Start with the fundamentals

What are the fundamentals upon which layers and layers of knowledge/skill/wisdom is laid? What is the most fundamental element of human advancement?

Emotional competence. Then concentration. Then thinking. Then critical thinking. Then creative thinking. Finally Responsible thinking.

Skills should develop in the given order. Otherwise, the layers of skills that develop will not sustain.

How to stick to new habits

I saw a good posting on lifehack.org today that says how to stick to your new habits and ditch the old ones. They are mostly common sensical, but they say the commonly overlooked ones are the obvious.

I am writing some of them here so that I don't lose track of them:

• Make it a 30 day habit.
• Keep it consistent - the environmental factors.
• Keep it daily - a lesser frequency won't make it sticky.
• Start simple - don't be overambitious in the beginning.
• Keep a remainder - this is the most common sensical thing.
• Use but - this seems to be a technique: when one is in a train of negative thoughts, interrupt them with but.
• Remove tempting elements from the environment
• Associate with role models
• Run it as an experiment - don't worry about the end result from the beginning, just continue with it for 30 days.
• Swish - a technique where one visualizes the -ve habit, then interrupts it with the +ve one and then at the end finally feeling very positive.

These are really good techniques - or hacks, to be precise. In fact it is also not wrong to keep all those one minute motivators handy so that it gives us some instant energy. I am gonna collect them and keep them somewhere.

What I am currently?

It looks like I am more unhappy about things, than I am happy. Why is it so? I am unhappy about the unconscious lives of the people surrounding me. Atleast that is what is my perception. I am unhappy about my unproductiveness. I am unhappy about the way morons keep progressing, while honest, straightforward people remain at the same level as they were. I am unhappy about the way people are so selfish without any care for the pain they inflict to others.

I am unhappy about the way I lead my life. I am unhappy about the way I spend my current moment, I am unhappy about thinking what to do in my current moment, I am unhappy about whatever I will do in the next moment. This way, I am not clear what I want exactly. Whoever I see/talk/encounter, I get a feeling that I am missing or have missed something in my life. Whatever comes to me I want it, but I don't care about it after sometime. I set some goals just like that and forget about it the next week. I have too much inferiority complex. I don't have commitment and discipline.

I am always unhappy about the present and crave for future. It was in my alma mater that I thought work life would be good, now here in work life, I am thinking some other kind of work life will be good. I am always chasing some vague dream, shaped only by some random impulses.

I keep thinking about all these things, yet I again think about them.

Endless desire

is the root cause for all the unhappiness. Be it in acquiring wealth, be it in having sex, be it in acquiring knowledge, endless desire is not worth it. At some point in time one has to be complacent with the knowledge.

Slow learning guy has posed an interesting question: will happiness lead to success or will success lead to happiness? May be it is either way round, provided that the end result of success really makes one happy.

There is some...

...insensible desire in me that makes me desire something which is not practically possible. I want to learn all things in a very small time. And I do somethings ostensibly.

Because of this desire, I have been wasting my time. Seeing all things at once, not sure what to start, get overwhelmed, get depressed and go to sleep. This is, in short, my vicious circle. I have to come out of this circle.

Also, no matter whoever says you can do something, you will have to experiment with it to find out. It is only by experimenting that one finds out whether one can do something or not. Atleast in this respect, what your instincts say may be wrong. Because instincts are, by nature, conservative. Instincts try to preserve your state so long as it is stable. It is you, with your consciousness, who have to push yourself. Can the meaning of life be framed like this?

Have patience in yourself. As usual, have some solid goals and move towards it.

I think

I have found my immediate goals:

Professional: To become a solid and highly professional software engineer. To be fast and dynamic and able to learn quickly.

Mental: To exercise critical thinking, creative thinking and independent thinking.

Physical: To flatten the stomach and exercise regularly.

Financial: Read up a lot of things and plan for future.

Social: To continue at the same pace for the moment.

What a disgusting day

Today was the most disappointing day. Shows some careless, shabby attitude that one is internally from. He kept seeing me. I really don't know why. Nevertheless, he was superb. He was fantastic. He was very caring. I was not that caring. I was jovial. I did not prepare well for the demo.

Something to think about. If one is really that shabby, then what use it is of a person in a project?
If one wants to rise to such heights, then one has to be really disciplined, committed and highly motivated enough.

First stop hating the job you are doing. That will ease the psyche off some tension and gives more joy. You are running a rat race. In fact, you don't even know which race you are running. That is a very bad thing. Whatever you see, you want it. Like a child. This is the big sucker of your time and energy. What should you be doing about it? Have goals. I was reading Robin Harris and he said analyzing the architecture is not his competence and requested someone to do that. He is clear about his job. He is clear about his core competencies. I am not clear about my goals. I am not clear about my core competencies. I should have some solid goals and need to have courage to follow my goals. For that you need to be very caring at your work. Do whatever you do with utmost care and love. It will give a lot of happiness. Start doing that first.