The first set of millennium goals were to be completed by today. Overall, I didn't do very well. Goals are below.
Successfully replicate a restaurant dish. Pass. Done with a couple of different things. Unfortunately this doesn't really mean that much, because "any restaurant dish" is such a low bar it's impossible not to pass. The other goal is a lot stricter, and I'll definitely have a lot more fun with that.
Read two books on photography. Fail. Was planning on doing this over break, decided to read things I wanted to instead.
Run a 7.5 minute mile. Pass! Really proud of this one!
Bench press 140 pounds. Fail. Nowhere close. Hoping I'll get this far by spring break. Reaching 200 by the end of spring quarter will be physically impossible.
Flash five balls. Pass. Video goes up when I can juggle them.
Sit still for 20 minutes. Passed a couple of different times. Honestly not sure why I wanted to do this one.
Get an A- in Grad Math Methods and a A in Statmech. Fail. I withdrew from Math Methods.
Stop instinctively avoiding eye contact. Pass, I think. This one is a lot harder to judge success, but I think I'm doing a lot better.
Write a 500 word creative piece in Spanish. 50 words is the same thing as 500, right? No? Then fail.
Overall 5 passes, 4 fails, only really proud of 2 of the passes. My original goal was to have at least 13 passes in total, meaning I'd have to pass eight of the long term goals. I'm definitely failing the anaerobic one and almost-definitely the Spanish one, so there's no chance of hitting that mark. I still intend to try for them and accept the consequences of failing.
Looking back, I'm unsurprised I did so poorly. I was setting up huge goals with a lot of time to do them with no milestones. It would have made a lot more sense to set up a bunch of small goals that built on each other with short times between them. Weekly goals, if you will. I'm gonna go back to the drawing board and find a better way of structuring improvement.
Showing posts with label Millennium Goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Millennium Goals. Show all posts
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Monday, December 26, 2011
On New Years
A couple of people asked me what my New Years Resolutions are, expecting something like "exercise more" and "procrastinate less." This year, like all of the past years, I don't. I've never been one much for NYRs. Not really a pretentious "I don't NEED the crutch" thing. Okay, maybe it is. But at least I can support it!
Trying to explain the idea behind NYRs would be just illustrating the obvious. Nonetheless, as a terrible illustrator I desperately need the practice. We see years as discrete units, 2012 separated from 2011 by a vast, insurmountable gulf. The new year is a chance to see the world in an entirely new light, turning a symbolic beginning into a new one. We see this in a lot of places- moving to college is a big one, as is the beginning of a quarter.
My issues with NYR stem from the same source. By being such a symbolic change, it ties the idea of making real changes to itself. We do not think of making resolutions on Christmas or Presidents Day or the beginning of a month. It's only New Years that has the Resolutions. Does New Years make us less likely to make other changes? I'd argue so. By so strongly associating one with the other, we lose our power to make resolutions at any time, at any place. Even if I really want to stop eating meat, I probably won't stop on a random Tuesday. This creates a time lag between having a resolution and implementing it. And lag time is the exact same as lost time.
The other problem is more pragmatic. One day a year is culturally associated with permanent change. If you can only make resolutions one day a year, what kind will you make? Big, sweeping ones, or small, specific ones? But change is not a discrete process. We can't say "I will now stop eating candy" and expect to hold it for the rest of the year. We'll be lucky to last a month. True change works best through small, manageable, and cumulative changes. These are the changes we won't make, because we don't want to "miss a change".
Most people drop their sweeping New Years Resolutions within months, if not weeks. I'd say it's better to not think about grand and sudden changes and focus on making small changes all of the time. Sure, grand changes can be useful, but they have their time and place. Giving it a specific time and a specific place just makes it artificial.
On a sidenote, I'm saying that many small changes = good. This is actually a new thing for me. I'm failing so many of the Millennium Goals (post up later) I've started exploring new structures of self improvement. We'll see how this fares. And I'll put my money where my mouth is, and start a small change right now: from now on, I will update this blog once a week. In the immortal words of Ke$ha: let’s go-o-o (Let’s go)
Trying to explain the idea behind NYRs would be just illustrating the obvious. Nonetheless, as a terrible illustrator I desperately need the practice. We see years as discrete units, 2012 separated from 2011 by a vast, insurmountable gulf. The new year is a chance to see the world in an entirely new light, turning a symbolic beginning into a new one. We see this in a lot of places- moving to college is a big one, as is the beginning of a quarter.
My issues with NYR stem from the same source. By being such a symbolic change, it ties the idea of making real changes to itself. We do not think of making resolutions on Christmas or Presidents Day or the beginning of a month. It's only New Years that has the Resolutions. Does New Years make us less likely to make other changes? I'd argue so. By so strongly associating one with the other, we lose our power to make resolutions at any time, at any place. Even if I really want to stop eating meat, I probably won't stop on a random Tuesday. This creates a time lag between having a resolution and implementing it. And lag time is the exact same as lost time.
The other problem is more pragmatic. One day a year is culturally associated with permanent change. If you can only make resolutions one day a year, what kind will you make? Big, sweeping ones, or small, specific ones? But change is not a discrete process. We can't say "I will now stop eating candy" and expect to hold it for the rest of the year. We'll be lucky to last a month. True change works best through small, manageable, and cumulative changes. These are the changes we won't make, because we don't want to "miss a change".
Most people drop their sweeping New Years Resolutions within months, if not weeks. I'd say it's better to not think about grand and sudden changes and focus on making small changes all of the time. Sure, grand changes can be useful, but they have their time and place. Giving it a specific time and a specific place just makes it artificial.
On a sidenote, I'm saying that many small changes = good. This is actually a new thing for me. I'm failing so many of the Millennium Goals (post up later) I've started exploring new structures of self improvement. We'll see how this fares. And I'll put my money where my mouth is, and start a small change right now: from now on, I will update this blog once a week. In the immortal words of Ke$ha: let’s go-o-o (Let’s go)
Sunday, October 16, 2011
An Ignoble Experiment
When my computer died I thought I'd be more productive in class. This is technically true, in that I'm doing a lot of grading and writing in class. My attention to class hasn't improved in the slightest. I go to class out of a sense of duty; that as a student I should go through all of the motions of learning. For a long time I've wondered if this is impeding my actual learning. Maybe if I pushed myself those 16 hours I spend in class per week could be put to much better use.
So I'm going to try an experiment this week. I am only going to necessary classes- classes with either discussions or homework due. During the class hours I will only be able to work on class material, work on homework, do my jobs, and work towards Millennium Goals. At the end of the week I'll post a rundown of how things went. Cool? Cool.
So I'm going to try an experiment this week. I am only going to necessary classes- classes with either discussions or homework due. During the class hours I will only be able to work on class material, work on homework, do my jobs, and work towards Millennium Goals. At the end of the week I'll post a rundown of how things went. Cool? Cool.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
On Misperception
All of the improvement I've talked about so far are action improvements. They're about things like optimizing free time and messing with risk reward. All of the millennium goals, save one, are about doing something, or doing something better. Even the patience one is about gaining the ability to sit still, not the mind to do it. There's only one millennium goal directly related to how I think, the one about emotional hypersensitivity. I think this is a huge shame. It's generally much easier to improve ourselves physically and professionally than mentally. But mental improvement is the absolute core of self growth. Without the ability to change our perceptions, we can't truly say we've become better people.
We're human. That has a lot of meaning behind it, but there's only one I'm concerned with right now: flawed. To be human means to be imperfect in countless numbers of ways, from our failing bodies to our holes in our knowledge. But by far the worst flaws are the ones where we see the world in a wrong way. A few ways immediately leap to mind: racism, homeopathism, theism/atheism to atheists/theists, etcetera. More subtle are the ones that don't define a mode of thought but hide in the cracks of our interactions. If I miss a day of training I've failed. Only a genius can write a program. I don't have the time to learn this thing. I'm spineless. I am set in my ways.
What makes these so terrible is how hard they are to fix. First of all, you have to notice them. Finding a flaw in your perception is like needing to fix a car that you don't know is broken. The flaw is just another part of how you deal with the world. Unless something huge happens to you or you spend a lot of time introspecting, you'll never realize you have it. Writing that short list was incredibly difficult for that reason. I just couldn't think of possible flaws in perception. They were there, certainly in me and certainly in others, but they're almost invisible.
Then you have to realize it's a flaw. It was only recently that I learned to "loosen up" with my training regimen. I used to think that if I didn't run for a day, I failed at exercising. That would lead to me just giving up and abandoning my work. I didn't think this was a problem, though. I was holding myself to a high standard, where the price of failure was so great that I should never even consider missing a day. But now I think that part of working hard at something is to be adaptable. I am not defined by what I do or don't do. I can be a runner without running, a writer who doesn't write, even a physicist without physics. Rather it's a mode of thought and focus, not the act of doing those things but the will and desire to do them. I am not a runner because I run. I run because I'm a runner. And this means that even if I don't run for a day, I'm still a runner. My former perception of "fail once fail forever" was invalid, to be replaced with "a miss is a blip on the radar."
((Incidentally, I'm staying up late to write this, so instead of exercising in the early morning I'll just jog and lift after my class today. Adaptability means keeping the ritual while allowing yourself to break free of the routine.))
Finally, and perhaps worst of all, you have to know that you can change a perception. This may very well be the hardest part. A lot of them are self inhibiting. Say you think you lack willpower or patience. Will you have the willpower to build patience and the patience to build willpower? Not until you stop thinking you lack them. Catch twenty-two. We never change, and so we live our forlorn lives. We stay angry and hurt and petty and down, never once truly believing that we can make ourselves better.
Is there an easy way to change perception? I wish there was. The question is pretty much the same as: is there a fast track to becoming a better person? The past 4000 years of theology say 'no'. And I'm not gonna argue with the Buddha. We have to try, though. If we want to really improve as people and not just pick up new skills and tricks, we have to change our perceptions. It's a slow and agonizing process, one from which I've often strayed away. But I keep coming back. There's no other way.
My past few posts have been small ramblings on the metagame, so I figure it's time to talk about where I currently am. Two of the millennium goals are completed, and I'm working on five more. The photography and Spanish ones have unfortunately fallen by the wayside, and I'm not putting as much time into anaerobics as I should. But still, they're coming along! I'm confident that I'll have at least five more of the short term ones done by winter. That's only two terrible movies I have to watch. I'm gonna restart the Spanish effort this week, maybe reserve the photography one for a winter-break reading marathon. It's one of the goals that can be completed in a very short intense time, unlike the steady pace ones I'm currently doing.
I think I've hit my limit. What are your thoughts on misperception? Can you think of any powerful ones people don't notice? How do you work on changing them?
We're human. That has a lot of meaning behind it, but there's only one I'm concerned with right now: flawed. To be human means to be imperfect in countless numbers of ways, from our failing bodies to our holes in our knowledge. But by far the worst flaws are the ones where we see the world in a wrong way. A few ways immediately leap to mind: racism, homeopathism, theism/atheism to atheists/theists, etcetera. More subtle are the ones that don't define a mode of thought but hide in the cracks of our interactions. If I miss a day of training I've failed. Only a genius can write a program. I don't have the time to learn this thing. I'm spineless. I am set in my ways.
What makes these so terrible is how hard they are to fix. First of all, you have to notice them. Finding a flaw in your perception is like needing to fix a car that you don't know is broken. The flaw is just another part of how you deal with the world. Unless something huge happens to you or you spend a lot of time introspecting, you'll never realize you have it. Writing that short list was incredibly difficult for that reason. I just couldn't think of possible flaws in perception. They were there, certainly in me and certainly in others, but they're almost invisible.
Then you have to realize it's a flaw. It was only recently that I learned to "loosen up" with my training regimen. I used to think that if I didn't run for a day, I failed at exercising. That would lead to me just giving up and abandoning my work. I didn't think this was a problem, though. I was holding myself to a high standard, where the price of failure was so great that I should never even consider missing a day. But now I think that part of working hard at something is to be adaptable. I am not defined by what I do or don't do. I can be a runner without running, a writer who doesn't write, even a physicist without physics. Rather it's a mode of thought and focus, not the act of doing those things but the will and desire to do them. I am not a runner because I run. I run because I'm a runner. And this means that even if I don't run for a day, I'm still a runner. My former perception of "fail once fail forever" was invalid, to be replaced with "a miss is a blip on the radar."
((Incidentally, I'm staying up late to write this, so instead of exercising in the early morning I'll just jog and lift after my class today. Adaptability means keeping the ritual while allowing yourself to break free of the routine.))
Finally, and perhaps worst of all, you have to know that you can change a perception. This may very well be the hardest part. A lot of them are self inhibiting. Say you think you lack willpower or patience. Will you have the willpower to build patience and the patience to build willpower? Not until you stop thinking you lack them. Catch twenty-two. We never change, and so we live our forlorn lives. We stay angry and hurt and petty and down, never once truly believing that we can make ourselves better.
Is there an easy way to change perception? I wish there was. The question is pretty much the same as: is there a fast track to becoming a better person? The past 4000 years of theology say 'no'. And I'm not gonna argue with the Buddha. We have to try, though. If we want to really improve as people and not just pick up new skills and tricks, we have to change our perceptions. It's a slow and agonizing process, one from which I've often strayed away. But I keep coming back. There's no other way.
My past few posts have been small ramblings on the metagame, so I figure it's time to talk about where I currently am. Two of the millennium goals are completed, and I'm working on five more. The photography and Spanish ones have unfortunately fallen by the wayside, and I'm not putting as much time into anaerobics as I should. But still, they're coming along! I'm confident that I'll have at least five more of the short term ones done by winter. That's only two terrible movies I have to watch. I'm gonna restart the Spanish effort this week, maybe reserve the photography one for a winter-break reading marathon. It's one of the goals that can be completed in a very short intense time, unlike the steady pace ones I'm currently doing.
I think I've hit my limit. What are your thoughts on misperception? Can you think of any powerful ones people don't notice? How do you work on changing them?
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Millennium Goals
My big projects for the year are the Millennium Goals, two sets of nine achievements that have to be completed at various points. The first set has to be done by the beginning of January, and the second by the end of finals week. For every one I fail I have to watch a not-X-rated movie chosen by my peers. I'm already queued up to watch Barbie's Magical Adventures. Lists are below.
Short Term
Successfully replicate a restaurant dish.
Read two books on photography.
Run a 7.5 minute mile.
Bench press 140 pounds.
Flash five balls.
Sit still for 20 minutes.
Get an A- in Grad Math Methods and a A in Statmech.
Stop instinctively avoiding eye contact.
Write a 500 word creative piece in Spanish.
Long Term
Cook a three course fusion meal.
Get something published in a student zine.
Get my resting heart rate to or below 60 BPM.
Bench press 200 pounds.Juggle five balls.
Sit still for 60 minutes.
Get an 870 or above on the GRE.
Trim my emotional hypersensitivity.
Pass the Spanish language competency exam.
Short Term
Successfully replicate a restaurant dish.
Read two books on photography.
Run a 7.5 minute mile.
Bench press 140 pounds.
Flash five balls.
Sit still for 20 minutes.
Get an A- in Grad Math Methods and a A in Statmech.
Stop instinctively avoiding eye contact.
Write a 500 word creative piece in Spanish.
Long Term
Cook a three course fusion meal.
Get something published in a student zine.
Get my resting heart rate to or below 60 BPM.
Bench press 200 pounds.Juggle five balls.
Sit still for 60 minutes.
Get an 870 or above on the GRE.
Trim my emotional hypersensitivity.
Pass the Spanish language competency exam.
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