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Ask HN: What simple facts have you learned surprisingly late in life?
I'm 33. I just learned, today, that there is no such thing as a paprika plant and that paprika spice is simply dried, ground bell/mild peppers. It seems relatively obvious in hindsight given that I'd never seen or heard of a paprika plant, but the fact I'm learning this so late in life is a bit staggering.
It got me wondering - what other simple facts slip by us sometimes until the obvious is made apparent?
For fun, a few others I've had occur over the years:
- I thought "having allergies" and "being allergic to something" were entirely distinct concepts. The former is a non-lethal, relatively mild inconvenience experienced seasonally by many. The latter is "I die if I eat that crab." The extreme differences in effects and differences in how people spoke about these words caused me to assume they were entirely distinct concepts until my early 20s.
- I did not realize that the musical artist "Flo Rida" (pronounced Flow Rye-Duh) was, you know, referencing the state, until someone pointed it out to me. It's much more apparent when written :)
relevant xkcd: https://xkcd.com/1053/
- EddieDante 4y ago[dead]
- ggm 4y agoIt's surprisingly hard to change other people's minds, and probably easier to have your own certainties confronted and rebutted. Basically, belief in a given world view, religion, or even something apparently (mis)fact based like a belief against AGW is not grounded in facts but is something else: you venture into rocky waters thinking logic and proof will change that belief. People hang onto their beliefs remarkably strongly, evidence and argument not withstanding.
- rramadass 4y agoYou cannot change other people's minds since it will always be perceived as a direct blow to their self-ascribed Identity/Ego; Their Beliefs are Who they are. The best one can do is to give them the information/advice, appeal to authority, bombard them with data and leave them be. They will change themselves once they start thinking on their own in their own time frame and/or circumstances force them to realize the folly of their beliefs (both are optional).
- ulizzle 4y agoPeople change their minds when they are alone. That's why it's better to be calm than to be aggro when arguing.
- themodelplumber 4y agoOpossums can grunt like pigs. I thought I had a pig living in my yard, because I heard grunts and squeaks (babies) passing by under my window one summer morning. Got a trailcam and it's a possum. If you collect knives you will cut yourself more often, even if you are good at handling knives. The big-picture reason "more knives, more cuts" makes sense. But how does that work out in the little picture? This is due to specific reasons you probably don't anticipate until you have some hindsight. If you can imagine it, you can probably build it, do it, design it, or construct it somehow. I never realized how pessimistic I was about this concept until someone said "it doesn't have to be this way" and it was like a huge lightbulb went off and I sat there with my mouth hanging open. Basically, nothing has to be that way. Some things will _probably_ be a certain way. But confusing those two principles propagates lots of really unfortunate stuff in our world, because we think "reality" is formed by the latter, and basically give up or don't try anything new. Eating hard breath mints can break your teeth. Huh? And also: Duh! Spinach is healthy. It can also send you to the ER with oxalate issues like kidney stones. You can be a skinny green-diet superstar and spinach, almonds, etc. will absolutely stab you in the back. You can lose tons of weight while eating boxes of candy bars. People will warn you not to do that, but there are easy workarounds for all of their concerns. Pickle juice can hydrate you. But it can also destroy you in one of the most comical ways possible. That's all I got for now
- adastra22 4y ago> You can lose tons of weight while eating boxes of candy bars. ...how?
- Shatnerz 4y agoBurn more calories than you consume. There was a professor (Mark Haub) who only ate junk food for a period as a self experiment and lost a significant amount of weight simply by calorie restriction.
- LadyCailin 4y ago> Pickle juice can hydrate you. But it can also destroy you in one of the most comical ways possible. Please, elaborate
- aspyct 4y agoIt took me around 25 years to figure out that the piece of clothing we call in french a "pullover" (yes, say that with a strong french accent) is actually an English word describing how you physically put on the piece of clothing. It's hard to describe how much this felt like a french word for all this time. To be honest, I even thought it was local jargon... We typically call it a "pull". Everyone does it, it's the word.
- Cyuonut 4y agoWe take many words for granted. For example, it took decades for me to realize the Finnish word "maailma" (the world) consists of words "maa" (earth) and "ilma" (air).
- mablopoule 4y agoOh, nice. On french words I got way too late, there is the fact that "Gendarme" (a kind of policeman) is "gens d'arme" (people of weapon) And also, thinking about the word "Breakfast", as in "Breaking the fast", I realize that the french "Déjeuner" is also literally "Dé - jeûner".
- aspyct 4y agoOh... Well, took me 34 years for this one I guess -_-'
- lowkey 4y agoMy favorite French word is Mortgage. Funnily enough this is the word used in English but not in French. The French have a separate word for a loan backed by property - Hypotheque. My guess is that the reason for this is that the original French word hits too close to home. Mort-Gage literally means Death Pledge.
- benj111 4y agoThere are peppers that are commonly used for paprika. It's like growing different varieties of pea for mange tout or sugar snap. So you aren't that wrong. It took me far too long to realise that the word spelled segue and the word pronounced Segway were one and the same!
- SillyUsername 4y agoLearn from those much less experienced than you in the workplace, such as interns. As they are new and learning they are often more receptive and tend to pick up new practices you may discount. Whilst they may not be as good as you at your job now, the new practices may eventually replace your own so get in on the ground floor. CF. docker containers Vs "monolithic" 3 tier systems, nosql Vs SQL DBs, newer programming languages, all happened to me in the last 10 years, and I'm thankful I had the foresight to learn from them.
- suzzer99 4y agoI just learned from Wikipedia (via HackerNews) that flossing isn't really proven to be that beneficial. Blew my mind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_floss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_floss
- gnad_sucks 4y agoI think this is one of those things that "isn't really proven" because it's obvious to the ones who do it, and the ones who don't feel better pushing the idea it's not proven. I'm a very scientifically minded person, but I'm old enough to be able to confidently make my own decisions in some situations where "it isn't really proven". Tell you what, stop flossing. When you get a really bad breath floss, and smell the bits that you find between your teeth. That's what rotting food smells like. Now, if I don't want rotting food in my living room, I certainly don't want it inside my mouth. I don't really need a scientist to make the call for me here.
- p0d 4y agoYou don't know what other people are thinking, and they don't know what you are thinking. If you make yourself fat and then lose weight you will have excess skin. Walking 3 miles a day is life changing. Paying your mortgage off can leave a sense of emptiness, like what next? If you have 3 people in your life actively looking out for your interests you are very fortunate It rains more in the afternoon When you ask people hard maths questions their pupils dilate Going out with your wife for dessert on a Friday night after 30 years of marriage is better than tech
- prankbudgetio 4y agoCould you elaborate on the walking part?
- Havoc 4y agoThere are a bunch of studies showing various risks dropping with daily walking. fitbit like device manufacturers have pushed various numbers, but studies seem lately seem to be floating in the 9k steps a day region as to where the benefits stop
- p0d 4y agoI lost 84lbs over the last year walking 3 miles every day and changing my diet. It takes me about 45 minutes to walk 3 miles. The walk also helps me to burn through my thoughts/feelings. I eat a lot of healthy stuff now like porridge, vegetables and fruit. My dinners haven't really changed. Like a child I have ice cream every night. A fancy dessert once or twice a week. I don't eat after dinner. Experience has taught me you don't have to train like Rocky if you want to get fit. You train like Rocky if your job involves people trying to beat you up.
- fm2606 4y ago> Paying your mortgage off can leave a sense of emptiness, like what next? It didn't leave me with "what's next" but it was very anti-climatic for me. I worked a shit-ton of over time and a 2nd job to make extra payments. We were dumping everything into our mortgage. I looked forward each month tracking where we were and where we would be in 1-month, 6-months and a year out. I looked forward to writing that last check. And then the day came and there were no balloons or ticker-tape parades. The next day the sun rose in the east and set in the west. Weird!
- xupybd 4y agoThis week I learned that a 3% credit card fee is a similar cost to offering 30 day terms on B2B transactions of you have to borrow from the bank to cover it. Only you get better cash flow and customers can get rewards. And thanks to this post today I learned there is no such thing as a paprika plant. I'm 38...
- suzzer99 4y agoThat there was basically no spicy food in the Old World before Columbus. All the heat in South Asian and Southeast Asian cooking comes from chili peppers imported from the New World. The spiciest thing the Old World had to offer was something called long pepper which is like black pepper with a little more kick.
- vmilner 4y agoHorseradish may be a counterexample.
- gnad_sucks 4y agoHorseradish is spicy in the same sense as garlic is spicy, which is very unlike peppers.
- saulpw 4y agoI just learned the other day that squirrels make nests in trees.
- thibautg 4y agoI've learnt that it's OK not to succeed on the first try. It's not about the destination, it's about the journey. As long as you're getting closer to your goal, you're on the right track. But you don't usually get there right away. I used to give up as soon as I failed.
- fm2606 4y agoYep, came here to state this as well and was the 1st thing that popped in my head when I read the question.
- rramadass 4y agoThe key here is to always keep one's "Spirits Up" i.e. maintain a "Indomitable Spirit" come what may. A study of mental techniques from martial arts texts even if one does not necessarily practice martial arts (though the practice makes understanding quicker) would be very helpful in developing attitudes/behaviour to build up our fortitude in the face of adversity.
- Ekaros 4y agoFrom other side in language where there is no bell pepper. That paprika or bell pepper is well a pepper. Like a chili pepper. That then are technically paprikas at some level. To continue the weird world of peppers or peppercorns. Sichuan peppercorn is different thing. But that the black, white, green and red are from same fruit(also fact that peppercorn is a fruit) differently prepared and not different cultivars for example. Hmm, now leads to open question. Can you put peppercorn in your fruit salad with tomatoe?
- Moissanite 4y ago> Hmm, now leads to open question. Can you put peppercorn in your fruit salad with tomatoe? ...Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should.
- blackboxlogic 4y agoThat fruit salad is called salsa.
- SillyUsername 4y agoAverage intelligence is actually low intelligence - if it wasn't, we wouldn't have idiots needlessly starting wars, soldiers would recognise vanity or pride orders in the guise of nationalism instead of real threat and not risk their health (CF Russia, or passing out at Queen's funeral) advertising and the herd effect would be less effective, as would politicians' lies. Politicians seem to be generally worse for this probably because of high visibility making it appear so, e.g top down economics doesn't work (https://pudding.cool/2022/12/yard-sale/ https://pudding.cool/2022/12/yard-sale/), and recently in the UK they believe supply side inflation problems can be fixed by making people spend more on their mortgages/rent (vis-a-vis interest rates). All that's done is make the lower earners struggle to buy food and heat their homes, whilst civil servants (and similar) strike as inflation based pay rises for them are non existent or are deliberately not using the measure calculated using house prices (CF. accusations against gov. of mix and match inflationary measures)
- kashunstva 4y ago> Average intelligence is actually low intelligence - if it wasn't, we wouldn't have idiots needlessly starting wars My guess is that political decisions result less from either lack or surplus of intelligence but from the presence or absence of trait psychopathy and the presence or absence of a moral centre.
- Jcowell 4y agoI think my issue with this is that the main idea is that intelligence is the determiner on where or not any of these those can happen when it’s far from the truth. Intelligent people (whatever that means) can also fall victim to any of these. Having a PhD in Quantum Physics doesn’t mean you’re immune to radicalization.
- vmilner 4y agoFor years I read the word “Albeit” in my head as the sound “al-bite” and did not realise that other people were reading it as “all be it”. (I thought that they were reading something _written_ as “all be it”.) Clearly “albeit” is a contracted form of “all be it”, but my brain hadn’t clicked to this.
- resonator 4y agoToday I learnt that salt raises the boiling temperature of water. I knew it lowered the freezing point but I never considered it might also change the boiling point.
- rramadass 4y agoInteraction between Water and Salt is fascinating: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-we-put-salt-on-icy/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-do-we-put-sal...
- emmjay_ 4y agoIt does, but hardly worth noting. "So yes, salt increases the boiling temperature, but not by very much. If you add 20 grams of salt to five litres of water, instead of boiling at 100° C, it’ll boil at 100.04° C." Ref: https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/04/12/1894612.htm#:~:text=So%20yes%2C%20salt%20increases%20the,four%20hundredths%20of%20a%20degree https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2007/04/12/1894612.h...!
- sagaro 4y agoThis property is really helpful in making eggs using microwave. Take a mug of water, add salt, crack an egg and pour it in. Stick this in the microwave, the egg gets boiled perfectly, because the salt slows down the boiling point.
- black_13 4y ago[dead]
- iancmceachern 4y agoLife is what you make it, good things happen to good people.
- dumbaccount123 4y agoGood things happen to all people, and also the opposite.
- adastra22 4y agoGood things happen to people with good attitudes. Bad things happen to people with bad attitudes. It was the same thing.
- rramadass 4y agoNo. I will rephrase them as; People with Good Attitudes perceive most things happening to them as "Good Things". People with Bad Attitudes perceive most things happening to them as "Bad Things".
- iancmceachern 4y agoPerception is reality
- rramadass 4y ago... Only for the Perceiver. In as much as there is a Reality outside of the Perceiver, distinct and separate, he would need to adjust his perception in order to avoid cognitive dissonance and live in the "real world".
- iancmceachern 4y agoI am the perceiver, so checks out Also, perception is 9/10 of the law
- 4y ago
- RandomWorker 4y agoStuffing data into dictionaries and passing it along many functions is much easier than writing a class to deal with the same.
- return_to_monke 4y agohard disagree. Mistyped a name? with classes you get an error on compile time. Dictionaries? only on runtime. plus, you won't need to remember every field because your editor can autocomplete it for you
- klohto 4y agoThere is more than one language out there
- LadyCailin 4y ago“Type safe dictionary” is just another way of saying “object”
- gnad_sucks 4y agoNo it's not. Dictionaries are accessed by key whereas objects are accessed by field (which is a high level way of representing an offset in memory). So one of those two is at least 10x faster than the other.
- return_to_monke 4y agoplease show a language whose HashMap type does compile-time checking. I am actually interested.
- antman 4y agoLife is fair, you need to consider whether your actions failed because you were trying to improve yourself within a failing system. Change your env not only yourself. Don't hear what they say, hear what they do. Health first, including mental. Those that achieved too much are outliers of those that made crazy plans. A bad strategy for the general population, many thousands have failed so that you get to see the celebrity. A badly biased sample on which to base your life strategy. Choose boring for the important stuff and people in your life Set expectations and boundaries for yourself and others Most death bed wish lists have as a top item "I should have worked less" You are working to make money, expecting to like is is self entitlement or self delusion Read the news, read history, read psychology. Inspire your kids, give them non individualistic principles. Easiest way to achieve success and happiness is in a positive and down to earth group / family. Nothing is forever, effort is the reverse of entropy Talk to your parents kid, they are soon leaving.
- SamvitJ 4y agoMost of these are great. Disagree on "read the news" though.
- rramadass 4y ago>Life is fair No. That said, you do have some control over your "local maxima/minima" and hence the need for "continuous Self-Effort". >give them non individualistic principles Bad idea. They should be built up as "Individuals" within a "Larger Group" which they choose to belong to. This is the only way to teach them to think for themselves and not be a "groupie".
- sterlind 4y agoI thought "prurient" meant special or keen, rather than sexual. I remember talking about my "prurient interests" in animal behavior, religion, indigenous cultures, virology etc. I am mortified.
- rramadass 4y agoHa, Ha, Ha! This is the first LOL-worthy comment that i have read on HN.
- comprev 4y agoOnly after breaking my right arm (for the second time) - the humerus bone - did I connect the dots as to why it's called "the funny bone". I was in my mid-20s :-)
- trogdor 4y agoThe funny bone is the actually the ulnar nerve. I think it’s more-likely called the “funny bone” because when you hit your elbow just right (/just wrong), the ulnar nerve is directly stimulated, resulting in a weird tingling / burning / electricity sensation across the entire forearm. Which feels funny.
- comprev 4y agoYes, that is the alternative theory behind the name too. Both are equally valid.
- DonsDiscountGas 4y agoPonies are not baby horses, they're a breed of horse. "righty tighty lefty loosey" is context-specific. The few drinks I've had from Japan opened the other way. Also pressure regulators for flammable gasses. Believe half of what you read and none of what you hear. I heard this very young but consistently fail to put it into practice. Gotten a little better over time, though. The immaculate conception was (according to catholic doctrine) the conception of Mary, not Jesus. When somebody invites you to an argument, you are not obligated to accept. [Tongue map](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_map https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_map) is total nonsense, although we do have different flavor receptors (like rods and cones for the retina) they're all spread out everywhere. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift. Craziest thing I've ever heard. People are people. That person you worship? A person. That person you hate? A person. They have hopes, dreams, insecurities, guilty passions, they make mistakes, and so on. Usually people bring this up when somebody does something terrible, but it can go any direction.
- Alcor 4y agoIt feels weird to go from “we call the fruiting body a different word from the spice that is made from it” to “this plant doesn’t exist” I feel a more accurate wording would be “I learned that paprika and bell peppers are actually words for different forms of the same fruit originating from one plant opposed to two totally different plants”. to defend my crazy rambling at least a bit, in german bell peppers and the spice made from them are both called ‘Paprika’ which, as a native speaker, could be where this sense of “this feels wrong” stems for me.
- vborovikov 4y agoMalapropism - not the phenomenon itself, but its name which I finally remembered from watching the movie Glass Onion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malapropism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malapropism
- edmundo 4y agoI grew up around peanuts. My grandparents had a big peanut plantation at their country house, so they always had tons of peanuts at home. The first time I took my wife (then girlfriend) to visit them, they were having peanuts in the shell — by cracking the shell open and eating them. My wife, looking very puzzled and intrigued, asked my grandfather. “What is that?”, to which he replied “Uh… peanuts?”. Oh how we laughed. She was 20 years old at the time and didn’t know peanuts came from the shell, she’d have only seen them without it. I still remember my grandfathers smile, he had never met anyone that didn’t “know peanuts”. He found it so funny. I miss him.