Random things i know that may be useful to others

This is a living post. I add to it whenever I remember. Last update: 2026-06-26

Table of contents

You can just stop hiccups by focusing

To dumb it down, a hiccup is when your diaphragm (the muscle below your lungs that makes your breath) is out of sync with your nervous system. the brain panics and tries to get air quickly. Then it keeps going in a loop because each hic re-triggers the next. You’ve probably heard of various hiccup cures like holding your breath, drinking water, getting jumpscared.

Around a decade ago somewhere on the internet I saw a post by someone saying you can stop hiccuping by relaxing and getting your breathing rhythm back. and it worked! Best way I can explain:

1. Close your eyes
2. Start breathing slowly. You’ll probably hiccup as you do this. that’s okay.
3. Notice the effect of breathing and the hiccups on your nervous system, do you feel on high alert? tense? do you anticipate the next hiccup?
4. Notice how your lungs and diaphragm move
5. Visualize them getting in sync, sortof like a wave from the diaphragm up to the lungs.
6. Repeat until you notice your nervous system relaxes (less worried about next hiccup)

Might take a while first time, but once you get a feel for it you can usually do it in less than 30 seconds.

You do not need to be good at meditating. You just need to pay close attention to one specific sensation until the reflex lets go. Works 100% of the time.

The secret trick for 100% successful high fives

This one is not as useful but still kinda cool. Everyone loves a mighty high five with that slap sound. On the other hand, fumbling a high five with a feeble thun is pretty embarassing.

To avoid being shunned by society for your misfires, all you need to do for a succesful high five is to look at each other’s elbow. Your palms will follow and meet to create a beautiful symphony of human cells and other unsanitary organisms. Not a glance too, full on watch it until the crescendo. Both people do this, and the hands meet perfectly - every time.

You don’t need shampoo (nopoo)

This one might be controversial but I’m living proof so I don’t mind.

I have thick, curly hair. I have not used shampoo in more than a decade. People compliment my hair regularly. And no - it does not stink.

Shampoo is a detergent. It strips sebum, the oil your scalp produces, off your hair and skin. That is the whole point. The problem is your scalp’s job is to produce sebum, so when you strip it, your scalp compensates by producing more. You get oily roots, dry ends, and a cycle that keeps you buying bottles.

What I do instead

I rinse with water. That is most of it. Occasionally I do a diluted apple cider vinegar rinse if I went to the pool or beach or my hair gets too long.

The only exception is during/before getting a haircut, as the sebum makes it super hard for my hairdresser to manipulate my hair. She washes my hair and in a week it’s back to normal.

”But doesn’t it smell?”

Shampoo marketing has rewired our instincts.

Hair that has not been stripped of its natural oils does not smell bad. It smells like hair. My wife would tell me. My coworkers would tell me. Nobody has, because there is nothing to report. People are actually shocked when I tell them I don’t use shampoo.

Fair warning: first time you try this, your scalp will be very mad and overproduces oil while it recalibrates. It will suck, and after about 2 months your hair will actually suck - this is known as the “Ugly af barrier” (coined by yours truly). Most people quit here. But not you. You can push through it. Luckily for me, when I went through it I was living in my co-founders studio basement. No girls allowed.

More entries coming as I remember them.