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Democracy is characterised by three key items:

  • institutions and processes that allow citizens to effectively express their political preferences and to combine these preferences into a package of alternatives from which they can choose,
  • institutional constraints on the executive and
  • guaranteed civil rights and liberties for all citizens of the state.

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Food-poisoning expert reveals 6 things he refuses to eat

  1. Raw oysters.
  2. Precut or prewashed fruits and veggies.
  3. Raw sprouts.
  4. Rare meat.
  5. Uncooked eggs.
  6. Unpasteurized milk and juices.

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Meh - sports are sort of like soap operas for men. It's all constant competition and conflict, but in the end, no one has really done anything worthwhile. They are both designed to get you all wrapped up in something that is ultimately meaningless, all so that you can watch advertisements.


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Unfortunately, there have been fewer experimental studies on effective productivity and time management methods than there have been on effective study methods. For an overview of scientific opinion on productivity, I recommend pages 121-126 of Psychology Applied to Modern Life. According to those pages, common advice from professionals includes:

  1. Doing the right tasks is more important than doing your tasks efficiently. In fact, too much concern for efficiency is a leading cause of procrastination. Say “no” more often, and use your time for tasks that really matter.
  2. Delegate responsibility as often as possible. Throw away unimportant tasks and items.
  3. Keep a record of your time use. (Quantified Self can help.)
  4. Write down your goals. Break them down into smaller goals, and break these into manageable tasks. Schedule these tasks into your calendar.
  5. Process notes and emails only once. Tackle one task at a time, and group similar tasks together.
  6. Make use of your downtime (plane rides, bus rides, doctor's office waitings). These days, many of your tasks can be completed on your smartphone.

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Things that make all cultures laugh:

  1. Beating someone with kitchen utensils
  2. Falling from short flight of stairs
  3. Swift fart delivered in silence
  4. Adults dressed as twins

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There are people who do backups and people who will do backups.


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Men are so emotionally incompetent without women, getting married is literally the healthiest thing a man can do in his life.


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“A mundane encounter with a celebrity is the closest most people will come to an experience of the divine, when really, the thrill of the encounter is a symptom of the poverty of meaning in their lives,” Mick Jagger casually told me in the parking lot of a 7-11


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Whiny Neutered Goats Fly

What good games have in common: Winnable Novel Goals Feedback


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I've even heard of people screen-recording them programming, and then watching later, to have an external view of how they spend their time, because in the moment you can't evaluate very well. Yet people don't regularly do this. There is no market where I can easily pay people to watch me talk, program, choose clothes, etc, and give me feedback.


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Anyway. Momentum is real. Don’t discount it. Easiest way to never lose it is never stop shipping, listening to customers, having fun, and ultimately improving every day, little by little.

Keep it going daily, one foot in front of the other. That’s it.


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I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of uncertainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we're here. I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell.