Here’s what changed my handwriting: turning it into a hobby

At school, writing stuff all the time was more like a job, so naturally I wasn’t really that interested in it. However when you don’t have to write a ton of stuff every day, you can approach it form a different angle. Go to the library and find a book about calligraphy. Pick a style you find interesting, and start practicing.

Motivation is key. Don’t write stuff you hate in a style you despise. That’s just basically a long way to say: school. Let’s say you fall in love with textura quadrata, so you start practicing that style instead of cursive. Eventually you’ll try italic, humanist, uncial and other styles too. Then you’ll start writing longer things; not just shopping lists, but journaling too. After a while, you start to notice that your handwriting has improved.

BTW don’t go with a dip pen at first. Instead, get a Pilot Parallel Pen, because it’s good for for most styles. Once you’re familiar with a specific writing style, you can start learning how to manage the ink flow of a dip pen, because that’s a completely different ball game.

Here’s another quick tip to get anyone started: Find some code written by someone else, and modify it.

Depending on the language, you might be able to just read what it says and experiment with what happens when you change some details here and there. If the code does something that you’re interested in, you’ll also have the motivation to spend a few hours tweaking the code, or even reading the documentation.

Also, nowadays you can ask GPT what different parts of the code does. You can drill down with follow up questions until you understand how a specific detail works in the language you’re working with.

Being able to detect logical fallacies will help a lot, but it’s not a perfect solution either. If an argument follows a flawed logic, it might also have factual issues as well. The thing is, there are exceptions.

Some people actually have something factual to say, but they mess up the wording and end up saying something paradoxical. Someone trained in detecting logical fallacies might dismiss the argument as complete nonsense, even though the core of the argument was true.

Also, the reverse is true. If you know what you’re doing, you can craft a beautiful and logical argument that isn’t actually grounded in reality. Someone not trained to wield this sword, may be defenseless against it.

These kinds of arguing tools are definitely useful, but they don’t always lead to the right answer. Mistakes happen on both sides of the debate.

Yeah, me too. I was like: “dude, you just listen to the sounds, convert them to letters and you’re done. Why is everyone so excited about someone having learned the alphabet. That’s literally first grader stuff.”

Then I realized how bad it really is in English.

English is such as mess that you actually have spelling contests to prove it. Try that with most other languages, and it’s going to be exciting for all the first graders who just learned the alphabet. Anyone older than that will be bored to death in the contest.

Title suggestion: Minnie and the Invasive Kraken

If those numbers are real, that means that going with the cheap paper ends up being 50% more expensive in the long run.

This is the raw material real toilet paper is made of. Similarly, you could also buy sewing thread to make your own rope. Not the most practical idea really, but it is possible.

This is the way.

Or maybe configure the firewall to block/allow only very specific things. It’s a bit more technical than just plugging in an Ethernet cable though…

Pull one of your old routers from the back of closet, and use it to make a completely new network just for your TV. If you don’t connect the router to the rest of the internet, your TV is happy to connect to something, and you get to keep your privacy a little bit longer.

Three are also tests where you are expected to think like the person who made the test to figure or what the “correct” answer us. It’s not really correct, but it is the one that gets you the points.

Also some IQ question have several correct answers, but only one of them gives you the points. Super annoying. If you’re creative and smart enough to come up with a logically consistent answer you’re still not guaranteed to get the “correct” answer.

There’s no place like 127.0.0.1

Also, try sending some flowers.

💐

As a seasoned distrohopper, can confirm. When I try something new, I always ask myself: Would a noob be ok with the fact that in this distro you have to do things this way. In Fedora, Debian, Manjaro and so many other I always end up saying “no” more than a few times. With Mint, you just don’t bump into these situations very often. IMO, Mint is the best starter distro for most users. If you know your friend is very technical, you can recommend something else.

Would be really curious to find out what’s the minimum number of neurons required to generate authentic Trump speak.

Simply generate 7 separate speeches and feed all of them back to GPT. This time, tell it to interlace the speeches. It’s sort if like basket weaving, but with sentences.

I think I see a theme here. Doing fun normie stuff on iOS/ipadOS is easy. Doing technical stuff is usually completely impossible.

Doing technical stuff on Linux is easy as long as you know what you’re doing. Doing popular normie things on Linux is a bit hit-or-miss. Some things work perfectly, but other things are a royal pita.

Windows seems to be in between the two extremes in more than one regard. Microsoft seems to be working to find some sort of compromise in these things.

Or better yet, aks it to summarize all the things that matter to someone who isn’t an app developer, isn’t trying to sue Apple, isn’t trying to hack the software, isn’t trying to build anything on their software, isn’t trying to sell anything or doesn’t even run a business of any kind. There are more than a few paragraphs specifically trying to counter all of these special cases, and they don’t really concern someone who just wants to use the iPhone to call their grandma.

How about just leaving the correct amount of cash on the table and walking away without saying a word.