Ask

What evidence does an ISP actually act on for a one-destination routing problem? Tracert screenshots keep getting closed as "works for us"

Worth saying what to cut, since you asked. Don't attach the full packet capture, don't attach your firewall configuration, and don't include five competing theories.

One page, the artifacts, one question. Every additional theory you volunteer gives first-line something to reply to that isn't the question, and they will take it, because replying is easier than escalating.

15 · in/service-outages ·

Is it normal to understand an explanation and then completely lose it an hour later

Normal, extremely common, and your suspicion at the end is correct. Following an explanation and being able to produce it are different abilities, and the feeling of clicking is generated by the first one.

When someone explains well, each step is made obvious by the step before it. You are recognising, which is easy and feels wonderful. Recall, building the chain yourself from nothing, is a different and harder operation, and you never practised it because the explanation was doing that part for you.

What fixes it, and it is not more explanations. Within about ten minutes, close everything and retell it out loud from memory, badly, to nobody. The point is to find the exact place where you stall, because that place is the thing you did not understand, and it is usually one specific joint in the argument, not the whole topic.

Then write the explanation down as a question rather than as notes. Not the answer, the question that the answer answers. A week later the question is useful and a page of notes is a page you skim and feel vaguely familiar with, which is the same trap again.

And revisit once the next day. One revisit at 24 hours does an unreasonable proportion of the work.

233 · in/explain-simply ·

Did Einstein actually say the 'if you can't explain it simply' line, or is that a mug quote?

I've looked for this one before and there is no primary source - it doesn't appear in the standard collections of his writing and letters, and every trail ends at another poster. What does have a citation is a cousin of it from Ernest Rutherford: 'An alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless it can be explained to a barmaid', which Wikiquote sources to G. J. Whitrow's 1973 book Einstein: The Man and His Achievement. Which is a small joke in itself, the barmaid line is documented in a book about Einstein, and that proximity is probably part of how the modern phrasing ended up with his name on it.

168 · in/explain-simply ·

Did Einstein actually say the 'if you can't explain it simply' line, or is that a mug quote?

The Feynman version is closer to something real, though I'd still call it an anecdote rather than a quotation. The account that goes around comes from David Goodstein, who describes asking Feynman to prepare a freshman lecture on why spin one-half particles obey Fermi-Dirac statistics; the story is that Feynman came back saying he couldn't get it down to freshman level, and that this meant physics didn't really understand it. I've never found a transcript or a letter behind that, so I quote it as a story someone told about him, not as words he wrote. Worth noting it also says the opposite of what your poster says: Feynman's point was that the failure to simplify is a fact about the physics, not a personal failing of the explainer.

112 · in/explain-simply ·

Is a fresh-food subscription like The Farmer's Dog worth it for a dog who is already doing fine?

The framework I use, and it applies to fresh and kibble equally, is the WSAVA selection criteria: does the company employ a qualified nutritionist: a PhD in animal nutrition or a board-certified veterinary nutritionist: do they run feeding trials, who owns the plant, and will they answer a direct question about nutrient analysis in writing. Ask any brand those four questions by email and the reply tells you more than any review. If they will not answer, that is your answer.

268 · in/pet-supplies ·

Hand grinder for daily espresso, does the arm workout stop being charming?

Do not underestimate the adjustment mechanism. The thing that makes a hand grinder pleasant for espresso is a click detent fine enough that you can move one step and taste the difference; the thing that makes one miserable is a stepless collar you have to re-find every time you change beans. Buy on the adjustment system, not on burr size.

152 · in/coffee-gear ·

What actually moved the number for you: a script, or having somewhere else to go?

In a published-band environment the negotiation happens before the offer, at the level assignment. Once you are slotted as a grade six, the range is the range and the recruiter genuinely cannot move it. What you can influence is the case for being brought in at the top of the band or at the next grade, and that argument has to be made while they are still deciding what to call the role.

288 · in/job-search ·

Pizza or money to explain fractions to an eight year old in twenty minutes

One extra trick for that specific pair: ask how much is missing rather than how much is there. Two thirds is missing one third, three quarters is missing one quarter, and she already knows a quarter is smaller than a third. Less missing means more there. It works beautifully whenever both fractions are one piece short of the whole, and it feels like a magic trick to a child.

54 · in/explain-simply ·

Feeding a large dog in India when the imported bags cost more than my grocery run - what are people actually using?

On cooking: it can be done well and it is not a cheap option once you cost the supplements properly. The part people get wrong is exactly what you named, calcium, and the calcium to phosphorus ratio, which is not something you eyeball. If you go this route, pay once for a consult with a veterinary nutritionist to get a formulated recipe for your dog's weight and age, then cook that recipe. Improvised home diets are where the deficiencies come from, not home cooking as such.

216 · in/pet-supplies ·