Sizing the solar system vs the Milky Way

Edited 2018-09-26
I wanted to get an idea how freakishly large the Milky Way is. So I worked this out. Distances may be estimates but should be close enough for my purposes here.

The Milky Way has a diameter of about 100,000 light years (LY). And the solar system has a diameter of about 9.09 billion kilometers, or 0.000961 LY. You can already see the very large difference between the two: 10 to the ninth power, or a factor of one billion (1,000,000,000)
I had originally tried to liken the Milky Way to two American football fields, but after further consideration, it's just not big enough to truly express size here. I will revisit this.
Also, as a curiosity, a FIFA certified soccer/football field is about 110 yards long, so it's actually only a little bit bigger, so the numbers wouldn't be that far off.
I will post again when I have a better way of expressing the size.

Tight schedules are doomed to be upended

It's very important to have flexibility in your daily life, particularly if you are susceptible to anxiety and depression as I am. If you feel like your day is stacked like an unstable Jenga tower, where one errant block removal or addition could topple the day and leave only chaos in its wake, it's time to step back and reconsider. Is everything you have scheduled or planned for the day really necessary? Does it have to be done today?

If it does have to be done today, you should add planning for more time and energy than you expect. As a result, you will need to bump some things out of the schedule. The phrase I coined for myself is "Shit happens, and in short order". If you have extra time planned around events, then you have leeway to handle things that life throws at you, and your overall stress decreases.

Ego and "I-go"

The technical definition of "ego" is the self, i.e. the amalgamation of your memories and thoughts and emotions. I propose a new word "I-go" which will take the definition of the stereotype of ego, where a person asserts themselves before anything else. Note that the new word includes "I", naturally in first position in the word.

Morning programming

Since I wake up with a pretty empty head, I'm going to try programming myself for a good day with affirmations like these.

Exercise leads to better health, better energy, and a better feeling about life.

Sleep leads to better health, better energy, and a better feeling about life.

Working toward goals leads to better health, better energy, a better feeling about life, and increases my collection of accomplishments.

I have no obstacles preventing me from working on my goals.

How do I get new ideas?

To answer the general question of "how do I get new ideas", I suggest the following.

Look around for a problem to solve (they're EVERYWHERE), and using your knowledge and experience, solve it. If the idea doesn't seem to have been worked on much, then you may have a new idea.

If you want to know what I mean by "find a problem to solve", I have some suggestions there as well. In your daily life, look around for tasks that could be solved in a better way. You can also look for situations that irritate you, and come up with different ways to alleviate the issue.

I like to use the "infinite sandbox" method of solving problems, i.e. "If I had infinite time and infinite resources, how would I solve the problem?" Sky's the limit

For example: I was in a McDonalds drive-thru, looking at an overfull garbage can, and while I was waiting, decided to work out ways to either alert people inside the store that it was full and needed cleaning, or a way for it to clean itself automatically, e.g. an underground store for trash and a method to move the trash down there when full.

Hope this helps. Lemme know if anyone has suggestions for tweaking this.

On work

Profit requires either trickery or work, and the former is usually illegal and/or immoral.

Working solely on a subject matter is not enough. Working for exposure is also required. Thus, I estimate a career is 70% work on the subject, and 30% work exposing it to others.

Ideas to increase personal productivity

If you want to be less lazy, you need to periodically get up even if you don't want to, and do something. You may need your significant other or an alarm to reminder yourself.

To be more productive, make a productive space to work in. When you are in that space, work hard. If you stop working, leave the space. That will help train yourself to work in that space.

Also, make that space a professional space. Make it like a serious art studio or company desk. Being in a professional environment makes you feel professional, and work becomes more enjoyable.