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On Having Enough Socks (2019)

gwern.net

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Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#81

Post by JohnFen »

throwaheyy wrote: post #75
ubermonkey wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really so surprising that we don't (as a rule) have electric kettles? I think the reasons are pretty clear. First, Americans are mostly coffee drinkers, not tea drinkers. The coffeedrinkers are mostly using coffee machines that heat the water for you, so you don't need a kettle to do it. This is true from the low-end $30 drip machine to multi-thousand-dollar espresso machines. Second, America is on 110, not 220…

I’m Australian, it is mildly surprising. America is the land of convenience, and I’ve found an electric kettle even at 120v is still faster than boiling water on an electric stove, and much faster than boiling on a gas stove.

Personally, I rarely boil water outside of cooking something, where my stove does the job perfectly well. I don't want or need to sacrifice counter space for a kettle.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#82

Post by staringback »

throwaheyy wrote: post #75
ubermonkey wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really so surprising that we don't (as a rule) have electric kettles? I think the reasons are pretty clear. First, Americans are mostly coffee drinkers, not tea drinkers. The coffeedrinkers are mostly using coffee machines that heat the water for you, so you don't need a kettle to do it. This is true from the low-end $30 drip machine to multi-thousand-dollar espresso machines. Second, America is on 110, not 220…

I’m Australian, it is mildly surprising. America is the land of convenience, and I’ve found an electric kettle even at 120v is still faster than boiling water on an electric stove, and much faster than boiling on a gas stove.

> much faster than boiling on a gas stove.

There is no way an electric stove is quicker than a gas stove. I did a quick google search and a standard gas stove on high is 12,000-18,000 BTU, which is 3.5-5.4kw.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#83

Post by JohnFen »

ghaff wrote: post #26
Jedd wrote: post #18

There's a few comments - seemingly from our American friends - that seem to suggest that left / right socks are a thing. I'm hoping I'm parsing those comments poorly, but ever since the revelation that Americans don't have kettles , I'm prepared for the worst. I got fed up with poor socks a few years ago and embarked on a project to try to find the best, or at least consistently decent, work socks. That's work in the…

I'm American and I'm also not understanding the comments about pairing identical socks that were purchased at the same time. I just tend to buy them 10 pairs or so at a time, match them randomly, and wear them until individual socks get lost or worn out.

This is what I do as well. All of my everyday socks are identical, so I don't have to pair them up at all after laundry day. I just keep them loose in a drawer and pull two arbitrary ones out when I put my socks on.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#84

Post by JohnFen »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #42
FredPret wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No what I mean is you buy 30-50 identical socks per type. You get one box per type. Then you stuff the 50 identical socks into the same box. Replenish when at 50% capacity.

How do you do wear-leveling? The socks may start as 20 identical pairs, but in a few weeks to few months, they will be all shades of grey.

This hasn't been a real problem for me. I'm not sure why. Some of it may be that I buy black socks, not white, and some of it may be that I mix freshly laundered socks into the clean sock collection, so every sock gets used about the same amount overall.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#85

Post by necubi »

jerf wrote: post #77

> be gwern > notice I don't have socks > write 10,000+ words on not having socks > four years later > still haven't bought socks I believe there's a sci-fi/fantasy novel by Alan Dean Foster in which he writes about a trap in a standard dungeon on a mountain which is a path that just very slowly gets steeper and steeper. At first, you don't think you need anything to deal with it, so you're not in mountaineering gear,…

In real life this tends to happen in reverse (climbing a mountain rather than descending), since it's generally easier to go up than go down.

Reading accident reports, a common theme is people setting on what they think is a class 3 or 4 hike, getting lost and ending up on a class 5 technical climb. With a gradual transition from class 4 scrambling to class 5 slab (less than vertical) climbing you can very quickly get to a place where it would be dangerous to descend.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#86

Post by throwaheyy »

staringback wrote: post #82
throwaheyy wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m Australian, it is mildly surprising. America is the land of convenience, and I’ve found an electric kettle even at 120v is still faster than boiling water on an electric stove, and much faster than boiling on a gas stove.

> much faster than boiling on a gas stove. There is no way an electric stove is quicker than a gas stove. I did a quick google search and a standard gas stove on high is 12,000-18,000 BTU, which is 3.5-5.4kw.

You are probably right. I have almost no experience boiling water on a gas stove (except for tiny camp stoves) because I use a kettle for that!

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#87

Post by yamtaddle »

throwaheyy wrote: post #75
ubermonkey wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really so surprising that we don't (as a rule) have electric kettles? I think the reasons are pretty clear. First, Americans are mostly coffee drinkers, not tea drinkers. The coffeedrinkers are mostly using coffee machines that heat the water for you, so you don't need a kettle to do it. This is true from the low-end $30 drip machine to multi-thousand-dollar espresso machines. Second, America is on 110, not 220…

I’m Australian, it is mildly surprising. America is the land of convenience, and I’ve found an electric kettle even at 120v is still faster than boiling water on an electric stove, and much faster than boiling on a gas stove.

They're a waste of space if you don't make tea much, or one of the fancier and more-manual coffee-making methods.

Most people in the US don't make tea much, and just use an automatic drip machine or a keurig for coffee, so of course they don't have a kettle.

We have one, but it's because we drink more tea than most Americans, and since we have it for that, it's space-saving for me to also use it for pourover coffee (rather than having a drip machine).

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#88

Post by aidenn0 »

kqr wrote: post #66
throwaway1777 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s mainly because many Americans have a coffee maker instead of brewing tea. But electric kettles are increasingly common. I have one, as well as one that I can put on the stove.

Kettles are not just for brewing tea. Whenever I need to boil large (quart or above) amounts of water (e.g. for pasta) I boil maybe 80 % in the electric kettle and the rest in the pot. Goes much faster.

At least in the US, I think that's only true for electrical resistance cooktops/hobs. For both natural-gas and inductive cooktops and 110V kettles, I find that the water boils much faster in the pot.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#89

Post by ajkjk »

throwaheyy wrote: post #75
ubermonkey wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really so surprising that we don't (as a rule) have electric kettles? I think the reasons are pretty clear. First, Americans are mostly coffee drinkers, not tea drinkers. The coffeedrinkers are mostly using coffee machines that heat the water for you, so you don't need a kettle to do it. This is true from the low-end $30 drip machine to multi-thousand-dollar espresso machines. Second, America is on 110, not 220…

I’m Australian, it is mildly surprising. America is the land of convenience, and I’ve found an electric kettle even at 120v is still faster than boiling water on an electric stove, and much faster than boiling on a gas stove.

The difference is that Americans don't drink very many boiled-water drinks and so don't really need them. And the ones they do are easily handled and better handled by the specialized <100$ gadget that is a coffee machine.

Re: On Having Enough Socks (2019)

#90

Post by MisterBastahrd »

throwaheyy wrote: post #75
ubermonkey wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really so surprising that we don't (as a rule) have electric kettles? I think the reasons are pretty clear. First, Americans are mostly coffee drinkers, not tea drinkers. The coffeedrinkers are mostly using coffee machines that heat the water for you, so you don't need a kettle to do it. This is true from the low-end $30 drip machine to multi-thousand-dollar espresso machines. Second, America is on 110, not 220…

I’m Australian, it is mildly surprising. America is the land of convenience, and I’ve found an electric kettle even at 120v is still faster than boiling water on an electric stove, and much faster than boiling on a gas stove.

Yet here I am, in America, with a cheap water dispenser that has hot and cold taps.
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