Category: t_recreation

[21]Everything that matters is a competition@@

Posted on by tiger40490

In my mid-20s my dad noticed that I perceive everything as competition… Q: For each item below, is the endeavor/struggle/// mostly personal or fundamentally competitive? Specifically, is it realistic to define success without benchmarking with competitors?

By the way, if we all target a single limited resource [like educational resource, top job positions, or a desirable mate] then competition is inevitable, but in reality people often choose different targets.

Below items are half-grouped. The more obvious/shorter items tend to move up.
— For wellness .. I would say non_competitive. Personal endeavor.
— hobbies .. non-competitive by definition, including so-called competitive hobbies. A hobby is a success if it helps the individual grow, express the self, reach out to a community, regardless of competitive position achieved.
— burn rate and cashflow mgmt .. I would say non_competitive. Some individuals spend $10k/M but they are doing fine due to high income. I spend $2k/M and feel good, but how do I compare to those supersavers who spend $700/M? I think both can be doing fine.
— For personal investments … non_competitive.
Even if my portfolio is lower return, higher risk, it is Fine. If my portflio risk is too high, then it becomes a problem but not really due to peer comparison. (In contrast, if you run a fund then you must compete for mindshare. )
— for family livelihood .. fundamentally non_competitive. For most people, salary doesn’t depend on competition.
jolt: I’m in the minority to perceive salary as fundamentally determined by competitive job interviews.
— family harmony, unity .. non_competitive
— parenting .. fundamentally non_competitive.
However (jolt), exam-oriented parenting can be competitive to some extent like “want to make my kids perform better than those families”.

Some parents even set a target to send their kids to some top school. In such a case, success depends on benchmarking.

I feel I have grown wiser, stronger, mellowing up. I now care slightly less about exams or top schools.
— important exams .. fundamentally competitive, as the top schools only want to recruit cream of the crop. Some students are not competitive. Some treat studies like serious hobbies.

In NUS, First-Class honors is bell-curve based. In UChicago, many examiners use bell-curve. However, if result is either P or F like driving tests, without a grade, then that exam is non_competitive. You are up against the examiner’s standard, not peer benchmark. The minimum requirement to pass is non_competitive. We often see the entire batch complete a program.

Reading a transcript or a GPA score, the exam results are non_competitive, since the reader has no idea of the distribution of scores. For example, I scored a C in sociology, which was the average score, but it looked bad on my transcript. Also, my Beijing high school transcript shows very high scores by Singapore standard.
— job interview .. competitive at least in the high-end tech interviews, because these are elite teams. QH.Dong said something like “GTD criteria is too low. Probably 80% of candidates can clear that bar. We need to find someone stronger than existing team members in at least one area, to complement the our mix.”

The more senior, the more you hear “seeking the strongest candidate that our budget can attract.”

If an employer targets a salary below the national median, then recruiter probably has a hard time filling the vacancies with qualified people .. non_competitive . Agilent/Spherion interviews were non_competitive because they want to fill all the vacancies quickly.

— dating: competitive among the “desirables”. You could be a fine person, but (more often than the other way!) in the dating market you may appear less attractive, less humorous, less resource-rich, less “suitable” as a life partner. Mate selection is fundamentally “picking the best mate that I could grab”.

jolt: I have carefully omitted personality match — the notion that what I want (in a mate) differs from what my volleyball teammate wants. Well, I choose to focus on the fundamental and universal desires. At the fundamental level, we both desire the same type of mate. Therefore, competitive.

Some people say they simply want to find someone “barely good enough” i.e. without major personality mismatches. I think this attitude is more common in arranged marriages, because the arranger can’t give you 200 choices. Also more common among older singles.

After the initial dating, how about the effort to maintain the love relationship? non_competitive

— academic research and publishing .. non_competitive. However, there’s a minimum standard in this _profession_. In some influential journals or conferences, you would need to produce outstanding findings to be accepted. Consider contributors to the Christian magazine [[parenting teens]]. Clearly a serious hobby. Yet to be accepted, your content has to be non-trivial, professionally-written.

In contrast, teaching profession is non_competitive.

If you publish only on a blog, or you self-finance a print publication, then it’s like a serious hobby.

 

editorialQC: top magazine>book>UGC #中文

Posted on by tiger40490

This bpost is more systematic, more comprehensive, more like a research topic; the Rolia bpost (below) is more specific, likely to end up more memorable.

k_UGC

This bpost’s focus is partly quality (including originality) of idea or quality of writer, more on quality of editing and quality of presentation. This quality is generally higher at reputable magazines, higher than the average book and higher than most newspapers. Higher due to better QC/QA, better selection (more submissions).

Fundamentally, newspapers and magazines are mass media publications. Readers trust the editorial selections review in major newspapers like NYTimes, WaPost, WSJ, SCMP and the major British newspapers. Magazines and books have even more thorough reviews esp. academic publications.

In terms of circulation, reputable newspapers and magazines have much bigger audience than most books, so I assume the editorial QC is more battle-tested than most published books.

— Chinese content ..
Suppose a student of management/philosophy/engineering//// exclude Japanese writers wholesale, she would miss a lot of high-value content. Fact — The Japanese population has produced many excellent authors and intellectual creations.

Ditto the Chinese.  Over the decades, I have seen through my own eyes the intellectual depth/breadth of Chinese thinkers. My reading diet regime is currently “too much” English, so I deliberately increase my “intake” of Chinese content.

Q: what Chinese magazines? I only have a small collection. [[读者]] is best. RD Chinese edition is mostly English content translated to Chinese, but there is still some Chinese writers’ content.

— UGC includes wikipedia ++

bbs UserGeneratedContent .. see my bpost about Rolia^ReadersDigest

— eg: ReadersDigest .. (and to a lesser extent [[读者]] ) editing and content show consistent writing quality, originality (rather than cliches), depth with clarity,,,

These qualities become evident when I read second-class magazines, free publications or regional magazines such as those SEAsia productions. The difference feels like an original movie vs cheap thriller.

— eg: TheEconomist .. discussed in RecreationalXX

creating^consuming fun_art

Posted on by tiger40490

trigger 1: The origin of the google doodle tradition. There’s nothing wrong with fun-loving. Done well, your creative fun_art can create joy for a large audience, just like a street comedian.

(Large audience .. is a rare and key ingredient of google’s doodles. Most of the discussion in this blogpost doesn’t assume an audience of more than 2.)

This topic is wide-ranging. My thoughts are centered around effort, hobby, wellness …

Suppose you love some fun_art so much that you put in effort and absorbency to create something. Not necessarily artistic in itself, but it helps other people enjoy the same fun_art … Congrats you have created value with that fun_art. You have become a hero of some sort, a role model for the youth.

As a hobby, creating fun_art is mostly positive; consuming fun_art? .. is a “harmless” recreation up to a point. After that point, it becomes an obsession. Many (including students and retirees) spend too much time “consuming”. There’s no effort, no creativity in consuming fun_art. Consuming (not creating, usually) fun_art can become excessive and unhealthy. Self-regulation required, just like news junkies.

  • eg: reading is better than screen-based “consuming”. The screen often gets hijacked by marketers. With screens, we often feel compelled to complete the “journey” because it’s not easy to stop, bookmark, and come back another day.
  • eg: movie/anime/gaming industries are some of the biggest industries founded on fun_arts. The creative artists are fine but the commercial operators seem to prey on captive consumers
  • eg: one of my top 5 hobbies nowadays is blogging online (published). Not really fun_art, but it shares many features with creating fun_art.
  • eg: if consuming is physical activity (rare) then it is healthier than sit-at-home consuming. Home decoration is my wife’s creative fun_art.. physical 🙂 There’s some small $cost, usually not expensive.
  • eg: classical music playing .. not fun_art to the young, but is fun_art in my opinion. “Consuming” classic music .. is widely endorsed, but please don’t sit at home and listen for hours every day. Go out and get some exercise.
  • eg: my recreational xx with magazines? I always prefer recreational xx rather than just recreation.

— How about solitude? I have a growing preference for recreations that do not depend on other people.
Some creative fun_arts meet this criterion. Consuming certain fun_arts can also meet this requirement.

I think this topic becomes important in retirement. I feel grandpa might be suffering more than grandma.

reading: cf other Recreations/sinks #zqbx#w1r4

Posted on by tiger40490

 

k_soul_search

“Recreational reading habit” is a loose term. (As an analogy “Asia” actually refers to many distinct regions like Indian subcontinent, S.E.Aaia etc.) The current (last 5Y) sample of identifiable content domains for reading :

  • tech (career-oriented) reading .. is a leading exclusion.
  • .. ▲C/C++ .. special compared to java
  • .. ▼new tech .. tend to be more recreational, including python
  • wellness .. brain gym, early preparation for aging… magazines like RafflesMedical
  • [8  ]▲parenting .. Blogging > magazines
  • [10]▲personal finance .. Blogging > magazines
  • [3  ]▲wellness .. Blogging > magazines
  • [30] self-help .. motivation, reconciliation, time mgmt.. Blogging
  • [30] Ch/En vocab, literature, pictorial _ancient_ history; science; textbooks on econs/psychology/finance.. magazines > textbooks
  • [20] Greater China (and U.S.) contemporary history/society/economy.. magazines
  • [10 = 10Y reading interest]

— energy sinks .. are a superset of recreations
[z=zqbx recreation. Recreations can be consistent or inconsistent with zqbx.]

I tend to watch video, browse online or blog for a break (from work  or study), but now I think reading a is superior break.

— alternative_to ⇒ [!z] movies or shopping in TPY central .. Reading as an alternative reward, unwind. Some people even take a reading vacation… am warming up to it.
sugg: go to bus interchange, or McDonald, or MRT
— alternative_to ⇒ online reading + blogging
For more than 50% of the topics I’m learning, books/magazines are more in-depth, much easier for _DRAM_refresh_
Advantage of online reading is the possibility of blogging. Online reading often involves wikipedia++ and curiositySou
— alternative_to ⇒ [!z] video_xx
— alternative_to ⇒ [!z] online news reading (+ curiosity search) .. Magazine/newspaper/online news reading is far less focused than magazines or books, and often degenerates into aimless curiosity reading. Very poor ROTI (short or long-term)

News is a huge and established industry as folks like to know and talk about news. There’s a lot of effort by credible writers.  Therefore, there’s valuable content but we must be selective to maintain a minimum ROTI.

— competition ⇒ [   ] frenDialog by email (better than chat) + blogging
— competition ⇒ [!z] frenDialog by phone or meet-up
half of my peers (young or old) seem to spend bulk of “disposable leisure time” on meet-up and phone calls. I know myself. I derive more joy/satisfaction from other recreations

— competition: inferior_to ⇒ [z] workout
reading habit can easily lead to wellness stagnation [implies slow decline due to aging]
— competition: inferior_to ⇒ [z] self-learning music.. Learning takes huge amount of time but is accumulative.
— #1 competition ⇒ recreational[3] blogging .. blogging is more active and accumulative. I can revise my opinions in my own words.
Over the long term, blogging (not reading) improves your 1) expressive/articulation capabilities in specific languages … 2) complex thought-organization
[3] non-gz

— minor competitions
⇒ [z] exp recon
⇒ [z] recreational investing

##DIY home repair #livelihood protection

Posted on by tiger40490

See also

Some things you can throw away and buy new. Some of the rich may do that, either by choice or by laziness. There are pros and cons:

^ investigate/research, then repair is a practical skill. If you are rich you are often perceived as unskilled at some of these things.
^ moving + installing the new piece can be expensive and time-consuming
^ fixing things can be enriching and a learning experience
^ some issues are really easy to fix. So perhaps do some basic research first. Careless disposal is unwise and wasteful.
▼ can take up too much time in many cases. For example, A broken window-grille — the repair tcost is inevitable , DIY is usually higher tcost.

— protection of livelihood: DIY experience can significantly reduce panic and the ensuing stress… cf nonswimmers on a /dugout canoe/

  1. Some professional repairs are expensive
  2. Some professional repairs do not strengthen the weak points as I could in DIY to push out the next failure
  3. DIY repair can give you insight for the next purchase or installation

— home improvement achievements

  1. vertical monitor no longer sliding down
  2. stand`desk retractable handle fixes
  3. good usage of black+whiteboard
  4. —-
  5. New icon ForgotMyPhone! hook+charger @exit
  6. #1169 Cockpit1 joining two tables at the same height, creating a virtualized large table for boy
  7. [t]#1169 turned washing machine 90 degrees to make room in the tight cockpit4
  8. [$t]New icon#1169 Cockpit4 power sockets
  9. [t] #1169 gate lower bolt lubricated and unstuck, after prev owner said it was forever stuck.
  10. [$] #1169 bathroom ceiling LED too bright at night … costly to replace
  11. [ist] power extension bar from China — The grip inside the socket was too loose … poor contact
  12. [ist] secured the failing edges and corners of the lie-down shelf-cum-table from Ikea, to extend its lifetime.
  13. [is] bolster .. too thin..
  14. legacy padlock
  15. [$] stand`desk retractable handle fixes
  16. [st] boy’s bed .. strengthened backplane (wrong English) with additional wood planks
  17. —— minor achievements beyond G10
  18. [$] vivoY02 power button sensitivity improved with knife cuts
  19. #1169 room 1 door peg was screwed on slanted. Reason? There had been a broken screw stuck-in so the previous handyman had to screw into lower spot. I took the initiative to screw right beside the stuck screw.
  20. charging “station” for L399 .. boy’s suggestion
  21. New iconnoise-reducing chair socks
  22. [$s] glued the “D” key on Aspire without paying the shop
  23. [is] meimei’s L-tabletop has a small drawer underneath. Its protruding corner often hit my back when I work under the table. I tried various corner cushions until I found the thick sealing tape.
  24. [$] fridge big box
  25. water gun at #1169… I didn’t spiral down into the “involution habit” [shopping for cheapest hose.. sealing both ends of the hose 100% water-tight… experimenting/fixing the unreliable lever-switch…] Instead, I used the (non-standard) existing hose, accepted the lever-switch + occasional leak. What’s the cut of Gordian Knot ? I hard-block the water most of the time and “unblock” only when needed, like once a month, so all the problems are “reduced” to trivial.
  26. [is] kitchen sliding door. quick-n-dirty: Contractor used a screw to maintain positions of the two frames (wrong English?), but over the years the screw had dented the other frame on the edge, and therefore become less effective….
  27. handphone finger hook secured
  28. New icon[is] the single glass shelf below bathroom mirror — left-shifted to make way for boy’s toothbrush
  29. [hs] punchbag — I spent many hours locating and drilling 4 holes, without damaging the tile. The set-up is fairly durable so far. I also taped up the tears and the zipper.
  30. [i] desk below the printer used to have a shelf that was in-the-way when I sit down with a laptop. Now I removed the shelf
  31. [$is] bolt on main door is now usable after I shifted the “strike-plate” .. high value/effort ratio
  32. [hs] ceiling fan remote: secured at low spot
  33. [is] sliding windows .. need to fully close for aircon but there was always a gap on the each extreme end…
  34. [$] wiring cabinet for optical modem, wifi router
  35. New icon[is] the single glass shelf below bathroom mirror — left-shifted to make way for boy’s toothbrush
  36. meter rooms -> wall-mounted hooks to make use of vertical space
  37. kitchen built-in cabinet -> drawer
  38. New icon[i]  Ikea long picture holder facing room2 was tilting down… managed to /wedge/ a screw to prop it up again.
  39. [$i] sofa removable /upholstery/ .. kids tend to kick or push them, so the zipper were weakened and broken. I spent hours nailing them down, without leaving a nail head protruding.
  40. [is] one big hook in storeroom to hold all my wires
  41. [is] brown shoe cabinet shelf pieces warped under pressure, became too short and unstable. I added longer pegs to hold them in place.
  42. laundry line outside .. strengthened with wire
  43. [$] piano heater power plug .. broken by boy. Repaired
  44. [i] shaft below water meter .. I got TownCouncil to replace it.
  45. [is] suction lamp cable too short .. extended
  46. [s] put on a thick black “condom” over brass door stopper of the flip-up type
  47. [h] 3-piece picture — put up without drilling new holes. I did deepen some existing holes.
  48. — unranked new items
  49. —-
  50. [h=one of the harder jobs]
  51. [s=simplicity]
  52. [i=scratching a big itch(such as an persistent annoyance), satisfying]
  53. [t=time-honored]
  54. [$=high monetary value]
  55. [New icon = innovative ]

[21]baggage@book ownership #proactive LG

Posted on by tiger40490

Borrowed books exert the highest time-pressure, even if I am allocated 6 weeks.

Purchased books generate the heaviest stress in terms of “reading minutes vs $cost”. However, an even bigger stressor is the carry-cost when moving home. Each time I had to go through dozens deciding which titles to discard. Always painful and time-consuming.

Free books are stress-free. Free magazines often show quality content esp. in the case of a global publication brand.

having too many (hundreds) free books (excl magazines) and too little time … is much better than yesteryears when I bought 1/3 of the current titles and had 5 times more hours allocated to reading them.

Q: what books qualify to be retained beyond next relocation, up to 10Y?
A: I think the magazines are disqualified

k_X_power_descriptor … k_soul_search

The issue is complicated by 3 big factors

  • AA: acquisition cost affecting LG
  • MM: cumulative moving t$cost. Travel light
  • TT: (jolt) limited spare time
  • DD: due diligence when buying

Background: As my collection of free books grows, I may realized there are too many books at home than I could use meaningfully (TT). It proved to be a recurring problem when moving home(MM). Over the years, I have developed my preference for travel-light. The outdated tech books, cheap or free books (AA) are easier to “discard without guilt”, therefore weigh much /lighter/ as a baggage

I used to feel a book is to be kept for decades, even a $20 book, as if every book is a reference book I keep using year in year out. This (ownership…) creates huge emotional baggage when buying or moving home .. (Nowadays I try to buy without oth; discard without guilt.) For 99% of my books I bought it for a specific reason (including interest), read it for a few months and don’t read for a decade, not ever for reference. As a consequence, these books now feel like dead weight. (See the section on “hardcovers on option trading”.)

I used to spot a book in a used book shop, evaluate the likely value [likelihood of learning], for a few month, finally decide to buy it, but spend less than an hour reading it without learning much, and discard it when moving home.

— The Aha (TT) .. I would never have enough time to read every (non-tech) purchased book in depth. Workout, parenting, external dialogs, pff, blogg, tech learning … are all discretionary with higher priority than recreational reading. So I devised the 1H/$10_invested guidelines (10min/$1 for small buys), to help me decide when I have earned the right/license to LG a given book, well before the next relocation.

— LG [discard or give away] .. I now feel proactive LG is a best practice, learning from experience of adapting to the living environment.. natural_selection… healthy and rational.

The #1 blocker/restraint/zsms/baggage of LG is the initial price paid.
The #1 j4 LG is family relocation. No smoke without fire, and “No family relocation, no pressure to LG”

Q: Let’s proactively let go of unused books but what books to prioritize?
A: parenting books… esp. non-free, or pure-text, or yellowish, or English,
A: outdated tech books
A: old flame .. see “hardcover” case study

Q: what books are easier to “Let-Go without guilt”?
A: free books are easier to let go, and therefore weigh (much) lighter. In Sep 2021, I had 2 books on “office mini-stretches”. I decided to donate the one I bought from China, and keep the free book from BookExchange. This way, when I move home, I will have lighter emotional baggage. From this experience I concluded that when I have too many books on a subject, it’s best practice to LG bought books first.
A: books I have kept for years but not read for 10Y are easier.

— find shelf space for books

  • how about kitchen cabinet?
  • on top of wardrobe or book shelves

— book categories to let go vs keep

  • discard parenting books
  • discard contemporary (=>outdated) analysis of China, US etc
  • discard outdated tech books
  • keep magazines except current news
  • keep general knowledge books such as math, econs, history, science

— case study: brand new hardcovers on options and FX
Unlike the paperbacks, these hardcovers are published for a much smaller community of financial professionals and cost much higher. Still, each book costs a fraction of the professional daily salary. Sounds like a throwaway amount at the time of my purchase. I bought these books mostly for IV, esp. dnlg IV. Compared to my 10 quant textbooks, the hardcovers are more practical, more /accessible/. I have successfully spent more than an hour per book, commensurate with price paid. However, since 2012 I have shifted direction elsewhere. It highlights a reality with book ownership is — our reading interests evolve with age.

Sugg: give away some titles that no longer appeal to me, perhaps after browsing through the TOC.

In contrast, the 5 quant textbooks I bought in China (in English) were bargain prices. Even though hours spent per book is very low, I feel less “baggage”. I also spent less time (oth) on due diligence before buying

— MM (moving home ).. is by far the biggest test and biggest decision time. Every time I moved home, I would pick some books to let-go. For many of my current books at home, there’s something appealing in print quality, in visual or in wording … but I don’t think I would reopen it in 10Y. Kinda emotional baggage. Transport $cost approaches acquisition cost esp. as your book collection grows, as we grow in wealth. Cumulative transport cost of a given book grows each time we move home

Note that if I only move _part_ of my collection, keeping the rest where they are, then the baggage is much lighter.

Jolt: Those individuals with a large book collection didn’t move home as often and don’t plan to move more than once in 30Y ! Some friends keep hundreds of books, some of which are seldom read. If I were them I won’t mind leaving such books in my bookshelf because there’s a chance I might read one for 10m. They were lucky to avoid facing the same reality I faced.

MM (and ezLG) is the #1 attraction of free books, and the reason I semiconsciously spend so much time collecting them.

Q3: what’s a reasonable life time budget for book transport? S$10k or USD 10k
A: jolt: transport budget can exceed acquisition budget. If a book cost $10, then cumulative transport cost (ignoring tcost) over a few moves can be $10 to $30.

Q3b: what’s the budget for one-time book move by car? $100 acceptable. In fact, books are lighter than piano or some furniture.
Q3c: what’s the budget for one-time book move by air? Very expensive.
A: USD 100 is about my budget but often insufficient 🙁
A: perhaps I should budget $300

Q: how is my barebones ffree relevant in the transport budget?
A: my barebones ffree is based on responsible spend, so I’m burdened by any transport cost.
A: jolt: anyone with 100+ books will not have enough t-budget (like 10Hr/book) so transport cost has to be accepted as fact of life.

The biggest paradox — am generous, mellow, experienced,, in my book buying habits, but not in the transport routine. Therefore, transport is now the #1 heaviest headache of book ownership, much heavier than the acquisition cost. So far, my proven pain relief of transport headache is LG, but I feel stupid about LG of some specific titles.

— Choice 1: free books .. I have found some good free books. They are guilt-free. If on a popular subject [like parenting, stress,,,] a good book costs $20 and a less-good book is free, I would favor the free one, because I could discard without guilt.

Free books are often unclean, even missing pages, and uncategorized, but to my surprise I found many relevant topics:

  • history and illustrated knowledge books
  • magazines
  • parenting
  • Taiwan or English self-help books

— Choice 2: Amazon tech books .. much, much “lighter” (in terms baggage and LG) than the new tech books I bought elsewhere.
Compared to non-tech, tech books are easier to discard without guilt, as they become outdated.
— Choice 3: used book shops .. In SG I used to visit used book shops in 百胜楼, but Strand has better organization and better tcost.
In terms of $cost, the Chinese books (even new books) in 百胜楼 are generally cheaper than used English books. However, nowadays I no longer look forward to those used bookshops.

As stated in the case study, the used books cost at least a few dollars and require DD. I often spent hours in a bookshop selecting books to buy, but after buying, I don’t spend 10x more hours reading them … zsms.
— Q: for my U.S migration, shall I bring all my books?
A: first trip is by myself. I could bring perhaps 25%. When I move entire family over, I would bring most and leave behind perhaps 30% in my HDB home or someone’s home. Within a few years I would need to visit Singapore.

magazines4RecreationalXX #Economist

Posted on by tiger40490

See also

Scope .. in this blogpost I don’t cover technical journals. Recreational learning differs from “mindless reading” which often leaves me empty, worse than 发呆. However, some may say that aimless reading can be a relaxation…. not sure.. maybe.

The learning topic in magazines are usually not work-related. See the topic list in recreational read`

Nowadays I enjoy free give-away magazines, even if 15Y-outdated (up to 20Y), from China or U.S.

  • variety of topics .. often proved effective for recreational learning
  • .. some magazines offer good density of relevant articles .. Fortune/Economist, ReadersDigest, [[读者]]
  • light weight, easier to carry in one hand when you must read while standing
  • easier to tear off to reduce weight
  • 🙂 there are many free and high-quality magazines in the cities I know. Free means less baggage
  • sometimes I get into a low mood and carry a negative perception about many of my books, so even a big home library may be insufficient. The gen magazine is an alternative.
  • short pieces .. digestible, self-contained; easier to pick a few pieces to read, then physically discard
  • TableOfContent .. slightly better than average

— Q2: Could a “magazine reading vacation” for half a day replace movies, and offer some recreational learning?
I think it’s feasible. There are other absorbency-enhancers operating at various physiological levels. Together they could offer an effective “break” from stressful work or tech study, and one of the most compelling alternatives to movies.

Movies are cheesier, lazier, more entertaining,,, than reading vacation. Movies are something I look forwrd to even though they are a cheap thrill.

( Even more appealing than magazines is library trip, but logistically difficult. Recall d2lib .. library was once my harbor/shelter. )

  • #1 enhancer : random/passer-by companions .. Bayonne BK
  • bright light (as in Bayonne BK) or table lamp
  • aircon, background music or news television as in Bayonne BK
  • ^^ for these reasons library_immersion in my younger days was enjoyable, and popular with China students.
  • comfort food
  • ^^ many solo learners/readers spend hours in a coffee restaurant  for these reasons.

Any reading vacation can hit distraction. You set aside half a day with a goal of recreational learning. You browse through a few magazines but soon get distracted by attention-grabbing news with pictures. Most of the news offer low “learning” value. At the end of the reading vacation, you have wasted half the earmarked hours. WeChatRead title (XH.Fu recommendation) used this opening scene. This phenomenon is more severe online, and rare with books.

— Novelty .. (or expectation thereof) is an important appetizer esp. for a reading vacation.

  • eg: after I buy a tech book, I often leave it unopened, or hide its title from view, in order to “preserve the fresh attraction”, for months. After a while, I preview the TOC and pencil-mark specific items, but refrain from reading them. This practice has mixed effect but usually (51% chance) reduces the novelty level. I think the reduction is inevitable. What we can hope is a slow reduction, rather than wipe-out of novelty level during a first browse.
  • eg: for a book or even a mag, the novelty can be wiped out after I read some x% or just 10%. Readers intuitively feel the same author (“editor” for a mag) has the same style in the unread sections. Those sections are therefore seen as “likely similar” to the visited sections.

A wipe-out is significant because the entire book (or a copy of a mag) would get shelved indefinitely, even though it might have some hidden gems.

Magazines (and newspapers) have better novelty value than books. In this regard, best magazines include 读者, Forbes, ReadersDigest. Themed magazines offer slightly lower novelty such as tech, health or parenting mag.

Luckily, 20Y old magazines mostly retain their fresh novelty, iFF the topics are slow-changing. Obviously, we need to ignore the news portions therein.

— TheEconomist =my #1 business magazine

  • 🙂 dense, less easy reading, but with sufficient pictorials
  • 🙂 more intellectual (or academic), more critical, more serious, less /cheesy/, less mass-market oriented, less “selling” than the other G5 business magazines. TheEconomist once boasted about its limited circulation.
  • .. LKY and other statesmen quote TheEconomist more than the other international business magazines
  • 🙂 more global than the American business magazines
  • .. Yet it displays a (British) editorial stance, like newspaper journalism more than a magazine. (It fact, it gets censored in many countries that it criticizes.) I don’t know if I agree with their opinions, but I respect their conviction and the courage to take a stance.

Economist Intelligence Unit is respected like a university or a world-class research institute.

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/best-business-magazines-4176680 has concise opinions on 8 popular business magazines. TheEconomist is less about exclusive interviews, rankings, inspirational stories, recommendations (investment guides),,,

(图)book+magazine 4xx #recreation++

Posted on by tiger40490

Q: Is a magazine article better quality than a newspaper article on the same topic, by the same author?
magazine price per 1000 words is higher.
magazine is printed on better paper with color graphics

This blogpost is more general than magazines for recreational xx  or  read`^ other Recreations #w1r3. This blogpost goes beyond recreational xx. It also includes stressful/deliberate learning like deep_work for professional learning and development.

— seminar vs text books .. Many popular authors publish books only as marketing for their lucrative training/speaking engagements. (They know that writing a book is unlikely to be profitable in itself in the digital age.) Most in the audience seem to prefer a live event, possibly because less Sys2 effort is required when they are being read to, and entertained. They don’t need to maintain attention, because the live event captures their attention. Such a spectator is not serious about learning, reflection, and internal growth, for which books are the most effective medium. Look at colleges. Even in the digital age, I think most schools still use text books because they are still the most effective medium for the student’s internalization.

— fuxi .. [Dram refresh and 温故知新] is crucial for any learning, although most people are not serious about fuxi. Professional(not photocopied) print media is the easiest for fuxi. Electronic medium is hugely inferior for fuxi.

==== some common tangible advantages of magazines and youth educational books
— paper won’t turn yellowish. Can keep for decades.
— quality of editing .. generally higher (better QC/QA) at reputable magazines, youth textbooks, children’s books.
— some topics won’t become obsolete. In contrast, I feel TheEconomist, Time, Fortune are /world-class/ in quality but leaning more towards current affairs.
— taste enhancers, or absorbency enhancers
Q1: why are these “print media” more valuable, more attractive than traditional learning materials
A: Big colorful pictorials. These attractive pictorials [cartoons, photos, charts,] are designed like protein powder taste-enhancer — to enhance absorbency, soften the material,  inject some fun and imagination. Some books even use special paper with texture. Fun language also injects fun and imagination.

In the opposite direction, Vertical or traditional Chinese characters aggravate the boredom of recreational reading. Most China (text)books of my generation use newspaper-quality paper and mono-color pictorials.

How about online video for creational learning? Sometimes it does enhance absorbency to some extent, but I can’t review or take notes. See video_xx

math as recreation #on-n-off but lifelong

Posted on by tiger40490

k_soul_search

Opening eg: Einstein played violin as recreation, whereas Karl Marx solved his chosen math problems as recreation

I think math is broad and deep, and some parts of practical or theoretical math could make excellent recreation. Better than board games.

Math recreation is an example of looko.

textbook on calculus is too heavy and not worth carrying.

How about other textbooks like biochemistry, economics, finance, psychology? Q: How and why math is special?

  • A1: Math teaching (esp. at the lower levels) has enduring value, and ticks 3 of the four ikigai questions for retirees!
  • a(minor): I can help my kids with math
  • a(minor): tech JIV continues to lean towards math.
  • A: I have a love-hate relationship with math.
    * It feels boring and tough .. esp. linear algebra, statistics
    * I have non-trivial talent. I am a natural from preschool to Master’s level. The hardest evidence — I completed a rigorous master’s program in math, with good GPA.

— continuous learning ..

With English vocab, I am well on my way to continue self-study into my late adulthood.

With programming, I have developed my strategy and my habit for continuous learning.

With Math (as with piano), how long can I last?  Those who once were good at math in school may forget a lot of details, but those who continue self-study into adulthood would have a chance to deepen their appreciation.

marriage counsel`:deep conversations, shared activity

Posted on by tiger40490

Shared activity … I can’t think of any (besides our weekly family outings). I try to join her on her solo trips to the nearby supermarket. At best it is a 20-minute activity. Her hobbies include watching Korean dramas, online shopping, and visiting department stores,… but I don’t share those hobbies.

You mentioned regular deep conversation and quality time. Indeed our bonding has improved because we now have many quiet mornings on weekdays when kids are in school and I work the afternoon shift. Quiet mornings are precious and probably unsustainable because my wife is planning to get a regular job. Outside these quiet mornings, I don’t recall any quality time. Our conversations are never really deep, but when we were alone together long enough (during quiet mornings), we have the opportunity to talk about non-trivial topics at length. Other people can’t imagine how hard it is for my wife to sustain a focused conversation beyond 10 minutes. On any topic, she would quickly come to a conclusion and have no patience to hear my words.

Suppose the topic is our new home. She could sustain only a 15-min chat on the “Renovation” topic (close to her heart). However, if there are several sub-topics like 1) shower-screen 2)flooring 3)timeline 4)risk management 5)budget… then she can sustain a 5-minute chat on each sub-topic. In fact, “risk” and “budget” are vague topics for her. She has problems going in-depth on these abstract topics. She can sustain longer conversations on the “wall tile” topic.

  • Another example of a concrete topic is a vacation to, say, Bali.
  • Another example of a vague, broad topic is how to help kids with academics (in her mind, that means nothing but grades).
  • Another example of a vague, broad topic is how to improve communications between the 2 of us.

These examples (except the “communications” topic) are some of the rather few topics of interest to her. In contrast, 90% of my favorite conversation topics (shared with my friends) are too boring to her, too abstract, too technical, too big. Though she has a diploma, her intellectual curiosity is like a high school girl. It is reflected in her conversation topics. I didn’t mention that she is interested in K-pop, shopping, make-up, and fashion for kids, but I have zero interest therein.

I said in our first chat that “meaningful conversations” is a visible weakness in this marriage. I have been disappointed too many times so I have given up on it. However, the depth of conversations (or lack thereof) in my marriage is not a serious problem.

A chatting partner is a different relationship altogether. I often have chatting partners at work or among ex-colleagues/ex-classmates. I feel intimate enough to share lots of personal thoughts, but we don’t depend on each other for livelihood.

In contrast, there are important relationships that are not built on in-depth conversations. For example, a relationship between 2 joint owners of a business, or relationship between two siblings, or relationship between a boss and her only worker (in a team of two) can all be functional, supportive, and effective despite a lack of in-depth conversations.

I agree with you that a majority of successful, fulfilling marriages feature the chatting-partner relationship, but believe it’s not a make-or-break feature.