Procrastination is a solvable problem
On putting things off [HN] I’m very passionate about the problem of procrastination, having suffered terribly from it a
How to survive NS
Here is something I’ve wanted to write for a long long time but have been procrastinating on because I visualized someth
Productivity: Set aside sacred time for Work
2024 update: the interesting thing about this post is that it’s an unintentionally great representation of my worldview
7 Important Things I’ve Learnt
During my 2 years of National Service, I began what I called the 90 Week Project. I had heard many horror stories from men wis
Work for me seems to happen in short intense sessions
Updated A Little Bit In October 2014 It’s good to spend loads of time on our craft. But for me, long periods of time de
Productivity: I vomited words with a pen faster than I transcribed them online
Doing beats talking I’ve always paid lip-service to productivity- it’s mostly an attempt to convince myself to be
Letter I wrote to myself (June 2010)
It’s think-out-loud time. Balance, effectively, the right-now and the big pictures. Ignore neither, and do justice to bo
greatness requires faith
Wherever you see Greatness, somebody took risks and embodied Faith. (previous title) Greatness is relative. No matter how grea
W5D1: A Beautiful Morning
This morning is beautiful, not because of anything intrinsic about the day itself, but because of the way I have begun it. And
starting plans
Yesterday I met my mentor-figure who helped to get me all fired up. I got home, tried to do some work, ended up getting distra
do what you hate
(switchy-switchy here is that you only have strong feelings about thigns that matter to you) I used to play in a band called A
Habits Through Connections
I have been paying lip service to this for the longest time but it’s finally about time- better late then never- that I
Running is a break from the neurological rat race
TLDR: Don’t think so much, just run. The reward is a break from the neurological rat race. So today was a normal day. I
Didn’t make it to leadership school? Build your own!
I had a class reunion the other day and I got to talk to one of my classmates who completed his national service as a commissi
Are you too smart for your own good?
My dad used to say something like that to me- that the problem with me was that I thought I was too smart to have to deal with
Why you should never “confess your love” to anyone
My humble advice to anybody who starts to fall for your friends-Â Never, EVER “confess your love” to them.It’
Hacking The 7 Deadly Sins: Gluttony
(image courtesy of blackeri) Gluttony is the untempered drive to consume. Gluttony is to consumption as lust is to conques
Idiot Tax: How much do you pay?
Idiot Tax! That’s what they call the lottery- the tax you pay for being an idiot, because the odds are so heavily agains
Hacking Delayed Gratification: The Tomorrow-Self
I was never one to deny myself pleasure. I’d eat McDonald’s whenever I could. I was a binger. I’d finish ent
Hacking Serendipitous Conversations (and Facebook), Like An (Elitist) Boss
Originally title ‘Meditations On Staying Awake.’ (Amusingly, I’m translating this from ink to pixels at 3:28
How important is consistency and sustainability?
I was unfollowing people on Tumblr yesterday- specifically, people who haven’t posted in 8 months or more, and people wh
Applying fitness wisdom to writing: Why Good is better than Perfect
I’ve experimented quite a bit over the years with my fitness habits. Well, it might not be fair to say “over a few
Hacking The 7 Deadly Sins: Wrath
(image courtesy of blackeri) What is Wrath? Dante described vengeance as “love of justice perverted to revenge and spite
dealing with siren songs
In Greek mythology, the Sirens were three dangerous bird-women, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with
Left 4 Dead: Enlightened Self-Interest In A Zombie Apocalypse
Left 4 Dead (or L4D) is a first-person shooter with a simple premise- four people are stranded somewhere overrun with hordes o
enlightened hedonism
Life should be pleasurable. It really should. It’s an incredibly brief period of time, so we really ought to make the mo
Hacking The 7 Deadly Sins: Sloth
(image courtesy of blackeri) Sloth is…Â laziness, inactivity, idleness, restlessness, ennui, boredom, indifference. Ever
How I started tracking my life, Part 1
I made several random attempts to start tracking my life over the years. I used to have a blog on the now-defunct Diary-X.com
Knowing But Not Knowing.
I had an art teacher in secondary school who never taught me anything about art, but he did leave me with a cryptic saying he
To live well, we must prepare for Death.
“We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” – Chuck Palahniuk A c
7 Lessons Smokers Can Teach Us About Getting Shit Done
Smokers do something that’s quite remarkable that nobody really talks about: they smoke a lot of cigarettes. A heavy smo
the art of disagreement
People disagree. Most genuine disagreement stems, I believe, from different people valuing different things, or valuing the sa
Hacking The 7 Deadly Sins: Vanity
(image courtesy of blackeri) Vanity is a naive obsession with a non-existent Self. Vanity is the excessive belief in one’
Hacking The 7 Deadly Sins: Lust
(image courtesy of blackeri) Lust is an untempered drive to conquest. Nobody lusts after what they already have. Not just abo
Hacking and Leveraging the 7 Deadly Sins To Your Benefit
I don’t like the idea of Sin as something inherently, absolutely wrong- something so intrinsically vile that even thinki
Interests and goals [Jan 2012]
A friend mentioned to me the other day that she finds my blog a bit difficult to follow because I write about so many random t
On Self-Help books.
I have a lot of self-help books. It used to be a bit of an obsession. I’m pretty sure I have at least 10-20 of them lyin
Emotions: How you can manage them, and why you should
I often like to pretend that I’m a logical thinker, so for the longest time I (illogically!) convinced myself that emoti
7 things that help me clear my head
After being plagued by lethargy and a general sense of powerlessness for a couple of weeks, I fell asleep on the bus today on
Demolish boredom.
I used to be very bored as a teenager. I was bored almost all the time. I was not bored very much as a child. I found everythi
Managing complex change: 5 things that stop you from accomplishing greatness
If you want to get anything serious done that involves complex change, whether it’s starting a blog, quitting smoking, m
Figuring out the most important question.
What’s the most important question you can think of? Let me go through a few ideas: “Where do we come from? Why ar
The Challenges
I’ve never worked at anything in my life as hard as I do when I play video games. Your first thought might be “Wow
finding non-directed purpose – from mediocrity to excellence
Okay let’s have some stream-of-consciousness style thinking and writing going on here. Our conventional ideas about idea
Marginal differences make a difference
Updated 2014. It’s interesting how we categorize people into smokers and non-smokers. You’re in or you’re
illness as opportunity
I am sick as I write this- literally physically ill, with a throat infection. I often seem to fall sick more than the average
How My Mind Works: Mind Explosion
Every once in a while- and these moments are exceptional, rare and intense- I have what I might describe as a mind explosion.
On binging, and moderation.
I want to talk about binging. We all know that too much of anything isn’t very good. Excessive beer, cigarettes, food, e
Daily tracking.
Any video gamer knows that your status bar is one of the most important things that you need to pay attention to. The informat
The Mundanity of Excellence, by Daniel Chambliss
(Visa: Full text available here. I edited this one a little for readability. Left out the footnotes.) “Olympic sports an