huge87

At work, I frequently receive a large amount of paper that I choose to reuse. I hole punch each sheet and place it onto a clipboard, creating a refillable legal pad. When I finish a stack of pages for the day, I archive them in a large three-hole binder. This approach enables me to concentrate on the content of my notes and writing, rather than spending time on making them visually appealing or neat.

I've been exploring book summary services as a means to narrow down my reading choices. Once I have decided to read a book, I find it helpful to keep the summary on hand to improve my comprehension and keep track of the book's main ideas.

I was drawn to Draper's charisma at the start of the show, as intended. But as all the infidelities, abuses of power, and general narcissism piled up, I grew to dislike him. By the end of the series I felt a deep ambivalence for the man, but that's a testament to how well written and acted the character was.

(Second place is probably "getting good sleep" which has positive benefits for well, just about any challenge your mind faces)

I implemented a system of 9+ hours of sleep the night before an exam; this means I'll be in bed an hour and a half (maybe 3 hours) before my usual bed time. This provides a noticeable buff to my speed, accuracy, and recall on test day.

I just bought Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on Audible. I take book recommendations on HN relatively seriously so I'm looking forward to this read.

This is so funny, I would not have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out.

That's a pretty good sell to me.

For the record, I happen to work for a Berkshire Hathaway company and Geico gives me good rates.

I just picked up How to take Smart Notes. In undergrad a lifetime ago, I remember feeling that my note taking skills were woefully inadequate. My notes became more scattered, less comprehensive, and on the whole less reliable to use as semesters went on.

I think there's something important here to learn, so thanks.

edit: This reading is relevant because I'm going back to school, but I'm part way through and can see this will also be useful for all the books I read about stuff I find interesting. The idea of a slip box to capture, refine, and connect information sounds fun.

I've thought about this for awhile, and I think it's reasonable to read some books in their entirety to better understand certain things (although I will agree that some books are just fluff and can be condensed into a blog post).

Take for instance the Checklist Manifesto, by Atul Gawande. We get it, make checklists because they're good for making sure you don't miss stuff. Got it. But in reading the stories and personal anecdotes, we get a felt sense for why and how we should implement a system of checklists to offload cognitive load so that we can focus on things that require more discursive thinking.

I guess what I'm saying is that you can tell someone to do something, but you may have a better shot at getting them to remember (edit: understand deeply) if you tell them a story. Humans may just be like that.

Not saying these authors aren't trying to hit publisher mandated word counts or whatever, but it may not always be that.

I really like the idea that projects really just consist of "the next step". What do I need to do to advance this project/assignment/thing by one step? Define that and put it away to act on at some point.

It helps me manage feelings of overwhelm.

Same. I had to force myself to continue with the book because I had the same thoughts: goofy, self help.

But I finished it and now implement the system across work and school (back to school in my mid 30s). It was like a level up in terms of how much I can handle at once while simultaneously lowering my levels of stress and increasing the feeling of control.

This is a common thread in many traditions of wisdom. The words change (surrender, accept, be with, open to, observe, witness, feel, welcome, embrace etc.) but the idea is the same: you have to feel difficult emotions fully in order to process them.

Dr. K's Healthy Gamer Twitch stream offered another descriptor I like - digest. Emotions can be digested if you allow yourself to feel them without getting swept away or identified with them.

That which you resist, persists. I could go on, but your comment reminded me that sages and therapists have pointed to the same thing.

I can readily attest to having no taste in music. So much so that criticism of music (in reviews of albums, etc.) is incomprehensible to me; I tried using good reviews as a way to find music I'd want to listen to but discovered that music only serves one of the above functions (looking for a good beat, or whatever).

I can't tell good music from bad; either I like the way it sounds or I don't.

I suspect a fair number of other people are like this. And more power to people who have good taste in music.

Correct. I use YNAB as a system to ensure that every dollar of spending on my credit cards are backed by liquid cash. I'm not going to argue the merits or downsides of something like YNAB; use whatever suits you.

But when that card statement balance comes due every month, it should make no difference because the cash was already deducted from my books when I made the charge.

It takes about an hour to charge, so I just schedule the same time every day to charge it (after I get home from work, while I eat dinner).

Sure it's one more thing to manage, but having it wake me up with vibrate every morning is worth the small hassle.

What did you observe in your friends' driving patterns that was different? I'm very curious.

This is in line with my intuitions; do you have any sources so I can read more?

In general, you can train attention like it's a skill or exercise you practice. Stuff like mindfulness meditation is training of attention.

If we're talking about how social media shortens our attention span then it may be prudent to reduce usage.

More context: https://archive.ph/F7WqX

I'd really like to hear an informed take on this, but I think it's interesting the state has so much power over a billionaire. Is it because political/party power > wealth in China?

My Western intuition conflates the two in that wealth generally provides access to power in all its forms, but I can think of a number of times throughout history where the state can requisition personal wealth at will (don't quote me, I'm no history buff).

I found my childhood to be boring, bordering on depressing. It was literally for a lack of stimulation for the following reasons:

- Only child.

- Invalid mother, so no access to all that entails: no car, no ability to get to places to do stuff, and all limitations related to health concerns.

- Father worked all day.

- I lived in a small, dark apartment with no internet, no cable, and no nearby friends.

Of course a kid is gonna find ways to entertain himself; I wandered the neighborhood, watched broadcast TV, played with my toys, etc.

But the general tone of my childhood can be summed up in a typical weekend: since dad is at work and mom is disabled and sleeps all day, I build my day around the newspaper TV guide. Just boring crap on until I Love Lucy comes on at 4 PM. Fill the cracks in with bouts of random wandering around the neighborhood by myself, but no kids around to play with.

Things changed as I grew and got more agency, but my formatives years of like 0-10 were pretty much this. Not ideal; I therefore have pretty strong opinions about giving my kids structure and access to their interests.

I give Toyota big props for the Prius, which was the original Green Vehicle 15-20 years ago, and still is a HUGE player in the efficiency space. IIRC, The number one vehicle trade-in for TSLA has been Priuses. Was there even a car before the Prius that used regenerative braking? In many ways, Prius "primed" the market for greener vehicles.

And yet, Toyota had no great BEV follow-up

Prius sales trends since debut in 1997 reflect this sentiment in that they were first, executed well, and thus had most of the market. Current Prius sales are dropping off very steadily by year, though.

But to your point on the trade ins, current Tesla Model 3 sales are getting close to Prius' best all time sales of +200K units/year.

https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/total-toyota-prius-sales-figur...

https://www.goodcarbadcar.net/tesla-model-3-sales-figures-us...

They just were severely undeveloped people, who were reactionary and fearful.

This is an accurate way to describe my parents, too. I stopped talking to my dad after my mom died for many reasons including the above. Although I recognize they did their best, I just stopped answering phone calls one day. I didn't think about it; it just came from immense emotional pressure.

In retrospect, it was the right decision for my circumstance. I do appreciate your approach to deliberately keeping your parents at arm's length without cutting them off, though.

n=1 so take it as just that, but I left my dad because we were broke. I suspected a gambling habit after he got evicted from the tiny apartment we grew up in, in the years after my mom passed away and her medical expenses had wiped us clean (cancer).

One day I just stopped returning his phone calls. I was about to fail out of college, broke myself, and couldn't take another phone call from him asking for money.

Anyway, I can imagine someone staying in the picture with their difficult parents if there's an inheritance involved.

In my case, I dipped in large part because of poverty.

This is true at least in part due to the monetization of mindfulness, as a previous poster stated. The import of mindfulness into western culture strictly as a tool to manage stress has turned it into a cure all for general audiences.

There are certainly risks. A long retreat may exacerbate existing psychopathologies like depression due to the extended isolation.

I'd liken meditation to something like exercise. Exercise is good in general, but you still have to manage and work around injuries. I wouldn't suggest you walk 5 miles with a sprained ankle. And so it is with meditation.

But yes, I also figure this isn't talked about enough - especially in the context of mindfulness as a product.

It's usually difficult for people with decent upbringings to even conceptualize why a child might willingly remain estranged from their family. But there are a lot of people out there with really good reasons to do that.

This sums up how I feel about this topic. I read all these accounts of how people's perceptions of parent-child relationships change after they have kids, or how there's still mutual love between them and their parents despite so-and-so, and I understand.

I am well into adulthood with a stable marriage and career; I've been to therapy, and done all things reasonable to heal from whatever it is I came from. By all accounts I've been pretty successful on that front.

But goddammit, when I think about my parents, I move between seething resentment and gratitude that I decided to cut contact. And this is an improvement.

As you say, people with good enough upbringings can't conceptualize why a child might remain estranged from their family; I'd wager they impose perceptions of their own (good enough) parents when making that judgment.

I'm learning how to drive a Porsche 911 cup car in sim.

There's this guy on YouTube who races the car in both real life and iRacing, and he explains how he drives the car fast in both contexts.

His insights probably saved me a lot of work of figuring it out myself.

The same is true for a lot of performance stuff, like racing, or basketball. Basketball coach Phil Jackson writes that when you move quickly, do not hurry or rush. Don’t go so fast that you start making mistakes. In racing, “do easy” is even more applicable. Overdriving the car doesn’t find you much more lap time. The fastest, most consistent drivers are smooth. So yeah, “do easy” or “slow is smooth, and smooth is fast” aren’t as esoteric as they may seem at first.

I agree with your last point. I've done city and suburban living and prefer the suburb life for quiet and space.

good point. my initial reaction to all this was like "but why?" but this is the reason. he brings his social network.

To further your point, I like to imagine that whatever shows up on Earth is gonna be something like a von Neumann probe. Self replicating, probably AI.

That would account for the vast distances a biological body couldn't travel, as well as the violent direction changes you're talking about.

Not hokey at all. It's basically a Kaizen approach to your personal life. "Take small steps/actions", or something like that.

Works for me. I have to be very careful about how I expend my energy, while being aware that many things demand my effort. So everything gets broken down into pieces, and no piece is too small.

I'm getting into Lego as a hobby, and if I'm too tired I'll just do a step. It may or may not lead to more, but there it is.

I like sim racing too, so if I'm too tired to race, I'll boot up the sim and do a few practice laps. Or just one, whatever.