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opinion:frater_secessus:beginner_mistakes [2019/11/01 13:53] frater_secessus [relationships] |
opinion:frater_secessus:beginner_mistakes [2019/11/02 16:52] frater_secessus [money] |
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====== Common beginner mistakes ====== | ====== Common beginner mistakes ====== | ||
There are many blessings and victories in van life; this article is not about that. It's about the various ways to fail, to skin our knees, to waste money, time, and resources. | There are many blessings and victories in van life; this article is not about that. It's about the various ways to fail, to skin our knees, to waste money, time, and resources. | ||
- | ===== advice ===== | ||
- | Good advice can save time, money, and heartbreak. But getting good advice is not simple or even natural. We have to slow down and force ourselves to think about the issues, our questions, the existing body of knowledge, the answers we receive. | ||
- | The most important thing is no matter what advice you get or take, **it's your life and you have final responsibility for it**. Your decisions are your own. Make them wisely. | ||
- | ==== failure to ask good questions ==== | ||
- | The first step in getting good advice is to **ask good questions**. | ||
- | * get a handle on what it is you want to understand | ||
- | * [[opinion: | ||
- | * when you hit a wall //then// ask for help. No one likes leeches, princesses, helpless snowflakes, or the lazy who expect others to do the work for them. | ||
- | * express your request as clearly and simply as possible | ||
- | * indicate what you do know, [[opinion: | ||
- | * use human-readable style. | ||
- | * write a concise and specific title. | ||
- | ==== failure to judge advice ==== | ||
- | When advice comes in, consider the source: | ||
- | * is the responder a salescritter with a vested interest? | ||
- | * is the responder a partisan of some kind: anti-Renogy, | ||
- | * is the responder an idiot, a zero-experience dreamer, a poorly-informed blowhard, a black/white thinker? | ||
- | * did the responder read and address your questions? | ||
- | * is the advice upvoted/ | ||
- | * does the responder have experience and/or training in the area? | ||
- | * does the responder expect you to believe him/her as gospel? | ||
- | * does the responder use absolute language like "you should", | ||
- | * does the responder seem irrationally emotional or invested in your decision? | ||
- | Does the advice pass a sanity test? Does it seem possible and worth of follow-up research or questions? | ||
- | None of these preclude the advice from being correct, but do take these factors into consideration. | ||
- | ==== failure to take good advice ==== | ||
- | There are folks who come up with foolish ideas then want others to give them support and encouragement. | ||
- | - OP posts a harebrained idea with the unhelpful title of "will this work??????????" | ||
- | - experienced ' | ||
- | - OP gets mad -- they' | ||
- | - ' | ||
- | - OP is never heard from again | ||
- | This behavior is expected from 7th grade boys who have fantasies of building the best, fastest, most epic fast/ | ||
- | ===== research ===== | ||
- | |||
- | Generally speaking, any question a beginner asks has already been asked/ | ||
- | |||
- | So **the first step** to getting a grip on any new topic is to **look for existing FAQ articles**. | ||
- | |||
- | If you are on a forum look for " | ||
- | |||
- | Here are [[communication: | ||
===== planning ===== | ===== planning ===== | ||
Line 316: | Line 274: | ||
* **overpaying for " | * **overpaying for " | ||
+ | ===== research ===== | ||
+ | Generally speaking, any question a beginner asks has already been asked/ | ||
+ | |||
+ | So **the first step** to getting a grip on any new topic is to **look for existing FAQ articles**. | ||
+ | |||
+ | If you are on a forum look for " | ||
+ | |||
+ | Here are [[communication: | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== advice ===== | ||
+ | Good advice can save time, money, and heartbreak. But getting good advice is not simple or even natural. We have to slow down and force ourselves to think about the issues, our questions, the existing body of knowledge, the answers we receive. | ||
+ | The most important thing is no matter what advice you get or take, **it's your life and you have final responsibility for it**. Your decisions are your own. Make them wisely. | ||
+ | ==== failure to ask good questions ==== | ||
+ | The first step in getting good advice is to **ask good questions**. | ||
+ | * get a handle on what it is you want to understand | ||
+ | * [[opinion: | ||
+ | * when you hit a wall //then// ask for help. No one likes leeches, princesses, helpless snowflakes, or the lazy who expect others to do the work for them. | ||
+ | * express your request as clearly and simply as possible | ||
+ | * indicate what you do know, [[opinion: | ||
+ | * use human-readable style. | ||
+ | * write a concise and specific title. | ||
+ | ==== failure to judge advice ==== | ||
+ | When advice comes in, consider the source: | ||
+ | * is the responder a salescritter with a vested interest? | ||
+ | * is the responder a partisan of some kind: anti-Renogy, | ||
+ | * is the responder an idiot, a zero-experience dreamer, a poorly-informed blowhard, a black/white thinker? | ||
+ | * did the responder read and address your questions? | ||
+ | * is the advice upvoted/ | ||
+ | * does the responder have experience and/or training in the area? | ||
+ | * does the responder expect you to believe him/her as gospel? | ||
+ | * does the responder use absolute language like "you should", | ||
+ | * does the responder seem irrationally emotional or invested in your decision? | ||
+ | |||
+ | Does the advice pass a sanity test? Does it seem possible and worth of follow-up research or questions? | ||
+ | |||
+ | None of these preclude the advice from being correct, but do take these factors into consideration. | ||
+ | ==== failure to take good advice ==== | ||
+ | There are folks who come up with foolish ideas then want others to give them support and encouragement. | ||
+ | - OP posts a harebrained idea with the unhelpful title of "will this work??????????" | ||
+ | - experienced ' | ||
+ | - OP gets mad -- they' | ||
+ | - ' | ||
+ | - OP is never heard from again | ||
+ | This behavior is expected from 7th grade boys who have fantasies of building the best, fastest, most epic fast/ | ||