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Tips for a Better Life

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Re: Tips for a Better Life

#461

Post by Too »

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…

Understand what you are trying to say but maybe food isn't the best example. If i travel somewhere it's to enjoy a warm beach, the ski slope or something else unique i can't find at home. Not to eat. If i thrift on the food it means i can afford another day in slopes. (Assuming of course fancy restaurants is something that can be found at home and not a main unique attraction of the destination).

Often the cheap street food can also be the more unique local attraction when traveling somewhere!

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#462

Post by whitecrow90 »

Not a big fan of make your life better (articles/books motivation speakers etc) but i bookmarked this one mainly because of all the practical tips and real world examples. And the (product opinions) with a "reddit" after its so true :d

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#463

Post by borroka »

WoodenChair wrote: post #363
stared wrote: post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really like it. Used GPT-3 to expand it (T=0.7, the first trial). [PROMPT] Compassion 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 you will want to join in…

Other than 89 I’m not impressed with the GPT-3 output here. In fact I would say it’s a good demonstration of the limits of this technology. While syntactically correct sentences that at the surface sound good, if you really think about them they’re not saying anything. They’re much more superficial and meaningless than the thinking that went into the original list.

It sounds like 95% of the conversations I hear at work.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#464

Post by vrc »

akiselev wrote: post #452
spurdoman77 wrote: post #428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My experience differs with the cars. During my life I have moved from very rural area to always denser places. The denser it gets the more helpful the other drivers are. Dunno why this happens.

IMO New York drivers are the least agreeable and a diverse sprawlscape like LA has all kinds, depending on the neighborhood (looking at you Glendale) so neither stereotype align with reality. I suspect what the GP thinks of as rural is more exurban or even suburban, though IME they're often just as bad. Rural is when you see a handful of cars on an hour long drive so opinions will vary wildly

I’ve grown up driving in east coast cities and I will say that there is a lot of honking and anger and cutting off of people, but drivers in general are very spatially aware and there are unwritten rules about how to cut in/merge etc. so I’ve never taken any of it personally. It’s all part of the theater. Oddly I feel less comfortable in other regions out west where speeds are higher and people are sticklers for “rules of the road” (IMO feel like “right of way” casts a cloak of invincibility around them). I feel that those drivers don’t see driving for the complex, multi-person game it is and don’t play their part in the game. It’s like their playing in single player mode. I can see though if you’re unfamiliar with either perspective the other seems foreign and wrong. But then again I’m biased (just casting a different perspective on angry NYC/Boston/NE-US drivers)...

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#465

Post by bonoboTP »

neogodless wrote: post #399
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…

There are ripple effects from discovering that you're capable of doing things that professionals get paid to do. Good ripple effects. My wife has not only embraced me doing more things around the house (and to me, this is getting to do more things) as she's seen what I can do, but she's also embraced her own capabilities more as she's discovered what she can do. There's also cases where professionals have different s…

Also, paying someone to care about it as much as you do may be out of your wallet (well, perhaps not the case for SV devs reading).

The attention to detail and actual time that you are willing to put into your own home is just different from someone for whom it's just another job.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#466

Post by bonoboTP »

jdhzzz wrote: post #345
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…

"If you eliminate all hassle, you could just as much pay people to live instead of you." In general (90% of the time) I've found paying someone to do something merely alters the hassle. Now I have to deal through someone to get the desired result. And I'm paying for the privilege (increments hassle). There are very few times I've been able to pay money, state the desired result, and remain hands off.

Yep, it's easy to get screwed over. When we had major renovations, one knowledgeable family member always had to be around to make sure things are going well. The main repairs guy is obviously hostile to this, they are the pros after all, but if you take a hands off approach you can get screwed. And other handymen don't like taking up and finishing/fixing botched jobs. You can also try to run after your money. Sure you can delegate that too, pay a lawyer etc.

If you're really rich you can just have someone who does all this for you and you just sit in your chair and enjoy life and point to things in catalogues and everything else just appears around you.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#467

Post by caturopath »

npsimons wrote: post #431
caturopath wrote: post #168

> After a breakup, cease all contact as soon as practical. The potential for drama is endless, and the potential for a good friendship is negligible. Strange. It's a bit of a red flag if someone is in complete radio silence with all their exes, frankly. Obviously, you aren't going to enjoy hanging out next week, but I'm surprised you dated enough that there's a "breakup" if you don't enjoy each other enough to have s…

> It's a bit of a red flag if someone is in complete radio silence with all their exes, frankly. Why? > I'm surprised you dated enough that there's a "breakup" if you don't enjoy each other enough to have something to salvage. Some relationships are mistakes; not all of us are prescient enough to know how they will work out. Other times you simply grow apart.

> Why?

The same reason why it's a bit of a red flag if someone has no long-time friends or has no job references. Because it hints at relationships going in such a way that the people don't even so much as want to talk ever again after, and the common factor is the person.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#468

Post by baby »

mortenjorck wrote: post #156

95. Some types of sophistication won’t make you enjoy the object more, they’ll make you enjoy it less. For example, wine snobs don’t enjoy wine twice as much as you, they’re more keenly aware of how most wine isn’t good enough. Avoid sophistication that diminishes your enjoyment. I agree with the conclusion of this one, though I think it oversimplifies the problem. Cultivating taste in something (be it food or drink,…

I don’t know how I feel about that advice. I’d think a better one is: don’t get too snoby. It was shown that wine experts can’t tell between a very expensive wine and a good wine with a normal price. It’s all a matter of taste. Same for movies: sure that movie has been done a thousand times, but watch it like you were watching this genre for the first time.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#469

Post by coldtea »

fao_ wrote: post #453
coldtea wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or the irrational idea of a "dog-whistle" making this a thought-crime to discuss. Because, "of course", "rationally" nobody other than a fascist or such would care for tradition and traditional values or use such terms positively. Only whether you're traditionalist or progressivist or whatever is a value judgement and a world-view, not something to put as rational or irrational. Those that say the opposite irattional…

Did you actually go and read his tweets, or are you arguing on principle with no knowledge of what I am talking about?

I'm not talking (nor care) about whether some particular person (Roko Basilisk'd creator or whoever) is right-wing or not. I'm commenting on the argument in your comment, about

"Traditional" being a traditional (heh) dogwhistle for the alt-right".

He could be to the right of Hitler, and the argument could still be wrong.

(I guess now you can write "I figured as much", and dismiss my comment, as if the particular and not the principle is what's important).

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