feeling miserable. He spent the same time on the trip and spent the same money on flights and accommodation.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#243

"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…

Some people value that they can get stuff done for themselves. I've grown up helping with various renovations around our home (floor tiling, wallpapers, building kitchen furniture etc), and they are fond memories and it makes a difference to how you feel living in a place. I know today mobility and renting is everything, but there is quite a distinct feel of living in actually your own place that you've worked on ove…

Luckily I got this advice early on, and I agree it’s aged well as I get older. It was given to me as “Time is your most precious resource. You can always make more money. You’ll never get back a second of your time.” Words I live by.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people value that they can get stuff done for themselves. I've grown up helping with various renovations around our home (floor tiling, wallpapers, building kitchen furniture etc), and they are fond memories and it makes a difference to how you feel living in a place. I know today mobility and renting is everything, but there is quite a distinct feel of living in actually your own place that you've worked on ove…

There is merit to the parent comment advising that some DIY excursions are best left alone, but I appreciate the adventure that comes with grinding my wheels from time to time. Hassle builds character! My buddy is taking years to renovate his house, but it's a great story, like something you see in Architectural Digest.

The thing is that there's a difference between putting up a new wall (been there, enjoyed that) and hiring someone else to fix the toilet flange leak if you ask me :)

That's a tongue in cheek way of saying that I don't mind paying for the stuff that I would not enjoy trying to do myself. It's not limited to smelly stuff. I definitely didn't want to do the re-piping of the house (had Kitex) myself. But I definitely enjoyed the wall building and dry walling. I loved putting in the door and what I learned during that but I wouldn't want to do the window replacement even though it's kinda the same except for the insulation and water proofing part (which is where I want the professionals to do it). But then I will be looking into the shed water leak myself (wet garden tools and possibly some $$ spent on a new 2x4 or OSB roof board, sure). Leaky house with mold issues? Thabjs but no thanks. I got a day job :)

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#246
post #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 ...

Yeah it's custom. Perhaps the old version used to be based on the open-source bit of Reddit's codebase. But I think the new one is totally home-grown. I think its source code is available though.

hmm ... I see that this exists:

https://github.com/LessWrong2

... but there is nothing there about the commenting features ...

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#247

I don’t get #65, why it is in the future tense? And what does it even mean? 65. You will prevent yourself from even having thoughts that could lower your status. Avoid blocking yourself off just so people keep thinking you’re cool.

There is an implied "inevitably" in there. Rephrased:

You will inevitably discard ideas that could lower your status. Be aware of this bias and don't box yourself in to try to maintain your status.

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