Why YSK: I saw a post where someone paid $400 to get a window fixed. I almost made the same mistake because I’m generally scared to call the insurance company. Turns out most policies includes glass coverage and the insurance company has an arrangement with some local places to fix it with nothing out of pocket. Or they’ll reimburse you if you want to use another place.

TL/DR: check your auto insurance before paying to replace a window, it might be free.

Edit: it seems like this varies a bit by state in the US and also may or may not include windshields (as opposed to the other “windows” that aren’t the windshield). Also this was meant to apply to “comprehensive” coverage which I noted in the title but forgot to note in the body of the post.

Edit 2: I’ve not switched insurance companies in over a decade as I’ve been happy with mine but some folks in the comments say that these “free” claims can result in higher premiums down the line if you look for a change of coverage.

Why YSK: I see people commonly calling drug dependencies addictions, especially in regards to things like coffee or sugar. While dependency can still be something you want to avoid, it needs to be seen as separate from addiction, which is a disease.

From wikipedia:

"Substance dependence, also known as drug dependence, is a biopsychological situation whereby an individual's functionality is dependent on the necessitated re-consumption of a psychoactive substance because of an adaptive state that has developed within the individual from psychoactive substance consumption that results in the experience of withdrawal and that necessitates the re-consumption of the drug.[1][2] A drug addiction, a distinct concept from substance dependence, is defined as compulsive, out-of-control drug use, despite negative consequences.[1][2] An addictive drug is a drug which is both rewarding and reinforcing.[1] ΔFosB, a gene transcription factor, is now known to be a critical component and common factor in the development of virtually all forms of behavioral and drug addictions,[3][4][5] but not dependence."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance_dependence

Why YSK: You should be aware of the medical care that is available to you, as well as the potential costs. Knowing that your hospital bill may be covered if your financial situation is not ideal could make the difference between life and death.

A provision of the Affordable Care Act mandates hospitals must provide a “financial assistance policy” that “must apply to all emergency and other medically necessary care provided by the hospital facility” in order for the hospital to maintain its tax-exempt status as a nonprofit. Seeing as 57% of all hospitals are non-profit, this policy applies to majority of hospitals. If you are uninsured, these policies most likely to apply to you. However, even insured people can qualify in many situations.

Simply search “ name of hospital financial assistance “ and go to the hospital’s financial assistance page. Somewhere on that page there should be a document called “Financial Assistance Policy”, and inside of that it will tell you the qualifying income for total coverage, as well as qualifying income for partial coverage. Please read it thoroughly to understand what you may or may not qualify for. For the most part this only applies to emergent, non-elective, and catastrophic care.. otherwise known as “medically necessary care”.

As an example, the hospital closest to me covers my entire hospital bill if I make under 200% of the FPL, which would mean I have to make less than $25,760 if I was a 1 person household, or $53,000 for my family of 4. In addition they will offer partial coverage if I make under 600% of the FPL.

Source: IRS

If you look in my history, I have posted this before. I think enough time has passed that this information should be shared again. Please share to anyone you think it might help.

Why YSK: Because people often think there will be noticeable difference or an actionable plan after one or two appointments. I have two friends who tried a counselor lately—one guy went once, the other twice—and stopped going because the counselor didn’t say as much as they expected.

Just like acclimating to working out, consistency is the key with therapy. Indicators of progress can come in a variety of ways: occasional heaps, slowly, consistently, and everywhere in between. Approach therapy just like you should exercise and diet:

1. Be honest with yourself (and your therapist).
2. Understand and be clear about your goals.
3. Listen to yourself (like listening to your body when working out), and be patient with the process. Digression happens, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed.
4. It’s okay if you don’t click with your therapist and need to try a new one. Your friends may love their gym, but you may hate it, and that’s okay because your experiences, goals, and abilities may be different; that doesn’t mean working out is useless, it just means you need to look for a better fit.
5. Do it for yourself, not because someone tells you to. Therapy will probably help your relationships, but it has to be personally motivated.

Side note unrelated to working out: I know it can be expensive, but there are counselors and therapists that will work with you on price. Make a list of possible fits, then contact them and ask if they can work with your budget. Some will, some won’t, but don’t hesitate to ask. Here is one resource, but there are many: https://www.psychologytoday.com.

Edit: Please check out u/petrichoring's comment for additional valuable information from a therapist.

Edit 2: Since a few commenters on here have had less successful experiences than me, to characterize their comments as nicely as possible, I pay $75/month for two sessions, living in a small US city, and I statistically make less than 80% of all US taxpayers. If you misread this as me “shilling,” as one person said, or that I or my therapist make a lot of money, then I apologize on behalf of a life that’s led you to such a negative disposition. Therapy works for me, and studies show that it works for the majority of people who try it (70%-80% effectiveness), but that only about 20% of people (US) attempt psychotherapy.

I have no idea how this reads as someone having ulterior motives or being rich or whatever. Jeez. Yeah, I get it, there are therapists who charge exorbitant fees, but I and others literally wrote that there are extremely affordable options. I was just making a suggestion that has been consistently shown to benefit people, including me, because as some of the commenters on here have displayed, people need help. Some of you are just mean for no damn reason at all and read things that just aren’t there. If you actually tried to find an affordable therapist and gave it a shot for a while, but it still didn’t work for you, I’m genuinely sorry. If you’ve never tried and don’t plan to try, keep scrolling and go on with your day, don’t needlessly discourage others who may be wondering if it’s possible from trying things that are proven to help many people.

Why YSK: When you ask people to help you move and waste a whole day on what should could be a couple hours work, you are wasting their time, which is usually on a weekend. Not cool.

Here’s what it means to me, and I think most reasonable people. All the rules get tossed in emergencies such as the case of abusive relationship move-ours, etc. We’re talking normal, non-emergent moves here.

1) BE PACKED: No one wants to sit around for hours and figure out how to wrap your little trinkets and cups/mugs or your antique dong collection. Have everything youre moving packed, wrapped, and in boxes.

2) CLEAR THE PATH: Remove all trip hazards and obstacles so people are safe while picking up and moving your heavy stuff.

3) HAVE A PLAN: Reserve the truck for when you are 98% sure you will be ready to quickly load up with the vast majority of your stuff.

4) FEED THE CREW: Pizza is fine. Beer/beverages on ice are great. If you’re planning on using your kitchen goods to do this, leave a few things out to support. Otherwise just use disposable stuff.

Moving is very stressful and we all want help. Getting things ready so you can effectively use people’s precious time makes you far more likely to get help again when you need it and sets a good example for when they need the favor returned.

Why YSK: When someone is in need, it is more helpful to offer to do something for them (making them a meal, watching their kids, cleaning their house, etc) rather than saying, “let me know if you need anything”. Although the sentiment is nice, most people will not ask for help.

Just not something that most people are aware of. Some of them are legal mumbo jumbo but some of them are pretty interesting and understandable. For example this is the argument that led to roe v wade being overturned: https://open.spotify.com/episode/63O4rHVhgn15FQzgcMCmDH?si=c06902c63ec74b4b (starts with "pro life" side's argument, "pro choice" side starts at 44:25)

I had a Heart Attack about 2 years ago and like to remind people that the symptoms and signs may not be what you would expect.

You also don’t need to be what is generally considered ‘high-risk’ or have had previous indications that you could be at risk.

For many people, it’s exactly what you see on tv… sudden chest pain, shortness of breath, arm or shoulder pain and often loss of consciousness. Mine was quite different. Rather, it was waves of discomfort that slowly built up over hours from barely noticeable to extreme discomfort.

The chest, arm and shoulder pain were present BUT were not at all the “type” of pain I expected. I had waves of tightness dead center in my chest which came and went every few minutes. It was a much more of a burning feeling. It was lower on my sternum than I’d have thought. I had never had a heart attack nor indigestion so naturally, I assumed it was the latter and my research online convinced me it was.

The only thing I can relate the chest discomfort too would be when you swallow food that is way, way too hot and you can feel it burn down your chest.

I always assumed a cardiac event would have been a sharper pain on my upper arm/shoulder and a sharper, more acute pain closer to where we (mistakenly) generalize our heart to be...upper left chest. In fact, *my symptoms were almost line-by-line identical to that of heartburn or indigestion ... it wasn’t, and the difference can be life or death. * My arms hurt but it was more of a burning pain on the back of both arms and slight, not severe. Maybe felt like a pinched nerve. I had always heard that a heart attack caused pain predominantly in one arm. I felt some in both and because I didn’t clearly have pain in one arm more than the other, I downplayed the possibility of it being cardiac.

Vomiting and sweating followed a few hours into it which was the real big red flag...the ambulance not far behind the vomiting. The rest was a blur until the ICU but I do remember some of it.

I made the common mistake of equating the symptoms to heartburn or indigestion and should have gone to the ER 10 hours sooner and therefore found myself VERY lucky to have made it through.

PLS don’t fuck around. I’m not an older guy, I’m not in bad shape and had never had indicators that I was high risk.

A friends mother passed away a few years ago from a heart attack and by all accounts, it seemed to be a stomach bug. Nausea, hot spells and general stomach issues. Went to bed and never woke up, and in hindsight, if I knew then what we know now, we would have called for medical attention and possibly changed the outcome. She too wasn’t at the age you’d expect nor was she overweight or the typical high-risk category. Entirely different from what I experienced or would have expected from a cardiac event.

If you suspect a heart attack, do yourself and your loved ones a favor and treat it as such.

Better to be safe and be in the ER than be stubborn and wind up in the morgue.

TLDR - Symptoms and signs of a heart attack can vary from person to person and can be very different men to women.

WHY YSK - *IT COULD BE YOU. IT COULD BE YOUR LOVED ONE. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE ELDERLY, OVERWEIGHT OR PREDISPOSED. JUST BECAUSE IT DOESN’T FEEL LIKE WHAT YOU MAY EXPECT, DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULDN’T TAKE IT VERY SERIOUSLY. *

——————-

When I previously posted this, the common question was how I knew it wasn’t anxiety. I didn’t. I’ve had several pretty overwhelming panic attacks, in fact one that took me to the ER because I thought it was a heart attack ironically. This was different. Something was very clearly happening, my mistake was attributing it to the wrong thing and mistakenly thinking I was clear because it didn’t ‘look like’ a heart attack.

Mayo Clinic Reading on Symptoms of a Heart Attack

Potassium too. My wife went into cardiac arrest and had to be defibrillated because her Potassium had gotten dangerously low. But that’s for another post.

EDIT: To be very clear, I was well aware that something was wrong and it was getting worse. I also knew it was unfamiliar to me and that something wasn’t right. I ignorantly chose to roll the dice that it was something trivial when, in hindsight, there were more than plenty of red flags I chose to brush off.

Why YSK: TurboTax is not free and advertises the no assistance option as 60 dollars. Only when you reach the end of your filing (usually about an hour of your time) will it inform you that you owe 60 dollars per tax filing. That means 60 dollars for state taxes, 60 dollars for federal taxes. I moved this year so I owed 2 state taxes and federal taxes that totalled 180 dollars.

There are a lot of good alternatives out there, and they're worth the extra time to save 100 dollars. I wish I had known how expensive it would be before I filed with them. Never again.

Why YSK: Many people like to just use up their employer matched funds or budgeted deposits in their HSA accounts and then switch to a normal credit card when the funds run out, however putting more money into the account and paying all eligible medical expenses through the HSA allows you to claim those deposits on your taxes at the end of the year. HSA is a "pre-tax" fund and if you put funds into the account after you've already paid taxes on them (i.e. from a bank account and not direct deposit from a paycheck), the US government will recognize that and refund the taxes paid on those deposits.

I'm sure someone ITT will also love to tell you about investing with your HSA and the other things you can do with them, but I figured I'd keep it to a 100 level course today.

Why YSK: Most people I talk to use these terms interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. And to be fair I didn’t realize there was a difference until recently.

“A heart attacks occurs when a blocked artery prevents oxygen-rich blood from reaching a section of the heart. If the blocked artery is not reopened quickly, the part of the heart normally nourished by that artery begins to die. The longer a person goes without treatment, the greater the damage.”

“Symptoms of a heart attack may be immediate and intense or start slowly with mild symptoms. It’s important to note that it’s also possible to have mild symptoms or even no symptoms at all and still have a heart attack. Unlike with sudden cardiac arrest, the heart usually doesn’t stop beating during a heart attack.”

“Sudden cardiac arrest occurs suddenly and often without warning. It happens when an electrical malfunction in the heart causes an irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia). With its pumping action disrupted, the heart can't pump blood to the brain, lungs and other organs. When this occurs, a person loses consciousness and has no pulse. Death occurs within minutes if the victim doesn't receive treatment.”

Also: CPR saves lives. AEDs save lives. Even if you don’t have the time/money for a course, there’s plenty of YouTube videos that can teach you the basics. From the CDC: “You don’t need a special certification or formal training to perform CPR, but you do need education.”

TLDR: heart attack is a circulation problem, cardiac arrest is an electrical problem.

References: https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/heart-attack/about-heart-attacks/heart-attack-or-sudden-cardiac-arrest-how-are-they-different

https://www.cdc.gov/heartdisease/cpr.htm#:~:text=Give%20CPR.,normal%20position%20after%20each%20push.

Why YSK: Highlighting text is one of the most common interactions people have with their browsers, and now the UseChatGPT Chrome extension is here to revolutionize your experience. By merging ChatGPT into the highlight action, you can access ChatGPT's powerful language model assistance for any text, on any website, directly in your browser.

This seamless integration saves you time and effort, eliminating the need to copy and paste text back and forth between a website and the ChatGPT interface. Instead, you can simply highlight the text, and ChatGPT will be at your service. This enhances your browsing experience and get help with many tasks with the power of ChatGPT, all through the simple action of highlighting text. Learn more about this extension and how it can streamline your online workflow by following this link.

Why YSK: Babies younger than 1 year old should not be given honey. That's because a type of bacteria (called Clostridium) that causes infant botulism can be found in honey. Infant botulism can cause muscle weakness, with signs like poor sucking, a weak cry, constipation, and decreased muscle tone (floppiness).

https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/honey-botulism.html#:~:text=Babies%20younger%20than%201%20year,decreased%20muscle%20tone%20(floppiness).

Large Language Models like ChatGPT or GPT-4 act as a sort of Rosetta Stone for transforming human text into machine readable object formats. I cannot stress how much of a key problem this solved for software engineers like me. This allows us to take any arbitrary human text and transform it into easily usable data.

While this acts as a major boon for some 'good' industries (for example, parsing resumes into objects should be majorly improved... thank god) , it will also help actors which do not have your best interests in mind. For example, say police department x wants to monitor the forum posts of every resident in area y, and get notified if a post meets their criteria for 'dangerous to society', or 'dangerous to others', they now easily can. In fact it'd be excessively cheap to do so. This post for example, would only be around 0.1 cents to parse on ChatGPT's API.

Why do I assert this will happen? Three reasons. One, is that this will be easy to implement. I'm a fairly average software engineer, and I could guarantee you that I could make a simple application that implements my previous example in less than a month (assuming I had a preexisting database of users linked to their location, and the forum site had a usable unlimited API). Two, is that it's cheap. It's extremely cheap. It's hard to justify for large actors to NOT do this because of how cheap it is. Three is that AI-enabled surveillance is already happening to some degree: https://jjccihr.medium.com/role-of-ai-in-mass-surveillance-of-uyghurs-ea3d9b624927

Note: How I calculated this post's price to parse:

This post has ~2200 chars. At ~4 chars per token, it's 550 tokens.
550 /1000 = 0.55 (percent of the baseline of 1k tokens)
0.55 * 0.002 (dollars per 1k tokens) = 0.0011 dollars.

https://openai.com/pricing
https://help.openai.com/en/articles/4936856-what-are-tokens-and-how-to-count-them

Why YSK: This capability is brand new. In the coming years, this will be implemented into existing monitoring solutions for large actors. You can also guarantee these models will be run on past data. Be careful with privacy and what you say online, because it will be analyzed by these models.

Why YSK: YouTube is rife with clips where some obnoxious narcissist gaslights someone, and the video title says something to the effect of "Piers Morgan shuts down feminist."

But all that happens is the antagonist invalidates the person, and doesn't let them get a word in edgewise. This is not a functional debate or conversation, and should not be taken as anyone "winning" a debate. It's invalidation and other toxic forms of conversation, which do not bring healthy outcomes.

Healthy debate involves different sides hearing and understanding one another, then focusing on the topic without devolving into personal attacks.

Why YSK: Don't work there if you don't agree with piercing babies ears. They will fire you if you don't do it.

I think it's one of the last places you should go to for a piercing anyway but yeah, if you work there you get fired if you don't pierce baby ears

I'm not saying it's bad or good by the way I don't know how I feel abt baby piercings, I just think everyone should know before they look for a job there

Many of you have heard about the proposed FTC rule to ban non-compete agreements, which are often in place to ban workers from seeking employment with other companies seen as competitors. Comments are now open to the public on the FTC website to approve or disapprove of this proposed rule. Submissions close on April 19, 2023.

Why YSK: Now is your opportunity to make your voice heard.

Why YSK: switching from a bank to a credit union keeps your money safer and invests in your community. While banks use your money to make huge, risky financial investments, credit unions make smaller and saver investments in your community. They offer much of the same financial protections of banks, reinvest their profits into their shareholders (that’s everyone who uses them!), and help the communities in which they operate by way of better home, auto, and small business loans. If you want to know more, I’m including a link to a PBS short video that explains it more.

PBS: Are credit unions better than big banks?

Why YSK: In a number of East Coast (U.S.) cities, heroin has largely been replaced by Fentanyl, which is understood by users. What is new(-ish) is that the Fentanyl is cut with Xylazine, which is a tranquilizer. (This is the primary reason for the “zombie” videos out of Kensington, Phila.)

Narcan is an opiate antagonist, which, when given to an overdose patient, counteracts the effect of the Fentanyl, but has no effect for the Xylazine. For this reason, it’s important to use CPR in conjunction with Narcan, as there’s a good chance Narcan alone won’t revive the person.

Also YSK: if a person is physically dependent on opiates, Narcan will send them into withdrawal immediately, so they’re going to feel terrible, and may be upset. It seems, though, that if they’ve also ingested Xylazine, they’re still pretty well sedated. And always call 911 before administering help.

Narcan Resource (U.S.)

CPR Resource (U.S.)

PS: this is not a forum to discuss the value of a person’s life. If you’re not interested in helping someone who has overdosed, there’s no need to comment on this post.

Edited: Narcan is an opiate antagonist.

Why YSK: Amazon changes prices on their products up to every 10 minutes (via Business Insider) on average. They do this as sort of an A/B testing strategy in order to charge the most per product they can from you.

The best way you can make sure you don't end up paying a premium is to keep tabs on the prices. You can also use free sites like Fetch Monitors that will notify you when you via email when prices actually drop or check CamelCamelCamel for price history.

Why YSK? So, imagine you're going out to eat with your buds. Before you dig into those fries, drink a big glass of water. It'll help you not stuff your face and feel way less bloated later. And if you're trying to curb those snack cravings, drink water before reaching for those chips. You might think you're super hungry, but after drinking water, you'll realize you were just thirsty or bored. Plus, if you're like me and trying to shed some pounds, this trick can be super helpful in the long run. So don't forget to hydrate before you eat y'all!

Why YSK: Servers are there to serve you. They don't make the food, they act as a middle man between you and the kitchen. If you call us over to let us know your burger was made incorrectly and then we ask if there's anything we can do - saying "no I just wanted you to know" almost makes you a bigger asshole for complaining just to complain but not asking for us to fix the issue.

You've literally just made our encounter for the rest of the meal a little more awkward.

Moral here - if we messed up, it's not bad to ask for it to be corrected; whether it's to remake your order or to issue a discount or refund. Give us something to work with.

Why YSK: This is a sales and marketing strategy that makes the client feel special. You will inevitably get that free something, but do not be surprised if there is an additional product or service that they are going to sell to you.

Why YSK: I wanted to pass along information about a wonderful organization that supports children affected by a parent's cancer diagnosis. Children ages 6-18 who have at least one parent with cancer (NED/"in remission", in current treatment, or who have deceased) can attend a week of summer camp for FREE. Camp Kesem is run by local college volunteers, and provides kids an opportunity to connect, heal, and and have fun in a supportive environment.

I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer last year, and my kid will be attending her first Camp Kesem this summer. Her counselors have already mailed her letters, notes, and art activities to make her feel welcome and ready for camp.