##energy_sinks of free time

Posted on Sat, 08/Oct/2022Sat, 18/Jan/2025 by tiger40490

review QQ, CIV, localSys
academic coaching .. hardly a sink
emailing with friends
recreational reading
blogg on r-ikigai
sticky bposts

k_tectonic

— Current sinks: Right now (2020-2021), I have an unprecedented (excl. bachelor years) amount of spare time but whatever disposable time there is tends to get suck into the “energy sinks” below. See also ##hobbies mid19-21 #Zeng/Fenix. I had better control some of the sinks such as pff. (Liberal use of text highlighting encouraged in this blogpost.)

— current sinks, half-ranked by hours
[s3] pff, including analysis and selection of asset
.. eg: reading books on stock picking .. increase. Need sunshine
.. eg: stock picking ..
.. eg: FSM .. reduce
.. eg: exp recon .. reduce
family outing/movie + family discussions + other family time
1. family movie could provide talking points with boy
other blogging .. a hopelessly vague item to be included here, though it does “sink” a lot of time.
DramRefresh of ~~non-tech~~ blog/email.
frenDialog.. Note email drafting is a sink but more efficient more satisfying than meet-up.
curiositySou.. including wikipedia or news reading. Control it but don’t feel ashamed!
[s1~s5=strategic value]
[c=need to capture absorbency to feel the joy]

So my sinks are not so good, but ~~miles ahead of my cohort~~, largely due to my awareness. Millions of my cohort waste their spare time without knowing. I think their sinks include videos, drinking + overeating, sight-seeing/shopping, sports channels, gaming/gambling,,,, but I don’t want to speculate.

Q: What’s in common between:
* comparison-shopping for tiny savings
* curiosity search (see above)
* lots of time spent on FSM, robinhood,,, with small trades, but crucially… without growing insights!

All of these are pleasurable, leisurely, and common well-accepted recreations.
All entail huge cumulative tcost, low ROTI, therefore they are “luxuries ” in terms of tcost.

— I want to create some new sinks and revive some old sinks. Note proposed sinks by definition are enjoyable, engaging,,, If some proposed sink is not, then it require tweaking. Often I hit a stone wall

DramRefresh of tech + [s3] wellness + [s4] parenting + Vocab blogs — will make me feel good about my past blogging
vocab (Ch/En) .. read new and refresh old
recreational reading
game with meimei
academic coaching with meimei
[s5] experiment to establish sustainable lifestyle for yoga, chin-up etc
piano

— (irrelevant comparison) sinks of free cash flow — FSM low-risk funds. Perhaps I should consider U.S. index funds as another sink.

— Below is a 2021 email. For this discussion to be meaningful and add any value, I want to be strict with my criteria for a “hobby”. To see which bobby takes up more time /comparatively/, I need more precise criteria about what kind of time spent falls into each “bucket”.

Hi Kevin, You asked what hobbies (兴趣) I have. (Daryl and FenixOne founder also asked me the same question.) I have many. Some are important to me but “light” in terms of time usage, such as workouts, parenting research, and wellness research. Anyway, below I rank my current hobbies (since mid-2019) in terms of time usage from light to heavy. ▲▼ indicates buy/overbought recommendation.

[s=solitude]
[85=can last till I reach 85, when grandpa complained about lack of hobby]

▲parenting reading and blogging .. Reading is less effective compared to self-reflection on trial-n-error.
- Note Parenting trial-n-error by itself is too tough to be a “hobby”.
- Note time with kids is not a personal hobby but part of my job as a parent.
[s▼] video and online recreational reading .. often unplanned and without time-limit. For example, I spent many hours on ▼curiosity searches, or reading ▼Trump.
[s▲85] workouts and wellness research… This hobby includes blogging. Healthy food ▼shopping too, which is relaxing but time-consuming. In general shopping trips are no hobby but 20% of food trips are part of this “hobby”.
library trips .. and /experimental/ [s▲85]stay-home reading vacations for recreational reading. Topics are light, including news, ▼show-biz, history… These trips are planned, with a time limit.
- Whenever I read finance, wellness or serious subjects like career, parenting, the activity falls into the more specific categories below.
[s▲] tech learning .. and blogging, interview preparation. Unrelated to work, therefore a “hobby”. Occasionally I do a bit of coding drill. See self-renewal in the blogpost after Fenix IV
[s 85] pff .. research, trading, and blogging. This wide-ranging hobby also includes real assets, country-comparison, tax research, retirement, inflation, college funding, home purchase (U.S.), car ownership. Some “chores” are not part of a hobby.
- I don’t think this hobby is the “heaviest“, as I sometimes tell others.
[s▼] “the other” misc blogging, ▼emailing .. to friends on _fun_ topics. This hobby also includes meet-ups and calls (loved ones + friends overseas), which are becoming rare nowadays. I prefer emailing.
- when the discussion is finance, career, wellness, parenting … then the hours fall into the more specific categories.
[s 85] DIY home repairs .. including minor (often surprisingly /rewarding/) improvements. Am a slow, /reluctant/ handyman at home. 51% of the time it is an enjoyable hobby without time pressure. See ## DIY. This hobby also includes home-reorganization, which is 49% a hobby.

I guess one common thread is reading + blogging. Some important areas are hard to achieve personal growth by reading alone [1] and require plenty of trial-n-error, like in stock trading, wellness, and parenting. I remind myself I’m not reading/blogging for fun. Indeed about half of the listed hobbies have a practical target, but I have managed to add fun into the effort and turn them into hobbies. When I don’t hit any target, I would soon feel regretful about the time spent. See also ##plateauing growth: 江河日下,自强不息

[1] otherwise the bookworms like the tanbin in my 20’s would become role models.

afPrime^recreation ^spareTime ^r-ikigai

Posted on Wed, 11/May/2022Wed, 01/Jan/2025 by tiger40490

afPrime .. about pre retirement and retirement
.. r-ikigai .. more purposeful, more meaningful than a recreation
t_recreation .. specific activities
spareTime .. strictly about time management

EarlyRetireExtreme: learning(reading++)as pastime !!mainstay

Posted on Tue, 01/Mar/2022Sun, 19/Mar/2023 by tiger40490

The ERE author enjoys learning practical skills as a hobby. In fact, his learning programs could be more than a hobby, since he has no full time job.

However, I am very different human being from him. I feel very few such learning programs can the mainstay during my semi- or full retirement. Why?

I need to work towards some level of commitment, and a daily routine.
I need to make some contribution and be paid for it
I prefer interaction with other people

wikipedia++ for recreationalXX

Posted on Mon, 03/Jan/2022Fri, 28/Jun/2024 by tiger40490

k_UGC

##[21]visibleGrowth plateau: #江河日下 #w1r5

Posted on Sun, 05/Dec/2021Wed, 01/Jan/2025 by tiger40490

k_def_of_success

See also

This blogpost is about a shared[5] but often vague sentiment of 江河日下 [plateauing]. (This blogpost is therefore non-distinctive, hard to remember , despite the graphical phrases ..)
This blogpost is a serious (perhaps too serious) effort to identify a specific type of personal goals [追求] underneath that sentiment. These goals are primarily defined in terms of CC) successC i.e. measurable–n-steady progress including “batteries” of accumulation. If such a definition is inappropriate [1] then my personal goals are defined in terms of ZZ) successZ i.e. zqbx 自强不息. This blogpost should be mostly about successC.

[5] Remember the timetable in [[Midlife crisis]]?

One clarification about the definition … The antithesis of progress/accumulation/自强不息 is stagnation/decline , surrender, passive_acceptance, fat-n-happy… Despite my best effort, this definition is still abstract and unintuitive. The big list below helps clarify it but is not extremely effective. So we need both the definition and the list.
——- end of the lengthy definition ——–
Background: During my HibernateInSingapore phase, frequently I feel /lousy/[4] and would occasionally lament[2] that my personal growth, as defined above, has slowed down, plateaued, past the peak, 江河日下 or 下坡路. Don’t get me wrong — I’m still pushing myself hard on absorbency, on personal improvement, on plowback,,, as I still hate wasting my precious time and energy in “cruise mode”.

As we age, hopefully some earlier domains of (personal) growth would be replaced by new domains of growth. “One door closes, another one opens.” Crucially, the progress we make are often impermanent … Imperfect batteries of accumulation.

[2] the lament is a paradox because at the same time, my family livelihood is actually improving towards a carefree ezlife. Mellowing up, letting go, loosening up, /unwinding/.. The paradox reflects the conflict between successE and successC.
[1] The two parts are actually interdependent. In more and more domains like BMI, stretch, Dram-refresh,,, I can’t make real, lasting progress. Quite often, the defining features of “burn” [materialistic gain + self-discipline ] are fundamental to both successC and successZ.

Also fundamental: my absorbency (and time) continues to be a scarce resource. 鱼与熊掌. As I shift my focus to wellness, I choose to let go and defocus on successC [localSys, coding drill, Dram-refresh ..].

One of the best analogies — A start-up, an emerging economy, a young athlete/artist/writer .. also experience the same slow-down, plateau, or apparent decline (as in Japan) after years of fast growth. Hopefully some lessons can be shared. Re A.Brooks article.

— the list of personal goals (as defined above) giving rise to the lament
[m=measurable … not always a “progress”]
[b=battery or progress]
[a=absorbency]

[ abm] BMI .. the best type of tough goal — measurable, easy to monitor, strategic leverage. BMI is my #1 goal. I am able to keep my weight below 65, but trying hard to bring BMI to deep green zone.
[E am] chin-up .. kinda measurable but progress is easily lost.
[D a] stretching .. I target 1 minute/day. Real effort to maintain a few minutes a day. Not measurable .. I once had some hope of improving range of motion, but has given up completely.
[C am] weekly workout .. frq improving towards 4. Targets are well-chosen.
…. [C = decent effort or decent progress]
[ abm] coding drill [D] and [C] QQx .. including Dram-refresh.. now a LGlp.
[ am] quant study .. not comparable to MSFM years or the earlier self-study years, but in hindsight, what’s the long-term value of MSFM? SuccessZ, successC [branding]
[E ab] localSys .. [including Dram-refresh] no target; some effort once a while
[D b] wider recreations .. to pre-empt boredom or loneliness in retirement (re grandpa). No target, but I try to /cultivate/ writing, music, stock-picking, workout variety.

List above are the the ^^ ~~improvement goals~~ ^^. I tend to focus on “room4improvement”, subconsciously motivating myself. However, nowadays I like to focus more on the positive factors, so below is the 2nd list of personal goals (same definition). I have done well on these ~~celebrated goals~~:

[B] dental health, memory aging, mentalPower .. reasonably well-maintained
[C-] stress prevention/reduction/protection .. improving gradually as we mellow up (and gain introspective insight), and transition to maintenance mode.
[C-b] family bond .. [marriage, parenting] not bad at all, improving. Fruitful (rather than wasteful) family time
[C+b] DIY skill .. (crucial in U.S.) improving progressively
[B-b] preparation for U.S. relocation .. (financial++) improving fundamentally
— career, finance #the familiar domains
[B b] IV competitiveness .. Not growing but staying in shape; well-maintained.
[B+b] (long-term) career and (current) job security
[A-bm] salary .. well-maintained, much better than feared. I now care less about exclub. By livelihood target, my salary is A++++.
[A-bm] NAV and FullerWealth .. growing at a steady pace from strength to strength, hitting my targets
[A m] brbr … well-maintained.
[C bm] stock picking .. enjoyable, not tough burn. Targets are LGlp.
[B+b] brbr recon .. improving
[C bm] rental mgmt .. BGC improving; Cambodia excellent

The two lists have to be well-defined to be meaningful. Some other items don’t require _effort_, therefore out of scope: sexual health; heart health; work/life balance;

— [4] (A partially related topic) over short-to-medium term I have been feeling lousy, partly due to burn [absorbency] , partly due to laser, partly due to measurable progress (mostly successC)

[z] too many movies .. either in cinema or at home… improving
[cz] AMB .. limited _visible_ progress, but I don’t want to feel guilt or inferiority
[cz] coding drill .. Recently, I didn’t help friends’ CIV
[z] diet .. real achievement to maintain discipline
[cz] BMI .. no improvement since Apr 2020, but real achievement to reverse the decline
[cz] math coaching sessions + father/daughter bonding .. visible progress
[c] communication channel with boy .. visible progress
[c] new HDB .. Something important to wife. I did put in lots of serious effort.
[c] MOETF .. the recent incremental acquisition is a key feature of recreational stock investing

[c=successC]
[z=successZ]

— Grandpa’s corrective comments.. I told grandma that compared to my cohort, I feel too fat-n-happy 沒有追求. He corrected me .. 沒有过分的追求. He is right. I still work hard towards my goals。

I also told grandpa about my feeling 懒散, 无为之道. Again, he corrected me — I’m a responsible professional, and dedicated father.

I am basically comparing with the earlier self, but things have changed in terms of priorities, vitality (energy level), career runway ..

recreational AMB[def] #passion^detach

Posted on Mon, 27/Sep/2021Tue, 18/Oct/2022 by tiger40490

I will treat my AMB (i.e. affiliate marketing business) as a recreation. It’s “serious” as a business yet light duty like a hobby.

Similar to recreational investment, this effort keeps an aging individual active and engaged with many companies and people (rather than isolated).

Recreational investing supports incremental build up. How about AMB?

Recreational investing offers small but positive feedback immediately. How about AMB?

Q: In Other ways, How does AMB compares to recreational investing?

Q: how does AMB compare with DIY_home_improvement? DIY usually has immediate benefits.

Q: how does AMB compare with tech xx esp. coding drill? AMB offers more chance of seeing some “small positive feedback”.

— Q: how important is passion, drive, determination?
Commitment, Determination, focus .. not much in recreational investing, but I would say there is a commitment in AMB even though it is recreational. We can see John Sear’s drive.

I think a balance between 1) detachment 2) passion may be required.

See the hidden barrier discussion in https://btv-open.dreamhosters.com/amb-course-j4roti

library immersion ] younger years

Posted on Mon, 20/Sep/2021Tue, 18/Oct/2022 by tiger40490

stealth overtake

lifelongXX=hallmark@ effective student: R.Xia

Posted on Wed, 08/Sep/2021Tue, 18/Oct/2022 by tiger40490

I don’t remember his exact words, but R.Xia was the first among my friends to point out this notion. He had read many articles on the different learning methods/attitudes vs their outcomes and he singled one one key factor — the really effective students are not always the smartest, but they keep learning, well into adulthood. This is an informed view, rather than an unbiased perceptionOfReality. Through this tainted glass, I see numerous facts and evidence that reinforce my opinion.

Similarly, I tell my son “learning is 积累” .. 日积月累.

— NUS website says

“Graduates are expected to be agile and adaptable in the post-pandemic world order. In training students to connect the dots across diverse disciplines, NUS has embarked on educational innovations centered on interdisciplinarity and experiential learning. The establishment of the College of Humanities and Sciences and the College of Design and Engineering has allowed NUS to deliver future-focused interdisciplinary education at scale, while offering students flexibility to pursue multiple pathways and specializations. The result: an education that offers both breadth and depth.”

I think this basically means a student can take modules from (far) outside his department and his major. In NUS, I took elective modules in business management, sociology etc. There is no depth in my learning, even though the courses included lots of group assignments, real world case studies, long reports, presentations,,,

I think this breadth can affect depth. In my opinion, depth (more important than the “breadth”) and real insights usually /grows/ from lots of self-directed reading and active, deep thinking (blogg). If you read enough about a subject, and ask some tough questions, attempt to form your opinions, validate them with data and observations, get some peer review, then [1] you have a chance to develop some depth. But it won’t happen during the 4 years in college. I believe lifelong learning is a must.

[1] For STEM subjects or language, you also need lots of practice.

My economics learning is perhaps one example. My math learning might be another example.

— recreation, retirement ikigai.. lifelong learning in an academic subject or a skill [arts, sports,,,] could provide an ikigai

video_xx ^ print media #recreational++

Posted on Tue, 06/Jul/2021Wed, 14/Feb/2024 by tiger40490

k_soul_search

Video learning is the focus of this blogpost, including scripted and animated slide shows, and recorded conference presentations (most boring).

Video learning is popular among majority of (esp. younger) learners but in my experience inferior to print publication. This observation applies to both tech xx and recreational xx. If you don’t bother to learn, then video is fine as a passive, laid-back recreation.

Videos have shorter shelf-life on the web. Too heavy, and they become outdated faster than text documents. Therefore, if my learning notes refer to a video URL it often becomes broken.

— eg: I watched some popular talks by leading intellectuals (+ some recorded tech lectures). The video format proved downright inferior to print media. Most video xx materials are for recreational, not acredited education, or technical learning, or serious self-growth.

no browsing fwd and esp. backward
no pencil-highlighting
no note-taking on the margin in my own words… crucial to digesting/assimilation…
no review, which is crucial for virtually all of my learning.
no comparing two sentences across pages.
The courseware can’t show permanent lists, tables or graphs since there’s only one page on display. These “pictorials” are essential for reinforcement, clarification, comparison/contrast, highlighting similarities or key differences …
You can’t focus on one difficult, confusing, or surprise phrase and let it sink in, unless you pause the video.
You can’t copy-paste a paragraph into a blog to comment on it.
.. You can’t refer to a page in a book either.
^^ Overall, reading is far more efficient and less tiring. The learner is far more in control

— eg: studying youth drug culture .. For years I had a deep concern over juvenile drug culture in the U.S. The numerous online resources [pictorials, videos, FAQ..] were long available to me but don’t provide me enough psychological relief. A paradox.

Now I guess that subconsciously I always knew I ought to commit myself and “study” this subject, but the prospect of online learning was /unappealing/unpleasant, heavy, even dreadful.

Then came a mini black swan, when the national library BigBookGiveaway gave away several beautiful pictorial books written for teenagers on some highly relevant topics. Those topics were exactly what I was unconsciously looking for. They scratched a big itch.

A less obviously but a bigger differentiator is the *hardcopy* print form — so much better than online including the videos. I kinda look forward to reading these books in my spare time. I will likely pencil mark, annotate and review them. For the first time, I felt relieved to have some promising resources to address part of my concerns.

— eg: LKY .. the books vs the videos.
I watched 30 – 60 videos of LKY’s talks, raning in length from 5 minutes to 2H. (I also watched some videotaped discussions over LKY’s legacy, but irrelevant here.) Content often overlaps.

There’s no ~~table of content~~ so I couldn’t pick a section. It was awkward to ~~pause or rewind~~ (like a book) so I seldom did.

There is often an introduction (uesless). There are often comments by a moderator or another guest on the stage, when I want to focus on LKY’s own words.

More seriously, there are words, perhaps one in a few hunrded used by LKY, that I want to but don’t understand. We routinely ignore them, since we don’t know the spelling. (No such issue with his Chinese talks.) Some of these unfamiliar words are LKY’s personal characterizations of a subject.

Then I picked up [[one man’s view of the world]]. The content is often similar to the talks, but the absorption rate is much higher. I underlined many key words or parapraphs for review.

The content is more organized, more comprehensive, more substantiated. With his talks, LKY often gives a brief answer. Many experienced speakers on stage would do that.

I also have a Chinese book. I will be able to compare the contents of the two books, something hard to do in videos.

Rolia #UGC^RDigest

Posted on Sun, 04/Jul/2021Fri, 28/Jun/2024 by tiger40490

k_UGC

— Q: what motivates me (and millions of others) to spend so much time browsing? Over the years I spent perhaps 100+ hours on this site (esp. during the years before 2007…)

Casual readers (including news junkies) probably spend hours scanning various forums, without a specific goal. A recreation, but I would say inefficient. They would be distracted/attracted by low-quality UGC .

Some users found help on Rolia and expressed gratitude to Rolia. These users probably asked generic questions and received various pointers. Otherwise, I think they really should thank the specific posters who helped them.

Some users found local friends from bbs like Rolia. They can read the high volume of comments of a specific person and feel “I know this guy.” This is a unique value of bbs systems.

Even with opinion content, I actually learned some things but 鱼龙混杂… lots of worthless noise.

— Rolia is arguably more successful than similar bbs in the U.S., becuase of focus

Every Chinese immigrant forum has to work hard to identify topics of shared interest. A well-chosen topic would attract focused discussions with quality comments.

— age profile: I feel it was initially started by graduate students from China, and still targets students and ex-students as the main user group. As the earlier batch of students (my cohort) become less active Rolians after they turn 50, a younger batch of students take over, and continue to target China students.

Educational background? Some mainland immigrants to Canana may be less educated, as family memebers. Also, some percentage of the active commentators are not based in Canada or from China. However, the top bloggers are probably likely to be college educated.

— quality of UGC[user-generated content], quality of writers… Rolia is typical of many forums, but slightly better quality.

Most opinions + personal stories are much lower quality than in a regular newspapers or magazines [2]. Compared to bbs, the Rolia blogs have better quality becuase the blogger has skills + a reputation to protect. Still, the blogs have no editorial quality control.

The information type of UGC (re: Hardwarezone) are better quality. This category also includes market place + QnA + educational + informational (personal) stories.

Some commentators are writers/bloggers, who write long pieces. 99% of the time, these longer pieces are more worthwhile. The other commentators are lazy, untrained, and only give brief, casual comments. These casual commentators are often college graduates, and can have valid opinions, but 鱼龙混杂.

The lowest quality is found in a group chat of casual one-liners, often between 2 enthuastic friends. They should really use email or wechat group, but they decided to pollute the bbs, and hijack a discussion thread. It’s like a gossip channel, or grapevine in bbs. Phrases are often encoded for each other but unreadable to the hundreds of others. Such discussions can cover opinions, knowledge,,, and capture the attention of casual browsers looking for information or quality opinions. Sadly, a valuable discussion thread is polluted as a river is polluted.

— [2] ReadersDigest .. features some of Rolia 精华区’s top 5 categories, but 5 times better quality. RD has industry’s highest quality reputation in categories like personal reflections/observations, personal stories, short biographies, personal essays. [[读者]] follows RD’s footsteps, and shows much better quality than Rolia 精华区.

In contrast, even the best personal blog lacks editorial review, although some tech bloggers do revise bposts based on reader feedback.

— UGC literature .. a special case. Often a talented fiction writer doesn’t absolutely need an editor from a publishing house.

In the early years of huasing (华新) there were a couple of talented writers who posted original fictions .. tens of thousands of words. No editorial QC!
Borong.Yu also posted some original fictions online

Given there’s no editor to select which fiction to publish, the only criteria I use is popularity in terms of page views. For UGC literature, this criteria is fairly effective, but not for other UGC 🙁

— case study: 内卷/躺平/runxue
These are popular among the Chinese graduates, and likely to grow in Chinese forums or blogs (Rolia? not sure). However, the UGC quality is inferior to published articles.

btv-open

≠→≅

Category: t_recreation