Crossposted to my blog Over the course of this past year, I’ve slowly become a magician. No, not a literal one. But in the sense that I’ve become a version of myself that I previously would’ve called a magician. I feel less social anxiety and awkwardness when asking people for...
Crossposted from my blog. Considering collaborating on a version of this that's tailored specifically towards undergrads in the LW or EA communities. I just completed my first year of college (US university). I’ve written up some personal reflections and curated some useful thoughts from others. Caveat: people are different. My...
Crossposted from my blog My roommate types with one finger; he literally only uses his right index finger. I made him do a typing test and his WPM turned out to be around 30-40, which is honestly higher than I thought it’d be. When I first noticed this, I immediately...
Crossposted to my blog
Over the course of this past year, I’ve slowly become a magician.
No, not a literal one. But in the sense that I’ve become a version of myself that I previously would’ve called a magician.
I feel less social anxiety and awkwardness when asking people for things. I feel more inclined to find unusual or uncomfortable answers to problems. I have gotten noticeably better at not letting uncertainty and hypotheticals stall action.
Before, I would quickly concede if told it wasn’t possible to get a Thing I wanted. Now, I’m usually able to pry until I get that Thing, or at least come away with a compromise or special arrangement — unless the... (read 1396 more words →)
Thanks for this comment. I was hoping that segment would come off as a genuine reminder for undergrads to loosen up a bit and enjoy the fun parts of college after reading a chunk of heavy material that likely goes against many commonly held preconceived notions.
But I appreciate this pushback; it's one I haven't encountered much in my social circles, which usually view the "life is short" sentiment in a positive light (see: Kurzgesagt's Optimistic Nihilism video). FWIW, I find that this perspective encourages me to try harder and be better.
Crossposted from my blog. Considering collaborating on a version of this that's tailored specifically towards undergrads in the LW or EA communities.
I just completed my first year of college (US university). I’ve written up some personal reflections and curated some useful thoughts from others.
Caveat: people are different. My perspective is one of millions; treat it accordingly.
Understand the game
For some reason I can’t quite put my finger on, they don’t tell you the cynical (realistic? red-pill? based?) perspective of college during admissions. That’s for yourself to figure out, which seems…a little unfair.
The perspective I’m talking about involves some mix of:
Fair enough. It just felt so jarring to observe (my WPM is ~110 on Typeracer) and it set off a chain of thoughts afterwards, so I thought it would be worth mentioning.
Good observation. I agree that it's a good idea to first recognize places of growth that you care enough about to want to improve at.
Personally, I've noticed that I subconsciously filter areas where I want to grow and areas where I don't.
I sit on the fence when it comes to investing, learning about web3, or deepening my coding knowledge because I don't really know much about them. But since the social and online circles I'm in say it's worth paying attention to, I remind myself that I should probably not limit myself there.
But I don't really care about getting better at some particular video game, for example, so I'll limit myself to gimmicky tactics and never look back.
Crossposted from my blog
My roommate types with one finger; he literally only uses his right index finger. I made him do a typing test and his WPM turned out to be around 30-40, which is honestly higher than I thought it’d be.
When I first noticed this, I immediately thought: he’s limiting himself for no reason. He could probably get to 60 WPM with proper form pretty easily with as little as 15 minutes of practice a day.
So I asked him why he didn’t use both hands, and he said that he’d gotten used to it and never ran into any problems. If it works, it works, I guess.
I left that interaction a... (read 565 more words →)
Yes! I love that post.