- In spreadsheets, prefer ‘4~6’ rather than ‘4-6’ as the latter is automatically cast as a date 🙁
- prefer ranking with a/b/c than 5/4/3 in excel — opportunity to highlight with capital-letters
Tag: t_vague
no control+!stress
BMI, diet, yoga, workout … all demand mental effort, focus and stress.
A bullet fired towards a target is in free motion… hit or miss, but for a missile to aim at a moving target and adjust its flight, control is required.
As soon as we set an (however vague) expectation and take aim, we take on a challenge and set ourselves up for stress, disappointment, pain, self-doubt … Our self-esteem is now at stake.
Similarly the coding drill…
My son may not have this self-control yet.
##mainstream solution is often grossly inferior
— earliest example: English vocabulary building as baptism by fire? My Singapore teachers/classmates suggested reading newspapers analysis as model essays, but actually dictionary-browsing proved far more efficient and effective
— early eg: personal note keeping? When I bought my first computer in 1998, mostly to keep personal notes, I found the mainstream solution of MSWord was far inferior to ascii files
— personal eg: to protect my c:\0 from my son’s windows account, the mainstream solution of windows folder security was overcomplicated. See make c:\0 readonly to other win10accounts
— other examples:
- eg: U.S. medical billing/coding is overcomplicated. In contrast the Singapore system is much simpler.
- eg: GUI programming? html + browser (before javascript) proved so much simpler than fat client
- eg: my very first paid programming job was rather mainstream — Excel + ftp, but the nascent CGI proved far better documented, more reliable…
- eg: file system security? Microsoft solution is overcomplicated compared to unix. I thought the Microsoft solution was mainstream
- eg: config files? Unix tradition uses individual text files per application, much simpler than windows registry. I thought the registry design was mainstream (see my blogpost on registry)
##touch-screen laptop tips #selection
I would say touch-screen is a valuable addition to touchpad, but can’t replace it completely except in tablet mode.
—Extra-large (inverted) mouse pointer helps increase its visibility. The pointer becomes less visible on a touch screen.
—ctrl-tap on a hyperlink is like ctrl-click
–MSWE: finger zoom will cycle through the views: Details -> list -> small icons -> .. -> Details
–drag on touch screen? quick drag .. don’t hold
–to select a few words on touch screen:
thumb-swipe slowly over them
–scrolling by swipe .. is effective and convenient.
–cursor positioning within text? not as precise as mouse
–right click? tap and hold
–text selection? Tricky
light touch — too short won’t work.
too long .. becomes tap-n-hold —
- If done on non-text it means right click
- in browser, I think tap-n-hold means text-selection. You get two handles to expand the selection.
- If after selecting text you also want to right click, then there are also some options:)
- in notepad++, tap-n-hold on text means right click, so I had to double-tap to select text.
- Simple drag can select block of text
## 5 general tips for keeping [[focus]]
[[Focus]] is a book by the same author as [[emotional intelligence]]. It has some details about deep reading, meditative thinking, immersion, sustained reflection. I have added some tips of my own.
- curiosity search — Warehouse your curiosity google-search (
https://btv-gz.dreamhosters.com/2016/11/21/warehouse-those-curiosity-google-searches/ ) - email frequency — wechat — Consider logging out whatsapp, wechat and other apps that push messages.
- active mgmt — Be careful with an active investment portfolio. It’s tempting and legitimate to check the portfolio on a regular basis, but it has a cost — your concentration.
I just want my kids to be happy, really?
Recently I heard my colleagues talking about choosing a “major” for the teenage kids, which is a fairly serious business. https://btv-gz.dreamhosters.com/?p=9865 has many examples. Choosing something you enjoy could mean hardship and a lower living standard than your classmates or childhood friends.
What if I’m really good at whistle music, but then even the world’s top 10 performers don’t make enough money from this trade alone? It is great fun and joy, but such a profession will be hard to sustain.
[17]Jul stressor-profile
k_soul_search
Grandpa likes to emphasize 减压. I call it “unload” or Let Go — since I carry too much baggage.
— As of Jul 2017, ranked:
- [s] home location selection generates lots of /internal conflict/
- [dt] need to make some high-level decisions soon
- [t] c++ IV improvement too slow. Disappointed with myself. Short runway. May need to give up and switch to java.
- UChicago ROI (feels) almost zero. Whip!
- [s] peers moving ahead. My last 5 years feels stagnant. Whip. b_u_t we did get many benefits moving back to Singapore. See https://btv-gz.dreamhosters.com/2016/04/10/my-singapore-lap-exec-summary/
- [t] mounting self-questioning about my big “investments” committed in c++ and UChicago. b_u_t I would feel more guilt without these investments!
- too lazy to get serious exercise or yoga. b_u_t actually I did put in some effort.
- [t] boy’s studies – am unable to influence
[t=time is running out and a stressor]
[s=self-esteem, self-acceptance under heavy attack, often due to unfair peer comparison]
[d=facing tough or overwhelming choices]
[17]System2 allocation, urgency/importance quadrant
Sometimes you need to fine-tune the allocation of your attention. I think now is such a time. During the initial 100 days, I don’t want to neglect or “overspend” my time + money on any aspect of my life, esp. the important but non-urgent aspects.
- GC is a Top #1 importance not extremely urgent and doesn’t really need a high quantity of “laser”
- ^ building confidence (not “delivery”) on project? #2 importance. Also urgent. Can spend more weekend time.
- c++ muscle building? Top 3 importance. Important but not urgent. I think my current allocation is just fine.
- Driving is important not urgent. It’s fine to put it off to 3rd month. It’s ideal to spend some time on it in the first month
- ^ yoga? Try to spend more time
- ▼healthy diet? Top 5 but not top 3 priority. Should spend more money less time on it. Cooking rice is fine, microwave is fine, but not more cooking.
- ▼cheaper accommo? Not a top 5 priority. Not urgent.
Overall, I give the current allocation a score of 90%. I did well on setting up the commute, the room EMC, the weekend, Chinese food, mini-exercises,
ownership is achievable IFF confident
- math — he may not be so keen, but he is confident.
- English compo — ditto
- piano practice on familiar pieces — ditto
- Chinese story read out loud — he could do it.
However, if the task is too hard (like piano or xiezi …) then ownership, motivation, independent completion is unrealistic.
- Case in point — piano practice without CDEFGAB jotted down is too hard for him … feet dragging, inefficiency.
In theory he could do it at age 8 after so much practice, but in reality he is too weak reading the score and lacks confidence. As parents we must accept it unconditionally, as if it was a developmental problem. It’s probably a common phenomenon — an uninterested student making minimal progress over a long time.
Stop comparing with other kids!
mid-year review – Gen’s input
Remember the feedback is constructive feedback, which can help you improve as a professional wherever you go.
Be humble with the constructive feedback. Don’t be bitter or resentful.
Make sure your own performance improvement plan is honest and feasible. Once agreed, they will use it to measure your improvement.
Key SMS: “Leave the rest to them” — if they stick to the high expectation in terms of “lead role” etc then they will conclude I’m not fit for the role. If their business objective dictates a replacement, then they will have to do it. But still I want to be remembered as an honest, diligent, albeit less competent professional.
If you need more time to take on the lead role, then ask manager for help and ask for a longer time frame.
Unless there’s someone internal, it will take a long time to hire a replacement. So they probably won’t take that decision lightly.
If they let you go before hiring, then in the interim manager would have to do 1.5 person’s job so his own quant work would suffer.