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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2585 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 17, 2024

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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I threw out 75% of my wardrobe. The mental peace of finding the clothes I want at an arm's reach at a moments notice is worth whatever couple of hundreds I'll have to spend replacing a few shirts and pants.

It's not mental peace exactly, it's not having to think, saving bandwidth. I've been lately optimizing my life towards using as little bandwidth as I can, to save it for the important things.

What are your unconventional mental bandwidth saving hacks? (I understand minimalism isn't rocket science, but that's my most recent example)

Thirty second rule. If I notice it, and it’ll take less than 30 seconds to fix, it should be done immediately. Helps keep the general pressure of tidying at bay.

I have been absolutely terrible at following this lately. Not sure if that’s cause or effect of my stress levels.

A slightly less practical one but a good mindset to aspire to nonetheless is the "touch it once" principle.

I generally bundle this and the thirty second rule into just mentally taking the piss out of myself that "I'll do it later, there'll be a better time" is a stupid lazy lie when I'm standing right in front of a task that already has my attention.

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A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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