When I was younger, I would occasionally sit down to my computer thinking I was about to compose a masterpiece, something that would all but earn my place in the canon. I would have a peculiar feeling brewing, that I was on the cusp of a radical insight, that I was about to see the [...]
I designed my notes archive to be as easy to write to as possible, because I knew that if there were any friction in the process, I wouldn’t stick with it. So I purposely decided not to tag, label, file, or otherwise classify each note. The only bits of metadata I do have are timestamps [...]
I could be a lot more productive. I could waste less time between tasks; focus more during tasks; keep better track of time; set more concrete goals and subgoals; have higher standards; give up less easily; and work even when I really don’t want to. It comes down to being more disciplined, basically, and more [...]
The first two weeks of college are exceptional for a lot of reasons. But there’s one phenomenon that stands out. It’s as peculiar and as powerful and as rare as magic. [1] I’ll call it “social annealing” because it so resembles the process by which metals are heated—their particles freed into a loose homogenous jumble—and [...]
Here’s a simple argument for the existence of extraterrestrial life: there are hundreds of billions of galaxies that each have hundreds of billions of stars. Our sun may be special in many ways, but it can’t be that special. I used to be deeply unsure about the prospects for life elsewhere in our universe. I [...]