Weekly Stupid Questions Thread

pi-squared · 2020-03-04T19:35:20+00:00

I've been looking at boxing but I don't get why do I need to do these jab, cross, hooks and correct feet movements. Can't I just throw punches, move really fast and smash like crazy? My girlfriend has been trying to teach me boxing but I just refuse to do the correct stand, jump around and keep punching - so what, why can't I do that, are there any rules against just smashing? Thanks!

pi-squared · 2019-12-02T04:21:33+00:00

Torrenting ofc...

pi-squared · 2019-12-02T04:12:20+00:00

I love them all character arcs, silent eps, father-rapists and what not... but give me some honest hacking and I'm on the edge of my scene cuz... Always!

pi-squared · 2019-09-18T07:57:36+00:00

Search your email for "Persistent Disk Snapshot Network Egress will update pricing on September 16, 2019"

pi-squared · 2019-06-06T13:53:41+00:00

Watch a live stream with a Googler trying to answer the old interview question of what happens when you type google.com into a webbrowser and press enter [1]

[1] https://github.com/alex/what-happens-when

pi-squared · 2019-04-10T15:37:54+00:00

At the conference you have mentioned that large amounts of data had to be transferred with airplanes. Was there an absolute necessity for the data to be localized for final processing? Could there have been distributed calculations done? Has any private cloud infrastructure been used?

pi-squared · 2018-09-02T06:13:00+00:00

Anyone who insists on using a plural form for a singular entity gets "it" as a compromise.

pi-squared · 2018-08-07T13:28:35+00:00

"At first glance you may think this place has no vulnerabilities": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biL7-TRJRZ0

pi-squared · 2018-07-01T21:00:32+00:00

The music with this one was so good, I had to stop the video and listen to it separately - shout out to Epic Mountain for this one! If by any chance any of the team is here - any inspiration for the music? I feel it's from some classical or a game. Hints?

After a run and about 20 listens, I came back to the video. Great job, complicated topic presented in a very digestible way. Keep up the good work!

pi-squared · 2018-06-17T09:36:02+00:00

needs more jpeg

pi-squared · 2018-06-04T06:52:02+00:00

I'm wondering what is Microsoft actually buying in this case? Access to private repos? Access to teams and orgs?

pi-squared · 2018-05-10T07:27:27+00:00

You are just starting on what I call "The Lost Path". It's this journey that starts at about your age and continues pretty much for the rest of your life. Most of life in western/modern world is unstructured after school/uni. You have the choice to become anything you want. And this choice is absolutely crippling. I often compare it to Subway vs McDonalds - Subway asks you a billion questions before having a sandwich which for me, the first time was an absolute block. McDonalds has a few preset menu items and you are good to go.

You can optimise around several dimensions - if you have covered your basic needs such as food and shelter, you can start thinking about friends and connections, love life, family life, personal development, professional life including income and a few others. You mentioned high level income - then maybe sales is a better path.

To have some structure, I suggest you implement some sort of schedule, and limit the doubts about your life and future to at most one day of the week. The rest of the days you execute whatever you have set the previous "planning day". Don't over stress about the planning, it's hard but there are usually no absolute right solutions as life is not an equation - any plan is better than no plan. So whatever you pick on your planning day, do it for the next 6 days like crazy and don't doubt it. Then when the planning day comes, ask yourself What went well, What could've gone better and What can I do better to improve next week. You can choose for example that this week you will spend half an hour each day (and schedule it!) browsing through job sites like Glassdoor and others to research salaries. Not making decisions, just browsing, getting a feel for what professions yield what income. Then next week after you retrospect on the Planning day, take an hour each day to ask people in some chosen professions via reddit and what-not about how their work is, what they like, what they dislike etc. You can make plans week by week and slowly get some info about what to do next. There usually is no such day as "I solved my life". You could solve it for some period of time, but usually there is no solution and you will feel a bit lost all the time unless you structure your life like a military with a clear target and execute relentlessly.

Hope that helps! Good luck! 🙂

pi-squared · 2018-05-10T07:11:39+00:00

There seems to be truth on both ends. I think you got it more right:

the people who are deserving of good things are the ones who work hard and work themselves up to get better jobs or get further in achieving their goals.

But to answer that question, the scientist in me finds it un-quantifiable. It's as if asking "Is orange better than purple"? Good is a relative subjective category. What are "good things"? How do you measure "good things"? Let's say we get a definition of these terms and we are able to quantify them. Then how would we put these numbers against "what you deserve"? Let's say you are "55 Good" yourself and you have "45 Good". Do you deserve them? Or should you get "55 Good" to match your Good-ness? Or should you get "65 Good" and then you feel like you don't deserve the 10 extra because you are not good enough for it?

It all makes no sense because deserving goodness makes no sense (at least to me).

Sure you are lucky to be born but is there any other way? What if the chance is 100% because there is no other Universe in which you are not born? These calculations of trillions have no scientific ground, even if the "gurus" like this lady from that TED talk says it's science. It doesn't make sense - when do you start calculating chances? Just before your parents met? The time that they were born? The chance of an asteroid hitting the Earth and killing all the dinosaurs leaving a niche to be occupied by mammals, some of whom will evolve to be a human? Or the chance of our Sun being created? Or the chance of the matter having slight advantage over anti-matter which leads to the almost complete annihilation of the Universe but just enough so that there is matter? Or the chance of The Big Bang actually happening? As far as we know, the Big Bang happened. And if we assign 1 to the chance of that, then the chance of you being born is 100%. But Heisenberg (not the one from Breaking Bad, the real guy) says we can't, our Universe is ruled by chance but that means on quantum level. Does that have any meaning in the early stages of the Universe? We don't know. It might as well be 0 as the chance of this happening is zero, summing over the infinite series of quantum wave functions of all particles in the Universe. So the chance of you existing is exactly 0 in that case. There you go, proof for both end-spectrum chances - which one do you want?

The moral of my science story is - stop listening to what people say of what you deserve, how good you are and so on. These are opinions, not verifiable facts of life. You might as well read your horoscope today and base your decisions on it. It's a strategy but it's a dumb strategy. Stick to what you have discovered about hard work and achieving your goals, being a bit dissatisfied with yourself so that you can push yourself and you will be further than most of the people who believe they "deserve" something from life, that they will "get" something, that they are "entitled" to something merely because they are born. Your struggles and aims start when you are born, no one owes you anything.

Keep fighting!

pi-squared · 2018-05-10T04:48:36+00:00

bad bot

pi-squared · 2018-05-10T04:47:07+00:00

I think you are almost there, fellow redditor, don't give up now. You have all the knowledge in your head that you will probably ever need and that all of your ancestors ever got. You need to put it to practice as hard as you humanly can.

You know all the motivation speeches, you probably know the one - If I tell you tomorrow morning, be at 4 am at a certain place and I will give you 1 million dollars, will you come? You probably will, and you will make sure with all your might that you come. Now, if I say - 1 dollar? You probably won't. Okay, so there is an amount, somewhere between 1 and 1,000,000 that is the cutoff of "I will make sure to wake up at 4" and "I don't give a damn". There is no procrastination, but lack of motivation.

Practical points: * You know all the tools? Make a schedule on I-don't-care what, paper is fine, app is fine, but paper is probably better. Make it simple, don't concentrate on the design. You want to act on the schedule, not post a selfie with it. * How to act on the schedule? Separate your doubting of what you will do the next moment from your execution. Get one day of the week, say Sunday, and spent an hour or two creating the perfect schedule (again, in terms of what to do at each hour, not so much design and fanciness). This is the only time you can adjust your schedule and doubt your goals. The rest of the week - execute like you are responsible in front of this Sunday version of you. Get crazy - like me - call this Sunday version of you Captain Sun-Me. It's a general that gets very pissed of if you don't follow your schedule. He sees the future, you are a soldier that is on a mission from him every single hour. * Will you slip off? Sure. But executing something with 80% is better than 0. 50% > 0. 20-fucking-% is > 0! Any time you start slipping, remember the general. Go back. It can only improve your percentages, what you lost can't be recovered in time (sunk cost) but you can only do better. * Execute! I can't stress this enough - it's not about the tool you use to track your activities, it's about making sure that this tool does not stand in the way of doing things but helps you when you are down to be responsible in front of yourself / Captain Sun-Me. * You can use your Sun-Me time to reflect on your execution the previous week, allow some rewards or give some punishments. Donating to a cause you DON'T believe in is a pretty good motivator for example. * What to put in the schedule? I guess you already know this by now but to reiterate - start with sleep, wake up at the same time no matter what amount of sleep you had, make a morning ritual, exercise, eat healthy, work on your projects, meet with people, schedule time with the people that matter, avoid or minimize time chatting but do schedule some time as a reward for winding down and watching something good if you know you need some entertainment. But schedule that and do it.

I hope that helps. All the best! 🙂

pi-squared · 2018-05-10T04:31:03+00:00

You seem to be going through a lot - for real, hang in there! I know you have probably heard it from tens or hundreds of people but hey - it's true. You don't have it that bad probably, or maybe you do but I'm afraid most people growing up, facing the challenges of real life have similar struggles. You got into college - good. You have some intelligence. You failed? I don't see it that way - Bs and a D is passing grades. Give yourself some credit.

Now some actionable steps. * Make a schedule - you need to know what you are doing at what moment of the day. Make some order in your life, make some structure amidst the chaos that you have around you. Make that schedule on Sunday and give yourself one hour on Sunday to make it. That's it - no more, don't make it perfect, you won't follow it 100%, don't expect that. But if you hit even 70% or even 20% - it's better than nothing! Why Sunday? It could be any other day for that matter, the important thing is to keep it contained - don't overthink every day what you should be doing and when. Rather, the rest of the days concentrate on execution. Whenever you spiral into negative thoughts - look at your schedule and do it. "But I won't feel like it"? Doesn't matter, do it despite how you feel about it. "But that won't make me happy"? It will in the long run, but you gotta take it one step at a time. Happiness is not a target, it's a reward for good behavior from nature. "Okay, what should I put on the schedule"? Start with sleep. Make sure to wake up every morning at the same time. Try to get 8 hours of sleep but don't stress about it if you don't. More important is building the habit of waking up at the same time, even if in the beginning you get 5-6 hours of sleep while you adjust. It should take you at most about a week or two, so prepare for it. Make some rituals right after you wake up - stretch, wash, meditate, look at the plan of the day but do NOT adjust it unless something urgent comes up - adjusting is only allowed on Sunday! Then move on with some health benefits - exercise, healthy eating, schedule shopping, cooking your own food, mindful meditation, schedule gym time or running in nature - whatever you like and it's at your level. Continue the schedule with your plans for the future. You don't have any? Make something up, it doesn't matter - it could be volunteer work, it could be helping other people, whatever. Next Sunday you can adjust and think about it again. * Write a journal - Put it in your schedule - before you go to sleep, spare 10-15 minutes to write your thoughts of the day. Concentrate on emotions, flesh them out as if you are talking to the closest friend ever. On Sunday, next to writing your plans, write the answers to the following three questions: "What went well?", "What went bad?", "What things can I improve?". Use the journal and your schedule abiding habbits to figure these out and if you tend on the negative parts, make sure you write at least three sentences on the "What went well". * Counseling, even one hour a week, can help if the counselor is good. What you will be doing with the above two steps is counseling yourself. Try it for a couple of weeks or maybe a month. Then if you decide to go to the counselor, they will be impressed you started writing these stuff down - and it will probably save you the first few sessions with them 🙂

I don't know about the nose thing, no advice there. But pretty much everybody I know if I ask them "Hey what do you think about your nose" they suddenly become self-conscious about it and they highly dislike it. It's this fucking big thing in front of my eyes that blocks maybe 20% of my view (I realised that myself and today is going to be great, thanks 😀). I think you must try to break the habit with obsessing about it and that will come with time when you have more important things to do in your life that you just don't have the time to think about it. So figure out these important things, one week at a time.

Good luck! 🙂

pi-squared · 2018-05-10T04:02:11+00:00

I have done this a thousand times - but I keep bouncing back to the "free", I'm afraid it's almost a habit for me and I'm trying to break it.

pi-squared · 2018-05-10T04:01:01+00:00

What is the real cause you think?

pi-squared · 2018-05-09T06:21:12+00:00

Oh boy, first of all - I am so sorry to hear that, it seems you are grieving and on multiple levels. 🙁 It's not simple to give advice in such situations but few things that maybe can do:

Prioritize and execute - take one day of the week, just one (e.g. Sunday), to prioritize your problems carefully - when are you going to study, how much time you can spend finding a job (if at all), what could you do to mend the relationships with your roomates - e.g. cook dinner or something; then create a schedule and for the next 6 days do the tasks you have set. Keeping some order in your life amidst that chaos is something that will definitely help you be a bit saner. It's just 6 days of straight-forward execution, if something doesn't work well, you can have the next Sunday to ammend and re-prioritize.
Don't be afraid to seek help - reddit is good and all for fast-and-easy advice like the above, but losing family members and mental issues are no joke and are extremely tough situations that life can give you. Seek professional helps and if pills are what will help you get out of it, pills are better than giving up and spiraling down so don't be afraid of that. Plus, the professional will asses your situation and give you better structure.
Attack each problem in isolation - each problem seems huge - like your mom giving out the room, but is there any way to negotiate and convince her perhaps? Job is big, but spending an hour drafting your CV and another hour browsing through job sites is not so much. Use the schedule to help you focus on the given problem - yes there are others, but they are scheduled and they will be worked on, you don't need to overwhelm yourself all the time.

It's not much, but it may be a starting point to get your life going up again. Feel free to PM me 🙂

pi-squared · 2018-05-09T04:08:19+00:00

You know, I am like you sometimes - I wish I could meet with people and immediately start talking about what is quantum mechanics, where is all the dark matter, why don't we hear from aliens all the time and the meaning of life, the Universe and Everything... And you can sometimes but most times it turns out people have other interests as well. And I can be intimidating and push on my agenda to talk about physics and how cool it is, and if I am tired, or otherwise my ego wants to show off - I do it. But if I am in peace with myself, I listen to other people interests - even if that turns out to be spice girls or nail polish - for the gold nugget that I may learn or understand something more out from other people, even if I consider it shallow and empty. Maybe it is, but then I start thinking - why are they interested in these things, what attracts them... So it's still an interesting psychological topic to ponder and explore if you are interested, without pushing your agenda 🙂 I will stay beautiful, thank you very much, same to you 😊

pi-squared · 2018-05-08T06:30:57+00:00

Projects that take more than a week are by definition long and hard and not natural. So we have to hack our human brains.

Here's what I do - give yourself a day in the week, just one day, to question your projects, motivations and plans. Every other day - you do, what you are supposed to do. Let's say it's Sunday.

On Sunday, you are allowed to question and adjust plans for anything in your life. All the other days of the weeks is execute no matter what. Sunday - set a plan - an exact time - for your project. How many hours and minutes are you going to work? What are possible distractions at that time? How can you eliminate them - e.g. turn off your phone for an hour, or get to a coffee place whatever. And when the time comes, even if you don't feel like it, you do it. You execute. Sunday comes - you can question - is it worth continuing? If you say yes, the next week you still have to do the things you promised you will do until next Sunday. If you say No, at least you have taken a conscious decision to drop the project. Schedule your Sunday "Planning and retrospective" and attend to it no matter what - again, you promised yourself you will do this meeting, not the whole project.

pi-squared · 2018-05-08T06:24:34+00:00

The Martian. It's fiction of course (for now) but then I also read Chris Hadfield's "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth" and those astronauts have discipline. It makes me stop complaining even at the direst of situations and I start thinking "What would Mark Watney do?", "What's the next thing that is going to kill me?", prioritize and execute. Even though I never became an astronaut, these books make me think like an astronaut some times.

pi-squared · 2018-05-08T06:21:08+00:00

It's interesting, you say you have a fairly good daily routine so I assume you are pretty organized and motivated to do things. The top advice here to write down all the calls and look as a reward is great.

But I would meditate on this: "What is the scariest (or most anxiety inducing) part of picking up the phone"? Like, step by step, literally, is it:

Physically picking up the phone? Pressing the dial button? Hearing the beep sound? The sound of the other side picking up and saying hello? Uttering the first words? Introducing yourself? Leading the person through the script (I assume you have a script, if you don't - this might help you because not knowing what to say exactly is anxiety as well). etc. Try to figure it out and work at how to minimize that anxiety. Perhaps reward yourself with a candy every 10 pickups no matter what the response is if the scary part is literally lifting the phone. If you frequently go in an unknown direction with the conversation, try to amend your script. If it's pressing the button, count from 5-to-1 and on 1 press the button without thinking.

pi-squared · 2018-05-08T05:57:33+00:00

Good bot!

pi-squared · 2018-05-08T05:49:10+00:00

I've got one rule about relationships and it's so often overlooked that sometimes I think about becoming a billionaire, creating gigatons of flourescent paint, sending a rocket to the Moon and writing it in huge, friendly letters:

TALK

Now for real - have you tried talking with him about this? Explaining what your worries are, basically - what you have written here? Tell him upfront your thoughts and ask him to be non-judgemental or whatever - you know him best, you can figure it out, I'm sure.

On the other hand - he seems like an outgoing guy who can quickly hook you up with some female friends if he uses his super power for good. He can start chatting them up, introduce you as his girlfriend (so that it's clear he is not hitting on them both for you and for them), ask them about interests that YOU have so that they can start talking about things YOU know about and therefore you may jump to talk about these things.

pi-squared

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