It feels a bit strange to write a post on overthinking because then I can be accused of overthinking about overthinking :P
This question stems from the observation that my conversations seldom end after talking. I always take pleasure in writing down the sparkles generated in the conversation and producing more thoughts afterwards. I realise that my dad loves it, too - he always writes to me essays after some kind of discussion.
This is a fun and quick Christmas project and a reflection on whether I overthink too much.
Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it … he who doesn’t … pays it. - Einstein
Regardless whether Einstein actually said that, it is no doubt that even small incremental improvement makes a large difference in the long term. Here I decide to apply the model to personal growth.
非淡泊无以明志，非宁静无以致远 -诸葛亮
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, …, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. - Henry David Thoreau
I will be on a retreat from today onwards. This involves
reading, writing and meditating more time for self-reflection Why
better understand myself and the world become a more empathetic person to others and myself make progress on projects that help others (instead of getting drowned in replying messages) experiment - an unexamined life is not worth living This implies
It was the season of light, it was the season of darkness - Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Here are some lessons I learned from this summer, organized by projects:
MedTech CovMD.org It was my first attempt to set up a startup. The aim was to create a forum to connect doctors on COVID-19 related topics. The project did not go as smoothly as we expected after 1-2 month and I have to personally pivot it by creating another platform.
TL;DR: look for communities, not just to seek help, but to help others.
We are in a loneliness pandemic (in addition to the ongoing COVID-19, of course). To find a solution, I have been very keen on looking for a community, where I can connect with like-minded people and collaborate to solve exciting problems. The idea of community resonated with me particularly well when I watched this video by the school of thought.
I started writing daily when I was 16. Most of the writings were just dumping my thoughts so that my brain can be less burdened by them. It is the exact reason why computers have hard disks in addition to RAM. Writing thoughts down is simply a much less costly way to store them than holding them in the mind. It was only until recently that I started to write down my thoughts on my blog and I would like to share why.
This is an article written to properly document my experience about the first scam that I fell prey to, and the reasons why (I think) this happened. Note that this article is probably doomed with attribution errors and may not reflect what truly happened. Nevertheless, I believe through attributions we seek meanings and through meanings, we regain the confidence to live hopefully more wisely.
The protagonist behind the scam, who preferred to remain anonymous and refused to comment on this incident (as if I could ever contact them), hacked @mikkasmusic’s verified twitter account and changed its display name and profile to Elon Musk’s.
Nothing is unhealthy when exercised at a moderate amount. Whether or not certain activities can be considered as excessive depends on how well our values align with the underlying motives of the activity. Shopping, though a harmless activity in itself, can be intrinsically outward-seeking and mind-manipulating if we do not approach it with an understanding of its repercussions.
For one, shopping encourages us to own possessions so that we can please other people.
While I initially intended to write about rest being a myth, but after contemplating and discussing with friends, it will perhaps be more reasonable to write about our often mythical thinking about rest. Rest here is defined as the time outside our standard working hours and time required to meet our physiological needs (e.g. sleep). We all can roughly divide our 24 hour day into three parts. We spend 8 hours on sleep, 8 hours on contracted jobs, and it is how we spend the last 8 hours that defines our life.