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My Dream Computer
🥇 Thanks to maya.land and goofpunk for sponsoring the blog! If you'd like to learn how to support my writing and get a shoutout here every week, check the sp...
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Life, Learning & Writing
The most popular blog posts about life, learning & writing on Hacker News. 669 posts.
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Every person on the planet should have their own website
Every person on the planet should have their own website, on their own domain name, and blog about whatever they want.
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Notes on Puzzles
1. I mostly don’t play chess anymore — it’s too addictive, and tends to take over your brain in a way I don’t like — but one habit I’ve retained is solving puzzles.
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Dumb and Gets Things Done (2010)
Someone once asked Napoleon how he decided where to assign soldiers. Napoleon's reply was that it's simple: soldiers are either smart or dumb, lazy or energetic. The smart and energetic I make field commanders. They know what to do and can rally the troops to do it. The smart and lazy I make generals. They
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Mental Liquidity
I recently heard a phrase I love: Mental liquidity.
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Beyond introvert vs. extrovert
This 100-year-old binary classification of human interaction holds us back. It's time to move past it.
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Five Kinds of Friends (2022)
The word “friends” has at least five different meanings: Allies Backstage intimates Fun friends Mutual interests friends Soc...
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How to be consistent
A number of students have asked me for strategies to 'stay consistent'. I assume they are referring to their study routines, not CAP consistency, otherwise this would be a very different article! I do feel like I can give some suggestions, but first allow me to talk about Omar.
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Leo Tolstoy on why people drink (2014)
“The seeing, spiritual being, whose manifestation we commonly call conscience, always points with one end towards right and with the other towards wrong, and we do not notice it while we foll…
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Create optimal conditions for lucky things to happen to you (2020)
Your entire worldview changes when you realize you can create luck.
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Bruce Lee and Me
A reflection on the 50th anniversary of my friend's death.
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Cruel optimism and lazy pessimism
Do you remember the avocado toast guy? I read Johann Hari’s Stolen Focus recently (you should read it, it’s great), and I learned that someone1 has come up with a name for this sort of modern reinterpretation of “let them eat cake”: cruel optimism. Cruel optimism, the way Hari interprets it2, boils down to the folly…
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Exercise increases number of immune cells in cancer patients
Two new Finnish studies show that short bouts of light or moderate exercise can increase the number of immune cells in the bloodstream of cancer patients.
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Call yourself titles
We constantly question ourselves when attempting anything new for the first time, which is daunting. And what’s worse, it prevents us from doing anything new, so we can’t change who we are. If you’ve always been terrible at sports and want to start working out, the natural reaction after a few attempts is to stop and…
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What I learned unsubscribing from 22 newspapers
Online newspaper subscriptions have a reputation for being difficult to cancel, but new guidance from the FTC may change that.
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Self-teaching, spaced repetition, and why books don't work
Listen now | "I was shocked with how intense, painstaking, and effective his learning process was"
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Getting Stuff Done by Not Being Mean to Yourself (2010)
I’ve spent a lot of time in my life trying to force myself to do things. Really good things. Things that are important to me. Things like meditating, journaling, going... READ MORE
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Is it my fault if you can't handle the truth? (2019)
You can't handle it! In 2018 or 2019, I was introduced to the idea of hyper-rationality. I think it was under another name (to be g...
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Tech Independence
Derek Sivers official site. Thoughts on philosophy, culture, self-improvement. Author of Useful Not True, How to Live, Hell Yeah or No, Anything You Want.
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My broken ThinkPad plays music upon booting
A puzzle with dodgy video recordings, funky spectrograms and deprecated APK's
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Get Running with Couch to 5K
NHS Couch to 5K will help you get off the couch and gradually work you up to running 5km in just 9 weeks.
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Ways to say no with grace and style (2021)
Saying no with grace is its own leadership capability. It is not just a peripheral skill. As with any ability, we start with limited experience.
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Things I Learned from My 2 Year Old Baby Girl
Two years ago I gave birth to the most wonderful person on this planet.
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The art of knowing when to quit
Closing time, every new beginning Comes from some other beginning’s end, yeah “Closing Time”, Semisonic Have you ever found yourself saying: That movie was…
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West Coast Trail – The 75km/48 mile hike in Vancouver Island (2021)
Author Note: This trip was taken in 2021, but updated in 2023 with updated details . I’m not really sure where I get these crazy ideas, but a friend and I booked the West Coast Trail . It is this multi day thru hike in the west coast of Vancouver Island, which is accessible via ferry. Unfortunately in 2020 the hike…
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What I wish I knew when I got my ASN
A thorough walkthrough and explanation of the process of getting an ASN, which I wish I knew when I got mine. Hopefully this will prevent readers from headaches and getting scammed.