If you repeatedly fail to thread a needle, something is wrong. Stop brute forcing it and fix the problem.
If the eye of the needle is too narrow...
- Hold the needle perpendicularly so you can see the entire eye, rather than trying to thread through an angled slit
- Use a threader
- Use a needle with a bigger eye
If the thread is too thick...
- Cut the thread at an angle opposite the twist
- Wet the thread to avoid fraying
- Twist the thread tightly
- Fold the thread and push through the fold instead of the end (the center of doubled thread is often thinner than a fraying end)
- Thread through one strand, then clip the other strand and use the first to tug it through
- Use thinner thread
If you're missing or bouncing off the eye...
- Hold the thread closer to the end for better control
- Slow down when you push the thread into the eye
- Push the thread further through the eye before attempting to pull it out the other side
- Rest one or both hands/arms on a stable surface to reduce jitter
- Use better lighting
- Switch hands
- Take five deep breaths while looking at something far away, then try again
I could list more, but you get the point. I do one or two of these things to successfully thread a needle on a normal day, but even with my smallest needles on my worst days I've never needed more than five.
How is it even possible to fail, with this many fallbacks?
Now apply this to everything else.
Threading a needle is the simplest, most mundane task I could think of. Pure dexterity check with a single clear start and finish state. There's still multiple points of failure and many ways of solving each.
How many more potential troubleshooting steps are there for all the things you struggle with every day? How many did you try before giving up?
There's always another way.
Give up because you've determined it's no longer worth the effort, not because you've decided it's impossible.
Some things are impossible, but not most of the things you care about.
- Rew
Nightly Notes
I've been having terrible days due to circumstances outside my control. There are good mitigations, but not perfect. I'm still filled with this ambient discomfort at all times.
I think the writing is keeping me sane, gives me a reason to get up and start doing things.
That's nice.
- Rew