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Tips for a Better Life

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Re: Tips for a Better Life

#321

Post by Rebelgecko »

kleer001 wrote: post #166
basicneo wrote: post #164

When taking advice from people, I weigh it by how much I want aspects of their lives The Lesswrong community live in a narrow rationalist bubble.

I got that perspective from hiring an artist (and being hired as an artist). What's the secret? Have what the client wants. I was looking to get a dog tattoo. So, I looked for a tattoo artist with dogs in the style I wanted in their portfolio. As a visual effects artist I happened to make some dust in my early features. Since then, after looking at my demo reel, I've gotten hired to make more dust in movies.

What dust have you worked on? Has your dust evolved over time?

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#322

Post by elwell »

> 59. Those who generate anxiety in you and promise that they have the solution are grifters.

It's a little more complicated than that; a bit dangerous here in its simplicity.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#323

Post by cx4life »

war1025 wrote: post #109
powersnail wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you eliminate all hassle, you could just as much pay people to live instead of you. There are still a lot of things to do even if you have eliminated all the hassles. Singing, writing, learning a new language, surfing, volunteering as a firefighter, just to name a few. I get it. Some people likes fixing stuff, building stuff with their hands, and it's perfectly interesting to them. At the same time, it's not tha…

> volunteering as a firefighter This seems like exactly the case where I would apply the "There's a professional for that" maxim.

This made me laugh my drink through my nose -- and I've had my life saved by volunteer fire fighters in the PNW backcountry. A gifted, timely amateur beats an absent professional any day.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#324

Post by jamesfisher »

> 4. “Where is the good knife?” If you’re looking for your good X, you have bad Xs. Throw those out.

Bad example. Buy a knife sharpener! It's so easy to make an awful knife new again. I bought an AnySharp for about $5 and it's saved me $100s.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#326

Post by gxnxcxcx »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #253
ggm wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess because I see secular humanism as being rooted in a rationalist outlook, and the a-social claimed rationality of the Ayn Rand rugged individualists just leaves me cold, as does most libertarian rejections of society and social equity, collectivism to me is the highest form of rationalism.

I note that your rejection of Ayn Rand's philosophy is that it "leaves you cold", rather than a rational refutation of it. Ayn Rand begins with axioms, and logically derives her position from there. (Well, maybe. I suspect that at least to some degree, she already had her position, and derived her axioms from there, then argued for her position from her axioms.) So I attack her position by saying that in her third ax…

One may argue that the deliberate communicative act of expressively sharing feelings by means of articulated language may very well be a rational response by itself, as long as it's driven by a thoughtful enough intention. Even if at the same time it's fully void of rationalist value.

(Sorry if it comes across overly pedantic and twisted: non-native speaker, not enough sleep, words hard.)

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#327

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

> 7. Don’t buy CDs for people. They have Spotify.

Seriously? A CD offers far superior overall experience. Some of these are little works of art (as physical objects), not to mention the sound quality. Spotify offers good value for money, but that's it, you can't compare the two.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#328

Post by seer »

redleggedfrog wrote: post #16

"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…

Question is what do you spend your newfound time on. People usually like solving problems and proving to themselves and others they are capable. If I go and fix that broken chair myself, rather than toss it and buy a brand new one, you can say I’ve “lost” that time doing something unproductive, but I might consider it time well spent doing something I enjoy.

Also I think diversifying my competencies is also a good investment, as you get to exercise different parts of your brain and body.

And don’t get me started on the social aspect. Sure I’ll feel happy working on that toy recursive descent parser I’ve been thinking about. But I can do that at work too. But helping a friend do a paint job for that old room would help my well being even more.

I’ve largely stopped envying other people’s wealth at this point. I can see them having all the same problems as the rest of us - communication with partners or kids, “issues at work”, car problems, neighbor problems, substance abuse, just the details change, we’re all humans in the end. And thus trying to find joy in whatever I’ve set out to do this hour has helped me a lot with my general wellbeing.

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#329

Post by AlecSchueler »

76. After a breakup, cease all contact as soon as practical. The potential for drama is endless, and the potential for a good friendship is negligible.

To me this kind of contradicts

43. Deficiencies do not make you special. The older you get, the more your inability to cook will be a red flag for people.

In my experience one of the best questions to filter new partners is, how is your relationship with your former partner?

Re: Tips for a Better Life

#330

Post by dingaling »

war1025 wrote: post #109
powersnail wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you eliminate all hassle, you could just as much pay people to live instead of you. There are still a lot of things to do even if you have eliminated all the hassles. Singing, writing, learning a new language, surfing, volunteering as a firefighter, just to name a few. I get it. Some people likes fixing stuff, building stuff with their hands, and it's perfectly interesting to them. At the same time, it's not tha…

> volunteering as a firefighter This seems like exactly the case where I would apply the "There's a professional for that" maxim.

And the selection and training for volunteers is as rigorous as for the professionals, for the obvious reason that they can't permit life and property to be endangered just because someone's a volunteer.
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