HandBecomesClaw

For those more personal thoughts

Add this to your .bashrc file:

alias journal='cd ~/Documents/daily ; cat > "`date`"'

I’ll let you know how it works out for me, but I suspect you’ll be glad you did.

The shackles of success

I’ve been thinking recently about how I often feel trapped in my career and place in life due to the relative success I’ve been enjoying. Essentially I feel like I stand to lose a lot by trying something new, so I just stick to what I know. I’ve been having this urge to quit my job, move away and try something entirely new just to see how that pans out.

Anyway, I was going to write a lot more on that subject, but then I saw this article which says more or less what I would have: 451 Weeks

All I can say is: bravo.

Flexing the Mind

Lately I’ve been thinking about the brain as a muscle. One of my professors once said that he would always insist on calculating the tip in his head as accurately as possible in an attempt to keep his mind sharp. I attempt to do this as well, but usually just use tricks to simplify the math (shift the decimal, double, round down accordingly). I doubt this is really working to my advantage, as I’ve fine tuned my brain to perform that trick, but haven’t really flexed the muscle in my head.

Puzzles and board games are something that I’ve generally avoided in the last several years. I used to play Risk, Chess, and Checkers with my brothers when I was younger, but for some reason lost interest in any competitive board games around when I went to college. I suspect this is mostly due to shyness, but also partly out of mental laziness. When hanging out with friends, I generally find it more appealing to simply have a drink and chat. This certainly can be mentally stimulating, but it is also very easy to tune out the conversation, and retreat into my own head, which I do so often. Perhaps if I made an effort to play more board games with friends, I could confront both my social anxiety and mental lethargy. It is certainly worth a try.