When's the last time you felt your brain trying to change itself? It's terrifying. It's fascinating. It's necessary. Never stop rewiring, lest the cogs crush us all. Start here.
As a rule, things don't disappear on their own. It's easy to slip into a mentality of thinking that things come and go, especially in an environment full of single-use disposable items. An office pen cup empties out, a blank shelf in the home accumulates trinkets, and it feels like the way of things. But in reality, the matter always goes somewhere. Hold on to that thought for a minute, play with…
There are two, and only two types of layouts. I mean layout in the loosest sense possible, the arranging of things. Of time, of space, of process, of images in software which attempts to reflow exactly and only when you were not done moving things around. There are towers, and there are nests. Towers must be built from the ground up. You set the foundation, and everything else follows naturally…
The most common rating system is one to five stars, or more generally sequential ratings between one and three/five/ten, where higher is better. The problem with these is that the natural default gets pushed up over time. Most people care more about the good half of the spectrum, but the good half gets condensed to the point that anything below the highest two scores means actively bad, while…
You know that science demonstration where someone heats up some ice cubes on the stove and the water stays at freezing until all the ice cubes have melted? The same principle applies to your drinks, to a lesser degree. The main drink doesn't start at freezing, so under normal circumstances it will always have too much thermal energy for the drink to become freezing even as it equalizes with the…
An algorithm for confidently choosing between many options which isn't staring at all of them until one rises to the top. I've used it for counts ranging from half a dozen to hundreds, and it works for anything between ordering at a restaurant to cutting down multiplicative scheduling options. First, gather all the options. In most cases this is done for you, but if it isn't, or if it's difficult…
Even after you've minimized packaging , there's still some necessary packaging which is an eyesore. If you have to keep it, you may as well make sure it looks nice. Try turning things around. Most things look better from the front by design, but sometimes the back is left plain. Put rarely used items in opaque containers so you don't have to see them. Disregard if this conflicts with your…
Really, there's never been a time I've regretted reading things again. Whether it's someone else's writing or your own, there's always something new to find. I constantly misread, skip over nuances, forget details, etc. On the positive side, I also find new aspects of the writing to appreciate, or connections I hadn't had the context to notice. The worst that can happen is you reinforce your…
I don't use bags and organizers without at least one big compartment with no internal dividers. It doesn't matter how well you plan things out, there's always going to be one random poorly shaped item in the future. Even if the smaller compartments are large enough for anything you could reasonably want to carry, there will come a day when there's too many things to fit into the compartments, or…
If you hang your dirty laundry while it's waiting to be washed, it won't smell nearly as much as piling it in a bin. Normally the smell doesn't particularly matter since you only have to deal with it immediately before washing, but it can make a difference in small spaces. If you make a habit of laundry chairing the worn but not yet dirty clothes, you already do this, just badly. Give clothes some…
Anytime you'll be away from home overnight, bring a small towel. It doesn't matter if your destination has freshly laundered ones, it's good to have your own for the trip which you know is adequately soft and clean. Mop up sweat or a small spill, impromptu pillow, freshen up in a bathroom on the way, or wrap up delicate objects or a cold bottle which is causing condensation in your bag. It's also…
If you've haven't bought a specific product at least twice, don't buy in bulk. That might mean buying a larger size/pack, buying duplicates to save on trips/shipping, or signing up for a recurring subscription. The potential savings aren't worth the risk. Every time I've convinced myself it was worth it, it wasn't. Owning extra of something locks you in long term to using the same product, and you…
If your search history looks like coherent conversation, I think you're doing it wrong. Search engines have come a long way from word counting algorithms. You can put basically any reasonable set of keywords into a search engine and get out useful results. Save the effort of full sentences for places where writing matters, and only include the minimum words to match what you actually care about.…
In general, you should bring a slightly larger bag than you think you need. The marginal cost of using larger bags is negligible, but the cost of not having quite enough bag space is either getting another bag, or worse, carrying something without a bag to wrangle it. For grocery shopping though, I use a smaller bag than the ones typically provided. Why? I buy too much otherwise. I'm also near…
When I'm on a sudden burst of motivation to do the boring but necessary work, like tidying up or taking care of admin, I try very hard not to break it. Those bursts are what keep my life running, and it's much harder to engineer one than to sustain it. It'll take twice as long without them, if not longer, and take a quality hit too. The most common task which will break the streak is taking out…
I'm not a particularly tidy worker, in whatever I'm doing. By default, everything goes anywhere, and I clean up the mess when I'm done. I have too many rules for myself to keep things contained, but some things refuse to stay in place. This results in things with many copies being misplaced all the time. Sometimes I intentionally buy or label variants, but that's not always reasonable . So as a…
If you're trying to remove wrinkles or add creases to fabric, nothing works as well as ironing. It'll be more effective, faster, and easier to control. But, ironing is a hassle. If you just need to manage a large crease for functional reasons such as sharpening a seam or uncurling a hem, a touch of water with some heavy books on top overnight will work wonders in a pinch. It'll still be visible,…
I keep a bowl in the bathroom by the sink. It's not for anything in particular, it just comes in handy. Soaking something without having to clog up the entire sink for a while. Pouring out water, such as to rinse down the sides of the sink where the faucet doesn't reach. Temporarily putting down objects like wet soap bars or soggy towels without worrying that they'll make a mess. Anything where…
My favorite photo album is random candid shots of my living space. I take them when I move, reorganize, or otherwise feel like it's been a while. I always wish I had more of them, a little more detail to reference during a gap. There's nothing quite so evocative of the way I was living my life at that time. Of course, it's fun to see the big changes. Different room layouts, different technology,…
Like all programmers, I am forever terrible at naming things but also abhor long names. For projects and other top level organization like folders, I default to picking the most obvious possible single word name. For example, all the ebooks I've downloaded go in a folder named books. By the same logic, the folder in my scripts repository for working with books should also be named books. The…
I'm generally in favor of efficiency and precision, but sometimes it's just easier to spam adjustments till it's right. Many things are already designed this way, such as volume controls. On touchscreens there's sliders which jump straight to the correct amount, but buttons adjust in increments because it's most likely you want a relative adjustment. You notice that something is too loud, not that…
It's not always worth doing the dishes right now . But if you have enough dishes the sink is full, don't put them in the sink. Stack them out of the way so you can use the sink for all the things you need a sink for until you get around to the dishes. Especially if you share a sink, there's nothing more frustrating than being unable to do what you need because of someone else's dishes. That…
The point of personal tracking is to view totals or trends. Secondarily, tracking can help build your awareness of what you're doing in the present . But long-term tracking, the kind which has to be designed and organized, is for totals and trends. Tracking takes non-trivial effort. Even if you have a system, it will take time to update and maintain unless it's entirely automated. Even if it is…
I cycled in and out of monitor setups for while, but ultimately concluded multiple isn't worth it. Sometimes a second screen is nice to throw things up to monitor in the background, but most of the time notifications are sufficient and the constant visual is a distraction. There's a few specific workflows which require constantly cross-referencing two windows which both benefit from the extra real…
I used to play a variety of mindless mobile games when I was feeling fidgety but didn't have anything to do. It's less mentally demanding than scrolling. These days, I sort things on my phone. Usually starts with email, then clearing downloads, categorizing old photos if I'm feeling particularly ambitious. Occasionally something weird gets thrown into the mix, like relabeling a batch of ebooks.…
If your shoes consistently smell, you're wearing them too much (i.e. they still smell from the previous wear when you put them on) or you need better socks. You could also try foot deodorant, replacing the insoles, or washing the shoes. But it's usually the socks. The whole point of socks 1 is to absorb the sweat so your shoes don't. Invest in a few good pairs and don't lose them . I promise it's…
I hear music in my dreams sometimes, vague repetitive melodies with some backing instruments and reverb. The kind of song that could plausibly be in the background of a movie. I think it's quite realistic, until I hear actual sound again and am reminded that sound is not made up of impressions in the brain, but a tangible experience in the world. It's startling, realizing that the hyper-real…
When you're struggling to make decisions, write out pro/con lists. Throw in best/worst case scenarios too. Be reasonable but don't average it out, pros/cons are already representative of the average. The reasonable best/worst case for a job interview is you get hired/rejected, not you become a trillionaire or die. Write it all down, however trivial. Then choose. The end goal isn't to weigh the…
You are not beholden to the cutlery traditions of decades ago. You don't need to own the same amount of each type of cutlery. I personally almost never use butter knives, and in any scenario in which I would need multiple they would be shared so I would at most need the same number of knives as the number of spreadable items. Not high at all. Three is plenty, and I could get away with one or two.…
There's plenty of reasons you might not be looking at something when you need to grab it. You could be functionally blind for any number of reasons, such as taking off glasses. You might not be able to look at it because you're multitasking, or it could be late night and you simply don't want to turn on the lights. It might be inconvenient to look at, such as grabbing something from the bottom of…
My preferred method of using two-way light switches, where two switches share a circuit to control the same light, is to pretend one doesn't exist. Generally that means only using whichever switch is closest to the main entrance, because that's the one which you're most likely to need to muscle memory when entering a dark room or turning off the lights to leave. Why? It ruins muscle memory for the…
Shoelaces get icky. They're also almost always made out of fabric which holds on to smells and form little nooks and crannies for gunk to get stuck into. If you don't take the time to individually clean them, even for a well maintained shoe which gets wiped and aired out regularly, they'll eventually get dirty and stinky. But, they're also often the single highest return on value for shoe…
All scissors should have sheathes. Scissors are sharp, and sharp things damage other things, such as your skin. Yes, the cutting edge is blocked when they're closed, but it's still a metal object which tapers to a small point. It can and will dig a hole in anything you store it in. Even if it's not making a hole, sustained pressure at a single point can deform things significantly. Sheaths block…
When walking in areas I know well enough to navigate without a map, I default to taking turns either as early or late as possible. Pure laziness. If I take a turn early I don't need to remember to take it later, if I take it late I don't have to think about taking the turn until there's nothing else to do. Works great in gridded areas where all routes are roughly the same. But, there's better…
The common instinct is to shed layers when it's hot, but I actually prefer two layers when I'm outside. Covering skin when it's hot isn't inherently bad. It doesn't really matter how much heat you're shedding through your skin if you're getting more back from direct sunlight. The fabric will create a shaded and therefore cooler pocket of air around you, and as a bonus you won't have to deal with…
Cleaning a microwave is awful. It's an awkward shape and position, the door is constantly flapping around, you have to deal with a big spinning disk, and the residue only gets harder to remove the more cycles it's been through. Good news though, if you cover everything in the microwave, you almost never need to clean it. It doesn't have to be tightly sealed, it's often better if it's loose to let…
Occasionally, a one-off item enters my life which I would never bother to buy. A semi-consumable, like rubber bands or tissue paper which is reusable but wears out relatively quickly, and cheap/small enough that I receive them randomly. Because of those factors, in the store they come in large enough packs I would never use all them and therefore never buy them. My baseline and target stock of…
If the option is available, I get the unscented version of a product. Failing that, I fallback to getting as few different light herbal scents as possible. I don't find any single product's scent particularly offensive 1 , it's the collection of them in combination. Between all the different cleaning and bathroom products around, I might interact with half a dozen in quick succession. Each scent…
When you finish the dishes, wipe down the entire sink with a tiny bit of soap. Don't just spray it with a bit of water, there has to be something in direct contact with the surface. Even if it looks clean, there's little bits of gunk building up. If you don't believe me, try running your hand over it before and after. It'll be noticeably smoother after a clean. Alternatively, lick it. I'm serious,…
I'm generally in favor of buying a small set of nice things over a large set of cheap things. Exception being clothes hangers, which I've been using the same cheap plastic set of for as long as I can remember. There are good reasons to use nice velvet or wood hangers, but I don't have the kinds of clothes which would benefit from them. I don't have heavily tailored clothes which need shoulder…
If you're going to make something, even if only once, make a template for it. Something lightweight which you can then copy for the real thing. Don't get bogged down in making it particularly reusable if you don't expect to use it multiple times, just do the things you would have had to do for the real thing anyway. Digitally, this could be making a document template with good styles and margins…
If you're doing something messy which generates lots of little bits, grab a small bowl to put all them in. Saves you the constant trips to the trash can or a messy cleanup. Especially useful for activities like peeling vegetables, which generate lots of falling sticky little bits. You could do it directly over the trash can but you run the risk of dropping things and also you're standing over a…
You would think this is obvious, but apparently it's not. A humid bathroom immediately after a shower is perhaps the worst possible place to let your bath towel dry. It may be well ventilated enough to compensate, but weather and building design notwithstanding it will almost certainly be worse than hanging in a dry room by an open window. The same thing applies to sinks. Why would you let a…
I don't adhere to "I'll try anything once". Or rather, there's a massive amount of things which I've never done but have enough experience with things I think are similar or have similar attributes that I have no interest in trying them. But, for things you are willing to try once, I recommend you consider increasing it to twice. Not because you could have had a bad version of that experience and…
In both technical and creative endeavors, it is much easier to spot the problem with a large volume of something than with a few examples. Therefore, if you are failing at something and getting stuck trying to find on why you're failing, repeating it in slightly varied ways until you have a large enough sample may be enough to spot the problem without needing external resources. Doesn't matter…
In my head, the fridge is for perishables and the pantry is for things which last forever. When I think about what I need to use up soon, I think about the fridge, and only the fridge. 1 This poses a conundrum when it comes to root vegetables which don't need to be refrigerated but will start doing funky things like sprouting if I leave them alone too long. The correct solution is to keep better…
It's often necessary to clean something with a bit of water. If you use a towel, do not get the towel wet in order to accomplish this. Get the surface wet instead, then use the towel to mop it up. A towel (or other cleaning rag) is made to absorb water. It will absorb far more water than you need. In the best case some excess water drips on the surface, in the average case this makes your towel…
If you want to have better spelling, you have to spell things. This may seem obvious, but I don't think most people woke up and actively decided to use autocorrect. It just appeared one day, was mildly useful, and therefore was not removed. I have spellcheck, but it only tells me that I'm wrong, not what the fix is. I don't use any grammarcheck at all, and for this I am rewarded with the ability…
You should have a bathmat, but it doesn't have to be a traditional bathmat. A bathmat has two functions, keeping your feet off the cold bathroom floor and absorbing excess water. A fluffy towel of the appropriate size will do both those jobs as well as a bathmat, with the bonus that you can hang it up to dry, swap out for a fresh one whenever without having to manage a backlog of separate…
If you orient blinds so the slats point up towards you (opposite the normal orientation), less light enters through the blinds. This is because natural light comes from above, so if the slats point up less light will bounce through the gap. It's also harder for people to peek through the blinds, and if they do there's less interesting stuff near the ceiling than the floor. Whatever reason you have…
If you need to remember something arbitrary for a short period of time, try repeating it aloud and remembering the sound of saying it instead of trying to remember it directly. Not sure why it works, but it does. Maybe because there's more bits of information to latch onto with how you habitually pronounce certain words/letters/numbers and the timing of syllables? Logically remembering the sound…