I read through the post, and the way it was written, I was expecting it to be an extended analogy for something else. Does "Lubricate Your Keyholes" mean that you need to plan efficient ingress/egress strategies for your cloud services?<p>But no, this was not an extended analogy. This is really just about applying lubricant to physical keyholes.<p>While it is possible that this shaves off a couple of seconds every time you use your key, there are a few things it does not fully take into account.<p>Unless you already have the lubricant at your disposal and understand how to properly use it, you need to take into account the cost and time to acquire it and the time to research how to apply it properly and then actually do the task.<p>That time needs to be subtracted from the time you expect to save via the intervention. And the thing about time is that its value is not static. The author admits as much: "But some seconds are worth more than others, and some seconds have little worth at all." But the author gets the proportion wrong. In the vast majority of cases, you'll likely find that whether it takes you 1 second or 4 seconds to unlock a door, it makes no practical difference to you. Sure, in an emergency, ever second counts, but outside of that (hopefully rare) case, I don't see high ROI.
Skipped down to make sure they don’t recommend WD40 and sure enough they get it exactly right!<p>WD40 is so grossly mis-used. In almost all circumstances it makes things worse over time after making them better in the short term.
> I was surprised by the effectiveness of this intervention. An average of 2.442 seconds saved per entry. If I enter that door every day for a year, that amounts to around 15 minutes<p>Should have considered how much time will be lost lubricating the keyholes (including buying the lubricant, applying it, storing it and so on)
I used spray silicone lubricant on a door lock that was hard to get a key in and out of and it was a massive improvement - highly recommended. I didn't time the improvement but it was night and day.<p>There's been no problem with the lock "gathering dust", so no need to get graphite powder for this job.
I wasted some time reading this article because I recently lubed my keyhole using <a href="https://www.amazon.com/WD-40-300059-Resistant-Lubricant-Spray/dp/B00IAJVVSI/" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/WD-40-300059-Resistant-Lubricant-Spra...</a><p>However I was surprised it wasn't really dry.
I am now left with more questions then answers.
Would this be bad lube for my keyhole?
I can attest to that.<p>I used to rent an apartment that had two locks which opened with the same key. Both would gradually become harder to use until one of them eventually broke, at which point I began to regularly lubricate the other. It lasted past the end of my rental agreement and was much easier to use when lubricated.
<i>Avid readers of practical betterments should note: here I refer to the classical meaning of the word keyhole: a hole you put your key in and not my own definition a hole you put in your key.</i><p>If some of the lubricant gets around the pins, then one is lubricating the hole in the hole you put your key in.
What are the dangers of graphite lubricant?<p>I lubricate my keyholes with it but there is always some that gets left on the key, and I tend to fiddle with my keys at my desk sometimes.<p>Occasionally I’ll get some of the graphite on my hands, or possibly even breathe it in I’m not sure. Should I be more careful with this stuff?
I lolled at the "egress optimization" tag, then followed it and found this other gem:<p><a href="https://practicalbetterments.com/drill-holes-in-your-keys/" rel="nofollow">https://practicalbetterments.com/drill-holes-in-your-keys/</a><p>Makes sense in an XKCD kinda way.
I don't think a page which is basically not particularly compelling content built around an affiliate link deserves to be on HN.<p>Surely we're better than that :(