This is a repository for major, life-altering mistakes that you or others have made. Detailed accounts of specific mistakes are welcome, and so are mentions of general classes of mistakes that people often make. If similar repositories already exist (inside or outside of LW), links are greatly appreciated.
The purpose of this repository is to collect information about serious misjudgements and mistakes in order to help people avoid similar mistakes. (I am posting this repository because I'm trying to conduct a premortem on my life and figure out what catastrophic risks may screw me over in the near or far future.)
I once thought I'd skip learning to cook, thinking I'd specialize in something else and trade money for someone else's cooking. I've since learned to cook moderately well, and there are benefits:
On "satisfying geeky tendencies to learn", the book "Cooking for Geeks" by Potter is actually quite good. It won't make you a chef in and of itself, but I now know enough to, say, know when to bake something at 375 versus at 350 degrees F based on the desired result rather than on what the recipe tells me. There's a lot of interesting tid bits in there and good a solid base of cooking information. It also has some good 'food experiments' to try, like cooking an egg very slowly wiht constant stirring at low temperatures in a frying pan. ... (read more)