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Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

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Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#61

Post by muzani »

cabalamat wrote: post #36
muzani wrote: post #29

Pasta and sauce are not meant to be separate. Once you cook the pasta, drain it, and immediately toss with the sauce. This is part of the reason it was meant to be al dente, to absorb and deliver the flavor of the sauce better. Unlike rice, it's fine to "soak" pasta in the sauce; it expands when freshly cooked but not when cool. Also most sauce recipes are probably overcomplicated. Most need less than 5 ingredients.…

> Unlike rice, it's fine to "soak" pasta in the sauce Why is this bad with rice? When I make a stew I often put some rice in, with the expectation that the rice will absorb some of the stew.

It doesn't work well with most Asian dishes with sauces. Such as butter chicken, curry, the stuff with coconut milk, sambal.

I think stew might be an exception, because you want it to be porridge-like. But for many sauces, that's too soggy. You usually want it to soak for a few seconds to minutes but not an hour.

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#62

Post by jacknews »

What is the new writing grip and what were you doing before?

I always assumed dynamic tripod grip was what was taught, and the best, as it's how I write, but a couple of my kids used a cross between lateral tripod and quadrupod - and their teachers would complain about their writing.

I had to restrain myself when I realized this is what they'd been taught, and next met the teachers responsible.

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#63

Post by prometheus76 »

mtlynch wrote: post #33

Staying warm. In the winter, I used to stay warm by turning up the thermostat. Then I discovered (via HN) the Low-Tech Magazine article, "Insulation: first the body, then the home." [0] The article argued that it's much more efficient to focus on heating yourself rather than your whole living space. I invested in high-quality wool clothes that I wear in layers and warm slippers. Now, I keep my home about 5 degrees F…

Another thing that can really help with this is a hot water bottle. You can put it on your lap, or under your feet and it really helps you keep warm if you are sitting for long periods of time. Helps if you put a small blanket over your lap as well. Usually lasts for a couple of hours before you need to refresh the water in the bottle.

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#65

Post by friedman23 »

Nesco wrote: post #59

I realised most of my basic health routine was useless to detrimental: - Soap: it disrupt the skin microbiome. Only useful for hand washing and to clean private parts / the bottom. Even then use high quality soap like Marseille soap or Aleppo soap. Note: Also as mentioned in the comments if you avoid soap / deodorant you *will* probably need to shower two times a day even without doing physical activities. Three time…

Wow, you managed to convince yourself that something you were doing right was wrong

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#66

Post by jerf »

cabalamat wrote: post #36
muzani wrote: post #29

Pasta and sauce are not meant to be separate. Once you cook the pasta, drain it, and immediately toss with the sauce. This is part of the reason it was meant to be al dente, to absorb and deliver the flavor of the sauce better. Unlike rice, it's fine to "soak" pasta in the sauce; it expands when freshly cooked but not when cool. Also most sauce recipes are probably overcomplicated. Most need less than 5 ingredients.…

> Unlike rice, it's fine to "soak" pasta in the sauce Why is this bad with rice? When I make a stew I often put some rice in, with the expectation that the rice will absorb some of the stew.

Rice can almost fully disintegrate if left in water, and will become something that disintegrates even more if stirred or agitated. In many other applications it replaces a pleasantly tactile and textured starch with a sort of sludge slurry, but as is often the case if you know and expect this it can be used in some applications advantageously. Thickening a stew is one of them. It's actually my favorite stew thickener. We discovered this the hard way once, though. We just "threw some rice" into a stew, and, well, if you put enough "sludge slurry" into a stew it starts to dominate... since then, though, it's been something very useful, especially since I'm allergic to flour, one of the traditional choices.

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#67

Post by dfxm12 »

cabalamat wrote: post #36
muzani wrote: post #29

Pasta and sauce are not meant to be separate. Once you cook the pasta, drain it, and immediately toss with the sauce. This is part of the reason it was meant to be al dente, to absorb and deliver the flavor of the sauce better. Unlike rice, it's fine to "soak" pasta in the sauce; it expands when freshly cooked but not when cool. Also most sauce recipes are probably overcomplicated. Most need less than 5 ingredients.…

> Unlike rice, it's fine to "soak" pasta in the sauce Why is this bad with rice? When I make a stew I often put some rice in, with the expectation that the rice will absorb some of the stew.

It's not bad, per se. It depends what you're going for. There's a lot of different ways to cook rice "properly" depending on the end dish. Congee, risotto, paella, sushi, etc. all have you cook rice differently while adding various degrees of liquid at different times.

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#69

Post by armchairhacker »

mabbo wrote: post #38
mtlynch wrote: post #33

Staying warm. In the winter, I used to stay warm by turning up the thermostat. Then I discovered (via HN) the Low-Tech Magazine article, "Insulation: first the body, then the home." [0] The article argued that it's much more efficient to focus on heating yourself rather than your whole living space. I invested in high-quality wool clothes that I wear in layers and warm slippers. Now, I keep my home about 5 degrees F…

I don't like wearing big layers of clothing. I like being in a very light t-shirt. I'm happy to pay the extra cost to heat the room I'm in with a space heater in the winter time.

me too, also sometimes i can’t seem to heat up in layers. So I drink hot tea instead

Re: Ask HN: Something you’ve done your whole life that you realized is wrong?

#70

Post by joemazerino »

xyzelement wrote: post #19

I used to assume the religious people were missing something and missing out on the latest and greatest. Now I am seeing that often it's us the non-religious that have lost something of value and are trying to replace it with things that don't work as well.

Amen to that.
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