Concepts

240 notes · 87 connections

My personal Zettelkasten — short notes distilled from everything I read across technology, philosophy, science, and beyond. Each concept links to related ideas, building a web of knowledge over time. Click any concept to explore — linked notes stack to the right.

A carrot problem is a false reason for success1 A healthy and happy self arises from agency and gratitude1 A high trust society has mostly virtuous people which benefits everyone A lot of value comes from weak connections1 A problem is Turing reducible to another problem if the solvability of the first makes the second solvable A reputation for reliability is free and powerful A rigid designator refers to the same object in every version of the world it exists A simple dashboard for human performance2 A Turing degree is the set of all problems that are Turing equivalent Accountability beats plannings Action produces information Addiction narrows the things that bring pleasure2 Advice reduces creativity1 Aleph-zero is the first infinite cardinality, which we call countable Always be analogizing2 Andrew Huberman's main protocols1 Anything that increases the speed of aging is self-destructive1 Asking innocent questions in a negotiation fatigues the other side and can create a sense of satisfaction Associating with innate talent makes you weak1 Avoid creative blocks by creating for yourself and not worrying about any form of judgement Axioms of Zermelo-Fraenkel Set Theory (ZF) with the Axiom of Choice (ZFC)Basal body temperature varies amongst everyone, and changes throughout the day Be alert and focused to offset forgetting1 Be descriptive in thought and product. This leads to long term credibility and relationship. Avoid talking just to talk. Be silent sometimes.1 Be the friend that checks in1 Being able to self sooth the mind is an important tool in relationships Belief effects apply to rewarding behaviors Blum speed-up theorem Busywork creates a false sense of productivity. When you seek to be productive, identify that what you are about to do is actually meaningful.2 Career is defined by the highest points of the biggest bets Category mistake Check in with a few friends to build deep support systems2 Circumstance has nothing to do with you wellbeing1 Citations create credibility in writing Cold water exposure is a behavioral tool that increases dopamine Compound gains in the long term are hard to comprehend, but are worth thinking about1 Consensus mechanism that has an upper limit on when a txn will be included, regardless of the fee Consumption is negative entropy, creation is positive entropy2 Conversational UIs are the new way to interact with customers Covert contracting is getting what you want out of someone without being forthcoming about it Creativity is a backed up water pipe, it has to be emptied before the fresh water can flow Creativity is like seeking truth, and the outcome of that effort is beyond one's control Cultivate the art of turning off and on Cultivate the few hours of intense focus each day Cynicism is stagnant, skepticism is dynamic1 Cynics miss the complex truth1 Delayed gratification is the investor mindset, while short term pleasure is the borrower mindset Design the space you live and work in to be beautiful, natural, and inspiring. Be clean, both digitally, mentally, and physically. Be organized.1 Diagonalization defined early complexity theory Dialectic Distance your wellbeing from your circumstance2 Distance yourself from feelings to avoid madness Do not casually talk about feeling busy or about feeling tired. It's useless and, if anything, slightly hurts reputation.1 Do the timeless thing well1 Don't be a cynic14 Don't recreate what you love Don't stack rewarding behaviors Dreyfus model of acquisition1 Earned money is correlated to happiness Eastern art invites the viewer to bring themselves to complete the art1 Eat 800 grams of fruit and vegetables a day Embrace chance social interactions Embrace your natural gifts, use them wisely, and listen to learn Empowerment and humility form the foundation of mental health, leading to agency and gratitude at the top1 Enjoy many things2 Entrepreneurship is irrational from a value standpoint Eustress is beneficial stress Excellence is the capacity to take pain Existence is defined by dependence2 Fear is a mile wide and an inch deep Financial securities are a catch-all to turn a promise into a legal contract Finding a problem that you care about is the key to being the greatest in the space First principles are helpful for navigating the world, but zeroth principles are helpful for navigating the universe.1 Focus training on the in-between1 Focusing and studying is a skill that is learned Food choice based on omega-6 content1 Four criteria to be an expert Fructose inhibits normal mitochondrial function1 Fructose is not required in any cellular process1 Fructose is probably useless and bad4 Generate a lot of digital data. As AI becomes ubiquitous, our ability to leverage AI comes down to having data for context.2 Generic advice from strangers lacks personal context on both sides Genius is different than intelligence Glorifying oneself as a means of motivation is a bad idea1 Glycemic index does not account for fructose1 Go places to meet people. Follow up with people you meet.1 Godel's completeness theorem says that any true statement is provable Godel's incompleteness theorem says that there exist true statements that cannot be proven with a set of given axioms Good ideas are novel and obvious Good students isolate themselves to study Good students make an effort to teach peers Good students schedule time to study Good students study consistently throughout the week Good students study three to four hours a day across a few sessions Greek heroism is based on duty towards oneself, not toward others Growth mindset is about taking on challenges and optimizing performance1 Happiness broadens the range of enjoyable experiences2 Highlight previous highlights to apply more attention to the useful ideas Holy content is better as its revisited4 Home is the safe place from which you can emerge to take on the world Hotkeys compress information from the brain1 How to be a man according to Rudyard Kipling If all you do is repeat things, you will never be able to write about things that you don't remember If it's important, it will end up in a book1 If quantum mechanics is an accurate model, then we ought to be in a superposition of different places at once.1 If you have a nice thought about someone, tell them immediately.2 If you think of cloudy days as bad days, you're letting the weather control you If you were not able to distract yourself right now, what might you need to think about or feel?Inflation is the modern version of jubilee Insecure attachment is linked to cynicism1 Instead of consuming information passively, put it to use by creating small pieces of reusable work and share it with the world1 Insulin allows glucose to be stored in fat cells Invent a character that you want to be when it comes to being your best, turn that mode on when certain conditions are met It is okay to lose things1 Keep track of the most important questions to create a mental game tape Knowledge sparks curiosity Learn to associate reward with effort Learning hot-keys is a no cost way to boost productivity1 Leisurely research often crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries.Literature notes come from a single context while permanent notes come from multiple Literature notes should be written in your own words Live according to your own moral code to build self-esteem Localized teaching methods are not as broadly applicable as life principles Lower insulin causes weight loss Lucine, testosterone, and HGH have positive affects on vitality, but might be pro-aging in the long run Make before you manage in order to be in control of your day Making the other side feel heard in a negotiation can lead to a better outcome Many chronic diseases are mitochondrial disease1 Math is the foundation of human thought, and set theory is the foundation of math Meet local people that you find interesting when you travel, continue to visit them2 Meeting new people when traveling expands weak connections2 Memes trickle down into harder mediums3 Mental depression factors Millenarianism Mirroring in a negotiation involves repeating one to three words of what someone just said, helping them hear themselves while connecting your ideas Money as knowledge makes capital evolve over time Moral beauty is everyday acts of kindness, giving, compassion, and connection3 Moral elevation is witnessing positive actions that make us feel like we're capable of more2 Moral perfection according to Benjamin Franklin1 Most of the things one is grateful for come from other people1 Most of traditional finance work time is spent keeping assets and contracts in sync Most polynomial time problems have practical algorithms Not every calorie eaten is a calorie absorbed Notes are meant to either be lost or connected to others1 Omega-6 fatty acids were much less common before seed oils1 Onboarding employees should start with embracing change Organizational entropy increases over time P versus NP Page 19 thinking means creating a version of something and asking someone to help you make it better People can be tortured into greatness People develop a sense for compound interest over time, but start with the rote rules first2 People experience awe most often in response to moral beauty2 People remember negative traits more often than positive ones1 People within an organization should have a user guide plastic toxicity Practice solving problems by avoiding researching the solution2 Praise that attaches identity to performance can be problematic1 Psychological distancing as a technique to better deal with stress1 Put most of your resources on a few high-return bets Quality as a way of life is how you avoid practicing sloppiness1 Quality can be thought of as event that happens, where the observer is finally able to be aware of both subjects and objects1 Quality is inherently encouraging4 Quality performance is generic across any art1 Quantum computing will help blur the line between classical observers and quantum phenomena1 Questions to ask yourself during trying times Reading books is better than consuming news1 Refuse to enter the arena Remember the times you've succeeded in the past1 Research as a leisure activity is about play2 Retinol protects the skin and reduces skin cancer risk Save time earlier in the day to peruse scrolling and foraging behavior (like Twitter), leverage the inspiration during creative hours later in the day.1 Self-taught individuals contribute significantly to cultural knowledge outside formal institutions Short form content filters the best ideas2 Short online content disincentivizes revisitation2 Skepticism does not require naivete1 Skeptics think like scientists1 Slave mentality is only doing work when whipped or when a carrot is present1 Sloppy writing means sloppy thinking Social media is a cynicism factory1 Social support buffers stress1 Spending time with _good_ people in a social setting is critical to being a well functioning human.1 Stick to your deep commitments, there will always be something else to observe as a distraction Synthetic fats to avoid Systems and institutions work because of individual weakness Talk to people to increase positive emotion Talking to yourself in third person helps reduce feelings of nervousness and can increase performance Technology is a mix of nature and human spirit Technology is built to solve a problem, but when it isn't also built to be beautiful as well, we will occasionally suffer from it Testing is the best way to offset forgetting1 The average person underestimates the average person1 The best way to study and learn is to offset forgetting2 The classical observer does not exist3 The continuum hypothesis says that there are no intermediate infinities between the finite, countably infinite, and infinite cardinalities The pebbles in Amory park are sunken into the soil in the winter The perfect day exercise The SAD score for tracking weekly self-destruction The second incompleteness theorem says that consistent axioms cannot prove their own consistency The secret to goal pursuit is to have both delayed and immediate rewards1 The state of mind and body is strongly influenced by recent states The term computer came from the person that would do hand calculations The Way of Myself17 The word "negotiation" comes from ancient roman culture of "not leisure" being considered work The younger you are, the more you should say yes There are an infinite amount of infinities There are now 4 times as many men who aren't interested in finding work as there were during the great depression Thinking of outcome during process is premature Time-constructibility To avoid the rabbithole of excellence, focus on being fulfilled by the ordinary and enjoy the effort of achievement itself Train in the discomfort of learning to refocus yourself Translate what you read into reality1 Treating others in a cynical way can bring out the worse in them1 Treating research as a form of play allows freedom from the pressure of immediate utility Try to create more, consume less. It's a balance of course, but consummation is stronger pulling, so fight towards creation.4 Turing's halting problem makes Godel's theorems trivial to prove Two problems are Turing equivalent if both are reducible to each other Two sets have the same cardinality if they can be mapped one to one Underscore's 7 A's Understanding quality leads to gumption1 Use a calendar instead of a todo list Use digital platforms to share genuine, real-world efforts3 Venture capital is about building long-lasting companies and pushing new industries forward We are often at our best, and most productive, when we're around good people.We are spirits having a human experience We condemn in others what we fear the most in ourselves We depend on our microbiome, more so than it depends on us1 We only need a few secure friends to not feel incessantly driven by the status game1 Welcome to my note box1 When I sit down, I try to control the descent When learning new techniques, lower overall goals and scale up immediate goals, and allow for indefinite amount of time When setting goals, it's more valuable to set good yearly goals than it is to set good daily goals.When the rest of the world is mad, we must immitate them in some measure, and let the devil take the hindmost Work like a Lion. Complete your tasks in sprints. Any time allotted will be used up and result in inefficiencies. Set a time to start and get it done.1 Write a letter to your future self to internalize that life is a relay race and not a sprint1 Write about a negative experience four consecutive times Writing the bad code will save you time in the future You are likely to believe the things that you hope for1 You have a 400% increase in death by being in the lowest quartile of fitness Young talent amplifies the work of experienced talent Zeroth principles thinking is a level below first principles thinking, focusing on the structure of things rather the laws of the system1 Zettelkasten is about simplicity1