Exile Lifestyle

I’m not a consistent note-taker, in the sense that some people are very good about jotting down insights and quotes as they read or go about their day. For the way I learn, personally, I find that unloading new knowledge…

Before fully investing myself in a new undertaking, I attempt to whittle away flaws, identify weak points, and allow myself to consider setting the concept aside, completely, if warranted. In practice, this might mean that I’ve dreamt up some new…

Strength, fortitude, gutsiness, grit, dynamism, determination, purposefulness, brilliance, courage; these are all wonderful traits to have, whether you’re hoping to accomplish a personal goal or produce something of value. Also vital, though, and often under-appreciated, is the importance of just…

If you find yourself in a dangerous environment, there are two primary paths you can take to reduce the potency of those dangers: you can build barriers between yourself and the threats, and you can acclimate yourself to them. The…

There’s a fair amount of effort required to instigate change in our lives, and maintaining change over time often requires additional mental effort. Some behavioral changes stick because there are no alternatives, or because they’re latently enjoyable, but many adjustments…

The degree to which we feel we’re in control of a situation can influence the way we feel about that situation. This is often true superficially, in the sense that it can be comforting to have our hands on the…

In the world of statistical inference, a “prior” refers to the beliefs we have about a particular value before we have all the data. In practice, this means that if we’ve done all the calculations required to ship a batch…

I spend a significant amount of time each day parsing information. This informs my work, but it also informs my thinking. It requires a decent amount of time and energy, but I consider that time and energy to be an…

I feel and function much better when I have access to a giant drinking vessel. My current mega-chalice is a 30-ounce, stainless-steel, double-walled travel mug that I bought for about $15 late last-year, and though it’s laughably big compared to…

Traversing the space between one location and another can be exciting, but it can also be agonizingly boring. Much of the superficial excitement we get from such a journey is anticipatory rather than experiential: we’re looking forward to what’s coming,…