Computer related:
- Don’t be your family computer savy guy, you just found yourself a bunch payless jobs…
- Long desks are cool and all, but the amount the space they occupy is not worth it.
- Block work related phone calls at weekends, being disturbed at your leisure for things that could be resolved on Mondays will sour your day.
Buying stuff:
- There is expensive because of brand and expensive because of material quality, do your research.
- Buck buying is underrated, save yourself a few bucks, pile that toilet paper until the ceiling is you must.
- Second hand/broken often means never cleaned, lubricated or with easy fixable problem.
Assume positive intent. Amazing how much lower stress your stress levels will be if you don’t feel attacked (on the road, on social media, in conversations, etc).
Oh yeah, and buy a bidet. Your bum will thank you.
That really agressive driver? She/he probably just has to poop real bad. Instead of raging at them, give them directions to the nearest gas station bathroom.
invisible ink uses heat (friction) to turn invisible. so dont leave an invisible ink pen in the sun, if you want to use it again.
When driving don’t be nice, be predictable.
Eg.: If you are on the priority road, drive - don’t be nice and slow down to let someone in from a side road. That’s how you get rear-ended.
Frozen veggies have all the nutrients of fresh, and will still have them when you finally get around to cooking them.
Be mindful that a soldering iron cable can pull a soldering iron from your hand, so don’t have too loose of a grip. Learned that one the hard way :(
When you feel out of control in life, identify where you have agency and focus your efforts there.
Most “rules of thumb” become awful advice when used indiscriminately.
People assign slightly different meanings to the same words. You need to acknowledge this to understand what they say.
Words also change meaning depending on the context.
When you still don’t get what someone else said, it’s often more useful to think that you’re lacking a key piece of info than to assume that the other person does.
Hell is paved with good intentions. This piece of advice is popular, but still not heard enough.
Related to the above: if someone in your life is consistently rushing towards conclusions, based on little to no information, minimise the impact of that person in your life.
Have at least one recipe using leftovers of other recipes. It’ll reduce waste.
Alcohol vinegar is bland, boring, and awful for cooking. But it’s a great cleaning agent.
Identify what you need to keep vs. throw away. Don’t “default” this indiscriminately, analyse it on a per case basis.
The world does not revolve around your belly button and nature won’t “magically” change because of your feelings.
You can cultivate herbs in a backyard. No backyard? Flower pots. No flower pots? Old margarine pot. (Check which herbs grow well where you live.)
Water dripping? Don’t call a plumber yet. Get on your hands and knees and try to figure out exactly where the water is coming from. You might need a $5 part and 10 minutes watching a YouTube video instead of a $400 callout. The same concept applies for most things in a home or vehicle. But don’t screw around with electricity if you don’t know what you’re doing.
If you’re shopping around based on price, make sure you’re factoring in the cost of gas and your time. Driving an hour to save $5 actually costs you money.
Need to quickly determine if a caller is a scammer or legitimate? Just ask who they’re calling. If they don’t know your name, you can hang up immediately.
Maintain your things. All your things. If you use something until it’s no longer working, it has moved from inexpensive maintenance to expensive repair.
It is absolutely okay to say, “I don’t know.”
I’d argue this is true even in instances where you should now as it will save time, damages, and/or misinformation.
“A man’s mind changed against his will is of the same opinion still.”
The only argument you win is the one you avoid.
It’s okay to be bored sometimes.
If you find yourself compelled to do something that’s not destructive to society or yourself, pay attention. Not wearing headphones I brought to disc golf led me to meeting my wife. I just had a feeling not to wear them. Then I met some cool friends. Yada yada yada, life is better.
Get out of your own way. Let things play out and act when you’re able. Try being more passive about small things and see if you’re not less stressed.
Every interaction I have I try to think “how can this go more smoothly”. Life is easy mode if you make people want to be around you.
You can say no and not give a reason and people will respect it more. Give an excuse and watch them act like it’s a puzzle to be solved.
You can’t fix everything at once. You have finite willpower. Do not stack ambitious goals or habit changes.
Understand the only way to ever be good is to fail a lot. This applies to everything. Thinking, conversation, athletics, math, baking, everything.
Garbage in, garbage out. Applies to coding, your entertainment consumption, and food.
In direct contradiction to the above rule I personally believe you MUST have some garbage guilty pleasures. How could you know what’s great otherwise?
Things are not gonna stop happening ever, prioritize.
Try to be kind. People are usually just doing their best.
This is all excellent advice. Thank you for sharing it.
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Read books to your toddlers
You may not be the smartest person in the room, but if you are well prepared you can certainly look like you are.
“don’t attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity” is good advice for friends and family.
It’s bad advice for salesmen, politicians, corporations, etc. They are more sophisticated than you and will take advantage of your willingness to extend trust after bad behavior.
It’s bad advice for salesmen, politicians, corporations, etc.
I dunno. It’s pretty easy to attribute their misdeeds to malice.
Or at least to greed and malicious indifference to your concerns.
I think that’s what they were saying. For those, it is likely indeed malice. For friends and family, it’s likely just stupidity or ignorance.
I’ve been in a surprising number of hostile situations professionally that defied any explanation that did not include both malice and stupidity :D
Assume the best of people and the worst of circumstances. It just makes my life a little bit happier giving my friends and family, and even strangers, the benefit of the doubt.
It makes everybody else happier, too!
Attribution bias. We have a tendency to attribute our own behaviours to external circumstances (“I’m driving slowly because I have good reason”) whilst attributing others’ behaviours to personal traits (“That person is driving slowly because they are incompetent”). It’s nice to remember that situational factors may be affecting a good person’s behaviour.
