Date: Thu, 28 Mar 2024 20:23:39 +0000 (UTC)
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Areas of Skill, Hobbies, & Artistic Pursuits
Areas of Skill, Hobbies, & Artistic Pursuits
Table of contents
Child page=
s
Related=
pages:
Checklists
- Examples of checklists I've created
- 2008 - Movie-Making Checklist
- As a senior in college I took a class=
called "Directing for the Camera" in which students learned how to create =
short films. Over the course of the semester I was involved in creating mul=
tiple short films (working on both my own films and other students' films),=
and I was repeatedly struck by 1) just how many things can go wrong when t=
rying to make a film, and 2) how important it is to get everything right wh=
en you have a team of 5 people donating their time to your project. =
span>One thing I was careful to do was to explain WHY each step was important =
to follow; I would explain what bad thing could happen if you didn't follow=
that step. I sent the checkl=
ist around to my classmates and my teacher was very pleased.
=
Here's a link to the checklist I created.=
https://www.dropbox.com/s/otxsly9ktkljb ... =
CKLIST.doc
- 2013 - Gym Checklist
- In 2013 I began going to a gym again =
to lift weights and was repeatedly annoyed when I forgot one small item or =
another. For example, I might forget my deodorant one day (a minor annoyanc=
e), or I might forget Jojoba oil another day (a major annoyance since the s=
kin on my face and scalp can get very dry after being blasted with water fr=
om a shower). Other days I would forget socks, or a new pair of underwear.<=
/span>
Remembering "The Checklist =
Manifesto", I decided to make a checklist to ensure that I stopped having t=
hese problems. And to make sure I used it, I taped the list to the side of =
my bookshelf, where it would be easy for me to look at right before leaving=
my house.
Here are picture=
s of the checklist taped to the side of my bookshelf:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ofa8l7k6oo9bc ... st%201.JPG
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1sidfpul4fynv ... st%202.JPG
Cooking
Coffee
The=
Five Pour Method
Creativity (as a skill)
- I'm finding that spending time lying down in a quiet place is a fantast=
ic way for me to come up with ideas.
- I find that my mind gets filled with all kinds of unimportant short-ter=
m stuff when I'm going through the day, and it's often only at the end of t=
he day when I'm lying down and it's quiet that I actually start to think ab=
out things I think are really important.
- I think Thomas Edison also did the same thing.
Hobbies
- factors to consider when evaluating a hobby
- the cost of the hobby
- flying planes, sailing boats, and rid=
ing horses are expensive hobbies. soccer, skateboarding, and yoga are relat=
ively cheap. aside from equipment, you should also consider other costs, li=
ke transportation and medical costs: e.g. having to drive 40 miles to go sw=
ing dancing is an added cost; breaking bones as a snowboarder is an added c=
ost.
- it may be better to choose cheap hobb=
ies that produce thrills rather than expensive hobbies that produce thrills=
. ex: I recently heard an ex-helicopter pilot say that he prefers powered-p=
aragliding to flying a blackhawk, which was the complete opposite of what I=
would have expected (it really caught me off-guard). it made me remember t=
hat driving a car on the highway was a huge rush the first few times i did =
it, but soon became routine. the same pattern seems likely to show up with =
flying a plane/helicopter, but those will cost me a lot of money per moment=
of excitement. so it may be better to do something cheap that also produce=
s thrills (e.g. stand-up comedy or acting). i haven't made up my mind, yet,=
though.
- the excitement from the hobby
- excitement can come from acceleration=
(cars), fear of pain (skateboarding), other in-born fears (climbing/fear o=
f heights), strenuous effort combined with competition (soccer). more excit=
ement seems to often make for a more enjoyable hobby. the big trade-off see=
ms to be with danger; more excitement can often mean more danger. [connecti=
on: in "the 4-hour workweek" the author talks about how you should primaril=
y seek excitement in your life]
- the number of people near you who do the hobby
- people feel better after interacting =
with other people, and hobbies are a good way to get that interaction. but =
if no one around you shares your hobby, you won't enjoy that benefit and ma=
y want to consider adopting a second hobby.
- the likelihood that you'll become the best at the hobby
- hobbies tend to be more enjoyable whe=
n you're the best at them among those you hang out with, because the other =
people who have that hobby will tend to treat you well.
- the culture of the hobby
- if your hobby involves getting togeth=
er with other people, pick a hobby that will bring you together with people=
you will enjoy spending time with. for example, rapping tends to have a pa=
rticular culture even though that culture is not essential to the actual sk=
ills they use (e.g. weird al's "white and nerdy" is a great rap song). if y=
ou're an asian baptist who wants to start a death metal bible band, you may=
have trouble finding a crowd to practice your hobby with.
- the skills you're developing from the hobby
- animals play around to practice skill=
s they'll need later in life (like how to fight). bill gates played monopol=
y and risk as a kid and his family held competitive team events; presumably=
this gave him some great experience with cutting deals, being aggressive, =
and working as part of a team.
- even hobbies that may seem useless to=
many people can serve as valuable analogies for analyzing other aspects of=
your life
- example 1: for a time in high sc=
hool i played a computer role-playing-game called Diablo 2 in which you con=
trol a character who fights demons and gradually learns different fighting =
skills. the majority of your time playing the game involves clicking furiou=
sly on monsters to kill them; in hindsight the game seems pretty repetitive=
, but I gained a valuable insight into the relationship between your time a=
nd your skills: the game was set up so that you couldn't learn every skill =
to the maximum degree possible; in fact, you could only fully develop a small subset of the abi=
lities open to you. if you developed your skills in an inefficient manner (=
e.g. partially developing every possible skill, including those you wouldn'=
t likely use as much), you wouldn't have as powerful a character as some ot=
her player who chose to develop their skills in a more thought-out manner (=
fully developing several skills, and only developing those skills that they=
would be using). to bring the analogy back: most people spend their lives =
dabbling in many different hobbies, jobs, and interests, and so they never =
really excel in any one area. the guys who get all the attention are the on=
es who've been dedicated solely to a single pursuit for a long time (mozart=
, tiger woods, michael jackson, warren buffet, etc). of course, the questio=
n remains: is it better to have that recognition or is it better to experie=
nce the variety of many different pursuits? I'm honestly not sure yet what =
the answer to that is, but at the very least it seems worth being aware of =
this trade-off. One of the reasons I stopped playing videogames is that I n=
oticed that I wasn't really making any cumulative gains: I would become pro=
ficient at one game, but when that game went out of style all of those hour=
s I had spent learning to play it seemed suddenly useless (or at least less=
useful). I didn't like that.
- example 2: Mark Cuban was an avi=
d stamp collector as a teenager and learned a lot of useful business skills=
from his hobby. he has a post about that I need to track down.
Languages
Gener=
al thoughts
- Thoroughly learning a language requires a huge investment=
of time. I think the #1 mistake people probably make is not understa=
nding how much it's going to cost them to learn the language.
- I think the best reason to learn a language is as an investment to earn=
/save money in the future:
- To earn more money: To get access to lucrative work opportunities that =
you wouldn't have otherwise (i.e. customers who don't speak a language you =
already know). For example, learning English as a citizen of a non-En=
glish-speaking country to be able to get work from customers in the United =
States and Europe.
- To save money: To be able to live in an area where the people whose ser=
vices you'll want to use won't speak a language you already know. For=
example, moving to Central/South America or Southeast Asia as a US citizen=
to save money.
- It seems inefficient (to put it generously) that people spend thousands=
of hours studying languages in school without any thought as to whether th=
e investment of effort will pay off or not.
- If you regularly trade messages (like on Facebook) with someone who spe=
aks the language you're trying to learn, ask them to only write in that lan=
guage, and when you send them messages, speak with that target language int=
o Google Translate, make sure the English translation is what you want to s=
ay, and then send the text in the target language. So the entire conv=
ersation history is in the language you're trying to learn. This is o=
bviously best used when you're already at an intermediate level (like, you =
will generally be able to say what you want to say without needing to look =
up every single word and grammatical rule).
- In my experience, by far the fastest I've ever learned a language was w=
hen I had a girlfriend who only spoke that language with me. The expe=
rience reminded me of that of a child with his mother, as I started by lear=
ning basic phrases and unable to have in-depth conversations, but slowly bu=
ilt up my vocabulary until I could have more interesting conversations with=
people.
Spanish
How I'm learning Spanish
- I had the advantage of my father being a native speaker growing up, so =
while he never spoke to me in Spanish, I at least learned the accent / soun=
ds from listening to him speak to others. I've had people think I'm a=
native speaker from my pronunciation, despite my extremely limited vocabul=
ary and knowledge of the grammar.
- I studied the language in middle school and high school.
- This left me with a basic understanding of / familiarity with the gramm=
ar and vocabulary after accounting for everything I forgot.
- I think the huge flaw with how the language was taught in school was th=
at we spent most of the time learning grammar and doing exercises instead o=
f actually using the language in conversation. I think an immersive c=
lassroom (where the teacher only speaks the language) could have been bette=
r but I feel like it helps to have the teacher use simplified grammar / voc=
abulary when you're just starting out, and I feel like in the US school sys=
tem the teachers would probably feel pressure to always use "real" grammar =
/ vocabulary (i.e. not dumb it down at the beginning), which would make it =
harder. And the fact that there's only one teacher
- I'm currently using Duolingo for ~3-5 minutes per day and finding it by=
far the best way to learn Spanish that I've encountered.
- I love how they've been giving me consistent practice with the preterit=
and imperfect tenses.
- The time required each day is so little that I always find myself think=
ing, "Eh, it's just 3 minutes, I can do it." Whereas if it was even j=
ust 15 minutes, I'm sure I'd end up stopping at some point ("I don't have t=
ime today"), and then I could end up going for months or years before start=
ing again, as often happens with other projects.
- I think the next step beyond Duolingo would be to get into a situation =
where I actually need to use the language, like if I had a girlfriend who o=
nly spoke Spanish or moved to a Spanish speaking country and was interactin=
g with people on a daily basis. When I'm around my father or brother,=
I end up just using English because it's easier.
- I think also something like my "Let's Play" idea would work, where I'm =
playing games with someone who only uses that language.
Thai
Ho=
w I'm learning Thai
- The first few years:
- For the first few years, I didn't put any effort into it at all, I just=
absorbed the few words I needed. I did note down at one point the li=
st of words I could remember off the top of my head and the order in which =
I learned them. But basically I just picked up words without putting =
conscious effort into learning. I probably learned maybe around 50-10=
0 words.
- One big thing that I was passively learning the first few years was the=
phonemes and tones used by the language; I was learning the accent, even w=
ithout knowing what people were saying 99% of the time. These years h=
elped me with my pronunciation when I later got more serious about learning=
, because I had a sense of whether how I was talking sounded "right" or not=
.
- I learned that some people's pronunciation of certain letters sometimes=
encompasses or falls between two different English phonemes. For exa=
mple, some people pronounce the 'ch' sound as 'ch', 'sh', and/or halfway be=
tween them (sometimes varying depending on the word), without distinguishin=
g between any of those sounds, where in English there is a strong distincti=
on between 'ch' and 'sh'. The same thing for 'l' and 'r' when saying =
'know'.
- Going to Thai school for six months:
- This was actually very helpful for giving me an overview of the languag=
e and getting me started at knowing how to read. They moved so quickl=
y that I didn't end up remembering a lot of the vocabulary / grammar / pron=
unciation rules I learned, but it made me unintimidated to go back later ov=
er the next few years and really memorize all the stuff I had been shown in=
that period of time.
- They put a lot of time into teaching the tonal rules / different classe=
s of consonants. I forgot probably 90%+ of what they taught.
- Learning on my phone:
- I then spent a couple of years just studying on my phone.
- I put time into learning new vocabulary with Ling (an app), but IMO the=
vocabulary they had me learning had not been chosen well; I was learning u=
ncommon vocabulary like "lawyer" while not being taught very basic vocabula=
ry like how to say "for" or "about".
- I used the "Thai Alphabet" and then the "Write Thai" apps to build a so=
lid memory of the alphabet, which really helped me to learn new words.
- Having a girlfriend who only speaks Thai:
- This really took my Thai to the next level. I was learning phrase=
s and words that are actually useful in day-to-day life.
- This really gave me the confidence to start talking more to random Thai=
people in Thai, which further helped me build my vocabulary and confidence=
with the language.
- I think this was a very similar experience to being a child who has the=
ir mother speaking to them in the language: you start with very basic inter=
actions / vocabulary, and then gradually add more vocabulary and a deeper u=
nderstanding of the grammar.
- I think it was key that she only speaks Thai (or very limited English) =
because if her English is better than my Thai, it will be easier to just sw=
itch to English much of the time, which will prevent you from improving.
- When talking to people, if I'm not sure I said something correctly, I a=
sk them if I'm speaking correctly. This helps me catch situations whe=
re Google Translate is teaching me uncommon ways of saying things. Th=
is is a great way to get better at the language. I see =
a lot of people learning languages who don't ask this often enough when in =
conversation with native speakers.
- 2023.09.29 - For ten months I'd been communicating via FB messenger in =
English with her, but I'm now switching to speaking in Thai to Google trans=
late, double-checking that the meaning is correct (by looking at the Englis=
h translation), and then sending the Thai. I'm now going to do this w=
ith every Thai person I trade messages with.
- Improving my grammar:
- I started studying a little grammar every day with "Thai: An Essential =
Grammar", a great book I found on Amazon. I bought the digital versio=
n and would keep it open on my phone and would try to just study a single r=
ule (basically a page of the book) every day that I can motivate myself to =
set aside a few minutes to do it.
- I think this helped me a lot to learn rules that I would =
not have been able to learn easily through conversation with my girlfriend =
or referring to Google Translate.
Learning
- Figure out some way to practice the thing-to-be-learned many times in a=
short span of time, even if that means doing it somewhat artificially.
Owning pet=
s
Cats
F=
eline panleukopenia
Pest Control (Mosquitos, Mice, =
etc.)
Mosquitos=
h2>
Politics (as a skill)
Related =
pages
Misc links<=
/h4>
Pranks / Practical Jokes
Examples
Sequels (General Principles)
- If possible, try swapping a component of the sequel into the original w=
ork and see if it feels appropriate.
Eminem - K=
im
- This is probably one of the best "sequels" I've ever seen done.
First song: '97 Bonnie & Clyde
Sequel: Ki=
m
What=
it does right:
- It's stylistically very different from the original.
- The original is characterized by Eminem's unemotional / playful tone, a=
s he's talking to his daughter.
- The originality comes from the contrast between his low-key delivery an=
d the situation he's describing.
- The "sequel" is characterized by an extremely emotional delivery.
- It shows the next-most-interesting moment to describe, rather than just=
thoughtlessly assuming it needs to cover something that happened =
after the first song.
Throwing a party
Relate=
d pages
How to =
do it well
- You must vet the people trying to enter the party.
- Mood
- If someone's in a bad mood, they're going to bring down the general moo=
d at the party.
Examples of good parties
- 2017.03.12 - Y=
ouTube - hurfyd - CoastDream - Soft Moon
- Awesome, just awesome.
- It reminds me of the big bicycle events in DC / LA that John would alwa=
ys talk about.
- I think DC also had some kind of walking event, but I don't remember wh=
at it was.
- This is also like the floats in the Pride parades.
- It may be worth noting that=E2=80=93apparently=E2=80=93the dancers in t=
he video were not dancing to the song that is featured in the video. And th=
e video is (obviously) an edited-down depiction of what it would have been =
like to be present at that event. So the video may not be conveying the act=
ual feeling of being at the party.
- Cool things they did:
- Costumes
- Good dancers
- Cool lights on the truck
- They rented a huge 16-wheeler(?) to hold everyone in.
- It was totally improvised / not part of a big bureaucratic event.
- The dancers were doing crazy stuff like hanging upside-down off the out=
side of the truck with their heads just above the street.
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