I was listening to a Youtube video titled something like "Can you be a Cyber Security Analyst?"
In that video, he explained how he achieved it. His number one tip was 'focus'. Immediately, it popped into my mind that all the "successful" people I looked into say how this is a superpower.
So, I started to think about why that is.
First of all, I'm so glad that it's becoming a habit for me to not just accept these 'tips and tricks' at face value but to actually think them through. So, when I thought it through, these ideas came to mind:
1. JP explaining how getting into the 'flow' gets all of you aligned; you're at where you should be bc there is an overall agreement of all the parts of your brain to be doing what you're doing and, you're flowing with it; you're fitting in it.
2. And a related idea about focus. I made a concept that it takes time for all our gears to light up and combine in such a way that it can all work together for a certain task. Similar to how memories take a while to pop up or pop up in a certain context better, your brain seems to do this?
3. Focus means you won't be running around in circles doing useless things without a way to track progress. Focus means you'll be able to learn, apply, practice, be around the people, etc; all of these things will immensely help you master some skill on all levels.
So, I think that it's probably a bad habit to do what I used to do TOO much: let my unguided interests and attention go all over the place, read a thing here or there, etc.
I also recall someone explaining how getting introduced to a topic through Wikipedia is an issue. They said that since everyone has the power to edit, anything that's 'off' will be distilled and what'll be left is technical jargon, no analogies, slightly different personal takes that required an understanding of the topic to interpret well, etc. Hence they recommend BOOKS: that is someone who mastered the craft, has their own analogies and interpretations that align with each other, and helps you get the idea of it.
That, however, raises the question: what if my goal is to become generally competent?
How I define being "generally competent" before is along the lines of:
Throughout my lifetime I'll find myself having different desires and goals. In order to accomplish those with the utmost ease, what skills should I equip myself with?
I think that's why I'm interested in timeless and general questions found in philosophy. They're things that'll be relevant for all my life. Similarly for physics. It's about understanding *the nature of reality*, and not derivatives thereof.
For instance, there might be some very fundamental laws and substances that dance around in ways to create particular phenomena. Mastering that phenomena will only get me to be a master in a restricted domain for a restricted timeframe, but that's it.
That raises another question: why am I so interested in philosophy?
Before I explained this away by saying that by trying to understand reality, I found the limit is in our perception of the world. Therefore, studying the brain is the best place to start.
Now that I think of it, psychology is probably also great for general competency since most issues that everyone faces are "self-management": time management, motivation, goal setting, mental health, health (diet, exercise, sleep), etc. And I have been fascinated by all these in the past; I read brain rules, nutrition, martial arts, sleep, successful people, etc.
Perhaps a desire to understand reality is linked to general competency; intuitively, the first thing I think of to master computers is to understand how they work. How a computer's parts interact to make the computer and how that connects to the internet. If I understand the underlying mechanisms, I'll be more likely to diagnose the issue at it's core and have the ability to be creative about how I'll be able to solve novel problems, rather than learning unsubstantial methods and rules for obvious problems.
I think the latter (boring!) is what robots are taking over and, the former, what machine learning/modern AI is about. If that's the case, then this knowledge is necessary.
It'll stop me from learning anything that'll be taken over by computers (thus rendering it useless) and will let me focus on an area I'll be likely needing for the rest of my life. Win-win.
Now back to: what if my goal is to become generally competent?
The issue with this was that 'general competency' is a focus, but it's *general*. This obviously doesn't include "all things". It doesn't include being a good dancer, singer, shooter, pickup artist, etc.
It does include basic understanding of technology, yourself, others and interaction of the two. Of thinking skills (critical, logical), etc.
In that video, he explained how he achieved it. His number one tip was 'focus'. Immediately, it popped into my mind that all the "successful" people I looked into say how this is a superpower.
So, I started to think about why that is.
First of all, I'm so glad that it's becoming a habit for me to not just accept these 'tips and tricks' at face value but to actually think them through. So, when I thought it through, these ideas came to mind:
1. JP explaining how getting into the 'flow' gets all of you aligned; you're at where you should be bc there is an overall agreement of all the parts of your brain to be doing what you're doing and, you're flowing with it; you're fitting in it.
2. And a related idea about focus. I made a concept that it takes time for all our gears to light up and combine in such a way that it can all work together for a certain task. Similar to how memories take a while to pop up or pop up in a certain context better, your brain seems to do this?
3. Focus means you won't be running around in circles doing useless things without a way to track progress. Focus means you'll be able to learn, apply, practice, be around the people, etc; all of these things will immensely help you master some skill on all levels.
So, I think that it's probably a bad habit to do what I used to do TOO much: let my unguided interests and attention go all over the place, read a thing here or there, etc.
I also recall someone explaining how getting introduced to a topic through Wikipedia is an issue. They said that since everyone has the power to edit, anything that's 'off' will be distilled and what'll be left is technical jargon, no analogies, slightly different personal takes that required an understanding of the topic to interpret well, etc. Hence they recommend BOOKS: that is someone who mastered the craft, has their own analogies and interpretations that align with each other, and helps you get the idea of it.
That, however, raises the question: what if my goal is to become generally competent?
How I define being "generally competent" before is along the lines of:
Throughout my lifetime I'll find myself having different desires and goals. In order to accomplish those with the utmost ease, what skills should I equip myself with?
I think that's why I'm interested in timeless and general questions found in philosophy. They're things that'll be relevant for all my life. Similarly for physics. It's about understanding *the nature of reality*, and not derivatives thereof.
For instance, there might be some very fundamental laws and substances that dance around in ways to create particular phenomena. Mastering that phenomena will only get me to be a master in a restricted domain for a restricted timeframe, but that's it.
That raises another question: why am I so interested in philosophy?
Before I explained this away by saying that by trying to understand reality, I found the limit is in our perception of the world. Therefore, studying the brain is the best place to start.
Now that I think of it, psychology is probably also great for general competency since most issues that everyone faces are "self-management": time management, motivation, goal setting, mental health, health (diet, exercise, sleep), etc. And I have been fascinated by all these in the past; I read brain rules, nutrition, martial arts, sleep, successful people, etc.
Perhaps a desire to understand reality is linked to general competency; intuitively, the first thing I think of to master computers is to understand how they work. How a computer's parts interact to make the computer and how that connects to the internet. If I understand the underlying mechanisms, I'll be more likely to diagnose the issue at it's core and have the ability to be creative about how I'll be able to solve novel problems, rather than learning unsubstantial methods and rules for obvious problems.
I think the latter (boring!) is what robots are taking over and, the former, what machine learning/modern AI is about. If that's the case, then this knowledge is necessary.
It'll stop me from learning anything that'll be taken over by computers (thus rendering it useless) and will let me focus on an area I'll be likely needing for the rest of my life. Win-win.
Now back to: what if my goal is to become generally competent?
The issue with this was that 'general competency' is a focus, but it's *general*. This obviously doesn't include "all things". It doesn't include being a good dancer, singer, shooter, pickup artist, etc.
It does include basic understanding of technology, yourself, others and interaction of the two. Of thinking skills (critical, logical), etc.