We made a blast furnace, following David Gingery’s The Charcoal Foundry. Here are some pictures of the firing process. We haven’t melted or cast any metal yet.

Today’s project was a hard drive carrying case. I wanted something to securely store hard drives. When I looked around on ebay and amazon, I saw some nice cases and some crappy plastic molded ones. Even the terrible ones were at least $50, so I made my own.

I bought a used ammo case at the rather excellent local army surplus store. Then I padded all sides. I had spare EVA foam “puzzle piece” style mats from a gym setup lying around. I cut out the pieces with scissors. That’s it.  I was expecting more steps, but nothing needed glued in place. I was planning on adding inserts for the empty slots, but it seems secure enough. If you’re making one, you could also glue the top onto the lid, so you don’t have to take it out manually.

Summary of “the life-changing magic of tidying up”:

Marie Kondo writes the “KonMari” method. The book ends up being as much about her mistakes in learning how to tidy as it is about how to tidy. The book conveys a certain positive energy that makes me want to recommend it, but the author also brings that energy in reaction to a kind of previous stress which accompanied tidying, which she does not seem to have completely dropped–if you are mysteriously anxious and feel you MUST discard everything after reading her book, this may be why.

The primary point she makes is meant to cure it: Decide what to keep and what to discard by physically touching each item, and asking if it brings you joy.

The rest of the method:

• Positivity. Everything in your house loves and wants to help you. If it is time to send off some of the items on their next adventure, this is no reason to be sad or anxious. You had a great time meeting, and they and you were both happy.
• Tidy all at once (at least by category, but preferably in a multi-day binge).
• Physically gather the category in once place, touching everything and asking if it brings you joy.
• Find out what you’ll keep and discard before putting things away or organizing.
• Organizing: ??? [I didn’t get any big takeaways here].

Marie Kondo’s best advice is realizations from her past mistakes–the sort of methods which seems reasonable to try, but end up being wrong for subtle reasons. They are:

• Tidy by category, not place. Otherwise, you won’t realize everything you have.
• “Storage” is storing things neatly, and lets you have more and more things. This is different than tidying, which is about bringing things in harmony, and having only things you love. Becoming better at “storage” can make you unhappy.

She also has encountered her clients making mistakes. For each category of things (clothes, books, etc) there are many reasons clients may not want to throw something out. Most of the book is meant to illustrate why these things are useless, and why throwing them out is okay and will make you happier.

The fun part is that many clients were more confident and more in touch with what they valued and who they wanted once they had only possessions they loved.

Bolded text in the book

• Start by discarding. Then organize your space, thoroughly, completely, in one go.
• A dramatic reorganization of the home causes coorespondingly dramatic changes in lifestyle and perspective. It is life transforming.
• when you put your house in order, you put your affairs and your past in order, too
• They are surrounded only by the things they love
• the magic of tidying
• People cannot change their habits without first changing their way of thinking
• If you tidy up in one shot, rather than little by little, you can dramatically change your mind-set.
• If you use the right method and concentrate your efforts on eliminating clutter thoroughly and completely with a short span of time, you’ll see instant results that will empower you to keep your space in order ever after.
• Tidying is just a tool, not a final destination. [The true goal should be to establish the lifestyle you want most once your house has been put in order]
• A booby trap lies within the term “storage”.
• Putting things away creates the illusion that the clutter problem has been solved.
• Tidying up location by location is a fatal mistake.
• Effective tidying involves only two essential actions: discarding and deciding where to store things. Of the two, discarding must come first.
• Tidying is a special event. Don’t do it every day.
• Your goal is clearly in sight. The moment you have put everything in its place, you have crossed the finish line.
• Tidy in the right order.
• Do not even think of putting your things away until you have finished the process of discarding.
• Think in concrete terms so that you can vividly picture what it would be like to live in a clutter-free space.
• However, the moment you start focusing on how to choose what to throw away, you have actually veered significantly off course.
• We should be choosing what we want to keep, not what we want to get rid of.
• take each item in one’s hand and ask: “Does this spark joy?” If it does, keep it. If not, dispose of it.
• Keep only those things that speak to your heart. Then take the plunge and discard all the rest.
  always think in terms of category, not place
• People have trouble discarding things that they could still use (functional value), that contain helpful information (informational value), and that have sentimetnal value). When these things are hard to obtain or replace (rarity), they become even harder to part with.
• The best sequence is this: clothes first, then books, papers, komono (miscellany), and lastly, mementos.
• it’s extremely stressful for parents to see what their children discard
• To quietly work away at disposing of your own excess is actually the best way of dealing with a family that doesn’t tidy. The urge to point out someone else’s failure to tidy is usually a sign that you are neglecting to take care of your own space.
• To truly cherish the things that are important to you, you must first discard those that have outlived their purpose.
• What things will bring you joy if you keep them a part of your life?
• The most important points to remember are these: Make sure you gather every piece of clothing in the house and be sure to handle each one.
• By neatly folding your clothes, you can solve almost every problem related to storage.
• The key is to store things standing up rather than laid flat.
• The goal is to fold each piece of clothing into a simple, smooth rectangle.
• Every piece of clothing has its own “sweet spot” where it feels just right
• Arrange your clothes so they rise to the right.
• By category, coats would be on the far left, followed by dresses, jackets, pants, skirts, and blouses.
• Never, ever tie up your stockings. Never, ever ball up your socks.
• The trick is not to overcategorize. Divide your clothes roughly into “cotton-like” and “wool-like” materials when you put them in the drawer.
• If you are planning to buy storage units in the near future, I recommend that you get a set of drawers instead.
• The criterion is, of course, whether or not it gives you a thrill of pleasure when you touch it.
• In the end, you are going to read very few of your books again.
• The moment you first encounter a particular book is the right time to read it.
• [Papers] I recommend you dispose of anything that does not fall into one of three categories: currently in use, needed for a limited period of time, or must be kept indefinitely.
• [Papers that need to be dealt with] Make sure that you keep all such papers in one spot only. Never let them spread to other parts of the house.
• [On lecture/seminar papers] It’s paradoxical, but I believe precisely because we hang on to such materials, we fail to put what we learn into practice.
• Too many people live surrounded by things they don’t need “just because”.
• Presents are not “things” but a means for conveying someone’s feelings.
• Mysterious cords will always remain just that–a mystery.
• Despite the fact that coins are perfectly good cash, they are treated with far less respect than paper money.
• No matter how wonderful things used to be, we cannot live in the past. The joy and excitement we feel here and now are more important.
• People never retrieve the boxes they send “home”. Once sent, they will never again be opened.
• By handling each sentimental item and deciding what to discard, you process your past.
• As you reduce your belongings through the process of tidying, you will come to a point where you suddenly know how much is just right for you.
• The fact that you possess a surplus of things that you can’t bring yourself to discard doesn’t mean you are taking good care of them. In fact, it is quite the opposite.
• Believe what your heart tells you when you ask, “Does this spark joy?”
• The point in deciding specific places to keep things is to designate a spot for every thing.
• Once you learn to choose your belongings properly, you will be left only with the amount that fits perfectly in the space you currently own.
• pursue ultimate simplicity in storage
• I have only two rules: store all items of the same type in the same place and don’t scatter storage space.
• If you live with your family, first clearly define separate storage spaces for each family member.
• Everyone needs a sanctuary
• Clutter is caused by a failure to return things to where they belong. Therefore, storage should reduce the effort needed to put things away, not the effort needed to get them out.
• If you are aiming for an uncluttered room, it is much more important to arrange your storage so that you can tell at a glance where everything is than to worry about the details of who does what, where, and when.
• When you are choosing what to keep, ask your heart; when you are choosing where to store something, ask your house.
• stacking is very hard on the things at the bottom
• Rather than buying something to make do for now, wait until you have completed the entire process and then take your time looking for storage items that you really like.
• The key is to put the same type of bags together.
• One theme underlying my method of tidying is transforming the home into a sacred place, a power spot filled with pure energy.
• Transform your closet into your own private space, one that gives you a thrill of pleasure.
• Stockings take up 25 percent less room once they are out of the package and folded up.
• By eliminating excess visual information that doesn’t inspire joy, you can make your space much more peaceful and comfortable.
• [homework assignment to clients] appreciate their belongings [by actually expressing appreciation to them]
• At their core, the things we really like do not change over time. Putting your house in order is a great way to discover what they are.
• letting go is even more important than adding
• The lives of those who tidy thoroughly and completely, in a single shot, are without exception dramatically altered.
• one of the magical effects of tidying is confidence in your decision-making capacity
• But when we really delve into the reasons for why we can’t let something go, there are only two: an attachment to the past or a fear for the future.
• The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.
• The sum total of all the garbage so far would exceed twenty-eight thousand bags, and the number of items discarded must be over one million.
• The fact that they do not need to search is actually an invaluable stress reliever..
• Life becomes far easier once you know that things will still work out even if you are lacking something.
• I believe that tidying is a celebration, a special send-off for those things that will be departing from the house, and therefore I dress accordingly.
• In essence, tidying ought to be the act of restoring balance among people, their possessions, and the house they live in.
• Make your parting a ceremony to launch them on a new journey.
• It’s a very strange phenomenon, but when we reduce what we own and essentially “detox” our house, it has a detox effect on our bodies as well.
• If you can say without a doubt, “I really life this!” no matter what anyone else says, and if you like yourself for having it, then ignore what other people think.
• As for you, pour your time and passion into what brings you the most joy, your mission in life.

za3k.com was the site of a DDoS attack. I’m pretty sure this was because my wordpress installation was compromised, and the hacker who took control of my server was herself DDoSed.

More updates to come, but the short story is that I’ll be formalizing my install and eventually containerizing + hardening everything

I’m opening the NNTP server at nttp.za3k.com (TLS or unencrypted) to the public. These are the newsgroups currently on it. It is virtually zero-traffic (no users, but also users post little).

If you don’t have a news reader, Thunderbird can do the job, or take a look at the list here.

art.agency.applied
art.autonomy
art.programming
news.announce.newusers
news.discuss
research.fai
research.fai.decisiontheory
research.math
research.philosophy
research.strategy
research.xrisk
talk.math
talk.news
talk.other
talk.personal
talk.philosophy
talk.programming
talk.psychology
talk.reading
talk.reading.collaborative
talk.science
talk.writing
talk.writing.collaborative
test.posts

I want to talk about three different mindsets for time management and what constitutes “success”. In all three, I’ll talk about an example problem, let’s say “writing term papers” for a student who finds this difficult, and see how each might approach the goal. My goal is not to promote one of these as best, but rather to illustrate that all three exist. Each may be favored by one person or another, or by a single person depending on the situation. I hope that by describing them, I can help people understand one another’s motivations, so as to facilitate communication. The first mindset I will call optimization. The optimizer tries to spend their time gaining resources. For example, they might work to get money. They also attempt to increase the rate at which they can gain resources. Some optimizers even try to increase the rate at which they can e.g. network or learn skills. The intuition here is that most goods are somehow fungible, and that you should try to get as many fungible goods as possible. Example of term papers: An optimizer might try to learn to write term papers, or get faster and faster at writing papers. If they got good at writing term papers, they might try to write even more (for example, taking classes heavy on papers) to take advantage of these skills. Heuristics:

• Get nowhere faster: Get where you’re going faster, even if you don’t have a specific goal in mind
• Level up: It’s always good to learn things and develop skills
• Experiment: Never be content with the status quo. (Choose explore/exploit explicitly and dovetail, for principled experimenters)
• Accumulate multipliers / Seek good trade routes: Be able to buy all things with money, learning, whatever you have most of. Try to maximize the rate.
• Get money: Anywhere you have a resource coming in, increase the income rate, or trade rate you’re getting it for.

Failure modes:

• Butterfly: Ends up unfocused and with no immediate or terminal goals.

The second mindset I will call satisficing. The satisficer is goal-oriented, and tries to stay focus on the goal at all times. Traditional goal-based time management like GTD encourages satisficing. Example of term papers: Their specific goal might be “Get an A on all papers until I graduate”. If they can write well enough to get an A, they probably would not learn to write better. If they can’t get an A, their goal might be better served by learning to write to rubrics. The question of learning to write better vs spending more time editing on each paper would be decided by the amount of time each would take for the actual number of term papers the student expected to write for their immediate goal. Heuristics:

• Get to the goal as quickly as possible
• No lost purposes: One of the strengths of satisficing is to avoid “rabbit holes” which don’t contribute to any end goal
• Munchkin: Think about what will actually contribute to the goal, as well as what won’t.

Failure modes:

• Tunnel vision / inflexibility: Not contributing to the immediate goal is not the same as being useless. Can lose sight of the big picture (supergoal or unrelated terminal goals) and ways to work toward that other than via the immediate goal.
• EA Bot Syndrome / Don’t smell the flowers: Excessive goal focus can lose sight of human involvement, and end up giving the satisficer low life quality.

The last mindset I will call minimization. The minimizer will try to minimize the amount of resources spent on a particular task or problem. They will especially try to avoid any indefinitely-big cost. Example of term papers: The student might try to spend the minimum amount of time possible on the paper to get an A. If they knew they were going to write several papers, they might study how to write papers faster, so as to spend less total time–even if they expected the time learning to write faster would be greater than the time to write the immediate papers (“but what if there are more papers someday”). The eventual state of the minimizer will probably be to have set things up to avoid term papers, or write them very quickly. Heuristics:

• Automate / Offload for free: Spend only a finite amount of time on something
• Eliminate recurring costs
• Asymptotic improvement: Any finite number of mistakes is okay, as long as you end up optimal eventually
• Deal with it permanently: If you’re not closing things and returning to them indefinitely, you’re spending infinite time and attention on it
• Timebox: Only spend a finite amount of time on something, and then consider it resolved forever

Failure modes:

• Bad at goals: Minimization deals with recurring activities, but can fail to offer any positive motivation for one-time end goals
• Negative mindset: Heavy focus on mistakes and resource use

1. Set the oven to 400F.
2. Drain and empty a can or so of chickpeas into a collander and wash them
3. Dry the chickpeas (this is the hard step). I use paper towels, but I haven’t figured out a way to not use a billion of them.
4. Put them in a short pan in the oven and cover them in olive oil. Toss them some with your hands to get them coated.
5. Cook for 20-30 minutes, shaking the pan so everything turns every 10 minutes. I like them crispy so I do 30 minutes.
6. Take them out and transfer them to a bowl. Add spices. I like salt, garlic powder, and pepper.

In space no one car hear “whoosh” sounds but action potato is so cool you still can mostly.

It’s whooshing because it’s going as fast as a WEAK SPEEDBOAT.