Post ideas

January 1, 2010 by Joshua
in Blog

I keep a file on my computer of blog post ideas. I decided to keep it here. I don’t know if people can tell what the ideas mean or not. My goal is to write them all up at some point.

  • Business idea: FeBe
  • Applying for financial aid as a conscientious objector
  • Personal development graphs — add noise
  • Solved people problem in North Korea by taking responsibility. Never used to do that. This way is better.
  • Teaching leadership and personal development in college and graduate school
  • Hamlet changes Polonius’s perception on clouds
  • Walter Mischel’s point that context affects personality. Behavior more predictable when viewed as reacting to environment. Harder from robot-model perspective, but more predictive.
  • What does it mean to conquer a continent or build a building? Not lifting stones. Motivating people. Physical strength is nearly irrelevant.
  • Many fields have a small book that closes the subject, more important than huge ones. Eg, Elements of Style, Thermodynamics, K&R. What others? Tufte?
  • Which market is more free — the Godfather or current?
  • I have a blog post in me about differences between science and people talking using scientific language or pictures. Science, I think of as rooted in curiosity, love of nature, experiment, and honest reporting of results. A lot of people use scientific sounding language that I don’t think of as scientific.
  • Efficiencies: not what you do, your attitude: bring bags, hot then cold water, lights not in room, take napkins, use sponge, lid on pot to boil, put in pasta at beginning (have you tested if you can tell the difference), compost, walk up stairs sometimes instead of gym (nineteen floors took three minutes, probably burned 100 calories)
  • Audio: how to celebrate, not just accept
  • On the way to Beijing: series on environment for businesspeople and vice versa
  • James Burke Connections
  • You can’t stop mental chatter but you can control it.
  • More social skills exercises
    • T’s
  • Being put in North Korean jail would create challenge of how to live great life while in jail
  • To get good at something, don’t just force yourself into something new. Envision what you want and behave consistently. Your body reflects your lifestyle. Going on a diet isn’t a lifestyle so it won’t last. Find out how people with the bodies you want live and live like them. You may have to change a lot. Same with any other change.
  • People suggesting art ideas — like suggesting authors book ideas; also like giving unsolicited advice
  • I learned government was huge. The more I think about it the more it’s like the Godfather.
  • Comments on movie: Forgiving Mendele
  • Problem with getting what you want is you’re limited by your imagination
  • Wanting something and not getting it leads to strong emotions — wanting, but doesn’t mean you deserve it. Guy wanting girl for reasons he wants instead of their reasons. Nice guy syndrome
  • Sugar article http://www.garytaubes.com/blog
  • New age and religion motivate fun, uplifting… science should too
  • Learning about women teaches me about myself
  • Modeling could be distortion or liberation, ability to create own world
  • Accuracy < utility ; eg garden leadership model
  • If you can’t disprove your belief, you have religion/preach
  • Languages depend on others, meaning depends on earlier meaning, it all cascades back to original grunts
  • The parts we protect end up defining us, ironically
  • What music, fashion, symbols, … are for
  • How to get a job offer (like at GTD)
  • 2×2 grid
  • Engineers bad at sales/smart doesn’t mean you deserve respect/I was there
  • How I would look for investor
  • Challenge of my Model — lose excitement
  • Something about Feynman
  • Marshall Goldsmith advice
    • it’s about the client
    • Be happy now
  • Faron: it’s about the other person (makes him center, ironically)
  • New shoes requires being different person. Can’t act
  • Fox peddles indignation and self-righteousness (more than fear)
  • Nematodes
  • Losing species: decreasing biomass too?
  • Laziness as virtue — bragging and clicheed
  • Clubs are status stratifying machines
  • Conversation about success, what is it, what is common to everyone?
  • Water at 5k events
  • Running barefoot
  • If you don’t express it it doesn’t matter — romantic comedies
  • Not a geek or nerd because social; geek is a style
  • More effective to describe consequences than to say do/don’t/should/etc
  • Copy great blog post structures and translate to
  • Einstein’s evolutionary, not revolutionary, reconciling Maxwell’s equations
  • Apollo 13 “finest moment”, example with students unready 110308
  • Finish “What is a belief worth” post
  • Everytime I try to imagine the world better, I realize it’s as good as it could be (people will accuse me of being in a privileged position. I don’t buy it and that’s ad hominem anyway. The only way to avoid unprivileged is to change your emotions, to be non-human. People imagine human is what they want it to be. What it is results in inequality. If they want a better world, they have to make different humans.)
  • Transition from knowing someone first then opening up to the reverse Since you only sense the world filtered through mental models, changing your models effectively changes your world.
  • Pausing helps
  • Next step from polarize style: polarize people, create your world
  • Used to ask about parties if they were good enough for me. Now just if bare minimum for me to make it fun. Lower standards but better times because I take responsibility.
  • To get good at something hard, practice easier versions
  • The problem in losing someone was in thinking it would last forever
  • Giving people background of things they could do and their consequences can help people more than telling them what to do.

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