@NanoRaptor Turn it off and back on.

@NanoRaptor

Just before starting work, drink a large glass of water. In about an hour you will have to pee, so stand up and go do that. On the way back, drink another large glass of water.

At the end of your day, you will have been forced to get up and move most every hour, and you will be hydrated.

@NanoRaptor
Eggs keep cooking even after they're on the plate.

@NanoRaptor put the hash brown *in* the McMuffin, it'll change your life

@NanoRaptor HEPA filters save lives

@NanoRaptor (student edition) Your final school exam results don't actually matter worth shit in the long run, because there's so many other ways to get where you're going and you don't even know where that is yet.

@NanoRaptor

1: teach your baby sign language! Their brain is ready to communicate way before they have control over their larynx, tongue, and lips.

2: wax your bicycle chain!

@NanoRaptor always look where you want to go

@NanoRaptor End up with a terrible and unusual disease? Find any research hospitals close enough and get a consultation asap.

(The other one is about class struggle, but that is deaf ears so mostly not bringing it up:/)

@NanoRaptor code is read more often than it's written.

@NanoRaptor Microwave the cookie for 15 seconds and sprinkle a little salt on it. You must do this

@NanoRaptor Can't do just one.
1) Back up your data to storage you control, following the 3-2-1 rule.
2) Use multifactor authentication everywhere.
3) Use a password manager and random passwords.

@NanoRaptor Buy a sword.

@NanoRaptor Flip over the end of the adhesive tape when you cut/tear off a piece. It’s a gift from present you to future you - or anyone.

@NanoRaptor unless you have just received a diagnosis of a terminal illness, or you know, with certainty, when you need cash, you are *always* a long term investor.

There is never a good time to switch from growth to cash.

(note: if you know, with certainty, that you need cash on a given date, you can plan your exit from growth in advance. Any other strategy is folly).

@NanoRaptor "It's everybody's first day to learn something." Trying to not forget this when it's my day or when I'm trying to help someone with something that seems obvious to me but isn't obvious to them.

@NanoRaptor I have two related ones and they're about cleaning.

first: most kitchen and bathroom cleaning products are just citric acid with perfumes and dyes added. that includes coffee machine cleaner. it's a phenomenal descaler and it's safe to use on metal, ceramic, plastics, glass, rubber, basically anything. buy a kilo of it as powder, super cheap. it'll get brass and copper looking brand new in minutes.

@NanoRaptor Oxford has the best commas

@NanoRaptor Three rules, not in order:
1. Make illegal states nonrepresentable.
2. Parse, don't validate.
0. There are no rules, only guidelines.

@NanoRaptor Find some way to not need to own or use a car. Reorganize your whole life for this. Move to the other side of the world for this. It will be worth it.

@NanoRaptor @zwol never get a job due east of your house

@NanoRaptor when racing, your foot should always be on the gas or on the brake: if you’re not accelerating, and not braking, the car isn’t under your control.

@NanoRaptor
Regular colonoscopies can save your life.

Colon cancer is one of the most common cancers out there. It is also easily treatable when discovered early (as in, "removed during the initial exam" level of easy).

But because most people don't get colonoscopies it's also one of the deadliest.

Yes, the prep is a bother, and the exam is a bit uncomfortable. But a colonoscopy every 4-5 years combined with a yearly occult blood test (poke your poo with a stick) can save your life.

@NanoRaptor When unloading the dishwasher, unload the bottom rack first, because unloading the top rack will knock water loose which will fall to the bottom rack, and you don't want that happening on dishes.

@NanoRaptor
If your boss is uncomfortable with silence, don't talk much during a salary negotiation.

@NanoRaptor

“technology is made of people^” 💁‍♀️
 
 
 
^ not in the Soylent Green way 🤪

@NanoRaptor no one ever told me that many injuries won’t kill you, but will also never heal, and no treatment of cure exists — this means you’re just going to hurt FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.

i would have been so much more careful doing literally everything if i has known this one simple fact.

@NanoRaptor It’s okay to change your mind.

@NanoRaptor
When you are learning to touch type on a keyboard and you make a mistake, delete the whole word and type it again.

The goal is to build muscle memory of how to type words correctly the first time. Focus more on what part of the word gives you trouble. Then you know what letters or combinations to focus deliberate practice on.

@NanoRaptor Good communication isn’t about getting ideas out of your head, it’s about getting them into others’.

From my teacher perspective - “Yes, I taught the material. But did they *learn* it?”

@NanoRaptor “show me”

It’s the single most important thing you can say when trying to diagnose any issue.

@NanoRaptor Learn how to do trigger point massage.

@NanoRaptor
Delete your Facebook/Instagram/WhatsApp accounts immediately.

@NanoRaptor

Make the decision you will be ok with when looking at yourself in the mirror at 3am.

There is no right or wrong with that decision. Just make the one where you are able to live with your face afterwards.

@NanoRaptor command+s

@NanoRaptor 2 parents are not enough. Do not parent in isolation.

@NanoRaptor Concerning playing in a band, originally, but not limited to that: ”If you just keep on hammering it, you’ll get good, no matter how badly you sucked at the beginning. And I should know, since we totally sucked at the beginning.”

(Thinking of it, not a very supportive advice to someone 15 y old who’s just begun learning to play an instrument. I’d guess they would hear it as ”you suck and will suck for 40 years and then you probably won’t suck anymore – at least not as much as now”.)

@NanoRaptor re: driving: Before you watch out for who’s going to hit you, watch out for who you’re going to hit. (Or what—in the case of the parking lot pillar I nailed while I was carefully backing out of a spot.)

@NanoRaptor
Ask for what you want! Maybe you can't have it, but maybe you can, and you DEFINITELY can't have it if you don't ask for it.

@NanoRaptor a complex system that works almost invariably arises from a simple system that works.

@NanoRaptor I always jump at a chance to share the fact that drowning people don't look like they're drowning; they don't splash, they don't shout, they often look very calm

https://slate.com/technology/2013/06/rescuing-drowning-children-how-to-know-when-someone-is-in-trouble-in-the-water.html

@NanoRaptor
You can’t make somebody happy by making yourself miserable. One out of two people being happy is better than zero out of two, even if that one is you. That’s not selfish; in fact, more people will be influenced for the better because of your joy.

Once you’re following your heart’s path (with details navigated in conjunction with your head), the way to continue building joy is to nudge your hatreds toward dislikes, dislikes toward neutrals, neutrals toward likes, and likes toward loves. This can eventually lead to loving things like sadness, in which case it goes beyond happiness, continuing to make life better/richer.

@NanoRaptor

Replace chain and sprockets as a set.

@NanoRaptor
Don't let awful people beat the empathy out of you

@NanoRaptor

This is from software development, but is probably more widely applicable:

First try to solve the general problem. It will often turn out that solving the general problem takes about the same amount of work as solving the specific problem, and even when it doesn't, the attempt at the general problem will usually help you write a cleaner and more robust solution for the specific problem.

@NanoRaptor join a union

@NanoRaptor it gets easier every day, but you have to do it every day

@NanoRaptor Multi-modal all the things.

There can be a lot of pressure to make a 100% choice about all sorts of things, like going vegan or using linux or not driving a car. For most things it is much easier and still very excellent to do a mix of several options for different circumstances. Go vegan part of the time, it's fine.

I think this advice works even if you are not bisexual and cursed/blessed to reject all* absolutes. *Some exceptions apply.

@NanoRaptor Since you have no control over what others think about you, there’s no point in worrying about it.

@NanoRaptor this can only be done in some circumstances, but: if you’ve been talking/thinking for half an hour and still haven’t decided, you are stuck in analysis paralysis. Stop talking and run an experiment.

The hint for this one being needed is that you clearly already have all the facts it’s possible to gather passively.

People will argue against an idea they disagree with forever, but find it hard to argue against a limited experiment.

@NanoRaptor the purpose of any system is what it does.

@NanoRaptor Always carry a safety blanket in your car, and keep some at home as well. If you go camping, or you do anything outdoorsy, take at least one with you. I mean the space blanket ones, they're very light and take almost no space while folded, they're fairly inexpensive, and they will save your life in so many situations.

@NanoRaptor smile and say thank you

@NanoRaptor Don't get into any situation (I'm thinking of relationships, but I suppose this applies to all sorts of things) that can seriously trap and harm you without knowing your way out in advance.

It's perfectly fine to have no intention of using the escape route. We all want stuff to work out and a lot of the time it does. But the bigger something is, the more important it becomes to have a way back to safety. And hoping for the best is no excuse for not at least being aware of how to handle the worst.

@NanoRaptor Always blow on the pie.

@NanoRaptor You can fall out of and back in love with the same person many many times and knowing this can save a marriage.

@NanoRaptor if your computer is sluggish, check smartctl

@NanoRaptor it's not normal. get diagnosed.

@NanoRaptor averages are fake (and usually useless)

@NanoRaptor
Projekts and people are like farts: Put on to much pressure and all you get is shit.

@NanoRaptor the man command.

I still need to punch myself in the head to use it.
Just a few months ago I spent way too much searching online only to find the answer immediately on the man page.

@NanoRaptor Find a way to make friends with yourself.

@NanoRaptor
always be kind to others for you never know what hellish nightmare they are going through right now

@NanoRaptor

Feeling too much? Work through this list: be kind to yourself and take the time you to do it.

Eat something
Drink water
Take your pills
Do a poo
Go for a walk (may help you to poo)
Sleep
Chop some vegetables
Make the vegetables you chopped into something to eat (soup if you can’t think)

1/2

@NanoRaptor “Communicate more and more openly with the people you love and trust. No, more than that. Keep going.”

(The trust bit is load bearing tho)

@NanoRaptor Lefty-loosy, righty-tighty.

@NanoRaptor Humility is a superpower.

Not saying this in the rainbows-and-unicorns humanistic sense, but in a very practical one.

If you recognize that you don’t know everything and approach life as such, you:

1. Get along with people better.
2. Don’t become stuck in your ways.
3. Learn new and better ways to approach even things you’re good at.
4. Don’t feel nearly as bad when you realize you’ve been doing something wrong.

Being humble isn’t just nice, it’s _liberating_.

@NanoRaptor “GO. TO. BED.”

@NanoRaptor „Never attribute to malice what can be reasonably well explained with stupidity“

@NanoRaptor

Let's wait with this discussion until we've both had a bite to eat, OK?

@NanoRaptor All Knowledge is fractal. It is not possible for you to know everything about something. You will find abstractions that you are comfortable with and can work with for what you need. But you have to understand they are abstractions sometimes you'll have to look closer at something.

This also means other people will have different understandings of things to you. They all have a deeper understanding of something you can learn from.

@NanoRaptor Get fenders for your bike. Long ones, that'll keep spray from both you and your buddy behind you. It's the only civilized way to equip a bike. Biking without fenders is the downfall of civility.

@NanoRaptor If you don't know something, find someone who does and ask. It's not weakness.

@NanoRaptor Everyone's faking it.

@NanoRaptor @isaiah Those sports injuries in a couple of joints, that you got in your teens? Those are really going to suck when you hit your forties, and especially your fifties.

@NanoRaptor put it on a shopping list if you need to buy it. Put it on a calendar if you need to be there. Put it back where it goes when you're finished using it.

Goes double (or triple) if you also have ADHD.

@NanoRaptor
Don’t try to fix things that ain’t broken!

@NanoRaptor Check whether it's DNS. If it's not, check whether it's the MTU.

@NanoRaptor

Don't love your job. It won't love you back.

@NanoRaptor
Police officers are legally allowed to lie to you.

@NanoRaptor @projectgus watch out for the giant cap on a PSU

@NanoRaptor Seek out conversations, and spend way more time listening than talking.

@NanoRaptor Anyone who's working on computer networks in any way whatsoever, should know about Wireshark or tcpdump. all the TCP/IP tutorials should be telling them about Wireshark in chapter 1.

they don't necessarily need to understand all the filters and everything it shows (learn it as needed), but they really ought to know that These are the network packets giving you trouble, that you can visually see and inspect the network packets, that This Is A Thing You Can Do instead of being forced to blindly guess what's happening.

(admittedly that also applies to me still not knowing how to use a debugger or many of the non-network OS tracing tools...)

@NanoRaptor knowing more today is good news for tomorrow, not bad news for yesterday.

@NanoRaptor No one truly has it figured out. We're all just winging it. Cut yourself and others some slack.

@NanoRaptor adults are just children with more responsibilities

@NanoRaptor Legacy code is legacy because it *survived*, because it managed to fulfill a purpose, did what customers wanted, kept the system running etc. despite its flaws. Don't be too quick to throw it out for something that won't do the same job.

And it can be hard to work on and maintain, but it needn't be scary so long as everyone understands what the state of things is and stays upbeat about it. Any small fix you do, no matter how kludgy you think it is, might be improving the situation! And that's great.

@NanoRaptor
Texting yourself important notes that you'd otherwise forget is a superpower most people don't realize they have.

@NanoRaptor Never be guilted into staying a job out of loyalty to it. Your job is a contract to do work and get paid for it, and nothing more. As long as you've met that contract, no-one has the right to be upset that you don't want to do it any more. And figuring out how to deal with you not being there is their problem, not yours.

If (after suitable consideration) you think you should quit a job, then the odds are that you're right.

@NanoRaptor Compassion and kindness are far more important and effective to a cause than being smart or being right. If you don't exercise them, you won't change anybody's heart nor make any changes to the way things are. Listen, be nice, assume best intentions, and forgive.

@NanoRaptor These are probably tied and often related:

"When actions contradict words, the actions are the actual words, and the ones you need to believe."

Directly related to this one:

"When someone tells you something absolutely horrible they believe because they think it makes them look _good_, they have just told you who they are, and you need to fucking believe them."

See also:

"The hardest thing in the world is to get people to acknowledge unpleasant realities even when they are staring them right in the face."

These are permutations of each other, and sometimes - rarely, but sometimes -one will work better than the other two.

@NanoRaptor

If you become teetotal but your friends still drink (heavily) ... refuse to be their taxi driver back from the pub.
Else you'll end up trying to shepherd a cage of monkeys into the car at the end of the night when you needed to be home hours before.
(It's also the first step in finding out which of your acquaintances are really your friends.)

@NanoRaptor talk about all the stupid little things in the back of your mind. They're there for a reason.

Ideally, with a therapist/counsellor. (If you're unloading on your hairdresser or bar server instead please give them a very good tip).

@NanoRaptor The things you're good at aren't easy - you're just good at them. Likewise, the people who aren't good at those things aren't stupid, their talents/ interests/ training just lie elsewhere.

@NanoRaptor
When you have kids, make “yes” the default answer.
Can we bake a cake? Yes
Can we do some painting? Yes
I really want to go to the playground! Cool, let’s go.

@NanoRaptor Hydrogen peroxide, 5 or 6% dilution, in a spray bottle, is the best chemical to periodically kill that powdery white mold growing on the underside surfaces of all that cheap particle-board furniture you own (which has no finish on the undersides). If you live in a dry climate, *where the humidity always stays below 65%*, you can probably ignore this message. But in humid places (especially the tropics) mold loves worming into that cheap particle board. It's not good for you to inhale the spores (they run down your immune system). Hydrogen peroxide has a knack for likewise wiggling into the mold itself, chasing it inward, exploding all those organic cells in a chain reaction.

As a test: shine a flashlight across the furniture surfaces sideways, and you'll see that frosty powder easily - that's mold!

@NanoRaptor
Idk if it counts as advice as such, but: it's okay and normal not to "cherish every moment" of parenting. Some parts of it f*&king suck and it can physically and/or mentally break you in some circumstances. So ignore the people who only ever discuss the good/photogenic bits, seek out the people who are willing to discuss the worst bits, and keep seeking help until you get the help you need 💚

@NanoRaptor

Exercising can and does make Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
permanently worse.

If you think you might have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Myalgic Encephalomyelitis STOP EXERCISING until you know for sure!

and if you have been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, don't let anyone (including doctors who should know better!) bully you into exercising unless you want to end up bed-bound.

@NanoRaptor

Wearing an N95 facemask in crowded indoor spaces (including but not limited to buses/trains) can save you from catching COVID and potentially being too disabled by Long-COVID to work/study for YEARS.

@NanoRaptor never learn to sleep alone

@zwol @NanoRaptor the older I get, and the more I ride my bike, the more tempting your idea is.

@NanoRaptor

Listen to yourself because in the end nobody else knows you well enough to give a useful opinion.

Follow what you hear inside yourself to find what you love to do and do it. You'll make enough money through your passion and you'll love your work.

Most importantly, listen to yourself to find someone who makes you whole because they will sustain you through thick and thin and you will sustain them.

Lastly, eat and drink whatever you like because life is just too short not to.

@NanoRaptor the correct response to praise is "Thank you!"

It is definitely not "… but I was awful!" or similar – you just told someone their judgement sucks.

Also: If it's worth doing, it's worth doing badly.

@NanoRaptor Schedule regular maintenance, otherwise your equipment/house/body/.. will schedule it for you, at inconvenient times and for inconvenient costs.

@NanoRaptor The Gottman method of identifying, processing, and communicating emotions.

@NanoRaptor
Pay attention to who cats like and dislike.

@NanoRaptor feeling adored and sexy has nothing to do with body type, clothing or other goods. It's about the people around oneself.

@NanoRaptor

It is possible to suffer from arthritis in your knees and still get pain free by stretching Ilio Psoas and quadriceps muscles.

@NanoRaptor Never stare at a llama.

@NanoRaptor Nobody thinks about you as much as you do. If you ever feel embarrassed or shy because of what people might think, don’t worry, they’re not thinking about you at all.

Also, before getting upset by someone’s opinion or critique of you or your work, ask yourself, do I respect this person and their opinion on this subject?

@NanoRaptor All models are wrong. But, some are useful.

@NanoRaptor the one choice of who to spend your life with will determine ~80% of your lifetime happiness.

@NanoRaptor Ask for help.

Seriously, how often do people come to you with something they need? Even just to reach a high shelf? Ask. For. Help.

@NanoRaptor No matter what your employer tells you about the future, or promises - at the end of every day, they see you as fully compensated with whatever you’ve earned in cash up until now.

@NanoRaptor Other people matter.

@NanoRaptor The sunk cost fallacy. Sometimes dropping everything you've done and going a different way is cheaper than getting what you'll need to do to get your current direction to work. You have to price out all future work; past work has no value.

@NanoRaptor Impostor syndrome is real, and it never goes away; you just learn to recognize it, but _only in your most comfortable areas_ – it will still bite you in other contexts.

@NanoRaptor it is OK to say “I don’t know”.

@NanoRaptor helps all day long: listen to your gut.

@NanoRaptor ask before rendering advice

@NanoRaptor You can cure depression easily if you’re one of the 80% of coeliacs who doesn’t know it.

(I don’t remember psychiatrists suggesting it, and gastroenterologists don’t seem to care that their findings might cure it … instead, I have a patient & persistent GP to thank, and that famous credits sequence in the South Park gluten episode).

@NanoRaptor
Patience is very helpful.

@zwol @NanoRaptor Booze, cigarettes, cars …

Why do we treat car dollars like dog years?

@NanoRaptor "That will probably work better with some lubrication."

@NanoRaptor
Get a password manager like KeePass.

It's the number-one actionable in Deviant Ollam's "Lawyer, locksmith, passport, gun" video.

It's the easiest first step most people can take to improving their digital security posture

@NanoRaptor Boring but two: 1) Get a handle on your finances early, save in your 401k/IRA etc. I $&@%ed that up. Lived unhappily for 12 years to fix it. 2) Have the hard talks with loved ones about their end of life wishes before you can’t. Can’t comes fast and sooner than you’d like.

@NanoRaptor So you want to buy a printer? Buy a cheap laser printer instead of an inkjet.

@NanoRaptor
assume most people are nice and you will have an experience to match. assume most people suck and you will have an experience to match.

@NanoRaptor
The first year of the first kid's life destroys more marriages than any incompatibility about money, religion, etc

Identity shift, loss of self, and change in priorities is traumatizing for both parents, to say nothing of the sleep deprivation. And it's devastating to each parent in very different ways, which makes it nearly impossible to empathize with one another

It's temporary. Don't build parallel lives and don't let resentment set in or you're unlikely to come back from it

@NanoRaptor
People do not know what they're talking about just because they're older and rude. The elders who most demand respect (without showing any) are the ones who least deserve it. Those people's advice sucks and half the time all they want to do is take their own problems out on kids. Thank God these days they wear red hats so you can avoid them altogether.

Source: I grew up in what would become MAGA country then 1%er Naziville

God do I want Gen Z to know this.

@NanoRaptor If you are on fire, don't go in the North Sea. It wants to kill you.

@kims @NanoRaptor also, patience and persistence with the kids. It takes them years to learn things that are now obvious to you.

@NanoRaptor Children are preconfigured to learn. Meet their basic needs, and watch them go.

@NanoRaptor enterohepatic circulation modulates availability of conditionally essential amino acids

@NanoRaptor 3 months/6 months rule. If something sucks for 3 months, you have to try to fix it. If you tried to fix it and it still sucks at 6 months, you have to leave.

There’s nuance here for situational stuff (like, sometimes the six month marker is “make a plan to leave or start putting preparations underway” or “change what you can so you can live with it until you CAN leave”) but it’s done me right in many many situations.

@NanoRaptor your suit sleeves are supposed to be 1/4" shorter than your shirt sleeves to avoid your skin soiling the wool! anything else looks sloppy.

also don't wear a suit with a t-shirt for the same reason.

@NanoRaptor "The missile knows where it is at all times-"

But memes aside, the vital, vital knowledge that self-knowledge is paramount.

@NanoRaptor goals

@NanoRaptor im sure you still have so much to teach me 🐾

@NanoRaptor So many good replies but the first one I thought was: humans don't instinctively understand randomness because we're hardwired to look for patterns.

@NanoRaptor

Everybody is trying their best and we're all terrible at it, but we only notice other people's mistakes.

@NanoRaptor Computer servers should always have the clock set to UTC.

Daylight savings messes up logs and time calculations. This can have significant revenue impacts (one company I worked for lost millions a year on it, but it was a rounding error in revenue so never fixed). It also makes logs analysis much more difficult.

User interfaces should have a way to set the timezone to that of the user (which is often different from the server).

@NanoRaptor everyone you meet knows something you don't

@NanoRaptor Here's how to set the mirrors in your car. Writing here from a driver's-side-on-the-left for clarity. Do this before moving the car.

Lean left until your head's on the window. Adjust the driver's side mirror until you _just_ barely see the edge of your car in it, and otherwise see what's behind you.

Now lean right as far as you can. Adjust the passenger's side mirror until you _just_ barely see the edge of your car in it and otherwise see what's behind you.

Sit normally. Adjust the rear-view mirror so you see as much of your rear window as possible.

Congratulations! You now have no blind spot and can see what's coming up on you without taking your eyes off the road ahead.

@NanoRaptor Like Diet Coke and Mentos :-)
https://xkcd.com/1053/

@NanoRaptor

TLO (Trivial Life Optimization) № 7: Rename your TO DO list to MENU.

@NanoRaptor Thank you for validating my guilty pleasure of watching “reaction" channels 😝

@NanoRaptor
Stop questioning people when they tell you something about their health status. Just believe them and listen to them.

First, most folks won't talk about their health often. They're more likely to lie, to pretend to be well, because most folks do not deal well with illness, esp. chronic or terminal illness.

Second, you can't possibility know someone's health status just by looking at them. And unless you live with them you only see a tiny slice of their life.

@NanoRaptor it's perfectly fine if people like things you don't like

@NanoRaptor You never know who's running on their last nerve. So tread lightly and don't act like a jerk.

@NanoRaptor Self-styled leaders" are the people who are ~desperate~ to keep you from recognizing the obvious truth that, the vast majority of the time, people can and do organize themselves just fine.

@NanoRaptor When you move, put a pair of sheets & towels & overnight bag in your car & make the bed as soon as it comes off the truck so you can shower & fall into it when the truck is empty.

@NanoRaptor Regulations should allow good things and ban bad things. If they don’t, they should change.

@NanoRaptor
Finally thought of one

If you’re making paper-mâché

Soak two-ply cardboard from any recycling bin in water for a few minutes and you can pull the layers apart into super heavy duty leather-like kraft paper worth hundreds of dollars if you tried to buy it somewhere on a roll or something

You can make your project with a few layers of this that feels almost like fiberglass

Totally different level than what we did in school with newspaper. Who even has newsprint anymore?
#puppets

the people who make #fascism possible are not the hard-core minority of true believers. it’s the majority of corruptible cynics who will do anything for a buck.

that’s what we are seeing unfold right here, right now, in the United States.

@NanoRaptor

@NanoRaptor Acceptance and forgiveness begin with yourself.

@NanoRaptor

Cooking is all about surface area.

@NanoRaptor
Yes, the mashed potatoes need more butter.

@NanoRaptor
If you live in an earthquake region, retrofit your house foundation. (It's way more cost effective than trying to get - or make a claim on - earthquake insurance.) Also, retrofit your commercial building. Ask local and state government to retrofit bridges and infrastructure.

@NanoRaptor
Getting enough sleep is amazing. JUST AMAZING.

Hello
@NanoRaptor

Through your nose every breath unless a different breath is called for

.Inhale Ein
.Exhale 'Sopf

-pulse the heavenly Merkavah { yod, yod…\ #LiveHeaven

#FollowingSpirit

#toning #vocalizing

@NanoRaptor
Don't quit a job without a new one lined up.

@NanoRaptor essentially, it means "take care of your liver because it's not pleasant when it's not working correctly". Kind of specific to circulation, which for the most part you cannot change.

@NanoRaptor If you suddenly start experiencing a haunting, check for a CO2 leak before you call an exorcist

@NanoRaptor

Talk to anyone/everyone who is not actively offensive. Mainly let them talk. Learn about them, their trade, their dreams and ideas.

Even if you don't fix it yourself, figure out what the problem was and how it was fixed.

Tools come in two categories:
Purely disposable
Irreplaceable
Distinguish between the two, and treat them appropriately

@NanoRaptor I had lost track of that one until he mentioned it on the What If tour, which I was fortunate enough to attend when he came to town. "Lucky ten thousand" is now part of my normal vocabulary. ♥️

@NanoRaptor

Many people approach formalized help wrong-eg thesis committees in graduate school. Really, it’s free help—don’t try to prove you don’t need help.

https://mstdn.social/deck/@MCDuncanLab/112067733774580003

@NanoRaptor

A formatting trick to prevent editing the wrong document when working with multiple documents.

https://mstdn.social/deck/@MCDuncanLab/114710373080257157

@NanoRaptor no matter how amazing your partner, how successful, how highly regarded, if you find yourself constantly trying to prove your worth, there's a major problem.

@NanoRaptor never put your work email on your phone. Nor the work chat.

@ramin_hal9001 Yeah both are handy in their own situations, depending on server or desktop. There's also termshark that's a nice crossover of both (right up until it OOMs your whole server).

I've even got a script that pipes a remote tcpdump into a local Wireshark GUI, and a script that pipes a remote Mikrotik /tool/sniffer into a local Wireshark. I've also used Microsoft Network Monitor a few times because it came with the OS in my retro-lab. Nowadays pktmon.exe comes with Windows (no GUI though).

But the main point was that it's just the whole *concept* of "being able to Literally Look" that's often left out. Whether it's "looking at network packets" or "looking at system logs".

(Though I'm aware that it's somewhat of anti-survivor bias, i.e. I don't often encounter people who do know about such tools *because* they know about such tools therefore they less often have a need to ask in tech support forums I frequent – so naturally I'm mainly encountering people who don't know. But that's still a large amount of people.)

@NanoRaptor

@NanoRaptor hah I'm gonna infodump so bad if I don't lose my train of thought between here and after coffee

@NanoRaptor Read and understand the document before you sign it.

@NanoRaptor : sorry, 4 (of many)

1. Check the websitename (domain name) and know how to interpret them (see screenshot, info in Alt text. Another hint: Punycode).

2. MitM (Man in the Middle) attacks are the worst.

3. Make backups. Multiple, stored at different physical locations.

4. Be prepared for account lockout.

#WebsiteNames #DomainNames #DotSeparator #Punycode #FakeOrReal #AitM #MitM #Backups #OfflineBackups #AccountLocOut #InfoSec

@NanoRaptor It will not get easier until you work on it.

@NanoRaptor When somebody shows you who they are, believe it. Act accordingly.

@NanoRaptor If you get into a PhD, be ready to sacrifice a good part of your mental health, and maybe also of your physical health. You will have to forge your self on the fires of frustration and finding dead ends, and you may not find your way back to Ithaca. Remember, though, that you can always leave and you won't be a worse person for that.

@NanoRaptor Don’t put off enjoying life until retirement. You might not make it there. There are lots of things you can do when you’re young that you can’t do when you’re old. Go have fun. Have lots of wild and fun stories to tell. Don’t take work too seriously. Nobody lies in their death bed wishing they had spent more time at the office.

@NanoRaptor
Most of the time it doesn't have to be perfect, "good enough" is just fine. The goal is to hit the sweet spot between "crappy" and "overengineered".

@NanoRaptor
The Pareto Priciple. 80% of Outcome usually is PLENTY. Most of the time you're the only one who knows that there could have been more. Think about what you can achieve using the 80% time doing other things! I recommend sleeping. Or walking. Or cooking from scratch.
I tell everyone who wants perfection. Especially youNg people ... think if what energy they will save in a lifetime.
BTW the shortcut is: LET GOOD ENOUGH ALONE !

@NanoRaptor "Trust your intuition".

@NanoRaptor avoid buying smart devices when a dumb one will do. Simpler normally lasts longer with less problems

@NanoRaptor

For people who drive on the right side of the road, plan your trip to avoid left turns. It could save your life.

@NanoRaptor The things you hate most about your coworkers is actually what you hate about yourself and can’t find a way to change

@NanoRaptor
Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself... Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And
outlive the bastards.
Stolen from Lois McMaster Bujold

@NanoRaptor If you're ever deciding between two things and totally stuck: flip a coin and commit to the result. If you feel anything like regret or disappointment, go with the other choice and do not turn back.

@NanoRaptor Even if you have the print of your favorite (20th century) photograph, never EVER throw out the film negative. It contains height width highlight shadow sharpness detail that the print never did.

@NanoRaptor 🧵Strong #advice

5 Aug 2025: When you write something, start with the date you wrote it, and include the publication date for any quote. Date is supremely important for context of all that follows.

Keep a standard series of patent notebook style hand written journals with dated notes and sketches.

It’s the quickest and most reliable way to fix it in your memory, log a digital note later, find it again, and link to a note by date in any journal volume.

#journal #hypertext

@NanoRaptor Mine is this one: https://mastodon.online/@astro_jcm/111965151861766848

@NanoRaptor The creator of this meme is buried somewhere in the depths of my mastodon feed (credit *not* mine), but...

@NanoRaptor Weirdly, I didn't see it mentioned in the thread but:

"It is okay to accept help. It is never a proof of weakness."

@NanoRaptor

If you are working for somebody else, only do what others actually want. If you are at work and work your a** off, but nobody cares about it... you should only do it if you have nothing to do that would be rewarded, or don't want any gratitude for it.

I had this at an internship, looking for tasks, working on random stuff and nobody cared. Meanwhile I should have done other things, and actually got a bad response to my hard work.

@NanoRaptor

I heard this at the beginning of every training evolution in the Navy: If you feel it is unsafe, don't do it.

Advice from a former sailor to me before I left for boot camp: Shut your fucking mouth. Do EXACTLY what you're told. Don't do ANYTHING unless you're told to do it.

From my parents: Read every word and understand before you sign your name.

When the police question you for any reason, the ONLY answer is: I don't answer questions without my lawyer present.

@NanoRaptor
Use the good plates and cutlery. Wear the handmade gifts. Don't save stuff for later. And tell your people you love them, tell them often.

Don’t stock a kitchen with a nest of bowls in tightly graduated sizes. Have duplicated bowls that stack well, in about a geometric progression— I like sizing up to 3x the previous size. Table dishes suit for the small ones, stainless is good for big ones. You’ll be able to get a bigger bowl one-handed if they’re in separate stacks, you’ll rapidly know which recipe needs which bowl, ditto for doubling recipes. More bowl is easier to work with than barely enough bowl.

@NanoRaptor

@NanoRaptor if you think 'hey, strange... Ah, they got it wrong, I'll do my thing anyway', think again and again.

@NanoRaptor

"if you ever have kids and one of them accidentally sets fire to the living room rug, please go easy on them"

Seriously, it's just a rug, a wall, a cup, a truck, or whatever other replaceable stuff.

@NanoRaptor it’s almost all trauma. That anxiety? Trauma. Depression? Trauma. Lack of memory? Trauma. Gut issues? Trauma. Go to a therapist for god’s sake.