Hack Yourself

Learning How to Learn

cidviscous — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 03:14:15 -0400

Learning How to Learn (Better)

"We can say that Muad'Dib learned rapidly because his first training was in how to learn. And the first lesson of all was the basic trust that he could learn. It is shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult."
— Frank Herbert, Dune

By implementing better learning techniques, one can more rapidly and effectively learn new skills and information. There are a variety of ideas and methods on the subject ranging from diet to drugs, from location to learning-style, from attitude to atmosphere.

Which ones work the best?

Well, I'm still figuring all that out, and anyhow, I'd imagine that it'll vary from person to person (and maybe even from subject to subject.

Thought as Technology

8 Circuits of Consciousness

cidviscous — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:17:51 -0400

The Eight Circuit Model of Consciousness

"The Human require a background grid through which to see his universe." --Frank Herbert, Dune

Quick Overview

This idea was first synthesized by Dr. Timothy Leary, and has been further expanded and expounded by others, especially Robert Anton Wilson. It is a model for understanding human consciousness, which says that there are (so far) eight distinct 'circuits' (sometimes referred to as subsystems, gears, mini-brains, levels, and a variety of other metaphors) which have evolved, each funtioning at a 'higher', more complex or more enlightened level of consciousness.

Key to the model is the idea that our individual experience of reality (often called 'reality tunnels') is not necessarily representative of reality itself, but rather our perception of reality based on our own sensory input filtered by mental models. Everything we perceive, we perceive in the mind, in the brain. Everybody sees things from a different point of view, with a different makeup, a different set of experiences, so in effect, we're all living in our own little reprentations of the universe, which is not the actual universe.

A Map of a Place Is Not That Place

Here's a good way to understand what is meant here, if you're not grokking it yet. A map is a representation of a place, but every map is wrong in some way. A map is not the place it represents, but a projection--a model. Different projections excel and suffer in different ways. Some show size well, but distort shape, others may be better for certain locales, some more accurate with distances. Strengths and weaknesses determine applicability in each situation, and if you are able to switch maps for different places and purposes, then you gain much more adaptability. The right tool for the right job....

Metaprogramming

By becoming aware of the disctinction between reality and one's perception of it, the possibility arises to change that perception. If you think of your brain as a biological computer and your mind as the firmware being executed on your brain, then by changing that software, you could actually reprogram yourself to see or do things differently.

Financial Planning

Agent Pugsly — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:41:01 -0500

Without a plan you won't have money.

It is a fact of the world that you will have to deal with money. You will probably have to raise it, manage it, and use it. Without a good plan though you will most likely find that money just isn't plentiful enough for you to Get Things Done like you want to. The goal of Create a Good Credit Rate for Myself also requires a good plan. Having a good credit rating is invaluable in the modern world.

Budgeting

It is very, very difficult to reach a state of permanent financial well-being if you aren't diligent with your budgeting.

The first step to making a budget is to track your spending - down to the last penny - for a month (preferably two) and find out just what it is that all your money goes to. Many times people are shocked after doing this. Some people really think they only spend 50 or 100 dollars a week and find out later that they spend upwards of 200 a week.

Now on to the matter at hand!
Once you have fastidiously tracked your spending for at least one month, it is time to do some analysis (and remember, you can't "analysis" without "anal," so track every single last detail and, if you have one handy, get out your largest, blackest butt-plug. You might want it later.) Keeping receipts can help if you aren't too good at keeping things down on paper.

Step 1: Categorize your expenditures into broad groups, then break it down by percents and absolute dollar values. For example:
INCOME: +$2200/mo.
Rent: $350 - 15.9%
Utilities/DSL/Cable: $100 - 4.5%
Debt: $200 - 9.1%
Savings: $800 - 36.4%
Groceries and meals: $400 - $18.1
Gas: $100 - 4.5%
Pets: $50 - 2.25%
Booze/Bars: $50 - 2.25%
Misc/Entertainment: $156 - 7%

Step 2: Make some easy choices.
Some people think that reducing one's spending and increasing savings is somehow destined to be a pretty awful and painful process. This couldn't be further from the truth. Most folks, having once tracked their spending over an extended period of time, are rather horrified by the results and eager to slash a few items from their budget.

This is where you get a lot of the very cliche budget-reduction advice: Are you spending $5 a day on coffee drinks at Starbucks? Knock it off - treat yourself to one during each work week instead, and you will save about $80 a month. Spending $100 a month on autographed mint-condition Wham! LPs from eBay? Please, for the love of all that is sacred and holy, up that to at least $250. That sort of thing.

The advice might be cliche, but it's still good. If you see yourself wasting money, just knock it off. Your bottom line will thank you, as will your future self, who will be fishing off the coast of Aruba instead of working as a greeter at a WalMart somewhere outside of Buttfuck, Minnesota. (Although I've heard Buttfuck is gorgeous in the springtime).

Step 3: Make some hard choices.
OK, so it wasn't too hard to talk you out of an $80/mo. Starbucks habit, was it? Or maybe you've been wanting to quit that $5/day cigarette habit for years anyhow, and this just seemed like a great time. Well done. Those were easy choices that you needed to make, and you did the right thing. Now it's time to figure out where to trim the fat when it starts to hurt.

RENT: Rent can be painful to you in the extreme, depending on where you live. Very few people would consider relocating across the country, away from family and friends, just to save a couple hundred bucks a month. Discussing what it costs to live in certain cities and then telling people to move to Wyoming is dumb, but here's what works: No matter where you live, there is somewhere in the same city that is probably renting for about 8-12% cheaper than your current place. If you're not in any financial squeezes right now, then don't worry about it, but if times are getting lean, consider finding another apartment. In SF or NYC, scaling back by 10% on your tiny, one-man studio can mean saving ~$200/mo.

YOUR CAR: Driving a brand-new leased BMW when you earn $40,000 a year might not break your bank, but there are many, many more intelligent choices that you could have made. Take a look at what you pay for your wheels (and add up everything: gas, insurance, garage fees, etc.) and decide if a downgrade mightn't be a good idea (you don't have to go all the way down to a 1993 Geo Metro, but a nice late-model Toyota never killed anybody). Besides, if you're paying hundreds and hundreds a month for the Benz in the hopes of getting chicks, a $50/mo. gym membership would be a much sounder investment.

COOKING: Eating 2 meals a day at a restaurant will seriously break your bank. There is more to eat at home than Top Ramen (though we all know Ramen is cheap). Fortunately, you all have the wonderful resource of Goons With Spoons to tell you how to get started. I cannot stress this enough: Sack up, stop being lazy, learn how to cook: It will save you at least $100-200 a month and improve your general health and well-being.

LUXURIES: Life without a few luxuries can be dull, but a new MacBook Pro one month, a 37" LCD TV the next, and before you know it you're making 50 grand and still at less than zero in the savings department. Don't let this happen to you: Plan big purchases very wisely, don't be impulsive, and do plenty of research on prices. Several portions of the SA Forums can also be helpful for this.

YOUR CHILDREN: Children are incredibly expensive, and unfortunately, for the last hundred years or so there haven't been hardly any employment opportunities for them here in the USA, meaning that it's almost a certainty that your kids aren't pulling their weight, financially speaking. Fortunately, you can send them to India, where they can work as phone support team members for Dell, Samsung and the like. Not only will they learn valuable lessons about the imporance of hard work, but you will no longer have to worry about feeding them, clothing them, or wasting any more money on pricey plastic action figures.

Step 4: Run a real-time pragmatism test:
OK, so first you tracked your spending. Then you swore off Starbucks, quit buying books you didn't read, traded in your luuxury car and sent your kids to Ghana to work in a salt mine for nineteen cents an hour. Great start! The problem is, your great start is only as good as it is sustainable.

Shoot to reduce all of your expenses and increase savings by around 10% a month. I say this because (A.) spending can almost always be cut by 10% and (B.) because, if you shoot for more than 10%, you probably won't stick with it. A life of eating only Ramen, driving a used Yugo, and watching TV on a mirror pointed towards your neighbor's living room just isn't fulfilling. At some point, you need to spend a little scratch on yourself. After all, you did earn it - you just don't want to waste it.

Once you figure out how you're going to cut out that 10-20%, go for it. Take another month, do your best to stick to what you've budgeted, and keep writing down every penny you spend. At the end of the month, sit down and ask yourself these questions:

1. Did I do it?
2. How easy was it?
3. Do I WANT to keep this up?

Obviously, if you couldn't do it, you set too ambitious a savings goal. Maybe ratchet it back by 5% and start over. On the other hand, if it was a total breeze to cut 10%, why not shoot for 20%? Find that perfect zone where the amount you're saving feels rewarding in itself and you WANT to continue living on that budget because your life is pleasing to you. Continue to refine the budget every couple of months as needed.

Activist SuperMaraTriathathon

Agent Pugsly — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 02:08:55 -0500

We need an activist olympics!

We could identify the many different forms of common activism that exist. Flyering and talking and recruiting and fundraising and so on. We could create metrics for identifying how successful someone is at each such task and give away awards for the acheivements of each activist.

The entire process should be grueling and should be a chance for overacheivers to grow their reputations for the tasks that they excel at. The entire ordeal should also create tangible positive change in the world at large. Everything should be legal.

It would be REALLY fun to randomize the campaigns and cities that each participant is active in. It would also be nice to make sure participants are in foreign territory without their natural contact network.

Then end of events festival would be the SHIT. Could even be burning man....

How many of your ideas are your own?

adnauseam — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 01:25:31 -0500

Independent thought is becoming scarce. We all have within, a computer that's hardly being used at full capacity. I want to share this particular post I StumbledUpon (literally, http://meatbot.stumbleupon.com) to perhaps remind us that we all have the capacity to be creative thinkers.

In such a fast paced world as ours today we run the risk of living a recycled headspace: Garbage-In-Garbage-Out, GIGO. By changing the way we experience and accept the world maybe we can turn garbage into Gold.

Here is the article.

Thought as Technology

Evolution by Choice

cidviscous — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:41:08 -0400

Evolution by Choice. Two simple parts--evolution--growing, surpassing the former, adapting, changing, and choice--decision, action based on a specific intention, deliberate.

Part of the beauty of this meme is it's ability to function across several layers of abstraction. For instance, you could take this idea at the personal level and choose to adapt to some part of your life that has changed, or perhaps that you weren't taking full advantage of.

On the other end of the spectrum you have the entire species and the possibilities for enhancement beginning to look like real possibilities--genetic alterations, cybernetic enhancements.

Not only in the science fiction turning reality front, but the concept can be identified in more subtle roles as well--the steady homogenizing flow of information/education to the general masses. As the gestalt of human society becomes more and more saturated with the combined general knowledge of the species as a whole, people are empowered with the ability to start with knowledge somebody else has already discovered, and thus go further than before, or avoid certain pitfalls, to 'Stand on the shoulders of Giants' as it were.

Does it ever seem like people are smarter than they used to be? Maybe they've just got better mental tools to use.

The point is, we all make choices every day that affect who we are becoming as a person, and what direction our society is going, as a whole. You may not think about it like that, but perhaps you should. Every person has a little bit of power. We've all got our own ideas on what's 'good' or 'bad' or whatever labels you want to apply--things we want versus things we don't want to have happen. Anyway, in a democratic situation, everybody's putting their energy/time/resources/votes into whatever they want to see happen, and when ideas line up, there's motion--when there are equally opposed ideas/opinions, there is stalemate.

But everybody _does_ exert _some_ level of influence, whether they realize it or not. So, make your decisions like they count.

When you have a choice to make, make it with the intent of improving yourself, and your society as a whole. Make the choice to help Evolve into a better form.

-cid