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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

#141

Post by freetime2 »

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…

Yeah I think lawn mowing is not the best way to get people thinking about efficient pathfinding. I was initially more focused on creating clean lines, and I didn't even realize the goal was to minimize the number of moves until I was half way through the task, and started zig-zagging (yes, I skipped the intro text... my bad).

Something like delivering newspapers would be a better problem I think - although I suppose you then you get into optimizations like preferring right-hand turns, etc. I wonder what would be the most simple and intuitive demonstration of the traveling salesman problem.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#142

Post by cortesoft »

inigyou wrote: post #119
Modified3019 wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Fun fact: people are not "allergic" to pollen, they are having a legitimate immune reaction to pollen deploying enzymes that cut up proteins in your respiratory tract. This is because pollen is "designed" to chop up similar proteins when it lands on a flower.

So how does it not bother some people?

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#143

Post by cortesoft »

Modified3019 wrote: post #109
cortesoft wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

It’s all parts of the grass, and most trees, plus myriad other things. My legs always itch if I walk outside in nature wearing shorts. When I did the test where they poke you with a box of allergens on the back, my entire back was basically reacting.

I am currently doing weekly shots in an attempt to fix the issue.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#144

Post by hapticmonkey »

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…

Reminds me of this Kurt Vonnegut quote:

> “(talking about when he tells his wife he’s going out to buy an envelope) Oh, she says well, you’re not a poor man. You know, why don’t you go online and buy a hundred envelopes and put them in the closet? And so I pretend not to hear her. And go out to get an envelope because I’m going to have a hell of a good time in the process of buying one envelope. I meet a lot of people. And, see some great looking babes. And a fire engine goes by. And I give them the thumbs up. And, and ask a woman what kind of dog that is. And, and I don’t know. The moral of the story is, is we’re here on Earth to fart around. And, of course, the computers will do us out of that. And, what the computer people don’t realize, or they don’t care, is we’re dancing animals.”

Sometimes efficiency is not the point.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#145

Post by RajT88 »

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 love all manner of yard work. My wife says it is like living in an Animal Crossing house, with me always wandering around the yard with various things - shovels, fishing rods, buckets, rakes, chainsaws, grass seed, etc.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#146

Post by pretzellogician »

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 love working outdoors.

And mowing is meditative... some of the time. Until I encounter a yellowjacket nest.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#147

Post by somat »

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…

On mowing actual grass, I love thinking about the algorithm while mowing. Turning(the reduction thereof)is often the most important part. removing awkward corners for later passes is critical.

The other is, if you are like me and don't really have a "lawn" so much as a large yard and a weed season, so just discharge where it lands, is optimizing the discharge path, you don't want to discharge into unmowed grass(it builds up and makes things hard) so the optimal path turns into a spiral, fences also interfere with the discharge, so the optimal spiral is inside out, but you never quite know where the center is so to avoid an awkward edge you go outside in with a reverse path around the fence. and what appear to be inefficient passes(not cutting to full width or doubling a pass) to reduce extra turns into straight lines.

There may be a fun idle game in all of this.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#148

Post by saintfire »

grebc wrote: post #99
edoceo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of a friend got sick of tech work. Now she bills out at $70-120/hr doing garden and landscaping work. Not her crew, just her. Solo work on nice houses. Not lawn-mowing, landscaping. Very dirty every day. If I had a job I'd be jealous.

I bought a real stinker of place to renovate & of course the yard is completely overgrown. Every wo/man and their dog is telling me to knock it down, have a bobcat to clear the yard and start fresh. I enjoy the work of clearing a yard by hand, and slowly cleaning the place up.

To be fair, equipment is pretty enjoyable to run, especially if you aren't burned out of it as a job.

I miss running an excavator, all the time.

Re: Why some people mow a lawn better than others

#150

Post by Dylan16807 »

floren wrote: post #135
b40d-48b2-979e wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How often are you people mowing your lawn that that's even a concern? It's like this is "surburbs: the problem: the comment section"

You can do things correctly, with thought and attention even if they seem unimportant, or you can be a feckless dipshit. This applies to most things in life.

The argument is that it doesn't make a difference at certain levels of mowing.

From that perspective, it's like someone going over their strategies to avoid overloading their car's suspension when they're buying groceries. That's not a "thought and attention" scenario, that's a "why do you have half a ton of groceries" scenario.

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