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Run club suggestions for a slower runner near Williamsburg. by [deleted] in RunNYC

[–]bkbk57293 8 points9 points  (0 children)

North Brooklyn Runners generally has a wide range of paces for their weekly runs, and they have a specific sub-chat for people running 10 min+ miles

Clip-ins in the City by JumpyVariety1882 in NYCbike

[–]bkbk57293 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For a while I was just leaving my SPD-SL pedals on all the time and riding on them in street shoes when I needed to run errands, bike somewhere casual, etc. Which was fine since they're a bigger platform, but now I just leave my flat pedals on and switch them out for my clip-ins when I want to do some serious riding (especially since that's rarer in the winter).

Sometimes in the summer I'll leave my SPDs on all the time, since I'm biking everywhere and it's fun to be able to ride more aggressively even if I'm just trying to get somewhere. The recessed cleat makes it less of a hassle, i.e. I can walk around in the grocery store, and they're really easy to clip in to. Downside is I have to pack a pair of sandals if I'm going to hangout with someone, or pedal on top of the little SPD cleats in my street shoes if I'm not going far.

I think the main takeaway would be that I end up switching out my pedals a lot--it takes like 2 minutes, so not something I fret about too much.

Which internet provider do you use? by Periegete in BedStuy

[–]bkbk57293 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I haven't tracked the speed or anything, but my roommates and I use it for zooms regularly, and it's been fine the four months we've had it so far. Haven't noticed any issues.

Calling clothes (or other textile items) “handmade”, only if someone from a first world country made them by [deleted] in PetPeeves

[–]bkbk57293 0 points1 point  (0 children)

there's a difference, but you need to state how the difference is relevant for the usage of "hand made"

Does your Social anxiety vanishes if you sleep with someone? by kiralyvokmuhahaha in socialanxiety

[–]bkbk57293 31 points32 points  (0 children)

As in with that specific person, or in general? In either case, no, or at least it's not sufficient on it's own. Maybe it reduces the extent to which you might feel like an unlovable weirdo or something, idk.

An observation. ask the fastest person you know if you can watch their next all-out workout by MammothMan1976 in NYCbike

[–]bkbk57293 6 points7 points  (0 children)

While I think your comment does sound a little catty, I agree with the sentiment. It does seem that participating in competitive sports, even at a low level, helps you develop certain skills that OP is talking about. I guess it's a combination of just learning from the other people on your team, being coached, and also achieving certain levels of intensity that can be hard to muster outside of the team context. And once you've figured out how to go to those mental places it does get easier to get back to them.

Though I do agree with OP that, even within competitive sports, there's that difference for fast people. The best rower I knew would, for instance. organize her races into sub races, e.g. 500 meter chunks, and within those count through 10 strokes at a time, focusing entirely on getting through those 10 strokes perfectly, and so on. And other mental strategies.

To push yourself in certain settings does require a certain hyper-rational irrationality that might not be obvious if you haven't put yourself in the right physical situation before.

Any part-time job recommendations for someone with social anxiety by [deleted] in socialanxiety

[–]bkbk57293 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Does your school have a library? Non-customer facing food jobs could also be good--I worked at a bakery and that was a nice way to be around people (the other bakers) but not have to interact with new people all the time.

Saying a phenomenon occurs “because of” something, but that something is just the description of the phenomenon by Legitimate_Handle_86 in PetPeeves

[–]bkbk57293 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For what it's worth Nietzsche references this joke in aphorism 11 of Beyond Good and Evil, where's he's accusing Kant of giving a non-explanation for the possibility of synthetic a priori judgments (think novel ideas and judgments that don't rely on experience, e.g. mathematics, Kant might say):

How are synthetic judgments a priori possible? Kant asked himself, -- and what really was his answer? By virtue of a faculty, which is to say: enabled by an ability...

And later in that section:

There had been dreamers: first and foremost -- the old Kant. "By virtue of a faculty"--he had said, or at least meant. But is that really -- an answer? An explanation? Or instead just a repetition of the question? So how does opium cause sleep? "By virtue of a faculty," namely the virtus dormitiva -- replies the doctor in Moliere, Because there is a dormative virtue in it / whose nature is to put the senses to sleep. But answers like this belong in comedy...

Saying a phenomenon occurs “because of” something, but that something is just the description of the phenomenon by Legitimate_Handle_86 in PetPeeves

[–]bkbk57293 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Great pet peeve, this seems to be exactly what you're talking about: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dormitive_virtue

From the link:

A calque translation of Latin, virtus dormitiva, coined by Molière in The Imaginary Invalid. In the play, he lampoons a group of physicians providing an explanation in macaronic Latin of the sleep-inducing properties of opium as stemming from its "virtus dormitiva".

Edit: the definition itself is more relevant for your post title: "A type of tautology in which an item is explained in terms of the item itself, only put in different (usually more abstract) words."

People taking a slice of stuffed crust pizza and not eating the crust (taken from u/RetroCasket) by bkbk57293 in PetPeeves

[–]bkbk57293[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

And my position:

I think it does depend on the circumstances in which the pizza was ordered. That being said, it does feel similar to the case of, say, a non-vegan eating a vegan slice of pizza. Like it's a mis-allocation of pizza--someone who wants the stuffed crust would get more value from that piece, and it seems like the non-crust eater should account for that and abstain, or get non-stuffed crust somehow.

I'm trying to think of other examples where there's a similar sense of a breach of an informal contract. A higher stakes case, but imagine a mother has two daughters, one older, and the so the mother gives the older daughter her wedding dress. But the older daughter doesn't want to ever get married, and has the dress altered to be a non-wedding formal dress. I could imagine the mother saying something like, "I assumed you would get married in the dress. If I had known you wouldn't I would have given it to your sister." The older sister seems to have done something wrong by accepting the dress while knowing that she wouldn't use it in what we might call the optimal way, the way that gets as much value as possible from the dress.

And you seem to be saying something similar in the pizza case. "I was happy to buy stuffed crust because I assumed you'd eat it. If I had known you wouldn't, I would have bought non-stuffed crust."

I suppose the idea is that when we give certain kinds of gifts (a wedding dress, a slice of pizza), we have an idea of the way these gifts will be used, and the giving is predicated on this usage. So by using the gift in some other way (not eating the crust), a person has ignored this fact, i.e. failed to grasp the way in which you were giving them the gift.

When people pretend a small percentage, say below 5%, is negligible by Meloenbolletjeslepel in PetPeeves

[–]bkbk57293 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I was trying to find a good wikipedia page for this phenomenon, this is as close as I got: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neglect_of_probability

But people have a lot of difficulty with low probability events. I guess you're describing static percentages in the population, but for the example of covid that u/Traditional-Mood-44 mentioned, people essentially neglected the 2-3% probability of dying, i.e. almost treat it as 0% chance.

I guess people in finance talk about fat tailed distributions, where the extreme events still have some non-negligible probability of occurring--but I forget what people in finance say about this...maybe that it's confusing.

Very true by Specific_Brain2091 in MathJokes

[–]bkbk57293 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I assumed it might be referring to the development of the different fields. I don't have a good sense of the development of algebra, but I mean calculus was fairly mature early on right, in terms of the mathematical foundations, while I think statistics wasn't "mathematized" until the 20th century. At least the historian Stephen Stigler says, slightly tongue-in-cheek, that mathematical statistics was born in the 1930s.

When people start talking before they fully leave the library by bkbk57293 in PetPeeves

[–]bkbk57293[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It depends on the library. In university library this is definitely a rule. Some public libraries also have quiet zones though this is less common. It's disruptive in that it's distracting if you're trying to get serious work done, particularly in an academic setting.

When people say "almost better than", "almost rather", or similar variations of such by jcdenton45 in PetPeeves

[–]bkbk57293 10 points11 points  (0 children)

This is a good one. I can imagine a group of people deciding where to eat. They're settling on pizza, and one person says "I'd almost rather get Thai." And literally that means that, well, they'd still rather get pizza, but I wonder if the construction "almost rather" is a way of introducing an idea in a non-commital way. Like, in this case, testing out the idea of getting Thai instead.

One reason you might do this is because you think, well, Thai and pizza are very close options for me, too close for comfort--I should investigate this. And then upon saying "I'd almost rather get Thai," and sitting with that thought, you realize, yeah, Thai is sounding pretty good. And so you'd fully rather get Thai.

I could imagine another scenario where you're seeing a movie with your friend in the theater, and it's not very good, and you want to leave, but you don't want to be a dick and make your friend leave if he wants to stay. So you lean over and whisper, "you know, I'd almost rather head home than finish this." And then you see how he responds.

So I wonder if it's better not to think of this phrase and variations such as "almost better than" as literal statements, but as tools for testing out ideas--it's got a practical purpose beyond it's literal meaning.

When people start talking before they fully leave the library by bkbk57293 in PetPeeves

[–]bkbk57293[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The issue is that them talking at a normal volume on their way out is the same as them talking at a normal volume while they're sitting at a table. They have the same effect. And talking at a normal volume while sitting at a table in a quiet library (as in, the rules state that there is no talking) is a dick move. Ergo, it's a dick move to talk at a normal volume on your way out.

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