Things that make you... wiser.

[rovingjack]

I've felt like it might be fun to start a thread where we share moments we encounter that make us feel wiser for having had them.

To start off:

I saw an interview with a Japanese craftsman who had left japan to practice his craft. When asked why he left home, he replied 'To know it better.'

He elaborates that never leaving a place allows one to develop blind spots, but to develop homesickness is to know what it is more deeply.

[creagmor]

from my experience, and that of others, I have become aware of the fact that the most effective way to learn something is to teach it.

[Drew P]

Paying attention.

[Inflatable Friend]

A couple of realizations that have left me feeling a little wiser.

Firstly, Reading Georges Hébert's 'Natural Method' changed the way I perceive myself and my general state of health. In recent years I've been fairly dismissive of fitness culture, viewing my earlier results focused fitness days as somewhat selfish and peacocky. However, Hébert's views on the place of fitness and altruism in society have resonated with me and driven me back into embracing the improvement of my health, not mechanically and indoors for the pursuit of looking good or beating personal bests, but instead outdoors and variably (IE: No more gyms and single muscle group focused repetitions) with the goal of being of use to those I love and to those I do not know in normal life and in danger.

Plus Hébert is a good Steampunk role model.

Secondly, that comfort is the enemy of betterment. It is only by pushing what we perceive to be our boundaries that we find where they actually are (normally very very far removed from where we think), likewise it is only by continuing to push those boundaries (both the real and imagined) that we'll improve at anything. Being comfortable in anything you take seriously should be avoided because it indicates a plateau. As soon as you're comfortable it likely means you're no longer improving, instead take comfort at a task to mean it's time to take on more challenges and push harder. (This largely applies to skills, be they physical or mental. I'm not advocating burning all sofa's or wearing hair shirts).

I also have to agree that travel is a great way of gaining insight, seeing the world offers new perspectives on your own place in it. New people, cultures and experiences should be welcomed by all, after all complimentary and contrasting colours help better the tapestry of our lives. My views on the UK have changed dramatically after living abroad.

[Madasasteamfish]

Paying attention.

I'm sorry, were you saying something?

[Drew P]

Nothing really, carry on.

[rovingjack]

in trying to comfort a friend I said something that I should try to remember from now on.

Struggles are just adventures you are in the middle of.

[Sir Henry]

in trying to comfort a friend I said something that I should try to remember from now on.

Struggles are just adventures you are in the middle of.

Or, struggles are just anecdotes you haven't finished writing yet.

[MWBailey]

Living makes one wiser... if one is wise enough to keep paying attention...

[rovingjack]

Don't look up symptoms or information about pests on the internet if you are not sure it's something you are dealing with. You won't sleep for days. 

[Wormster]

“In spite of wars and tourism and pictures by satellite, the world is just the same size it ever was. It is awesome to think how much of it I will never see. It is not a trick to go round these days, you can pay a lot of money and fly round it nonstop in less than forty-eight hours, but to know it, to smell it and feel it between your toes you have to crawl. There is no other way. Not flying, not floating. You have to stay on the ground and swallow the bugs as you go. Then the world is immense. The best you can do is to trace your long, infinitesimally thin line through the dust and extrapolate.”
― Ted Simon, Jupiter's Travels

A mantra to travel by!

[Clym Angus]

Ploughing into the back of a transit van doing about 30-40 mph (not sure too busy screaming) on a motorway.

Lesson 1: Wear a seat belt.
Lesson 2: Check the designated driver isn't of his kettle on double whiskey's "but holds it well". BEFORE getting a lift.
Lesson 3: Carry a belt cutter so you can help the poor beggar you've just smooshed into the passenger front dash board.
Lesson 4: Except the fact that your body ablates itself keeping the squishy irreplaceable bits safe. (thank you right shoulder, scapula and collar bone, sure your a bit f***ed but without you it would have been my face.)

[Sir Henry]

Ploughing into the back of a transit van doing about 30-40 mph (not sure too busy screaming) on a motorway.

Lesson 1: Wear a seat belt.
Lesson 2: Check the designated driver isn't of his kettle on double whiskey's "but holds it well". BEFORE getting a lift.
Lesson 3: Carry a belt cutter so you can help the poor beggar you've just smooshed into the passenger front dash board.
Lesson 4: Except the fact that your body ablates itself keeping the squishy irreplaceable bits safe. (thank you right shoulder, scapula and collar bone, sure your a bit f***ed but without you it would have been my face.)

I think I'd start with lesson 2 myself. Hope you recover quickly.

[Serrac]

Lesson 1: Wear a seat belt.

Always wear a crash helmet, especially when riding/driving any vehicle without a windscreen.

[Clym Angus]

Ploughing into the back of a transit van doing about 30-40 mph (not sure too busy screaming) on a motorway.

Lesson 1: Wear a seat belt.
Lesson 2: Check the designated driver isn't of his kettle on double whiskey's "but holds it well". BEFORE getting a lift.
Lesson 3: Carry a belt cutter so you can help the poor beggar you've just smooshed into the passenger front dash board.
Lesson 4: Except the fact that your body ablates itself keeping the squishy irreplaceable bits safe. (thank you right shoulder, scapula and collar bone, sure your a bit f***ed but without you it would have been my face.)

I think I'd start with lesson 2 myself. Hope you recover quickly.

Don't worry about me I was and am fine. This happened a good two decades ago so I'm as recovered as I'm ever likely to get!

[Banfili]

Lesson 1: Always wear a seat belt
Lesson 2: Always wear a seat belt!
Lesson 3: Always wear a seat belt and carry close to hand in your vehicle one of those double-ended, pointy hammer window breakers - with a seat belt cutter on the other end!

[Siliconous Skumins]

Newly acquired wisdom from about an hour ago :

1) It would be wise (and a helluva lot less painfull !!) to first ensure that any large Datacenter grade UPS battery packs you are connecting into a modified low voltage system, have themselves first been modified to said lower voltage.

2) 100 Volt lead-acid UPS battery packs do not play nice with 12 Volt systems.

3) Vision will return after 15 minutes or so after exposure to arc flash.

4) Turns out human skin CAN metalised via Plasma-assisted deposition of metal, without the requirement of exposure to hard vacuum.


I got off lucky! 

[Drew P]

So..... measure 50 times then cut, huh?

[Clym Angus]

What was your amp difference?

Newly acquired wisdom from about an hour ago :

1) It would be wise (and a helluva lot less painfull !!) to first ensure that any large Datacenter grade UPS battery packs you are connecting into a modified low voltage system, have themselves first been modified to said lower voltage.

2) 100 Volt lead-acid UPS battery packs do not play nice with 12 Volt systems.

3) Vision will return after 15 minutes or so after exposure to arc flash.

4) Turns out human skin CAN metalised via Plasma-assisted deposition of metal, without the requirement of exposure to hard vacuum.


I got off lucky! 

[Siliconous Skumins]

What was your amp difference?

Hard to judge really... The main bank of battery packs are at 13.1V, 16 in parallel @ 1152Ah, the unconverted pack was in series at 104V @ 9Ah. These are all Lead-acid AGM batteries wired with 9 AWG cable interconects and 4 AWG interpack bus connections , so each capable dumping several hundred Amps in a split second, and the parallel bank capable of much more (However there are 80A fuses in each pack). The packs were not ballanced either, they were in various states of charge, a little low but not flat.

The packs are like this :


They are from a 16kW APC Symmetra PX 400v 3-phase UPS.



Basically, I don't know which battery pack won that argument...     Either way, the amps were high.

[Drew P]

To think you lugged those heavy things from their deaths and that's how they thank you.