Tag: t_w1r2

[23]def[r-ikigai] #worldNeed

Posted on by tiger40490

Selling insurance provides human interaction [Look at Colin Lim] and also has a social value i.e. needed by the community

k_teaching_as_career .. k_rikigai_via_nonprofits .. k_my_adapted_jargon

See also

Below are my free-flow answers to the 4+5 questions. I want the 9 answers to be independent and free of interference, so I will use colors and placements to separate the sections.

perhaps it would be more effective to develop some Deep hobbies early in life, such as writing, playing pop songs, yoga, painting,,,
It requires strategic planning and heavy t-investment

— ikigai .. The Japanese word has no Chinese origin, and completely opaque, but I still like it because there are many searchable online resources.

I don’t like to be /shackled/ by a complex phrase, and the complex phrase has different meanings in Japanese vs English online literature [1]. Therefore I would try to invent my own version of phrase … r-ikigai meaning ikigai from pre-retirement to the golden years.

[1] In the same vein, “EQ” has different meanings in Chinese vs English online literature.

— Feature 3 (socialVal) .. the least analyzed /dimension/.  I suspect that many things that “the world needs” lack a business model i.e. Feature 4. Therefore, combing Feature3+4 is a strategic challenge, but I suspect that after I retire (in my 70s), socialVal will be the most “bendable”, softest criteria for my r-ikigai. Probably every paid job available to me would have non-zero socialValue.

If your r-ikigai has a bit higher socialVal then you could expect more “in-demand” more engagement, more meaningful interactions with a wider range of people, more visible (unlikely) impact on the “world” i.e. your community, (slightly) more media coverage and more goodwill assistance,,,, but these “surprises” are 锦上添花. I bet that is a nonprofit r-ikigai.

  • fund raising for a non-profit
  • help out in the library
  • teach in the community club

— Feature 4 (paid) .. In the retirement context (in my 70’s), Q4 is the make-or-break question or the sustainability question. Even with minimal F1/F2, if I can find a reasonable “job” to keep me engaged, it would provide the human interaction, the discipline/regulation/routine I need … for years.

  • private tutor for math, physics
  • teach Chinese/English to adults or kids
  • teach yoga, esp. to older, less flexible people
  • freelancing
  • AMB
  • office building security guard
  • writing for a newspaper/magazine/website, for a small fee
  • busking

— Feature 1 (passion)

  • find raw veg and make them more appealing
  • discuss pff… as a salesman for some organization like Endowus/CPF
  • fund raiser
  • DIY home improvement, esp. where replacing can be costly. Enjoyable even though no strong F2/F4. Can help me save cost, but hard to earn a fee

— Feature 5 (human interacction) .. Genn observed that in retirmeent, men tend to be less sociable. They might be uninterested in group activities.

— Mostly based on https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/15/67-year-old-who-unretired-at-62-shares-the-biggest-retirement-challenge-that-no-one-talks-about.html

The author “helped countless retirees find their purpose. They didn’t go back to work in the traditional 9-to-5 sense, but they set up new businesses, consulted, volunteered(popular among SG retirees) and took on hobbies.” in that order, which is a ranking by rarity.

The Westernized version of ikigai is based on the idea that there are four components a person must have complete to achieve ikigai. Each concept is represented by a question. As you actively pursue what you enjoy doing in service of yourself, your family, and your community, think about whether that activity allows you to answer “yes” to any combination of those four questions:

  1. Are you doing an activity that you love can tolerate indefinitely?
  2. Do you or will you have the minimum competency in it? In some cases, you can be mediocre and still check  the other 3 boxes.. you better check this box too 🙂  Some “minimums” are very low like manual labor
  3. Does the world need what you offer? A yes-item may be “money-free”
  4. Can you get paid for doing it? A yes-item may have minimal social value i.e. world doesn’t really need it, but someone surely need it badly enough to pay a fee.
  5. (A G3 pillar for me) Does it provide human interaction to fend off isolation and maintain my mental health

Japanese neuroscientist and happiness expert Ken Mogi also suggests considering if the activity has the five pillars that further allow your ikigai to thrive:

  1. Does the activity allow you to start small and improve over time?
  2. [vague] Does the activity allow you to enjoy the little things?
  3. Does the activity allow you to focus on the here and now?
  4. [vague] Does the activity pursue harmony and sustainability?
  5. [vague] Does the activity allow you to release yourself ? (from your obsessions/tension/conflicts?) Another site phrased it as”Accepting yourself”

The same article also pointed out that retirement cashflow is not the main challenge. Human interactions, recreation, engagement … are harder. See nonprofit for human interaction

[21]口语水准:benchmarked As a non-native speaker #self-record

Posted on by tiger40490

This blogpost is about oral not writing proficiency, and an informal comparison with English speakers from Asia.

95% of those peers who are born in SEAsia, India or other Asia countries … do not speak better than I do, perhaps better in some aspects, but no better overall.

Their accent is comparable to (if not stronger than) mine, as judged by Americans. Accent is probably the most important element in most situations, but purists would say vocab is more fundamental.

Their vocab is seldom richer than mine (even if they were taught English from birth), as I have steadily increased my vocab (primarily in writing but also speaking). Around 2018, I noticed that my oral vocab has reached a similar standard as many Singapore hotline staff.

Due to aging, our memory and therefore our vocab could decline, across your oral languages. It’s good to push ourselves to use a wider, updated vocab, perhaps with younger people.

Beside 1) vocab and 2) accent, I guess my next big improvement is 3) slower articulation. This feature is typical of fluent and confident speakers, not so common among non-native speakers (后来学英语的人).

I wanted to but couldn’t say the same about the Europeans (as I said about Asians). They may have a better learning environment and they probably start learning English earlier. I think majority of Western Europeans do not write (and read) English everyday as much as SGrns do. Presumably, their vocab is less /developed/.

Basically, only those growing up in the 5 native speaking nations speak more fluent English than I do.

— 2024 sugg: self-record in phones every month
My Aug 2024 Genepai presentation revealed that I can learn a lot (and gain motivation) about my /articulation/. It is relatively easy to self-record, as part of blogg

— exceptions .. are important to study, and is a /cornerstone/ (reference point) of this blogpost on my oral_English_proficiency

There are always talented individuals. Some of them learn English only in their teenage but learn it very well, such as my sister. Among the China students in NUS/NTU, some girls (and a few guys) are pretty good. Ignoring the fact that my interaction with them was rather brief, I would say that this small subset have high motivation, strong talent, and probably become more fluent than me, in oral and writing.

This exceptional subset tend to gravitate towards non-technical professions. There are too many such professions, so I would not name them.

Some Malaysians and some SGrns (including our 3 prime ministers) actually grow up speaking English as their first langauge. Many but not all of them have good vocab, and light accent. They tend to speak better than I do. Remember Caroline of PropNex?

[24]nonprofit r-ikigai #human interaction

Posted on by tiger40490

k_rikigai_via_nonprofits ,,, k_arthur_brooks

Background: r-ikigai is hard to achieve with those 4 pillars. For me (and other retirees), nonprofits can 1) provide income, however tiny or adhoc, 2) satisfy world-need 3) meet personal interests 4) utilize my strengths [experience, talent].

More important than income is human-interaction, the /antithesis/ of isolation, and the focus of this bpost.

— my unique need for interaction.. Each retiree is different. For myself, I foresee a clear personal Need for human interaction once I stop commuting to an office every morning. I sense the same need in Arthur Brooks.

Once I recognize this personal need, I will allocate my (financial and time) resources. I will reduce allocation to “retiring in style” such as sight-seeing, food, housing, fashion

Human interaction is not limited to my own family or old friends.  I want to make new friends, and have wider social interactions.

— idea: donation .. I feel if you donate to a suitable organization, they would engage with you and get you involved.

Avoid donations without human interaction!

You have limited fund. The smaller recipients probably appreciate small donations, so you can spread out your donations and find those recipients that /reciprocate/ by providing social interaction to me. This is NOT selfish at all. Every donor should know what matters to him/her.

— idea: paid professional work for a nonprofit .. these clients/employers pay rather low, and are less picky.
* IT
* writing, translation
* book keeping

— idea: paid unskilled work for a nonprofit .. trading time for money
* fund raising
* cold calling

myth: body-fat percentage: importance imt weight@@

Posted on by tiger40490

Many people believe that body-fat percentage is more important than weight — “If most of my weight is muscle and bones, then overweight is fine, like body builders; If some healthy-weight person is full of fat, that is real health issue.”

I agree that BFP is arguably more important than weight … if measurable.

The problem is — any measurement of BFP is extremely inaccurate as far as I know (zero decimal place required). Any theory based on an un-measurable quantity can’t be a useful theory.

— Based on a Aug 2023 assessment at the Obesity center in OCH (SGH campus), my BFP is 17%. For males aged 40~59.*:

  • 12%~17.*% is StandardMinus
  • 18%~22.*% is StandardPlus

In conclusion, at age 49, my BFP is right in the middle of the green zone.

Hui Mei said 17.*% is good for my age group. I think her sample is the Singapore patients including foreigners.

##get@the offensive+proactive

Posted on by tiger40490

k_tectonic

Sometimes I feel fed up with reacting to stressors. “Let’s be proactive and get on the offensive… higher ground … build up stronger defenses around my vulnerable spots like 黄河大堤” 人往高处走. In this blogpost, I want to stay close to the theme, and minimize overlap with Do reduce annoyances b4 stress spikes #preemptive.

  • — parenting .. help kids develop life skills
  • spending habit
  • — wellness
  • BMI deep-green zone
  • aggressive fasting like Bayonne
  • more raw veg but only when hungry. The pre-emptive fill is an ineffective “offensive”.
  • — gz
  • Dram-refresh on tech blog, esp. c++ critical mass maintenance
  • more xref in tech blog
  • seek opportunities to join friends in coding interviews.
  • fuxi localSys .. notes and emails
  • — financial
  • learn essential DIY (among other skills) preemptively, since U.S. handymen are expensive
  • build up batteries/war-chest well in advance for U.S. housing

Paradoxically, these “offensives” don’t feel like stress relief. (Therefore, this blogpost is not exactly about stress per se.) Let’s be specific.

Q: will more stock investment gains improve or exacerbate my stress profile?
%%A: probably exacerbate. In my recent experience, it doesn’t preempt any stress. However, stock picking is a positive recreation and somewhat therapeutic when I focus on analysis, buy-n-forget with ad-hoc retrospective (not babysitting). The focus is crucial, similar to the focus on [[ARM]], [[Doug Lea]], Oracle experiments, and many other dry subjects.

Q: will a higher salary in a crypto shop improve or exacerbate my stress profile?
%%A: won’t be better than EPA job ! I care less about exclub/FOLB nowadays.

white^black swan(def) ]%%blogg #predictability

Posted on by tiger40490

 

Repeatedly, I have found that Taleb’s criteria for black swan are way too complicated, abstract, with too many parts, and simply too long, for most lay public users of this metaphor. Therefore, users everywhere have rebelled (against Taleb), abandoned his criteria, and adopted simpler criteria. Therefore, imprecision and inconsistency (in criteria) is widespread.

The phrases “black swan” and “white/grey swan” have, to varying degrees, widespread usage in my blogs and in public domain, but horribly imprecise/vague. Not to deviate too much from original criteria, but also not to get bogged down by it, I will briefly contrast these 2 phrases as used in my blogs. Because white swans are less rare, there must be more examples of them, perhaps more in my blogs.

  • —— Black swan events are  A) rare and C) massive[1], with lasting impact on communities, B) NOT easily predictable/foreseeable, even though official definition says “absolutely unpredictable/unforeseeable”
  • eg: WSC harbor shrinks, but becoming less competitive thanks to web2.0 attracting young tech talents away
  • eg: finIT domain losing pole position to web2.0 and other tech employers
  • eg: epa job : WLB[workload, timelines, commute,,], appr [expectations, comp as an indicator]. I might settle down as a long-timer.
  • eg: Blk 177 massive appreciation
  • eg: SG tech teams adopting telecommuting, remote hiring, just like U.S.
  • eg: MLP long-timers retrenched without obvious underperformance
  • eg: difficulty for foreigner SWE to get Sg EP
  • eg: rising salary at this age
  • —— White (and grey) swan events are A) less rare than black swans B) easily foreseeable even without hindsight, but usually came as a surprise due to poor planning. I will add another criteria C) less massive
  • eg: quick ascent of NUS and esp. NTU
  • eg: China salary and rEstate levels rising too fast towards (or exceed) SG level, but work condition deteriorating
  • eg: my marriage crisis
  • eg: rate of marriage failure around me
  • eg: 2022 peak in our intimacy .. rewarding, fulfilling, and then growing dependency on pills
  • eg: credit events in my HY/PE, and Megaworld unscrupulous practices
  • eg: covid19 as an earthquake
  • eg: my family’s net asset [BVxD] growing fast by 300k/Y
  • eg: hardworking colleagues let go for no apparent reason

By definition, there are more white swans than black swans in my life, but this phrase is too weak and unimaginative. I used this phrase only when comparing black swan event.

Unexpected success ..

— [1] massive impact .. I often say “little white swans” for less massive swan events. “Little black swan” is also plausible.

By default, and in common usage, black swans all have massive, lasting impacts on many people.

wpress revisionS n database footprint #wp-config.php

Posted on by tiger40490

k_disk_hog

A typical guideline for a healthy WordPress database is to keep wp_posts table under 80MB. wp_posts is home of revisions.

For database size estimation, SiteHealth is more accurate than cPanel though WP-CLI is /authoritative/. SiteHealth shows many other components of a site’s footprint such as plugins, themes,,,

— revision history
Q: how to go in and edit wp-config.php?
A: I used the standard feature in cPanel. See https://help.dreamhost.com/hc/en-us/articles/360003490852-Using-the-website-file-manager-in-the-panel
A: You can also use ssh.

Q: what if I delete a post having many revisions? All purged?
AA: Yes, when you delete a post in WordPress, all revisions associated with that post are indeed erased from the database.

Q: for a 1000-word bpost, is each revision a delta or a (roughly) 1000-word snapshot?
%A: standard wpress feature keeps “rolling N revisions”, deleting earlier revisions without warning. If “delta” then this standard set-up would corrupt all revisions.
A (from dreamhost): deleting the earliest revision shouldn’t mess up the subsequent ones because each snapshot is independent of the others as far as I know.

To delete a specific revision (or a range), you must use a plugin like https://wordpress.org/plugins/simple-revisions-delete/

chin-up =strategic #CAD

Posted on by tiger40490

k_CAD   k_X_细水长流

— CAD implication .. I still can do up to 100 in a day, but I am not so brave, so eager to prove.

To protect my still-intact, healthy, strong heart, I may need 细水长流

  • “spread-out” into sets of 10s
  • longer rests in between for the heart rate to normalize. If I start too late in the day, then settle with 40. 50 can be a good daily target.
  • avoid pushing close to my physical limit
  • prefer slow-n-steady pull, not explosive all-out pulls with powerful kicks

— [3] initial mental hurdle .. I guess my target for chin-up is usually too high.
In the past, I would typically aim at 10 chin-up or 40 push-up in a session. I think the start-up is harder for chin-up. 5 chin-up = 20 push-up.

Now I try to adjust the target to lower the initial mental hurdle. “90 to qualify if 15×4”

— Retraining .. chin-up (and stretch) is dreadful, but not for push-up or cardio !
— realistic goal .. would be one a day, but such a goal doesn’t generate positive feedback. I remember my yoga goal was one minute a day. I managed to change my perception to feel good about it. For chin-up, I need the same change of perception.
— constant tendency to quit, after every pull…. There’s a difference between climbing Everest vs climbing an equivalent number of stairs during covid lockdown.  It’s much easier to maintain your focus on the real Everest. In contrast, with the stairs you fight a constant battle against the natural tendency to quit.

Consistent Chin-up (and yoga) practice is more like stairs, while Everest is more like jogging, swimming, basketball.

— To prolong the brief power_surge,

  • Since 1st week of Mar 2022, I have devised a sugar coating “100 chin-up achieved today halves the criteria for tomorrow”.
  • I am experimenting with another sugar coating “15×4 would reduce today’s target total down to 90”
  • I also reduced the frequency to a few times a month, rather than strictly once a week.

— Self-talk matters .. My self-talk affects my perception of reality. This perception affects my actions.
— strategic .. I often tell my friends that chin-up is the single most strategic (more so than yoga), most revealing guage of a man’s fitness. It pits body weight against some big but less-used upper body muscles. Those muscles are my weakness. They are also the weakness of most of my cohort.

As we age, the needle (on the guage) would move against us, /slowly-but-surely/, becuase 1)muscle loss 2)BMI

Q: among the 6 IPPT tests, why is chin-up most feared?
A: sit-up and push-up do not lift entire bodyweight; 2.4k is easier for many reservists who are regular joggers; shuttle-run(non-IPPT) is short distance; sit-n-reach (non-IPPT) doesn’t decline with age before 40;

— consistency .. Consistent chin-up has always felt too demanding, too challenging if the “consistency” bar inches up. For example, “100/D, 1D/wk for 3M” has always been too demanding until early Mar 2022. If the bar becomes “15×7/D, 1.5D/wk for 3M” , then too high.

The most frequent question is “how many months can you keep up?” Sometimes I see it as a brief power_surge in terms of /absorbency/.  The current power_surge is the longest ever, starting early Mar 2022. Usually, I can reach consistency for a few weeks, and then I would find myself no longer looking forward to it, partly due to the initial hurdle[3]. Compared to jogg, this practice requires more courage to overcome the initial hurdle. It requires more self-motivation to counter the rmSelf’s resitance.

— consistent chin-up compared to other consistent efforts
This, along-with CRE, BMI(highest!)  and E-vocab, are higher strategic value than “renzi”/math coaching, coding drill(60s?), piano, exp recon

This, along with yoga, are harder to maintain (longer than a few months) than BMI and all other consistent efforts.

==== muscle-up .. not as valuable as chin-up, in the long run. For example, the ability to do one muscle-up is much less valuable than the ability to do 5 chin-up.
— benefits: this will be probably the biggest ever physical feat in my life. See other feats.
It will be a boost of self-image.
— incremental practices:

  • practice climb-up beside the salad shop. This is slightly easier than single-bar push-up
  • focus on explosive power. Without it, my curl-up was very hard. Without it, most people would not be able to get up
  • chin-up up to 20 reps to build up strength, but stamina, slow rise don’t help.
  • .. more effective is a small count of explosive pulls to hit the bar with lower chest

— forearmLevel bar

  • reduce initial bounce, to rely more on the pull
  • stand further back, to rely more on the pull
  • add-on weight, to add resistance

— single-bar push-up, as Gavin suggested.
Never practiced in my life.
Even if I don’t improve a lot, this practice should be beneficial.
— don’t aim too high and risk the engine-loss-of-power
Even if I don’t achieve it, i will gain strength (for a few years) relative to my weight.

I believe I have a fair chance. My confidence (i.e. estimate of the chance) has grown from 1% to 5% now.
— budget for training? $2k. I think a trainer can help me make it happen
wrist wrap: can increase the amount of practice because .. My first and weakest link is the grip.
— There are many video, but I should really pace myself rather than binge-watch.
Each video I watch could provide a bit of boost to my motivation.

[24]gmail disk hogs #ForumTab=tempImp

Posted on by tiger40490

k_ctbz,,,, k_disk_hog

Accidentally and intentionally, Gmail is becoming an important archive of my life

  • accidental .. so much important info buried in my gmail
  • intentonal .. I avoid instant messaging for important communication

Based on educated guess (without enough evidence) I perceive two main categories of gmail disk hogs — AAttachment and RRepeated system-generated mails. See also AAA defind below.

Q: what if I don’t have time to (find and) delete thousands of worthless old emails?
%%A: I think they will stay in gmail account indefinitely. Not a big headache if footprint small. I think this is a benefit/tcost decision.

For AA (including AAA), I now use a combination of larger:1M and before:xxxx. Removing these AA items could free up at most 1GB. So how about RR?

I first go to the builtin PromotionTab, SocialTab, and ForumTab. These tabs tend to have usuallly worthless mails. These are often RR mails but not always. Once I wipe out those tabs, I look for any sender with high RR rate. I put such a sender into  theSearchBox and count the hits. If hundreds of hits, then we have a big red sender. I can then delete all the hits or move them to ForumTab. The UpdatesTab unfortunately has a huge mix of important/unimportant items, so I propose to designate ForumTab as Temp_Important.

best_practice ==> I have realized it is so important to be proactive about unsubscribing-ASAP esp. in UpdatesTab. In office mail box, I can ask tech support to help, but with Gmail, I must declutter by myself!

Extra 100GB storage costs SGD 28/Y, or SGD 300 for 10Y… affordable.

— (I often feel unsure about …) in gmail, all 5 tabs are part of a huge “inbox”. So “skip inbox” will make the new message go straight to archive, and disappear from all 5 tabs … not good, because I want to keep those messages in those tabs.

— identify individual disk hogs (usually AA items) .. gmail -> search -> specify size, but leave other settings unchanged.

You should see “larger:5M” as the only searchString_in_the_searchBox. You can also specify within 1Y of “today” and you will see “before:yyyymmdd after:yyyymmdd”. You can then remove the “after….”

best_practice ==> incoming large emails .. send straight to trash (30D expiry) rather than archive. Once achived, they tend to disappear into the dune (of emails)

Sugg: I have a tried-n-tested gmail tag for “attachments”. Drill into the tag -> its earliest segment -> delete (all AA) items selectively one by one. AAA [i.e. Ancient mails with attachments] tend to be worth-less. 

— Common practice: Using gmail as permanent archive for specific “data assets”
* is unsuitable for heavy items such as AAA. Alternatives? gDrive [categorization, easier eviction]
* is convenient for small items. Gmail offers history and context. Less than 0.1% of regular gmail items deserve permanent archiving.

— specific case: pff RR emails [banks, brokers,,,] .. Some are AA items.
I usually _need_ to keep recent 1Y-3Y history.

Sugg: set up Gmail filter to label them, and move them to ForumTab. Have a habit to monitor them.

— specific case: wpress RR mails .. I now apply a label. This way, I can see an unread_count (and total_count) on that label. Most of these mails are worth keeping for 1Y, and safe to delete even for those generated yesterday.

— risk of deleting “good” mails.. Any search-n-mass-delete operation is inevitably imprecise. It is prone to false-positive error i.e. deleting a “good” email that appears worthless based on search criteria.

We have to accept the “risk” in the risk-reward equation. We have to recognize the “tcost” in the cost-benefit equation — more effort/legwork could reduce those inevitable false-positives but is it worth the tcost?

best_practice ==> Here’s one way (as of 2023) to assess the false-positive rate — I go into trash folder, and randomly checks a given page. Suppose there are 55,000+ mails in trash, there will be about 550 pages. If I randomly visits /p77, I will get to see the 100 mails on that page. (It’s useful to display them on a long monitor in portrait orientation.) If I don’t see any false-positive on 5 pages, then I feel reassured.