Maybe something you learned the hard way, or something you found out right before making a huge mistake.
E.g., for audiophiles: don’t buy subwoofers from speaker companies, and don’t buy speakers from subwoofer companies.
EDIT: I added a few things… can anyone tell I have ADHD yet?
When keeping a plant alive, you need to look up how it likes to be in the wild, and try to EMULATE that best you can. Monstera deliciosa has root rot? Well in the wild their roots are very compacted, maybe that gallon sized pot needs to be downsized. They also grow on trees, give it some support, etc
Cast iron cookware: when seasoning the item you need to apply the thinnest layer of oil possible. It should look almost like you’re trying to wipe the oil away or clean it.
PC building: your local electronics recycler is an amazing place to get simple fundamental equipment. You won’t find a 5090 in the bin, but you’ll find cheap ram, any cable you need is 1$, hell, my NAS is a 22tb (after redundancy) raid array where I paid 7$ for each 2tb drive. Sure, it’s slower and clicks like hell sometimes, but it’s in a closet, and I can lose a few drives before I lose my data.
Car/motorcycle repairs: your local chain auto shop probably loans/rents specialty tools. (This is pretty well known but still) need a tool to compress your brake cylinders when changing pads? It’ll cost 10$ rather than like 80$.
Gardening: mulch. In my area the sun is an absolute killer in the day while I’m working, so laying mulch over the soil keeps it from drying as fast
Cooking: following recipes isn’t that hard for most things, the way you know that you’ve really leveled up is when you start to realize how certain flavors and textures interact, and come up with something new or, more often, start modifying and improving recipes
Terrariums: the most crucial aspect is the amount of water. It will easily make or break (or kill) your plants and design. A good drainage layer, followed by chunkyish soil, and a layer of peat moss is the way to go most times. Also, BUGS. springtails and isopods are a learning curve but are an insanely helpful group of fellas.
OK, so clearly you’re seeing into my mind with the Monstera plant. That’s not fair and please help me save it.
Hiking/backpacking (not exactly niche?)
- Don’t buy a ton of stuff for day hikes. You need less than you think. If you carry enough for an overnight there is a good chance you’ll be so slowed down that you’ll end up staying overnight.
- Carry the ten essentials. GPS’ run out of battery and you can end up in areas without satellite reception. Always have a compass and paper map and visualize your route before going if you are backpacking in deep. Be aware where roads and bailouts are relative to your route.
- Occasionally look behind you to get an idea of what the route back will look like if you’ll be returning the same way.
- If it doesn’t look like a trail, stop, you need to backtrack to the last sure spot. Don’t plow ahead blindly thinking it will resolve itself.
- Winter hiking means less daylight and more stuff (slower). Plan accordingly.
- “Mountains generate their own weather”. Bring some light raingear and insulation even if it is warm at the trailhead. I’ve started in 80+ temps and gotten snow near summits.
- Carry hiking poles. They are invaluable for things like stream crossings. They saved me from breaking a leg stepping down boulders once.
- If the trail is blazed and you can’t see them look up and behind you for them, sometimes they are painted high up for snowpack.
- Carry traction (ice creepers) if going up into the mountains in spring/fall. Early/late snow and ice is common. In winter bring crampons.
- Always check the weather, especially for mountain hikes. Be ready to turn back or change your plans if the weather looks sketchy. Don’t get “summit fever” just because you made a special trip.
- If you are shopping for gear spend the most on boots. They will be the major deciding factor in how comfortable your hiking is. Make sure to break them in before a trip. I’ve been on a multiday mountain trip where a guy had brand new boots and his feet were bleeding by day 3.
- If winter hiking and there is a snow pack wear gaiters (or built in ones). Snow in boots = cold/wet feet = frostbite. I’ve seen too many people have to turn around because their boots were getting packed with snow and they were suffering.
- Make a list of necessary gear before your trip, then check it off the list as you pack. This helps ensure you don’t forget anything. You can even categorise the list, so you can easily see what kit is in which pockets/dry bags.
- Dry bags are incredibly useful if you hike in wet weather or ford rivers. Different coloured bags can help with categorisation, for example, you know the yellow bag is fresh clothes, the green bag is camp kit, the blue bag is water filter and chlorine tablets, the red bag is electronics, etc. This makes finding stuff a piece of piss and saves rummaging.
On 11, I’d say you also need to decide if the type of terrain you are going on really even calls for boots. Plenty of people do long trips in trail running shoes, which is usually my preference on decent trails, but on really rugged backcountry (or snowy/mountaineering) conditions, you need boots.
Also, to an extent, you don’t really break boots in as much as you break your feet into the boots, so a pair you wore all summer last year and set down for 8 months could probably still use a little ramp up to a long trip.
On 12, I’d say gaiters are really nice even if you aren’t in snowy or wet conditions. I wear them even when it’s nice so I can keep rocks, dust, etc out of my shoes.
- Yah, “shoes/boots” would be better. On rough trails I also prefer boots because otherwise you will feel every rock through the bottom and your ankles are more vulnerable to being rolled.
Language learning: I tricked myself into building a daily flashcard study habit by using gambling as an incentive. I bought a box of Magic the Gathering packs and allowed myself to open one a day only after I had finished my daily flashcard study. According to Atomic Habits it takes roughly 50 days for a habit to be set in stone as part of your daily routine. A full box of Magic packs took me to day 36. Feels like a bit of an unethical life pro-tip, but once you’re over that hump of forming the daily habit it becomes a lot easier, so find a way to hack your brain and make it feel rewarding until it becomes automatic.
First rule of tape recording: don’t do it.
Second rule: it’s super damn fun so do it (and spend a lot of money)
I am really into tape recording and budget audiophile listening. Mostly all reel to reel, cassette is pretty crap tbh. I have 6 machines now. Something is so fun about the physicality of audio on tape that cannot exist anywhere else at that point unless you manually copy it.
Keep in mind this is for tape machines we can actually afford. Not 10,000 dollar Studers.
I always recommend starting with a used machine that’s been taken care of and fix it as you go. If you start with a broken one you may never get to have fun with it if you can’t fix it.
Kept note I mostly stick with 1/4" width tale machines as they are the most prevalent and affordable. Tape also a lot cheaper than 1/2 or especially 1" (studio quality, $400 per reel).
Brands to look for in my favorite order:
Otari Revox Akai TEAC/Tascam Sony (some bad, some good) Pioneer
learn the formats There are many different machine formats. The most common is 1/4" quarter track meaning 2 tracks, backwards and forward. Higher spec machines can do true 4 track forward only, or half track forward only (best quality). Pre recorded tapes need to be played on the machine fornat they are made for. Any 1/4" blank tape works on any machine.
Stay away from: Single motor units Units that have head wear (heads are not being made now. They can be refinished however if wear isn’t too high) Units that the owner knows nothing about Most Dokorder Most fostex Some sony
Look for: Knowledgeable owner Clean heads 3 motor Units Units with small defects that are probably user error (I see a lot of “wont play but will rewind” which is usually the tape being threaded improperly and not tripping the auto stop switch. )
Find a knowledgeable helper. That can be me if anyone ever wants to reach out.
Tape: i would not recommend buying used. You never know how it was stored.
Capture is a good new cheap brand of tape.
Don’t use ATR tape until you’re experienced and have a semi pro machine.You’ll definitely want a mixer with your tape machine. Any 12 channel or so mixer is fine but I prefer Allen Heath for quality and price. The GL series is excellent.
I’m mostly referring here to recording and playing your own tapes. For listening to prerecorded tapes, I’ll say it’s very small market and you can only get new recordings for the most part on half track 15 inch per second tapes.
Protection goggles when removing supports from your resin 3D prints. ALWAYS
Personal Protective Equipment is super important for many activities and are neglected far too often.
Stopping down doesn’t always give you sharper images. You may run into diffraction softening.
Focusing and then stopping down may shift your focal plane. Try to focus at your chosen aperture.
Try to use the electronic shutter function for astro photography. Even the shutter moving across the sensor can cause vibrations.
The 500 rule is useful for astro, but with modern higher resolution sensors, the NPF rule is better suited.
Not getting amazing astro shots? You may need to modify or buy a camera that is sensitive to Hα (Hydrogen-alpha) removing the infrared/IR filter off your camera will allow you to shoot full spectrum. Although you will need something to only allow 450 to 520nm and from 640 to 690nm into your sensor.
Sensors will always have dead or stuck pixels. You can take 10-20 black frames to try to help your image processor find and erase them.
Optical vignetting is common when you shoot wide open. Stop down 2-3 stops from your max aperture to try and remove the effect.
Shooting expired film is fine, just make sure you over expose 1 stop per decade it’s expired. So a 20 year old film, shoot 2 stops over exposed.
To add to the film thing: if travelling with film, keep it in carry-on bags and ask for hand checks. Film gets exposed by the radiation from machines at checkpoints; the higher the ASA, the more it’ll get ruined. 400+ will for sure be destroyed by a scan or two.
I ruined 4 rolls of the best street photography I’ve ever done from a trip to chicago because I didn’t know about it.
Hobby: Chess
Tips: Ill state a few mistakes here that I see beginners do a lot (mistakes that I also made as a beginner and had to learn to not do and why not to do them).
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Don’t give check just because you can give check. Beginners love to just check you with zero follow up. Its like it creates a sense of purpose for their moves but without a proper follow up it is a waste of a move.
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Consider the fact that I can make moves and formulate my own plans. Half the game is what you play and the other half is what your opponent plays. If you only consider your moves/plans, I, and any chess player beyond a beginner, will easily beat you.
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Every move has a purpose. If you make a move and I ask you why you made that move and you cannot provide a reasonable reason, then you either wasted a move or got lucky and just happened to guess a good move.
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Dont try to learn opening theory as a beginner. You should learn the three main opening principiles (develop you pieces, get your king to safety, and control the center of the board) and some very common lines to play but after that you should move on to the middle game and end game. Revisit opening theory once you understand the game at a deeper level. It will make it easier for you.
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You paid money and spent time travelling to tournament. You have over an hour on the clock and you oppenent just made a move. Stop and think for a moment. Dont rush your moves and try to play instantly all the time. You waste time, money, and the day since you played like shit (whats the point?).
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(Last) Do NOT have an ego or underestimate your opponent. Especially of they are a little kid. There are two types of kid chess players: the ones who learned how to play 5 minutes ago and the ones that humble you. Very little in between there. There are two types of (non-kid) chess players: those who think a 10yr old kid by default sucks at chess, and those who have played enough kids to realize what the fuck is up. It is funny to watch the former turn into the ladder. Those kids at tournaments are such wild cards
Do you have any good learning resources for number 4?
That depends on exactly what you are looking for and what level of play you are at. A general source that I do like for these sorts of topics is Chess-Networks series “Beginner to Chess Master”. I think its well put together and easy to understand/digest for beginners. Its free (youtube) which is also nice. Of course you can find many more like these on youtube. I just like Chess-Network for this type of series a lot.
If you want to get into openings I recommend getting a set of openings for yourself for white and black.
White: 1. d4 and then London System is easy to play and works most times to get a good setup. Super easy way to have you prepared almost 50% of the time. I personally don’t play it though, I’m an 1. e4 player.
Black:
Don’t start with Sicialian. It’s good but it’ll take a long time to learn enough lines to handle whatever the opponent throws at you since they almost decide which variation you play.
Against 1. d4… King’s Indian defence allows you a straight forward path to casting and develop 2 pieces. Then strike in the center. For a more spicy option there’s the Benoni which has traps for people who blindly go London System.
Against 1. e4… French defence is pretty straight forward since you end up doing the same stuff every game. Attack the pawn on d4. You could also go for 1. … e5 but since it’s the most common move you can get opening knowledge advantage way faster by playing French or Scandinavian. You’ll have to know both if you decide to play 1. e4 at some point and play Italian or Ruy Lopez which IMO are more fun to play.
After learning the main move order for the first 4 or 5 moves then watch some videos on each of your defence. Remote chess academy is a very fun channel on YouTube for learning openings.
Good at tactics?
Try some gambits. You sacrifice a pawn and come out guns blazing. If people don’t know the gambit you’re playing they’ll have to spend a lot of time calculating. You force them to thread the needle or at the minimum lose a piece.
If you want to know how it looks like check out some games with Paul Morphy. He’s winning against players that would 2200+ FIDE rating with the King’s gambit. That opening develops wicked fast but has the King naked.
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If you have to use more than 3 adapters, stop and reevaluate what you’re doing.
If you burry a fresh carcass, you need to put big stones on the grave or something will dig it up.
It’s better without context.
A stronger spring isnt always the answer for your foam blasters to hit harder. Sometimes you can get away with adding a spacer or, depending on the blaster, increasing the length of your barrel. If you go the spacer route, don’t leave it in permanently or you could warp your spring.
Buying a cheap 2nd hand E-bike (right now) means the same as buying any other broken bike: You need to know how to switch a chain and adjust brakes. The electronics themselves however are surprisingly resilient.
Why wouldn’t you buy a sub from a speaker company? Here’s one for audiophiles: if you want real good sound look at studio equipment rather than expensive hifi stuff. A high end studio interface plus a pair of full range studio monitors will sound more accurate than any hifi setup.
And another one: listening experience is 95% acoustics. Don’t bother with speakers above say 2k if you’re not willing to invest money and space into proper acoustic treatment.
I wouldn’t consider myself an audiophile, but I lean more in that direction than the average. I’ve had the pleasure of working in a sound studio, and as such I learned to appreciate the quality that comes with the gear.
In general, professional hardware is miles beyond consumer hardware. And enthusiast hardware is more akin to consumer hardware with extra fluff.
First, I agree with your comment about the room. It’s the most important part of how good a system sounds, neck and neck with speakers.
Second, while I don’t have a wide variety of experience with studio gear or a variety of audiophile speakers I can say this: I have been a Magnepan guy for decades and currently have the 1.7i’s. But I recently got some Yamaha HS7s for my computer and I have really been enjoying them.
Maggies are legendary for how well they reproduce female vocals (and they deserve that reputation) but I was listening to Cowboy Junkies this morning and just really enjoyed how Margo Timmins voice sounded as well as the imaging (and they aren’t set up really well for imaging given I have three monitors on my desk).
So, yeah, try studio monitors if you are looking for powered speakers.
Subwoofers are an afterthought for the industry.
Woodworking
Measure twice cut once is rookie numbers. Measure 10 times, cut a test piece 5 times, measure twice after each, then do your real cut.
This is a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the idea.
Also, measure after each operation to check your work as you go so you can spot mistakes as early as possible. This includes checking for square, doing test fits, and all manner of sanity checks to ensure that your operations are achieving the desired results before you repeat them on other pieces or move on to do more work on those same pieces that may already be ruined or need fixing.
For glue up, always always always dry fit first. Then plan ahead. Put all your clamps on and have them adjusted before you add glue. Once the glue is on the time is short and you need to have everything ready and waiting.
If you use a table saw, take it seriously. Always use your riving knife when possible, be mindful of the control you have over the pieces, use push sticks and sleds and jigs to improve stability and safety, always wear ppe. Check that your blade is aligned to your miter slots and your fence. Having a slight relief angle on your fence can be good, but never have it canted towards the blade. That can be dangerous. Also make a crosscut sled, they’re amazing.
Beware of dust. It causes cancer and it lingers in the air. Wear a respirator and use ventilation when possible.
Make or buy a workbench with a vise and some hold down capabilities. Being able to hold your work easily is a huge benefit.
If you are looking to improve your accuracy and precision, buy a nice hand plane and learn how set it up, sharpen it, and how to use it. They are absolute game changers. Also make or buy a shooting board for it. Also, buy a machinist’s square, a set of feeler gauges, and a nice 36in aluminum straight edge and learn to use them.
Etc
Obviously that’s a lot, and a lot of it it depends on what you’re actually trying to do, but those are all things that have helped me a lot in my journey towards making furniture, picture frames, cutting boards, etc
Another woodworker:
Huge +1 for a bench plane and a shooting board. Even in a mainly power tool shop, you can make things much more precisely square or mitered if you shoot them.
For marking cuts, use a knife not a pencil. When you use a pencil to mark your cuts, you limit yourself to guiding your tools with only your vision, not unlike a Tesla. When you score the line with a knife, you create a reference surface (one of the two sides of the cut, hopefully the one against your square) that has no thickness, and you can feel when a knife or chisel clicks against that surface. For saw cuts, you can use a chisel to pare away a little bit from the waste side to form a knife wall, which forms a little ramp that will guide a saw against your reference surface.
Wax literally everything. Wax your work surfaces, tablesaw top, jointer beds, planer bed, fences, plane soles, bikini lines, saw plates, screw threads…wax literally everything.
Learn how to do most common operations by hand. Square some rough lumber by hand with a bench plane. Chop a mortise with a chisel. Cut a tenon with a backsaw. Make dovetails by hand. Even if you’re a power tool woodworker and you’ve got a jointer and a thickness planer and a table saw and a rapidly growing number of routers, knowing how to do things by hand will help you understand just what it is you’re doing.
Do not suffer a dull tool to live. If your tool is getting dull, sharpen it. Sharpening is kinda personal, I think if cilantro tastes like soap to you you’ll prefer oilstones, if you have that tendon in your wrist you’ll like waterstones, if you can roll your tongue you’ll prefer diamond plates and if you have more money than god you’ll buy a Tormach. They’ll all sharpen a blade. Find the system you like and use it. If your tool is dull, sharpen it. Put it away sharp, don’t put it away dull.
Use your ears. You can tell a lot about what’s going on with a tool by listening to it.
Great additions! Using a marking knife is a big upgrade.
Dull tools are the death of accuracy and enjoyment alike.
Cheers
Dull tools are the death of accuracy and enjoyment alike.
Same in cooking. A sharp knife is a safe knife. If you are pushing to cut you will have an accident.
My original plan was to ask for top 5 tips, so you went ways above the brief after you read my mind.
Lol, yeah I got a bit carried away there.
If you use a table saw, take it seriously.
I’d like to add: don’t wear gloves, especially ones that are a little to big for your hands.
I was going to add to tablesaw too. Safety is like security: use layers. Machines have switches and their own safeties. But you know what’s better? Put that behind another switch. And unplug it when you leave the room. You shouldn’t be able to turn it on until you are ready to use it. Again like security, it always pays to be a little paranoid
Me, “Measures 50 times and it still doesn’t fit just right” “WTF!!!??”
Lol. Been there for sure.
The worst is building something perfectly square, and then realizing the space you need to put it into is very not square.
This is why I hired someone to do my bathroom shower remodel. My house is old and has no 90 degree angles left lol. I call it the “Dr Suess House”
Putting up shelves, you have to decide if you want them to be level, parallel to the floor, or parallel to the ceiling, and those are all different.
Servers: it doesn’t have to be built for the purpose. In a pinch, any PC will do.
Chess: Fried liver attack doesn’t work above 700 ELO and is easily countered with a possibility for a smothered mate.
Guitar: Playing 5 minutes every day is better than playing an hour once a week.
These are great and the guitar one is relevant to me right now. Thanks for answering!
Hobbyist race car builder/mechanic, sometimes you need cheap tools to break, bend, grind or cut to do one job.
I have a spanner that has been lovingly butchered to remove one sensor on a steering rack on one model of car. Its a common failure point and replacing it either means custom specialty tool or complete steering rack removal and wheel allignment.
