Ask HN: Top life hack which, quite surprisingly, no one else does?

blackpanda · 2023-01-12T13:14:58.000Z

What is your top (or top few) life hacks which you, quite surprisingly, do not see employed by others.

Hiding reddit style posts when they appear in HN

I truly do not understand why there is such an influx of these types of "Ask HN" posts within the past year or so. I've been on HN for a long time and this only started happening recently.

moistly 3 years ago | | |

And then there are the one or two users who ask the most goddamnably stupid questions at least once a day. “Why don’t people like walking barefoot in snow?” “Can cannibalism be an ethical source of meat?” “Should we build a wall around Fiji to save it from flooding?” I’m making those up, but the reality is that their questions are equally stupid.

version_five 3 years ago | | |

https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=amichail

cvhashim04 3 years ago | | |

Looking at OPs submissions, Ask HN is all they submit.

nunez 3 years ago | |

I feel like these are increasing, and I don't like it.

dang 3 years ago | | |

It has always been thus. Check out the links at the bottom of https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. They go back to before HN was even called Hacker News!

nunez 3 years ago | | |

well I stand corrected. thanks, dang!

mxti 3 years ago |

8-9 hours of sleep a day, sacrificing whatever needs to be sacrificed to achieve them. Your life will change substantially. Better focus, reduced body weight, reduced anxiety, better skin, you name it. Improvement across the board.

kikokikokiko 3 years ago |

1 - Always, and I mean always, leave your keys on the same place everytime you arrive at your house. That also applies to remote controls and any other object that you recurrently needs to use. Life's to short to be wasted trying to find tiny things.

2 - have a soldering iron at hand on your toolbox. I lost count how many little fixes I was able to accomplish using one, and I'm definitely no electrical engineer. Our modern lives are full of electronic gadgets that are purposefully designed to break on a short amount of time, and we should not accept that. I made myself led lamps that last forever, cell phones that have 3 times the original battery capacity, fixed earbuds that would otherwise go to the thrash, all because I learned how to use a simple soldering iron.

3 - plug your laptop to your 60 inch TV and get yourself a wireless keyboard and mouse kit. Nothing beats working on a gigantic screen, seated confortably on my amazing recliner sofa. And a full on PC is the best media center you can get, I could NEVER settle for a hoku or any other of those "smart tv" thingies. I want my full PC.

hackeraccount 3 years ago | |

I'm not sure about the rest but 1. is a winner. More generally try and arrange your life so that you have to do the least thinking possible; life is always going to occupy any spare mental territory so there's no reason to do the work for it.

MontyCarloHall 3 years ago |

Get credit card with excellent travel rewards. Go out to large group meals frequently. Put the whole bill on the card, get everyone else to pay you back. Travel the world for free with all the points you accumulate.

stewx 3 years ago | |

Sounds like a nightmare, coordinating repayment

MontyCarloHall 3 years ago | | |

Venmo et al. make this trivial. I’ve never had any significant issues with collecting repayment.

subpixel 3 years ago |

I use a bidet. Not a weird toilet attachment, but an actual tool refined over centuries for the express purpose of washing the human undercarriage after each bowel movement.

My enthusiasm on this topic borders on Cosmo Kramer territory.

senectus1 3 years ago | |

I travelled to a country that has them everywhere and they were all either broken or completely ineffectual (Argentina).

I am yet to be convinced.

subpixel 3 years ago | | |

If you travel to a country where the trains are all broken or ineffectual does that suggest that train transport is not all its chalked up to be?

hackeraccount 3 years ago | | |

Honestly? Yeah, it does.

subpixel 3 years ago | | |

It’s possible you’re doing it wrong. A bidet is a tool but it doesn’t do _the work_ for you.

Fire-Dragon-DoL 3 years ago | | |

In italy they are all functional and everybody use them, try there!

petodo 3 years ago | |

I prefer Thai toilet shower you can easily install in any toilet.

thefz 3 years ago | |

Bidet masterrace, to keep in topic with OP's tone.

stewx 3 years ago |

Buy used rather than new. This applies to cars, furniture, electronics, you name it. Not always practical or optimal but a lot of the time, it is. And when you're buying used, you can haggle.

criticas 3 years ago | |

Corollary: Dave Ramsey's observation that Cash is King. It's less true now that commercial sellers (car dealers, big appliances, etc) often make money on selling you the financing, but few sellers will forego a sale just because they're not getting a commission on the financing.

danielovichdk 3 years ago |

Not eating between 23:00-19:00 (yes, from night to next night) for a few days a week.

This will give give an excess amount of energy and clear mind.

canadiantim 3 years ago | |

But that means you're eating from 7pm to 11pm on those nights? Doesn't seem to be an ideal time to be eating, considering your body doesn't need the energy at that time.

Why not do the same but switch the window to earlier in the day?

roxymusic1973 3 years ago | | |

How fast is your digestion?

canadiantim 3 years ago | | |

It can run the 100m in 12 seconds.

But quickness of my digestion aside, it's more a question of what is your body going to do with the energy it's digested from your food at that time of night? Store it obviously

scawf 3 years ago | | |

And what will it do during the next day while your fasting ? use it..

thensome 3 years ago |

Instead of packing lunch, i would keep packs of bagels and English muffins and stuff at work. I'd also bring pb&j and almonds to put on them and my coworkers were always jelly of my lunch but they never started doing it.

Another one is getting the shower head with a hose and putting a second holder low on the wall so the spray doesn't hit my head/face accidentally. This one was started by my mom bc i have autism and hate showers, and she figured out that if the water doesn't hit my face i can tolerate it longer.

kstenerud 3 years ago |

Get a bidet.

Seriously, just get one.

yucky 3 years ago |

Probably more for the younger readers, but "Stop blaming others" is great advice. Individuals, systems, history etc. - you name it. You can't change the past and you can't control what others do, but most of the time there are things you can do to improve your situation. So do that.

pengo 3 years ago |

Buy a decent protective case when you buy your new phone, and never remove it.

I've never lost a phone yet to accidental damage, while friends without cases break screens and destroy phones every 12 to 18 months.

mandmandam 3 years ago |

1. I dilute my dish soap with water, and put it in a spray bottle. Sooo handy.

2. Keep a pump bottle of 100% aloe vera gel in the WC. Why would you buy chemical aloe vera TP when this is an option?

stewx 3 years ago | |

Can you be more explicit? Where are you putting the aloe vera?

mandmandam 3 years ago | | |

I'd rather not! It goes on the toilet paper. Next best option to a bidet.

senectus1 3 years ago | | |

what?

why would you want to do this?

mandmandam 3 years ago | | |

Cleanliness. Time saver. Soothing.

SHAKEDECADE 3 years ago | | |

WC = Wash Closet?

ericfrazier 3 years ago |

Meet your neighbors before signing a lease.

canadiantim 3 years ago |

Learning to Be, so that I'm not “in my head” or stuck in thoughts - a much better place to live from

canadiantim 3 years ago |

Relax

aptrishu 3 years ago |

Use ARM processors.

sgt 3 years ago |

When talking to someone, you step up to them and grab their arm. Then you force them to walk around with you, while you have their arm. Total attention. Example: https://makeagif.com/i/3Bfhx7

dusted 3 years ago | |

Yeah you'd have to be real fucking important for me to not simply pull back and walk away without a word.

But, I'm really interested in which situations you've actually done this, what reaction you wanted, and what actually happened ?

drcongo 3 years ago | | |

Same, you'd need to be Don Corleone himself or I'm off.

oops 3 years ago | | |

I figured OP was being sarcastic and got a chuckle out of it. Seems like it didn't land that way in general though, looking at all these replies!

sgt 3 years ago | | |

I got a real chuckle out of it. But I am feeling a bit remorseful. Will add /s next time.

MontyCarloHall 3 years ago | | |

And if you’re Don Corleone himself, you don’t need to grab someone’s arm to have their undivided attention.

a_m_kelly 3 years ago | |

Not sure where you're writing from geographically, professionally or culturally but I can't imagine doing this to anyone.

In a professional environment, grabbing someone's arm and leading them around by it seems like an incredibly inappropriate breach of that person's personal space.