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

How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

blog.alexwendland.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 282 posts

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#41

Post by anon35 »

sublinear wrote: post #28

I have such a hard time relating to this in the same way I get deeply annoyed by sloppy code from coworkers. Any advice?

Try to keep in mind that your attention to detail is almost certainly perceived by them to be fastidious, and that quietly your seniormost colleagues and leaders may well muse: "Man, if only sublinear would loosen their standards, just imagine how much faster we'd proceed". Put another way: the fact that you can't relate to OPs problem is because you're hardwired to solve it (putting things in their place) continuously, likely without exception, which means you're paying a different cost. Try to think of _that_ cost when you bristle at their solutions.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#43

Post by sublinear »

anon35 wrote: post #41
sublinear wrote: post #28

I have such a hard time relating to this in the same way I get deeply annoyed by sloppy code from coworkers. Any advice?

Try to keep in mind that your attention to detail is almost certainly perceived by them to be fastidious, and that quietly your seniormost colleagues and leaders may well muse: "Man, if only sublinear would loosen their standards, just imagine how much faster we'd proceed". Put another way: the fact that you can't relate to OPs problem is because you're hardwired to solve it (putting things in their place) continuous…

I enjoy thinking about this perspective, but at the end of the day it's not slower in the long run to be meticulous. Quite the opposite.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#44

Post by daemonologist »

treetalker wrote: post #33
tonymet wrote: post #3

Best cleaning / organizational tip I’ve learned : everything out of place goes into a tote. Every day shuttle the tote around the house to deposit the items in their rightful place. This reduces reorganizing to linear time

Yeah, but where does the tote live? It’s mobile and might not be where I need it when I need it. Then I go looking for it, and all of a sudden I have two problems and have difficulty getting back to what I was doing in the first place. :-)

I'm afraid the only remaining option is to wear a backpack 24/7 and reenact your favorite inventory management RPG.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#46

Post by fmbb »

tonymet wrote: post #3

Best cleaning / organizational tip I’ve learned : everything out of place goes into a tote. Every day shuttle the tote around the house to deposit the items in their rightful place. This reduces reorganizing to linear time

It’s still linear time with one basket per room, you just have to maybe visit each room twice.

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#47

Post by placebo »

I would continuously lose ballpoint pens. At one point I thought the solution was to buy an expensive ball point pen as that would make me more aware of not losing it, but the effect was that it would just take a bit longer. I finally settled on buying many cheap pens. One humorous thought that I was curious about was that since I never found any pens (either my own or those lost by others), was it the case that there are people who find pens in the same way I lose them or do they just vanish into another dimension...

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#48

Post by aquafox »

I never lost a single sock during or after washing. Why? Because I care (they are expensive cycling socks) and I go after each sock immediately when putting them on the drying rack. So where are they? 1) Entangled with one of the other wet clothing items. (60% of cases) 2) Lost on the way between laundry machine and drying rack (20% of cases) 3) Still in the laundry drum (20% of cases).

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#49

Post by bubblebeard »

treetalker wrote: post #31

My approach is to have separate “take-off” points near the entrance/exit of each room. Example: If I’m in my home office and find that some things need to go to the living room and some to the kitchen, I simply queue them to take off instead of taking a trip every time I realize an item needs to go. Then when I take a coffee break, I’ll grab all the items; drop the living-room items off on the way to the kitchen, and…

I might just steal this idea from you. Having a partner who ”organize through chaos” (which I maintain is not an actual system) there are constantly treasure troves of knick-knacks everywhere, usually hiding important items. No matter how often I try to organize it’s always messy, I think this might be the answer. Thank you!

Re: How to avoid losing items? Holding pens

#50

Post by margalabargala »

placebo wrote: post #47

I would continuously lose ballpoint pens. At one point I thought the solution was to buy an expensive ball point pen as that would make me more aware of not losing it, but the effect was that it would just take a bit longer. I finally settled on buying many cheap pens. One humorous thought that I was curious about was that since I never found any pens (either my own or those lost by others), was it the case that ther…

I take this strategy of buying many of a thing to scatter all over with a few things. I've found it very effective.

In particular, I live in a sunny area at high elevation where sun protection is a big deal; finding out that one's only tube of sunscreen is lost or empty could have serious consequences on an outdoor activity day.

Tubes of sunscreen and sunglasses distributed to all vehicles, all backpacks, and all house entrances have ensured no sunburns in the family the last two years.

Post reply on HN