[Health] Guts and Brain

This article was originally submitted for a writing contest held by billionaire Naveen Jain's bio company Viome.

The idiom “you are what you eat” may be based more on reality than you might think. Scientific research is beginning to better understand the connection between bacteria in the digestive system and its impact on the neurological system. Metazoans, such as humans, are significantly affected by gut bacteria (known as microbiota) in critical aspects of our physiology – notably our brain through metabolism and the immune system. The human body contains trillions of microorganisms – outnumbering human cells by 10 to 1 – with many of them being in our gut starting from the esophagus and ending in the colon.

Microbiota regulates the metabolism of humans through generating a concoction of essential vitamins and other nutrients for the host. Upon consuming complex carbohydrates, microbiota metabolize the fiber into short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) such as acetate, butyrate, and propionate. SCFAs produced in our intestines travel not only into our blood serum but these fatty acids can also cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB). One particular SCFA –acetate—affects changes in the hypothalamus, altering physiology, which leads to hormone signals being produced which give a sense of satiety. A small study with humans has shown that consuming such complex carbohydrates leads to feeling full.

The Super Nova

Disclaimer:
This article was originally written and posted by Nishanth Sasankan on August 13, 2012 on Facebook.

The world, always has a number one. It always did and it always will. Empires, kingdoms, monarchs and dictators all come and go. Like fall after spring and spring after fall, they all come and go, merely to be engraved somewhere into the lost pages of history. Most or at least a good portion of us have at some point wished to be there. Some for acceptance, some just for vanity and some to fill in the gaps of the cheese called ego. We run faster, struggle harder and fight longer with the world around us to reach that peak. To stand upon that peak where people have to look up to you and you can look down to others; to get that surge of feeling better than the world around you; oh what an intoxicating state of mind. Yet soon after your time, generations flow along with time virtually not caring what or who you were. Pages of history which will never be turned again. How sad it is that those pages in which you struggled to remain shall loose its glow and remains closed.

This note is not about those who came and went, it is about those who stayed and continues to remain in the brightest pages. Men and  women who's brightness shines as a beacon of inspiration for my time and for the next. It is about those who remained as an underdog, it is about those who were never heard of until one singular moment in time where they made the passing threshold. It is about men and women who competed and struggled, but not with others or the world around them, but with themselves. It is about those who aspired to make the best of themselves and not to be the best among others. Our society sets us on a race to have the best grades, best salary, best houses and even down to the best credit scores. we live in a world in which we are always in a relative position to others around us. Few escape the great race of life and even fewer prove they were right to do so.

True glory lies in those who became part of that beacon of inspiration, the ones that remained dormant for years until one day became a super nova. Became the brightest of us all and outshines a million stars that has ever come and gone. Who among us will start to look at themselves and realize their potential to inspire the life of others? Who among us will deny power and embrace humility ? Who among us will see the person next to us as a powerful super nova, as they see themselves? Who among us will shine brighter than a million suns, to spread hope, inspiration and peace? Who will be the next super nova for my time and the next..........?     

Entrepreneurship: Not Just Dreaming

From reading the book Linchpin by Seth Godin and talking to Nishanth earlier, I understand that I should start working on my dreams and actually finish them. Otherwise, I should just suck up and get a mediocre job. It has been clear to Nishanth for a while that I say the words "I am going to do <something>..." too much and actually do too little.

Frankly, what I have achieved so far with projects and ideas have mostly been of other people's origins. I have many original ideas not conceived by others but I have yet to reach a satisfied level of completion in my view. The reason in the past was due to a naive assumption that I can just work on something for a month or so and the results will be there. Over the last two years since graduation, I realized that anything worthy of doing takes at least half a year or more of persistent effort. For this reason, in recent times, I have done less with my own ideas and concentrated working on group projects.

In other words, the reason today for failing to accomplish my own ideas is because since I know how hard it is and how much persistent effort I have to put in, I have been reluctant to start with the fear that I won't have enough time or energy and will merely get disappointed and give up like in the past. Yet, from talking with Nishanth today and reading the book by Seth Godin, it's clear to me that I should pursue my own ideas and not give up. If I decide to choose the more difficult path of pursuing a dream, I should have enough willpower and persistence to both start and complete it.

As Nishanth said earlier today, "Too much dreaming is when there's no work. Even if you just have two dreams but don't do any work, that's still too much dreaming. Realizing a dream is hard. Realizing a normal life (a defined job) is relatively easy."

I Read What I Write

Nishanth asked me yesterday if I ever read what I wrote. I told him typically no. Then he joked that I should just write on a white board and erase it every time I wish to write more. Truth be told, I used to read what I wrote more often. I still have my past journals from when I was a child that I would flip through occasionally. In recent years though, I have wrote things of more substantial nature but rarely read them.

The famous novelist Toni Morrison said that she wrote her first novel since she wanted to read it. Similarly, for much of what I write, I wish to understand and reflect on my own ideas and thoughts. Writing serves to preserve that and creates a structure in otherwise haphazard thoughts. In other words, for much of what I write, I like remember what I wrote for myself to remember and not necessarily for others to read.

So I took some time today and read my past entries from November that's worthy of remembering:

1. Quotes from Shen Ge

"I have to stand up on two legs before I can run to any endeavor with full passion."

"It's suffocating to be surrounded by people you can't really relate to.

"I must build a strong foundation in a relationship with my physical presence before I can leave."

"Take a stand now and suffer in the short term for the long term good." 

"There should be a highlight of each day that I look forward to."

2. Look over maps! That was a childhood hobby of mine. Recover it.

3. The number of radio stations in the country is distributed according to its population density. Is there an equation which can connect the two values?

N = f(R)

where N is the population density in a 100 km radius and R is the number of radio stations in a 100 km radius.

4. Optimal life needs to have activities filling up every box between being alone and with others.

	Alone	Couple	Group
Work
Play

5. From Strengths Finder 2.0, I know I am Futuristic, Ideation, Intellection, and Significance. I should do some of the tips to improve my life.

• Read articles on tech, science, and research to gain fuel for my imagination.
• Study fields and industries different from my own.
• Organize groups that discuss my interest area.
• Write articles to give me visibility.
• Volunteer to speak in front of a group who'll admire my achievements.
• Imagine I'm on stage with my every action.

6. Alice, a Carnegie Mellon free software, encourages people to create animations and games. In truth, it is an example of a "head fake", making people think they're just playing games when really they're learning. I should do the same for my own projects to increase user usage.

7. Quote from Nishanth Sasankan

"One problem at a time. Don't try to do everything at once. Like a multi-stage rocket, if the boost comes too early, your rocket can explode."

Self-Improvement: Forming Habits

I have formed a habit of playing the piano everyday but not yet for writing fiction. How I formed the piano-playing habit is forcing myself to play at least 15 minutes every morning right after I wake up. 15 minutes is not a long time and I haven't yet started any other activity which would occupy my mind with urgency. After I formed the piano-playing habit, I feel urges to play piano regardless of the time though it's usually still shortly after I wake up.

I can apply the same strategy to writing fiction. I can just write for 15 minutes every morning before doing other things. By repeating this at least daily, I'll form a habit where I'll be compelled to do so without much resistance. I'm spending some time writing a science fiction story in my notebook regularly over the last few weeks. Writing on paper is actually faster for me than typing it on the computer. When I'm typing I often want to edit grammatically or stylistically while I'm writing on paper I don't worry about that. Instead, I get the content down and I'll worry about the details later.

My Rocket Journey

My journey towards my dreams is like a multistage rocket heading out to space. First, I set my coordinates and then the path to get there. I made sure that my dream was higher up than many so that my trajectory would be more inclined towards the vertical than the horizontal. I would like my rocket to spend most of its journey heading up instead of horizontally.

Unfortunately, over the last years, I have uncovered that one of my rocket engines on the second stage are failing. A failed second stage prevents the third stage or any stage after that from firing. The spectators believe this is since I haven't fired my engines with full thrust. Since they are not the chief engineer in charge of the rocket design, they don't know that one of my engines is misfiring in the opposite direction of flight. Tired of trying to explain and not seeing continued results, I informed the spectators that I'll be taking a break from test launching rockets.

Instead, I retreated to my machine shop and thoroughly examined the malfunctioning engine. Previously, quick fixes were applied to satisfy the launch dates set by spectators. Now, I decided to work on my own schedule and repair the engine as much as possible before continuing. In the coming months, I hope to recover it well enough that I can once again launch.

企业家的必有：智商（IQ）和情商（EQ）

昨日我妈给我发了一篇新闻讲英国的一个叫Nick D'Alosio的高中生卖了他的软件给雅虎公司，一下子就得到估计三千万美元，并且立马成为雅虎的一位雇员。当我读了New York Times^的新闻报告之后，我对他的背景起码有了初步的了解，尤其注意了他同时拥有智商和情商。他的智商必定很显然，能编出算法可以缩短长篇信息给读者轻易的读是需要高等的技术。可使他可以在十五岁就拿到风险资本家的支持是因为他有充分的情商，知道怎么跟人家说明他的想法并且可以使人家对他有信任。Brian Wong，之前世上最年轻收到创业基金的企业家，说Nick D'Alosio没有任何犹豫或不安全感，明确表达了他对Summly软件的目标。

在科技世界里同时拥有智商情商的人并不多，往往技术人员缺少情商而商人却缺少科技智商*。当我在学校时上有关商业课时，我发现学商业的学生打扮外貌和表达能力远远超过工程学生的。出了校园在各种活动上我发现并没有太多的区别，在跟某个陌生人在某个会场沟通时，我一般可以猜测这位是否是工程师或科学家。我建议缺少情商的人该把自己放到不太舒服的社交环境里，逼自己实验怎么跟外人交流！同时我也建议缺少智商的人该花时间学些技术性的知识或技术，多读读科技的报纸很文章，试试编写一些简单的程序，或做些简单的实验，这样说不定在脑子里会突然冒出个千万美元的主意！

^http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/26/business/media/nick-daloisio-17-sells-summly-app-to-yahoo.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1364394786-sLelxUMGe6Xfywh43ep8uQ

*在这里，我指的智商是对科技有关的知识和技术。

Self-Improvement: Skills and Knowledge/技术和知识

Someone told me recently that highlighting my skills is better than pigeon-holding my role to that of aerospace. In other words, my skills can be transferable across multiple disciplines whereas my knowledge typically cannot. Skills is the how while knowledge is the what.

While doing research though, much of what happens initially is not developing skills but rather building a foundation of knowledge. The knowledge give you the bricks that can form a house and the skills give you the tools to put the bricks together. Without knowledge, just having skill is not enough while with skill and no knowledge, you have to learn a lot.

My mother is a good example. When she switched from forestry to oncology (cancer research), she had to quickly build her knowledge of the human body. Previously, she only knew about plant cells so she had to learn about human cells from the bottom up. However, since she had the skills of a molecular biologist, she could still do research while learning about how the human cells work.

If you only have skills and knowledge, you can be a good scientist or engineer but not an excellent one. The last element you need is creativity. This will be discussed in another short essay later.

今早当我在洗澡时，突然想起来一月前修改简历的事情。一个在石油行业的家伙打了电话给我提议我的简历需要修改因为我在上面提到太多次“太空”这个词，说我因该强调我的可以多种行业运转的技术。

但是，当在做研究时，不少一开始发生的不是发展技术而是建立知识基础。知识会给你可以建好房子的砖块，技术可以给你工具拼合砖块。两项不能缺少一项。

我母亲是个好例子。当她从林学转到肿瘤学时，她之前只懂植物细胞，没研究过人体细胞。但是因为她有分子生物学的技术，当她在学人体细胞是同时可以做研究。

要是你只有技术和知识，你可以是个不错的科学家或工程师但不可能是个优秀的。最后需要的成分是创造力。这在以后的短篇散文再提吧。

Self-improvement: Temporary Inspiration Syndrome

A few months ago, I was swept up in the idea of making a high-altitude balloon with GPS sensors. Then, I realized I had to learn Arduino and some electronics. I stopped after a short while when I decided that my time is better spent on something else. In the past, I have also started and stopped on the flying airship, the social media website, and the calendar tracking website just to name a few.

These are what I will call "temporary inspiration." Creative people often encounter these temporary inspirations where action often does not or fails to continue after the initial idea is formed. Crossing the gap between your imagination and reality takes time and dedication. Yet, man creative types just find the step of taking action to be not nearly as interesting as the original idea itself. Besides, there's always more inspirational ideas which pop up in a creative's mind that takes his or her attention away from the often boring process of action. Unfortunately, temporary inspiration syndrome which creatives suffer results in nothing substantial created by creatives since they never finish what they start.

How can we ensure that temporary inspiration syndrome is not a persistent defect in a creative? The solution here is to not find the most inspiring idea since to a creative, the next new idea is always more inspiring, but rather to consciously create an external environment which will reinforce her efforts. There are several ways to do this but I'll just highlight three:

1. Build a team composed of at least one person who is a hardworking non-creative. A team, especially one backed up by people with more focus, enforces persistent work done on the same project through mutual accountability.

2. Find a client or potential client. Although it may sound counter-intuitive to find a client before even finishing a project, this is actually done quite frequently when the project requires funds you don't have which will require outside investors. By having an external agent which requires a certain level of competence, you're more likely to work on it.

3. Have immediate feedback. For instance, if you wish to write a book, don't isolate yourself in your room and just write page after page if you suffer from temporary inspiration syndrome. Instead, write a page or two and share it on a forum or blog. The people's comments will keep you accountable and inspired to continue knowing that this material is actually worth reading. The same process of breaking down into little steps that's immediately recognizable also applies to writing software or designing a product though these large projects also require having a team for timely conclusion.

If you have more suggestions or thoughts, I'll certainly be glad to hear it.

Self-improvement: Life is a Banquet

While driving a friend home, he brought up the question that I asked him a while ago: "If your life is a movie, will people want to watch it?" He told me that if the last six years of his life is the same level of excitement as most people's entire lives, he can see why they all think that their life movie is too boring to watch.

He had told me a number of interesting stories in his life that I would definitely pay to watch if it was a movie. Yet, what's sad is that many people think that he's making things up. Those things coulnd't possibly have happened in his life! He couldn't possibly have had the grandest time in Hong Kong just because he knocked out a guy at a bar to save a girl's honor. He couldn't possibly have grabbed a gun away from an idiot rich guy in front of a club and later won a sham court case for his amazing restraint in not beating the guy up. He couldn't possibly have dressed up as a black guy and walked down some ghetto neighborhoods to see what would happen.

I have stories as well but many of the more interesting ones may give me a bad reputation so I'll refrain from telling them here. The bottom line is many people's lives are apparently so boring that they'll rather believe that such tales can only happen in movies. Yet, they watch adapted movies which show ordinary people encountering interesting situations and they believe those stories. I find it funny that many people will rather believe in a story that's probably edited and dramatized for TV production rather than someone who's telling them face-to-face a segment of his or her life.

There's a quote from a character called Aunte Mame in a movie:

"Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death."

My question to you is if you're at a banquet hall with a table full of action, new characters, and plot twists, why are you starving in a corner instead of taking your seat at the table?

Self-improvement: The Lunge or Leap of Faith

There are times when you realize that you're caught up in the doldrums of daily depressing repetition that you feel utterly chained to its worthless mediocrity. You can find yourself doing the same tedious work, talking to the same people entertaining the same thoughts, and doing the same things before you fall asleep every night. As these mostly irrelevant moments of your life pile upon each other like layers of snow, your embers of life is slowly buried in this frosty entombment.

At this moment, you may realize your sad life and in desperation you go for the lunge. The lunge is the last ditch effort to free yourself from the snow of repetitive nothingness that has buried your embers of life. (Heavens forbid if you find yourself so deeply buried in snow that you can't even move your feet.) A close relative of the leap of faith, the lunge is distinguished from its cousin since it is an act of desperation whereas the leap of faith is an act of free choice.

A few days ago before I flew back to the states, I encountered on the same day two occasions two girls who decided to travel spontaneously. One has taken a lunge whereas the other has taken an act of faith. The girl who chooses to quit her bartending job and travel for months in Europe since she wants to escape the daily mediocrity of her work and life is taking the desperate lunge. The girl who chooses to quit her teaching job and travel for months in Europe to gain experience in her life before she returns to a teaching lifestyle is taking a leap of faith.

If we can take a leap of faith to refresh our lives, that will be ideal. However, that is the ideal world and sometimes in this real world, the lunge, despite its nature of desperation, is the only way to radically rejuvenate ourselves and discover once more why we choose to live. The alternative is to let ourselves atrophy in a sad cocoon of reality where without outside intervention (unlikely), our accumulated apathy towards our own lives leads us to the end of our lives, either literally or figuratively. What do you choose to do?

Self-improvement: Reinventing Yourself

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about re-inventing yourself. Then, today I randomly meet this 38-year-old martial artist/jewelry businessman/pre-med student/father who has been doing it all his life. Reinventing yourself is something that we can all learn to do. Let me give you a short synopsis of his.

Growing up in the states, he never went to high school or even middle school. Instead, he shuffled back and forth between Asia and the states learning martial arts from a Korean monk who was like a second father to him. Later, he joined the army. Then, he got involved in the diamonds business where dirty business is common. Eight times he was followed after leaving the bank with the diamonds. He always carried a gun with him to protect himself from the Korean underworld, Columbian mobsters, etc. that attempted to take the goods from him. Though it was dangerous, it was also lucrative. He managed to earn enough money to buy a nice house in the middle of nowhere in Alaska. That was great but his wife left him and departed with his daughter still in the womb. He followed her to Texas and somehow got custody of the child. Now, he has decided to be a good father and get a college education so he can become a doctor.

Clearly, this guy is very good at continually reinventing himself to have fun and to survive in this world. This is a key life skill which I think many of us never develop, especially for those of us who come from stable families. I can tell you that my personal story so far has been the singular linear path of school. My ignorance of this world is so profound that it's startling.

There's many people, perhaps including yourself, which has followed a similar linear path and have not yet seen how limited your view of the world truly is. You may very well continue the linear path of school to work with a few weeks of vacation every year to retirement without even thinking. Now, I'm not saying that you should go crazy and go rob a bank or overdose yourself with drugs, but I am saying that you should find a way to continually transform what you do since how else can you broaden your view of the world and truly say that you're living life?

To give you an idea, currently, I'm discarding my student entity and reinventing yourself as an entrepreneur but that is just one stage. What's next? I don't know when I'll do all this but I know it will happen in the next few years:

1. Reinvent myself as a world traveler and travel writer/photorapher. I will spend at least a year traveling the world keeping a journal of my days. At the end of my travels, I will hop around different cafes around Europe and compile the book to be published.

2. Reinvent myself as a film director. I really enjoy watching films and I have attempted to write a few screenplays. To film one myself will be awesome. I will spend a year or two interning to learn the basics of film production before going into directing one myself.

3. Reinvent myself as a psychologist or counselor. Many people have told me that I'm very good at helping them see what their issues are. I can go to school, get a degree, and then open my own practice. People can be fascinating and to understand different types of people is quite rewarding. I have decided that I'll do this when I'm old and (hopefully) well-respected.

So ask yourself this:

How will you reinvent yourself in your life?

Self-improvement: Switching Mental Eyes

Everyone sees the world in different ways. This statement appears very obvious. Let's be more specific. Artists see the world in one way. Engineers a different way. Writers still another way. Entrepreneurs yet another way. I consider myself an amalgmation of those different perspectives. When I observe a scene, I typically see from one of these perspectives. The artist and writer's perspectives come easiest to me but that's probably because I often carry a camera and notepad with me so I have trained myself to see the world like that by default.

Still, I find the world to be quite more of an exciting place when I will my mind to take on another perspective, or the coined phrase "mental eye". The scene is the same but what you see is often completely different. I believe that the ability to adopt different mental eyes may be directly related to creativity.

Though this requires some mental flexibility, if you can do this, you can get so much more from the world. A simple example is just by looking at an old fire hydrant. The photographer side of me sees the paint peeling off in a display of neglect and an odd patchwork of patterns due to it. There is some beauty to that.

I switch to the engineer eye. I see that there is an opening for a fireman to attach a hose to. Instantly, a number of questions assault me as I realize my own ignorance. The engineering mental eye for me is especially good at revealing my own ignorance in how the world works.

I start wondering what the water pressure for these things typically are. Does it vary with the location of the fire hydrant? Say the fire hydrant was 20 feet higher, will it be in a less effective spot due to possible lower water pressure? So is the placement usually in the highest possible spot and closest location to a building? What about the size of the hose? Was it designed just to fit a certain hose radius? It looks like it but of course the hose end can have an adapter that fits the fire hydrant so that probably resolves it. What about its interior? How many valves and pipes are in there and what's the design? When a fireman wants water, he just loosens the cap doesn't he? What's to stop from the water pressure suddenly gushing out and hitting him in the face? That seems a rather stupid design if true. No, there must be a valve that is turned on when the fireman presses a switch on the hose end that will be attached to the opening. I'm imagining something like a gas pump.

I switch to the entrepreneur eye. I see a disused neglected piece of equipment. I'm wondering why it's neglected to such a state. Fire hydrants I believe are maintained by the city government. This here means that the city is lacking some funds to maintain the city's equipment. Perhaps the reason is due to this one's remote location. Yet, the infrastructure supporting this fire hydrant still exists. Is it possible for a private company to renovate these fire hydrants? Of course that's possible but if the city had funds for that it would have done so. How about the reverse? Do they still work Need to investigate lifetime of fire hydrants under state of neglect. If it's over the expected lifetime, a company can remove these since they might pose a public health hazard. What possible health hazards? I'm not sure but it deserves investigation. That's just one business case. Maybe there's others. Considering the out-of-way location of this one and possibly others, they will not be missed here. Is there enough fire hydrants in neglect though to justify a venture here?

That's just one example of a rather mundane object. As you observe in life, there are millions of others. In other words, this world is really cool if you just pay attention and observe.

Self-improvement: Why Do People Seek Trouble and Drama?

Why do people seek drama? A good question and something that's related to the previous entry on Wang Xiaobo's "Extreme Experiences". Wang Xiaobo took his Chinese cultural revolution experience and ancient writings as his lens to see the issue. However, Steven Pressfield, the author of The War of Art, takes another perspective on the individual's need for excitement.

This short book contains small prose passages with a lesson contained in each meant to inspire and guide the artist and writer. One of the central themes is the concept of Resistance and how that prevents us from attaining what we most desire. Steven writes this on the needless drama that some people pursue:

We get ourselves in trouble because it's a cheap way to get attention. Trouble is a faux form of fame. It's easier to get busted in the bedroom with the faculty chairman's wife than it is to finish that dissertation on the metaphysics of motley in the novellas of Joseph Conrad.

...Anything that draws attention to ourselves through pain-free or artificial means is a manifestation of Resistance.

Cruelty to others is a form of Resistance, as is the willing endurance of cruelty from others.

The working artist will not tolerate trouble in her life because she knows trouble prevents her from doing her work. The working artist banishes from her world all sources of trouble. She harnesses the urge for trouble and transforms it in her work.

Self-improvement: Communication Between Levels

Take a look at the following drawing depicting people walk around on different platforms of various heights. If you understand this diagram, you understand what I'm referring to here by people are on different levels of understanding of this world. A person on a certain level can always engage with those on his or her equal or lower level. For a person on a lower level to engage someone on a higher level, either someone on the higher level must jump down to the lower level or the person on the lower level must wisen up enough to permanently upgrade him or herself to the higher level.

Several examples may suffice to illustrate my point. Consider why a child is bored by "adult talk". Oftentimes, it's not that the child doesn't understand what the adults are talking about but rather that the child doesn't see its importance. I remember that when I was a kid I quickly zoned out whenever a grown-up conversation started between my parents on things such as buying school supplies, cleaning up the home, what clothes I need, etc. I mostly care about when I get to visit a good friend of mine, what books and games I can buy next, and if there's anything interesting to watch on TV. You can see how narrow and limited a typical child's perspective is.

Another example is when wise men of the world had to explain "how to live life" concepts to the average man. They almost never say whatever concept directly; instead, they depend on allegorical stories and parables to reach out to a wider audience. Clearly, most people aren't capable of understanding profound truths unless it's dumbed down to practicalities that they can understand.

The lesson here is that whenever you're communicating with someone, make sure that you can be on the same level as him or her. Note that it's much easier to go down than up, e.g. it's much easier for an adult to understand child talk than a child to understand what adults are talking about. So what does this mean? Three things:

1. Surround yourself with people that's on the same level as you if you wish to communicate easily.

2. Study and interact with those on higher levels than you to learn and "level up" eventually.

3. Interact with those on lower levels than you to bring their awareness to what's missing. This may not always work but at least it's worth some of your time. An enlightened individual should not hesitate to give understanding to the ignorant. The question is only how much time you have for such an unequivalent exchange.

Self-improvement: Combine Scattered Thoughts (结合分散的思维)

对我来说，写作就象某些酒鬼的喝酒的滋味。他们不喝酒会感到好压抑，类似如我不写我会感到很不妥。只有把我的心思写出去才可以心里放松些，知道虽然大部分可能不是聪慧过人的思想，可最起码这道思维不会因为没写下来传达给别人而睡了一觉就永远消失了。我平时写的是用英语不过我发现写中文是更有挑战性，并且我也不知不觉地克服了我之前的障碍，那就是担心人家看不起我。就用中文语言的列子吧，我之前老是觉得我就是因为说的不行，至少得写出些像样的著作来弥补，可以翻词典什么的来拉近这个距离。其实我发觉这么做使我十分讨厌用中文来表达自己，你想想每隔几句我得翻一下词典（或Google）确认一下那一段是不是都正确是十分劳累并且不最有效的方法。

我想到这次去罗马尼亚的经验，虽然在那边只待了一周多，我却学到了些不少单词跟当地历史和文化。这就是因为我没不敢问人家怎么讲这个那个，就是因为公开自己的无知才会有所长进。通过这次旅行我深刻地意识到能互相吸收人生经验和知识是十分有意义的，也许就是因为我跟对方有大量区别才会有大量收获。我这个人的习惯就是随时带着笔跟个本子，这样随时从周围观察或跟人家交流学到的都可以保证不会忘掉，唯一的不好就是当我同时也戴着单反相机时有几次有人会以为我是记者。可我现在想也未必是件坏事，下次要是这样的我可以假扮为记者的位置。其实记者是挺有自由的，像这次旅行待在我旅馆楼下的就是德国的一个记者，他是很有理由跟开会场合的科技人物提问（不过可惜的就是他并没这么做，恐怕他还不敢显示自己的无知）。

跟他聊了之后，我发现自己很想追要他的生活方式，去世界各个地方采取信息写文章。其实我是经常睡眠醒后就会有个想脱离一切的愿望，把一切扔下拿起旅行包就走。究竟去哪我也不是百分之百清楚，不过不用说肯定比留在此地的感觉好！可惜那只是一瞬间，白日梦做完了就得想到今天的某某任务。我从罗马尼亚回来的那一天就做了几个旅行的白日梦，是想脱离当场的责任。这就是我个人所常见的矛盾，一个人要是完全自由那同时很可能一事无成，可要是完全专注责任那同时就对这世界的好奇跟灵感（这可是比生命有价值的东西……）。我想做的给我目前非得做的有时一致可也经常分裂。

想结合这些是需要三项策划。首先对我必须做的但没什么兴趣的行动我得尽量在新环境完成，记得有几次开车去陌生德州小镇的咖啡店或公园做事使我的心情很快地好转。第二就是每周我得有个小项目能完成，即使是大项目不过能把它切成小项目来完能给我动力。第三就是跟人家分享我的想法，我几年前才体会到我其实是外向的，外向的人精力一般来自跟人家的社交。

我想这几项策划不仅对我一个人有帮助，因为我发现像所有的人，我周围熟悉的人一般跟我的世界观点有些类似，也许这也可以用在你的生活上。不妨你试试看一看有什么收获？

Self-improvement: Justifications on Mental State

They say people are good at justifying their actions, whether good or bad. I suppose that's true since I'm doing that now for why I slept 12 hours earlier without eating anything. No, it's not jet lag since I could have woken up 6 hours ago.

Brief disclaimer: To be noted is that justifying actions often makes more sense to the justifier than other people. For me, it was apparent enough that to give in to temporary madness is to have greater focus later.

I have noticed my hunger for creating knowledge and doing projects is directly linked with my physical hunger for food. However, just physical deprivation isn't enough. There is also often the important condition of no outside distractions. This is especially true for activities that I deem boring but necessary to do.

This other condition is universally applicable but hard to apply during daytime since inevitably I do not want to be cooped up inside when the sun's still shining. If I look at today, my thoughts earlier were as such: If I wake up now, I will most likely go to a coffee shop where I'll proceed to work and eat some food. Then a few hours later, I'll socialize, come home, and sleep.

This doesn't sound like a bad arrangement but I knew that I needed more time than a few hours. When I get home I indubiably will not do more work since I'll already be satiated for the day.

This can be resolved by preparing a mental state where I can do more work. This is analogous to the phenomenon of supersaturation where under certain circumstances a solution can contain more dissolved material than under normal circumstances.

Here, analogously I can do more work if I put myself in a state of greater pressure by depriving myself of food and outside distractions which is much more likely at night when everyone else is sleeping.

What I've been wondering for some time now is whether there's some healthier alternatives to reaching this supersaturated state. Self-deprivation of food is not a sustainable process in the long run and not interacting with others at certain times may not only be considered selfish and unreliable but also miss important opportunities.

Literature: Red Light

Don't ever let people decide how you should travel in this road of life. Wrote this poem as a simple message of that:

Red light of the sun

Fading into the night

I'll shut the shutters

I'll sit and just breathe

I breathe in sorrow

The slave of your world

Every little action

Only falls onto me

To follow your words

Is to just wait there

At the crossroads of life

Stopping at your red light

But do you know?

On this journey

Only change can happen

When I change myself

Red light of the sun

Giving away to the night

I'll shut the shutters

I'll sit and just breathe

Breathe of peace

The ruler of my world

Courage of conviction

In everything I do

So I say I believe in you

Do you believe in me?

Self-improvement: Efficient Management of Time

There is a difference between someone being effective and someone being efficient. The former is doing the things that get you closer to your goals. The latter is doing things regardless of their importance in the most economical manner.

For instance, a door-to-door salesperson is very efficient at selling door-to-door but he is utterly ineffective. He could just use email or direct mail.

Two things to keep in mind that might be fairly obvious but often overlooked are:

1. Doing something unimportant well does not make it important.

2. Requiring much time does not make a task important.

The key is realizing that WHAT you do is far more important than HOW you do it. Efficiency is only secondary to effectiveness.

How do you become more effective? The key is having more time by doing less. OK. what does that mean? Many people define a to-do list. But how many people also define a not-to-do list? Probably not many do.

A daily to-do list should only have one or two items. Just ask yourself this simple question: "If I can only do one (or two) thing(s) today, what will it be?" How you identify these crucial items is as simple as asking yourself "If this is the only thing I accomplish today, will I be satisfied with my day?" Make sure that you accomplish the task listed in your to-do list no matter what by the end of the day. Be realistic with your daily milestones but don't make them too easy to achieve! If you have to sacrifice a social life or a late charge on loans for it so be it.

Just setting one or two tasks a day is already cutting your workload dramatically. But you have to do some them efficiently. This can be forced through using a timer on a stopwatch or this website:

http://e.ggtimer.com/5minutes

(or 1hour or whatever after the second slash)

This is a set limit on the amount of time you have in accomplishing the task. Remember that you're still expected to finish the task by the end of the day so be generous with yourself.

To generate a not-to-do list is almost as easy as generating a to-do list and there will actually be more items. Ah, don't you feel good being lazy? Haha. Simply ask yourself what are the top three activities that I use to fill time to feel as though I've been doing something important. These are aka crutch activities, things that you do to avoid having to do things you really have to do but still have a little value so you don't feel completely bad. You might put things like watching the Discovery channel on TV, reading online news or blogs, and reading random books at a bookstore.

Another thing to note is managing interruptions. You might have the best plan in the world to execute your well-defined goal of the day but then you get that phone call from someone and you end up talking for over close to 2 hours. Then an urgent meeting that you just have to attend. Then some emails to send off. By the time you have lunch and get back, the day is about half over and you haven't even started on your daily goal.

What to do? Actually, it's tips that should go into a general not-to-list:

1. No phone calls while you're working unless it's urgent. Let people know this beforehand by setting a voicemail which tells people when not to bother you. Eventually people will get it.

2. Make business phone calls exactly that. Business phone calls. Do not go off on tangents or letting other people go on tangents by talking about the weather and such. Know beforehand what you're going to talk about.

3. No emails except 2-3 times daily at set times that you check. Recommended is 12PM, 4PM, or 8PM. Do not wake up and check your email immediately. If you do it in the morning, you can get trapped in this email hole which'll take up a good portion of your morning. Also do not check it at night. That will just give you insomnia.

4. No social networking sites, online chatting, watching TV, or any other time wasters except after you've finished your task for the day.

5. No meetings unless absolutely necessary. Meetings for the most part wastes a lot of time. Agree to no meeting where there's no clear agenda and end time. Otherwise, make excuses if you have to for why you bailed a meeting early or why you couldn't make it at all. Of course, always ask someone to email what was talked about at the meeting. Reading the email will take up a fraction of the time of going to the actual meeting. Repeat this enough times and people will get used to your permanent absence. Of course, you have to do actual work. Just make sure you do more work outside of meetings than in them. Let people know what you've done through more efficient means of communications--like talking to them when you actually have a problem or emailing status updates.

There you go. Just follow your to-do-list and not-to-do list (including the general ones listed above) and you should be on your way of using your time much more effectively. With these tips, you'll find that you have more time to do things that are not work. Remember that being overwhelmed is as bad as doing nothing. Having these lists daily will help make sure you fall into neither category.

Self-improvement: Balance of Thoughts on Time

I'm listening to some R&B while sipping on some green tea. My bedroom is tranquil and despite the time of the day has a feeling of permanent lethargy. It is an amazing ambience for reflection or slacking off but a terrible ambience for doing any real work. I use this thought to comfort myself on why I'm writing this instead of doing real work.

When I drive my mind naturally wanders, like yesterday when I daydreamed an epic story in my head for a good hour or so where a god had to do evil to ultimately achieve good but the heroes stayed ignorant of that until the end. There were some amazing graphic scenes and plenty of betrayals and unnecessary deaths. Let me digress no further. Before I jumped into this golden pit of illusions, I thought of an interesting psychological theory:

"Without a balance between thoughts on the past, present, and future, one can never be happy."

The amount of time one's mind dedicates to reflecting on the past, doing the present, and dreaming for the future should be in balance. For instance, if one excessively reflects on the past, one will be stuck in the mentality of past failures or past glories. This will likely cause the person to not like the present either due to regret of events that could not be changed or the seeming reality that the past is much better than the present. They may both be true but dwelling on it too much is harmful to one's mental stability.

Similarly, if one focuses on the present which is the "just do it" mentality, one can lose oneself in the daily reality of life. Where one came from and where one's going should not be ignored since otherwise one can wake up one morning and feel lost in the world. One has lost the meaning of one's life. Lastly, if one dreams too much on the future, one ends up doing nothing useful since the mind consistently dwells on fanciful daydreams.

So how do we find this balance between these thoughts? That depends on the individual since everyone is different. A systematic approach that may work is what I've been doing lately. Simply carry a notebook around with you and carry around a phone with an alarm. Set alarms for random times during the day. When the alarm sounds, write down three things: the time, what you're thinking, and how happy you are. At end of each day, you can take a look at your notebook and see a collage of snapshots of your thoughts during the day. You can repeat this for a week and observe the consistency of your thought inclinations.