Failures:
a. I only logged 11 hours of saltmines out of the planned 16.
b. I was short two articles. I delayed my publishing day by 1 and then I didn’t publish an article on Saturday (Feb 8th)
c. I didn’t do my 1hr Spanish study sessions.
d. Progress on TheFleet was minimal.
Reasons for falling short.
1. Regression into a few behaviors. I played the guitar at peak hours of the day (i.e. before noon) as a form of avoidance. This totaled to roughly only 3 hours for the week, but that 3 hours could have been another article. Second, I spent about 10 hours surfing. Fwiw, there was no time wasted on this bs.
2. I spent time buying a car. This process is almost over, but I am waiting on fiat gears to turn before the vehicle is in my possession.
3. Just about everything I set out to do takes longer than usual as I get acquainted with my new computer. Once I get accustomed to my new keyboard, set keybinds, install programs I need, etc. I should get a return on my investment. The biggest win from this new computer comes not from what it has, but what it lacks – gigabytes of software that exists to distract me. I may want to push this advantage further by taking actions such as turning off my reliance on DNS.
4. I spend too much time in the morning chatting in #o. While I see responding and engaging of upmost importance, I think that I should use long blocks in the morning to for preparing/writing articles and working on TheFleet. Maybe I should wait until 7:00 UTC (1PM my time) to begin conversing.
..
I felt melancholy this week for a few reasons: not being productive, dealing w/ old friendships harmed from coming out wrt politics, putting effort in getting something I wanted personally (a car) against my master’s advice, and having failed previously to secure my eulora credentials. I know that these types of problems are within my control to prevent from occurring again in the future.
I reviewed all of my previous weeks plans + reviews + comments and made a list of notes of lingering TODO items, advice from diana_coman, and advice from my past self. Here is a dump of the notes below:
1. TODO: Publish my how/what/why of V article.
2. TODO: Write my own V.
3. TODO: (self assigned) Remove DNS and whitelist IPs.
4. Read Popper
5. Don’t eat canned shit out of laziness. Proper meal planning (full recipes instead of grabbing a bunch of ingredients and seeing what I can throw together.) ((The home cooked meals have been getting better, but I’ve been on rice+bean repeat mode. I need to work on my salad skills, so far the only salads I’ve made here are word salads.))
6. The second I get the sensation of “worrying” I have begun spinning. Snap out of it ASAP.
7. Copy the people you respect instead of participating in anything like flattery.
8. For reading – read for the longest stretch as possible (maybe 1.5 pages) without letting the mind wander. Then stop. Gradually increase the interval.
9. Anything worth reading requires at least 3 passes, not just 2. ((It’s time for The Odyssey, round 3.))
10. TODO: (self assigned) Get waterproof watch
11. Articles that are akin to ‘annotating code’ need to give clarity, not be a full review of everything that was done to prepare for said article.
12. Reminder: Take time to see how my internal feelings / emotions distort my world view.
13. Take notes of small behavior differences ((In my case, of ticos.)), they reveal important information about cultures.
14. Don’t be a recluse. Make out time to get out and meet people. Discriminate when doing so.
15. From BingoBoingo – have a lot of small Spanish conversations (fruit vendors, etc.).
16. “Up the discipline and get through a few more items this week.”
17. Carry camera around at all times. ((billymg couriered a replacement camera for me.))
18. Do not consider Sunday night a time to finish leftover work.
19. Plans must be *clear* *concrete* and *accountable*
20. No more manual anything, proper backups , hard drives put to use. ((I need to setup my backup system on my new computer.))
21. Turn conscious understanding of ongoing problems into visceral disgust, and take pleasure in the problem solving aspect.
22. Keep the diana_coman simulator running.
23. Enumerated lists should allow for unique referencing.
24. The past is to learn from, not to beat myself up with.
25. TODO: Make a mirror of the republican wot
26. Resume studying Spanish.
27. Large gains can be obtained from even small 15 minute windows.
28. It should not take 30 minutes to brainstorm.
29. I need to evaluate my own thoughts more seriously while they’re in my head, just like how I evaluate them seriously after putting them in writing.
30. Don’t waste too much time on polishing words when writing. Problems with my articles come from reasons deeper than that. ((as mp pointed out, I produced grammatically correct trash. Just because the output of my writing compiles doesn’t mean it’s worth anything and in fact can be worth the opposite.))
31. Plans are for knowing what you are aiming for and why and in what way. They are a reflection of current knowledge of the task at hand. Thus they are usually incomplete and must be updated as new knowledge comes in.
32. White box testing > black box testing.
33. Any event worth doing/going to is worth writing about.
34. My failure to engage in talking to people irl is reflected in my lack of responses to blog comments.
35. Doing what works is more important than following principles.
36. Developing a niche=negrate.