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.
One that sticks with me from chemistry classes: “Hot glass looks exactly the same as cold glass.”
Another from chemistry: “small dangers are still dangers, don’t underestimate them”.
This was in my first uni. The person saying that mentioned how he never saw students harming themselves with cyanide, nitration solutions (sulphuric+nitric - highly corrosive and explosive) or the likes. No, it was always with dumb shit like glacial acetic acid skin burns, or a solvent catching fire.
A girl in my chemistry class learned that the hard way. I have never seen a burn blister form so fast.
Read the entire error message very carefully before asking for help, or even searching for a solution.
For folks in tech this means reading and understanding the stack trace, too.
And often it’s very easy to understand if you break down the components.
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.
My main transport is a bicycle. I do my best to be predictable, and obvious about it. And when someone tries to ‘be nice’ and let me go first when it’s not my ‘turn’ / right of way, I start with all sorts of body language that says I’m not moving till after you do. Put my foot down, look at the sky, look 180 degrees away from the ‘nice’ car, look in the direction the ‘nice’ car is supposed to go, point in the direction they are supposed to go, shake my head point at the ground, cross my arms, etc, etc till they give up and just go. I’ve even had the opportunity to verbally explain the importance of predictability and Right of Way, but it usually doesn’t go that far. LoL, we all just want to get where ever in the heck we are trying to get to, after all.
In Portland, these “polite” drivers WILL STOP for people who want to cross in the middle of the street.
It drives me insane as a pedestrian.
Quick question, you American? If yes; well, duuh
This is really good advice I also want to emphasize this when it comes to motorcycles for the love of God just take your turn at stop signs and lights do not wave them on. I have been apart of and seen people almost die from it.
Learn how to change your own brakes and filters, and save hundreds of dollars.
Don’t be your family computer savy guy, you just found yourself a bunch payless jobs…
Disagree, while my family didn’t pay me in cash, they made me food and such. They took care of me.
Depends on who it is. I’ll spend 10 hours on a pc issue for my mom but if it’s a cousin and it takes more than 10 minutes I’ll either say it’s outside of my knowledge or straight up say I would have to charge because of time commitment.
Depends on your level of agency as well. As a tech savvy teenager I felt I wasn’t allowed to say no to my family asking for computer help. Now I follow what you outlined, close family and friends, free. Not so close family, 10.00 to look at it. 20.00 if it’s difficult.
That’s fair. I look at it for free if they bring it over but I charge 25 with a 3 hour minimum if there’s any work. Most people say no thanks, I helped an older lady replace her hard drive and didn’t actually charge her even though she wanted to pay since it really was just 5 minutes to order a new one and 10 to change it out once it got here. She gave me some homemade cookies so it was a good deal for me.
Same. I owe a lot to my parents. The stable nurturing home they provided was a huge leg up in life. Showing them a thing or two on the computer was the least I could do.
The whole thing has degrees. I very much like to help my mother to update her browser. I really don’t want to help choosing a printer to my cousin’s second brother’s wife AND install it during Christmas when we are home and I want to just chill with my close family.
Refurbished is not second hand. It’s an item that has been returned to the retailer for one reason or another and gone through thorough diagnosis for any existing issues and repaired. You can save money over “new” to buy something that you now know has been scrutinized. Sometimes there may be blemishes, but depending on the product that matters very little.
Nah you’re just buying a returned item that was reboxed.
If you think companies selling an amalgam of $0.05 plastic components are gonna meticulously disassemble , diagnose, repair and clean/replace all parts, then reassemble them only to resell at a reduced price, I have a refurbished bridge to sell you.
Unless you make a scene, nobody pays any attention to you ever, or will remember you later. You are invisible and anonymous in public.
I recognize the regulars on the train. You can call me The Looker.
This.
Unless you make a scene,
One day I was sick of how staff treated the students using the internet on the school compounds. Went on school official website, copied the school motto, and principal email, and burned the meanest staff. Baam! Didn’t bother us ever.
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.
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.
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 :(
Also, a falling soldering iron (or knife) has no handle
I would have grabbed the wire 😄
Ouch; I can feel that burn.
Haha, luckily wasn’t too bad because it only nicked my finger for a really short amount of time. It rotated past my finger when it flicked around. Could have been much worse
You can just change careers whenever. No one cares. When I was younger it seemed so set in stone like you learn a trade you’re a plumber for life. Go to college your major is what you’re doing for life. It’s not true I knew a philosophy major that was working as an elevator engineer. Do HVAC for 20 years then do something else. It’s fine
The exception now is that people go into 80k debt expecting to easily pay that off with a job that matches their major. If they switch to something more fulfilling, there’s a chance that they won’t make enough to pay it off in a timely manner. The main thing this applies to is engineering.
Yeah. The problem is that even inside IT I cannot really change because I’ll be the junior immediately and they’ll offer half my current salary in a new place. The more applies to a complete switch. I have a mortgage, a child, a car, some expensive hobbies, and some goes to savings. I have a certain lifestyle. I simply cannot afford to lose any of my current income.
But I really hope some day I’ll have enough in savings to make the switch.
I think my favorite allegory is the “We’ll See Farmer”.
Once upon a time, there was an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically, “you must be so sad.” “We’ll see,” the farmer replied. The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it two other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed. “Not only did your horse return, but you received two more. What great fortune you have!” “We’ll see,” answered the farmer. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his misfortune. “Now your son cannot help you with your farming,” they said. “What terrible luck you have!” “We’ll see,” replied the old farmer. The following week, military officials came to the village to conscript young men into the army. Seeing that the son’s leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out. “Such great news. You must be so happy!” The man smiled to himself and said once again. “We’ll see.”
Only time can yield the ramifications of an event. There is no luck, good or bad. Things happen. On balance, they are neither good nor bad, just events to be dealt with. Be patient and continue doing the best you are able to with any given circumstances. I have always tried to keep a goal in mind and move through life’s circumstances in the vague direction of those goals. Things have happened that have ended up having positive impacts, and things have had negative. None of them were clear at the time and only in hindsight can I see which were which.
Don’t Panic
If something breaks and there is no warranty and cost of repairs are to much. Repair it yourself. You don’t know how? What you gonna do break it again?
Unless it’s something dangerous and you don’t know what you’re doing. Don’t want to get a garage door spring to the face
Microwave repairs are a good bad advice to give to people you don’t like as well
You mean to the brain
Insane how much energy that is
garage doors are pretty heavy
If you find blood on someone who is incapable of verbalizing if they’re injured or in pain, consider if they had a dark red jello with lunch before you carefully inspect their entire body looking for the injury.
Corollary: if you feel fine but appear to be shitting blood, consider whether you ate beets recently. (And same for your baby/small child)
If in Canada consider Ketchup chips. Fuck you Stacie you scared the shit out of me.
Uh ooh 🤣
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.)
That vinegar one feels way too specific to have come about naturally. Did that happen to you at one time?
Long story short: someone else’s advice ITT reminded me a uni professor talking about a student hurting themself with glacial acetic acid. That reminded me how often I’m using alcohol vinegar for cleaning (alcohol vinegar is basically one part of glacial acetic acid for 24 parts of water), but I don’t see people doing it often - instead they often buy expensive cleaning agents that they use everywhere as “magical” solutions.
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.
This. Could be a difference between a Fiona and a Karen. It’s okay to always ask for a clarification. (Or just repeat what they said, LOUDER, only for them to feel like they are being trolled 😂, and successfully clarify)
