Stuff that makes you effective and productive.
I’ve got a soft spot for learning methods.
Anything that promises to be a productivity hack gets my attention. This video is a quick and sometimes brutal overview of how to study, it’s aimed at students but works for everyone.
Also, I wish I’d found it earlier because I’ve already implemented a number of those techniques on my own. Watching a 12 minute video would have been a much faster way of doing it. Read More
We humans are obsessed with easy and free.
The five minute workout. The sweepstakes giveaway. The 10 simple ways to increase your productivity. Seven habits of highly successful people. Three core rules of effective leadership.
All of this is a result of our biology. Read More
Once upon a time in the dark ages of economic history, the human being was a rational agent.
We evaluated what we want, and found the cheapest way to get it. This, of course, had nothing to do with how humans act in reality. Instead, there came the much simplified theory of behavioral rewards.
It said that the brain creates neural pathways, using dopamine to reinforce or suppress them based on the rewards it’s received. This, too, proved wrong. Read More
There is an element of chance in everything we do. Call it chance, fortune, Lady Luck. Call it whatever you want. But it means that if you did great today, you’re doing worse tomorrow. Here’s why.
Imagine that you have an amazing writing day. Let’s say that you managed to type in 4000 beautiful words in a single afternoon, producing four times as much as you normally do. Everything is great. You’re totally on a roll. Read More
I’m switching web hosts, and nothing is working.
The problem is that I’ve changed the domain registrar, the people who make sure this web site is in the global internet address book, together with my web host. Unfortunately, the address change hasn’t spread to the rest of the internet.
So whenever someone types wiltgren.com into the browser, they’re being directed to my old web host instead of my new web host.
It’s a very minor thing. Just a little switch of direction. And yet, it make everything I do flawed. Read More
Hank Green, as in John Green’s brother, as in the brother of the GreenLit-king, as in, well, you get the point. He’s talking about something that I’ve had trouble with, perfectionism, and not doing anything because I can’t go all the way. Well, 80% FTW, baby! Read More
I like to fool myself that I’ve got a fairly decent sense time. This, of course, is utter hogwash.
Humans live in relative time. We simply do not know how time passes, we can’t feel it, can’t predict it. And it’s doing pretty weird things to our sense of self, or rather our sense of accomplishment. Read More
I have a dream. I dream to be a professional writer. You know, a professional writer. Who’s, you know, professional and stuff.
Until very recently I had no idea what being a professional writer meant. I had a vague idea that I wanted to get paid for writing, and that I should be able to make a living from my writing and game design combined, so that, you know, I wouldn’t need to go to work anymore.
I bet that you’ve had that kind of dream: if only I’d strike it big/win the lottery/accidentally buy a Ferrari made out of solid gold I’d be able to retire, live my dreams and eat lunch in my pajamas[note]I no longer eat lunch in my pajamas. Not only do I need to set a good example for the kids, but I no longer find bread crumbs in bead to be sexy.[/note]. But it never happens does it?
That’s because this kind of dream relies on magic. If only I’d magically get X, then Y would be easy. But magic doesn’t exist in the real world[note]Because we’re all Muggles[/note]. That’s why you need a Mission Statement. Read More
I’m losing my will to write. I’m losing my will to design. In fact, I’m losing my will.
And I should have seen it coming.
I’ve learned some things about myself, things that I can’t seem to change. First off, I’m a carrot type of guy. I work best when I’m motivated by positive feelings. Negative motivation, stress, and pushes don’t work for me. And I know that I’m not alone. Read More
Ours is not to reason why, Ours is but to do or die[note]Contrary to popular belief, this has nothing to do with the US Marines, Iwo Jima or the Battle of Ypres. The original quote, “Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do and die”, comes from the poem “Charge of the Light Brigade” by Tennyson, and translates to: “damn, what idiots”.[/note].
What a load of bullshit.
The ability to reason why is central to human experience. It is what drives us to purposeful action and what separates us from the animals – experiments have shown animals to be able to reason (horses, for example, can do arithmetic on the level of a 4-year-old), be optimistic or pessimistic (shown in both birds and mammals using colored coded learning/unlearning models), and learn to read and write (dolphins can learn a symbolic language and use it to communicate with humans, as do chimps). However, no experiment has managed to show that animals have the ability to self-analysis.
Humans do. And it’s one of the most powerful tools we have when it comes to productivity. Read More