Had someone contact me because a browser interface was ‘down’ and it was actually a cert issue. It surprised me that in an IT context, this person didn’t have a basic understanding of SSL certs. They didn’t even know how to add a cert exception.
It got me thinking, what basic ubiquitous things am I a dumbass about outside of IT?
Ive seen lots of ‘fun facts’ compilations, but it would be better to get a wide range of subject suggestions that I can spend 30 minutes each or less on, and become a more capable human.
Like what subjects would plumbers consider basic knowledge? Chemical interactions between cleaning products and PVC pipes?
What would an accountant or a landscaper consider to be so basic its shocking people can live their lives without knowing any of it?
For most areas of expertise, its difficult to know even what the basics are to start with.
Don’t use high heat on nonstick pans.
Assuming we want the same internal temperature, high heat will cook the outside more than low heat. For bread you probably want a bit more heat to get a nice crusty outside. For steaks you want less heat to avoid overcooking most of the meat, then just a quick sear on the outside.
Don’t overload your pan. If your food is cooking in a bunch of water that came out of the food you are boiling it, not frying it, and it’s going to suck. Put in less food so that water can boil off before it starts boiling your food.
Don’t overload your cookie sheets either. The center of the pan will not get as hot due to all that cold wet food sucking up all the heat, so the fries on the edge will cook faster than the fries in the middle.
Sear or roast your brassicas. They taste way better with some browning and lots of oil and salt.
Measuring food by weight is much easier and much more accurate than measuring by volume with measuring cups and spoons. This is next level awesome if you’re trying to measure something sticky like honey or peanut butter, you can weigh it in the mixing bowl rather than dirtying a measurement device.
Don’t overvook your meat. Use a fast read meat thermometer. Beef, pork, chicken, seafood, are all much better when cooked.to the proper internal temperature.
I am not a cooking expert, I am a heat transfer expert with a strong background in chemistry and those skills transfer over to cooking.
Just adding to yours as I’m a nerd for gardening and it isn’t common knowledge: brassicas are vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, mustard, etc
Also on the topic of brassicas, if you see the little white “butterflies” with a black dot on each wing, those are cabbage moths and the bane of a gardeners existence! Unless an entomologist can chime in and say why they’re actually great lol
I find high heat in stainless steel pans is very good though? Like it works better to heat the pan and then add your oils. They’re so much better.
A lot of the IT guys I know have little to no knowledge of mechanical stuff. Learn to fix your car
Lawnmower, whatever. Learn how to fix a tap / toilet / anything a round the house.
Martha Stewart’s Homekeeping Handbook.
It will tell you how to iron your clothes, pick table linens, care for paintings, deal with water damage after a natural disaster, pick between a laser and inkjet printer, fix a cartridge faucet, and install a dimmer switch.
The Army should issue it to new recruits.
My car is electric. The repairs I’ve done to it have required almost zero car-fixing-skills.
Apart from tire changes, electric cars have few typical car problems.
There’s no oil to change, a lot of the braking is regenerative so the brakes last a LONG time, they have very few pumps, hoses, filters and pipes just cables that don’t really wear out. No cam belts or spark plugs.
Basically all I do is swap the pollen filter and wiper blades. There’s an occasional brake fluid check (not really a DIY thing for me) and I’ve had damages (busted mirror, broken charging cable).
I’ve also done a battery swap myself, which does require a garage, but only because you can’t lift the thing by hand.
This is definitely a weak spot of mine although at this point it is somewhat willful. I can do some very basics like swap filters or change a tire but I’ve never found a need to grow beyond that considering my vehicle is reliable and regular maintenance like oil changes are so cheap and accessible.
As someone who works with tech, here is my 2 cents on basic knowledge.
If your computer is “not working” restarting the computer can generally fix 80 percent of the issues. We are not trying to make you mad, this is literraly first thing I am doing if you present me a problem.
Stop downloading things from unknown sources.
Use generic effects/fonts on your powerpoint. Just because you bought something cool doesnt mean it will magically transfer when you pass your presnetation to another computer for your presentation. (Microsoft does not migrate your paid effects)
For gamers Stop playing pvp on your pc/console on wifi, are you a mad?
Everyone in general We are at an age of computers. Learn how to type, it will save you tremendous amount of time, literally.
Yes, i have seen it happen several times and i get blamed why its not showing on the show laptop. The moment i ask, “did you purchase any add on effects?” i feel like a customer service telling a customer your credit card was denied.
That’s just wild. I’m in meetings with slides constantly and never heard of this. We’ll, now I have a new rabbit hole to go down (as in “finding the most ridiculous of these”).
We are all terrible at applying statistics, it is incongruent with the way our intuition works. It takes intentional consideration plus math and understanding to consider things statistically, much harder than the immediate intuitive answers our brains give us. The worst part is sometimes those intuitive answers are dead on, sometimes they totally miss the mark, and we have no way of knowing which is which without doing the hard work to evaluate the situation statistically.
The boom Thinking Fast and Slow covers this in great detail and provides some guidance on how to manage it.
Always use a one lead voltage meter tester when working on electricity. Don’t trust your breakers. Don’t trust light switches.
Are you talking about the meters that simply detect whether wires are still live or not? Definitely a good backup to double check that you’ve shut off the right breaker.
If you’re talking about a single lead multimeter to measure voltage, I’ve never heard of such a thing and don’t know how that would even work.
This one can detect voltage with a single lead and also works as a voltage meter if you use two leads: https://www.benning.de/products-en/testing-measuring-and-safety-equipment/test-equipment-voltage-tester/voltage-tester-duspol.html
It also has an inbuilt motor to distinguish leaking voltage from continuous AC.
Sorry if I didn’t use the correct English terms and that wasn’t clear enough.
In Germany you simply call it a Duspol and every electrician knows what you mean. Didn’t research enough into the English description but it seems it’s a two pole voltage tester with one pole voltage detection mode.
There’s literally no such thing as a one-lead voltage meter. Voltage is, by definition, the difference in potential energy between two points.
Any tool that can give a voltage reading with one probe has a second probe you’re not considering, or is estimating voltage based on a some assumptions about current or some other factor being measured.
