emergent task planner

https://davidseah.com/node/the-emergent-task-planner/

From Carl Sagan how to tell baloney

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-baloney-detection-kit-carl-sagan-s-rules-for-bullshit-busting-and-critical-thinking?utm_source=pocket-newtab

But the kit, Sagan argues, isn’t merely a tool of science — rather, it contains invaluable tools of healthy skepticism that apply just as elegantly, and just as necessarily, to everyday life. By adopting the kit, we can all shield ourselves against clueless guile and deliberate manipulation. Sagan shares nine of these tools:

1. Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the “facts.”
2. Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
3. Arguments from authority carry little weight — “authorities” have made mistakes in the past. They will do so again in the future. Perhaps a better way to say it is that in science there are no authorities; at most, there are experts.
4. Spin more than one hypothesis. If there’s something to be explained, think of all the different ways in which it could be explained. Then think of tests by which you might systematically disprove each of the alternatives. What survives, the hypothesis that resists disproof in this Darwinian selection among “multiple working hypotheses,” has a much better chance of being the right answer than if you had simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.
5. Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it’s yours. It’s only a way station in the pursuit of knowledge. Ask yourself why you like the idea. Compare it fairly with the alternatives. See if you can find reasons for rejecting it. If you don’t, others will.
6. Quantify. If whatever it is you’re explaining has some measure, some numerical quantity attached to it, you’ll be much better able to discriminate among competing hypotheses. What is vague and qualitative is open to many explanations. Of course there are truths to be sought in the many qualitative issues we are obliged to confront, but finding them is more challenging.
7. If there’s a chain of argument, every link in the chain must work (including the premise) — not just most of them.
8. Occam’s Razor. This convenient rule-of-thumb urges us when faced with two hypotheses that explain the data equally well to choose the simpler.
9. Always ask whether the hypothesis can be, at least in principle, falsified. Propositions that are untestable, unfalsifiable are not worth much. Consider the grand idea that our Universe and everything in it is just an elementary particle — an electron, say — in a much bigger Cosmos. But if we can never acquire information from outside our Universe, is not the idea incapable of disproof? You must be able to check assertions out. Inveterate skeptics must be given the chance to follow your reasoning, to duplicate your experiments and see if they get the same result.

In the arena

A quote I've heard over and over again, but it still is bracing.

Try it. But don't just read it to yourself — read it out loud. Stand tall. Stand proudly. Don't just say the words — feel the words:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out

how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

The best way to be different is to do the things other people refuse to do.

The best way to life the life you want to live is to stop worrying about what other people think.

The best way to succeed is to outthink, out hustle, and outwork everyone else.

You may not be as experienced, as well funded, as well connected, or as talented... but you can always do more than other people are willing to do. Even when everything else seems stacked against you, effort and persistence can still be your competitive advantages — and they may be the only advantages you truly need.

Dare greatly. Know victory. Know defeat.

And every day, commit to living the life you want to live.

Deadlines and enthusiasm from the middle finger project

https://www.themiddlefingerproject.org/use-a-deadline-the-way-you-use-condoms-every-freaking-time-and-other-sales-lessons-you-need/

How to stop procrasinating michal korzonek

https://medium.com/@michal.korzonek/how-to-finally-stop-procrastinating-with-1-simple-journaling-methodology-6d7904337366

Stephen Wolfram on organization, using tech for work

https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2019/02/seeking-the-productive-life-some-details-of-my-personal-infrastructure/

ryan holiday on writing

https://ryanholiday.net/the-strategies-that-helped-me-write-3-books-in-3-years/
But when it’s an internal, personal commitment, that’s when the excuses and the Resistance start to creep in. Which is is why I’m committed to doing at least two articles a week on Thought Catalog and Betabeat, plus my monthly reading list newsletter, plus copywriting I do for clients.
That means my estimated output per year, without counting my books, is at least 100,000 words … and probably much more. This has led to literally hundreds of articles across many sites. I’ve even written something like 200 Amazon reviews.
It’s like your rent — you never miss it because you have to pay it.