Sam Bledsoe > Recent Status Updates

Between this and Atomic Habits is the full range of human motives. The last few chapters illustrates learning as a mean to survival, focusing on stories of people looking for work to "feel human", to help their families, and stories of people learning workplace safety "to leave the same way they entered - alive". Learning takes place as part of a "knowledge economy", w/ exchange between experienced and unexperienced.

Today I attended my weekly intro to buddhist psychology meeting. The lessons there seem to fit in well with this book. I do like the inspirational and actionable approach this book takes, I do think it's helpful for ADHD, as long as your aspired identity isn't "my ADHD will be cured" rather "My ADHD will be managed". I also like his idea that discretions are fine, cause they help perfect meditation.

I finally found my copy! I lost it for the last few months, and have been trying to find it because I really liked this book. I was sad, and thought that I might have given it away. Nope, a good December cleaning helped reveal the book!

3rd time reading in three years! Man I like how this book balances action and emotional character development over approximately 900 pages. It builds its atmospheres of romance and suspense so well through pacing and descriptions.

Overall I think his approach to the topic is very buddhist at its core because of the base concept of breaking things down into small, atomic pieces and chaining these pieces together to create change. It's a self help book, and his explanation of people motivated by prestige at the end of the chapter about social setting isn't something I'm wild about. Halfway through, I'm still left wondering where the passion is.

I've been seeing this advertised for a while now, and the title has been a bit of a turn off. While there is an interesting history behind what's been happening in Ukraine since the fall of the USSR and how the wests involvement (or lack of) has led to the tension and current conflict, this title gives me apologist vibes. What's changed my mind is that it's an hour and a half long. Maybe there's something here.

King's description of the zombie Church certainly gets me thinking about death and why maybe things that are dead should maybe stay dead. They still interact with the cat, but there's a smell that changes how they interact with him. And their interactions are "friendly" as Louis puts it, but it's them just going through the motions and the cat reacting in kind.

It's my first reading of the book. It's captivated me so far, and the actual burial at the pet Sematary has taken place. I'm really finding myself wondering what's next.

This intro has gotten me to think about my own state and the changing landscape of what defines a State System, so good job!

The first few pages give us what is a state system. We get the example of Europe and the breakdown of powerful states, and are given examples of places without this state breakdown of power. The biggest contrast that is shown is the breakdown of laws and trade in Europe vs Manchu China. Legally, other states are recognized and traded with in Europe, vs China not recognizing Japan, Korea, or Burma as trade partners.

Yes, there is calculus in this book. It alternates chapters, between fun stories and analysis. I don't know if I can explain integration or other stuff, but when I read through the other book, I'll find out.

Power Series and how the Basil Problem is related to the zeta function.

"The invisible hand does not exist" Strong words from an economist, but to prove his point he shows how productivity of an employee can be measured, and it is an arbitrary figure given that the duties of position can change. On top of that, top earners of companies since the 70's don't use such a standard to determine their pay, but instead just ask themselves what they should be paid. Which leads to high salaries.

A big explanation of the density of primes. I really like the way he explains it using tables and formulas. We find the number of primes below a given point, like how many primes below 500? Next, we map the number and find a function to describe it. Finally, test the function to see if it's right. First few chapters are very impressive so far.