Tag: T_fwork22

[20]expectations@boy: long^short horizon

Posted on by tiger40490

I have persuaded myself for many years to accept, to some extent, the long-horizon prospect, but the day-to-day realities are now the acute pains I’m struggling to cope with.

Long-horizon prospect is fundamentally connected to current pains such as time mgmt, mtv,,, Accepting the former should help me accept the latter. The more completely I accept the former, the more it would help me coping with the current pains.

— Over the longer horizon, I have realistic (reasonable) expectations of dabao’s math benchmark.

Ms Goh asked “what’s your expectation in terms of PSLE and secondary school?” Without hesitation I said an average school is good enough.

This proved to be a memorable Q&A session.

— over the immediate horizon, my expectation is unrealistic, painful, stressful, unbearable — in terms of his motivation, time-mgmt,,, See the complete list at ##Let us accept #current pains

def[successZ] #selfActualize

Posted on by tiger40490

k_def_of_success

Background: 4 def@success

SuccessZ can require a tough effort, self-discipline, and a punishing/painful postponement of (xpSelf’s) gratification. In the same vein, Buddhist abstinence is a huge sacrifice by the xpSelf.. Not worth it IMO.

— my definition of failureZ/successZ .. success can mean 自强不息[zqbx] about personal goals such as wellness, parenting, caring for aged parents, absorbency, self-improvement, rather than as a deadweight to someone else.

* Unlike the other definitions of success/failure, this definition is highly personal and therefore least-understood. It can also be vague. I think the best keyword is zqbx
* Unlike the other definitions of success/failure, there’s no luck in this success. It’s all effort and no luck. This success is the most /demanding/.
* Unlike the other definitions of success/failure, you slip into failure if you rest on your laurels and enjoy 一劳永逸.

A familiar category of 自强不息 personal goal is lifelong learning. It prevents brain aging, keeps the mind + body young and active. But you can’t be successful at lifelong learning without a purpose. We need a way to adjust our self-learning when it is ineffective.

Other personal goals can be a slightly bigger cause beyond the self. For example, I work hard to reduce waste of water, electricity, by repair/reuse. The FIRE movement emphases self-reliance.

As another defining example, a parent can be a successZ if she saves her child from a bad outcome, by working tirelessly with the child.

— Q: what failureZ/successZ areas need more sunshine, beyond the familiar-albeit-important BMI/workout/techXX//. The more specific the better.

  • localSys
  • cpp critical mass maintenance
  • math coaching for both kids
  • more standing in office
  • early rise, early sleep

— self-actualization

The 自强不息 efforts often have minimal lasting impact (failureL), but worthwhile to myself. I guess it’s a form of self-actualization, related to the Buddhist ideal of enlightenment.

CNA author Grace Yeoh defined success based on “Whether I like myself”, which is related to self-esteem, self-love. Similarly, when Joseph Schooling asked his father what his definition of success was, Colin Schooling replied in public: “Success is being able to look at yourself in the mirror, and be comfortable with the image that you see reflected. So long as you can see yourself and be comfortable, and be happy and satisfied that you have done no wrong to anybody. Just being happy with yourself. I think that is success.”

However, these definitions are too vague, too unstable, therefore good for a theoretical definition (rather than working definition) for most people esp. young people.

— Life_chances … are both goals and obstacles to successZ. In a sense, successZ is about “lack” of Life_chances . If an individual already enjoys good Life_chances then zqbx is not needed as much as otherwise.

— case study .. accepting lower pay as an aging SWE is a worthwhile (defining?) case study and illustration of succcessZ.

— case study .. Rahul of MS was an intriguing case study. A smoker, avid gamer and not really slim, he is nevertheless driven by self-improvement.

Availability^fullness: Hunger #supper

Posted on by tiger40490

All of the efforts in calorie restriction, weight mgmt… has one key obstacle — hunger. The sensation of hunger, while simple on the surface, is actually quite complex. From decades of self-observation I have concluded  that my hunger depends on ..

— AA) it depends on the homeostatic hunger + physical fullness of stomach for one hours after a meal (or 2-3 hours after a huge meal). This fullness is 90% calorie-based. Fiber (+ expanding chia) fullness is short-term (therefore less effective) in my psychophysiological system.

So this initial period is “protected” by the physical fullness, protected from the hunger sensation. After the initial period (which is 90% of the waking hours), my stomach is physically neither full nor extremely empty [1]. Under these conditions, my psychophysiological system often sends the hunger signal or the not-really-hungry signal. The deciding factor is often external to the digestive system.

In my diet period, my stomach is seldom 30% full before the warrior meal. Fullness is a missing protection.

Sudden change in daily workout level often has a noticeable effect on this hunger.

[1] when did I feel extremely empty? Basically never in my life. Perhaps a 48-hour fast would give me that experience.

— BB) my hunger depends 90% on availability … Daily battle.

  • For example, if I’m jogging, or cycling long distance, then 80% of the time I feel I can easily last a few hours without eating any solid food.
  • Another powerful example is my morning experience. Whether I have last eaten at 8pm or 1am, the morning stomach sensation is usually similar. The sensation depends mostly on availability.

Availability of unexpected enticing foods in a stash is particularly hard to manage.

—-
I would say AA and BB are fairly orthogonal, but the factors below are not.

c) My hunger increasingly depends on stress… eg: Mentally demanding work [such as work projects or coding] lead to stress that increases the effect of AA and BB, but even when I’m physically full, without lots of enticing foods visibly present, stress can creates the hunger signal almost out of thin air. This can happens when my stomach is physically half full or full, though seldom when it’s very full.

d) prolonged_separation from a particular food usually intensifies its attraction. This hunger-factor amplifies BB.

Again, no such effect when I’m very full.

i) a rare but revealing factor is sickness.

—

These factors interact. For example, in the face of mild temptations, an empty stomach would intensity the temptation.

Because of the Availability factor, my top guidelines for diet are

  • avoid the sight of food at the wrong time. Get away from family at dinner time
  • don’t eat when not hungry — easier said than done
  • delay meals as much possible. A form of intermittent diet
  • Before going to a place of temptation, try to fill the stomach. It is proven effective.
  • Before going home need to eat up to 90% and pray it is effective. 
  • Sometimes need to eat a regular hawker meal before going home.

Fiber, protein, chia seeds, … all target hunger, but they only target the “fullness”, and missed the elephant in the room i.e. Availability.

— my late-night big supper habit ..  Is it a wrong-time temptation? No I do feel hungry, even in the absence of food temptations. If no temptation, I tend to feel confident to cope with this hunger.

If not hungry but I still eat a high-calorie, heavy dinner, the next morning I can still get Really hungry ! This confirms my observation that calorie-induced (“genuine”) hunger is largely driven by timing, instead of calorie balance. Basically, the gap between the early dinner and the morning meal is too long.

The best thing to do is to refuse to eat anything if not hungry. Remove any temptation and resist.

%%xp: metal^wood racks #drawer

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Rack ^ shelf .. (jargon file) Barebone racks use nothing but metal bars like Omar and the first ikea railroad. Some racks (like Hyllis) add planks  and I still call them racks. However, when the vertical parts become walls, then I call the structure a shelve including most of wife’s purchases.

A Pigeonhole is defined as a compartment having 5 walls. Majority of the shelves feature pigeonholes including grandpa’s bookshelves.

— framework: my preferred storage types in practice 👍 👎

  • #1 open rack holding transparent trays or boxes .. usually more convenient than bags, in terms of payload access.. no need to open the bag and later close it.
  • ..less flexible compared to hanging bags esp. in terms of level adjustment, but on a given shelf, we can squeeze many items or space them out. In this way, it’s more flexible than pigeonholes or drawers
  • #2 transparent bags (of various sizes) hanging on a rack .. inexpensive, zero set-up, highly flexible and versatile. I relied on this single solution for decades, esp. in tiny rooms. The more luxury residences [all the furniture wife bought] tend to feature fewer racks and more drawers or pigeonholes, so hanging spots are fewer. I always spend some time locating (or creating) them. For wood furniture, I can also screw on hooks but it would leave a hole in the wood.

1) racks and 2) hanging clear bags [incl magazine bag] offer better visibility and flexibility than 3)pigeonhole bins (possibly with glass door) or 9) very worst visibility: drawers or pigeonholes behind doors.

Drawers breed the horrible habit of “piling up”… buried items suffer poor visibility. I never like deep drawers.

— wood shelves in general

  • 🙁 🙁 water damage … shorter lifespan than plastic or (some) metal. Once we accept 1~2Y “discard”, we can still use cheap shelves in wet areas.
  • 🙁 crack … if screwing at wrong part of the the wood, or wood piece receiving oversized impact
  • 🙁 tends to have fewer gaps/holes for hooks. In contrast, metal racks tend to have many, esp. Omar
  • 🙁 [assuming the same rough handling] majority of wood racks are less durable than metal racks. Note wood racks are inexpensive and seldom use hard wood.

— metal shelves in general

  • 🙁 🙁 hard to screw on stuff. Need to drill hole using metal drill bit
  • .. need to exploit all existing screw holes .. like fixing a hook array. Those metal racks with plenty of holes are precious
  • 🙁 less versatile, less presentable for the living room or bedroom
  • 🙁 can’t put on glider easily. Need to put on plastic “shoe” first

— the Omar rack

  • Indoor moisture ok, but too much moisture (rain + communal wash) would tarnish its appearance. Better cover with some plastic sheets, tied to the top
  • Luckily, the transportation and construction legwork is nice, so I could buy a replacement (before Omar is discontinued), and reuse some old shelves.

— the big brown rack

  • MWLR [meta/wood legacy rack]
  • 🙂 longer than most single racks
  • .. 👎 therefore heavy.. harder to move
  • height adjustable, but only four levels. The vertical size is rather large with high visibility, so we get some “desktops”
  • 🙂 metal structure can fit my ikea bracket but not as tight as in new ikea designs.
  • 👎 wood can get wet

satiation_efficacy^weight_gain_coefficient

Posted on by tiger40490

SEff (not a number) := the marginal increase in satiety for every gram (or oz) of a specific food consumed
WGC is a number := body weight gain / every gram (or oz) of a specific food consumed

My system aims at high SEff low WGC. This system qualifies as a challenge to the calorie framework

  • eg: smoothie with lots of ice… As an ingredient, the ice improves SEff, at zero WGC.
    • ! eg: ice cream… Again, the ice content improves SEff.
  • eg: peanuts esp. unshelled .. has higher calorie density therfore higher WGC than starch, but SEff is better.
  • ! eg: chocolates.. bad WGC, but surprisingly, good SEff.
  • eg: fish or lean meat .. WGC? unsure, but SEff slightly better than starch because in my exprience, I reach fullness fairly early with these foods.
  • eg (obvious): skin on fried chicken .. worst WGC. SEff similar to starch, therefore poor bargain.
  • — starchy foods:
  • eg (heaviest): cakes .. poor SEff as I tend to keep eating and eating… Loss of control almost every time in my experience, unless when I stopped myself.
  • eg: potatos + yams .. the fiber is supposed to enhance SEff, but I really don’t know. I tend to eat more and more, often due to the killer combo of starch+sugar+fat
  • eg: porridge (not too thick): thanks to the water, I don’t keep eating and eating, so SEff is better than other starch. The water also improves WGC

Surprise ! Exercise unfortunately brings down SEff of all foods indirectly, as it increases your appetite.

Surprise! The LCHF (low-carb-high-fat) diets fly in the face of traditional weight management theories. These diets work for many individuals because despite the scary WGC, many fatty foods offer not slightly but significantly better SEff than starch. In other words, these foods suppress appetite for some dieters. To replace 100g of starch, we are talking about 50g or less of fatty food. For some, even 30g of fatty food would achieve the same satiation.

hedonic^homeostatic hunger

Posted on by tiger40490

 

I think for many healthy adults, the homeostatic hunger becomes unbearable after many hours. If you are such a healthy adult, then a lot of the hunger you experience is probably not starvation-homeostatic hunger.

That’s why many healthy people can train themselves to fast for multiple days on a regular basis.

Most of the hunger in my life is predominantly hedonic hunger, though the two hungers represent two ends of a continuum .. See https://www.livescience.com/54248-controlling-your-hunger.html

Q: So am I saying that over one or more days on nothing but juice, skim milk, raw vegetables, fruits, occasional protein powder[3], your body[1] can survive the fast without long-term [2] damage?
A: basically yes but with disclaimers:
[1] Note your mind may suffer if you are forced (by other people) to starve, rather than trained and willingly undergoing the fast.
[2] short term health effects are hard to ascertain. Stomach may growl. Energy level may drop. Sleep might be hard on an empty stomach. If practiced regularly, such fasting reactions may subside. I think most animals and our ancestors are used to such fasts.
[3] In my fasting diet, I exclude starch, fat and cooked food. See also ## acceptable foods during standard fast #fiber,starch

—how is this related to my 3-temptation theory? Hedonic hunger is the main driver behind the temptations. Take for example the wrong-time temptation. Timing is “wrong” because my body experiences no homeostatic hunger

—how is fiber related? Fiber doesn’t provide calorie so not addressing homeostatic hunger.
Does fiber address hedonic hunger? Not at all in my experience. Best example is chia seeds, which make me feel full for hours, but not satisfied.

Most of the “filling” or “fullness” or “satiety” foods promoted in mass media suffer the same weakness. In contrast, comfort foods [meat/fish, nuts, smoothie and dozens of starchy foods …] each satisfies a specific craving and provides satisfaction , the key factor of hunger.

In starvation mode, people eat roughage [grass roots and certain parts of tree barks] to satisfy hunger.

—How is smoothie related?
The ice in smoothie satisfy hedonic hunger better than fiber.

It is extremely important for short-term hunger management, but it has no effect on homeostatic hunger due to calorie.  Without ice, I feel hungry within 30 minutes.

4 def@success

Posted on by tiger40490

 

k_rmSelf_vs_xpSelf  .. k_tectonic .. k_def_of_success

See also [20] y I feel successful #le2wife 

There are several meanings of success. This blogpost uses many Chinse phrases, because the concept of “success” is subtle, complex, steeped in culture.

Q: At the deathbed, which definition of success is important?
A: ezlife, and perhaps zqbx[including whether I like myself]

[p=a relevant def@success from a parenting viewpoint]

— successC .. the most CCommon, CCConventional definition, the CCConspicuous [visible] definition, a definition based on peer-CCComparison and CCompetition. Success can mean exclub based on conventional, materialistic yardsticks .. Many in my cohort still strive for power, position (brank), prestige/recognition/pride, money, OPE[otherPeople’sEnvy],,, At my age I have slowly moved on.  Semi-retired. kinda mellowing up. fat-n-happy. Compared to them, I now allocate more t$ to wellness, career longevity, recreations,, See average GP=considered more”Successful”than swEngr, even without power, brank.

##[21]visibleGrowth plateau: #江河日下 offers a more in-depth explanation of successC. Note this definition of “success” is too self-centered, more like 野心, and not noble as implied by 胸怀大志/胸无大志.

As a parent, I don’t need my kids to join an exclub. An average income is good enough for them. More important to me as parent is their wellness, livelihood (different from income!)

Web2.0 salary figures #realistic described RMB 1200k/Y “BAT” salary for a 20-something China SWE. Exclub! More than enough successC, but I would guess insufficient successE. Zero successL. Sophia Cui shared some observations in a 2021 email discussion…

— [p] successE/failureE .. success can mean ezlife [4]  with harmony, on a bedrock of wellness + well-cushioned livelihood [well-off by the yardsticks of BRBR and Fuller Wealth] ….. SuccessE is my recent favorite definition, a breakaway from conventional yardsticks of success.

[4] “carefree” as a yardstick is more transient.

Livelihood .. The specifics of ezlife is related to livelihood and a burn rate benchmarked to 80% median household income. Without these yardsticks and numerical criteria, ezlife is too vague and too subjective.

Harmony .. with the self, family, and “nature” should be part of ezlife. Harmony in the family requires Communication channel, bonding with kids. Mellowing up is a more specific phrase.  Harmony implies serenity, lots of painful trade-off’s, let-go’s, reconciliations of conflicts.

Using this definition, I think I could blow away the competition from my ex-classmates and leave them in the dust. I probably achieved some form of this success during my mid-40s.

Life_chances … are a fundamental element of successE, but in my view 1% less important than it is to successC, because successE is more modest (re Khmer villagers), less ambitious/greedy. (Obviously, my concepts of Life_chances and successE are vague.)

SuccessE/FailureE (compared to the other 3) is relatively attentive to xpSelf.

— [p] failureZ/successZ

The ezlife definition (or another definition) of success can breed excessive /self-complacency/ (死于安乐), and fat-n-happy. We don’t want to waste our life in a comfort zone of /decadent/ ezlife. That’s the basic need for this separate definition.

— successL .. (legacy, lasting achievements) success can mean lasting achievement …. an extension of the idea of project success, judged on either a specific, objective, or measurable target.

SuccessL is mostly about the evaluative rmSelf. However, if (not when) you are in the flow of successL, your xpSelf would have a great time.

eg: https://www.carecorner.org.sg/our-story. CareCornerSG was started in 1981 and have to work hard and stay relevant in the 2020s. It will one day stop or merge with another organization, likely forgotten afterwards. The legacy, the lasting achievement is felt in the clients’ life.

eg: Jack Welch was successful, but how about successL? His legacy is tied to General Electric, so when GE falls few would remember him.

Life_chances .. are a limiting factor to successL (Perhaps this sentence can be deleted.)

— feeling superior.. each time I feel lucky cf my peers (same age or otherwise), the trigger is usually

  • comp + benefits
  • workload, low stress, low politics
  • investment gains including rEstate
  • welfare .. quality healthcare at affordable cost (or free as in Canada)
  • low tax .. wealth tax
  • low inflation, strong currency
  • my edu credentials .. ascent of NUS
  • moat, career longevity
  • really nice wellness facilities near office or home

These are mostly successC components. Similarly, each sinking experience has a trigger event in pff, brank, double-income, academic kids, WCBA,,,

Jolt: There are more important tectonic plates, but no peer-comparison — wellness, family harmony [marriage], long-living parents, successZ, recreations, engaging job,,,

— quiet idle time touches on successZ, successsE

— Yong.Liu (刘墉) is a valuable case study because I have spent hundreds of hours reading his works, which represent 10% of my current book collection (excluding tech or magazines), by far the “biggest” author.

successL: My dismissive (biased) view .. Among all writers, his successL [readership, popularity,,,] is perhaps among the top 0.01%, but still his successL will last perhaps 50 years. New authors over the next 200Y would repackage the same “wisdom”, but in then then contemporary context, so his books would fall out of fashion and become legacy in the libraries.

I guess his offspring are a more important legacy in his mind.

successC: His (decades of) reputation and modest and decent financial success are no match for the successC of thousands of tycoons. However, his successC is “good enough” by most standards.

There’s no need to benchmark his successC or successL. His “4 successes” are all good.

Q: (I don’t know his artistic prowess, but) his writing demonstrates  incisive insight, so how did his high talent help him succeed?
A: it gave him successC and successL from an early age.

score each delicious food #nuts,

Posted on by tiger40490

I feel in general, the more fatty foods are more effective as companions (or taste-enhancers) of raw-veg such as (the most filling, least expensive, or the current favorites) carrot, lettuce, cumcumber.

  • nuts, Hummus and rice pudding probably worked better than ice cream
  • Ice cream seems to work much better than red-bean potong
  • cakes work better than fancy breads
  • avocado smoothie is the most effective smoothie as a raw veg companion

For each __highly_attractive__ food like creamy cakes, flavored nuts, avocado,, I will record up to two scores. (No more than 3 different scores .. information overload.)

  • score: published calorie density vs my own estimate thereof, on my own digestive system, in my own body
  • score: the food’s value as a taste-enhancer or comfort food to encourage me to take in more raw veg.

Case study: nuts — are the prime example of its type — high published density but lower density in my estimate; high value as a companion for raw veg. For better enhancer score, I should take only garlic flavored nuts without coating.

Case study: left-over starch — in a delicious starchy food. For example, Red-bean bun or pizza ,,,
I often use these foods to help me take in more raw veg.
After I eat up the most tasty part, there’s the left-over, usually starchy. I always feel a semi-conscious urge to finish the left-over but .. but the satisfaction+reward vs calorie “load” profile simply don’t make sense!

case study: egg yolk — high published density but lower density in my estimate

case study: avocado — high published density but lower density in my estimate

— less important scores:

  • score: harms and benefits. Few delicious foods have known side effects — trans-fat, alcohol,,,

Before I blacklist a highly attractive food, I better decide really how bad it is to me.

hard-drive^abstinence in so-called tough guys

Posted on by tiger40490

update — resilient is possibly more important than tough. Something tough often features weaker breaking points than something resilient — bend and sway.

—-

Hard-driving,  abstinence/self-constraint are both considered self-control and self-discipline. Among the hundreds of people I consider comparable, my relative strength lies slightly more in abstinence … 95 marks there, vs 80 marks in hard-driving.

I think my sis is stronger in hard-driving.

I think my dad is strong in both !

— Buddhism, wellness … emphasize self-constraint and abstinence

eg: early rise. Many can’t persuade themselves to sleep early
eg: slow jog of grandpa
eg: absorbency

— achievement, learning, academics, competition, athletics .. emphasize hard-driving.

eg: interview muscle building
eg: localSys
eg: yoga

–Some domains require combo of the two

eg: refresh past learning

3temptations=key challenge4BMI

Posted on by tiger40490

Shock Opener — 95 to 99% of the time when I feel the temptation, there is no homeostatic hunger… See fullness^availability: hunger

In my analysis since my teenage years, Temptation is the eve-growing focus for many years and there’s no easy solution. I have identified two common scenarios of recurring temptations —

  1. family dinner — wrong time, wrong quantity
    • Living alone in Singapore, I face only the wrong-food temptation and I have better control.
  2. office free food — wrong food, wrong time. However, I could not go take a small chunk every 10 minutes.
  3. A /distant third/ is dining out, including street food and buffet

— 3 common “flavors/genres/species/varieties” of temptation

  1. wrong time — eating when not hungry. This is THE impactful temptation in terms of weight, BMI and calories.
  2. wrong quantity — keep eating when I should stop. The 2nd impactful temptation.
  3. wrong food — high-calorie and low nutritional quality..  This is the most common meaning of “temptation”, but in my case not the most impactful temptation.

Availability i.e. WrongTime seems to be the biggest of the three. See availability=#1 temptation. When I face these temptations, how recently how much I just ate doesn’t matter. Instead, Availability is the main factor. Mental Stress is another key, but much less frequent.

Nowadays. I try to stay away from family during family dinner time, fending off the wrong-time and wrong-quantity temptations.