Had someone contact me because a browser interface was ‘down’ and it was actually a cert issue. It surprised me that in an IT context, this person didn’t have a basic understanding of SSL certs. They didn’t even know how to add a cert exception.
It got me thinking, what basic ubiquitous things am I a dumbass about outside of IT?
Ive seen lots of ‘fun facts’ compilations, but it would be better to get a wide range of subject suggestions that I can spend 30 minutes each or less on, and become a more capable human.
Like what subjects would plumbers consider basic knowledge? Chemical interactions between cleaning products and PVC pipes?
What would an accountant or a landscaper consider to be so basic its shocking people can live their lives without knowing any of it?
For most areas of expertise, its difficult to know even what the basics are to start with.
Exactly this
I’m constantly amazed at how many people don’t understand the concepts of basic finance and how compound interest works.
Years ago, I brought my laptop with me to buy a car so I could plug all the numbers into a quick amortization schedule. The sales person offered me a choice of $1,500 cash back or 1.9% financing instead of the typical rate a few percentage points higher.
I plugged the numbers into my spreadsheet and saw taking the cash back would cost me a couple grand more than the lower finance rate. When I told him I wanted the finance rate instead of the cash back, he mentioned that I was the only person he’d seen not take the cash back.
Maybe he was pulling my chain, but in my experience, the average person doesn’t know what compound interest is, let alone what an amortization schedule is.
Have you told this story before, possibly on reddit? I swear I’ve read this verbatim including the part about the laptop and “I was the only person who took the lower APR.”
Maybe, but it would’ve been years ago.
With each year that passes since the re-telling it gets exponentially more interesting.
The interest in this story is definitely compounding.
Could just be we’re old as fuck to the point that we find amortization schedules and saving money interesting.
amortization schedule
Thanks! excellent suggestion.
You can also use an interest calculator or multiply the payment by the term length to see how much over the purchase price you’ll pay in interest.
This is why it’s important to haggle over the purchase price and not the monthly payment. Never ever negotiate over the monthly payment, or you’re likely to get stuck with a 96-month loan at 23% interest.
My mother in law bought a truck the same week I bought my car. I mentioned that I got a 1.9% interest rate. She got a 22% rate!!! I was absolutely floored when I found out what she did.
22% is insane, that should be illegal honestly. Pretty much bought it on a credit card.
Yeah I was absolutely disgusted when I found out. It made me realize that there’s definitely a “poor tax”. If you don’t have good credit and/or aren’t informed enough to pay attention to interest rates, you’re basically going through life on hard mode.
EDIT: Sorry didn’t mean to reply to your comment, I’m on mobile, can’t tell posts from comments.
I believe knowing a little bit on how a car works helps you understand why maintenance is important or from getting scammed at mechanics, I loved old commercials like these that explain in such an easy way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYAw79386WI
Some skills I wanna pick up is how to micro solder, I deal with a lot of tech and sometimes you just need a type c port replaced and soldering iron is not the easiest tool for tiny pins.
Learning about cars, engines and motorbike maintenance at this stage in life really opened my eyes. I could have easily been a mechanic or an engineer if I had the access to this knowledge when I was younger.
Now I do as much of my own maintenance as I can, and I’m pretty sure my engine will hit 400K before I start getting serious issues. None of it is overly complicated or difficult, and saves me money in the short and long term.
I was fortunate to have a dad who had the tools, space, and time to teach me how to do repairs, with the things he taught me I can save a lot of money buying a beat up car and fixing it up for usually 1/3 to half the price of a used one.
Some skills I wanna pick up is how to micro solder, I deal with a lot of tech and sometimes you just need a type c port replaced and soldering iron is not the easiest tool for tiny pins.
Good news, the broken component is a common 2 dollar chip!
Bad news, it’s an SMD, and in the middle of a giant block of plastic and 2 more circuitboards.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=yYAw79386WI
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
What we need really is a skills tree for real life. Then it would be much easier to spot the things you’re level 1 in.
Don’t brake in curves, whether you have a car or bike. Especially in slippery conditions.
More fun fact than subject…will file this one under ‘safe vehicle handling’
Oh most people can’t drive. Recently read an article 90% of drivers overestimate themselves. I know I’m above average but by far not a good driver. I still try to become better.
For sure. I’ve done several high level driving courses for work. TL;Dr drive slower, increase follow distance. You may arrive 30 seconds late but it would eliminate the chance of so many accidents. Learning to ride a motorbike made my driving way better too.
You may arrive 30 seconds late
I’d even doubt that. If you take an average and factor in that you might at one time have a crash due to your shitty driving, you’ll always arrive infinitely faster.
Learning to ride a motorbike made my driving way better too.
Oh there’s a good video I’d recommend about cornering on a bike: you’re leaning the wrong way by F9
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
you’re leaning the wrong way by F9
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Processes
Super generic, most people interact with them in some form all the time both at work and personal without a second thought. Very few understand what makes a good process, especially when there is a handoff involved.
Oh also communication. Everyone does it so a lot of people must be really good at it right? Yeah…
Could you give a brief overview (or detailed if you want, I’m curious!) of what you think makes a good process? More specifically, what makes a good process and what makes good documentation for said process?
Mostly it’s about best practices I think, and getting a feel for them. Try starting with something simple, like making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Describe how it’s done, each step. Think about where it’s efficient, where there’s extra wasted action, or time. By the time you’re done you’ll be considering if your butter knives are stored in the best spot, if you should get everything out at once, or one at a time. Do you have enough inventory? Is having extra inventory a waste? Is it worth washing knives afterwards or get extra so you can wash a batch at a time instead?
Then, go back through from the perspective of a child that has never seen your kitchen. Do the steps still make sense? How can you make it more simple, less effort? Finally, when I mentioned hand off… How do you ensure that your child laborer is going to deliver a pb&j of sufficient quality? Who determines quality? Production time?
Once you start thinking that way, everything is a process that could be considered, with inputs and outputs, quality control issues, potential waste, efficiency improvements, etc. It applies to data just as much as a sandwich for example, and office jobs are all about taking information, changing it a little and sending it on. Each step should transform in some way (capturing who does what, to what, at each step can help). Understanding the complexity instead of assuming simplicity so you can analyze it, but then distill it back down to something that is actually simple and understandable.
Anyway, hopefully that helps some in thinking about it a little differently.
For googling key words: quality management, process mapping, process analysis, lean, ?
Unfortunately there’s a lot of corporate shit, buzzwords, and SEO that have accumulated so it can by hard to find good info (like everything else now?)
Ho boy, I’ve been working through Goldratt’s greatest hits, and just the question of inventory opens a whole rat’s nest of considerations. Like what even is inventory? I mean, -hits pipe- even time is inventory, man.
Even better, just some handy keywords to plug into google and we can open up that box of knowledge ourselves!
Good one, thanks!
Microbial pathogenesis here. This one’s a fun one for me, especially since COVID revealed just how illiterate the average person is about diseases. Here’s a couple that I think should be common sense
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Not all bacteria cause disease. In fact, very few bacteria cause disease. Many bacteria are even helpful to us, so you should really weigh the pros and cons of taking antibiotics if you’re considering using antibiotics.
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Antibiotics don’t work against viral infections. You’re getting all the downsides of killing helpful bacteria and getting none of the benefits
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Do not blindly trust your immune system. Your immune system works 100% of 50% of the time. Many white blood cells take the philosophy of murdering everything in sight just to be safe. This can and often does include killing important cells in your body that just happen to be nearby the site of infection. Even if you survive the infection, you will be weakened as a result. If you can avoid getting sick in the first place, avoid getting sick.
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Vaccines work. I don’t really know what else to say about this one.
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Viruses and bacteria aren’t hard to kill. There’s many compounds that can kill viruses and bacteria. But humans aren’t hard to kill either. The tricky part is figuring out how to kill viruses and bacteria while also keeping the human alive. Basically: don’t drink bleach. It will kill your bacteria or virus but it’ll kill you too
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E. coli isn’t a usually bad bacteria. Actually, it’s a very important bacteria that helps us digest food. The reason it gets such a bad reputation is because it’s relatively hard to kill, which makes them a very good way to quickly check if there’s a possible food/water contamination. In other words, the presence of E. coli itself isn’t bad, but finding E. coli does suggest that there might be other, more dangerous bacteria.
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DO NOT EAT MOLDY FOOD. The fuzzy part that you see is just the fruiting body of the mold, analogous to a flower on a plant. The real body of the mold is an invisible network of roots that tunnel through the core of the food. Even if you cut off the fuzzy portion, you’re still eating most of the mold.
DO NOT EAT MOLDY FOOD
Fuck you, Bleu cheese 4ever!
- Viruses and bacteria aren’t hard to kill. There’s many compounds that can kill viruses and bacteria. But humans aren’t hard to kill either. The tricky part is figuring out how to kill viruses and bacteria while also keeping the human alive.
Relevant XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1217/
you should really weigh the pros and cons of taking antibiotics if you’re considering using antibiotics.
Is that a choice you can make where you’re from? Here in Germany, that is entirely the physician’s choice to make. You cannot get them without a prescription. Although I guess you can ignore the doctor if they tell you to take them. But if you don’t trust your doctor, get another doctor.
Hello neighbor! I’ve had them prescribed, but when asked if it was really necessary or if I could give it a bit longer to see if my body could deal with it on its own, my doctor got a big smile and told me he could. Then he said that the dominant demographic in my area is very persistent and pushy in demanding antibiotics for the slightest thing so he’s gotten a bit too used to prescribing them.
Can you explain the E. coli point a little more?
Is it that because it’s hard to kill, it’s a good indicator of the initial contamination, meaning it’s essentially stickier than other bacteria and leaves a longer record that there was contamination?
Because otherwise being hard to kill makes it seem like it would be a bad indicator to me, in that it would return a lot of false positives (though maybe that’s the goal in this case).
I think false positives are preferable in that context. I’d rather have a lot of false positives than any false negatives at all when it comes to poop water
Could you say something about why it’s bad to eat moldy food, and why it’s bad to kill the good bacteria in your body? I know your intestines can function less well, is there anything else?
Regarding moldy food, it’s because you’re taking a gamble on what exactly the mold is. There’s many types of mold, and some can produce very toxic compounds. Eating the mold can poison yourself. Of course, if you know that it’s a safe mold, then you can eat it (that’s how cheese making works). But as with all things in microbiology, things tend to be complicated very quickly, and it can be pretty hard for amateurs and even professional microbiologists to accurately distinguish between safe and unsafe molds.
With regards to killing helpful bacteria, you are correct that one of their uses is that they help improve the efficiency of digestion. This is a very young and growing field (and also not entirely in my field of expertise), so many things I say might be outdated. The second most obvious downside to killing helpful bacteria is that they prevent actual harmful bacteria from growing out of control. There are several bacteria (in particular, C. dificile) where taking antibiotics actually makes the infection worse, since the antibiotics kills off the helpful bacteria that were helping to contain the infection.
Scientists also have found semi-recently that bacteria in your intestines have an incredible amount of control over you as a person. Your body even has a sort of hotline that connects from your intestines directly to your brain, called the vagus nerve, and the bacteria in your intestines use this to communicate with your brain. For instance, scientists have found that the type of bacteria in your gut can influence the onset and severity of autism symptoms. One current hypothesis for autism is that the body, during development, somehow messes up the composition of bacteria in your intestines, and that in turn messes up the development of the brain. I seem to recall reading papers that linked bacteria to other neurological diseases and disorders, but I don’t remember completely.
Another is that the bacteria are known to be linked to obesity. Scientists have found that if you give 2 people the exact same foods in the exact same amounts, one can develop obesity and one won’t. Whether someone develops obesity or not is highly predictable based on the composition of the bacteria in their intestines. As a matter of fact, scientists have even found that if you replace an obese person’s bacteria with bacteria taken from a healthy person, then the obese person will begin to lose weight, even if that person hasn’t changed anything else.
The bacteria in your intestines are also known to be in constant communication with your immune system. I believe the immune system uses the bacteria in your intestines to train when you’re young. But this back-and-forth extends well into adulthood. Scientists found that bacteria can control the development and activity of white blood cells. That, of course, leads to differences in things like fighting off infections and killing cancers.
The bacteria in your intestines are incredibly important, and we’re only just now beginning to understand what they do for us. That’s why I say that you have to weigh pros and cons. If you think you’d be fine without it, I recommend not taking antibiotics. But if the infection is severe, then it’s worth dealing with the downsides. Talk to your doctor if you’re unsure - he probably knows more about what situations are severe and which aren’t. But what you definitely don’t want to do (which I know many people tend to do) is to pressure the doctor into prescribing antibiotics. Antibiotics aren’t a wonder drug, and people shouldn’t be immediately jumping to antibiotics as a solution to their infections
The real body of the mold is an invisible network of roots that tunnel through the core of the food. Even if you cut off the fuzzy portion, you’re still eating most of the mold.
What?!
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If you’re pulling on a rope really hard, don’t wrap it around your hand to get a better grip. If it starts to pull away from you, you won’t be able to let go, and if someone runs up to help and starts hauling on the end, your hand is going to be in a world of pain.
If people say ‘i have excel competence’, the difference could be between ‘i can resize fonts and do tables for my company forms because I don’t know how to do them in word’ to ‘fully modelling a business plan for a Telco, including it’s subsidiary units’. Make sure you test for the level of competence you’re after.
Learn a new formula every now and then, or at very least learn to read other people’s formulas, then google what you don’t know. Literacy in any field is the result of a long process of learning.
(Reread your question) Outside of IT: if an appliance stops working, it’s sometimes just a fuse that needs replacing. It’s cheap and easy to do.
‘Basic appliance troubleshooting and repairs’
Thanks !
If someone tells me they’ve mastered excel, they’re either overqualified for any job I’ll ever hire them for (I’m not in IT) or lying.
When you understand that in the grand scheme of things we are all profoundly ignorant, everything becomes much more interesting.
Anytime I think " fuck I don’t know how to do that" I remind myself that I can learn it, and then learn at least the basics.
While I may not be the font of all knowledge, I am the overflowing urinal of useless information.
It’s really easy to understand diabetes but it’s not something a lot of people grasp quickly if it doesn’t affect them.
First, when you eat carbohydrates they are converted into sugar by the body. Your cells want that sugar, but they don’t want too much. Too much sugar in the blood can damage blood vessels, leading to all sorts of issues ranging from annoying to fatal.
Insulin is like UPS, it delivers the sugar to the cells, also facilitating its entry into the cells. Normal people’s pancreas release an appropriate amount of insulin to match the amount of sugar in your blood and keep your blood sugar in a safe range (70-120, guidance on this varies this is not medical advice).
Type 1: Pancreas is damaged, often by the body’s immune system, and can no longer produce insulin. It’s genetic, and it doesn’t usually present after adolescence. The only treatment for type 1 is insulin. If you don’t have a pump you take a 24-hour insulin for a baseline and then a short-acting insulin for your meals. You usually have a carbohydrate to insulin ratio. 1 unit of insulin to 15g carbs is pretty common for a starting point. If you have a pump it just releases a slow drip of insulin as a base and then you program your ratio for meals.
Type 2: Your cells become insulin resistant and your pancreas responds by upping the amount of insulin it produces. Eventually it can’t keep up and your blood sugar rises. There is a period of time where you can avoid developing type 2 with diet changes. There is a period of time where you can just take pills. The final stage is using insulin injections like a type 1.
Finally, insulin is really expensive (or was, I think there’s legislation lowering prices in my state). The retail price without insurance of 2 insulins, needle tips, and blood testing supplies can easily be $1200/month. That’s the price you pay to eat without dying as a type 1.
I’m just a simple guy but if making that much money off people who literally have no other choice isn’t evil I’m not sure what is. Do we deserve to be able to eat? Tough call I guess.
As someone who works with tech, here is my 2 cents on basic knowledge.
If your computer is “not working” restarting the computer can generally fix 80 percent of the issues. We are not trying to make you mad, this is literraly first thing I am doing if you present me a problem.
Stop downloading things from unknown sources.
Use generic effects/fonts on your powerpoint. Just because you bought something cool doesnt mean it will magically transfer when you pass your presnetation to another computer for your presentation. (Microsoft does not migrate your paid effects)
For gamers Stop playing pvp on your pc/console on wifi, are you a mad?
Everyone in general We are at an age of computers. Learn how to type, it will save you tremendous amount of time, literally.
Do… do people really buy add-ons for pp to enhance their slide decks?
Yes, i have seen it happen several times and i get blamed why its not showing on the show laptop. The moment i ask, “did you purchase any add on effects?” i feel like a customer service telling a customer your credit card was denied.
FYI you can embed some Truetype fonts in PowerPoint and word (not on mac)
How to do basic DIY. Do you know all the functions of your drill? Can you screw something in to wood, brick, plaster - for dab and cavity? What fixings and screw types should you use? Can you re-wire a plug? Change a tap? Wire an Ethernet connector and punchdown? Balance your books, calculate your tax, basic car maintenance…?
As a software engineer or IT person it’s easy to think we’re all so very smart, but anyone skilled in ANYTHING will know so much you don’t in their own subject.
Basically everyone is an idiot about most things.
Or, phrasing it a bit more nicely, people nowadays have pretty specialized knowledge.
Weirdly enough I’m an IT guy and can do all of those things, some of them only in a basic way which is why I leave taxes and car maintenance to the professionals.
Always use a one lead voltage
metertester when working on electricity. Don’t trust your breakers. Don’t trust light switches.Are you talking about the meters that simply detect whether wires are still live or not? Definitely a good backup to double check that you’ve shut off the right breaker.
If you’re talking about a single lead multimeter to measure voltage, I’ve never heard of such a thing and don’t know how that would even work.
This one can detect voltage with a single lead and also works as a voltage meter if you use two leads: https://www.benning.de/products-en/testing-measuring-and-safety-equipment/test-equipment-voltage-tester/voltage-tester-duspol.html
It also has an inbuilt motor to distinguish leaking voltage from continuous AC.
Sorry if I didn’t use the correct English terms and that wasn’t clear enough.
In Germany you simply call it a Duspol and every electrician knows what you mean. Didn’t research enough into the English description but it seems it’s a two pole voltage tester with one pole voltage detection mode.
There’s literally no such thing as a one-lead voltage meter. Voltage is, by definition, the difference in potential energy between two points.
Any tool that can give a voltage reading with one probe has a second probe you’re not considering, or is estimating voltage based on a some assumptions about current or some other factor being measured.
deleted by creator
‘Electrical safety’ for this one I think?
Adding to electrical safety: even if your breaker box is switched off, unless your utility powered off your location entirely, it STILL HAS ELECTRICITY RUNNING TO IT
Always assume it’s live…
Exactly. Works for guns as well.
Sure. Also invisible electricity in general. If you can see it it’s many times not a good thing.
This is typically why education and experience are still needed if you’re self taught.
I know from learning programming that people online don’t explain “common sense” problems. So many times you’ll look up a problem and see people talk about huge refactors or complex niche fixes when in reality you misplaced a single line of code.
A lot of the IT guys I know have little to no knowledge of mechanical stuff. Learn to fix your car
I don’t have a car
Lawnmower, whatever. Learn how to fix a tap / toilet / anything a round the house.
My car is electric. The repairs I’ve done to it have required almost zero car-fixing-skills.
Could you please go into detail?
Apart from tire changes, electric cars have few typical car problems.
There’s no oil to change, a lot of the braking is regenerative so the brakes last a LONG time, they have very few pumps, hoses, filters and pipes just cables that don’t really wear out. No cam belts or spark plugs.
Basically all I do is swap the pollen filter and wiper blades. There’s an occasional brake fluid check (not really a DIY thing for me) and I’ve had damages (busted mirror, broken charging cable).
I’ve also done a battery swap myself, which does require a garage, but only because you can’t lift the thing by hand.
Which car is it? How many km on the odometer?
2013 Nissan Leaf, and coming up om 260k km.
