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Why some people mow a lawn better than others

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Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#101

Post by wlesieutre »

hbn wrote: post #53
paradox460 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus mowing a lawn is meditative Copying another comment I made earlier When I was laid off a couple months ago, the first thing I did was go out and mow my lawn. One hour of simple, clean labor, with clear progress, goals, and solitude. It helped me stay out of a bad mental frame, and when I finished I went inside and sent out a few hundred applications Over the next several weeks, I spent a lot of time that wasn't…

I'm not much of a workaholic, I don't really like going outside or getting my hands dirty... But mowing the lawn is nice. It's like doing a giant coloring page with a big thick marker. The past couple of years I've lived in a place with no lawn to mow and I miss it.

Niceness of lawn mowing is very climate dependent. Around 70 degrees I don’t mind it. Different story when it’s 98.

Unenjoyable, and my electric motor’s batteries die twice as fast in the heat, so I have to do it two days in a row instead of being able to get it over with. But I don’t hate it quite enough to blow hundreds of dollars on extra batteries or to pay someone else to do it.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#102

Post by mc32 »

vel0city wrote: post #95
paradox460 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus mowing a lawn is meditative Copying another comment I made earlier When I was laid off a couple months ago, the first thing I did was go out and mow my lawn. One hour of simple, clean labor, with clear progress, goals, and solitude. It helped me stay out of a bad mental frame, and when I finished I went inside and sent out a few hundred applications Over the next several weeks, I spent a lot of time that wasn't…

> Plus mowing a lawn is meditative Not when its >100F and >30%RH and a bright sun in the sky.

That’s what evenings are for…

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#103

Post by axus »

paradox460 wrote: post #20
cortesoft wrote: post #3

This is a very different problem than actual efficiency when mowing a lawn or vacuuming a rub. Turning takes more work and time, and you miss a part of the 'square' when you are turning (the arc of the curve is not a straight line). In addition, vacuums especially have an area at the edge of the machine that is not cleaned as well, which is why you want a bit of overlap in your lines. Plus, when mowing a lawn, you of…

Plus mowing a lawn is meditative Copying another comment I made earlier When I was laid off a couple months ago, the first thing I did was go out and mow my lawn. One hour of simple, clean labor, with clear progress, goals, and solitude. It helped me stay out of a bad mental frame, and when I finished I went inside and sent out a few hundred applications Over the next several weeks, I spent a lot of time that wasn't…

I always thought this song was about mowing the lawn during tough times, but apparently not:

https://genius.com/The-all-american-rejects-move-along-lyric...

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#107

Post by madaxe_again »

wildzzz wrote: post #65
scottyah wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should see how optimal the poster's first dates are! Meet at a location with premade bottles of Soylent while they ask 15 questions. Done in 30min. Optimized away the cost and time "wasted" at restaurants or mini-golf type activities.

I just send prospective dates a pre-screening questionaire, my social résumé, and a doordash giftcard. It's really efficient since I don't need to waste my time going on bad dates or even leaving the house. Unfortunately I haven't figured out the best way screen for candidates on the second round because they never return the questionaire.

Oh, you just need to attach a prize draw to the questionnaire. It really boosts response rates with a low CPA.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#108

Post by jvanderbot »

raddan wrote: post #73
jvanderbot wrote: post #64

Reminds me of Zachtronics: Take a computationally difficult problem, reduce it to a game, and then score people against each other. Pure genius and nerd snipe marksmanship. Did you know multi-robot exploration pretty much as laid out in Exapunks has loose but well studied bounds on number of agents, bits of information, and exploration steps? For example, one agent with only one pebble cannot explore all graphs? http…

This is exactly the trick one of my colleagues uses to teach Theory of Computation, a notoriously boring subject (for your average CS student). Instead of motivating reductions by blathering on about how knapsack and TSP are the same, let them choose a fun video game and show how it can be solved using integer programming or something. Students have way more fun and end up actually enjoying the proofy parts, because…

Love it. I confess I learned how to build constrained ILP/MILP problems by solving equipment loadout optimality for the game Highfleet.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#109

Post by Modified3019 »

cortesoft wrote: post #80
paradox460 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus mowing a lawn is meditative Copying another comment I made earlier When I was laid off a couple months ago, the first thing I did was go out and mow my lawn. One hour of simple, clean labor, with clear progress, goals, and solitude. It helped me stay out of a bad mental frame, and when I finished I went inside and sent out a few hundred applications Over the next several weeks, I spent a lot of time that wasn't…

I would agree with you if I wasn't so allergic to grass.

Funny enough the parts of the lawn that are still grass are what force me to go out and mow it before the seed heads start spewing pollen. Though if you’re allergic to the hay too (curiously, I’m not) you have my sincere sympathies. That said, even if I didn’t have bad grass pollen allergies, I’d still have to keep the grass from getting too big because deer/dog ticks will start to host there, especially with all the critters we have running around.

Most of my yard (not tiny, but not big either) is clover/legumes now, and I only mow it once it’s seeded and matured, to encourage a new flush of flowers for the bees/flies/beetles and such. As a bonus the clover tends to push out the catsear too.

I’m also fond of my mint patch, and all the little mint moths fluttering about it.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#110

Post by AngryData »

gdhkgdhkvff wrote: post #55
sunrunner wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hitting with a (relatively) blunt object in the first place Well there's your problem right there.

Lawn mower blades are meant to be somewhat blunt. Like a butter knife. Too sharp and the blade will chip away on the harder materials.

They still work when blunted which is most of the time. But ideally they are sharp and slicing pure grass, grass tolerates slicing better than ripping. It's like a sword, ideally it is razor sharp, doesn't chip when blunted, and still works as a decent club even when blunted because it will be the second it hits something hard.
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