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Travel diary, days 8-9
Yesterday, I:
- Had preliminary discussions with Justin about co-writing something
- Communicated with some people back in Finland and kick-started our party's call for candidates for Parliamentary elections (by making a "write your name here if you're interested" wiki page)
- Went to get some exercise with Justin and Jasen
- Continued to study microeconomics
- Realized I needed to understand differential equations if I wanted to get the most out of the micro textbook, decided to brush up on my calculus skills and then move on to differential equations
- Had dinner conversations
Today, I'll:
- Answer some personal e-mails
- Get some exercise again
- Write a new LiveJournal post
- Study calculus
- See if I get a chance to write with Justin
- Work on writing something, maybe a LW post
This morning, I was blue. Literally, not metaphorically: the skin on my face was noticeably more blue than usual. I didn't pick up on it at first, but several of the people at the morning meeting commented on it and seemed a bit worried. Looking at myself in a mirror later on, I realized what they had been talking about. After I was out jogging, I went to take a shower and managed to figure out what the reason was: my pillow and blanket are blue. They'd apparently been leaking color, because both of my elbows were entirely blue. (This was a bit scary until I realized what the reason must be.) Then I took some soap and washed it off.
Had a slightly longer discussion with Anna about what I should be doing (both here and in general). Didn't figure out anything conclusive about what I want to do with my life, but we did figure out a multi-step process for maybe developing a research paper. Step one, wait that everyone has a mindmap to share. That was supposed to happen back on Sunday, but it's been getting pushed forward several times now. Hopefully should finally happen today. After the sharing of mindmaps possibly reveals some subjects of confusion, we can begin by turning them into blog posts for commentary. Blog posts can then be turned into conference abstracts, which can then be turned into working papers to the SIAI website, which can then be turned into journal submissions. That should work for a while.
Yesterday, we had an interesting dinner discussion. (We've taken up the habit of having dinner discussions at 7 PM.) It started as a discussion of ethics, which didn't really go anywhere, but then moved on to the question of how we could better promote a growth atmosphere. That is, an atmosphere where everyone tries to develop their talents and look mainly for the potential for growth, instead of being stuck in a fixed mindset. Everyone was first asked to mention something they were insecure about, then some way in which they had changed during the last five years, then three things they wanted to change and/or find out about themselves. (My answers: I'm insecure about whether I really have any useful skills or whether I'm just wasting SIAI's money by being here, I've been either becoming more extroverted or realizing I'm actually more extroverted, and I'd like to figure out what I want in life and increase my happiness set point.) It was great fun.
Also fun was going out to get some exercise with Justin and Jasen. We mostly did some jogging and swordfighting. I was kind of down before that, but then began to feel much better for the rest of the day. For tomorrow, I agreed to join a bunch of people getting up early to do some more jogging as a group. Actually getting a bit more exercise would probably be a very good thing, as I don't get much otherwise.
Today, Anna asked me what was the one character trait I wished to cultivate here the most. That was a good question, and I replied that I'd like to develop my productivity. Yes, I might appear to get more done than most people, but it sure doesn't feel like that way to me. There have been too many days (both here and at home) when I have a large to-do list, but then never manage to work my way through the whole list. Usually I just end up doing the first item or the couple of first items on the list and then spending the rest of the day without the energy to do anything more meaningful. If I could fix that, I could actually get done far more of the things I want to do (or at least want to want do).
- Had preliminary discussions with Justin about co-writing something
- Communicated with some people back in Finland and kick-started our party's call for candidates for Parliamentary elections (by making a "write your name here if you're interested" wiki page)
- Went to get some exercise with Justin and Jasen
- Continued to study microeconomics
- Realized I needed to understand differential equations if I wanted to get the most out of the micro textbook, decided to brush up on my calculus skills and then move on to differential equations
- Had dinner conversations
Today, I'll:
- Answer some personal e-mails
- Get some exercise again
- Write a new LiveJournal post
- Study calculus
- See if I get a chance to write with Justin
- Work on writing something, maybe a LW post
This morning, I was blue. Literally, not metaphorically: the skin on my face was noticeably more blue than usual. I didn't pick up on it at first, but several of the people at the morning meeting commented on it and seemed a bit worried. Looking at myself in a mirror later on, I realized what they had been talking about. After I was out jogging, I went to take a shower and managed to figure out what the reason was: my pillow and blanket are blue. They'd apparently been leaking color, because both of my elbows were entirely blue. (This was a bit scary until I realized what the reason must be.) Then I took some soap and washed it off.
Had a slightly longer discussion with Anna about what I should be doing (both here and in general). Didn't figure out anything conclusive about what I want to do with my life, but we did figure out a multi-step process for maybe developing a research paper. Step one, wait that everyone has a mindmap to share. That was supposed to happen back on Sunday, but it's been getting pushed forward several times now. Hopefully should finally happen today. After the sharing of mindmaps possibly reveals some subjects of confusion, we can begin by turning them into blog posts for commentary. Blog posts can then be turned into conference abstracts, which can then be turned into working papers to the SIAI website, which can then be turned into journal submissions. That should work for a while.
Yesterday, we had an interesting dinner discussion. (We've taken up the habit of having dinner discussions at 7 PM.) It started as a discussion of ethics, which didn't really go anywhere, but then moved on to the question of how we could better promote a growth atmosphere. That is, an atmosphere where everyone tries to develop their talents and look mainly for the potential for growth, instead of being stuck in a fixed mindset. Everyone was first asked to mention something they were insecure about, then some way in which they had changed during the last five years, then three things they wanted to change and/or find out about themselves. (My answers: I'm insecure about whether I really have any useful skills or whether I'm just wasting SIAI's money by being here, I've been either becoming more extroverted or realizing I'm actually more extroverted, and I'd like to figure out what I want in life and increase my happiness set point.) It was great fun.
Also fun was going out to get some exercise with Justin and Jasen. We mostly did some jogging and swordfighting. I was kind of down before that, but then began to feel much better for the rest of the day. For tomorrow, I agreed to join a bunch of people getting up early to do some more jogging as a group. Actually getting a bit more exercise would probably be a very good thing, as I don't get much otherwise.
Today, Anna asked me what was the one character trait I wished to cultivate here the most. That was a good question, and I replied that I'd like to develop my productivity. Yes, I might appear to get more done than most people, but it sure doesn't feel like that way to me. There have been too many days (both here and at home) when I have a large to-do list, but then never manage to work my way through the whole list. Usually I just end up doing the first item or the couple of first items on the list and then spending the rest of the day without the energy to do anything more meaningful. If I could fix that, I could actually get done far more of the things I want to do (or at least want to want do).