Daily Lessons & Musings
My goal is to document one thing I learned that day. Sometimes some of the things you learn are so miniscule. But if you add them up, and remember them, they can compound into lessons for life.
6/30/2023: How AI Will Save the World (Andreessen) https://stratechery.com/2023/an-interview-with-marc-andreessen-about-ai-and-how-you-change-the-world/?utm_source=tldrnewsletter
5/30/2023: PM Resource - https://productlife.to/p/the-associate-product-manager-playbook?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2
5/29/2023: Hill climbing analogy - Classic problem in computer science, that is attributable to professional development. Imagine being dropped into a random hilly terrain, and you can only see a couple of feet in front of you (foggy). The goal is to get to the top of a mountain (career aspiration). The simplest algorithm is to take the next step forward that lets you reach a higher point. The issue is that you may be on top of a small hill, and not at the summit of the mountain. A theoretically better algorithm would repeatedly drop yourself off on various terrains, do simple hill climbing, and then after a couple of attempts, decide which hill is the highest. The allure of the present hill is strong, and is backed by behavioral economics. People are much more indexed on short term gains versus long term rewards. Dixon argues that people starting their career should meander in the beginning (randomly drop in different terrains) and when you find the highest hill, don't waste time on the current hill, no matter how much time you "wasted".
5/18/2023: Renting - Renting sucks, not just because you have to pay monthly without the possibility of owning the place, but also because of moving. My one year lease ended, and I had to make the tumultuous pilgrimage to my next apartment. I moved 5 minutes away from my old apartment, but it cost $800 dollars to move my few belongings, and around $1,000 dollars to furnish the new place. I'm not looking forward to moving anytime soon.
5/11/2023: Interesting read on c3.ai. https://every.to/napkin-math/ai-looks-like-a-bubble
Also a thread on how to create a AI chatbot for a book. https://twitter.com/danshipper/status/1620464918515302401
5/10/2023: Grammar (Fewer vs. Less and Many vs. Much) - Very simple, but I've never really codified this rule. "Fewer" is used to modify countable nouns (ex. Fewer than 10 apples). While "less" is used to modify uncountable nouns (ex. Less olive oil). Many --> countable nouns, much --> uncountable noun.
5/8/2023: Power and Prediction: Currently, when humans make decisions, we use both predictions and judgement simultaneously. AI's use case is to help make better decisions by making predictions more accurate and cheap. AI decouples predictions and judgement. Humans naturally use both when making decisions, but AI can only make predictions. With the onset of AI, the opportunity lies in those who have great judgement. Predictions are probabilities in a decision making tree (10% chance if you make X decision, 90% if you make Y decision), while judgement factors in payoffs (if you make X decision, you implicitly receive 100 points of satisfaction, if you make Y decision you implicitly receive 10 points of satisfaction).
4/24/2023: Power and Prediction: AI's use case is help peoples decision making, but its hard when our society is limited by rules. We give everyone the same product (same # of ads for Pandora), and same education (rule is 1 teacher per 20 students, everyone in the grade learns the same thing) which limits the decisions we make, and value we create. Another prime example is the rule during the pandemic, that everyone should stay at home. If we had AI to better predict who is actually exposed, the world would not have had to be in lockdown.
4/23/2023: Pandora - Pandora currently has an AI system that is able to determine the optimal number of ads to give to a certain user. Some users don't mind a lot of ads, while some users are very sensitive to the number of ads. In an optimal environment, Pandora would give everyone a different number of ads to reap the most amount of value. But if consumers find that Pandora is doing this, many people would stop using Pandora all together.
4/15/2023: Habits - This week I felt super busy and unfocused at the same time. I felt really distracted by my phone. It's crazy how habits that I've formed for the past few months decay rapidly after a couple of bad days. It's so much easier to create bad habits than it is to create good ones.
4/7/2023: Occam's Razor - Is a problem solving principle that recommends that the best solution are made up of the fewest possible set of elements. In other words, "the simplest explanation is the best one". This can be applied when there are two opposing solutions. Occam's Razor suggests that the all things equal, the less complicated solution is the better one.
4/5/2023: Who vs. whom - The usage of "who" vs. "whom" depends on if the person is serving as the subject or object. If the person is functioning as the subject, use "who", if the person is functioning as an object, use "whom". One strategy is to replace who/whom with subject/object pronouns such as "he" vs. "him".
4/4/2023: Cardio Musings - I've recently started playing soccer again. I used to play soccer all the time as a kid. I remember I was given the moniker the "Pocket Rocket" because I was small, but fast. Unfortunately, I'm now just small. I realized through playing soccer that I need to improve my fitness. While I have been going to the gym for a couple of years, I've never really done any cardio. As a naturally small guy, I dreaded doing cardio because I felt like it would make me lose weight. Now, I'm a little bit less vain. I care a little bit less about how I look, and I hope to add some cardio in my fitness routine to not only be better on the soccer pitch, but also be healthier. Even though I know running is good for me, I absolutely detest it. I find the act of running to be so boring.
4/3/2023: "That" vs. "Which" - Many native English speakers don't know how to properly choose between "that" and "which". They are both relative pronouns, which refer to another part of the sentence. "That" and "which" both should never be used to refer to people, and are only used for objects or ideas. "That" is used with restrictive relative clauses, which is when the clause restricts the sentence and adds meaning to the sentence. "Which" is used with nonrestrictive relative clauses, and are for sentences that do not provide essential information to the core meaning.
Examples:
Juice that is frozen lasts for months. "That" is the appropriate relative pronoun as it restricts the sentence, and makes it clear that the sentence is not about all juice, just about frozen juice.
Mt. Everest, which is the tallest mountain on Earth, has lured adventure seekers for many years. "Which" is the correct relative pronoun as the clause does not provide any information essential to the core meaning. Removing "which is the tallest mountain on Earth" does not change the meaning of the sentence. Also, Mt. Everest is the only Mt. Everest, so using "that" would be inappropriate as it is already restricted.
4/2/2023: Boring life? Musings - I recently met with a friend who was visiting town. We caught each other up about what we've been up to. My friend seems to be really living it up in NYC. She hangs out with friends almost every single day, drinks a lot, and goes to bed at 2 am. In contrast, I told her my weeknight usually involves going to the gym, studying for the GMAT, cooking food, gaming, reading, and sleeping before 10:30 pm. As a 25 year old, am I living a boring life? I'm honestly not sure. While its obvious that both lifestyles are far from perfect, on my deathbed, will I regret this period of my life?
Another related thought comes from today's sermon. The core message of the sermon was that our daily actions/habits prepares us for the extraordinary situations. This reminds me of James Clear's (Atomic Habits) axiom. "You don't rise to the levels of your goals (aspirations). You fall to the level of your systems.
4/1/2023: Consecutive even integers - The product of consecutive even integers are divisible by 2^n*n!.
3/31/2023: Traveling Musings - These past few months and next few months are a period of travel. Traveling is expensive, and tiring, but I never regret spending money on experiences with my friends.
3/30/2023: 11 divisibility rule - For an inter, add up the odd digits, and subtract the sum of even digits. If the difference is 0 or 11, then divisible by 11.
Ex. Is 86,416 divisible by 11?
Odd digits sum = 8+4+6 = 18
Even digits sum = 6+1=7
18-7 = 11 thus divisible by 11.
3/29/2023: Negotiations - Over the past few days, I've been in the process of looking for a new place to live. I like my current apartment, but its far too expensive. So I've been trying to negotiate with my leasing agent. While I was able to save over $200 dollars per month on my rent, I decided against living at my current place, and moving to a new apartment. During my negotiations, I honestly shared my max price I was willing to pay. Unfortunately, they countered with an offer higher than my max. I think I felt somewhat disrespected as in the offer email, they did not acknowledge that they missed my price expectation. Maybe the lesson is that when sharing my true max price, I should inflate it, so their discount is pegged to the larger number.
3/28/2023: Growth hacking - Creative marketing methods that deviates from traditional marketing, and instead uses engineering solutions to "hack" growth without a huge marketing expenditure. (Started reading Hacking Growth - How Today's Fastest-Growing Companies Drive Breakout Success).
3/27/2023: How to sum cells diagonally.
=SUMPRODUCT((ROW($C$3:$G$7)-MIN(ROW(C3:G7))=MIN(COLUMN(C3:G7))-COLUMN($C$3:$G$7))*($C$3:$G$7))
3/26/2023: Evaluating a business plan you need answers to these 7 questions.
- The Engineering Question - Can you create breakthrough technology (10x better) instead of incremental improvements?
- The Timing Question - Is now the right time to start your business?
- The Monopoly Question - Are you starting with a big share of a small market? (One of the core messages of the book - escape competition)
- The People Question - Do you have the right team?
- The Distribution Question - Do you have a way to not just create but deliver your product?
- The Durability Question - Will your market position be defensible 10-20 years down the line?
- The Secret Question - Have you identified a unique opportunity that others don't see?
Many companies blame circumstances when things go awry (ex. It became impossible to compete with China in terms of cost). But that's something businesses should have thought about (The Durability Question) and planned for.
3/25/2023: Big data is usually dumb data - While computers and algorithms get more and more powerful, they can analyze larger amounts of data. But they cannot compare patterns, or interpret complex behaviors. That is the main complementary benefit of humans. This topic relates to me a lot, as I work heavily with data. But my value add should be obtaining actionable insights from data.
3/24/2023: Will my job be replaced? - This is a thought a lot of people have with the rise of people talking about generative AI. While Zero to One was written before this boom, Thiel argues that technology and humans are complements. Technology isn't looking to replace us (their ambitions aren't to earn money/buy a beautiful coastal home). While I agree with this argument, I think it only hits the surface. What about the people who own the technology (founders) who can employ less people, and gain the benefits of productivity? Thiel's counter argument seems to be that current technology can't beat children in some things. For example, a algorithm trained to identify a picture of a cat was only 75% accurate, but a 4-year old child would have 100% accuracy.
3/23/2023: Product vs. Sales - According to Thiel, many engineers think that once they build the best product, customers will instantly flock towards it. Thiel instead argues that the best product, without a distribution strategy is a failed product. He believes that a company with a great product, but no sales will fail, compared to a company with a mediocre product, but a great sales strategy. I wonder what my companies sales strategy is, as we are a real estate marketplace. We sell an expensive (10's of thousands of dollars) financial product to investors, while simultaneously not selling a product that costs anything to homeowners upfront (as the cost is a share of appreciation). My thought is that shouldn't product > sales? Think of looking for an apartment. The leasing agent walks you through the apartment. They can be rude, and disinterested, but if the apartment is nice, theres a high chance you lease from them. Having a superior product, makes sales much easier. Conversely, imagine touring a shady, dilapidated apartment. No matter how good the leasing agent is, there's no way you'll sign your lease there, unless they offer heavy concessions (discounts). If they do, is that an effective strategy, or is that a poor sales strategy as your rents are much lower than that of competitors?
3/22/2023: Numbers (LCM and GCF) - When calculating the Least Common Multiple, you first prime factorize all the numbers, and then take the largest power of each common and uncommon factor and multiply them together.
GCF = Take the prime factorization, and then multiply the smallest of the common factors (has to be shared by ALL numbers).
Ex. LCM and GCF of 15, 18, 24.
15=(5^1) * (3^1 )
18 = (3^2) * (2^1)
24 = (2^3) * (3^1)
LCM = (3^2) * (2^3) * 5 = 360
GCF = 3^1
3/21/2023: Numbers - If 90!/15^n is an integer, what is the largest possible value of n?
Step 1: Break 15 into its prime factors (15=5*3).
In 90! there are fewer 5's than there are 3's (as 5's show up every 5 numbers, and 3's show up every 3 numbers). Thus, the greatest possible value for n is dependent on 5, rather than on 3.
Step 2: Division shortcut
2.1 90/5 = 18
2.2 90/5^2 = 3
2.3 90/5^3 = 90/125 = 0
Step 3: Add up all the quotients
18+3 = 21
Largest possible value for n is 21. 90!/5^21.
3/20/2023: Numbers - If a number (such as 5!) has a 5x2 pair, it has to end in a 0 digit. So any factorial greater than 5! (ex. 14!) contains 5!, so thus will end in a zero. The number of 5x2 pairs in the number, leads to the number of trailing zeros. 14! = 14*13*12*11*10*9*8*7*6*5*4*3*2*1 and has 2 5*2 pairs, meaning it has 2 trailing zeroes. 87,178,291,200.
3/19/2023: Rabies - I randomly came across a Reddit post about rabies. One of the comments mentioned that once rabies symptoms settle in (fever, headache, hydrophobia), the mortality rate is essentially 100%. There is no cure. It is relatively easy to contract rabies (getting bitten by an animal infected with rabies), but it is statistically very low occurring. Hydrophobia is one symptom because rabies makes the person have difficulty swallowing and so they can panic in the presence of water.
3/18/2023: Zoo - I went to the SF Zoo today. All the animals seemed depressed being stuck in their enclosure. I feel like humans are not good stewards of this Earth.
3/17/2023: Fear - I started a new project at work. What I realized is one of my first reactions to the unknown is fear. What happens if I can't do the project? What if it's too hard? I try to convert this uneasiness into positive thinking (what skills can I learn from doing this project?), and I hope to use this "anxiety" to work hard.
3/16/2023: Planes - Boarding a plane is one of the most stressful experiences. Why don't planes board passengers who sit in the back first? There must be a better way to board a plane.
3/15/2023: Thiel's Law - A startup messed up at its foundation cannot be fixed.
3/14/2023: Secrets - If you don't believe in secrets, you think that the world is already completely solved. If you think something is impossible, you'll never even try to achieve it. This is the same case for building great businesses. Secrets are best found where people aren't looking.
3/13/2023: Future view: Thiel argues that our worldview on the future can be explained in 2 dimensions: Definite/indefinite and optimism/pessimism. "If you treat the future as something definite, it makes sense to understand it in advance and to work to shape it. But if you expect an indefinite future ruled by randomness, you'll give up on trying to master it" (Thiel). Thiel argues that indefinite perspectives create most of the dysfunction in today's society. In the indefinite POV, "process trumps substance": when people lack concrete plans, they use formal rules to assemble a portfolio of options. An example is our education system, where students seem to just collect extracurriculars to show universities how well rounded they are. In contract, a definte view favors firm convictions, by choosing something substantive, and working tirelessly on that one aspect. Thiel argues that the US is indefinite optimistic. Meaning that most US people are optimistic about the future, but aren't sure how, so won't make specific plans. They expect profits, but see no reason to design concretely. Instead of working to build a new product, most people just rearrange existing ones. Baby boomers grew up in an environment where technological advances happened without any of their own efforts. Thiel argues that the US needs to go back to a definite future.
3/12/2023: Avoid competition, embrace monopolization - Seems to be the main argument of Peter Thiel's book, Zero to One. Thiel argues that monopolies are actually good for the world. If we live in a perfectly static world, then a monopolist is just a rent collector, as they could simply raise prices, and consumers will have no choice but buy their goods. But we live in a dynamic world. People can create new, and better things. Creative monopolies can give consumers more choices by creating more categories (good for society, maybe debatable), but also provides incentives for innovation. If people aspire to build a company like Google (a monopoly in several dimensions, classically search), because monopoly profits for many years is a huge incentive.
The problem with perfectly competitive businesses is that they have to focus solely on profit. They have to squeeze out every bit of efficiency to stay afloat (ex. grandma on the cashier for a restaurant). While companies like Google, don't necessarily have to worry about competition (different today with OpenAI/Microsoft). Because they don't have to be as concerned about competition, they can focus on caring about their workers, their products, and their impact on the world.
3/11/2023: 0 to 1 - Globalization is when things that are done today, are spread to other regions (1 to n). An example is China, who have been copying things that worked for the current developed world. Spreading the treaded path.
0 to 1 progress is technology. Doing things in a completely new way.
3/10/2023: SVB - Silicon Valley Bank closed by regulators. The startup I work at was also affected as we bank with SVB. Our payroll system also runs through SVB, so our payments were delayed.
3/9/2023: How to calculate total number of factors of a number.
3/8/2023: Commuting 2-3 hours for work is pretty draining. Luckily I choose to go in only once a week.
3/7/2023:
3/6/2023: Boredom - I was listening to Cal Newport's podcast with Lex Fridman while cooking when I heard an interesting theory on boredom. Cal and Lex were discussing Cal's book, Deep Work, which I'm currently reading. One interesting revelation that Cal shared about was on boredom. In his view, boredom is a fundamental human instinct, similar to that of hunger or thirst. They are important for humans because without the sensation of hunger or thirst, they would die. Cal believes that boredom is an instinct meant to drive us to action (in order to not feel bored), and that recently, humans have become out of sync with it. Using hunger as an example, modern humans now have junk food, which satisfies that craving easily, and we have gone out of sync with hunger, and most of society is pretty unhealthy. We used to have this drive to action, but now we are overloaded with distractions (i.e. social media). Cal seems to argue that we need to embrace boredom, and have it be more regular in our lives. Or else our mind will form a Pavlovian connection between boredom and stimuli. Now our brain thinks that as soon as we get bored, we will get stimuli (opening instagram/tiktok/youtube) whenever we're bored. And once this connection forms, we will have a hard time focusing.
Side note: Super cool resource my coworker shared with me: https://addcontext.xyz/. This is an AI-powered assistant that lets you ask questions based on popular podcasts, books, videos, and websites. While I was listening to Cal/Lex's podcast while cooking, I also was able to reference their discussion on boredom using this site.
3/5/2023: Grammar - "Who"/"Whoever" vs. "Whom"/"Whomever". The pronoun "who"/"whoever" is used when acting as the subject as the sentence, while "whom"/"whomever" is acting as the object (and receives the action). One strategy to identify which is the correct pair is by replacing the pronoun with "he" or "him". If "he" works, it is "who", and if "him" works, it is "whom". Grammar is hard...
3/4/2023: Zero to One - Peter Thiel has a book on startups called "Zero to One". The book was based on a Stanford CS course (CS 183) that he taught. The lecture notes are apparently more radical compared to the book (which has been heavily edited to fit the masses). https://blakemasters.tumblr.com/peter-thiels-cs183-startup
3/3/2023: Fundamental Attribution Error (Cognitive Bias) - Refers to the tendency in which we attribute other people's actions to their character/personality, while attributing our own behavior to external factors outside of our control. For example, if a coworker is late to a meeting, we may think of them to be lazy or rude. But when we're late to a meeting, we excuse ourselves. We have insight into our lives, and situational factors, but we don't know what's going on in other peoples lives. We should probably give others some benefit of the doubt, but instead, we use limited information to make judgements.
3/2/2023: Richard Feynman - Is one of the greatest teachers in Physics. One attribute of his that makes him different is that he challenges the way things are done. For example, he aims to explain complex physics concepts in simple terms. He believes that if you can't explain things simply, you don't understand it well enough. This kind of reminds me of First Principles thinking.
3/1/2023: Sturgeon's Law (Cognitive Bias) - 90% of everything is crap. Principle founded by Theodore Sturgeon, who is a science-fiction writer. He made this observation by noticing that in other fields, most things were of poor quality, and thus science fiction is no different. This can be applied to all things. 90% of all books are crap, so you have to make sure you discern which one is worthwhile. Often times I find that when I read something I assume it to be 100% true. But this mental concept reminds me that I should think for myself.
2/28/2023: Confirmation Bias (Cognitive Bias) - Human tendency in which we search for, favor, and use information that confirms one's existing views on a certain topic. This can lead to flawed decision making. An example is when an executive has a "great" idea for a product launch, and asks his team to do market research. The market research is a dupe to confirm the executive's bias. And his employees will conduct the research knowing what their boss wants. Its hard to overcome because as humans, we always want to be right. To overcome this, we can try to phrase questions as neutrally as possible ("What does the data say the best product is" vs. "What does the market think about this product").
2/27/2023:
2/26/2023: LLM - Large Language Models (like ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, Google's Bard) goal is to produce "reasonable continuation" of the input text using statistics. For example, if the prompt is "The best thing about AI is it's ability to" it will search this prompt in billions of human text (from its models) and see what comes next. After finding the next word, it will continue this process (given this next word, what should the next word be?). It won't always pick the highest probability next word, as then each prompt will result in the same answer.
2/25/2023: Wine - Tannins are naturally produced in wines (usually reds) that add a bitterness/acidity to the wine. A lot of wine drinking and tasting is subjective. There are no "wrong answers" in wine.
2/24/2023: Etude - Means "study" in French. I visited Etude Winery, and their study is on the pinot noir (grape variety).
2/23/2023: The industrial revolution indirectly caused a collapse of the family/small community and replaced it with states and markets. Historically, the family and immediate community around us were our doctors, insurance plans, retirement fund etc. But we've largely removed our family out of the equation. Family is mostly our emotional core.
2/22/2023: Career Coaching - One realization I had was that I regularly put myself down, and think things are impossible. I want to change that mindset to be more positive.
2/21/2023: Capitalism - Capitalism and consumerism are two sides of the same coin. The poor buy (consume) while the rich invest.
2/20/2023: Performance - Today I went to a Lang Lang piano concert. While he played the piece masterfully, I don't think he would have been as good, if he didn't perform with flair.
2/19/2023: Star gazing - I went star gazing with my friends. We had to go to an empty parking lot in the middle of nowhere to see the stars. The stars were so beautiful. Its pretty crazy to think that in the past, people could see the stars regularly.
2/18/2023: Capitalism - Is built on trust. Because we believe in the system (governments, financial systems etc.) we reinvest what we earn.
2/17/2023: Thinker vs. Doer - I chatted with an executive at my company. I asked him why he decided on Operations. He explained that he is naturally a strategic thinker, but never had to act on any of his work. So he transitioned into Ops to work on execution.
2/16/2023: Communication in the work place - Similar to yesterday, I realized how important communication is in the work place. I'm currently working on a project that other people were also working on. So I reached out to them to align and tackle different aspects of the project.
2/15/2023: Communication - Communication is super important. I think we often take more granted our family members. What I realize is that you can't just assume things for family members. Still need to communicate!
2/14/2023: The Hidden Agenda of Science - Science only flourishes in alliance with religion or ideology. The ideology justifies the cost of research, and influences the scientific agenda, and determines what to do with the findings.
The Scientific Revolution Feedback Loop: Science depends on the mutual reinforcement of science, politics, and economics. Political and economic institutions provide the resources for scientific research, and science provides new power, to obtain new resources.
Scientific Revolution (1500+) is actually a revolution of ignorance. Science is based on ignoramus - 'we do not know'. Before the revolution, people looked to premodern traditions of knowledge (religion) to answer questions.
2/13/2023: Databases - I met a HS friend who recently founded a company. Her company's solution allows for customers to create seamless transfers between databases, and data warehouses. I thought this was an interesting solution because my own company's data warehouse (snowflake) only updates once per day. Apparently classical data warehouses have to fully download the database everyday, while her solution just syncs newly appended or deleted rows of data.
2/12/2023: Hindsight Bias and Chaotic Systems - History cannot be explained deterministically, and cannot be predicted because it is chaotic. Historians can explain how a phenomenon took place, but cannot explain why. For example, historians can describe how Christianity took over the Roman empire, but cannot explain why this particular possibility was realized.
Two levels of chaos. Level one chaos is chaos that does not react to our predictions. A great example is weather. We can build computer models to make better predictions. Level Two chaos is chaos that reacts to predictions about it. An example is if we developed a computer system that can predict the price of a commodity with 100% accuracy. If the price of oil is currently $100 dollars, and the model says it will be $110 dollars tomorrow, traders will rush to buy oil so they can gain from the predicted rise in price. But as a result of buying the oil, the price will shoot up to $110 today, instead of tomorrow. No one will know what happens tomorrow.
2/11/2023: Habits - Maintaining bad habits are so much easier than nurturing good habits.
2/10/2023: Life - Little actions can make a big difference.
2/9/2023: Wear sunscreen - I wanted to share an article written by Mary Schmich. She writes about her top advice she would give new graduates. I'm not sure why, but I almost shed a tear reading this. I thought it contained a lot of great advice.
2/8/2023: Grammar - A semicolon can be used between two independent clauses, but it can also be used to clarify lists.
When Jun Sung is in Europe, he'll visit London, England, Paris, France, Rome, Italy, and Vienna, Austria.
With just commas, it's too confusing. Will I be visiting London, and England? Paris, and France? With semicolons the sentence becomes much clearer: When Jun Sung is in Europe, he'll visit London, England; Paris, France; Rome, Italy; and Vienna, Austria.
2/7/2023: AI - Wow, today was the first day I got to play with ChatGPT. And it's honestly super impressive. I usually cook everyday, and I've been finding it super difficult to try new dishes. I asked ChatGPT to give me a weekly food plan, and it gave me great suggestions.
2/6/2023: Quote - "If you think the price of winning is too high, just wait until you get the bill for regret". - Tim S. Grover.
2/5/2023: Personal - I think I often times take things too personally (criticisms as an attack on my character). I am also sometimes pretty inflexible with planning and scheduling.
Grammar - A clause is a collection of words with a subject, and a finite verb (answers when an action occurred). An independent clause is when there is a subject, finite verb, and can standalone. No word added removes the clause's independence. A sentence is when there is at least one independent clause.
2/4/2023: Friends - Today was a day dedicated to friendship. I spent the whole day with different friends, and it felt great.
2/3/2023: Soccer - Today I played organized soccer for the first time in 10-15 years. Because I hurt my back (1/19) I played goal keeper. I learned 2 things. 1, I'm half decent at being a goal keeper. 2, fear limits abilities. In the beginning I was so nervous about making a mistake, which lead me to make many mistakes. I remember in the first half, my heart was racing whenever the opponent had the ball. I think this can be applied to work/business. If you're too overcome by fear, you may miss many opportunities.
2/2/2023: Patriarchy - Harari argues that most human civilizations have been patriarchal societies. Three theories attempts to answer why. 1) Muscle Theory 2)Aggression Theory 3) Reproductive Strategy Theory
2/1/2023: Human Hierarchy - Harari argues that humans weren't meant to keep track of hundreds of people (lack of trust). Complex human societies require "imagined hierarchies and unjust discrimination". Examples include, Brahmin and Shudras (Hindu caste system), rich and poor etc.
1/31/2023: Writing - Human brains were biologically adept at storing immense amounts of botanical, zoological, topographical, social information. These helped early humans know which plants to eat, which animals to avoid, where the best hunting grounds are, and who is trustworthy. Our brains weren't meant to process and store mathematical data (hunter gatherers didn't need to know the exact number of fruits on the trees). *Perhaps this is why the novel "Moonwalking with Einstein" talks about visual memory techniques*. Then as societies transitioned via the agricultural revolution, writing enabled human social networks to grow. The ancient Sumerians who lived in southern Mesopotamia invented "writing" (3,000 to 3,500 BCE). Without writing, it is hard for societies to keep track of large sums of information. Such as vital information on what resources people have, and how much taxes should be levied.
1/30/2023: Math - If both the numerator and denominator of a positive integer less than 1 (ex. 3/4) is added by a constant (ex. 1), then it will get bigger (ex. 4/5). If both the numerator and denominator is subtracted by a constant (ex. 1) then it will get smaller (2/3).
1/29/2023: Physical Health - One thing I realized about myself is that my quality of life is heavily dependent on my physical health. I recently injured my back from deadlifting, and this affects my overall wellbeing, not just my physical self. I also battle with eczema. When my eczema flares up, I find that I feel less confident, and it affects my mental health.
1/28/2023: Energy Mismatch - I find that when someone is too high energy, it's tiring conversing with them, as I try to match their energy level.
1/27/2023: Humans - Harari argues that the agricultural revolution was the biggest scam in human history. The agricultural revolution just gave us the ability to provide more people alive, in worse conditions. Hunter gatherers lived a much better life than farmers. Humans did not domesticate plants (such as wheat, rice, or maize). Plants domesticated humans. Wheat used to be an insignificant plant, but now wheat is grown on 870,000 square miles of land. Humans spent so much time taking care of plants that they had to live permanently next to them.
1/26/2023: Musing - Today my company had layoffs. While I was fortunately not affected, I still feel really sad. Even though I work at a startup, I felt like we were immune to the mass exodus going on in the industry. Today was really sobering. One day if I decide to build a company, hopefully I never have to be in a position to layoff more my staff.
1/25/2023: Humans - Humans are very destructive. While some scientists argue that many species died from climate change, according to Sapiens author, humans were the main cause.
1/24/2023: Mood - Music really changes how I feel. For example, when I cook without listening to music, I feel stressed and rushed. When I listen to something like lofi beats while cooking, I enjoy the whole process more, and I find myself more relaxed.
1/23/2023: Human history - While there are only homo sapiens now, in the past there were multiple human species (ex. homo erectus). Why is there only one species? What happened to the others? Two main theories. Replacement Theory and Interbreeding Theory.
1/22/2023: Work - Triple check your work, especially before the CEO sees it. However, mistakes can happen.
1/21/2023: Driving - Drive slowly when the roads are icy. We almost crashed into the car ahead of us as the breaks didn't work.
1/20/2023: Tahoe adventures - When leaving SF for Tahoe on Friday, its best to leave before 3pm. Traffic is insane.
1/19/2023: Keep ego in check - I've been working out with a group of people in my building. I love it. Just as Newport mentions in his book, working out with people pushes you beyond your normal abilities. Today we were going for a deadlift PR. I tried to 1rm 315 lbs, something I've never accomplished before. I warmed up with 275 lbs for 2 reps, but decided to jump up to 315. I wanted to impress the people around me. I wasn't able to lift the weight, and blew out my back. Lesson learned. Keep your ego in check. Don't try to lift more than you're comfortable with.
1/18/2023: Excel tip - When you are working in a large Excel model with lots of formulas, turn off automatic calculations. This allows you to apply all the new formulas/functions, and then press F9 to manually calculate formulas.
Replace low-quality leisure (netflix/youtube/instagram) with high-quality leisure (crafts). Leisure Lesson #1: Prioritize strenuous activities over passive ones (Bennett Principle - Expending more energy ends up energizing you even more). Leisure Lesson #2: Develop skills to make valuable physical things (ex. sports vs. gaming - physical vs. digital) Leisure Lesson #3: Seek crafts that involve social interactions (ex. Barry's Bootcamp class, board games vs. digital games)
1/17/1023: Humans are social animals - The default network, or the brain's activity when not doing any tasks, seems to be connected to social cognition. In other words, when our brain isn't actively doing a task (such as writing this or reading this), its default state is thinking about our social life. This in itself isn't a noteworthy conclusion, but researchers have shown that this is the case for babies, which shows why humans place such an importance on our social lives. Its instinctual. (Digital minimalism)
1/16/2023: Solitude Deprivation - Is "a state in which you spend close to zero time alone with your own thoughts". Due to our addiction to our phones/apps/social media, we are never alone. While this doesn't sound appealing, contrary to popular belief, this causes mental fatigue and issues. (Digital Minimalism)
Wow. I barely could do this. Hopefully in 2023 I can make this a better habit.
3/16/2022: Strategic quitting - Our culture always talks about how people who had extraordinary grit and persistence, which lead to success, but quitting is also important. Because doing one thing is foregoing another activity (opportunity cost). Whenever you wish you had more of something (time, money etc.) strategic quitting provides that.
People usually equate time with money. But time does not equal money, because you can always get more money. "We're consistently conservative about predicting how much cash we'll have in our wallets, but when it comes to time, we always think there will be more tomorrow. Or next week. Or next year." - Barking Up the Wrong Tree
Some people say it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert in something. If you practice one hour a day, it would take 27.4 years to reach the 10,000 hour mark. If you quit a few less important things and practiced 4 hours a day, it would take 6.8 years. --> Focus on a few important things.
2/9/2022: Business - Riot Games originally was ridiculed by the gaming industry for trying to create a game that was free to play, but had micro-transactions (freemium model). Makes me realize that people spend so much money on "skins" within the game, but you don't actually "own" it, but NFTs would allow you to have a unique digital asset, that you can keep forever.
2/8/2022: Documenting yourself (through video, notes) is a great way to improve
- Tim Ferriss would take notes on his sales calls, film his tango dances to improve
- Way I can apply it is through filming myself working out