Strategy

I think the trick to staying disciplined is to cut yourself allowances for not being disciplined all the time. For instance, I rarely overeat now, but once in a while I will take down half a big bag of peanut M&M's, and that's totally alright. I kind of encourage it in a sense. Sometimes, I don't study my Indonesian before bed, but that's cool, I'll just resume the next day, and not try to do a double lesson or anything. If I don't feel like reading graphics papers at the moment, I'll go for a walk in the sun and hit the papers up later.

I'm like a leaky dam, and I don't have enough fingers to plug all the holes. So I plug what I can, and then plug new holes even while the old ones spring a leak.

Oil tankers dropping speed

I read on Bloomberg last week that oil tankers have slowed down from an average of 20 knots to 12 knots in response to declining oil prices. I could not figure out from the story if it was because the fuel savings would be significant or because crossing the ocean slower gives them more time to decide where to unload the oil for the highest price.

What if you had a time machine, but when you went backwards in time, it did not unwind time in the exact way that events happened?

The nice thing about working out at home is that I don't have to work against that stupid part of myself that tries to lift too much at the gym in some misguided attempt to not appear weak. I also don't have to worry about looking like a weirdo with the mix of yoga, karate, dancing and even ballet I toss in during my workouts.

Valor has its limits like the other virtues, and these limits once transgressed, we find ourselves on the path of vice; so that we may pass through valor to temerity, obstinacy, and madness, unless we know its limits well -- and they are truly hard to discern near the borderlines.

-- Montaigne

At a job, you should technically be receiving a small pay raise every day, since your skills grow daily. I know this isn't a practical idea, but if a company wanted to accurately value you, this is what they'd need to do.

No respect

I don't have respect for a PhD, only for the knowledge that a PhD should represent.