Friday, 08/20/2021
portland, or; my bedroom
16:15 more to buy?
airmon palm size air purifier! (also a hacking tool? http://www.aircrack-ng.org/doku.php?id=airmon-ng)
18:17 article notes iiiiii
life goes deeper
https://aeon.co/essays/deep-beneath-the-earths-surface-life-is-weird-and-wonderful
why does allergy immunotherapy work?
https://the-lagrangian.github.io/2021/06/14/why-does-allergy-immunotherapy-work.html
energetic aliens
https://stephenmalina.com/post/2021-07-01-energetic-aliens-among-us/ how do we categorize and identify variance in cognitive stamina and observnd energy levels between different individuals?
'energetic alien' archetype
indefinitely sustain focus on cognitive tasks for more than the well documented 4-6 hours a day
described as having an abundance of energy
obsessed with their work
(perhaps) can function well with <= 6 hours of sleep
how can we keep working without our focus taking a hit? most that work long hours definitely take a hit to their creativity during extended circumstances.
george church
undergrad in 2 years
100 hour weeks in the lab during grad school
forgets to eat if nobody reminds him; no hore than once every couple of days
almost all ideas came when dreaming, asleep, or other beakthroughs; cites narcolepsy as an enabler of his creativity
lee hood
daylong studying without distraction or interruption - keep daylong food supply nearby to retain focus!
miles and pushups every day before work to maintain competitive endurance
napoleon
micromanaged europe for years!
achievementx extended beyond the political - to general, politician, art critic, lawmaker
grothendieck
ten year period inventing algebraic geometry
twelve hours a day, every day, for twenty years!
incredible, expressive analogies drawn to mathematical concepts; even better writing!
lots of peers doing great things, bet impact overall hasn't been very profound; can feel like a hustle up an amorphous mountain of accomplishment to even learn to understand achievements, but many become prisoners of their era; his greatest strength was to be alone, developing new ideas independent of others.
erdos
never kept permanent address
no interest in relationships
all material posessions in two suitcasesz
no idea how to cook
eschewed anything but the interesting works
no interest in non math conversations
coffee, amphetamine, ritalin, antidepressant use and overuse through life
quit amphetamines for a month: "couldnt get anything done - you've set mathematics back a month"
donald knuth
work hard up front to pick up all of the material, doing extra work, then just coasting rathes than getting stuck on the lower part of the learning curve at an inopportune moment
picked up anything - no saying no! - instead choosing to work harder and longer, to write more and more
'got lucky' and came up with the solution to an unsolved problem hanging out for two hours - then pumped it into the thesis!
asimov
work 7:30 AM to 10PM
driven by intense desire to prove that he wasn't lazy (???)
inspired by brooklyn candy store hustle of his father without any breaks; 'never good enough' approach to parenting
balzac
influenced dickens, flaubert, henry james
4 books a year; worked insane editing schedule!
50 cups of coffee a day, likely contributing to early death
always in debt, bounced around with fake names, rough childhood
danielle steel
bestselling author alive; fourth best of all time 20+ hours a day of writing! though often thought of as 'low brow' work, rimilar to asimov
carmack
60h/week: his sweet spot for happiness and productivity play a cd, pause cd player when not being productive. measure how much cd progress to determine how much work he'd done!
summary
'energetic alien' abilities may be latent, coming out with some level of effort and focus; those who require less sleep to be effective seem to have hyopmania as only other positive association. different people vary in different ways! some take a creative and prolific axis, while others take a route of dedication and isolatino to get it all done.