Productivity

Bits and Bobs – A Live Commonplace Book

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What follows is a collection of thoughts and pieces of wisdom I have gathered so far. Some are my own words, others are quotes or ideas that have resonated with me along the way. This project is intended as a live commonplace online notebook, updated often. Some parts may seem inconsistent, even contradictory. Life itself tends to disagree with solid certainties. If you, dear reader, stumble upon an idea that feels irrelevant, wrong, or contrary to everything you’ve lived, maybe it isn’t for you. Skim …

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Parkinson’s Law, Hawaiian Time, and the Space Between

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People get cast in molds (of status and roles) for which they are variously equipped. The problem lies between man’s creativeness and diversity and the rather specific needs of his institutions, for most cultures and the institutions they engender represent highly specialized solutions to rather specific problems. For example, in England during the early days of the industrial revolution, villagers and field hands were brought into the factory to work. These first generations of mill hands were not conditioned to the whistle. Like all preindustrial …

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When Resilience Requires Slack

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The traditional approach to understanding complex systems has been reductionist, breaking them into smaller, simpler components. While effective for understanding mechanical systems like clocks, where each cog serves a clear purpose in isolation, this method falls short when applied to dynamic, interconnected systems like living organisms, ecosystems, weather patterns, or even social structures such as economies, organizations, institutions, supply chains, or families. To look at systems like these and only see parts is to miss the force that ties them together. […] You don’t …

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Reading for Knowledge

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Reading is integral to our daily lives, serving various purposes ranging from relaxation to in-depth learning. How we approach reading often depends on our objectives — whether we are unwinding with a novel, seeking specific information, or engaging with academic texts. Reading for Leisure Reading for leisure is an unhurried journey through stories, ideas, and emotions. It allows us to experience pleasure, relaxation, and sometimes escapism through the written or spoken word. The motivation is personal enjoyment rather than academic, professional, or life admin …

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Worth Sharing #5: Procrastination, Generalization vs. Specialization, Ingenious Living and More

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EconTalk Podcast EconTalk is a fantastic free podcast hosted by Russ Roberts that explores various topics related to economics, philosophy, and current events. The episodes are designed to make complex ideas easy to understand and provide diverse perspectives. I like to listen to episodes during the week, and then on Saturday mornings, I review the attached long-form articles, take notes from the audio transcripts, and go over recommended sources. For instance, this week’s article was an interview with David Epstein, author of Range: Why …

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Brandon Sanderson’s Framework to Achieve Hard Things 

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In 2020, Brandon Sanderson, an epic fantasy and science fiction writer, delivered an excellent keynote called The Common Lie Writers Tell You. This session was a map of achieving difficult things disguised as writing advice.  The first thing that jumps from this video is the lie we usually hear “you can do anything if you just set your mind to it”. In Sanderson’s words: Some things are simply impossible, and even for the things that are possible, luck plays a bigger role in accomplishments …

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How to Reduce Biased Thinking

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The brain is designed with blind spots, optical and psychological, and one of its cleverest tricks is to confer on its owner the comforting delusion that he or she does not have any.  Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson – Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)   Every day an overflow of thoughts dashes through our minds as we must adapt as efficiently and quickly as possible to everchanging environments. We can’t process all streams of information around us at once, so we turn to mental shortcuts …

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How Women Find Time for Their Work Projects (part 2)

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Articles in this series: The Limitations of the Deep Work Hypothesis – Introduction How Women Find Time for Their Work Projects (part 1) How Women Find Time for Their Work Projects (part 2) This article will present other techniques that women (who usually experience gender stereotyping or/and are caregivers) choose to follow in their work aspirations. As in the previous article, most of this research is based on Mason Currey’s excellent books, Daily Rituals and Daily Rituals: Women at Work.   Hidden in plain sight   Costume designer Edith Head created the …

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