Slevin's journal

[Slevin]

Anyone have beginner advice / links on a basic hand planer? I have some rough cut 6 x 6s (probably 5.8") that I need to bring down to 5.5" square on the ends to fit some standard 6 by hardware into. Seems like the right place for a hand planer? Though I probably could use a power sander, that seems way worse than just a standard planer.

[theanimal]

The first thing you have to do is make one face flat and level so that you can establish a reference point. Check to see if your board is bowed and has a cup or crown to it. If it does, it'd be easiest to plane the crown side. In other words, planing the high spot in the center and leveling it off with the sides. You want to go with the grain. If there's a big bow to it, an easy way to get a lot off at one is to go across the grain. Once you have one side flat and level. You can use that to mark the dimensions on your other face. Repeat that on the sides and you have a flat, level and squared board.

I have not watched this whole video, but from what I've seen, it is a solid overview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LBbxC9 ... oodworking

It is simple, but not easy and will likely take longer than you think. I'd recommend practicing on another board first.

[Slevin]

It is simple, but not easy and will likely take longer than you think. I'd recommend practicing on another board first.

I do want to learn to do this, but yeah starting on enormous lumber here is probably not the right point. Luckily this is fixable.

[Scott 2]

Every time I do the math, I get very calm like “oh yeah we’re gonna be just fine”. And then 2 days later I’m nervous about buying organic vegetables because it will cost me $3 extra this week. Idk, maybe I’m just built cheap.
...
I’m considering paying off the house. Every calf in existence tells me it’s a bad deal, and yet I’m still tempted to. I hate debt of any sort, even when it’s exceptionally useful and apparently beneficial.

I share your financial insecurity. There is one time in life it went away. I was well past my FI number, still working and with an ~80% savings rate. I finally started to loosen up. That persisted into FIRE, until the first down market hit. Even as we've seen the markets return, the insecurity lingers. My Mom has the same, despite being in a great financial position. For some of us, it is permanent.

I've found value from setting a mathematically supported floor or target on certain budget items. Food. Travel. Discretionary spending. That avoids the trap of fear based deprivation, unintentionally reducing quality of life. When one thinks in broader pools of capital, this is a form of purposeful re-balancing. I am trading financial capital for other reserves.

Coming from that place of insecurity, a paid off home feels real good. The low cash flow requirement makes income tax games easier too. Depending on your overall asset allocation and home value, I wouldn't insist upon the mathematically optimal choice.

[Slevin]

@Scott 2 this is very insightful and something I will need to chew on for a bit (making 6 figure decisions is should be slow decisions), I appreciate your thoughts here a lot.

[Slevin]

Chewing on it, I think there are knock-on consequences to the mortgage cost as well... basically, I have this psychological effect that is like "well if I'm spending all this money on the mortgage, then its okay to spend some money on x, y, z, oh and look at how those numbers are so much smaller than the mortgage number", even though these other expenses are non-trivial, they are trivial compared to the large payment.

It is like the large mortgage cost is providing this "spending anchoring", where I can then justify other expensive things because they are much less expensive than the mortgage. Whereas if I have no mortgage, then everything is only anchored towards insurance payments, so total spending on housing per month is $88 plus setting aside money for taxes (not necessary since things just default into the savings bucket anyways). Thus I actually think my monthly spending would decrease by a bunch (lets say hundreds of dollars) by doing the "mathematically non-optimal" choice, because I'm removing justifications for spending.

P.S. Dear readers, this could obviously also just be blatant mental gymnastics to justify doing the things I want to do.

[zbigi]

Maybe put mortgage into different mental category? For example, on't think about it as "spending", but as debt repayment.

[ertyu]

You could choose any arbitrary number to anchor to and consciously work on redirecting your attention to it. How about 7000 / 600 = 11 2/3: monthly amount that will result from one OG jacob at 2% in perpetuity

[jacob]

Anyone have beginner advice / links on a basic hand planer? I have some rough cut 6 x 6s (probably 5.8") that I need to bring down to 5.5" square on the ends to fit some standard 6 by hardware into. Seems like the right place for a hand planer? Though I probably could use a power sander, that seems way worse than just a standard planer.

You didn't say how long it was, but regardless, this is a lot of work. I used 4x4s in one of my very first projects to learn how to square and make panels (it was the top of a small bench for the RV. This is now the table for my scrollsaw). IIRC, I used a #5 (standard jack plane).

Two things.

First, it takes a while to develop a feel for how much wood is taken off every time you ... what's the verb? Plane? I've actually "entertained" wannabe woodworkers by having them come over and square a board. It takes the typical noob (sample size 3) about 45 minutes to square their first 2x2x24 board. Being more practiced, I can do it in about 10 mins.

Second, 1/2" is a lot of wood to turn into shavings(*). There's a separate type of plane called a scrub plane that will make quick work of that. However, scrub planes are rather specialized and only (99% anyway, I can think of one other use) useful for exactly this type of job.

(*) It makes for excellent fire starter or rustic packaging material. If used for gardening, bury it. Don't leave it on the surface, it'll blow all over the place. Ask me how I know this.

Alternative solution: Since we're talking 1/2" or 1/4" on both sides, you could actually (rip) saw it off instead. Best practice is to draw a line on both sides (using a mortising gauge or a combination square) and the saw a bit (1-2") on one side, flip the board, saw a bit on the other. This keeps you on track. It also allows you to saw off thinner slices than you might think. Then finish with the jack plane. Trick of the trade. Never plane what you can saw. Never chisel what you can drill.

Fancy American planes are Lee Valley and Lie Nielsen. Non-fancy American planes would be Stanley. If you only want to own one, I'd go with a low-angle plane (as opposed to normal angle) because it works on both softwood (pine) and hardwood (oak). Normal angle works slightly better on hardwood but is terrible on any squirrely/knotted softwood. Emmerich (European) is a cheaper alternative. The difference is that American planes are machined metal tools with knob adjustments. Whereas, the European planes are made out of wood and requires a mallet to adjust (a 6 year old can learn this). There's also Japanese planes that work by pulling rather than pushing. I don't know anything about those. Keep in mind that a good plane ($300) and a good saw ($100) will cost as much as a powerplaner ($500). I did have the displeasure of working with bad tools in school many many years ago and to me it's not worth the aggravation.

[Slevin]

You didn't say how long it was, but regardless, this is a lot of work. I used 4x4s in one of my very first projects to learn how to square and make panels (it was the top of a small bench for the RV. This is now the table for my scrollsaw). IIRC, I used a #5 (standard jack plane).

72 feet of 6x6s altogether. Assuming it would take 2-3 days by the estimates above to plane the rough cut 6 x 6s down to nominal(? not sure if right word. 5.5 x 5.5 size). Considering the time investment, yeah, ouch. Yeah, and considering tooling acquisition cost for the plane, just using a guide and a circular saw on either side is probably the smart and correct move here.

[Slevin]

Just sharing some photos from my rucks in the past couple weeks when I decide to actually leave the neighborhood:



An old old redwood grove nearby. It has one redwood tree in the reserve that’s growing 3 other redwood trees from its gigantic limbs 70 or 80 feet up (not pictured, impossible to get the scale correct or even start to capture the magic).


Same as above.



Park filled with Oak trees 10 mins from my house during a nice chill after work ruck.


A rare (rare here on this continent and maybe the only one in the state, not rare overall) New Zealand silver tree fern located in a bog / wetlands turned exquisite botanical reserve. The place run by the local retired / semi retired horticulturalists and barely anyone knows it exists.



Nice bridge with baby redwoods (less than 100 feet high) at the same reserve.


A magical forest-eaten gazebo.



Beautiful pond that’s gotten some fun algae blooms right now. I’m about a month all the greenery will start to come into bloom and make it insane shades of all the colors.

Getting in any exercise around here is really rough as you can see, because it’s hard to find anywhere worth waking around . Tbh the crazy thing is that scenes like this are a dime a dozen around here, and the whole state is just barely populated at all once you go 30 mins north of here.

[shaz]

Thanks for sharing the photos! Those are lovely places.

Mortgage cost providing "spending anchoring" is an interesting idea. I've been trying to decide whether to pay off our mortgage. I was paying it down diligently but got sidetracked when the market was down. We still owe $45k which would be very easy to pay off but I hate selling stocks. It's a dilemma. Reading your thinking is helpful.

[Slevin]

Well the market is back up now! And its too snowy outside to do anything else except pay off the mortgage anyways (wait, I don't remember if you are on the front range or not, but if not its probably snowy anyways).

[thef0x]

Writing here on your journal even though the originating thread was on Axel's podcast page, hope that's cool! viewtopic.php?p=260600#p260600

My add-in is that the theories of motor-learning have been going in different directions recently...

I thought this paper to looked a lot like formal empirical evidence for the book "Atomic Habits" (decent but would've been better at ~50 pages like most practical nonfiction books).

Thank you for the share, that paper was super interesting.

\\

Hypothesis this paper inspired in me: going on an intense short term dopamine fast while doing super intense work/learning/training will maximize gains.

Pulsate this b/c compliance is nearly impossible on a long term basis.

Guessed mechanism of action + existent analog:

Reducing total variety of reward inputs for a short time enables 1) the brain and kidneys to recover from excessive superficial/(heterotelic?) dopamine production (fast food, porn, etc) and as such 2) increases the amplitude of dopaminergic activity during the purposeful skill development / learning that one is trying to accomplish. Learning/skill development net gains are higher because the other external inputs are dampened on purpose to increase the amplitude of that super specific learning.

Literally modulating & amplifying neurotransmitters via abstinence to enhance learning (instead of taking an supplement/medication/chemical/redlight_therapy/external input).

^^ The easiest pop culture analog to point to is boxers who stop ejaculating a week before a big fight (sexual abstinence and testosterone*). This might be a jumping off point. I need to do real research here, I'm sure this is not a new idea.

Adjacent observation: Perhaps this is part of why meditation feels so healthy (big stretch here).. we're training the muscle of interrupting/noticing indulgent mental patterns and lowering their volume/impact/sway in doing so. We're removing those superficial dopaminergic thought/behavior patterns (ex: winning an imaginary argument) to create space for a deeper impact of the ordinary beauty of consciousness itself. Addendum: long distance / 4+ day backpacking might overlap here as well.

Maybe this is a vaguely modular strategy when it comes to human motivation in general.

I can't say I've tried to sit in an empty room for a week and read hard books to see if it's any easier but I'd suspect it is. It just sounds harder in every other way (thus super short bursts to mitigate super low compliance). Crazier yet: some people are able to sit in a room for 10 days straight saying nothing!

Maybe they're onto something.


* https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11760788

[ertyu]

It just sounds harder in every other way (thus super short bursts to mitigate super low compliance). Crazier yet: some people are able to sit in a room for 10 days straight saying nothing!

CG Jung didn't like it how there was electricity in his main house so he moved out to a ... hut?

[Slevin]

I’m apparently a few days late to the party… but oof, Huberman is looking pretty bad these days huh? I’ve long found him a bit too narcissistic for my tastes and his podcasts and recommendations to be more hype than substance, but this is a whole other other level. Really brings to bear the question of how much can you separate the man from the research and wellness advice…

Usually when someone is a con artist at this extent it tends to leak into more than just one domain.

[Slevin]

@thef0x sorry I’m a bit slow on the reply here, been chewing this for a while.

Yes I pretty much agree with the outlook. Deep insane dives will output the most amount of gains, but tend to burn out compliance after short periods or unless you live like a “x” monk in a village where people also most just work in “x”. I highly recommend the monk style approach, it will in short order show you what your limits are, and if there are enough other people around who have the experience, you can quickly gain even more skills in “x”. It is, unfortunately, mostly incompatible with romantic relationships as you just spend all your time working on the thing.

My local maximums usually tend to be around 6 hours per day of active practice, but if you build the active / planning + recovery cycles correctly you can get higher than this, especially with god tier genetics and while you are young. As you hit your 30s, this starts to drop off a good amount (assuming physical thing here), and I’m intrigued if exogenous hormones would fix that, but unwilling to find out. When it’s mental, I also tend to break around 4-6 hours strenuous effort, but other people claim to be able to go longer, so it might depend on your genetics again…

[frugaldoc]

I’m apparently a few days late to the party… but oof, Huberman is looking pretty bad these days huh? I’ve long found him a bit too narcissistic for my tastes and his podcasts and recommendations to be more hype than substance, but this is a whole other other level. Really brings to bear the question of how much can you separate the man from the research and wellness advice…

Usually when someone is a con artist at this extent it tends to leak into more than just one domain.

That was an interesting read. A bit surprising but not overly so. Something about Huberman always triggered some warning signals in the back of my brain. Perhaps it is because most basic science faculty I have known have very active research lives and wouldn't have time for all the podcast appearances. While I didn't fall under his spell, I sometimes worry that I may be for Cal Newport. I understand wanting to make money but at some point aggressive monetization starts to detract from your message. They mention AG1 in the Huberman article; that same product has been promoted on Newport's podcast several times. As well as many others making dubious scientific claims. I fear he will turn into another Ryan Holiday trying to monetize philosophy. May be I am just jealous of Holiday because I discovered the stoics before him (1994- bought a Penguin Classics copy of Seneca's letters and fell in love) yet never figured out a way to profit from them.

[Bonde]

I’m apparently a few days late to the party… but oof, Huberman is looking pretty bad these days huh? ...
Usually when someone is a con artist at this extent it tends to leak into more than just one domain.

Thanks for sharing. Seems like awful and hurtful personal decisions. Though not much criticism of his profession. I mostly listen to his interviews with experts and find those interesting. Maybe academic critics are holding back because they don't want to hurt their careers. So I guess I agree that there most likely are other problems.

[Slevin]

Yes; I wonder if a certain level of boringness is a trait to be chased in people to listen to. Fame is apparently a helluva drug.

To the monetization point… it’s tough. Staying relevant in social media often requires *constant* updates, which means constant development / maintenance of ideas, which makes you end up spewing off nonsense and misses as much as hits. Taleb says if news only happened when there was news, then often the news would be 3 seconds long, with sporadic times where it runs excessively long. But because they are incentivized to chase ratings and viewership, you end up with what the news is now. This is the same with a weekly podcast / weekly blog post / etc. The pay / monetization structure/ algorithm demands constant posting, and so the content quality starts going off the rails quickly, and starts chasing viewership, etc. And if you let that eat you, it will sound like you are just peddling that one idea you had once for the hundredth time in order to get paid.

I.e. You should put out content when you have good content, not when the algorithms tell you to. But also I understand people having sponsors in the podcasts… everybody has to eat.