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Contrary to what a lot of people here have said about boring tasks, I find that's the easiest way for me to get into the zone.

While it may not be my most economically productive part of the day (aka I'm not working on the hard, important problems) there's no doubt that for the 10-15 minutes one of those menial tasks requires, I'm in that special state.

An environmental trigger for me is to play familiar music. It doesn't have to be a special playlist; any album I've listened to >50 times will suffice.

Remaining in the zone requires incremental progress (momentum) which I think is easy to find in a boring, repetitive task that's squarely in your wheelhouse.

The real productivity sweet spot is when you're able to get that momentum going on a valuable project.

Why we travel 11 years ago

I wish I could say that I overstated my claim but that's honestly what it seems like to me.

I understand the desire to seek out novelty through exploration but from what I've witnessed it looks like social media prevalence is a strong driving force (for our generation at least).

The note about responsibilities during that time period strikes me as a valid reason I suppose.

Why we travel 11 years ago

Thank you for confirming that I'm not alone in my curiosity as to why people feel the need to travel at every opportunity.

As a recent college graduate, I've watched a disproportionate number of my peers (willing to say ~75+%) default to traveling as their #1 form of recreation if given the opportunity. I guess I understand the college years are a time for people to "find themselves" but I also cannot find a good, common "why" for this fetishized trend of excessive travel.

IIRC there's a great passage in "Steve Jobs" (Isaacson) that eloquently describes how the iTunes store got people to pay money for music they were previously getting for free.

Here's the Gen-Y version.

I actually thoroughly enjoyed the entire reading experience.

1. Opinion. I had no problem, but to each his own.

2. I will admit that the full-size images hung around for a little too long.

3. Did not encounter this issue.

In my opinion, the methods of presentation (including the lack of ads) complemented the pleasure of my reading experience.

"Without haste, but without rest."

"The only means to gain one's ends with people are force and cunning. Love also, they say, but that is to wait for sunshine, and life needs every moment."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Awesome! I'm actually about to begin work on creating a machine-learning blackjack-playing agent for a CS class project.

Great documentation as well. I'll definitely be referencing this.