Tag: t_othRisk

specific topics prone to overthinking, but not ABOUT overthink

ivy league + peers #CalTech paradox

Posted on by tiger40490

https://blog.prepscholar.com/is-stanford-ivy-league-duke-mit is a 2021 blog on the ive-equivalents

Ivy League is one of many brandometers, but it only includes about a third of the top 25 American universities.

— Public perceptions: 3 tiers among the 8 ivies

In terms of prestige, “my” top tier U.S. colleges are Harvard^Princeton^Stanford^MIT. Presige is a single metric that each layman assigns to each college. As such, it is incomplete, prejudiced, unscientific, inconsistent, and not based on any critical evaluation of positive/negative evidence. The subjective evaluation of prestige is often refuted by powerful facts, but a layperson often brushes it aside without giving any justification.

One intriguing factor: Generally the ives with large graduate/professional schools [2] are more recognized in rankings and appear more in publications and more “prestigiou”, according to one writer.

The same writer went on to say that generally Harvard, Yale, Princeton are regarded above others, closely followed by Columbia, then UPenn and Brown, then Dartmouth and Cornell.

[2] HarvardBizSchool, HarvardMedSchgool, HarvardLawSchool

https://blog.prepscholar.com/ivy-league-rankings says Harvard, Princeton and Yale (the Big Three) are comparable to Stanford and MIT [1]. Columbia, UPenn and Brown are comparable to Duke and Caltech (UChicago too). Dartmouth and Cornell are comparable to Northwestern and Vanderbilt.

U.S.News, THE, QS rankings are volatile/unstable, not a reliable reflection of the 3 tiers.

Note NobelLaureateCount is low for Duke(2), Brown(2), UPenn(4)

— [1] UChicago and Yale have comparable rankings. So do Columbia and UCBerkeley. The other colleges on par with the big3:

  • Stanford
  • MIT

These 2 engineering schools (+Caltech) are without peers globally. Among them, Caltech is the least known to the lay public despite top-notch professional reputation..

— CalTech paradox

  1. very high Nobel Laureate count since it is strong in physics, chemistry (perhaps medicine)
  2. .. Rockfeller University is similar
  3. small student and faculty population .. lower than all other 60+ AAU members
  4. comp science .. ranked outside top 8 nationally. CompSci is by far the most prominent domain of all domains .. fewer IT entrepreneurs.
  5. no business school, No Exec MBA program .. fewer big company founders or CEOs
  6. no medical school or law school (no U.S. presidents) .. prominent domain
  7. Overall, few notable people in business, politics or media.

installing multiple browsers

Posted on by tiger40490

j4 using multiple browser brands .. if you are comfortable with a single browser brand (say, Chrome) rather than multiple browser brands, then the impact of Chrome issue is more scary, more stressful, requires more painful adjustments.

— J4 multiple installations

  1. j4: sometimes chrome (or another brand) keeps crashing.. see below
  2. j4: sometimes a brand uses too much memory
  3. j4: Edge (or another brand) may have less community tech support, and I may have to live with a pain
  4. j4: when I try a new brand, I have often discovered unfamiliar features, which may be available on all brands but unknown to me
  5. j4: sometimes firefox (or another brand) has problem printing a page
  6. j4: multiple installations could let me separate frequent sites like “blogging -> opera; MLP -> Firefox; audio/rbh -> Edge; “
  7. j4: during stock picking due diligence, I often need separate windows for rbh, blog, research sites. Multiple brands can help a bit

— [2015] browser crashing .. and I must consider another machine !

I need a “basic usable” browser.

Firefox? Need to completely remove
Action: researching

Chrome? Need to completely remove
Action: researching

Also can search on the error message I get but time consuming. I feel chrome issues get more forum discussions. Try chromecrashes.com

 

##touchpad features: momentum, edgeMotion

Posted on by tiger40490

— I feel 2-finger scroll is easier than right-zone one-finger stroll… no need to locate the right zone.

I suspect the right-zone scroll has triggered accidentally, esp. for remote working.

— pointing/dragging  or scrolling (two-finger or one-finger) -> edgeMotion ..  When your finger(s) hit EdgeOfTouchpad, the momentum continues slowly but indefinitely

  • Useful in dragging esp. I guess it’s better to restrict edgeMotion to drag only.
  • Useful in large screen or slower pointer speed
  • However, when my palm touches the edge, I often see the pointer move continuously 🙁 Sometimes the page also scrolls.

— scrolling (two-finger or one-finger) -> coasting.. After you lift your fingers the scrolling comes to a gradual stop just like a ball. You can stop it immediately with a tap (prefer one-finger)
— pointing -> momentum.. After you lift your finger, the pointer continues moving for a while. You can stop it immediately with a tap. This feels like rolling a ball.
I disabled it becasue it inteferes with slow, precise motion.

I think it is OK in fast motions.

— vertical scrolling with one-finger on the right zone -> ChiralScrolling .. when your finger hits the bottom of touchpad, you can circle clockwise to continue the down-scroll, more natural than The traditional approach — use the same finger to swipe down again in the right zone.

  • interferes with horizontal scrolling
  • requires some practice. I think each circle must swipe through the right zone.

quadrant framework #mem paging

Posted on by tiger40490

See also quadrant ] ezlife

This framework is useful when overwhelmed.. quite common. Prioritizing is the common feature of all my frameworks. In this framework, the most valuable quadrants are

— all four quadrants deserve /sunshine/. Contrary to popular emphasis on II and de-emphasis on NN.

The least noticed, most under-appreciated quadrant is NN. They are not swept under the carpet

— leverage.. Note II and ICU items are more effective when they show “higher leverage”.

  • eg: BMI,
  • eg: math coaching; bonding with kids
  • eg: schedule health screening for wife

— adaptation:
Like MSOL, This framework requires heavy adaptions.  Adaptation is successful when I am able to use this as my primary t-allocation framework for 2 weeks+.
— Memory paging .. Do recognize that time allocation is not the only target of quadrant analysis. At any time, our mind can only focus on that many things.

To take better care of one item, to pay more attention to one item, some other items often have to be swapped out, like in virtual memory.
— Sugg: include 0.txt items into the quadrants
Undecided or itchy items? temporarily put in ICU.
— Problem: these quadrants tend to exaggerate the negatives[problems, stressors], due to focusing_illusion.
— Problem: If you want a visual at-a-glance

  • the wordy items tend to dominate, demand attention and even become distractive? Used small font + light color
  • overcrowding in some quadrant

Like the mind-map, this visual presentation is more useful as a demo of concepts, less useful in practice. I need  the 4-list presentation.

==== even distribution:
— Problem: the entire system can degenerate to a single NN list when all other quadrants contain only blue items
— Problem: too many items qualify for “urgent” or “unimportant” or whatever
jolt: urgency and importance are always relative. If we adjust the criteria, then we can distribute the items more evenly.
Many coaches, trainers advocate reducing the ICU and UU lists, but I see no point.  Instead, it’s better to keep all 4 quadrants adequately populated (thought ICU should not be abused). It requires introspective effort and high level of self-knowledge.
— Problem: (a The theoretical model) UU is supposed to be the early-stage cancers, but that would mean a disproportionately long UU list

(Related concept) “spread yourself too thin” or excessive multi-tasking. If we can’t complete an item quickly/decisively, then consider LGpp (warehouse in II or NN) even for an early-stage cancer.
— Problem: (a The theoretical model) many items in UU and ICU would slowly get dimmed or relocated. In reality, these 2 quadrants are sparse. There’s a tendency to vacate quadrant-ICU and quadrant-UU.

Sugg: stay calm and accept the items in those quadrants.

— Problem: Some ICU items and quadrant-II items are “unfresh” .. taking up precious real estate
Sugg: use light color or smaller font, probably on most items.

italics ^ /some words/

Posted on by tiger40490

Both text effects are used for valuable English vocab items.

🙂 double-slash is usable in plain text
🙂 italics is the better choice for longer strings, esp. when you don’t want the highlight due to bold or color.

— visibility/highlight .. For /one to three/ words (but not beyond), double-slash can sometimes be more visible than italics.

Without bold or color, italics alone is not really effective for highlighting/visibility.

_Incidentally_, double-underscore is more visible than /xxx/ or italics.

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),,,

[20]G5 Personal advtg Revealed over15Y

Posted on by tiger40490

rmXp?

def@success?

life chances?

k_tectonic

See also

Past title — How many percent of my peers have my {…}

I also have many personal disadvantages (like…) but this analysis doesn’t have to include them for completeness. For years I was fixated on my weaknesses, hoping to overcome my limitations, but at my age now I’m more willing to accept them (Kyle Stewart) and shift focus to my advantages.

— top 5 personal advantages revealed over 15Y.

  • #1 [bcL] my continuous, self-driven learning habit … since secondary school, rare personal advantage. See related advantages below
  • .. [r] see library immersion ] younger years
  • #2 [Lr☆] my burn rate best practices … rare personal advantage. See other cash flow advantages below
  • .. my expense tracking insights + capabilities
  • #3 [bdr☆] my wellness .. a growing advantage over my cohort
  • — The rest are not strictly “personal” advantages
  • #4 [bLr★] SG citizenship advantages .. See ## SG citizenship: $value imt GC
  • #5 [r] stable marriage… Note having 2 kids is not an “advantage” but a luck.

“Revealed” — because some these advantages slowly reveal themselves to be strategic and extremely valuable

“Advantage” — because everyone is trying to achieve (roughly) the same goals. Only the [c] items are competitive in nature.

— Other advantages, not strictly personal or “revealed over 15Y”

  • [Lr] English .. My English skills esp. in writing and vocab — helps my career, kids but more important is reflective blogging.
  • [c] my robust career prospect; my competitiveness on my chosen job market
    • [cr] Here my advantage lies mostly in candidate selection, less in after-sales
    • [b] my dev-till-70 plan — just a plan, but a major difference in attitude
    • [bd★] my WSC option — a rare option among my peers outside U.S.
    • [bcd] my position in coreJava / c++
    • [r] I feel some of the hands-off managers don’t realize my advantage until their 40’s.
  • [bcd] my Beijing asset .. or a property with a similar valuation
  • [bL★] tropical .. my home base in a tropical place, good for retirement.
  • — the minor, the familiar, or the less-specific items
  • [c★] UChicago .. branded degree from a global G50 college
  • [bd★] FullerWealth .. my bare-bones ffree based on FullerWealth, NNIA, brbr
  • [br★] 5/wk .. my current 5/wk workout. If sustainable, this factor would have a real impact on my successE and successZ
  • [] diet .. recent habit/attitudes
  • my (recent) family harmony, with my beautiful wife, lovely kids and grandparents. This is relative. Some friends are luckier, but other people experience major conflicts. Divorce is the biggest _injury_.
  • [bd] my current carefree job with plenty of leisure time
  • [d] my straight and healthy teeth
  • —
  • [b=let’s ask those with relatively high branks like Siddesh]
  • [c=competition goal is for some limited resources]
  • [d=active detachment needed]
  • [L=long-term advantage over 20Y+]
  • [r=slowly revealed]
  • [★☆= this (★=measurable) advantage disqualifies my cohort, definitively by half or more.]

 

NobelLaureateCount for each college

Posted on by tiger40490

Very few people are really interested in NLC, unless their alma mater has high NLC.

There are many rankings, as described in global university rankings and AAU. However, one of the most visible/recognizable rankings is the NLC [count of Nobel laureates associated with] each university.

It is visible largely because of simplicity. Unlike the global ranking systems, there is a single, transparent (relatively fair) criteria in this scoring “system”. However, the single criteria hides lots of complicating factors:

  • a given Nobel laureate can be associated with multiple colleges
  • what if a Nobel laureate is actively courted to work in various universities to boost their ranking? Should the methodology exclude any tenure of a laureate after the award?
  • consistency [1].. Between any two colleges, there’s no consistent inclusion criteria. Some colleges say a temp staff is counted.  Other colleges say an exchange student is not counted…
  • Peace .. many observers would exclude the Nobel peace prize as it is unrelated to academia. Peace prize is not as relevant as, say, a Chemistry prize, but it’s unfair to leave it out completely.
  • a “heavyweight” laureate can win 2, even 3 times; a light-weight laureate wins 25% share. I think most “systems” regard each individual as a laureate, regardless of “weight”.
  • many academic domains have no Nobel prize, while physics/chemistry/bioscience enjoy the limelight.

Over the years, the relative importance (name recognition of laureates) has changed across the 6 prizes, so Econs/Peace and Med laureates get more media coverage than Phy/Chm, which remain largely unpopular on mass media and social media.

— [1] https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/facts/lists/affiliations.php has an unbiased and consistent listing, showing the universities Nobel Laureates were affiliated with at the time of the Prize announcement.

Many universities would claim their own count is more relevant and reasonable since the award-winning research was usually performed in their university but the announcement happened after recipient left.

Peace and Literature should be excluded, but sometimes included. Note if a laureate won twice, the same university scores twice, as in Bardeen!

  • 38 Harvard
  • 24 Stanford
  • 23 MIT
  • 21 Berkeley
  • 20 UChicago <– the only powerhouse outside California/NorthEast, much bigger than Purdue(2), Duke(2), CMU(2), GeorgiaTech(0),UIUC(4),
  • 20 CalTech
  • 18 Cambridge
  • 18 Columbia
  • 17 Princeton
  • 13 Rockefeller University !!
  • 11 Oxford
  • 9 Yale
  • 8 Cornell
  • ^^ These are the highest counts globally. All of these university reside in US/UK

 

6color think`hats #overcomplicated

Posted on by tiger40490

 

There are too many keywords about the 6 colors. I won’t try to memorize the details. Instead, I will use my own keywords, which are a small subset of the original keywords. I won’t bother to capture the so-called “most important” keywords because “importance” is always personal.

  • red — (gut) feelings; intuition; controlled release of emotion (“Thinking” is always somewhat controlled.)
  • blue — control; unemotional; skeptical regardless positive and negative. This hat is the most ambiguous/vague, and least memorable
  • black — caution; downsides/hazards; negative realism; discernment;
  • yellow — positive perspective based on logic+intuition; hope; benefits
  • green — creative; possibilities, unconstrained; alternatives

  • White (white paper) — factual; unbiased; evidence/data/information; unemotional

— Q: why unpopular in practice?
A: Too many colors. Beside Happy/Pessimistic/Factual  I think we can remember at most one more color. Maybe ignore red/blue for now?

A: There are too many overlaps and inaccurate simplifications of each hat. Most ordinary users can only remember one simple meaning for each hat
— emotion .. In general, Emotion is always a huge distraction in any “thinking” and any problem solving. Many of the thinking hats try to contain emotion.
— which hats do I need to remind myself to wear? 1) yellow 2) blue
— which hats are too often misunderstood by me and actually matters?

black — My negative thinking is overpowering. So is XR.

yellow — hard to get right.

9 reasons weight loss so hard+ Y successful ] 2018

Posted on by tiger40490

k_soul_search

I can’t emphasize enough the immense value n critical importance of my personal strengths listed near the end. I think very few people have these strengths. See also reaching target weight=luck25%+75%effort

  • —- What make weight loss so hard for me and everyone else:
  • First reason — weight reading can be unstable !
  • two long-term real challenges 1)starch-dependency 2)fat-binge
    • starch: Grain is a built-in basic need in my “system” and I tend to eat 100% or more grain than other people from China or elsewhere. Cooked meat/veg always call for rice .. lots of rice. See other blogs like intermittent rice-elimination
  • inhibition to discard tasty or expensive food, that’s unneeded/unwanted in my diet regime.
  • [L] family dinners and meals with friends
  • [L] late night meal — easily 1/3 of my daily calories
  • [L] snacks — often uncontrolled
  • [L] free food temptations
  • if you stay away from the following (all high-calorie) for too long you will hit a real craving:
    • fries, onion rings
    • cakes, brownie
    • pizza
    • ice cream, chocolates
    • kway teow
    • Singapore dessert
  • [L=loss of control]

Despite these daunting challenges, why does my weight improvement Oct – Dec 2018 rank as one of the greatest self-improvement victories of my adult life? Here are some reasons (unsorted, and I don’t want to spend too much time at this stage):

  • I formulated my homegrown strategy based on research (with massive dose of skepticism). Most diets probably won’t work for you due to countless challenges, so you have to formulate your own.
  • [t #1] self-knowledge via introspection and consistent bookkeeping. Luckily, I found a formula that actually works and I can see quick results so I became increasingly confident predicting my body’s reaction. I know intermittent fasting and starch reduction will show results in 2 days.
  • [t #2] attention-to-detail
  • [t #3] self-control (effective!) based on self-knowledge etc. It’s easier to formulate plans than executing them. “self-discipline” is not really the key.
    • eg: combat the cheap availability of calorie-dense temptations — office treats, chicken skin.. (I won’t list too many to intensify the temptation!)
  • [t] pushing to the limit and building self-confidence about the body
    • eg: delaying meals; raw veg; starch reduction; raw veg …
  • no family cooking no family outing — one of the top 2 external factors
  • my metabolism rate? I doubt it as it didn’t help me lose weight over many years. I only lost weight by cutting starch etc
  • luck? I don’t think so
  • [t=my traditional personal strength]