55
submitted 10 months ago by karlillo@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] NounsAndWords@lemmy.world 65 points 10 months ago

Not quite recently, but after skating through high school and most of college I learned that if you read through your notes before a test you remember more things. I also learned that this is referred to as "studying".

[-] AbsurdityAccelerator@lemmy.world 16 points 10 months ago

I am convinced that being "smart" in high school and college stunted my career. I didn't do any work in high school, and had like 2 classes that I'd consider difficult in college. I never learned the value of hard work.

[-] Nefara@lemmy.world 14 points 10 months ago

I hear you. Finally ending up in a class that properly challenged me was like roller skating into wet cement.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Same for me! Everyone told me I was smart, so I never studied in college. Turns out you can still be smart and also fail out of college. Luckily got my act together, but I hold some resentment for my teachers and parents for not teaching m that you can have a knack for things but without follow through it's worthless

[-] thisisbutaname@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Bonus points I discovered after a bachelor's degree and most of a master's:

If you pay attention in class you'll understand most of the material, and the rest you can ask the professors directly. Truly astounding.

[-] imposedsensation@lemmynsfw.com 6 points 10 months ago

I was you once

It's not fun, but doing it before bed also helps in my experience.

[-] paddirn@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

All through high school/college I just always wrote my notes once during class, then almost never referred to them again. For me, just the act of writing out the notes was usually good enough to help me retain the information, for the tests at least. I've forgotten most of it, but it was there when I needed it.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[-] TheLameSauce@lemmy.world 50 points 10 months ago

That annoying character in The Land Before Time is not named Sarah.

Her name is Cera. As in CERATOPS.

[-] MBM@lemmings.world 17 points 10 months ago

That annoying character

How dare you

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 13 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

English spelling is just fantastic. If you hear a new word, there’s pretty much 0 chance that you can look it up in a dictionary on the first try. Just imagine how “epitome” sounds to someone who isn’t already familiar with it. You’re going to have to go though every vowel before you actually find it.

Also, if you’ve never heard a special word being pronounced, but you’ve read it many times, you are pretty much guaranteed to make a fool of yourself when you finally get to use that word in a social situation. No wonder why spelling bees are a thing in English speaking countries.

[-] dgilbert@lemmy.ca 9 points 10 months ago

I read somewhere that you should never look down on anyone for mispronouncing a word because it means they learned it by reading.

As a childhood bookworm, that lesson stuck with me.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] Habahnow@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago

This feels like a gross exaggeration of the problems with English. there's a lot of patterns to English, despite a lot of weirdness and a lot of exceptions. But if you hear a new word, it will normally be easy to find in the dictionary on the first try. All that being said, yeah English is probably a mess compared to most languages, which is why it has spelling bees

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] PatMustard@feddit.uk 2 points 10 months ago

spelling bees are a thing in English speaking countries

I think they're just an American thing

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] waz@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

Apparently I learned that as I read that just now.

[-] blunderworld@lemmy.ca 34 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

That you aren't supposed to rinse immediately after brushing your teeth. It's better to wait 15 minutes to let the fluoride strengthen your enamel.

Been brushing the wrong way for 30 years, apparently.

[-] ramble81@lemm.ee 7 points 10 months ago

Ain’t nobody got time for that!

[-] boredtortoise@lemm.ee 13 points 10 months ago

Actually rinsing isn't needed at all

[-] blunderworld@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

You're probably right, I just hate that toothpaste aftertaste and feeling in my mouth otherwise

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Twinklebreeze@lemmy.world 12 points 10 months ago

Just spit it all out three or four times, wipe your mouth off and go about your day. You won't even notice.

[-] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

No dentist has ever said this to me.

[-] guyrocket@kbin.social 3 points 10 months ago

A dentist said it to me years ago.

But I suspect that using a Sonicare makes a bigger difference for tooth health than not rinsing.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Notyou@sopuli.xyz 3 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Yeah. I had to give a "how to" class and I picked brushing your teeth as a simple topic. I got to the end after brushing your teeth. I said rinse your mouth out and your done. The instructor said "the presentation was okay, but you aren't supposed to rinse your teeth out right away."

I had no idea as amid to late 20 something at the time. What else do you do wrong?

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] flathead@lemm.ee 30 points 10 months ago

The guy who runs Reddit is an utter douchebag.

[-] cloudless@feddit.uk 29 points 10 months ago

Common sense is not common.

[-] semperverus@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

Common sense is a fundamentally broken concept.

It's not that "few people have common sense" (the fact that this phrase gets tossed around should be clue #1 for you), but that there cannot be such a thing as sense that is common. Every region, every community, every social circle, and every individual have vastly different personal experiences and ways of doing things in life. Some people may have similar experiences to eachother, but thats no guarantee.

Typically you see the word "common sense" only used as an insult and a way to tear someone else down. You rarely if ever see it used as a complement or an objective fact. "That person has a lot of common sense" sounds wrong the first time you hear it right?

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] roshan_joseph03@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

So true...😆

[-] Skelectus@suppo.fi 28 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I knew about this on some level before, but the recent posts have given me a better understanding on how in some countries people need expensive third party software to pay their taxes.

[-] Neato@ttrpg.network 10 points 10 months ago

Freetaxusa.com Isn't expensive. It's dumb it still costs money for state but the company that lobbies the government to make our tax code complicated costs a lot more.

You can also do your taxes manually if you know you have a simple return. Or use the expensive software and check it against your manual.

It all sucks though. It should be dead simple as the government already knows 99% of everyone's tax info.

load more comments (5 replies)
[-] hushable@lemmy.world 15 points 10 months ago

A pancake is a cake you make in a pan.

It broke my mind when I learned that one

[-] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 4 points 10 months ago

Wait until you hear about butterflies and dragonflies.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] Elderos@sh.itjust.works 4 points 10 months ago

Have you heard about asswipes

[-] ace_garp@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

..and when you take a detour, you are getting off your original tour. (Tour de France, tour of the countryside, etc)

Hence, why you de-tour.

Did everyone work this out at first glance? The etymology of 'detour' took me way too long.

[-] oneiros@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 10 months ago

Along these lines, I recently learned:

Painstakingly is pains + takingly (as in "took great pains"), not pain + stakingly.

Helicopter is helico + pter ("spiral wing"), not heli + copter.

In linguistics, this phenomenon is called rebracketing.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Lath@kbin.social 14 points 10 months ago

People know less than they think they do, which is why everyone calling everyone else morons is probably correct.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] perviouslyiner@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

prima donna != pre-Madonna

[-] Notyou@sopuli.xyz 6 points 10 months ago

Holy shit. I found this out less than 6 months ago. I always heard "pre-Madonna" thinking it had something to do with Madonna. I thought I was the only one. For context it took me like 30 years of hearing it before I saw it in writing.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] leaky_shower_thought@feddit.nl 11 points 10 months ago

most are in the past year kind of recent:

... that there's a group of people who pronounce "gif" with a "soft g" sound like "jif"

... that Taylor Swift is that popular, she is seen as a political threat for her influence

... also armor bags for kids and shooter drills like it is some kind of natural disaster

[-] I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 7 points 10 months ago

It fucking broke me when I learned that kids today instead of learning "Stop, Drop and Roll" learn "Run, Hide, Fight." Fucking kindergartners are being taught, if you see a shooter, Run. If you can't get away, Hide. If you can't hide, try to be a hero because you are going to die anyway.

[-] conciselyverbose@kbin.social 4 points 10 months ago

lol Taylor Swift dating a player and just attending the Super Bowl (not doing anything) might genuinely bring in multiple million extra viewers.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] apex32@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

I spent 30+ years thinking that a pony was a baby horse rather than a smaller type of horse. You know how cats have kittens and dogs have puppies? Well I thought horses had ponies.

Even all the times that Lisa Simpson wanted a pony, I just thought it was similar to how a kid might want a puppy.

[-] Silentiea@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago

To be fair:

The word pony derives from the old French poulenet, meaning foal, a young, immature horse.

Quoth wikipedia.

[-] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 4 points 10 months ago

Well this is a TIL moment. You saved me at ~28 years.

[-] swope@kbin.social 5 points 10 months ago

Maybe this more of a misheard lyrics thing, but for a long time I thought "noxious gas" had to do with nitrogen oxides (NOx), and then spread to other metaphorical applications like "noxious weeds" and so on.

[-] shinigamiookamiryuu@lemm.ee 5 points 10 months ago

That not all drinks get you drunk the same way.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

That when cooking anything with leftover grease you should always dispose of the excess grease in an empty container and trash it instead of putting it down a drain.

Also that it's best for your pipes to put your used toilet paper in a trash can instead of flushing it.

[-] Waterdoc@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago

Most toilet papers are fine, although some systems struggle with Costco's stuff. Toilet paper is designed to break apart in water. That said, you shouldn't flush any other products. Paper towels don't break down the same way, and wipes will almost certainly cause damage, even if they are marketed as flushable!!

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 08 Feb 2024
55 points (95.1% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27277 readers
1578 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS