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PaperclipPerfector  21hr ago (text post)   686 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 18, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Does anyone have their own equivalent of a personal "antimeme", a concept you familiarize yourself with (potentially with difficulty) and then inevitably forget unless you make an intentional effort to look it up?

In no particular order:

  • I often have to look up whether I need an x86 or x64 executable when I need to download a program
  • ECGs. Fucking ECGs. I get good at understanding them when I absolutely have to (before exams), but guess what, by the time the next one rolls around, it's all out of my head.
  • Fourier transforms (how they actually work, and not the conceptual strokes)
  • And many more, all of which stubbornly refuse to come to mind, because of course they do.

I can do TIA 586B in my sleep (orange-white orange, green-white blue, blue-white green, brown-white brown), and only get TIA 586A right without looking it up 50% of the time. That's not a good combination.

Constantly get df and du commands mixed up. RAID 0 versus 1. Vi keyboard shortcuts.

For historical reasons, a lot of FAA regulations go by the name 'Part XXX'. I can tell you the differences between Part 61 and Part 141 flight schools at length, so long as you don't ask me which is which. Sometimes I'll even throw in Part 151, which isn't even a relevant thing. Likewise, tach time versus hobbs time drives me up the wall, and I have to derive tach->tachometer->turning->engine time every time.

Sin and cos. And I use them a lot.

Vi keyboard shortcuts.

The "best" way is to train literal muscle memory. vi/m "grammar" is kind of a brain breaker if you try to front of mind process it. But if you just let your fingers fly to move line 38 to mark b, it usually works.

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