This may sound weird, but estimation. This book literally changed my thinking and how I do a lot of calculations http://web.mit.edu/6.055/book/book-draft.pdf Basic physics principles combined with the above. Being able to not only see how something works, but to be able to at least estimate it's parameters is invaluable to designing anything new
Same for me. The book and its tools are extremely empowering. In general, anything from Sanjoy Mahajan (the author) is extremely insightful:
-Street Fighting Mathematics
-The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering
-Lecture notes on signals & systems (a bit harder to find)
-Lecture notes on thermodynamics (real-world insights rather than endless manipulations of weird partial derivatives)
Afaik he is currently working on a textbook on mechanics.
Drinking lots of water. It might not be the same for everyone. However, I have noticed that I rarely drink water. It is interesting that I only noticed that this year (late twenties). The effects on my body and mind were phenomenal. I used to drink less than 1 liter a day. I don't feel thirst. So I don't drink water when I'm dehydrated (because I almost never feel it). Instead, I have a prescribed quantity that I dri…
I tried drinking that much water but it made me wake up once or twice a night having to urinate even if I reduce water intake before bed. I felt that this disrupted my sleep too much to be worth it. Do you have the same problem? Is there anything I can do about it? For a while I thought I just had a small bladder measuring the amount I urinate showed normal values of roughly 500-600 ml when waking up with a stronge u…
Interesting. To be honest I don't recall an instance in my life where my mind woke me up to go peeing. If your bladder can handle 0.5l and you drink 4 liters a day, that's like 8 times peeing a day. Do you make sure you go to the toilet often?
Drinking lots of water. It might not be the same for everyone. However, I have noticed that I rarely drink water. It is interesting that I only noticed that this year (late twenties). The effects on my body and mind were phenomenal. I used to drink less than 1 liter a day. I don't feel thirst. So I don't drink water when I'm dehydrated (because I almost never feel it). Instead, I have a prescribed quantity that I dri…
Yes! 4 litres is probably bit extreme. You should drink about 2-3 litres. It is also important to drink plenty of water to avoid kidney stones. You mentioned your pee colour is on the extreme side. You should probably get yourself scanned for kidney stones. Kidney stones can go undetected for ages.
I don't think I had kidney stones. My water intake before was less than 1l a day. Much less. So I'm guessing it was the reason for the pee colour being on the extreme side. I'm on the other extreme now.
Think about WHO AM I. I think this is the most important question one can have for his entire life. I am 28, but I have spent about 15 years to think about who am I? Where am I come from? Where will I go? And gradually, I get clearer and clearer about it. And knowing who am I is the greatest source of happiness, strength and calmness. If you also do this, I think you may understand. You will have small enlightment da…
Check out business school application essays. They demand deep reflection.
Learning English. It opened up a whole new area of the internet that I was excluded from simply because I didn't know the language. There are communities that I can actively participate in and learn from.
I wouldn't have been the programmer I am now without learning English. Everything starts in English. Every other languages catch up after a few years.
What are some examples from your native language or other languages you speak that have adopted English phrases or idioms? I'm curious to know more about what other languages adopt besides just names of items
Running. Been running ~ 2 years fairly seriously. Lost a lot of weight, and have never been healthier. Now have run marathons under 3 hours, qualified for Boston, ran in international races, Hawaii, etc. Running and any active sports feel fun when you are fast.
I wish everyone who runs that may they never stop , ever :-) Was a long distance runner from 2012-2016. It was so fun, used to look forward for my morning run every single day - I'd once forgotten all my credit cards when flying to another city but not my running shoe. Almost never missed it for anything. Minor injury broke it for 1.5 months. Been struggling to pick up again since then. It's 2 years. Procrastination…
Hey, balladeer, maybe this will help: I often pick something to listen to that I'm really interested in--an audio book, a podcast episode, some music I've started liking--and I make a strict rule that I have to be at least walking when I listen to it. If I stop (get in the car, go home, etc.) I have to stop listening to it immediately. Often, I'll just go out walking because I want to find out what happened next in the story, but then if I'm walking, I don't mind an easy jog instead. I don't try for speed or distance or "exercise". I just want to listen for a while, so I have to keep moving. And over time, the gentle running is good for my health, but I don't need to "motivate" myself, because I'm just going out to listen to something I like. So I can't be sure, but maybe if you don't pressure yourself to be "a runner" and just have some fun instead, you'll end up running again. Just a thought.
SQL. Ultimately a software company is a business, run by business people who have to solve business problems. Often to do that they come up with questions which need to be answered by ad-hoc (written on the fly for one purpose) SQL queries. Having that ability, to answer arbitrary questions FAST will elevate your status in the minds of managers and business people.
What's a good place to start learning SQL? (for someone with 5+ years C++ and now dabbling in Clojure/ELisp)
Strunk & White is held in too high regard because of its status as the definitive writing style guide in education. Much of it is outdated, or based on the opinions and pet peeves of the writers. Some of it is outright wrong and promotes bad writing in favor of made up grammar rules such as split infinitives.
SQL. Ultimately a software company is a business, run by business people who have to solve business problems. Often to do that they come up with questions which need to be answered by ad-hoc (written on the fly for one purpose) SQL queries. Having that ability, to answer arbitrary questions FAST will elevate your status in the minds of managers and business people.
What's a good place to start learning SQL? (for someone with 5+ years C++ and now dabbling in Clojure/ELisp)
Strunk & White is held in too high regard because of its status as the definitive writing style guide in education. Much of it is outdated, or based on the opinions and pet peeves of the writers. Some of it is outright wrong and promotes bad writing in favor of made up grammar rules such as split infinitives.
Without devolving into a discussion of S&W having the word "style" on the front, with "grammar" nowhere to be seen, S&W 4th edition (the one I happen to have to hand) specifically advises that breaking the rule about not splitting infinitives can be good.