Ask Lemmy

My Uncle once told me that the most important thing you can learn is where to find more information.

Bill Nye: "Everyone you'll ever meet knows something you don't"

“Don’t work yourself out if a job.”

My pops told me this after I told him how much more work I had been doing than my coworkers, and how fast I got all of my stuff done. This was like 15 years ago. I immediately started pacing myself, and I’ve since been infinitely less stressed at work.

There's this quote attributed to Rabbi Yisrael Salanter:

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family.

Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world.

There are two lessons here. First - the best way to affect meaningful change is to start local. Rather than spending a lot of time agonizing over national politics, get involved in your community - your neighborhood, your town, your apartment building, even just the house you share with your family. Your community will take better care of you and the other people that you care about than any national government ever will.

Second - ultimately the only person whose behavior you can change is your own. Don't be too harsh with other people when they don't behave the way that you believe they should. Be a more stringent judge of your own behavior.

But temper that with this:

Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much. Or berate yourself too much either.

Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Baz Lurhmann

"Freedom is not a goal, but a tool".

-Reiraku (Downfall) By Inio Asano

"Sometimes. at the end of a sentence, I come out with the wrong fusebox. And the thing about saying the wrong word is a] I don't notice it, and b] sometimes orange water given bucket of plaster."

I think we can all take something away from that.

This can be applied to anything, but the quote as I read it in a book by Piers Anthony (I know, gross, I was in middle school), was:

Power is a means to an end. Don't let the means become the end.

I often think of it as:

Money is a means to an end. Don't let the means become the end.

“Deep” or “profound” means nothing in research design. If you read it somewhere, see if it defined precisely in this context. If not, see if you can mentally replace it with a more precise word. If not, be skeptical of the validity of the claims.

- My Research Design professor

I’m being a bit cheeky but this has actually stuck with me over the years and I do think it’s helpful.

"Everyone has what they deserve"

Every person dies alone.

Just because two sides are fighting doesn't mean one side is good (something along this line)

... I don't think it is that profound, but I think about it a lot

No matter where you go, there you are.

• Buckaroo Banzai

Choosing means losing a little, said by a teacher in highschool when I was struggling to decide what to do after I'd graduate, still remember it 12 years later

"It's not your fault, but it is your problem."

I honestly love and repeat this line way too much

Just because you weren't the cause doesn't mean it isn't something you need to worry about/fix. I learned this one from my high school English teacher when a student was late and tried to get out of it by blaming traffic lol. The traffic was not their fault, but it ended up being their problem.

I was going to post something cheeky like “Fuck here we go again”, noped out, pressed backspace and then this…

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it

Unfortunately, too many people have been trained to reject ideas or thoughts without first thinking them through. Many simply react to whatever word, expression, or concept triggers them without giving the rest a second thought. For example a brilliant idea can be presented online, but if one word is out of place, the usage of that word will debated instead of the idea.

In my language it goes : "Alone you go faster, together you go further".

'Be Kind; Everyone You Meet is Fighting a Hard Battle'

Sometimes that grumpy old man really is just having a bad day.

"Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn't, pays it."

I’m somebody who butts in too much and just in general speaks too much. I’ve always liked this “test” of sorts. I don’t always apply it but I try to!

Before saying anything (especially correcting someone or otherwise getting involved), the following questions need to be asked:

1. Does it need to be said?

2. Does it need to be said by me?

3. Does it need to be said by me right now?

When my dad was teaching me how to ride a bike, I kept falling.

He noticed that I was paying so much attention to the road that I couldn't focus on riding the bike.

Finally he picked me up, looked me dead in the eyes and said, "You rule the road. Don't let the road rule you".

Somehow that phrase immediately gave me the ability to ride a bicycle.

I have shared it with other people learning to ride a bicycle after they have fallen down at least once.

It freaking works.