It takes intelligent and independent minds to desire what are really wanted.
April 21, 2020
March 30, 2020
The influence we have
Both this NPR hidden brain podcast on the influence you have and this book on confessions of a sociopath point to the interesting aspects on how we know (and don’t know) about the psychological influences we can have on other people.
December 20, 2018
Time perception
I found drawing to be an excellent in-flight entertainment, especially long-haul flights that provide ample time. Aside from occasional turbulence that can shake my strokes (especially on glass tablet surfaces), drawing is pretty much immune to other distractions like engine noises and passenger commotions.
I had so much fun and focus that the plane landed before I realized.
These two drawings are from the same photo which I like a lot.
November 5, 2018
A bipolar city
In a fancy restaurant, two guys in their early twenties were boasting about the funding of (their?) biotech startups, faces red with excitement boosted from their blood alcohol levels and profanity-filled conversations which, even without biotech background, I can detect nonsense from their tones, facial expressions, and body languages.
Meanwhile, on the streets scattered a few guys gathering manhole cover heat, and on a BART train, a guy was telling random strangers about his difficulty of finding jobs.
June 9, 2018
Suicide
Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade;
Someone with my genetics and psychology will probably never understand;
I will just Kublai everything and anything that stands in my way.
May 19, 2018
Antisocial irrationality
In a recent party I attended I did not socialize as much as I should. I was either too arrogant to think talking to people is not worth the time compared to just idly walking around, or too lazy to chat which is not difficult for me at all.
If I am in a social gathering, I should talk to people; otherwise I should just go somewhere else to do something useful.
In a future party, if you find me antisocial (not abnormal, which is normal for me), please remind me that I am behaving irrationally.
March 18, 2018
Productivity, rest, and distraction
Recently, I read several good articles from World Economic Forum about
distraction, nap, and productivity.
Distraction
Sometimes when I needed a break, I went to Slack, email, or social networks, only to find out that I was simply context switching to another task: more work, less focus, no relax.
So now I forced myself to simply take a walk, look out the window, or causal chat with people; anything that will NOT fork another work thread.
Napping
I took naps all the time, and I plan to keep on doing it.
Productivity
Planning is important, but sometimes I found it much simpler to just pick something and do it to avoid over-thinking.
When I feel over-whelmed or hard to decide, it is usually a sign that all the tasks at hand are similarly important.
March 5, 2017
Psychometrics
I instinctively ignored this upon first sighting a few days ago, but it popped up again on my social feed. I read it, and found the report fascinating.
There are two links under that article providing 2 ways for the said personality test: one via FB likes, another via questionnaire. Out of curiosity, I tried both, as a test of consistency. The results differ quite a lot. I guess this is because I use Facebook as a friendlier version of LinkedIn (I didn’t realize this until my wife told me so a few days ago), so it probably doesn’t reflect my personality well.
This is just a sample size of one, but I suspect how many people truly reveal themselves on social networks, and this can influence the accuracy of such data analysis algorithms.
May 9, 2016
Recursive interviews
When you were interviewing the candidates I was also interviewing you.
You opened yourself like a book.
🙂