Productivity hints, tips, hacks and tricks for graduate students and professors Contents Jump to: My philosophy: Optimize transaction costs Distilled into empirically-wrought principles, my high-level advice is: Reduce transaction costs to engaging in productive behavior. Erect transaction costs to engaging in counter-productive behavior. In short, mold your life so that the path of least resistance is the path of maximum productivity. People are surprised when I tell them I'm lazy. I don't try to change the fact that I'm lazy: I exploit it. I try to make sure that the laziest thing I can do at any moment is what I should be doing. Update: Managing willpower Years after I wrote the first version of this article, I discovered a book that provided a basis for my philosophy in sound psychological science, Willpower The book surveys the literature on the science of self control. Deliberating shaping the past of least resistance optimizes the use of willpower. Anecdote: Pull-ups to the door outside our bedroom. Don't work from home Home is full of distractions. Get rid of your TV
Strange Science: Mammals Perhaps as long as 5,000 years ago, a group of sailors found skulls belonging to a race of hideous giants whom the ancient Greeks named cyclops. Dwelling in their mythical land, entrusting the fate of their crops to their evil gods and devouring any humans they could find, these creatures terrified generations of Europeans. Today, relatives of these monsters can still be found — roaming the African savannas or the Indian jungles, or even eating peanuts from the hands of small children in city zoos. In fact, the ancient Greek sailors found elephant skulls. What they mistook for single eye sockets were the nasal openings for the elephants' trunks. Most Recent Additions May-31-2015 May-17-2015 Apr-11-2015 Year: 1486 Artist: Erhard Reuwich Originally published in: Perigrinationes ad Terram Sanctam Now appears in: The Unicorn by Nancy Hathaway Unicorn "sightings" occurred throughout the world, but the mythical creature wasn't the same in each description. Year: 1897 Scientist: H.N.
Seven Weird Habits That Will Change Your Life Some habits will help you live a better life. They’ll help you improve what’s already working or help you fix what’s not working very well. But what about habits that completely change the game entirely? What are the questions that uproot your beliefs, shake them from its roots and move you into a bigger pot? These are seven habits that won’t just improve your game, or help you “level up.” They’ll help you play a different game, one that you completely design yourself. Regularly engage in time travel. These are just a few habits I’ve found that have made a huge difference for me. So now my question for you is this: What habit has made the biggest difference for you? photo courtesy of platinum Share: Get everything you need to finally leave your job for good. The first few weeks of the Job Escape Kit has already produced some outcomes I’d never thought I’d see in my whole career.” ~ Nick Burk
99 interview tips that will actually help you get a job - StumbleUpon We all have to make a living somehow — and most of the time that process starts with a job interview. The only problem is that most job interview tips are either so basic that they aren’t useful or so ridiculous that they are just a waste of time. That’s why Passive Panda has put together this comprehensive list of interview tips filled with the real essentials that you actually need to know. Focus on what really counts Yes, it’s true that you should polish your shoes before an interview. But let’s get real. Do you actually think that any of those tactics are going to win you the job? Maybe if it’s really really close. Instead of worrying about 10 little things that could be a tiebreaker, why not spend time thinking about the stuff that actually matters? So with that said, here are 99 interview tips that will actually get you the job. I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. Let’s get started. I. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. II. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. III. 22. 23. 24. V.
Noise-Canceling Tech Lets You Quietly Dine in Noisy Restaurants How many times have you gone out for some fancy food, and ended up spending the evening yelling into the ear of your dinner companion? An accomplished sound engineer has figured out a way to solve that problem, using technology similar to that of noise-canceling headphones. Using 123 cleverly hidden speakers, an array of highly sensitive microphones and noise-canceling technology, sound engineer (and now restaurant owner) John Paluska has teamed up with Meyer Sound to create a way to make the noise of conversation cancel itself out, letting him control the ambient sound levels in his restaurant using an iPad app. Paluska's noise-canceling system's beta test site is Comal, his restaurant in Berkeley, Calif. How well does it work? If the performance of noise-canceling headphones is any indication, this could be a breakthrough. [via SF Gate]
20 mental barriers you should let go of photo by admitchell08 You are in an imaginary hot air balloon. It’s just you and all of your belongings in the wicker basket. Something went wrong and you are losing altitude fast. You will hit the ground in less than ten minutes if you don’t come up with something quick. The only immediate solution is to get rid of excess weight and throw off at least half of your belongings. This happens to all of us in less dramatic circumstances. Our mental life follows the same fate. Some of them are useless ideas that drag us down considerably. So if you were in the hot air balloon situation, which of these mental barriers should we let go? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. Related posts:
10 Websites To Make You Think | The Online Learning Blog from Study2U Supposedly browsing the internet requires more brain power than watching television. Although judging from some of the websites we’ve come across that assumption is cast into doubt. Here’s some of the sites we like that might get your brain to sit up and listen. Ted A conference that started in 1984 bringing together experts in technology, entertainment and design quickly grew into so much more. The conference itself is invitation only, but the website features all the talks at the conference in high res video format. New Scientist The New Scientist website carries new articles from the magazine as well as the NS archive of over 76,000 pieces. Big Think The Big Think website is a collection of ‘global thought leaders’ who offer their thoughts and analysis on world events and other important developments. Café Scientifque ‘for the price of a cup of coffee or a glass of wine, anyone can come to explore the latest ideas in science and technology’ Breathing Earth Arts & Letters Daily How Stuff Works
24 Quick Actions You Can Do Today That Can Change Your Financial Life Forever Note: This is a post from Adam Baker, founder of Man Vs. Debt. Last week, while I was talking about our new You Vs. We talked about our obsession with the debt-fueled life path and how it’s keeping millions trapped. But talk is cheap. I’m much more interested in action. And this week, I want to do my part to shatter any excuses or justifications you may have. I took the time to provide 24 different options. Sure, there’s little chance all will be viable for your situation. I’m asking for one. Do it. Action #1: Pull Your Credit Report (10-20 minutes) Simple steps: Visit Annual Credit Report – Visit annualcreditreport.com. How this can change your life: When we first pulled Courtney’s credit report, we were saddened to find she was a victim of identity theft. We had better luck with my credit report, however I did discover a $200 collections account I didn’t even know existed! Additional Resource: How to Get Your Free Credit Report Online: A Step-by-step Guide
11 Most Important Philosophical Quotations 1. “The unexamined life is not worth living” – Socrates (470-399 BCE) Socrates’ [wiki] belief that we must reflect upon the life we live was partly inspired by the famous phrase inscribed at the shrine of the oracle at Delphi, “Know thyself.” The key to finding value in the prophecies of the oracle was self-knowledge, not a decoder ring. Socrates felt so passionately about the value of self-examination that he closely examined not only his own beliefs and values but those of others as well. 2. Commonly known as Ockham’s razor, the idea here is that in judging among competing philosophical or scientific theories, all other things being equal, we should prefer the simplest theory. The ultimate irony of Ockham’s razor may be that some have used it to prove God is unnecessary to the explanation of the universe, an idea Ockham the Franciscan priest would reject. 3. Referring to the original state of nature, a hypothetical past before civilization, Hobbes [wiki] saw no reason to be nostalgic.