Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tips for a Better Life

ideopunk.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 488 posts

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#251

Post by andreilys »

bonoboTP wrote: post #47
redleggedfrog wrote: post #16

"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…

Some people have spent thousands of hours perfecting their craft. To think you can produce the same output with a few hours of YouTube tutorials is laughable.

I’m happy to pay these experts because I know I will get my moneys worth. It’ll also free up my time to explore things I have a higher interest and affinity for

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#252

Post by lifeformed »

nlh wrote: post #19

These are really great! I imagine one could write a paragraph (or more) on each, and one could setup a whole process of following through with all of them. In fact, this is inspiring: I'm going to put these in a list and review them regularly and try to take a (small) action on each. Anyone wanna try it with me? BTW - only two that I disagree with: > 13. When googling a recipe, precede it with ‘best’. You’ll find bet…

> 13. When googling a recipe, precede it with ‘best’. You’ll find better recipes.

> No. You'll find recipes whose authors did bare-minimum SEO, not produced better recipes.

This advice is only true because if you do this with many western foods it turns up Kenji Alt-Lopez's recipes that are named this way, and they actually are the best (well, most researched and perfected).

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#253

Post by AnimalMuppet »

ggm wrote: post #216
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I note that your rejection of Ayn Rand's philosophy is that it "leaves you cold", rather than a rational refutation of it.

Ayn Rand begins with axioms, and logically derives her position from there. (Well, maybe. I suspect that at least to some degree, she already had her position, and derived her axioms from there, then argued for her position from her axioms.) So I attack her position by saying that in her third axiom, she mis-defines consciousness, and the rest of her errors follow from her flawed starting position. That's rational. "It leaves me cold" is not a rational response. (It may be an indication that you feel there's something wrong with the position, even if you can't define it or prove it, and that's fine. But it's not a rational response.)

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#254

Post by PascLeRasc »

jiggawatts wrote: post #242
redleggedfrog wrote: post #16

"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 f…

I agree with the end point you made but I think it's really unhealthy to think about any time not spent working as losing money.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#255

Post by Bakary »

earwaxauditor wrote: post #64
NortySpock wrote: post #24

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…

> Cultivate compassion for those less intelligent than you Also cultivate compassion for the pseudo-rationalism cultists.

The pseudo part tends to really get into gear once an ideology no longer considers itself as such. e.g. in this case a typical westerner with vague neoliberal beliefs who sees their broad outlook as the End of History and life as simply the mechanistic application of mental models

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#256

Post by gerbler »

bonoboTP wrote: post #47
redleggedfrog wrote: post #16

"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…

I completely agree. I've found these are generally challenging tasks that pull you into a flow state, and when doing them with family, contribute to a great sense of accomplishment.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#257

Post by starpilot »

powersnail wrote: post #115
war1025 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> volunteering as a firefighter This seems like exactly the case where I would apply the "There's a professional for that" maxim.

There are not enough professional firefighters in some places.

There are too many in others. They mostly do housecalls, serving as ambulances, since house fires are rare today.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#258

Post by gerbler »

andreilys wrote: post #251
bonoboTP wrote: post #47

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…

Some people have spent thousands of hours perfecting their craft. To think you can produce the same output with a few hours of YouTube tutorials is laughable. I’m happy to pay these experts because I know I will get my moneys worth. It’ll also free up my time to explore things I have a higher interest and affinity for

If very high-skilled work is needed and/or specialized tools (replacing a front-door, plumbing a gas-line), I agree, it's hard to match a skilled professional.

In my experience, the vast majority of household diy/repair does not require that level of skill. It can also be hard to find a really skilled person that cares about your home as much as you.

For me, I tend towards fixing/making everything myself unless it requires high-skill or specialized tools.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#259

Post by AnimalMuppet »

closeparen wrote: post #241
AnimalMuppet wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It looks like communicating the dissatisfaction without pressuring the other party. That's not easy, but I claim that it is possible.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#260

Post by fy20 »

c22 wrote: post #229
yters wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree. I spent 20 hours installing a remote start on my wife’s minivan for $150 when it would have cost $400 to have professionals do it in 3 hours. My time was well spent.

I do almost everything myself--a byproduct of being raised poor--and I never know what I'm doing. I watch some youtube videos, buy a fancy new tool, and away I go. I've had a couple epic failures but overall I've found that the more things you learn to do yourself the faster and easier it gets to pick up any new thing.

I'll add that learning some basic skills can save hassle as well. A few weeks ago a hinge broke on my bathroom door. The door dropped and was wedged on the floor so it couldn't be opened or closed.

My wife's answer if I wasn't here, would have been to call someone and wait a week for them to come, while just dealing with a broken bathroom door. Maybe if you are on your own thats no big deal, but what if it was a exterior door or window?

I spend an hour to swap the hinges around (there are three on the door, so swapped the middle for the bottom one which was broken), and voila, good as new until I get a replacement.

I still need to get around to ordering a replacement, but that's another story....

Post reply on HN