I'm in Ottawa, but would try to make a future Toronto meetup. Unfortunately I'll be out of the country from Feb. 12-19.

Aside: Is there interest in an Ottawa meetup? I know Cyan and myself would probably be in, anyone else?

Err towards generous tipping.

Actually, this is something I meant to ask about. Not how much to tip, which has well been covered elsewhere, but how one goes about the actual action of giving someone a tip. (I am generalizing beyond bars here).

I'm not aware of a gap in my procedural knowledge, but many skills are still fuzzy and basic. The internet serves extreme beginners and specialized experts well, but I've found reference books to be the best resource for the middle ground. Some that have helped me domestically:

• New Best Recipe from Cook's Illustrated: Basic cookbook that explain the testing and intuition behind a recipe.
• America's Test Kitchen cookbooks: Also from Cook's Illustrated, these books tend to explain why a recipe is what it is and give tips on technique or what cuts of meat work best for what purposes.
• How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman: Basic cookbook that presents many recipes as templates, providing variations and room for improvisation.
• Home Comforts by Cheryl Mendelson: Everything that goes into maintaining a home, from cleaning to food storage to pets to laundry.

Any other quality reference books, perhaps for auto care or personal finance?

Owning up to a particularly fuzzy area: how do you order at a bar? I've been a couple times and managed, but somehow I feel I'm missing something, especially if I extend beyond a beer. Can someone offer a comprehensive account?

Whatever elaborate, and grotesquely counter-intuitive, underpinnings there might be to familiar reality, it stubbornly continues to be familiar. When Rutherford showed that atoms were mostly empty space, did the ground become any less solid? The truth itself changes nothing.

-- Greg Egan, Quarantine

I don't think so. Many, many common practices would be improved by some properly applied theory.

What exactly do you mean by "a pragmatic perspective"?

In other words, how exactly is the question "Which parts of philosophy are worth studying from a pragmatic perspective?" different from just "Which parts of philosophy are worth studying?"?

Do you not have other browsers besides Firefox installed?

My brain know that it can get around Leechblock by using Safari or Chrome.

In fact, my brain knows it can disable Leechblock by going Tools > Add-ons and clicking on the appropriate "Disable" button. Or if Leechblock lacks a "Disable" button, by uninstalling Leechblock and installing it again later.

Solo, I've had pretty good results with aggressive leechblock settings. My habitual timesinks are only accessible for a half-hour block each day.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/4476/

Steve Landsburg makes a fairly plausible case that monogamy is essentially a cartel formed by men to prevent them having to work too hard to keep onto their wives:

imagine a one-husband one-wife family where an argument has begun over whose turn it is to do the dishes. If polygamy were legal, the wife could threaten to leave and go marry the couple next door unless the husband conceded that it is his turn. With polygamy outlawed, she does not have this option and might end up with dishpan hands.

If true, this would suggest that women have more to gain from polyamory than men on average (although high-status men might well have the most to gain).