--- ## Notes/Brainstorming ### **✨** In My Life - I enjoy this weekly recap. - It's my version of learning in public for anyone else potentially interested in my chaotic intersection of interests - There's no major incentive for monetization or succumbing to algorithms - I am interested in PKM but if I were forced to write something once a week about it then I'd be burnt out fast 😅 - I get to spend time just reviewing my week, to maintain my vault - Experiment with different ways of expression, whether it be summarizing content or telling stories - One thing I do want to do is make it more link-based, hopefully I'll stop procrastinating on setting up a digital garden to share my book notes soon. - If you're facing information overwhelm, I recommend starting your own substack - Inspired by Vye's struggles with information overwhelm, I'm going to spend a week going through my vault and organizing my notes, abstaining from content consumption aside from my morning walks to keep up with PTYA lectures. - Potentially making a video on cleaning my second brain - Been chipping away at PTYA - Content is useful, but most of the value is the personalized feedback from the lectures, which I can't really capitalize on since i'm at work - Stopped a thread a day - Having to work on YT + write was too much - Been thinking about finances, dipping toes into the FIRE community ### **🔗** Links to Thinks - Really enjoy Derek Siver's essence - The way he's expressed himself through his blog - His focused philosophy to creation - Hates to waste a single hour - Loves working a lone - 12 hours a day of creation - An inspiration for how I want to portray myself on the internet - Adding time to life - Tiktok's greatest asset isn't the algorithm, it's your phone - Unmediated inner self, in a sense it's an extended version of ourselves as the algorithm perfectly tailors to our desires - Scary, but from a content creator's perspective it means that, if you're good enough, then as long as your content hits the right spot then you're golden - Mobile is essential part of TikTok usage - Elizabeth Filips and her neurodivergent learning techniques are very intriguing to say the least ### **🚀** Actionable Tingz - I suck at staying in touch - Derek's system - https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/yxg7aq/im_done/ - Need some more discipline in my life, going to start Routinery up again - Taking book notes - Keep book in chapter form to follow the story, then create atomic notes for atomic ideas to connect with the rest of your knowledge - First is for your personal journey when reading the book, an extensive collection of all the crucial highlights and takeaways - Second is for connecting it with the rest of the ideas ### **🤔** Food For Thought - The internet is crazy. I'm able to meet so many cool people, have so much influence, and support myself in a level I wouldn't imagine possible. - All for sharing my own experiences in life - Another thing I noticed is that - There's so many medical people succeeding on YouTube since they know what it's like to commit for years for long-term benefits ### 😤 My Ramblings - Why I'm not finishing my computer science degree ## Publishing Copy Welcome to another edition of _Weekly Wondering_, a sacred time where I share the resonating links, reflections and learnings from my past week to influence your next one ;) ### **✨** In My Life Disclaimer: I had my flu and vaccine shot today and am feeling the side-effects of it, so I might not be able to fully flesh out the ideas in a way I wanted to. Although it feels physically exhausting, seeing as I've been frequently sick my whole life it's interesting to feel a sense of nostalgia. Guilt-free days of rest where you're forced to lie in bed and exert little energy. I also haven't been as sick as I used to always be. It might be due to me no longer playing 16 hours a day and attending to my wellness, not entirely sure. **I enjoy this weekly recap :)** It's my version of learning in public for anyone else potentially interested in my chaotic intersection of interests. I get to spend time just reviewing my week and the notes I made in my vault. There's no major incentive for monetization or succumbing to algorithms for the sake of channel growth. I AM interested in PKM, but if I were forced to write something once a week about it then it would stunt my intrinsically driven introspection 😅 It also helps experiment with different ways of expression, whether it be summarizing content or telling stories. One thing I do want to do is make it more link-based, hopefully I'll stop procrastinating on setting up a digital garden to share my book notes soon. If you're facing information overwhelm, I recommend starting your own substack to attend to the never-ending sea of content. In fact… **Content Detox** I consume a LOT of content, and I feel like it's gotten at an unmanageable state. Shortform books, YouTube, courses, Twitter, newsletters, it's a lot to manage and I'm sensing a lack of application or intent. I've also been neglecting my workflows, so that's another telling sign 😅 Inspired by Vye's struggles with information overwhelm, I'm going to spend a week going through my vault and organizing my notes, abstaining from content consumption aside from keeping up with PTYA lectures. To walk the walk of going from consumer to creator. If you want to do something similar, feel free to share what you make in my discord! **First week of Part time YouTuber Academy** Content is somewhat useful and addresses some questions I have about YouTube, but due to the wide range of people attending the course in terms of experience and niche, it's not anything lifechanging. Most of the value is the personalized feedback, but unforatuntely it conflicts with my work schedule :/ ### **🔗** Links to Thinks **A new angle on TikTok** Tiktok's greatest asset isn't the algorithm, [it's your phone](https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-phones-extended-mind-philosophy/). It claims that the mobile experience is essential part of TikTok usage, unlike how YouTube can be watched on a TV. It unleashes an unmediated inner self. In a sense it's an extended version of ourselves as the algorithm perfectly tailors to our desires. Scary, but from a content creator's perspective it means that finding an audience is easy, it's our responsibility to create good content. **FIRE** I've been more intentional with my finances, and have been looking into the idea of FIRE: financial independence, retire early. To no longer have to work for money, a new level of freedom to pursue anything you want. Sounds pretty fulfilling, right? Well, this Reddit [user's story](https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/comments/yxg7aq/im_done/) illustrates otherwise. Thanks to constantly increasing tech salaries right out of high school he was able to save up 660k by 22, and is now able to live off dividends and a gradual withdrawal of his earnings. But his current mental state implies he has other problems now at hand: > I got fired from Amazon a few months ago basically because I'm a garbage and defective human being that procrastinates everything to comical lengths thus unable to get any work done. I've looked back and realized I deliver negative value by working while personally feeling like shit for doing so, so I'm retiring Instead of working on his weaknesses, he occupies himself with comics and games, saying > It's pretty easy since all I want to do is play video games and read webtoons, I literally haven't stepped outside in months lol. Such blatantly casual self-deprecation is concerning, not for him but for myself as well. I could see a reflection of myself in his story. I already somewhat neglect certain parts of my life, or at least my ideals don't match up with my current actions and intentions due to questionable priorities. After reaching a decade-long goal, I wouldn't be surprised if I fall back onto my previous hedonistic habits as a sense of wanting to reward myself for my efforts. It's not that self-indulgence is wrong, it's just that my self-discipline would decay from a lack of responsibilities. Instead of giving myself time to reflect and think on my future, I'll be busy distracting myself. Would I have the mindset to be able to intrinsically commit to something? Would I even have the breathing room to find something meaningful to allocate my time towards? I guess I would just want to share my story and continue learning, but who knows what my monkey brain would do in reality 😅 **A new role model** I really enjoy Derek Siver's essence: - The way he's expressed himself through his blog - His focused philosophy to creation - Hates to waste a single hour - Loves working a lone - 12 hours a day of creation He's an inspiration for how I want to portray myself on the internet. Radical transparency and passion for the sole purpose of creating. ### **🚀** Actionable Tingz **Staying in touch with people** I rarely stay in touch with people not in my daily life. I get too immersed in my own inner world and my current relationships. It happens with anyone I know, whether lifelong friends or family. But maybe this practice will help change that. Derek Sivers to the [rescue](https://sive.rs/hundreds)! He advocates for a 4-level hierarchical system for consistently checking up on people. Depending on their importance, the interval you catch up with them becomes more frequent. You do prep beforehand by skimming their social media so you have some context, and in the call you selflessly let them know you're there to help or give advice for anything. I like the last bit, since that's when I find the most fulfillment and connection with others as a self-proclaimed therapist hehe I'm planning on following this [implementation in Airtable.](https://jakobgreenfeld.com/stay-in-touch) or using Todoist for recurring tasks. It's straight-forward, but establishing structure to do so might be invaluable for not being lonely when on my deathbed. Although different people have their own unique roles in our life, it would be cool to see the natural deviation and life paths from people you were once kindred with. **Taking book notes** I've been reading some older book notes, and enjoy the process. - Keep book in chapter form to follow the story, then create atomic notes for atomic ideas to connect with the rest of your knowledge - First is for your personal journey when reading the book, an extensive collection of all the crucial highlights and takeaways - Second is for connecting it with the rest of the ideas in your vault ### **🤔** Fleeting ideas - The internet is crazy. I'm able to meet so many cool people, have so much influence, and support myself in a level I wouldn't imagine possible, all for sharing my own experiences in life - The reason why I'm facing so much friction in my day to day life is because the time i'm spending isn't fulfilling to me - Leverage reddit and the internet for the insantaneous ability for discussion on what i'm learning - Overcome consumerism through directed learning and creating - Biggest toxins in society are complacency, poor learning systems, and distracting values - Content that emphasizes critical thinking, spaced repetition, and time to question competency can help overcome information overload - Refer to Andy Matsuchak's notes - I say I don't do research but how else have I learned enough to program? Share the ideas in my videos? I feel like it's the same skillset as academic papers except you'd just have to credit and verify sources a lot more - There's so many medical people succeeding on YouTube since they know what it's like to commit for years for long-term benefits ### 😤 My Ramblings **Why I'm not finishing my computer science degree.** I've only finished two semesters of university, but am already set on dropping out. I'm not a fan of the forced curriculums. Call me ignorant, but I want to explore the specific topics I'm passionate about without having to wait for 2 years. And even after waiting for 2 years, there's only two courses available on the topic. What's the point? I could literally access what I want to learn in seconds thanks to the internet. And who's to say that programming is the only thing I want to learn and pursue as a career? I also want to learn about areas like content creation, psychology, and online business, but then I would need to take even more mandatory classes instead of naturally following my curiosities. I'd also rather have an impact and make money from my learning like how I did with Obsidian. Instead of being asked hypothetical programming problems, I can raise the stakes by working on real-world applications to make use of the limited time we have in life. Instead of fretting over grades, I can use that energy to get messy with my learning and learn from my mistakes. In fact, that's what I started doing. I half-assed my school homework and focused moreso on my self-learning, on the skills that landed me my coding internship. But lets look at this from an employment perspective. Four years of hard work and potential unfulfillment, just for what? A piece of paper that thousands of other people also get from the same school? If you just want an average life then it's enough, but how are you going to stand out from your peers when you've only done the bare minimum? If you want to be one of the best, you're going to take a different path. What if… you just don't play that game in the first place? That's what I did. I created my own learning curriculums, worked on personal projects, attended hackathons, and it paid off. Within my first year of university I managed to get an internship, something I saw no one else achieve. With the vast of information online you're capable of exploring your own unique path to get there, which cultivates your own experiences and skills that further serve you in whatever job you pursue, whether it be entrepreneurial or in the corporate life.