this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2025
104 points (98.1% liked)

Ask Lemmy

34170 readers
1935 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] FBJimmy@lemmus.org 141 points 1 week ago (5 children)

I feel compelled to quote the late great Sean Lock:

"I'm incredibly organised. Like for example, if I make tea, I don't make one cup of tea - I'll make a big batch of tea and then I'll have a cup of tea and then I'll freeze the rest of it. And then when I want to have a cup of tea, I'll just break off a bit of frozen tea. Put it in a pan. 25 minutes later I've got a lovely cup of tea without all the all the hassle."

[–] Usernamealreadyinuse@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (2 children)

This can't be true, can it?

[–] Lemming421@lemmy.world 81 points 1 week ago (1 children)

For context, Sean Lock was a comedian. He was one of those where the humour wasn’t just in the joke, but in the delivery.

So I have no doubt he said that, and I have no doubt most of the room was in stitches while he did.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] zxqwas@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

He was a comedian with a deadpan sense of humor.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Libb@piefed.social 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Best answer ever.

Thx for sharing the quote. I did not know about that dude but you can be assured I'll do my homework :)

[–] FBJimmy@lemmus.org 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The "carrot in a box" games he played with Jon Richardson on 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown are some of my favourite TV ever...

#1 https://youtu.be/0UGuPvrsG3E

#2 https://youtu.be/Bp04HZDCELw

[–] MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Carrot in a box made me laugh so much. I really miss that man.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] madcaesar@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Hahaha this actually made me lol 😂

[–] Hadriscus@jlai.lu 4 points 1 week ago

hahahah truly inspirational

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Vanth@reddthat.com 68 points 1 week ago (2 children)

My college roommate freshman year was very book smart. One of those kids that never had to study in high school. Well, college was more difficult for them and they found they had to read textbooks and work on homework outside of class time. I sat and listened to them describe studying to me as if it were a new concept. Life hack! Actually study to get better grades.

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 56 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I was one of those "smart kids in highschool". University hit me like a ton of bricks, suddenly having to spend home time studying was something I was totally not used to.

I mean, I had this theoretical understanding of homework and studying, but I never did it more than an hour a week.

Doing my first 2 semesters twice was a great wakeup though.

[–] morbidcactus@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 week ago

It was one course (had a you fail the course if you got a sub 40% on the final) and I was able to rewrite the exam in the summer, loss of structure killed me coming from hs. Was definitely a wake up for me as well, had study groups and roommates in subsequent years which helped me (and unhealthy quantities of caffeine)

Got diagnosed with ADHD around a decade after graduating, which explained pretty much everything looking back.

[–] TheWeirdestCunt@lemmy.today 9 points 1 week ago

I had a similar thing happen to me when I moved countries, my new school was 2 years behind the one I'd left so I went 2 years without having to study. When they caught up in the curriculum I'd forgotten how to study and my grades plummeted because of it. Even now I struggle to learn new stuff.

[–] Crazyslinkz@lemmy.world 58 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Being a two time college drop out and seeing shit like so and so was a drop out and is now rich.

The key is learning and applying knowledge.

Dropping out of college is ridiculous life advice.

[–] steeznson@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago (1 children)

There was a study in the economist saying that earning potentials in uni drop outs were worse than both grads and people who didn't do higher education.

[–] howrar@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That makes perfect sense. I'm guessing people rarely drop out by choice. If you run into problems that prevent you from completing your degree, those problems probably aren't going to disappear just because you drop out, so it'll also affect your ability to work as well, and thus also your earning potential. As long as the prevalence of these issues is relatively small in the population, it'll get drowned out by everyone else in the no uni groups.

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 week ago

I'm guessing people rarely drop out by choice.

You can solve any academic problem with enough cash.

If you run out of money, you drop out. If you stressball and can't complete courses, you drop out.

I'm the first generation to attend college, so maybe that blue collar spirit and a little luck kept me mostly in jobs since then.

[–] yermaw@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I think in almost all of those cases they were rich to begin with. I mean fair play they're a lot richer now than when they started, but still.

[–] Nibodhika@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago

This is something important everyone forgets, the majority of those "self-made" billionaires started out as multi-millionaires.

[–] blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Theres also a difference between dropping out of somewhere like Harvard and a back water university.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

There's also a difference between dropping out of university because you have an idea you have to dedicate all your time to right now or someone else may beat you to it and dropping out to manage a Wendy's or hawk "the new big thing"

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 53 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Ugh, anything posted on /r/lifehacks. 85% is just the intended but not primary use of a thing.

One of my favorites is a reposted to death infographic of how to open a can without a can opener: use a knife!

Bitch, canned food existed for 30 years before anyone bothered to invent a specific can opening tool. Before that everyone used knives. A ton of people in rural areas of the developing world, right now today, use knives to open cans.

[–] Evil_Incarnate@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And all the new hires in the kitchen I work at grab knives to open cans before I slap their hands.

[–] burntbacon@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Wait, seriously? I get that you can open a can with a knife, and I've definitely used some of the weird points on a swiss army knife to do so.... but the can opener is easier. If you have one, why wouldn't you go for it?

[–] Evil_Incarnate@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 week ago

A lot of kitchen workers come from countries that lack education and apparently can openers. My boss likes to hire from these countries to keep costs down.

A nice 12" chef's knife is easily ruined and it's the reason I don't keep my own knives at work.

[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Honestly, once you get a feel for it, and if the can is a larger size, it's just like 20 punches down in a circle. Looks like a shark tried to eat its way into the can, but it doesn't take much longer than using a can opener. A can opener is just easier on the user.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 points 6 days ago

And easier on the tool

[–] MintyFresh@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

I have actually used a knife to open cans for months on end. I couldn't be bothered to buy a new can opener.

It was a cheap kitchen knife, it pretty much ruined it after a few months, (although I'm sure someone with patience and a whet stone could have brought it back to life.) it's totally doable and far easier than you might think. Kinda messy tho.

The moral of the story is buy a can opener.

[–] RBWells@lemmy.world 49 points 1 week ago

All of those YouTube videos with the kids who are just incredulous that you can propagate pineapple from pineapple tops, plant green onion ends or garlic and get green onions or garlic, and say they have "discovered an amazing life hack".

[–] FRYD@sh.itjust.works 43 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Whenever my friend goes to one of those drive thrus with the ai ordering thing, he asks for 10,000 cups of water to get a human to talk to.

[–] ook@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I am more amazed this is already AI-supported. Like, actual AI or just speech recognition?

[–] FRYD@sh.itjust.works 4 points 6 days ago

I’m really not sure what it is. It works surprisingly well and quickly which makes me think it’s more likely some kind of mechanical turk thing than ai, but when you drive up you talk to what’s clearly some kind of tts thing that pushes all the upselling stuff. The upselling is annoying and you have to practically shout no at it multiple times, but it does get the order right just from natural speech.

[–] UKFilmNerd@feddit.uk 40 points 1 week ago (3 children)

I think the term life hack is ridiculous in itself. (Cue old man rant) In my day they were tips and advice. You're not hacking anything. 😁

[–] stu42j@piefed.social 14 points 1 week ago

hacking is using a tool for a purpose other than its original intention. some "life hacks" fit this definition but not all

[–] Olkiss@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

Careful, that rant might get rebranded as a life hack for surviving the internet. 😁

[–] cb900f_bodhi@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 1 week ago

I've ranted about this myself. Glad I'm not the only one!

[–] LillyPip@lemmy.ca 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Using ramen for household repairs.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] ThatGuy46475@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

When the U.S. federal government shuts down ask your landlord if you can do maintenance work for rent

[–] papalonian@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

If the US federal government shuts down, this house becomes mine. What's the landlord gonna do?

[–] Hugin@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (5 children)

Call the local sheriff's department and have you evicted. The federal government doesn't do that stuff.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] hoagecko@sh.itjust.works 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

“Cardboard Cooler” with cooling function using frozen plastic bottles.

I thought it was ridiculous to make your own air conditioner out of cheap materials, but apparently it's actually quite cool.

However, the author of the article says that “the wind smells a little like metal.”

The article is in Japanese, but for details, please refer to the link below.

大人も楽しい自由研究(6) 【結構涼しい】凍らせたペットボトルで『ダンボールクーラー』を作ってみた | マイナビニュース

[–] halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (3 children)

make your own air conditioner out of cheap materials

Such a pet peeve of mine when I see basic evaporative cooling called air conditioning. A/C is pretty specific in how it works using refrigerant, condensers, etc. to move heat from one place to another. They also dehumidify the air in the process. A/C and heat pumps are the same thing, just running in opposite directions. They use a lot of electricity to accomplish this movement and are effective in a wide range of temperatures.

Evaporative cooling simply moves air past/through a colder medium to lower the ambient temperature. Most commonly the only electricity used here is a simple fan, and maybe a water pump. This adds humidity to the air so it's effectiveness drops off dramatically and the ambient humidity gets higher.

The only thing they have in common is making the air cooler, in completely different ways with dramatically different effectiveness and efficiency.

[–] thisbenzingring@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 week ago (4 children)

They use a lot of electricity to accomplish this movement and are effective in a wide range of temperatures.

while it's an appliance and therefore power hungry, it's by far the most efficient at its task (heating and cooling large volume of air)

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] ThatGuy46475@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I’ve seen amazon listings call a fan an ac

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I thought it was ridiculous to make your own air conditioner out of cheap materials, but apparently it's actually quite cool.

If your freezer is in the same room as the ice you get from the freezer, this just warms your house more...

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Inucune@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

Destroying your cell phone battery to make a fire. So you're in an emergency and you just gave up your method of communication as a one-shot lighter. Hope your kindling isn't wet, and your phone battery isn't too low on charge.

[–] squirrel@piefed.zip 4 points 1 week ago
[–] HiddenPotential@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago

"Fake it til you make it" is just self gaslighting and makes the world a less honest place

load more comments
view more: next ›