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Tips for a Better Life

• musingsole 6y ago
  40. Should you freak out upon seeing your symptoms on the worst diseases on WebMD? Probably not! Look up the base rates for the disease and then apply Bayes’ Theorem ^ The most applicable use of Bayes' Theorem I've ever seen.
• PlugTunin 6y ago
  ...and make lists. (This is an excellent one.)
• leetcrew 6y ago
  > Cooking pollutes the air. Opening windows for a few minutes after cooking can dramatically improve air quality. is this based on the assumption that I am using a gas stove, or is it more generally true? I would be surprised to learn that, eg, simmering a tomato sauce is itself harmful to the air quality in my apartment.
  • tehlike 6y ago
    Generally true. Particles generally reach your lungs, and the cooked food goes through chemical reaction and so on, so you ideally don't want that.
  • titanomachy 6y ago
    Probably high-heat cooking of anything (e.g. pan trying) will pollute quite a bit even on an electric range.
  • joshuaheard 6y ago
    I use the stove vent every time I cook for this reason.
  • Raphmedia 6y ago
    Any cooking will decrease it. I have several air sensors and even using the oven will change the air quality from "green" to "yellow". Even just frying veggies with a bit of oil on an electric cooktop sends my air quality into "red". Overheating oil sends it into the "purple" level which is "unhealthy".
    • mottosso 6y ago
      I would love to know which air sensors you use.
      • Raphmedia 6y ago
        Dyson Cool+Hot Air Purifier (built-in sensors), Atmotube and Awair.
• pjmorris 6y ago
  > When googling a recipe, precede it with ‘best’. You’ll find better recipes. For something new I'm trying, I favor recipes by authors I've found reliable in the past, e.g. Alton Brown, Deb Perelman (Smitten Kitchen), Ina Garten, Julia Child. They have high quality bars, so if they have a recipe, it's usually a good one.
  • mejutoco 6y ago
    I could not agree more. And I may add IMO the opposite of what the author is saying is true. By checking only for best, in my experience, one lands in optimized seo pages that are not the best. It is like discovering music by searching for „the best“ music.
  • vi1rus 6y ago
    Agreed. It also gets easier to determine if you will like one recipe over another one the more experience you get cooking. In a way you get used to a specific cooks style so you start recognizing it in other recipes.
  • gen220 6y ago
    Big plus one. The Nth Edition of Fannie Farmer's Cookbook (or equivalent) is a great entry point for self-starters. Playing with the basic recipes in there helps develop an instinct for ingredients and the cooking process, with relatively low-risk ingredients and processes. Once you've mastered those fundamentals, you develop an ability to simulate whether a recipe, ingredient substitution, or bizarre process "makes sense" or not, which is invaluable in deciding whether to risk a dinner on some crazy recipe recommended to you by the internet. The internet is a great place to deepen a knowledge of cooking, but it's hard to dive in without the fundamentals. And for the time and money, these great cookbooks are the easiest way to acquire the norms and fundamentals.
• hawktheslayer 6y ago
  I recently found out the power of #27 (habits > motivation). I've been doing James Clear's habit tracking for a few weeks and see a big improvement in my life, especially for studying and exercising.
• skrebbel 6y ago
  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
  • victorvation 6y ago
    Same vibe from #43: > Deficiencies do not make you special. The older you get, the more your inability to cook will be a red flag for people.
  • Noos 6y ago
    ...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.
    • computerphage 6y ago
      Well now I'm super curious to know if you read Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. What did you think of it?
• chaganated 6y ago
  post physique
• politelemon 6y ago
  > Steeping minutes: Green at 3 I just leave the bag in. Anything wrong with that?
  • joshuaheard 6y ago
    It's all about taste. I find green tea to get bitter after a few minutes of steeping.
  • vi1rus 6y ago
    Yes, your teeth will fall off! Jokes aside, the longer you leave the bag in, the more bitter your tea will be. You also get more caffeine. For a lot of tea connoisseurs it destroys the taste of the tea. I say try taking it out after 3, see if you like the taste more or less. You can also re-use tea for a 2nd or 3rd brew, but that's not possible when you leave the bag, the 2nd batch will come out too light.
  • Raphmedia 6y ago
    Overcooking and oversteeping your tea releases extra unwanted tannin. This is what makes the bitter taste. This can be hard on an empty stomach and for people prone to nausea. High presence of tannin lowers the absorption of iron: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-nutrition/article/inhibition-of-nonhaem-iron-absorption-in-man-by-polyphenoliccontaining-beverages/5CFF5FF58F6CBA86D3646981A7DF0418 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-n... https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/106/6/1413/4823172 https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/106/6/1413/4823172 It also increase the oxalates: https://www.urologyofva.net/articles/category/healthy-living/3740469/the-damaging-effects-of-oxalates-on-the-human-body https://www.urologyofva.net/articles/category/healthy-living... All of that being said, many people aim for teas high in tannin for the taste. There are also studies that will show the potential health benefits of tannin. As with many things, moderation is probably the answer.
  • powersnail 6y ago
    This is more important if you have good tea leaves. When you steep too long, you get the bitterness and the sort of "dry" mouth feel.
  • 6y ago
• tomcam 6y ago
  > 78. If you have trouble talking during dates, try saying whatever comes into your head. At worst you’ll ruin some dates (which weren’t going well anyways), at best you’ll have some great conversations. Alcohol can help. Or try listening.
  • closeparen 6y ago
    Some people talk enough that just listening/responding will yield a good conversation. Many don't, or will only do so in certain moods, or after they feel very comfortable with you. If you are one of these people, learning to connect with others of the same "type" could expand your world.
  • sullyj3 6y ago
    I think this advice is very much addressed to the kind of person who has no trouble with listening
    • monadgonad 6y ago
      I think the complete opposite. A shy, nerdy person who has trouble talking probably isn't truly listening when they're not talking.
      • Smaug123 6y ago
        A better response might have used a word that wasn't "listening" - like "empathetic response" or something - which immediately dissolves the illusion that you disagree.
      • tomcam 6y ago
        My suspicion too
• Karawebnetwork 6y ago
  > 11. Cooking pollutes the air. Opening windows for a few minutes after cooking can dramatically improve air quality. I was shocked when I got a smart air-purifier and it would send severe warnings when I was cooking. Especially in winter with windows closed for the entire day, my air quality would stay low for extended periods after cooking. Make sure you open a window for a few minutes even if it's cold outside.
  • wenc 6y ago
    I need to test my home air quality while cooking, but I've found that running the bathroom exhaust fan helps. Also, most central HVAC system already recirculate air (albeit quite slowly). Most residential living rooms have an ACPH (air changes per hour) of around 6-8.
  • npsimons 6y ago
    I'm wondering if there is a difference between gas and electric. Of course, you can burn food and generate smoke on both, but I think just heating things up with electricity will by default produce less pollution (and yes, before any smart alecks chime in, my house is powered by renewable energy).
• redleggedfrog 6y ago
  "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 exchanging time for money that somehow makes it so you waste your time and you end up spending almost or more money than you originally would have. I'm known for saying, "There is a professional person for that... Let's get one," instead of trying to fix the water heater ourselves or get transport 2 tons of gravel. Others in my family would have dragged the old trailer out of the barn. Oh, it has a flat. Fix that. Oh, the trailer hitch doesn't fit the new truck, oh, get a new hitch (we'll use it someday again, surely). Or get the old truck working, or the older truck working (cause they keep buying cheap used trucks that break down and sit on the property for eternity). Then go get whatever, and deal with not knowing what they're doing. Me, just get it delivered. Maybe more money, waaaay less hassle. In the saved time I've polished up my CSS skills... Time really is the most precious resource you have. Think hard before you trade it for anything else.
  • yters 6y ago
    I disagree. I spent 20 hours installing a remote start on my wife’s minivan for $150 when it would have cost $400 to have professionals do it in 3 hours. My time was well spent.
    • Fezzik 6y ago
      Different strokes, of course. Find the balance : ) I think it’s healthy to realize that even things/chores you want to do and would enjoy doing you may be able to pay to have done both sooner and more professionally, allowing you to partake in activities you enjoy even more. I just moved and had new locks keyed and deadbolts installed for $200. I could have done it, and have before, but I got to work instead and take off early to go hike with the dogs. I think a lot of capable people feel guilty paying for stuff like that because they like to accomplish everything themselves, which can be exhausting in and of itself. That’s the pitfall to avoid, I think.
• Gualdrapo 6y ago
  > If you want to find out about people’s opinions on a product, google <product> reddit. Type "<product> site:reddit.com" instead (without the double quotes). That way Google will only return results it found in reddit.com
  • throwaway0a5e 6y ago
    Maybe this was good advice in 2015. This is terrible advice in 2020. Reddit is astro-turfed up to it's eyeballs and the parts that aren't are people with little to no experience in niche X giving generally bad and nuance-free advice on niche X. The more niches you develop proficiency in the more you will see this.
    • duckmysick 6y ago
      What would be a better advice?
      • throwaway0a5e 6y ago
        Google/DDG/Bing it and read some forum threads. Sure you can't get people to spoon feed you answers that way but do you really want to be spoon fed by people who don't actually know anything?
        • alfyboy 6y ago
          How do you usually format your searches to avoid all the SEO crap?
        • duckmysick 6y ago
          How do I know if forum threads are written by people with enough experience? Especially if they are giving conflicting advice. I don't have the expertise to make that call myself. If I had, I wouldn't need to look it up.
          • jimbokun 6y ago
• nlh 6y ago
  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 better recipes. No. You'll find recipes whose authors did bare-minimum SEO, not produced better recipes. > 25. History remembers those who got to market first. Getting your creation out into the world is more important than getting it perfect. Yes BUT: First-mover advantage is a thing, but it is by no means THE thing. Ship ship ship, but don't sweat being first. Build something better and ship it. Don't perfect it endlessly. But don't worry if you're not the first! 98/100 ain't bad.
  • naravara 6y ago
    Make that 97 > Where is the good knife?” If you’re looking for your good X, you have bad Xs. Throw those out. No, I keep a bad knife because I don’t want to ruin my good knife by cutting open boxes with it. The bad stuff is useful to prevent wear and tear on the good stuff on low value things that don’t need to precision/durability/whatever.
    • kaishiro 6y ago
      Sounds like you're in the market for a good box cutter.
  • powersnail 6y ago
    I'd like to search videos for recipes. It's reassuring when I can see whether the author is capable of cooking, and whether the result looks appetizing (to me subjectively). For instance, I've found that Jamie Oliver, despite his big names, makes food that doesn't make sense to me. If I only read the recipe, I might not figure that out. But watching him cook and seeing the product, I'm pretty confident that I won't like it.
    • carabiner 6y ago
• NortySpock 6y ago
  I think the compassion section has the most wisdom in it, especially the reasoning behind the recommendation: 82. Call your parents when you think of them, tell your friends when you love them. 83. Compliment people more. Many people have trouble thinking of themselves as smart, or pretty, or kind, unless told by someone else. You can help them out. 84. If somebody is undergoing group criticism, the tribal part in you will want to join in the fun of righteously destroying somebody. Resist this, you’ll only add ugliness to the world. And anyway, they’ve already learned the lesson they’re going to learn and it probably isn’t the lesson you want. 85. Cultivate compassion for those less intelligent than you. Many people, through no fault of their own, can’t handle forms, scammers, or complex situations. Be kind to them because the world is not. 86. Cultivate patience for difficult people. Communication is extremely complicated and involves getting both tone and complex ideas across. Many people can barely do either. Don’t punish them. 87. Don’t punish people for trying. You teach them to not try with you. Punishing includes whining that it took them so long, that they did it badly, or that others have done it better. 88. Remember that many people suffer invisibly, and some of the worst suffering is shame. Not everybody can make their pain legible. 89. Don't punish people for admitting they were wrong, you make it harder for them to improve. 90. In general, you will look for excuses to not be kind to people. Resist these.
  • paulpauper 6y ago
    91. don't buy XRP but in seriousness, I think it is easier to apply these rules to people you know than strangers. Look how often people lose patience with each other online. >85. Cultivate compassion for those less intelligent than you. Many people, through no fault of their own, can’t handle forms, scammers, or complex situations. Be kind to them because the world is not. Interestingly, being smart does not protect one from scams. Look at all the smart people who got duped by Madoff. Smart people are just as inclined to believe BS as less intelligent people are , if the BS is dressed up in such a way to appeal to smart people. If anything, being dumb helps, because scams typically require forms and complex schemes, such as investment schemes.
    • ben_w 6y ago
      Agree on both counts. > I think it is easier to apply these rules to people you know than strangers. Look how often people lose patience with each other online. Your reply in particular, though also many of the bullet points themselves to an extent, feels like the Sermon on the Mount — no wonder Charlie Stross keeps comparing [Less Wrong, Rationalist philosophy, the Singularity] to Christian theology. > Smart people are just as inclined to believe BS as less intelligent people are , if the BS is dressed up in such a way to appeal to smart people. Indeed. When the Sequences talks of rationality still being rationality even when it’s wearing a clown suit and makeup, it drew my attention to the inverse case of intellectual fraud still being intellectual fraud when it’s dressing itself up like One Of Us.
• qntty 6y ago
  Sorry, but a lot of this advice makes no sense or is pretty bad. 26. Are you on the fence about breaking up or leaving your job? You should probably go ahead and do it. People, on average, end up happier when they take the plunge. Seems illogical. Presumably the reason that people are happier after leaving their job is because, on average, they wait until they are ready. That doesn't mean anyone with the inclination to quit should do so. 27. Discipline is superior to motivation. The former can be trained, the latter is fleeting. You won’t be able to accomplish great things if you’re only relying on motivation. This is a meme that seems pretty unhealthy to me. Discipline and motivation are not interchangeable things. They exist in a balance. If you regularly do things that you don't feel any motivation to do, you're on track to have a midlife crisis where you realize that you wasted your entire life trying to impress others without listening to yourself. Ideally, good discipline will nurture motivation, and motivation will help to maintain discipline. If you find that your motivation to do something disappears, maybe you should question why you're doing it rather than just telling yourself that motivation is fleeting.
  • neolog 6y ago
    If you quote instead of giving numbers then people can follow what you're saying.
    • qntty 6y ago
      Done, thanks.
  • nojs 6y ago
    Your second point is a good one. Discipline is superior to motivation for getting things done, but not for deciding what to spend your time on (which is probably more important). Too much discipline can lead to putting up with bad situations that you hate.
  • cuddlybacon 6y ago
    I think 27 makes more sense with 97: Liking and wanting things are different. I'm guess if those usually line up quite well, this advice seems insane. But if they don't, it is solid advice. I wasted years of my life waiting for motivation to show up, and it never did. It amounted to years of my life I simply regret. Eventually I saw advice to the effect of 27, and it seems like it has mostly worked to help correct course.
• corytheboyd 6y ago
  > 7. Don’t buy CDs for people. They have Spotify. Buy them merch from a band they like instead. It’s more personal and the band gets more money. What? Now I’m a bit more curious about the life of the author lol
  • mholm 6y ago
    I'm in the same boat, and I don't know anybody who still uses CDs. Maybe my 60+ year old uncle? If I received a CD as a gift, I wouldn't even have a way to play it, and haven't for almost a decade. I think my car has a CD player?
    • Jorengarenar 6y ago
      Hello, I'm Jorengarenar. I'm in my twenties. I listen to music from vinyls, CDs and tapes. I also like to watch my VHS cassettes. Nice to meet you. (now that you know about me, you cannot say you don't know about anybody who still uses CDs)
      • corytheboyd 6y ago
        Well there you have it :P Do enough of your friends do the same? It was just interesting to see this so high on your list hah
        • Jorengarenar 6y ago
          My what?
• Jtsummers 6y ago
  > 48. Keep your identity small. “I’m not the kind of person who does things like that” is not an explanation, it’s a trap. It prevents nerds from working out and men from dancing. This is one I've been trying to emphasize with a few friends for a while. The act of labeling yourself is the act of restricting yourself to what you think fits that label. And unless that makes you happy, it's probably not what you really want, so change your perception of yourself by relabeling or (better) delabeling.
  • justtart 6y ago
    Its not attributed in the article but the Paul Graham article is where I first saw it: http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html
  • Trasmatta 6y ago
    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 dancing example is appropriate, because for some reason people who love dancing have a hard time understanding that others might legitimately just not enjoy doing it.
    • HexagonalKitten 6y ago
      The advice would be to not let a label tell you that you don't like it. If you don't like dancing because men don't dance then that's silly, no matter if it's your deepest held conviction or not.
      • Trasmatta 6y ago
        Yep, agreed. I only point it out because there are certain types of activities where others will assume you only dislike it because of the label, and not because you actually don't like it. Dancing seems to be one of those.
• softwaredoug 6y ago
  > 5. If your work is done on a computer, get a second monitor. Less time navigating between windows means more time for thinking. I really don’t do well with a second monitor, because humans suck at multitasking. Invariably slack or email end up on the second monitor, not real work. Better advice IMO: don’t task switch, stay in the shell as much as possible. Serialize your work to the limitations of human attention
  • entangledqubit 6y ago
    I'd suggest explicitly keeping those apps off the second monitor. I like keeping reference documentation and running notes there.
  • ehw3 6y ago
    Yeah, the main thing that I find occasionally useful with a second monitor, really, is when I need to go back and forth quickly, for instance when copying and pasting from one data source to another, or checking one thing against another. And then the thought that comes up, of course, is, don't copy or verify data that way. Automate it. I used to use three huge monitors at work, but since working at home during Covid I've found that I not only like typing on my HP laptop's built-in keyboard better than on my full-sized mechanical keyboard, but I mostly prefer just using the laptop's display to using multiple displays, and for exactly the reason you gave -- I'm better off automating things and serializing work from the command line. I've made aliases for opening the web sites I need from the command line and usually just kill them when I'm done with them, instead of using tabs. It really does have a kind of head-clearing effect.
  • meowzero 6y ago
    I agree. I used to use 2-3 monitors. But now I can get by with one. I think it helps me to focus. Even having slack or email gets distracting since you'll see it update. So I have it hidden behind other apps in my main monitor. Sometimes I do use a second monitor to put anything I might need to reference. But most of the time, it's blank.
  • Baeocystin 6y ago
    Main monitor for work, second monitor for active reference materials. No slack, no email. I am much more effective this way.
• lordnacho 6y ago
  There's some real gems mixed in with some fairly mundane stuff. I would summarize the good stuff like this: Try to understand how evolution works, because you are a product of it. What you like to eat, what you like to do, who you want to hang out with, why you feel good or bad when {situations} happens. But don't be a slave to it. Yes, there is a pressure to be the alpha male. Yes, you will get angry when people cheat you. But you are not a meat machine, you are still a person that can respond to the world with your own agency.
  • morlockabove 6y ago
    Alternatively, realize that repressing that urge to be an alpha male because that's the current high-brow societal pressure is isomorphic to being a gay guy in the closet ;)
    • earwaxauditor 6y ago
      That’s a bit aggressive, no?
      • sullyj3 6y ago
        Best not to feed the trolls
        • Caylio 6y ago
          You just fed one
    • rebelos 6y ago
      You clearly have zero idea what it is to be a true "alpha" male. The societal stigma you alluded to is levied on toxic assholes.
      • morlockabove 6y ago
        I would contend that there's a great amount of collateral damage, and that 'toxic assholes' are those least (genuinely) susceptible to social pressure.
• powersnail 6y ago
  > 7. Don’t buy CDs for people. They have Spotify. Buy them merch from a band they like instead. It’s more personal and the band gets more money. I'd generalize that a bit: don't just pick gifts from someone's profession or passion, if you are not familiar with that field. Even if you buy a merch, they might already have a same one. Instead, ask the giftee what they wants, or ask another professional, or offer a gift card of a shop frequented by the them.
• closeparen 6y ago
  >77. If you haven’t figured things out sexually, remember that there isn’t a deadline. If somebody is making you feel like there is, consider the possibility that they aren’t your pal. What do you think this means?
  • AnimalMuppet 6y ago
    I think it could mean at least two things. 1. If someone is pressuring you to sleep with them and you're not sure whether you want to, they're not your friend. 2. If someone is harassing you because you're still a virgin, they're not your friend. [Edit: It's in the relationships section. So I guess it means "If things aren't great yet in the bedroom, and someone's making you feel inadequate because of that, the someone in question isn't your friend."]
    • closeparen 6y ago
      #1 is interesting. Does it imply malicious intent towards a romantic partner, if you would break off the relationship over a lack of sex? Or imply that you might? Seems to me like misaligned desires are more unfortunate than evil.
      • AnimalMuppet 6y ago
        Misaligned desires are unfortunate. Pressuring the other veers toward evil.
        • deleted 6y ago
          [deleted]
        • closeparen 6y ago
          Seems like that misalignment, if communicated, is inherently pressuring. Which would mean that the dissatisfied party is obliged to keep their resentment secret. Which is also a generically bad idea. I wonder what a healthy recovery from that situation looks like, if it even exists.
• jaybird878 6y ago
  > 48. Keep your identity small. “I’m not the kind of person who does things like that” is not an explanation, it’s a trap. It prevents nerds from working out and men from dancing. At the same time, identity can be used for positive change. My family values balance and as a result I've grown into a renaissance man. I'm at the time of my life (college, looking for internships) where balance isn't something I need. I need dedication and focus to make a dent in the world with the field I care about - programming. Recently I've immersed myself into communities that self identify as nerds. Identifying as a nerd "tricks" my brain into liking all-day grinds, and putting in the necessary work to achieve my version of success.
  • Jtsummers 6y ago
    The advice is still good. An identity, deliberately self-selected, can be a useful thing and bring you some happiness. Going from, "I'm the guy that hates exercise" to "I'm the guy that likes running" probably bought me an extra decade or more of life, and a lot more comfort vs being 240+ lbs. But many identities are not self-selected or are not deliberately selected. And they can create unhappiness and conflict, so people should be careful with how they finish the phrase "I am...".
• inglor_cz 6y ago
  The "Compassion" section is especially powerful. I will try to keep all those in mind.
• yters 6y ago
  As an introvert, so level of becoming an extrovert has helped me. E.g. dating and the getting married, learning to dance and weight lifting, which helped with the dating and getting married. Also, Toastmasters got me comfortable speaking my mind. I also try to achieve my goals in the easiest, most direct way. E.g. ask for a raise instead of wait to be given one, find the fastest way to finish the degree, use online dating, become Catholic to end the despair etc. Also, ignore the haters, of which there will be many if you follow my advice. But, there will also be more people that respect you for being direct and decisive. That being said, don't be a jerk, and use what you gain to benefit others, especially look out for those that get sidelined by society and give them a chance.
  • cauliflower2718 6y ago
    "become Catholic to end the despair" - could you elaborate?
    • maverick2007 6y ago
      I'm also curious about this. Maybe OP was struggling with "what's the point of life if we all die anyways" and found Catholicism gave them an answer more quickly and efficiently than other methods like reading/synthesizing/applying what philosophers and other thinkers had to say about the issue? (I consider myself Catholic so this is definitely not meant to be a dunk on religion or Catholicism)
      • war1025 6y ago
        One thing that I appreciate about Catholicism is that it attempts to be a much more rigorous and academic approach to faith when compared to the more "evangelical" strains of Christianity popular in the US. The Reformation did some good with pointing out that religion doesn't need to be a solely academic pursuit, but some branches went to far and seem to have interpreted that as "there is nothing academic worth pursuing in religion"
        • Noos 6y ago
• michaeltlewis 6y ago
  This is a beautiful post, filled with wisdom. Whoever you are, you are a wonderful human. Thank you for sharing.
• alkonaut 6y ago
  Beware that some of these are US-centric (or I simply don’t get them) like “don’t talk to cops”. Why not? Mine would be “talk to cops whenever you have a chance. They’re nice”.
  • seveibar 6y ago
    You can easily implicate yourself at the scene of the crime by speaking to an officer, but in the U.S. you have the "right to remain silent". The article is generally referring to cases where you are guilty of something or could be guilty of something.
    • alkonaut 6y ago
      Was that the section title or something? “Things to remember when committing crimes?”
    • Jarwain 6y ago
      Expanding on "could be guilty" meaning not just "I might be guilty" but also "I might be perceived as being guilty"
    • Jtsummers 6y ago
      It's not about being guilty or not being guilty. For worse, the police in the US have become (or are perceived to be) generally antagonistic towards the communities they police. It's not a universal truth, but it is a common truth. Just like you wouldn't volunteer everything to a rival in the office, you don't volunteer everything to someone who has the authority to arrest or fine you. Especially when they know all the rules and you know a handful.
      • alkonaut 6y ago
        Exactly. US centric. If you trust that the policeman is a well trained professional there to serve you and with only your best interest in mind, why would you be scared to talk to them? To put it another way: if a policeman isn’t the best (safest, most informed, whatever...) person to talk to among hundreds of strangers you could talk to, isn’t that a sign that the police force in question has failed completely?
• MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
  This reads like "Tips of blatant common sense/nonsense for morons." If you read any of these and don't have a shred of skepticism of these little proverbs, you're pretty naive imo.
  • throwaway98797 6y ago
    It tends to be easier to criticize than to see what’s good. What are you trying to accomplish with your comment? (My goal is to help...and farm karma)
    • MeinBlutIstBlau 6y ago
      I'm aware of whats good, but if you've never thought about these things and actually knew why you should do them, again, I'd say, you're pretty naive.
      • throwaway98797 6y ago
        Let’s assume someone is naive. Doesn’t that just make them feel bad? Is that helpful to them?
• basicneo 6y ago
  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.
  • kleer001 6y ago
    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.
    • Rebelgecko 6y ago
      What dust have you worked on? Has your dust evolved over time?
      • kleer001 6y ago
        Dozens of hollywood movies from Hellboy (2004), Constantine, to R.I.P.D. Absolutely, and it tracked along with technology and my ability to just cram more particles in the simulation or use new structures entirely like VDBs or Sparse Volumes. But the basic use of many (many many) layers of sculpted Perlin noise never changed.
• projectileboy 6y ago
  This may be the first time that I’ve ever seen one of these lists that was actually valuable. Thanks.
• croissants 6y ago
  I like these! I do want push back on > 95. Some types of sophistication won’t make you enjoy the object more, they’ll make you enjoy it less. For example, wine snobs don’t enjoy wine twice as much as you, they’re more keenly aware of how most wine isn’t good enough. Avoid sophistication that diminishes your enjoyment. I'm not a wine snob, but I might be a food snob, in the sense that I'm "more keenly aware of how [most mass-market food] isn't good enough". But in response I usually cook my own food most of the time and go to a decent restaurant once a week and a "nice" restaurant once a month. "Sophistication" increases my enjoyment of the "nice" restaurant -- it's like cultivating a hobby at level n and then seeing somebody do it at level n+3, I appreciate it more and can even experience surprise, wonder, curiosity, etc. So I think in this case this kind of "sophistication" makes me happier.
  • enjeyw 6y ago
    To add to this, I’ve met a few wine/food/music “snobs” who leverage their sophistication to appreciate less-expensive/mass-market produce. Nothing you stop you liking pop music! So, in my opinion it’s your approach and mentality more than the the sophistication that matters.
    • croissants 6y ago
      I don't think I've come back around to enjoying the lettuce in fast-food salads, but maybe I'll ascend to that level one day.
• Aaargh20318 6y ago
  > 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.
  • person_of_color 6y ago
    Wht about the Creative NOMAD??
  • munificent 6y ago
    I think it's also important to be precise about what "it" is. Most MP3 players at the time had around an hour's worth of storage. The Creative NOMAD was 64 MB. That means those products were from a user experience perspective in the same category as Walkmen and Minidisc players. It was a writable music player that held about an album. It let you make your own mixtapes, but selecting media while at home was a fundamental part of the user experience. The first iPod had 5-10 gigs of storage. You didn't have to decide what to listen to before you left the house. You just put everything on there and decided on the fly. This was a completely different experience. Whether the little box played MP3s is essentially an implementation detail. It was the storage size that made the iPod an entirely different "it" from the devices that came before it, because the way you used it was so different.
    • pronik 6y ago
      For what it's worth: Creative Nomad with 64MB was just the first one. The one with 6GB of storage came out about a year before the iPad. Hence the iconic "No wireless, less space than a Nomad. Lame." by CmdrTaco. iPod hadn't won on the storage alone.
      • durwood 6y ago
        product market fit is tricky like that
    • 6y ago
• amelius 6y ago
  > If your work is done on a computer, get a second monitor. Less time navigating between windows means more time for thinking. I don't agree. Use a virtual desktop instead and switch workspaces with a keyboard shortcut. I'm currently using 9 workspaces, and monitors couldn't ever beat that UX.
  • grecy 6y ago
    I'll disagree with you - the value of 2 or more monitors comes when you want to simply have more stuff on screen at the same time so you can compare / check / whatever. I.e. you can have a spreadsheet on one monitor, and the results of a bunch of terminal windows on another, and be typing out an email about those two things on another. You can continue to type the email while reading the spreadsheet and checking the terminal results without having to "switch", or take the draft email off the screen to check that other thing. I really notice this falls down when I have multiple tabs open in my browser and I want to be mentally dealing with info from one, and inputting it into another. Switch tabs means the one you're entering data into goes away. (Of course, the solution is to have the tabs in different windows, on different monitors, though this example always makes me realize the HUGE time saver of having so much information in view at the same time.)
    • amelius 6y ago
      A simple solution to that is simply copy the stuff you want to process into your clipboard, and pasting it into the document you want to edit, and then edit out all the stuff you don't need or want to change. I'm personally not in that kind of situation very often. And switching workspaces is faster for me than turning my head to another screen. An added benefit is that my window manager always knows what workspace I'm looking at. With multiple monitors, your computer doesn't know that, and so keyboard focus becomes a problem, e.g. finding what is currently "in focus" takes more time, finding where your mouse cursor is, etc. Finally, my setup is the same everywhere I go (at home, at work, on a laptop, etc.) since I only use one physical monitor. I think this is a huge advantage too.
      • deleted 6y ago
• Halan 6y ago
  This blog post is the hipster version of those IG/FB click bait posts on the same subject. Very shallow content, disappointed this made to first page on HN
  • deeweebee 6y ago
    Halan chill out
• novia 6y ago
  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. Lol. Or don't date people who you wouldn't be friends with if it weren't for the sexual attraction.
  • Smaug123 6y ago
    Not every broken relationship started out that way!
    • novia 6y ago
      I know, but also, not every relationship completely self destructs on the way to a breakup. Giving the advice to cease all communication with all previous romantic partners as soon as possible indicates that there are some bigger interpersonal issues to work out.
  • mudita 6y ago
    Yes, at least for me this would be very bad advice. It seems to be some kind of common wisdom, but from personal experience staying in contact immediately after a breakup really helped me to get closure sometimes. Sometimes I also had to break of contact for a while, because it hurt me too much, until I was ready for meeting them again. Looking back I am almost a bit surprised by how good I was at recognising my needs with this, when I felt ready to meet them again I was never wrong so far. I am still friends with almost all of my exes.
• bambax 6y ago
  None of this matters. In the end, you die and nobody will remember shit about you. Or about anyone else. Because the world also will die.
  • throwaway98797 6y ago
    True. But might as well feel as good as practical, while you can. These don’t appear to hurt that. If anything they lead to more enjoyment of the limited time we have.
  • Smaug123 6y ago
    The advice is more aimed at people who think that human life has some kind of intrinsic value, I think. (Certainly that's one of the common LessWrong-o-sphere beliefs.)
  • Solvitieg 6y ago
    This might be relevant to you: > 56. Sometimes unsolvable questions like “what is my purpose?” and “why should I exist?” lose their force upon lifestyle fixes. In other words, seeing friends regularly and getting enough sleep can go a long way to solving existentialism.
  • jodrellblank 6y ago
    > "None of this matters. In the end, you die" People are born curious, and prefer pleasurable experiences to suffering. That's all it takes for something to matter, and it matters in the time before the end. People are what make things matter, maybe that's why the universe created some.
• AnimalMuppet 6y ago
  > 41. Selfish people should listen to advice to be more selfless, selfless people should listen to advice to be more selfish. This applies to many things. Whenever you receive advice, consider its opposite as well. You might be filtering out the advice you need most. I think of this with parenting books. The parents who tend to be strict read the books telling them to be strict, because those are the books that resonate with them. But what they need are the books telling them to love more and be harsh less. And those who tend to be lenient need the books that tell them that kids actually do need discipline, but they tend to read the books that tell them that kids really need to be given room to do their own thing.
• christiansakai 6y ago
  Are you me? More than half of these advice I discovered myself!
• anonymouse71 6y ago
  The part about always dying... I have struggled with this concept since I was a child. If anyone has any words of advice on dealing with that that aren’t “just accept it” or religious in nature, that would be helpful.
  • culopatin 6y ago
    Try to stay busier so you think more about what you want to accomplish and not about what you haven’t. I was pretty suicidal by normal standards because of how much I would think about my death and everyone’s death. I moved countries and started working 15hs a day and didn’t have time to spend thinking about that anymore. I got fixed
    • anonymouse71 6y ago
      My problem is that I can do this but I know all it will do is make me temporarily forget, not fix the fundamental problem I feel I am facing. I am afraid of self deception I guess. Just now I wrote up all my thoughts on this here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25524409 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25524409
  • deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
• rantwasp 6y ago
  > 23. (~This is not medical advice~). Don’t waste money on multivitamins, they don’t work. Vitamin D supplementation does seem to work, which is important because deficiency is common. Sorry, but this is BS. The first consideration is: are you able to get all the nutrients you need from the food you eat. Even if you can (and that's a big if) did you know that absorption of the said nutrients gets worse with age? (ie it may be a sensible thing for a 20yo to not take multivitamins, but if you're 60 you're sort-of better off taking them).
  • ergocoder 6y ago
    What is the downside of taking multivitamins? It costs like 10 bucks a month and ensure you achieve some decent nutrition level. If you are afraid of overdosing, then take it every 2 days instead. If you are a person who eat one head of broccoli every day, then by all means. No need to take multivitamins.
  • alexmingoia 6y ago
    It’s not BS. There’s no evidence demonstrating a significant difference and clear link in health outcomes for people who take multivitamins or placebo. http://phs.bwh.harvard.edu/ http://phs.bwh.harvard.edu/ https://www.health.harvard.edu/mens-health/do-multivitamins-make-you-healthier https://www.health.harvard.edu/mens-health/do-multivitamins-...
    • lazyjones 6y ago
      8% less cancer in healthy people is pretty significant (your 2nd link). But the whole discussion is moot when you assume everyone to be healthy. It's like saying plasters are useless because there's evidence that most legs aren't broken. Multivitamins are fine because most of us aren't perfectly healthy. Targeted vitamin supplements are better, but require regular blood testing (who has the time...).
      • rantwasp 6y ago
        here: https://www.insidetracker.com/ https://www.insidetracker.com/ This is expensive AF, but you can get 40+ markers measured once every X months. And you can monitor exactly were you are and if the supplements you are taking are actually doing their job. (spoiler alert: not all supplements are created equal from purity and active ingredients pov)
• mortenjorck 6y ago
  95. Some types of sophistication won’t make you enjoy the object more, they’ll make you enjoy it less. For example, wine snobs don’t enjoy wine twice as much as you, they’re more keenly aware of how most wine isn’t good enough. Avoid sophistication that diminishes your enjoyment. I agree with the conclusion of this one, though I think it oversimplifies the problem. Cultivating taste in something (be it food or drink, music, literature) is absolutely a valuable thing, and one of life's great pleasures. With it comes that awareness that some examples of the thing you have learned to appreciate are much better than others. The challenge is to not let your appreciation for the best dampen your enjoyment of the common. I may be no cicerone, but I've developed a relatively discerning palate for beer. What I've had to learn, though, is how to still enjoy a mass-market beer when that's all that's available. I've found that reframing, thinking "I'm not drinking this Miller Lite because it's great beer; I'm drinking it because I'm here with people I like spending time with" allows me to let go of the beer-snobbery for the totality of the experience. The best has its place, and so does the common.
  • AnHonestComment 6y ago
    I think I’ve been on both sides of this — On one side, I just don’t like how some cheap beers taste... I’d rather have coffee or juice. On the other hand, I’ve tried a lot of wines with friends... and I think there’s a certain amount of “acquired bad taste” to be part of the club. My experience has been taste sort of tops out at mid-high, and after that it’s a lot of paying for the story or as a Veblen good/investment. Which is also true of beers.
  • baby 6y ago
    I don’t know how I feel about that advice. I’d think a better one is: don’t get too snoby. It was shown that wine experts can’t tell between a very expensive wine and a good wine with a normal price. It’s all a matter of taste. Same for movies: sure that movie has been done a thousand times, but watch it like you were watching this genre for the first time.
• Solvitieg 6y ago
  As someone with concerning myopia, the 20-20-20 rule has always been a difficult habit to make. 20 minutes is not long and getting up to look at something outside is quite demanding. I often have 2-4 hour sessions without looking away if I'm in flow or distracted.
  • corobo 6y ago
    Probably the only person that could do with pomodoro to reduce how much you're working in a session haha
• caturopath 6y ago
  > “Where is the good knife?” If you’re looking for your good X, you have bad Xs. Throw those out. Keeping around a couple beater knives is how I have a good knife. I think there's value to the general point, but a lot of the cases where I have variable quality items, it's not for sloppiness.
  • is_true 6y ago
    Yep, I use my bad knife to open cans. Or when I need to cut meat on the grill
• caturopath 6y ago
  > 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. Strange. It's a bit of a red flag if someone is in complete radio silence with all their exes, frankly. Obviously, you aren't going to enjoy hanging out next week, but I'm surprised you dated enough that there's a "breakup" if you don't enjoy each other enough to have something to salvage.
  • leetcrew 6y ago
    this is a bit of conventional wisdom that I have always questioned. the default expectation that you would spend a few years with someone and then cut them out of your life entirely if things don't work out strikes me as kind of tragic. that person was likely one of your best friends. there are exceptions of course. if the relationship ended because of very different levels of interest, it might take some time before a healthy friendship is possible. if the relationship became codependent or ended due to some sort of betrayal, it's probably best to make a clean break.
  • crowbahr 6y ago
    I don't bear ill will towards my exes and would be totally willing to grab a coffee with any of them. That said: it has always been my experience that cutting off contact is best for me emotionally regardless of if I broke up with them or vice versa.
    • elevenoh 6y ago
      Agree. IME, cutting contact particularly useful/beneficial for men in the relationship.
  • HexagonalKitten 6y ago
    I agree about the red-flag part for avoiding all your exes, but I also find it a red-flag when someone says how well they get along with their exes. "If so, why do you have so many, and why aren't you still with any of them?" If you were with someone with serious intent of trying to be a compatible partner, and failed despite your best efforts such that you and your partner agree the best thing is to not be together, then probably your instincts aren't as good as you would want... Maybe you don't fully understand why "being friends" won't be as helpful for either party as desired. It's important to be capable of being friendly with your exes, all the more so the less you actually get along. But it's probably unwise to put this to the test.
• caturopath 6y ago
  > When dating, de-emphasizing your quirks will lead to 90% of people thinking you’re kind of alright. Emphasizing your quirks will lead to 10% of people thinking you’re fascinating and fun. Those are the people interested in dating you. Aim for them. I'm all for displaying your blue https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ae/43/79/ae43791d3a1f23e37bdda95f0939af58.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ae/43/79/ae43791d3a1f23e37bdd... , but downplaying quirks on early dates is important. You aren't showing that you don't have quirks, you're showing you are a sensible enough person to know when to air them and when not to.
• d23 6y ago
  > 57. There are two red flags to avoid almost all dangerous people: 1. The perpetually aggrieved ; 2. The angry. I'm not saying this is wrong, but I do think it's oversimplified and misses a lot. Some of the most dangerous people I've known come across the opposite. Charismatic and sociopathic, they can smile while lying, stealing, cheating, manipulating, and sadistically hurting others for pleasure. The clues for these sorts of people are often more subtle. The rest of this section (Hazards) are good though. This one in particular: > 61. It is cheap for people to talk about their values, goals, rules, and lifestyle. When people’s actions contradict their talk, pay attention! Actions are the real signs that break through the sociopathic facade. Talk can be faked and used to warp perception of reality. Action ultimately requires actually interfacing with reality.
• mark-r 6y ago
  > 3. Things you use for a significant fraction of your life (bed: 1/3rd, office-chair: 1/4th) are worth investing in. The most brilliant invention I've seen in a long time is the MyPillow. Like a bed, it's something you spend a lot of time with - but there was no brand recognition in the space. This guy created the best pillow he knew how to make, then advertised the heck out of it with premium positioning. The company is local, I hope I run into the founder someday.
• aphroz 6y ago
  1. Dont listen blindly to people to tell you to do things or not
• jpnelson 6y ago
  > 11. Cooking pollutes the air. Opening windows for a few minutes after cooking can dramatically improve air quality. After bad bush fires where I live I invested in both a CO2 monitor and a particle air quality monitor (Dylos DC1100 Pro Air Quality Monitor). It shocked me just how much cooking (and other factors I can't quite determine yet) affected the air quality. Think 10 times more particles due to cooking, even with the fan on and windows open. Another possible source of indoor air pollution are carpets and other manufactured things, interestingly. CO2 was bad too, but opening my window has a greater impact on that. But it is shocking to see levels of ~800-900ppm inside with windows closed.
• ZeroMinx 6y ago
  > 13. When googling a recipe, precede it with ‘best’. Precede it with 'seriouseats'. Kenji is the ultimate hacker in the cooking world.
  • Matticus_Rex 6y ago
    Amen. Even when I don't make the recipes, Kenji at least tells me the things I can do to make the most difference in the dish.
• emmelaich 6y ago
  Note that many of the item numbers are links. Regarding > 52. If you want to become funny, try just saying stupid shit (in the right company!) until something sticks. There's some quote (Oscar Wilde?) that says being witty consists of saying out loud what other people are thinking. There's an obvious downside to overdoing it though!
• PNWChris 6y ago
  56. Sometimes unsolvable questions like “what is my purpose?” and “why should I exist?” lose their force upon lifestyle fixes. In other words, seeing friends regularly and getting enough sleep can go a long way to solving existentialism. I really dig this particular one. It reminds me of something similar mentioned in Lex Fridman's interview with Daniel Kahneman: "When you ask people whether it's very important to have meaning in their life, they say oh yes that's the most important thing...but when you ask people what kind of a day did you have...what were the experiences that you remember? You don't get much meaning, you get social experiences."[0] I'm a big fan of Man's Search for Meaning, and I have generally enjoyed reading existentialist philosophy. That quote, however, presented an alternative foundation for a happy life in such clear terms, and they were terms I simply hadn't considered using! After thinking about it, it's almost obvious. I'm pretty young, and even now I look back fondly on the best social experiences in my life. It's incredible to be alive, and to have had the experiences I've had with the people I've gotten to share them with. I still highly value having meaningful pursuits, but above everything else, these days I aim to enjoy the company of good people and to be good company for others. I find it's a nice cure for the existentialist blues if you ever catch them. [0]: https://youtu.be/UwwBG-MbniY?t=3120 https://youtu.be/UwwBG-MbniY?t=3120
• madhadron 6y ago
  > 9. Steeping minutes: Green at 3, black at 4, herbal at 5. Good tea is that simple! Please don't do this to your tea. This is massively, horribly oversteeped.
• coffexx 6y ago
  > 9. Steeping minutes: Green at 3, black at 4, herbal at 5. Good tea is that simple! That just sounds incredibly bitter. I highly recommend using more tea to less water, and much, much, much lower steep times. Especially for greens as they're more delicate. If your tea is bitter or astringent, its a combination of water that might be too hot, and long steep times. 80-90C for most green teas. The hotter you go the lower your steep times should be. 90C+ for blacks. At the extreme you could try gong fu brewing if you're really into your tea :) steep times as short as ~10 seconds are not uncommon.
  • tdeck 6y ago
    As a concrete guideline I steep black tea for a little over 2 minutes. That's enough to get the flavor of the tea without it becoming bitter. If you want strong tea, use multiple tea bags or more leaves, but don't increase the steeping time.
• gregfjohnson 6y ago
  I really liked #48, "Keep your identity small." There is a lovely and profound story, the culmination of which is "he heard a still small voice." It occurred to me recently that this is something that can be internalized. A person can become still and small, and so become ever so much more aware.
• RickJWagner 6y ago
  Nice article, I found many gems. I do disagree with a few, in particular the one about not talking to cops. I say this because like everybody else the vast majority are good people; they are public servants; and the day you need one you will realize how wrong the idea really is.
• rsync 6y ago
  Does anyone know what comment/discussion software lesswrong uses on their site ? I sort-of-kind-of remember that they maybe built it themselves ? I find it very aesthetically pleasing ...
  • doubleunplussed 6y ago
    Yeah it's custom. Perhaps the old version used to be based on the open-source bit of Reddit's codebase. But I think the new one is totally home-grown. I think its source code is available though.
    • rsync 6y ago
      hmm ... I see that this exists: https://github.com/LessWrong2 https://github.com/LessWrong2 ... but there is nothing there about the commenting features ...
      • habryka 6y ago
        LessWrong lead developer here: The commenting features are pretty embedded in the codebase, so a bit hard to say something specifically about that. A number of people have asked us whether we could somehow make it a package and support the same commenting systems on other sites, but it would be quite a bit of work and really doesn't factor out very nicely. Glad to hear you find them aesthetic! We put a lot of work into them over the last few years.
        • rsync 6y ago
          Yes, the entire site is very well done and I appreciate the design very much. Great job!
          • habryka 6y ago
            Thank you! :)
• mlthoughts2018 6y ago
  57-59 seem to contradict 88-90. If you’re willing to presume judgment towards people whose grievances or anger make them a headache, you really cannot practice compassion, because those Scroogely people probably have real, valid reasons behind their outward manifestations. Just because you don’t find dealing with them to be particularly pleasant or productive, doesn’t really entitle you to ignore it or cut it out of your life (assuming you’re trying to be compassionate).
• Deputy_Cartman 6y ago
  Treat your credit card like a debit card. Pay it off every 1 to 2 weeks. After getting caught with a maxed out Amex and being laid off, that's how I treat credit cards. Saves me TONS of grief and money not going to the credit card companies' coffers. Oh, and go looking for cards with the best APR and reward points.
  • daave 6y ago
    If you're paying off every month, why does APR matter? Agree with finding good rewards and I'd substitute low APR for low/no annual fee.
• squibbles 6y ago
  I do not mean to either encourage or discourage the taking of any kind of nutritional supplements, but I strongly caution anyone from looking to lists like the one on LessWrong for specific advice on health issues. > 23. (~This is not medical advice~). Don’t waste money on multivitamins, they don’t work. Vitamin D supplementation does seem to work, which is important because deficiency is common. From The Physicians’ Health Study II - PHS II (https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/clinical-trials/2012/11/05/11/43/phs-ii-cancer https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/clinical-trials/201...): "The results of the PHS II trial in middle-aged to elderly male physicians demonstrate that daily intake of a multivitamin results in a small, but statistically significant decrease in all cancers over 11 years of follow-up, especially nonprostate cancer, with numerically lower cancer-related mortality." It is usually unwise for anyone to take any sort of medical advice from postings on the internet. This includes advice that claims it is not really advice. What you put into your body is your own personal decision, and if you want to better understand the implications, discuss it with a qualified medical professional.
  • jdhzzz 6y ago
    I didn't take one until my physician casually asked if I were, when I said "No." he told me to start. I did. It aligned with my inclination since it was inexpensive, almost assuredly would do no harm, and might do some good. Now you've given me a concrete reason to continue taking a multivitamin. Thanks.
  • wwwwewwww 6y ago
    Agree about not taking medical advice from people on the internet. It's also best not to form life decisions on any one study. This includes studies that show multivitamin benefits as well as those that show slight increase in mortality rate. For multivitamin studies, it seems to be so hard to show any effect that people think we should stop looking for it: "The probability of a meaningful effect is so small that it's not worth doing study after study and spending research dollars on these questions" https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/news/20131216/experts-dont-waste-your-money-on-multivitamins https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/news/20131216...
  • tasuki 6y ago
• offtop5 6y ago
  I actually don't like list like these. No one person knows everything , this is why self help books are mostly silly ( unless it's a true rags to riches story- even then take it as entertainment not a life guide ). As long as you aren't hurting anyone else, do what you want . Edit : Don't fight morality wars with people. For example, I'm very particular on who I let into my life , and won't even consider being with anyone making less than 100k. This isn't something I need to argue about. I've moved to a city where it's much easier to find other high income earners, with fantastic results. What's gained by me arguing on Reddit about my own values ? I don't care how others live , and no one cares how I live
• firedev 6y ago
  I don’t get #65, why it is in the future tense? And what does it even mean? 65. You will prevent yourself from even having thoughts that could lower your status. Avoid blocking yourself off just so people keep thinking you’re cool.
  • gamegoblin 6y ago
    There is an implied "inevitably" in there. Rephrased: You will inevitably discard ideas that could lower your status. Be aware of this bias and don't box yourself in to try to maintain your status.
• golemotron 6y ago
  > 11. Cooking pollutes the air. Opening windows for a few minutes after cooking can dramatically improve air quality. LessWrong externalizing costs.
• totaldude87 6y ago
  Done is better than perfect. This one made my day.. if getting there is 100% how much perfection is ? #showerthoughts
• unnouinceput 6y ago
  Quote: "Things you use for a significant fraction of your life (bed: 1/3rd, office-chair: 1/4th) are worth investing in. " I won life. I use my bed as my office chair. Praise me! :P
• hawktheslayer 6y ago
  For #9 (good tea) I would add boil for black/herbal but only 180 degrees F for green.
• focus2020 6y ago
  Item 14 says if -w3 is added the search result would be better. The symbol "-" isto filter out the results , but in this example whar does it mean to filter out "W3" mean ? >img html >will return inferior results compared to: >img html -w3
  • from 6y ago
    Perhaps it is referring to w3schools which produces web development tutorial that many find low-quality or spammy.
  • daave 6y ago
    I take it the author is not a fan of w3schools.com, a web site that's been around for a very long time and is highly ranked for many html-related queries. Personally I find most of their content to be pretty decent, so I wouldn't filter it out as a rule.
• lucasgw 6y ago
  I usually desperately despise these "make your life better" lists. This one is well thought out, and solid. Nicely done.
• leetrout 6y ago
  > 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.
  • corobo 6y ago
    Fools aren't fools all the time, don't dismiss everything they say as foolish just because it's them saying it
  • computerphage 6y ago
    Just because the fool says "The sun is shining" doesn't make it dark out.
  • marvin 6y ago
    If Donald Trump tweets something, you might get hurt if you go ahead acting under the assumption that he was wrong, without checking for yourself first.
• iJohnDoe 6y ago
  Great list. Better than any I’ve read so far. You don’t have to agree down to the letter of everything listed for it to be a great list. If you got one thing out of it that was helpful to you then it was a success.
• vinhduyhua 6y ago
  25. History remembers those who got to market first. Getting your creation out into the world is more important than getting it perfect. Does not apply for Cyberpunk 77 imo
• vinhduyhua 6y ago
  25. History remembers those who got to market first. Getting your creation out into the world is more important than getting it perfect. Which is not true at least for Cyberpunk 77 case
• asveikau 6y ago
  > 13. When googling a recipe, precede it with ‘best’. You’ll find better recipes. Even better: if a dish originates overseas, google the recipe in the native language of that place.
• amoitnga 6y ago
  > 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?
  • bananamerica 6y ago
    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.
  • dingaling 6y ago
    > I don't get it. should I not care? Pragmatically: no Following national and international politics is a waste of time and emotional budget unless your work depends on it. It's basically a TV series, you can't change the outcome. Focus on local and neighborhood issues which you can change.
• Ace17 6y ago
  > 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!
  • GoblinSlayer 6y ago
    Not sure how old your good times, but relatively recently I played an indie game that first gave me a very subtle footgun without any warning, pressed me to use it and when I did the wrong thing, sent me in the wrong direction for the rest of the game. It was quite some hell.
• davidpronk 6y ago
  Possessions > When buying things: consider buying second hand. It saves a lot of money and we as a people have already fabricated far too many things which will last for centuries to come.
• elwell 6y ago
  > 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.
• jamesfisher 6y ago
  > 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.
• idclip 6y ago
  Dhamma. Thank you.
• dvfjsdhgfv 6y ago
  > 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.
• AlecSchueler 6y ago
  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?
  • tonyhb 6y ago
    Do you want someone who is still entangled with their pasts relationship? From experience, it's a lot easier to move on with a clean break. And it's a lot easier to date someone who has moved on with a clean break too. A good alternate question to ask is why the relationship failed. If they accept responsibility for at least some of the issues, green flag. Otherwise, you can bet they accept no responsibility in other aspects of their life.
• noja 6y ago
  "Phones have gotten heavier in the last decade and they’re actually pretty hard on your wrists!" -- what's this about?
• andi999 6y ago
  Well, it is lacking to recommand to always use enough sunscreen. On a more serious not: for item 14) what is with the -w3 ?
  • aembleton 6y ago
    In Google, it seems to remove w3schools results.
  • abhijat 6y ago
    I guess they want to avoid w3 schools.
• soufron 6y ago
  TLDR; become an autistic asshole :D
• codingdave 6y ago
  The title should be "Opinionated Tips that work for My Life" I'd say half of these are flat out wrong to me, with the other half sounding pretty good. I suspect other people would react differently to each individual point. But the larger point is that no single person's life is the same as another's - lists like this are anecdotes of what worked for one person, and should be read as such.
• jdhzzz 6y ago
  When it comes to buying things I find my satisfaction is much higher when I spend money to remove an irritant rather than get something completely new. Our home has a long run from the water heater to basically anywhere it is used (This is in the USA where storage heaters are typical). When it died I had its location moved and got a model with a circulating system that loops around to the downstairs locations (kitchen/bathroom). Now what took 20-30 seconds to get warm water is 2-3 seconds. I spent a lot (for me) and it was worth it. I replaced the 2 DIN radio in my car with an android head unit. Driving became much better with my personal audio selection rather than over the air radio (What's that?). A few years later I upgraded the unit and reduced the start time from 20-ish seconds to 2 seconds. Both changes removed irritants and noticeably improved my quality of life. Previously I would wonder if getting a new car, or bigger TV, or going to Hawaii would improve my life. Now I am more inclined to seek out irritants and try to find ways of applying money or effort to reduce them. I'll still make the occasional new/splurge purchase, most recently Ring video cameras - they're fun, but that comes second and I'm happier for it.
  • mettamage 6y ago
    > When it comes to buying things I find my satisfaction is much higher when I spend money to remove an irritant rather than get something completely new. Really true for me as well. I recently bought a new guitar that is fairly similar compared to my old guitar. My old guitar is perfectly fine. The issue is that my old guitar is in a weird tuning since I'm practicing finger style guitar on it. And I hate retuning my guitar to a normal tuning all the time. I told myself, if I'm still as irritated about this a year from now, I'm buying a new guitar. It's 2 years later and I'm happy I did it.
  • cik 6y ago
    Both are true, but at different times. Eliminating an irritant or stressor can be an excellent use of money. At the same time, I get tremendous, continued happiness simply having a reproduction of my favourite piece of art in the wall in my office. Some things are just things, others are layered happiness and value. The same is true of irritants.
• arvinsim 6y ago
  I went the opposite of number 5. Instead of having multiple monitors, I just have 1 big 4k 32" monitor. I found that I am more distracted when having more than one monitor. Lots of people are guilty with no. 49, especially when it comes to romance. Social media and dating sites has made cultivating a personal brand a top priority.
  • BrianOnHN 6y ago
    Single 4K ftw. If you feel like you need more, I recommend "The ONE Thing" by Gary Keller.
• GoblinSlayer 6y ago
  >5. If your work is done on a computer, get a second monitor. Less time navigating between windows means more time for thinking. It's an overly american meme, it's a bad idea to work all day long. Anyway, if you think all day long, you don't really think.
• koboll 6y ago
  > 23. (~This is not medical advice~). Don’t waste money on multivitamins, they don’t work. Vitamin D supplementation does seem to work, which is important because deficiency is common. Or just use examine.com -- it demystifies which supplements are bullshit and which aren't.
• meken 6y ago
  > 56. Sometimes unsolvable questions like “what is my purpose?” and “why should I exist?” lose their force upon lifestyle fixes. In other words, seeing friends regularly and getting enough sleep can go a long way to solving existentialism. Been seeing this for myself recently. I got really depressed continuing to search for answers to questions of why excel instead of stagnating, why work hard instead of slack off, etc. I've come to the conclusion that there is no answer to these questions (unless you are deeply religious), and that just by doing the former set of things makes us happy, and non-depressed people just do them because it makes them happier.
  • not_knuth 6y ago
    Same. 1. The philosopher's disease of always asking "why?" and critically evaluating things is a strange one. In Western countries this is how we are taught to think and it has many benefits, but physical happiness is seldom one. I have also found the line of thought to lead to a deadlock of "But why should we always ask why?". That question can ultimately only be answered by stating that "Asking why?" should be considered an axiom. And the matter of stating those axioms is up to everyone. In other words, like you say, trying to find answers to statements instead of questions is nonsensical. 2. I have come to like the idea that I am merely an organism programmed to survive and reproduce and all my needs and wants branch off from that. That may sound somewhat hollow, depressing and like giving up, but it has helped me a lot. Makes me question things a lot less. At least it gives me some kind of answer with which I can justify and understand my irrational behaviour. Also, the moment I am around people more often I find that 1. flies out the window and I completely forget about it – only living by 2. Just like point 56. says it does.
• fareesh 6y ago
  > Those who generate anxiety in you and promise that they have the solution are grifters. See: politicians, marketers, new masculinity gurus, etc. Avoid these. More provocatively, an interesting experiment is to try saying this: "Bernie Sanders is a con artist" (replace placeholder Bernie with your fav person) If this makes you upset or you vehemently disagree, you're probably brainwashed.
• jv_dh 6y ago
  > 95. Some types of sophistication won’t make you enjoy the object more, they’ll make you enjoy it less. For example, wine snobs don’t enjoy wine twice as much as you, they’re more keenly aware of how most wine isn’t good enough. Avoid sophistication that diminishes your enjoyment. I disagree with this one. Even though sophistication means that one cannot enjoy bad wine/music/art/food as much, it also is the condition for having a full appreciation of the work of art you are enjoying.
• 0xbadcafebee 6y ago
  Renting: Read up on local tenant/landlord laws before you rent. When moving in, ask for a walkthrough with a landlord and note everything that is wrong, take pictures of everything (including a newspaper) and email it to them. Before moving out, ask the landlord what you will need to do to get your security deposit back. Get a cheap can of spackle and fill and smooth any minor holes you made (it's not always required but it's easy) but mainly don't leave anything that isn't considered wear and tear. Do a walk-through with the landlord when you leave, take pictures of everything, send it to them. Follow any steps required by law, such as returning the keys on time and providing a forwarding address. If the landlord tries to take your security deposit or charge you for damages or cleaning, reference the laws, pictures, and conversation, and ask them to reconsider. If you do everything right you may still have to go to court for some reason or another, but you will be well prepared and confident. You can also often have free 30 minute consultations with lawyers; ask your employer if they provide assistance.
• pyrophane 6y ago
  > Steeping minutes: Green at 3, black at 4, herbal at 5. Good tea is that simple! It isn't though. Water temperature is just as important. Black and herbal teas typically do well with boiling water, but green and white teas need a lower temperature, between 140-175 depending on the tea. Also, while 3 minutes is a fine general rule for green tea, I've found that some green and white teas taste best steeped for longer at lower temperatures.
• jgwil2 6y ago
  > 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. For those of us fortunate enough to live in more or less functioning democracies, this is very bad advice. Consider what our lives would be like if everyone thought this way. Instead of trying to ignore politics, maybe if you spend a lot of time thinking about it you should consider getting involved at a local level instead. Then you can be part of the solution instead of burying your head in the sand.
  • tonyedgecombe 6y ago
    Consider what our lives would be like if everyone thought this way. They don't though do they.
• agumonkey 6y ago
  > 96. If other people having it worse than you means you can’t be sad, then other people having it better than you would mean you can’t be happy. Feel what you feel. This one was fresh. Also the malaria one is very stock market like.
• chrislan815 6y ago
  "Cultivate compassion for those less intelligent than you. Many people, through no fault of their own, can’t handle forms, scammers, or complex situations. Be kind to them because the world is not." very nice
• achinese 6y ago
  我是油腻了还是怎么的，开始看这种东西还看得津津有味
• whitecrow90 6y ago
  Not a big fan of make your life better (articles/books motivation speakers etc) but i bookmarked this one mainly because of all the practical tips and real world examples. And the (product opinions) with a "reddit" after its so true :d
• dang 6y ago
  Url belatedly changed from https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7hFeMWC6Y5eaSixbD/100-tips-for-a-better-life https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/7hFeMWC6Y5eaSixbD/100-tips-f..., which points to this.
• Havoc 6y ago
  I've been toying with a PM2.5/PM10 sensor lately and #11 definitely seems to be true. Causes a pretty strong spike in the readings
• ecf 6y ago
  > 1. If you want to find out about people’s opinions on a product, google <product> reddit. You’ll get real people arguing, as compared to the SEO’d Google results. Reddit is increasingly becoming aware of this, and a good deal of their advertising efforts seem to be dedicated towards obfuscating paid corporate ads as organic results.
• JensRantil 6y ago
  > Steeping minutes: Green at 3, black at 4, herbal at 5. Good tea is that simple! This is simply not true unless you drink cheap tea bags. Some good teas, for example green, should sit for only 10-20 seconds.