2 ms·

Read the rest about solar, I actually just grabbed it from my bookmarks and didn't realize he'd posted anything new since 2011. Ignore the first few posts and

by Syonyk 5y ago

Read the rest about solar, I actually just grabbed it from my bookmarks and didn't realize he'd posted anything new since 2011. Ignore the first few posts and carry on reading his rants about solar, batteries, wire gauge, charge controller location, charging voltage, panel placement, shading, etc.

pengaru 5y ago
- Syonyk 5y ago
  I've been dealing with an off grid solar office for 5+ years now. Year round power, heating (propane at times, candles/kerosene at others, electricity most of the time if I have the light), and have spent the bulk of this time in some esoteric backwaters communities on IRC with other people who do the same sort of thing. It's really, really hard to find people who have written accurately about solar on the internet. What he said about solar, RV installs, battery charging, etc, is all 100% accurate. He deals with the broken installs by the places that advertise that they know what they're doing. If you're willing to toss all that out based on more recent writings, it's your choice, but I try to judge writings based on their accuracy, not what I think about the person. You're entitled to judge writings however you want, but if you're considering off grid solar and write the guy's writings off, your loss.
  - pengaru 5y ago
    How intelligent can the guy be when he's flagrantly demonstrating such flawed thinking? It calls into question everything he writes, full stop. Better things to do with my time and why give him more audience.
    - csours 5y ago
      Intelligence has almost nothing to do with it. The whole 'rona thing has been very very stressful and many people have not reacted well to it. Scam artists have exploited this stress (as they always have and always will). Some people have been led astray and some are leading people astray, and some are both. At any rate, it is an impairment of gathering and processing information correctly, not intelligence. It's a filter problem. I had a really hard time with this too, after seeing how people I previously respected dealt with this whole thing. --- For what it's worth - I'm strongly in favor of people choosing to get vaccinated and masking up in public. I despise the people who made this a wedge issue for their own benefit. I also think that being self-righteous about it is very tempting but also very bad and destructive to discourse.
      - pengaru 5y ago
        kortilla 5y ago
        People who disregard everything someone has to say based on one belief are generally pretty stupid themselves. What an impressive way to discourage critical thinking.
        Dylan16807 5y ago
        > Either way it's a non-negotiable indicator for a high probability of noise in the signal emitting from his general direction. Well yeah, the noise is the most recent posts. Easy to filter out, too. And what, do you not think someone can change in ten years either?
    - Syonyk 5y ago
      I should judge the accuracy of what someone wrote nearly a decade ago by what I think of what I think they believe today? It's a popular enough viewpoint today, certainly, but it leads to throwing out huge swaths of perfectly good work that could be useful. Obviously, I reject it. I don't know the guy, I don't know what's happened to him or not in the past decade since he was writing on the deep truths of RV solar. I do know that the more I learn about solar from hands on operation, the more his writings reflected what I'd found through experimentation/analysis/etc. You could apply plenty of his rantings to some of the off-grid battery destroying systems presented on YouTube as Grade A Amazing builds and improve a lot on those systems. But, if you're only willing to consider the viewpoints of those you would consider show clear thinking, which largely translates to "agrees with what I already think," you're welcome to go through life that way. I tend to find that dreadfully boring and a good way to miss an awful lot of really solid knowledge. I'm happy to learn about lead acid battery quirks from people who've lived with lead acid for half as long as I've been alive, even if I think they make some pretty dumb decisions in life. I know they question some of my decisions back. Anyway, your mind is clearly settled and the issue is closed on this particular bit of writings. You might go find some of SunKing's rants about "max smoke charging" useful as well, if you're dealing with off grid lead, but I guarantee you won't like him much as a person either.
    - nerdponx 5y ago
      Greater intelligence & creativity just means you can tell yourself increasingly clever and convincing lies. Conspiracy-theory-ism is an "emotions" problem, not an "intelligence" problem.
    - kortilla 5y ago
      There are many intelligent people who purport to be Christian/Muslim/etc, which all require severely flawed thinking to seriously believe. What you’re doing is conducting an ad hominem attack, assuming that this dude’s views on one topic have any relevance to the accuracy of a completely different topic (with a nearly decade gap nonetheless).
    - anamax 5y ago
      I take it you discount everything associated with Isaac Newton as well.
- Diederich 5y ago
  Do you ensure that every bit of material that you read isn't written by someone who also has some really stupid and harmful beliefs about some other topic?
  - pengaru 5y ago
    > Do you ensure that every bit of material that you read isn't written by someone who also has some really stupid and harmful beliefs about some other topic? Everyone makes mistakes, and I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries. In this case all it takes is simply loading the referenced page, the hogwash is front and center. Give me a break.
    - Diederich 5y ago
      > I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries You understand that most everybody who was born in the first part of the 20th century or earlier believed quite a few things that we now consider pretty abhorrent.
    - Syonyk 5y ago
      > ... and I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries. Why? If person A makes some claim about subject X at some point in time, and you find it true and worth sharing, what then makes their claims invalid if you discover later that person A believes something you find distasteful? If their statement about X was true at the point in time it was made, is it any less true if you discover you can't stand the person? What if you read a book by someone who makes well written arguments and an enjoyable read, and then attend a book signing years later and realize that they have rancid BO or something, and are oddly vocal about [insert some fetish you find exceedingly disgusting here]? Does the character of the author you discover later impact the arguments in the previous book? It's a really odd and, IMO, exceedingly broken filter for what sources of information you're willing to consider. It makes it really easy to never go outside your own head, because anyone who believes all the same things you do can't have anything terribly interesting to teach you, and anyone who believes different things can be spun as somehow abominable. I'm not nearly so arrogant as to think I know everything. I'm certain there are things I'm wrong about, though I've no idea what they are at the moment. I'm equally certain that I have rather different opinions about subjects than many of the people I interact with, either in person or online. Some of them make for interesting conversations (I prefer a fire pit, pipe or cigars, and a bit of whiskey to make things civil), some of them we simply agree not to discuss, and that's fine.

by Syonyk 5y ago

pengaru 5y ago

Syonyk 5y ago
I've been dealing with an off grid solar office for 5+ years now. Year round power, heating (propane at times, candles/kerosene at others, electricity most of the time if I have the light), and have spent the bulk of this time in some esoteric backwaters communities on IRC with other people who do the same sort of thing. It's really, really hard to find people who have written accurately about solar on the internet. What he said about solar, RV installs, battery charging, etc, is all 100% accurate. He deals with the broken installs by the places that advertise that they know what they're doing. If you're willing to toss all that out based on more recent writings, it's your choice, but I try to judge writings based on their accuracy, not what I think about the person. You're entitled to judge writings however you want, but if you're considering off grid solar and write the guy's writings off, your loss.
- pengaru 5y ago
  How intelligent can the guy be when he's flagrantly demonstrating such flawed thinking? It calls into question everything he writes, full stop. Better things to do with my time and why give him more audience.
  - csours 5y ago
    Intelligence has almost nothing to do with it. The whole 'rona thing has been very very stressful and many people have not reacted well to it. Scam artists have exploited this stress (as they always have and always will). Some people have been led astray and some are leading people astray, and some are both. At any rate, it is an impairment of gathering and processing information correctly, not intelligence. It's a filter problem. I had a really hard time with this too, after seeing how people I previously respected dealt with this whole thing. --- For what it's worth - I'm strongly in favor of people choosing to get vaccinated and masking up in public. I despise the people who made this a wedge issue for their own benefit. I also think that being self-righteous about it is very tempting but also very bad and destructive to discourse.
    - pengaru 5y ago
      - kortilla 5y ago
        People who disregard everything someone has to say based on one belief are generally pretty stupid themselves. What an impressive way to discourage critical thinking.
      - Dylan16807 5y ago
        > Either way it's a non-negotiable indicator for a high probability of noise in the signal emitting from his general direction. Well yeah, the noise is the most recent posts. Easy to filter out, too. And what, do you not think someone can change in ten years either?
  - Syonyk 5y ago
    I should judge the accuracy of what someone wrote nearly a decade ago by what I think of what I think they believe today? It's a popular enough viewpoint today, certainly, but it leads to throwing out huge swaths of perfectly good work that could be useful. Obviously, I reject it. I don't know the guy, I don't know what's happened to him or not in the past decade since he was writing on the deep truths of RV solar. I do know that the more I learn about solar from hands on operation, the more his writings reflected what I'd found through experimentation/analysis/etc. You could apply plenty of his rantings to some of the off-grid battery destroying systems presented on YouTube as Grade A Amazing builds and improve a lot on those systems. But, if you're only willing to consider the viewpoints of those you would consider show clear thinking, which largely translates to "agrees with what I already think," you're welcome to go through life that way. I tend to find that dreadfully boring and a good way to miss an awful lot of really solid knowledge. I'm happy to learn about lead acid battery quirks from people who've lived with lead acid for half as long as I've been alive, even if I think they make some pretty dumb decisions in life. I know they question some of my decisions back. Anyway, your mind is clearly settled and the issue is closed on this particular bit of writings. You might go find some of SunKing's rants about "max smoke charging" useful as well, if you're dealing with off grid lead, but I guarantee you won't like him much as a person either.
  - nerdponx 5y ago
    Greater intelligence & creativity just means you can tell yourself increasingly clever and convincing lies. Conspiracy-theory-ism is an "emotions" problem, not an "intelligence" problem.
  - kortilla 5y ago
    There are many intelligent people who purport to be Christian/Muslim/etc, which all require severely flawed thinking to seriously believe. What you’re doing is conducting an ad hominem attack, assuming that this dude’s views on one topic have any relevance to the accuracy of a completely different topic (with a nearly decade gap nonetheless).
  - anamax 5y ago
    I take it you discount everything associated with Isaac Newton as well.
Diederich 5y ago
Do you ensure that every bit of material that you read isn't written by someone who also has some really stupid and harmful beliefs about some other topic?
- pengaru 5y ago
  > Do you ensure that every bit of material that you read isn't written by someone who also has some really stupid and harmful beliefs about some other topic? Everyone makes mistakes, and I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries. In this case all it takes is simply loading the referenced page, the hogwash is front and center. Give me a break.
  - Diederich 5y ago
    > I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries You understand that most everybody who was born in the first part of the 20th century or earlier believed quite a few things that we now consider pretty abhorrent.
  - Syonyk 5y ago
    > ... and I've been known to rescind my references and recommendations upon making such discoveries. Why? If person A makes some claim about subject X at some point in time, and you find it true and worth sharing, what then makes their claims invalid if you discover later that person A believes something you find distasteful? If their statement about X was true at the point in time it was made, is it any less true if you discover you can't stand the person? What if you read a book by someone who makes well written arguments and an enjoyable read, and then attend a book signing years later and realize that they have rancid BO or something, and are oddly vocal about [insert some fetish you find exceedingly disgusting here]? Does the character of the author you discover later impact the arguments in the previous book? It's a really odd and, IMO, exceedingly broken filter for what sources of information you're willing to consider. It makes it really easy to never go outside your own head, because anyone who believes all the same things you do can't have anything terribly interesting to teach you, and anyone who believes different things can be spun as somehow abominable. I'm not nearly so arrogant as to think I know everything. I'm certain there are things I'm wrong about, though I've no idea what they are at the moment. I'm equally certain that I have rather different opinions about subjects than many of the people I interact with, either in person or online. Some of them make for interesting conversations (I prefer a fire pit, pipe or cigars, and a bit of whiskey to make things civil), some of them we simply agree not to discuss, and that's fine.