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.

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.

Not being a pitchfork in the mob

From my internet wanderings, I observe that people love a punching bag. If they find a person that has erred, they will continue to punch the bag over and over, possibly because it makes them feel better, and particularly if they don't have to see the person's face, get their reaction, and if the person is someone "easy to hate".

Point out the initial flaw, and maybe discuss how to avoid the flaw, and then leave the subject alone. Joining the mob in spitting on someone just harkens back to darker days.

Record memorable moments

If you're in a great mood, you should record how you feel so that when you're not feeling in a great mood, you can relive the good feeling experience and possibly lift your spirits.

In case of mental lightning, take extended notes

Going from the hypothesis that you can get mentally psyched up to work on a project if you remember why you're doing the project in the first place, you need to crystalize that motivation into something you can pull on many times.

One way is, when you get an idea you really want to work on, you write down why you want to work on it, and elaborate. The idea is to be able to go back to this note and get excited enough to continue work on the project, even if the work you need to do is mundane.

Hypothesis on priming your creativity

I've worked out a hypothesis on how to get motivated to work on projects. The idea is to prime the creative pump before you start working.

In some cases, an initial idea or creative spark is what starts a project, something that excites or motivates you to start the project. This will wear off after a short amount of time, but can be revisited after awhile.

To help get your interest going on a project each day, make note of that initial spark and motivation, and recall it before starting work. That should get your mind and creativity flowing, and the work will flow more easily.

Atmospheric things like background music or work area setting can help as well, e.g. a certain song gets you in the mood, or having a certain shade of light helps you get into the right frame of mind.

Feel free to discuss or refine this hypothesis.

Anime lesson: develop your own style

Todays lesson I learned from the new anime New Game!! That lesson is: in art, it is good to mimic existing styles, but generating your own personal and unique style is also important.

New job skill: you

One standard piece of advice is to learn job skills to get a job. Some natural tendencies don’t seem to translate to traditional job skills, and mentors may push these tendencies aside.

I think people should take time to explore their natural tendencies, and see what they can produce after nurturing for awhile.

As an example, let’s say I fancy myself an idea person. Typically, you might think of this as a cop-out, but there can be merit in it. If you take ideas and flesh them put into a strong presentation with a polished sales pitch, it is possible to sell royalties on it.

While this advice may come late for some people, you can go ahead and start nurturing now. If you enjoying, it is good for the soul. If it can pay the bills, bully for you!

Showing off finished work

One issue I have is that I have a ton of little projects and ideas that I start working on and never finish.

An idea I had regarding finishing these things is to show off a finished result to people. That would give a sense of accomplishment and pride, and that would also give me a goal to work toward rather than letting the project lapse.

For me, personally, I would not prefer a hard deadline for such things, as I would feel like it would be more like work than amusement, which would take the fun out of it.

Aphorism on living life well

I have sampled stories from across the known universe and back, yet neglected the story of my own life. You have a deadline to finish your story. Best get to writing it.

Simple exercise in creativity

- Get an empty notepad and pencil or pen.
- Go somewhere far away from your normal haunts.
- Get situated.
- Look around for an object of interest.
- Draw or write about something that the object of interest reminds you of, or anything else that comes to mind.

Example: You see a tree. It reminds you of a torch. Draw a torch that looks similar to the tree.

This helps you see new things in the objects around you. Clouds can be especially helpful. Some clouds can look like spaceships.

Sometimes it doesn't matter what you draw or write, and whether it has any connection to what is around you. Sometimes simply being inspired is enough.

The option of no option

Which would you prefer?

Option 1: Starting out on your own path, likely living with low income at first, but at least living the life you want.

Option 2: Starting out on a path with income, then coming to a realization 10-20 years later that while you have money and other things, you haven't been living the life you want.

The latter is where I found myself recently. It felt like I was basically following what everyone else what suggesting for what to do with my life, or the way to live my life. One reason for my compliance was just that I didn't have a particular direction I thought I needed to follow.

This changes when you decide that following your own beat is, in fact, the way you would like to live. Then other people's suggestions become references that can be used, but should not be followed blindly, and can be outright rejected.

Of course, part of the problem is realizing that you can simply choose your own path from the beginning. In my case, it wasn't presented to me as an option, so I had no idea that it was a valid choice. I don't even fault my parents for that, because they have been as supportive as I could have hoped, and perhaps the option wasn't something known to them either.