Ask Lemmy

Binary search, there are so many instances where problems in life can be solved by eliminating half of a given set repeatedly.

Blender broken? There are only so many things that can go wrong, analyze the situation and try to find something that cuts your problem in half.

1. Is the light on? It’s not electricity and that's a huge chunk of what makes a blender work.
2. Light not on? Well now you've eliminated (temporarily) mechanical systems and electrical remains. Further splitting that part of the blender means either house power or internal blender power, check the outlet with another machine

This approach involves further splitting the problem into 2 as evenly as possible each time. It doesn’t make sense to whip out the multimeter if the on light isn't shining, you don't need to check on your house's breakers if the light is on, etc.

This system works for troubleshooting almost anything, all you have to do is find chokepoints and identify sections of your target. Toilet not flushing, faucet not on, car not starting, neck pain, allergies, it's almost harder to think of something it doesn't apply to.

Media literacy and reading comprehension. Specifically, the ability to infer an intended target audience for a particular piece of work. A large part of media literacy is being able to view a piece of media, and infer the intended audience. Maybe you see an ad for pink razors, and can infer that it is aimed at women who shave. But that’s just a simple example. It should also extend to things like internet comments.

People have become so accustomed to laser-focused algorithms determining our media consumption. Before, people would see a video or comment they didn’t resonate with, infer that it wasn’t aimed at them, and move the fuck on. But now, people are so used to their algorithm being dialed in. It is to the point that encountering things you don’t vibe with is outright jarring. People don’t just move on anymore. They get aggressive.

Maybe I make a reel about the proper way to throw a baseball. I’ll inevitably get at least one or two “but what about me? I’m in a wheelchair, on crutches, have a bad shoulder, have bad eyesight and can’t aim, etc… Before, those people would have gone “this clearly isn’t aimed at me” and moved the fuck on. But now they make a point of going “but you didn’t make this specifically for me.

It has gotten so bad that content creators have started adding disclaimers to their videos, news articles, opinion pieces, etc... It’s fairly common to see quick “and before I get started, this video is just for [target demographic]” as if it’s a cutesy little thing. But the reality is that if they don’t add that disclaimer, they’ll be inundated with “but what about [outlier that the content clearly wasn’t directed at]” types of responses.

The ability to process information. It seems like the reason need AI to summarize different things is because they never learned how to do it themselves.

Basic cooking skills

Reading comprehension

Listening to someone speak without interrupting

Remembering to let other people speak when having a conversation

Reading instructions would be another one that gets skipped due to stress or whatever the excuse is.

Or taking the time to properly read and reply to an email. I've learnt the hard way to never have more than one question per email, it's only the first or the last question that gets answered.

Listening (to one another).

Proof reading what they post.

Looking at you OP :P

Sewing. Learn to sew! It's very helpful!

Critical thinking: We would be in a better world if more people were capable of it.

How to handle criticism. To take the best from it, learn from it, try to become more of what is important to yourself and leave the rest.

It's either not taking it at all, thinking everyone is wrong... or it's giving it to much attention. Like thinking the opinion of people that you don't respect at all, that you don't even like counts too. You'll never be right for everyone. But being criticised by people that care to make your life better is actually precious.

media literacy

For something very relevant to health: cooking, knowing how to measure food, and how to read a nutrition label. Obesity would be much less common if people were able to cook their own food more often, and knew how to actually measure out accurate portion sizes.

I totally get that time, upfront costs like cookware, and access to decent ingredients are MAJOR factors in whether or not someone can learn how to cook, but anyone can and should know how to read a nutrition label and know how to measure accurate portion sizes for the things they eat. If you are trying to lose weight or work on healthy habits, a food scale is infinitely more valuable than a body weight scale. Most people do not know what 28g of chips looks like.

Reading a map.

GPS is great & all, but I know people that if you put a paper map in front of them they're still lost because they can't correlate the map with reality.

Integrity.

Having a basic idea of how a car/engine works. Most people waste so much money on basic repairs they could just do themselves. Feels like majority of folks couldn't even put on their spare tire. Plus, mechanic is job that less and less people are willing to do over time so the cost of their labour will only keep getting worse

Basic math. I don't talk about solving differential equation. But if you don't want to get scammed you need to understand what's a 10% discount, how do interest work, price per kg, or price per m^2

Driving. Most people know how to operate a vehicle, but a lot don’t know how to actually drive properly.

Working with your hands and tools. It's amazing how far it can take you and how much money you can make and/or save by DIY'ing things around your home with some basic skills. Like there are people that will pay $100 for something easy like mounting a TV when it's a few minutes of finding studs and screwing down the bracket.

Then as things progress and you get more comfortable, you can start helping friends and doing side work. I've been doing industrial electrical for 10 years now, I'm gonna be re-wiring a whole house from the ground up in July

Patience.

I've taken up several hobbies (game dev, gardening, woodworking, etc) where results aren't always well seen until weeks, months or even years after starting a project.

Everyone seems too interested in getting results fast and now, and the world seems all too keen to sell you something to try and make that happen.