I'm currently reading The Sports Gene by Jeffrey Epstein (really enjoying it so far) and he provides a great analogy for nature vs. nurture, liking nature to be "hardware" and nurture to be "software". So here are a few things that really stood out for me: You are born with certain traits, i.e. your genetic... Continue Reading →
An e-mail came in and it was brief. No pleasantries; no salutations; just straight-to-the-point. In many cases, that'd be fine. But in this case, it felt curt. There wasn't a lot of history behind sender and receiver, and the main message wasn't a particularly pleasant one. Still, having learned about Hanlon's Razor, I checked myself:... Continue Reading →
Just the other day over coffee a colleague of mine told me about a fascinating video he'd seen. It was about a psychological experiment that showed just how much of a mindless, conforming species we were. 100% emotional; 0% rational. Just part of the herd. Though I'd seen similar ones before, this was one particularly... Continue Reading →
6:20m: "Have to bring home work tonight," I said to my wife, "maybe I'll run tomorrow." Not the best of starts to my "starting serious training" regime, and frankly quite frustrating. But I'm a professional, and I suck it up. 6:30pm: Maybe, I thought, if I finish early I might still go. 7:30pm: Dinner. "I... Continue Reading →
The following passage was taken from the book 12 Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson, a good reminder on how long-term success may come at the cost of short-term losses, if you can call it that: You might consider judging your success across all the games you play. Imagine that you are very good... Continue Reading →
A reminder to myself: When in a good mood, life, despite being exactly the same as it was when you are in a bad mood, suddenly feels a whole lot better. Moods pass. Push through the bad ones; and enjoy the good ones.
50 metres from the fork in the road I had to decide, "where do I want to go from here?" To the left was a detour of about 7 kilometres; on the right, a more direct route that would have taken me home in about 3. It was an exceptionally warm day; I hadn't ran... Continue Reading →
Try one of the following: Learn how to programme the TV recorder in the quickest way. Two buttons, three steps. Take four minutes, not five. Use a TV recorder to save your favourite TV shows and skip through the ads. Save 30 minutes every two hours. Or... stop watching the damn TV. Save two hours... Continue Reading →
I'm an avid reader, but have grown up reading almost exclusively non-fiction. Not because I don't enjoy them, or think any less of fiction than I do non-fiction; it's mostly because I can never remember the names of all the characters! (Especially in novels...) In non-fiction, the cast of characters tend to be ideas. And... Continue Reading →
When Polly wants a cracker, Polly eats a cracker. But the million-dollar question is not whether parrots and humans can act out their inner desires - the question is whether they can choose their desires in the first place. Why does Polly want a cracker rather than a cucumber? Why do I decide to kill my... Continue Reading →
Donn, fragments 