Ask HN: What did you recently learn you've been doing wrong your whole life? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: What did you recently learn you've been doing wrong your whole life?

20 pointspaulcapewell22 comments

Changing duvet covers! I learned the Burrito Method [1] and never looked back. When I send this to people, the reactions vary from "OMG WHAT YOU CHANGED MY LIFE" to "you srsly didn't know that?"

[1] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRPfudNNd8Y

Thanks for this… have been struggling with this until now.

My meta-answer is growing up in a tightly age-delineated cohort so that I wasn't being corrected all along by people 5-10 years older than me when I was doing things wrong my whole life.

Thinking intrinsic value of achievements matters more than extrinsic

I'll give an example: in getting a degree, seeking out the hardest classes and struggling to get a 3.8, or seeking out the easiest classes and getting a 4.0

The average recruiter is stupid and will only see the 4.0. It's much harder to communicate the value of taking the harder classes

I personally find this kind of depressing. It discourages people from actual learning and nudges them towards only caring about mere appearances

Put your coursework on your résumé.

I do agree with this, but I'd also add that the actual intrinsic growth itself matters a lot more than either achievement in the long term!

E.g. if you learn and retain a lot in a difficult algorithms course, that's more valuable than either the intrinsic "I passed this difficult course" or the extrinsic "I got an A+" for most cases.

In nearly everything, you can do some "minimum amount" that only makes the appearance of getting by. This works until it doesn't (e.g. the minimum threshold is misjudged). Eventually, others see through it and opportunities come less often.

The best students do not constantly compare themselves to slackers. Instead, they compare themselves to those at the top of their game. So there is awareness their GPA could potentially end up minorly lower, but taking easy classes simply isn't an option.

I would phrase this differently: money matters more than I thought relative to my personal sense of accomplishment. I also do believe I get more value from applying what I've learned than any temporary boost a better grade would have gotten me.

Remember no one cares about grades when you have some relevant experience. And to me, intrinsic achievement matters more to me, by definition. The only think that could go wrong is to change your mind about what matters later in life. I've lived half my life and my values haven't changed that much.

I learned I've been tying my shoelaces the wrong way my whole life! After discovering the "Ian Knot," my shoelace-tying game has improved tremendously.

It's a small change, but it made my daily routine a bit easier. It just goes to show that there's always something new to learn and improve upon, hehe!

I came here to say something similar, I didn't realize that the direction of the first and second loops was important, so about half of the time my shoe laces would come undone... I've not done the "Ian Knot", but now my shoes stay tied, and life is much, much better... 55 years too late!

I also came to the same realization about the same age a few years ago.

There is an article making the rounds that refers to a mathematical proof of shoelace tying last couple weeks that talks about this (https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/math-tie-shoes-corre...)

I tried the Ian way once, but didn't like it, but once i figured out that i was grannying my shoes all my life and fixed it, I don't have to tie the loops together like i did all my life.

I just tried the "Ian Knot". While innovative for speed it lacks maintenence of tension while tying so it feels like garbage on your feet. 2 stars.

I can't say that I have 'a thing', but one that I should have learned by now is that "being open to anything" doesn't get nearly as much done as "committing to doing something".

I like to do things in the moment but find I waste a lot of time on random/arbitrary things. This was good when I was learning so much. Now I consume so much information with so little adding to a base of relevant knowledge: like being on HN.

I recently learned that you're supposed to leave the toilet seat down to be gender inclusive, as woman feel unwelcome when it was left up.

I use to leave it up to show that I lifted it and left the toilets clean, unlike most men who are naturally stupid and gross because they're naturally uneducated.

So yeah, be gender inclusive and leave the toilet seat down.

Accumulating stuff, I was doing it all wrong... too much stuff, nowhere near enough curation and purging.

I feel like I'm in a constant state of realizing how stupid I was 5-10 years ago doing X or Y or Z either the wrong way or in a suboptimal way.

I am the opposite, especially at work I look at stuff I did several years ago almost in awe for the accomplishment, and how things have gone downhill ever since lol.

Well, I did accomplish a lot in the past too. But using subpotimal methods, lol. I'd have been 10x more if I had that energy with today's knowledge.

Caring too much about external recognition.

Trusting humans including experts.

fuckin everything. i want out!

Gender.

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