Young Hands Club

In addition to the below I have been invited to a nearby town’s fiesta this weekend that I am excited to attend.

Must Do

1. Follow up with handyman on fortify base and building my desk.
2. Place an order for a proper chair.
3. Publish a list of the computer parts I plan to buy on my blog. If I have time, order them.
4. Write a summary of the information I acquired from speaking with hanbot.
5. Write a review of An Outpost of Progress.
6. 20 hours of saltmine work.
7. Daily Spanish Study – Specifically carefully reading the courier company websites.

Time Permitting

1. Reread The Odyssey
2. Practice guitar for 45 minutes 5/7 days of the week.
3. Surf (about 15 hours total. Last week I said I was doing 10 hours and only during the morning/sunset, but given the excellent waves that came, I did not follow that guideline. I also must say I feel it dishonest to put this in the time permitting section, because I _always_ do it. I only leave it here because I know it is something that I _could_ forgo.)

I will break this review into two sections. The first is a review of what I did, and then the second part will be a brief analysis of my methodology and productivity (and lack thereof. )

The Review

This week I dipped out of normal routine in order to setup my base. As usual, the first order of business was knocking out my weekly saltmines work. This went better than the previous week in terms of staying motivated and productive while doing the grind.

The next task I took on was figuring out how to get myself an ergonomic desk and chair. I did some poking around the internet trying to find guides on how to get a healthy setup. The best guide I found online seemed to be one posted by The University of British Columbia. ((I also acquired some information from a blog called coding horror.))I figured out how high my chair would need to be to sit such that my knees form an angle an epsilon above 90 degrees. From there I calculated what height my desk should be so that my elbows form a 90 degree angle while typing. I spoke with a local tico who was doing some construction work nearby, and commissioned a desk with a proper height ((29.5 cm, I am 181cm tall.)) that will fit nicely into my apartment. I also spoke with him about acquiring caulk and materials for sealing my apartment’s cracks and unwanted entryways.

Afterwards, I worked on figuring out how to deliver items from the states to CR. I spoke with locals and an acquaintance here who does quite a bit of business. ((He is an architect that has constructed a few luxury vacation homes and his built his own resort.)) He says he uses crbox.cr, but noted that he has run into issues with customs. He informed me it is always better to have a friend bring what you need as personal luggage. I spent some time reading the websites of the courier companies, but as noted in the logs I did not do the job carefully and this task is still incomplete. ((Recent help from hanbot leads me to believe it may be possible to source most of my parts locally, and then have perhaps Adam help me with the small bits I can’t find. In any case I still believe it’s worth doing a test run with the best service I find. I would like to be a point man for having items delivered from the US to Guanacaste.))

During the course of the week, I took advantage of opportunities to speak Spanish. Yesterday I got drinks and held conversation for over five hours with my neighbors. ((I perhaps drank a tad too much ~ I had roughly six drinks over the span of that time. I don’t consider alcohol as much of a problem compared to weed, because I hate being disoriented and hung over so I rarely get into the habit of drinking frequently. That being said it’s important to note times when I do indulge.)) I also put in a great effort into improving my surfing. Being inside of a barreling wave has eluded me for quite some time. ((I may have gotten inside of one this week. I went for a barrel and was in the critical section of the wave, but I did not get a good view of the lip curling over my head. Still, the locals in the water cheered and complimented my tube ride. Whether or not I was actually inside, there is nothing special about having done something that you cannot repeat. But hopefully this event is a sign of significant progress.)) To fix this, I am trying to apply the takeaway from my ‘verifying my understanding’ article to surfing. I am heavily questioning my fundamentals, such as foot placement on the board. I am also testing the edges of certain parameters, such as how deep ((In surfing terminology, being ‘deep’ means being closer to the beginning of where a wave starts to peel in a certain direction.)) I can be when I catch the wave. ((This has caused me to go into the ‘washing machine’ a few times. Learning is painful, I guess.))

The Analysis

I was not very productive this week. I hardly walked away with anything concrete, all I have are various plans for acquiring parts / setting up my space, but no wheels are set in motion.

I struggle with more open ended tasks. It is hard enough as is for me to focus when I have one clear writing assignment. But when I have to do various small tasks, some of which involve waiting for responses from people, I work inefficiently. There was time spent spinning where I was jumping between deciding to do different tasks and then not getting anything done. “hm okay now I should focus on getting a good desk — err wait no I should read more about picking computer parts — err never mind let’s go back to figuring out the desk.”

On another note, I have learned that taking time to do things carefully and correctly brings you down unexpected paths. For example, when I went to edit a blog post this week, I was unable to access my wp-admin page because my ip address had changed. This required me to update my .htaccess on my server. I’ve had to do this before, so taking what I learned from uploading images, I decided it was best to write a bash script to automate the process. When I looked for a bash command to edit a file in place, I found that this could be done with sed -i s/str to replace/new str/g /path/to/file But, I did not really know how the sed command worked, and remembering last week’s punishment I dared not use the tool without first reading the man page. So I wound up reading how to use sed. This made my “1 minute” task of changing something on my blog take closer to two hours. That was somewhat frustrating, but I walked away with a script that will save me time in the future and a better understanding of how to use a powerful tool.

To prevent my reviews from becoming a monotonous set of bullet points, for this week I’ll give a more casual retelling of the flow of events and how I changed.

I was rather melancholy during my saltmine time (Monday+Tuesday+half of Wednesday) given The State of Sadness. ((Enough on this has been said, I won’t weigh in.)) The work I had to do ((Designing and implementing the behavior for when users quit out / resume an app session with the ‘home’ button)) was tedious and while I completed my 20 hours I did not work with the same energy as I had the previous week. I want to try to be more productive during my saltmine work, as it can be used as a training ground where I get paid to improve my organizational skills, work ethic, ability to comb through spaghetti code, etc.

I was brightened up on Wednesday by a surf session in the evening. The lineup was crowded but I was able to find my way onto a few beautiful waves. Lui, my friend who I was almost going to be neighbors with, spent our 5 minute car ride to the surf spot explaining to me and the other person in the car that getting bitcoin right now is like trading rice for its weight in gold. He then stated he is liquidating his assets into btc and going to be living in a tent / on another friend’s couch in Nicaragua. He sold a lot of land he held title to near where I live for 2btc. This made me wonder how much local bitcoin commerce there is here. Lui said he is also selling his ’98 Toyota Pathfinder (recently put through the shop, but with 135,000 miles) for .5btc. The offer is tempting, but I believe what he said in the car ride.

The core of my week (Wednesday-Saturday) was spent fixing and contemplating my fuckup with the new selection links. This took a chunk of time, but it was valuable on many fronts. The first gain I had was getting a good grasp of how matching works for the selection tool, allowing me to quickly make links that select the text I want. The second gain was getting an experience that allowed me to better understand a valuable monologue diana_coman had posted when I first joined younghands. My fix to what I thought was a problem ((HTML tags being broken by poorly crafted query params)) was an example of how “my self-perceived needs [were] conflict with my betters’ design”. I will be extra careful now to consider whether my problems are worth fixing or if they are downstream from a larger problem. The third gain was I discovered a small issue with “pingback linkbacks.” The fourth gain was I perhaps uncovered a serious problem with my thinking process that caused me to create the broken links in the first place.

The tasks that didn’t get completed ((at least not as of Saturday night)) were my V post, my post on The Odyssey, and my 50 pages of reading my next book. I feel that I need to get my thoughts on The Odyssey down while the book is at least somewhat fresh in my mind. But seeing as I read the first half of the translated poem many months ago, I do not have high hopes for this review.

Also, I fumbled with practicing Spanish this week. Being busy with other work, I didn’t study and hoped to get whatever practice in through real interactions. But even though I am surrounded by Spanish speakers, I have been a recluse in my apartment apart from when I get an hour of exercise surfing. I now have some physical books in Spanish though, and I believe I should start spending a little time each day reading.

As for guitar, I made more out of the time I played. I practiced with a metronome, and worked on my scales as well as a new technique – the abanico. It would do me well to get a music stand and print out some sheet music.

I’ve provided this week’s standard schedule below, but I have a few ongoing problems that need to be taken care of.

The first is my apartment needs some maintenance. There are some cracks in the wall that need to be caulked / screens whose borders need to be properly sealed. I have had some ant issues, and a mosquito made a visit on Tuesday night, preventing me from falling asleep for a couple of hours.

The other major problem I have is I have no work station. I am using a diseased Macbook pro running Mac OSX 10.9.5. ((I also have another Macbook Pro running a recent OSX for my saltmines job. In addition I have an older IBM Thinkpad with a fresh install of gentoo. The Thinkpad could become my work station, although the specs on that computer are not great. In any case, I would first need to get a mouse, keyboard, and ethernet cable to use the Thinkpad productively.)) I have no external keyboard nor monitor, nor mouse, nor even an Ethernet cable. This is bad ergonomically, and participating in younghands with a focus being ‘owning what you do’ while using a computer that owns me is driving me insane.

I want to fix these issues but my current schedule doesn’t afford me enough time to address them. I’m not sure if the right move is to reduce my workload to allow time for the above, or to suffer until I am efficient enough to get my shit done with spare time.

Must Do

1. Fortify base.
2. Get work station in order.
3. 20 hours of saltmine work.
4. Daily Spanish Study.

Time Permitting

1. Reread The Odyssey
2. Practice guitar for 45 minutes 5/7 days of the week.
3. Surf (about 10 hours total, I am surfing just in the mornings or evenings and not worrying about being out during the best conditions.)

Must Do

1. Fix my broken understanding of proper html linking and then fix the consequences on my blog I have stemming from that broken understanding. Then write a review of having done so, which explores why this stupidity occurred and how to prevent it from occurring again in the future. (UPDATE: Added and moved to item #1)
2. Finish post on The V Manual Genesis / Ode to V.
3. 20 hours of saltmine work.
4. Daily Spanish Study.
5. Write a review of The Odyssey.
6. Picture post of Costa Rica.
7. Read 50 pages of my next book. ((I now have a few books to choose from and a few I would like to read before A Tale of Two Cities.))

Time Permitting

1. Implement a rough draft of classical V. ((My goal is to have a tool that can press, but I will need more time than a week to have a clean version of code and hammer out all of the edge cases.)) (UPDATE: Moved from Must Do to Time Permitting)
2. Practice guitar for 45 minutes 5/7 days of the week.
3. Surf (about 15 hours total, these are allocated throughout the week based on wind, tide, and swell conditions.)

Below is my review written with the same format as last week.

Must Do

1. My primary task for the week is to continue last week’s task of reviewing the python version of keccak V.
   1. Write post on The V Manual Genesis / Ode to V. This includes doing careful background reading and asking questions for points that I do not understand.

   I failed to complete this on time. I may be able to complete this post tonight, after I write this review, but it is unlikely. I also fear a double beating would come from trying to publish something incomplete at the minute of a deadline. There are multiple reasons for my failure for this task. The first is time management. I perhaps went down too deep a rabbit hole reading the V Manual Genesis. I got caught reading into related material trying to fully grok the principle of identity being constructed on a fix support by others’ view and the idea that identity is inaccessible to the subject. The second is that after having my two previous assignments reviewed (my summary of Diana Coman’s post about feelings and my annotations on Stan’s v.py) I knew I needed to completely restructure my post. The main problem with my post is that it was written with the purpose of _I must demonstrate I understand what is V and why is it important._ But as diana_coman said this is a ~schoolboy mentality. Instead I need to make the post shed light on some aspect of V. Doing that will in turn show I understand V. The third problem was I had time laid out for today to review and proofread the post that got swept away by an extended meatwot visit. My local friend brought over some of my luggage I had left at his place and stayed over for extra few hours that included a surf session.
   

   2. Annotate Stan’s v.py code.
      Completed. I discussed the problem of my finished product with diana_coman. I was writing the post with the wrong intention, ‘to show that i understand V.’ Of course my annotations should show I have an understanding of V, but that should not have been my primary goal. As diana_coman stated, my annotations should have strictly added clarity to Stan’s code. My annotations did add clarity in certain places, but many of the annotations were noise.
2. 20 hours of saltmine work.
   Complete. I put more effort into my saltmine job this week. Working harder actually made the work more bearable. It felt pretty good getting this done right at the beginning of the week.
3. Write a summary of http://ossasepia.com/2017/01/25/feelings-are-helpful-but-not-for-idiots/
   Complete. I pondered more about the information I digested from the post than the writing of the summary. Since I already discussed with diana_coman my problems with the summary, I’ll write a short note about what I thought about after reading the post. The main thoughts I have are: in what ways do I let my emotions/feelings distort my interpretation of reality? Is there some insight I can obtain by thinking about my feelings in a detached manner? and what “small” behavior differences in ticos may give me a deeper understanding of their culture?
4. Setup apartment – grocery and kitchen supply shopping.
   I have what I need for now but there is of course a lot of home improvement possible.
5. Daily Spanish Study (begin interacting with my new community.)
   I had two long conversations in Spanish. The first was with my cab driver who took me to the convenience store. We were together for two hours total conversing in Spanish the entire time. I used what I learned from reading diana_coman’s advice to thimbronion and made an effort to actually get to know the cab driver. The second long interaction came from being invited to dinner with my landlords (a married couple) and their daughter + her friend roughly my age. Comprehending the dinner conversation was a little tough, the adults spoke clearly to me but the ladies my age spoke at full speed and I had to repeatedly ask for clarification / missed parts of conversations that were not directed right at me.

Time Permitting

1. Write a review of The Odyssey.
   Failed for lack of time.
2. Read 50 pages of A Tale of Two Cities. ((This is a book I have available with me right now, but I am open to suggestions as to what to read next.))
   Failed for lack of time.
3. Practice guitar for 45 minutes 5/7 days of the week.
   I played the guitar to relax, but I didn’t practice.
4. Surf (about 15 hours total, these are allocated throughout the week based on wind, tide, and swell conditions.)
   There were good waves this week. I need to get a waterproof watch to be able to know how long I’ve been out in the water.

Must Do

1. My primary task for the week is to continue last week’s task of reviewing the python version of keccak V.
   1. Write post on The V Manual Genesis / Ode to V. This includes doing careful background reading and asking questions for points that I do not understand.
   2. Annotate Stan’s v.py code.
2. 20 hours of saltmine work.
3. Write a summary of http://ossasepia.com/2017/01/25/feelings-are-helpful-but-not-for-idiots/
4. Setup apartment – grocery and kitchen supply shopping.
5. Daily Spanish Study (begin interacting with my new community.)

Time Permitting

1. Write a review of The Odyssey.
2. Read 50 pages of A Tale of Two Cities. ((This is a book I have available with me right now, but I am open to suggestions as to what to read next.))
3. Practice guitar for 45 minutes 5/7 days of the week.
4. Surf (about 15 hours total, these are allocated throughout the week based on wind, tide, and swell conditions.)

I have reposted my plan from last week with my review for each listed task written in green or red. The color indicates whether I believe the task was more of a success or more of a failure.

1. My primary task for the week is to review the python version of keccak v.
   1. First I need to read all of the material reference posts. The root node for this seems to be on ben_vulpe’s page.

   Failed. I grossly underestimated how long this would take. The readings are short but dense.

   2. After doing the background reading, I plan to write my own version of topological sort. I know enough about V to know this is a necessary component. I read Stan’s algorithm a while ago, but I do not remember it, and I think I would benefit by trying to come up with it again before reading the source. I recall Stan had mentioned it was a good exercise.
      Completed. This ate a chunk of time, but I learned about the complexities involved with finding edges in a V tree.
   3. After doing the background reading and solving the topological sort problem, I will create a post explaining the what/why/how of V that includes the annotated source code.
      Failed for lack of time.
2. Tokyo travel post
   Completed. The travel posts take way more time than I anticipate. Even after the time I spend on them, I feel that they are lacking content and could use a lot of improvement.
3. Twenty hours of saltmine work
   I failed to even do the 12 hours, the goal I adjusted to in my progress report. I did only 8 hours, which results in a considerable opportunity cost to the fiat bank account.
4. Finish reading the Odyssey
   Completed. I started from Book X, which is page 117 out of my 307 page book. I learned that I overstated my reading ability to a laughable degree. I struggle tremendously with concentration; I have to fight wandering thoughts the entire time I read.
5. Daily Spanish study
   Completed. After two days I stopped doing my Anki cards and started instead watching El Chapo w/ subtitles. This is way more enjoyable. I also had a few real interactions, such as speaking with my cab driver for the duration of our ride.
6. Pack for CR Flight on Saturday Oct 19th
   – Get new guitar.

All good here.

7. Setup apartment upon arrival

Failed. I left myself no time to go shopping for my apartment.

—

What I learned:

1. The time it takes me to read and write is, respectively, about double and triple what I previously imagined.
2. Per diana_coman’s comment on writing, I need to (1) blurt out what I need to say, unconcerned with wording/grammar (2) proofread it, fixing obvious grammar/spelling issues (3) wait minimum 1 hr until written text clears from brain-ram, then proofread again.
3. I have issues focusing on the task at hand that are beyond the “this-is-meaningless” issue of saltmines work.
4. I need to prioritize doing _exactly_ what master diana_coman says. I should ((I originally wrote “I feel I should…” and thus am concerned about this sentence.)) have done the review of the writings on the significance of V instead of zooming in on the technical details of topological sort and the vdiff command.

Questions:

1. Do you have advice for note taking while reading?
2. For writing, do you repeat the “wait 1+ hrs then proofread” strategy until you find no errors with your work?
3. Are there techniques you recommend for being able to read for longer stretches while minimizing wandering thoughts?

I overestimated my ability to complete the tasks I set out for the week. I am learning that writing clear and coherent text, or at least attempting to, takes much more time than I anticipate. I have also had a few slip ups with staying focused. One specific slip up was spending 2.5 hours yesterday watching El Chapo (in Spanish with Spanish subtitles) instead of doing only my 1 hour of allocated Spanish study ((I learned that I have reached a point where I can enjoy a show in Spanish. Watching tv in Spanish is not rigorous study, but I take notes while I watch the show. I pause to digest phrases I do not understand, and then I jot them down.)). Another general slip up is I am still burning a significant amount of time doing ~nothing ((Wasting time in emotional thought loops, hesitating between two options of what to do and just stalling, doing mindless activities. )).

My poor planning and faulty focus causes me to make the following changes to my Week 1 plan:
i) I’ve currently done 4/20 hours of saltmine work. Right now I’m planning to hit 12 hours of my intended 20.
ii) I will spend minimal time this weekend setting up my apartment.
iii) My post on the understanding of the what and why of V will be incomplete. I reread The V manual genesis and learned that I have only a cursory understanding of the importance of V. I am still digesting the second footnote.
iv) My annotations on asciilifeform’s v.py will be delayed until next week.