Hacking your thoughts

While working on my poker game, I wanted to alter how I was thinking so that I could pick up on the behavior of the other players. I thought of a way to "hack" my thinking to incorporate new thoughts.

Generally, when I'm at a poker table, I have a running commentary in my head about the players and the action, e.g. "This person just did a continuation bet after raising preflop" or "Three people called the continuation bet".

What I thought of is adding more possible outcomes given the start of a sentence. For example, using the thought "This person just did a continuation bet" I can add new thoughts like "... how often do they do that?" and "... the bet was about x% of the pot"

This can also apply to thoughts like "This person tends to fold on the flop after a bet" followed by the new thought "...so I may want to tend to bet if they're in the pot to get them out"

The point is that if I train myself to have various thoughts with the same start of a thought, then my mind will more easily go down those new paths when prompted. Thus I can increase the amount of analysis I do at the table when my normal running commentary triggers one of the new paths.

The Secret of Genius

The secret of genius lies in technical proficiency and grasp and use of abstract concepts.

When a narrow/nice field is practice repetitively, technical proficiency emerges in that field, so that the person can quickly progress through items that would take an outsider a long time to complete.

When someone can grasp abstract concepts, apply them, and form new ones, they are able to bend and break rules for narrow/nice fields and can handle a wider/more wicked field.

An example of technical proficiency is someone who can play a piano or guitar or rapidly calculate math formulae. An example of abstract concept use is a music improvisionist or someone who applies math concepts to non-math problems.

In fact, we use the word "improvising" when we are reacting to situations we are not prepared for.

How I ended up at flexjobs.com and careerpivot.com and what I learned

How did I end up at flexjobs.com and careerpivot.com? I did a search on "generalist job -nurse" (because apparently generalist rn as well as hr is a thing). Then I stumbled across a column at careerpivot.com. That led me to (the author's) podcast. One of the podcasts was an interview with someone from flexjobs.com.

Also of note, I read that in smaller companies where people need to fulfill several roles, a generalist will fare better. In a larger company that can afford to hire enough people to cover all needs, specialists will thrive.

I don't know if people can switch between being a generalist and specialist. I can only speak for my own experience. I think I specialize up to the "adept" stage in any givin discipline, then lose interest. And I don't think I'm likely to change. So it may be true that a smaller company is a better fit for me, and if it becomes a larger company, I would lose my place.

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.