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Tips for a Better Life

ideopunk.com

311–320 of 488 posts

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#311
post #286
post #8

I'm enjoying this, and I also appreciate how it is a delightful accidental commentary of the lesswrong crowd. I especially appreciated this one: > You can figure out doing laundry

...well, it's essentially a primer for mildly autistic and very smart people to deal with modern life outside of their narrow fields, and most of it is the kind of advice the average grandmother would give someone if they asked her. We're talking about the movement that created "Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality" though, I'm not expecting life-shattering insights in a list by them anyways.

Well now I'm super curious to know if you read Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. What did you think of it?

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#312
> You do not live in a video game. There are no pop-up warnings if you’re about to do something foolish, or if you’ve been going in the wrong direction for too long.

In the good old times most video games weren't like that.

It's a pity that those times are gone, to the point video games are now used as such a comparison point!

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#313

> Foolish people are right about most things. Endeavour to not let the opinions of foolish people automatically discredit those opinions. could someone rewrite that in a way that is more clear? I’m not getting the point.

Just because the fool says "The sun is shining" doesn't make it dark out.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#314

> 92. You have vanishingly little political influence and every thought you spend on politics will probably come to nothing. Consider building things instead, or at least going for a walk. I don't get it. should I not care?

You should care about politics, but also understand that your isolated action will not magically change the world. Your individual action does have an impact, but it’s likely a small one. So adjust your efforts and expectations accordingly.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#315
post #114

"8. When buying things, time and money trade-off against each other. If you’re low on money, take more time to find deals. If you’re low on time, stop looking for great deals and just buy things quickly online." I'm finding, as I've gotten older, that almost every time I've chosen money over time I've made a bad decision. And I see this among my family and friends, too. There's a mentality that emerges when exchangin…

> Time really is the most precious resource you have. Think hard before you trade it for anything else. Including money! I personally would much rather spend a sunny afternoon with my nephew transporting 2 tons of gravel and playing outside than sitting inside an office to earn the money to pay someone else to do it.

That's a particular case where you'd get other benefits (spending time with someone you like when the weather is nice), you know that's not always the case. And for the cost of half a day's transit work a software engineer probably only needs to work for an hour (and a professional's half day will probably take a layperson a whole day).

If you enjoy the activity it's a whole different story.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#316
post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, be kind because the universe is cruel enough. Just step back and let entropy do it’s thing if you truly can’t be kind to someone, but there’s no need to hasten “the entropy death of the universe.”

Being mean hastens the heat death of the universe?

Of course! That’s why it’s called “roasting” people.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#317

> 25. History remembers those who got to market first. Getting your creation out into the world is more important than getting it perfect. This is why everyone remembers the MPMan F10 and no one has heard of the iPod. Being the first to get it right is more important than being the first to get to market.

"Your blanket truism has a counter-example! I shall provide a counter-truism to fill the void."

One counter example ? I can’t even think of a single example where the first to market eventually won.

Most people use Google, not ALIWEB. How often have you flown on a Burgess plane instead of a Boeing or Airbus ? I bet you’re reading this on a Dell, Mac, HP, or other current brand PC, and not on a Ferranti. There are countless counter examples.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is good advice, but separate from the labeling, it's also okay to not like things. If you actually don't like dancing, that's okay, and you shouldn't feel guilty about not forcing yourself to like it. And other people shouldn't feel obligated to "Green Eggs and Ham" you over it. If somebody says they're not interested in something, don't try to force them into it. You're not really doing them a favor. The dancin…

That's fair. But I know a number of men (to go with the example) who think it's unmasculine to dance (or to dance in certain styles and settings). However, as a single guy taking up ballroom and tango dancing was a great idea for meeting women (along with, at that time in my life, getting in better shape and starting to dress better). The notion that "real men don't dance" (like real men don't eat quiche) is harmful…

> The notion that "real men don't dance" (like real men don't eat quiche) is harmful to many individuals because it's become internalized as a quality of themselves due to identity and not due to actual preference.

Yeah toxic masculinity sucks. Both as a thing and as a term.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#319
post #19

These are really great! I imagine one could write a paragraph (or more) on each, and one could setup a whole process of following through with all of them. In fact, this is inspiring: I'm going to put these in a list and review them regularly and try to take a (small) action on each. Anyone wanna try it with me? BTW - only two that I disagree with: > 13. When googling a recipe, precede it with ‘best’. You’ll find bet…

My hot recipe tip: Get a cookbook or three, and don't bother with the SEO cesspool. - I'm Just Here for the Food (and the sequel) - Six Seasons - Cook's Country - Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat And others, but those are the ones I use most. Especially Six Seasons -- if you are interested in reducing the amount of meat in your diet but find the vege/vegan web sphere too annoying, that's your ticket.

I just checked out six seasons now. My first thought was that this is such a newbie book. It was so...male.

I am not saying this to be disrespectful or rude to you because you did mention that you enjoyed it..but I literally had to skim 10% of the book to hear the authors wax poetic about ..I don’t know what?

Cookbooks should be about recipes ...and recipes should be about methods. Not endless words and sentences about nostalgia. There is a place for that...and that’s not a cookbook. And the nostalgia is not even interesting.

And it treats the reader like they have never seen a vegetable in their lives. And images. There weren’t any that made me want to cook them.

And it comes off a little twee and precious mentioning ‘salt’ as an important ingredient. Seriously? Wtf?

I seriously recommend any French book for cooking. Because they codify methods. None of these are recipes per se ..’torn croutons’ is not a method.

If it’s for vegetarian/vegans learning to cook, I recommend the cuisine that taught the French..the Italians. Anything by Marcella hazan is good. As is silver spoon cookbook.

Www.Food52.com as well as www.thekitchn.com are also good. Altho they are websites and it is what it is.

I also love Donna hay books from Australia. Anything by Mark Bittman. Milk street can be ok. Available on Netflix iirc. America’s test kitchen can be proper lessons for those who are complete newbies.

I was just so mad reading six seasons and I had just finished skimming it because there was literally not one page that made me what to linger. I was just disappointed and seeing it mentioned here literally 3 seconds after I closed it with a huff on kindle is kinda funny.

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