Thoughts

[darwinrlo]

Admitting Mistakes

It is emotionally difficult to admit that you've made a mistake. Kudos to those who are able to feel the typical emotional resistance but press on ahead anyway -- you are virtuous and to be admired. Another way to overcome the aforesaid emotional resistance is to reframe this activity: It is not that your value is being reduced; in actuality, you are building up credibility, which actually increases your value to others. This change in mindset makes admitting mistakes feel like victories as opposed to losses.

[darwinrlo]

Dogma is not judgment.

[darwinrlo]

For salads, carrots should be raw and shredded. If they're to be part of a mix of steamed vegetables, they should be sliced.

If tomatoes are to go into a salad, they should be cherry tomatoes that have been halved. Grape tomatoes are not as good, but they can be used as a substitute. Tomato slices are more suitable for sandwiches. Big tomatoes should be halved, roasted, and served for dinner.

Sliced cucumbers go well in salads.

One difficulty with buying a 1-lb box of mixed greens for one person is that they go back about a third of the way through. So it seems they're suitable if three people share it. For one person, a small box should be purchased.

[darwinrlo]

I believe that the idea of segmentation, which is prevalent in growth hacking, should be ported to science.

[darwinrlo]

xkcd, Dilbert, and PHD Commics are excellent filters for interesting areas to investigate. Could there be room for Startup Comics?

[darwinrlo]

Use writing to explore a problem or question: to come up with insights and to iterate on your opinions. Writing could be an essay -- or it could be a tree in Workflowy or Coda.

Putting intuition into words is not a trivial task. Significant time and effort need to be allocated to this activity.

To facilitate putting your insights into practice, work on being able to verbalize them using speech. This makes them available to be summoned when they are called for by a situation.

For new or challenging things, prefer to use writing to think things through. For simple or repetitive things, prefer to think things through out loud. For things that are new or challenging, after the initial hard effort, work on making them simple and repetitive.

The things that you're able to verbalize using speech are the things that are available to you when you're put on the spot, such as during an interview or a competition. It is an undeniable reality that you will be in a different mental state when you're in these situations.

When you're verbalizing something, it's important to use your own words. Do not simply memorize someone else's verbalization of a thought.

pgbovine: "I write a ton on my personal website, mostly as a way of clarifying my own thoughts. Writing is how I think. I don’t truly understand something until I get it down on (digital) paper." Source

[darwinrlo]

When you're anticipating an upcoming meeting, you notice the things that come up that relate to the meeting. Even if they are not directly related to the meeting, they may make you think of things to bring up at the meeting. Overall, you get ideas that may be worthwhile to present at the meeting.

These ideas must be captured.

And for these things to happen, you have to believe that the meeting will happen. The same is true for other upcoming events, such as interviews.

(This post is an example of leading with a specific example and then generalizing it to a broader class that the example is part of.)

[darwinrlo]

This is a truly amazing book.

How a Writer Works (Roger Garrison)

Of course this book would be going for hundreds of dollars on Amazon.

[darwinrlo]

One function of art is to give expression to feelings. Another function of art is to show what is possible, for example, to "paint" a vision of reality that we feel drawn to aspire to.

Film is a critical art form. And it is more feasible than ever -- due to services like Master Class -- to learn acting, directing, and other aspects of filmmaking.

Mathematical tools are important for self-expression also. Abstract algebra is key for program analysis.

Discrete math is also important. Though it should be taught using a programming language.

[darwinrlo]

Keeping a journal where you write your thoughts is a high-return activity.

On a regular basis, you transform your feelings, which are just patterns, into a concrete form that can be used: observations, insights, or even conclusions.

Also, you get practice putting your feelings into words. Being able to put things into words is prerequisite for being able to grasp abstract concepts.

So is being able to visualize things using diagrams. So the ability to draw is also very important.

[darwinrlo]

I would start any new project in Rust. It seems to have the best mix of protections versus performance.

[darwinrlo]

Instead of A, say B.

A: I am absolutely sure that X. B: I feel very confident that X.

A: We should do X. B: We may want to do X.

[darwinrlo]

When you're right, it's empathy. When you're wrong, it's projection.

[darwinrlo]

This is a very common strategy (perhaps personality type).

You have likes and dislikes. You tend to avoid things you dislike, and you gravitate toward things you like. Your likes and dislikes are determined by past experiences and your biology.

[darwinrlo]

Asymptotic complexity is extremely important for anyone to understand. The idea that some algorithms are much better than others is key.

Most people use Bubblesort. They should be using Quicksort (or nowadays, Timsort).

[darwinrlo]

Alexa can be used to make voice memos.

[darwinrlo]

An important personality trait is how long it takes and how much information you need to come to a decision.

"Disagreeableness" -- readiness to engage in conflict.

The Big 5 is pretty good. Though it's not complete.

[darwinrlo]

Language and speech need to work with us.

A pro is..... A con of that idea is.... A mitigation for that con is.... The feasibility of that proposal is.... A half-baked idea is... Another option is.... We should add this to the backlog....

Instead of I think that X, use I wonder if X. Instead of I think it'd be a good idea to X, say It might be a good idea to X.

[darwinrlo]

Meditation

• Each exercise during meditation, once performed sufficiently, leads you to a mental state that is specific to that exercise. By paying attention, you'll learn and be able to recognize these mental states. Do not move onto the next exercise before you have reached the target mental state of the current exercise. How much time and effort it takes to reach that mental state will vary day by day.
• If after reaching a state, continue to do the exercise as long as you feel that you are deriving benefit. At the same time, if you feel you have passed the point of diminishing returns, move on.

[darwinrlo]

Everyone wants you to follow their system. Certainly draw ideas from other systems, but follow your own system.

[darwinrlo]

You can have vigorous debates with someone as long as you provide reassurance that they are the final decision-maker and they feel secure that they are the final decision-maker.

[darwinrlo]

Many people cannot understand answers to questions they didn't ask.

[darwinrlo]

I’m a big fan of using tasty accompaniments to make my veg more palatable.

Here are some of my favourites: chilli, soy sauce, parmesan, miso paste, olives, peppery extra virgin olive oil, pesto, fresh herbs, spices and hummus.

6 Ways to Make Vegetables Taste as Good as Potato Chips

To keep the fat and calorie count down, use a small amount of oil and add vegetable broth or chicken stock as the vegetables cook to keep them from getting too browned or sticking to the pan. While you can sauté almost any vegetable, it works best for leafy greens such as kale, mustard greens, or spinach.

Foolproof Ways to Make Vegetables Taste Good

[darwinrlo]

It's important to have a mindset that is a close match for the circumstances at hand. For example, your expectations must be realistic. On an individual level, having unrealistic expectations inevitably leads to frustration and disappointment. It also brings down the group. Bad moods are contagious, and worse, you might place blame on others. Fairly or not ー whichever one it is, it hurts morale and thus productivity.

When you're working on things with a lot of uncertainty, most things will not work out. Even when they do, they will not work out as planned. The typical person will go into everything expecting things to work out as planned ー well, it is atypical to be successful.

Goals and plans are essential tools for making good things happen. They point us in a promising direction. If we don't achieve the specific goals or our plans have to change, fine ー we win as long as good things happen.

[darwinrlo]

You need to develop a healthy dialogue with your subconscious.

You cannot solve problems. You can only take patterns [1] that are presented to you by your subconscious and see if you can convert them to concrete solutions.

[1] Feelings, half-baked ideas

[darwinrlo]

It might be important to remember my dreams.

It is possible that they are artifacts of our subconscious and that they may provide raw materials that are needed for fruitful directions of inquiry.

[darwinrlo]

Our capacity to remember isolated facts is limited. And even when we do remember them, we tend to forget them after some time. It takes a lot of maintenance -- typically the practice of spaced repetition -- to preserve our ability to recall isolated facts. On the other hand, our capacity to remember facts woven together into a narrative seems to be without limits.

This makes sense. Weaving facts together into a narrative confers utility upon them, whereas the utility of isolated facts ("trivia") is unclear.

[darwinrlo]

In order to work intensely for an extended period of time, you have to use time boxes and you have to take breaks. And your breaks have to be rejuvenating. It's a lot like running intervals on the track.

Pomodos are one form this could take. My system is similar: I just work from X:00 - X:45 and take a break until the start of the next hour. I find that I typically need to meditate in order to recover from the just-finished interval and feel fresh at the start of the next.