HOW I THINK ABOUT CHANGE
The following quote is from the book On Tranquility of Mind by Plutarch. Does the shoe shape itself to the foot, or does the foot shape itself to the shoe?
RATE OF PERCEIVED EXERTION
The gym is more than just a place to exercise — it is a classroom for life lessons. Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is a way to measure the perceived difficulty of an exercise. Now I share how I use it in my work. A few things to note about Rate of Perceived Exertion The scale is from 1 to 10 If the exercise is trivially easy for you, the rating is 1 If it is your all-time-greatest effort and at the maximum of your capacity, the rating is 10 RPE is subjective Recovery times differ between RPEs. The lower the RPE, the less recovery is needed. Beginners cannot accurately estimate their RPE because they don’t yet know how RPE 10 feels. At the gym, we lower RPE for the same weight and repetitions by getting stronger. At work, we do it by learning. Incorporating Rate of Perceived Exertion into my work I have a 30 minute blocker every Friday to write down what I did that week. The last thing in that 30 minute slot is estimating my RPE. If I have a streak of above eight RPE for three weeks, I make a change to address it I tend to spontaneously change something if it’s lower than 5 for more than a week1 Why does RPE > 8 for three weeks deserve a mandatory change? Because I have learnt that pushing myself continuously for over a month results in injury2. I prefer high-intensity intervals over steady-state marathons.
JUGGLING HEALTH, WORK, AND RELATIONSHIPS
Health, work, and relationships. I can only improve at two of the three at any given time. It took me over 34 years to accept this. I don’t abandon the third, but it stands still (at best) while the others move forward. Lately, I have been neglecting work. Before that, it was health. Prior to that it was relationships. I haven’t been mindful of this long enough to know if I rotate through these in order. Regardless of what period I think about, I have only been able to improve on two of these at the same time.
HOW TO TEACH A NEW SKILL
Four steps to teach a toddler or an employee a new skill ⤵ Show her how it’s done 👀 (she observes) Do it with her help 🔦 (she tries to help) Help her do it 🛠 (she does it and your help ensures success) She does it without help 👏 (you observe) Depending on the task and the starting skill level, it may take five tries or five hundred tries, but these are the required steps. The parent/manager just needs to keep repeating the step the toddler/employee is on until the fourth step becomes consistent. Someone will be stuck on the first level for a long time, while someone else might breeze through the first two steps and try two hundred times before getting through the third step.
VIEW
I periodically ask, what have I changed my mind on recently? Last month, the answer was simple: a view — a view from home and its value. As an adult, I have never had much of a view from home, which has resulted in me undervaluing it. We moved to a new place in April and now have a good view. Within a few weeks, I learned to appreciate the elevation and the view. Seeing over the rooftops of neighbouring buildings and even glimpses of the sea has completely flipped my perception of a view’s value. Before, even when buying the new apartment, I gave no value to a view. When evaluating an apartment, I solely focused on the location, floor plan, space, price, and features. I had zero consideration for the view. As of today, I would be willing to pay 10-15% more to have a great view over a basic one.1
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JOURNEY OF CREATING A SCRAPER THAT TWEETS: A COMEDY OF ERRORS
Introduction In a world filled with boundless possibilities, I embarked on a mission to bring something useful to life. Armed with determination, a sprinkle of coding knowledge, and a dash of naivety, I set out on an adventure that would test my patience and sanity. This is the tale of how I birthed a scraper that Tweets and the failure-filled path I took to make it happen. 1 The Backstory: A Fascination with Finance and Market Sentiment My long-lived fascination with the world of finance led me to explore different ways to track market sentiment. While browsing the internet, I stumbled upon the Fear and Greed Index, a gauge of market sentiment that seemed to dance in harmony with the stock market’s whims. Intrigued by its potential, I yearned for a simpler way to track the index without visiting CNN’s website. Thus, my desire to create something met a worthy idea, kicking off the process of coding.2
IMPLEMENTING HABITS
I’m addicted to progress and development. My favorite quote is by Curt Lindström, who coached Finland’s national team to its first World Championship in ice hockey in the Spring of 1995. He kept saying the same thing during the practice sessions: “Lite bättre!” — a little bit better. He wasn’t telling the team they need to step up their game to another level. The requirement was just doing specific things a little bit better every day. For a long time, I’ve approached my life with the attitude of trying to go to sleep as a better version of myself than I woke up.
WHY I QUIT NEWS
I quit consuming news in 2013. If I mention that in a conversation, there are three common reactions: some blurt “how can you live without knowing what is going on in the world?”, others categorize me as ignorant, and some declare “I should do that too”. I decided to prioritize reading that impacts my choices and decisions. How & Why Years ago, I realized I had not read a book in a long time. I read a lot, but the content was mostly news articles, blog posts, and tweets. I started to question if the reading was steering my life towards the outcomes I wanted. I rarely identified anything influential to my actions in the news I was reading. I decided to test prioritizing books. Here is what I did:
WHY WRITE
I will write about things that I think about, because that makes for more interesting reading and forces me to expose my logical leaps and stretches. Thus, I’m hoping I’ll learn during writing and from resulting discussions (online or live). Writing is hard for me, I have never deliberately practiced it. I think it’s time to do that, and I’ve thought that already for years. That’s the key why I’m writing but there are other benefits and disadvantages that I’ll address next.
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