Asklemmy

There is expensive because of brand and expensive because of material quality, do your research.

If "do your research" means take a couple minutes to make sure there aren't glaring red flags about a purchase, then yeah that checks, but I see this phrase used as a more serious concept which just doesn't seem realistic given my experiences.

I feel like if you don't already know what to look for in your specific product of interest it's impossible to do research and have confidence. Like when I don't know where to start and try to research products through a search, I go through so much SEO bullshit in such a short timeframe that I have no confidence in anything I'm looking at, including the stuff that looks like it has a good chance of being legit. Maybe I can find a forum of some sort, but I'll need a way to tell that the users aren't just talking out of their asses (or bots, or paid sponsors). Major review sites are a mess.

The phrase "do your research" is way overstated, because someone who knows what they need to look at is already going to do research and is not the target audience. The time it takes to filter through all the nonsense and form a coherent opinion researching something from scratch is so enormous that it's hard for me to imagine someone actually doing that diligently for anything less expensive than a car. What actually happens is you just give up partway and make your best guess like you would have done in the first place. At that point your research has led you to seeing a bunch of ads and a few conflicting opinions. Yeah, that will influence your decision and possibly be helpful, but the benefits are marginal compared to the time investment, it's rarely worth more than a few minutes if it's not a major purchase.

Or maybe everyone else is a lot better at this than me and I'm making a fool out of myself by posting this.

Merlin Mann has collected his version of such a list here: https://github.com/merlinmann/wisdom/blob/master/wisdom.md

I very much enjoy reading it from time to time, even if I disagree with some of the points.

"Don't do today what you can put off until tomorrow."

I know it sounds like procrastination, but it helps in particular with high stress jobs where things just keep piling on and priorities keep changing. Don't burn yourself out trying to get everything done today.

"Everyone has to start somewhere." and "You're one step ahead of the people who decide to stay on the couch."

This helps with just getting started, like if you are a beginner at the gym and intimidated by those fit people who look like they know what they're doing, or just going solo to a dance class for the first time. Or going on a hike and needing to take a lot of breaks. You're one step better than where you were before you went. At least now you have a starting point and you can only improve.

Also helps when it's cold and/or miserable outside because you know there will be a lot of people who decided to not go out, and you end up with a gym to yourself!

Do stuff for other people and explain until they are like 20% there. Then let them do it themselves and gradually reduce your help.

Thats how my dad did it with a lot of stuff, and I learned so much. Saves you from "mansplaining", from doing free work, from being unempowering.

This makes people feel motivated and you can share your learning experience too, and maybe learn from theirs