FAQ

  1. How do I cook an egg?

    • Low heat, wait until water sizzles when flicked onto the pan. Be patient if you're cooking it sunny side up. Add some water to fluff it up if scrambling

  2. How do I cook white rice in a pot?

    • Put too much water in, wait about 20 minutes, check the rice for fluffiness and drain the extra water.

  3. How do I cook barley in a pot?

    • Rinse using a colander (or don't), see question 2.

  4. How do I cook brown rice in a pot?

    • See question 3.

  5. Why is 'left' liberal and 'right' conservative?

  6. How to I make cabinets level?

    • Level the toe cabinet using shims, build your cabinets square and set them on top, here's a video.

  7. What axe should I use?

    • Depends on what you're doing, if you're splitting wood, you want a maul, Fiskars is pretty good. If you are doing bush craft, probably a boys axe and probably from Council Tool.

  8. What tools do I need to start woodworking?

    • What type of projects do you want to do? Buy tools for that. (This is true for any creative endeavor).
    • If you don't have ANY tools, here are some general thoughts if you're going the power tool route. I prefer corded tools, since I do most of my work in the shop. If I were starting over, I would buy a decent circular corded saw and make a (basically) free track for it and a sliding miter saw, I have one from Bosch and love it. The best way to not over-buy is to purchase the tools that you need. Look at what you can do with hand tools as well, a sharp set of (¼, 3/8 and ½ or their equivalent metric) chisels can replace a ton of other small tools that perform the same function.

  9. What stud finders actually work?

    • This one, or another that uses magnets. Run it along your wall until you find a nail. Verify by moving the the magnet up and down along the wall. If you need a reference for how walls are built, here's a link.

  10. What tools should I buy if I own a home?

  1. What software are you most glad about using?

    • I use Microsoft Excel in really weird ways and more often than the average bear. Here are some [INSERT PROEJCT LINK HERE WHEN DONE]
    • I use AutoHotkey for one thing, here's a link to a script that inserts todays date in “mm/dd/yyyy” when you don't have windows explorer open or aren't saving a file, if you are saving a file and use the same shortcut (Ctrl-J), it's formatted in “yyyymmdd” and that way your files sort by date, if you want them.
      • Exe
      • Authotkey script
    • Yomu
    • Drafts or iA Writer for iphone (Typora is better for windows)
    • Bitwarden or Dashlane
    • Typora

  2. Daniel, what are some purchases that have made a huge difference in your life?

    • MX Master Mouse
    • A good mechanical keyboard – make sure you have quieter switches if you'll be in a shared environment
    • I own only one kind of sock

  3. How should I read business & self help books?

    • Quickly; skip over the stories. You can get through a most books that are fluffed up in about 2 or 3 hours.

  4. Can I use soap on cast iron?

    • Yup, but not a ton and not every time you wash it. If you need to season it, follow the directions on that same link.

  5. How do I get good at Microsoft Excel?

    • I'm so glad you asked! Learn to use shortcuts, get an MX Master. Start to think programatically, look for patterns in your data. Look for problems that are interesting for you to solve. Take a workbook that's done well and try to figure out how it was made. Learn how to debug formulas and step through them. Mynda Treacy and Mike Girvin are some of my favorites to follow and their tutorials are some of the best. You can also ask me, I genuinely love helping and am not as busy as those guys.

  6. What do you think about ChatGPT and LLM?

    • It's interesting, but as with a lot of new technology people are still figuring out how to use it and how it might be useful (i.e. monetize). The image generation is probably stealing and lawsuits will probably go in favor of the artists. There's a lot of hype that eventually people will see for the hot air it is. I've seen a lot of obviously AI written articles come out, after a few paragraphs into them, and they are mostly garbage. That's true when it is in my domain, for things outside my domain or thing less verifiable, that becomes more difficult. Question/answer forums are starting to ban AI generated content, which will become a battle over time.

  7. What's the best kind of wood finish?

    • I like soap finish, recipe is super simple, it's very easy to maintain and I'm not burning my lungs doing it. No PPE is nice.

  8. When should I use ear protection?

    • Whenever you think, “Hmm, should I be wearing ear protection?