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Practicing Your Craft
I remembering reading in some book– maybe it was Mastery by George Leonard— that experienced doctors generally aren’t better than brand new doctors. The implication, the book explained, was that practice by itself wasn’t enough for improvement. To actually get better, you need a specific type of practice: the kind of practice where you’re actually…
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Planning Your day like Sebastian Marshall
I bought Sebastian Marshall‘s book, Ikigai, when it first came out. His is one of very few blogs that I read regularly, so I had high expectations for the book. And, hey… even if it’s not great, I like supporting people I respect. As soon as I bought the book, I read the first chapter.…
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Why I Took Four Violin Lessons and then Quit
I’m not enough of a productivity champion that I can work for 14 hours straight with no breaks at all. Sometimes I”ll find myself pressed up against some extra tricky problem, and even after taking shots at it from various angles, I can’t quite push through. In times like those, it helps to take a…
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Having Enough and Wanting More
I have everything I could possibly need. I have a really cool house-on-wheels, enough good food to keep me healthy and full, great friends and family, enough money to travel around a bit, computer, etc. By any reasonable definition, I have enough. Yet I want more. The background of my computer is a Piper Malibu,…
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What Lasts
Classical music concerts are one of my favorite places to think. It sounds weird, but classical music provides just enough stimulation to keep me from becoming distracted, but not enough stimulation to impact my thinking processes. I love being able to drift from absorbing and enjoying the music to going deep in thought without really…
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Live Longer by Riding a Motorcycle (sort of)
When I tell people I ride a motorcycle, they’re either really excited (because they ride too), or horrified that I would take such careless risks with my life. Just how dangerous is motorcycle riding, though? Before I bought my first bike I did some research and came to the conclusion: not very. Let’s look at…
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When People Stop Getting Better
One way to break down a lifetime would be to think of it as two portions– the part where the person became better, and the part where he coasted. In a normal person’s life, the getting better part would include everything from his first breath of air, as he learned how to see and feel…
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The 100% Foolproof 1 Step Method To Always Achieving Your Goal
For some of us, achieving goals is hard. Like real hard. I know for it often seems that way. I set a goal and start doing something and I slack. A couple days later I’ve abandoned the goal all together. In some cases this was unacceptable. I really wanted to complete my goal. I needed…
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Doing Things When You Don’t Want to Do Them
I’m sitting at my desk in my RV. It’s nice out, but the RV is in direct sunlight, so it’s hot inside. The fan is on maximum speed, which cools me down a little bit at the cost of it being really loud. Two seconds ago I checked my email. I also checked my email…
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Slow Twitch and Fast Twitch Brains
Muscles are built from two types of fibers– fast twitch and slow twitch. Slow twitch fibers fire slowly, but are more efficient with oxygen use, making them suitable for the long punishment of a marathon. Fast twitch fibers don’t use energy as efficiently, but they fire faster, making them good for sprinting. Brains aren’t made…
