MuadDib

Château Lafite Rothschild 1982

Casu martzu

Chill in equanimity for mindful serenity

"Mastering yourself is true power." - Lao Tzu

Dogecoin

"But now I realize that apart from a few special days now and then, life mostly consists of one dull, insignificant day after another. Human beings are attracted to drama and variety. The humdrum we hold in disdain. Wrapped up in the routines of our daily lives, we let them slide by unnoticed. But I believe that hidden in these ordinary, unremarkable routines of life is a great truth that requires our attention. By contemplating life as it is, stripped of all extraneous added value, I found I could let go of a myriad of things that have been gnawing at my mind. Through the prosaic repetition of [the Zen monastery's] exacting daily routines for washing the face, eating, defecating, and sleeping, this is the answer that I felt in my bones: accept unconditionally the fact of your life and treasure each moment of each day." -Kaoru Nonomura

High fructose nihilism

Media pervertry

Something for nothing a dishonest day's work

"My cartoons were interrupted to show me 3,000 Americans die on live TV when I was just a kid. And honestly? Things haven't gotten better." - A millennial

Abattoir photoshoot

Bernie Pitt '24

One must imagine Sisyphus happy

Efficient Language Learning: Focusing on Frequency and Context I've recently discovered a valuable resource for language learning: a series of audiobooks with accompanying PDF files by Lingo Mastery. These materials cover the 2000 most frequently occurring words in the target language, along with their usage in context by native speakers. This approach aligns well with the widely recognized method of learning languages by starting with the most common words. To illustrate the power of this method, consider that in English, the top 100 most frequent words account for approximately 50% of all spoken language. While knowing these words alone won't make you fluent, it does enable you to distinguish unique parts of speech and follow the flow of ideas. It is curious to watch your mind slowly transition from a state where your target language simply sounds like never-ending babbling and noise to a stage where it clearly distinguishes where one-word ends and another begins, even if you don't know what the words mean. Expanding this to the top 2000 words covers about 90% of all spoken English. This approach provides an efficient way to jumpstart your learning in a new language, allowing you to grasp the context, understand the general gist of conversations, and intuitively begin to comprehend the underlying grammatical structures. This method also demonstrates the process of identifying principles experientially rather than conceptually. It's interesting to contemplate how children manage to learn the grammatical rules (principles) of their native languages, effortlessly while many struggle with textbook-based grammar lessons in school. This observation led me to an idea for enhancing the learning process a few years ago, which I hope to explore further when I integrate Range with Magic in the future. To maximize the utility of these resources, I've developed a technique using AI and audio editing tools: Feed the PDF files into an AI and request the words, their translations, example sentences, and translations be returned in CSV or Excel format. Import this data into Anki I use OpenAudible to obtain the audiobook files. (it's a paid product, but worth it to manage, store, and convert all audible stuffs) Utilize Audacity to clip the audio for each word and example sentence. Add these audio clips to the corresponding Anki flashcards. By practicing with these enhanced flashcards - handwriting the words, attempting pronunciation, and listening to correct native pronunciation - you engage more neural pathways than simple memorization. This multi-sensory approach involves fine motor control for writing and speaking, which translates into a higher-resolution ability to distinguish nuances in new words or sentences. This method not only aids in efficient vocabulary acquisition but also demonstrates the meta-skills of making distinctions, body awareness, and identifying principles to increase overall learning capacity as described in Mastery. It's a holistic approach that engages multiple senses and skills, potentially leading to faster and more robust language acquisition. I hope to apply the meta-skills to the art of discipline itself.

"The archer who does not share with others the joy of the bow and the arrow will never know his own qualities and defects." - Paulo Coelho

Mastering Discipline: My Journey and Methods Recently, I've been deeply contemplating the art of discipline - what it means, what it requires, and how to master it. To this end, I've embarked on an intensive study of Peter Ralston's book "Mastery," employing a method I call "deep reading." This approach involves reading a page (or 2 depending on the context), handwriting questions to clarify my understanding, and then using AI (Claude and GPT-4) to identify nuances I might have missed. This process helps me gain experiential understanding of some of the concepts that goes beyond mere intellectual comprehension. It may seem like overkill, but I only do this for specific books; such as Ralstons where there is much more depth than may initially be assumed. I plan to apply this technique to all of Ralston's books over several months. By doing so, I aim to thoroughly understand the terrain he's mapping before venturing out on my own in the coming years. To supplement this core practice, I'm also utilizing tools like Anki for spaced repetition, engaging in language learning, together with revisiting the questions I generate with deep reading. I believe these methods shall all serve to improve my learning process while uncovering the hidden principles of "discipline". This is an assumption, however, and I am open to being wrong if I identify certain principles that undermine it. Interestingly, I've found that learning languages offers unique insights that I haven't been able to replicate through other means. While knowing multiple languages has its marginal benefits, especially in this day and age where technology provides rapid and accurate translation, I've discovered it provides an experiential awareness of mental constructs that is truly invaluable. It offers a deep understanding of mind, thought, conceptualization, and interpretation that goes beyond the surface-level advantages of multilingualism. My ultimate goal is to evolve from my current level of discipline to someone who is genuinely moving toward mastery. I'm not starting from scratch - I'm not terrible at discipline - but I recognize there's significant room for growth. Through this journey, I hope to uncover and internalize the hidden principles of discipline that separate the truly exceptional from the merely good, or just from the other impulsive brats with high willpower and pain tolerance relative to the average population. In my next post, I plan to share some methods I've developed for creating high-quality flashcards for common languages. I believe these techniques will be useful for others on a similar path of self-improvement and language acquisition or can be applied to similar contexts not related to languages.