Here’s a piece of art I made this spring: Zoomed out, it looks great. The overall feel of it is exactly how I intended. It’s a two-dimensional drawing made only with straight lines, but it gives an illusion of 3-dimensional curves. But here it is zoomed in: If you get up close, you can see many imperfections in the work: places where I colored outside the lines with my Sharpie,… Read More »Don’t Sweat the Details
Laziness is a feeling, not a trait. Laziness is a temporary state, like being tired or hungry. It’s something all people feel some of the time. Whether or not you let that feeling drive your behavior is a choice. You’re not a lazy person. Being lazy isn’t like being tall or having blue eyes; it’s not a fixed trait. Your ancestors couldn’t have survived if they had the trait of… Read More »What Is Laziness?
Over the last year, I did 2,364 push-ups. Before you feel impressed, that actually isn’t a very big number. Just ten push-ups per day for a year is 3,650. But 2,364 is a lot of push-ups considering that prior to starting this habit, I had difficulty doing any. Let’s go back in time to July 1st, 2021… Rising From the Ashes of Injury Eight years ago, I had foot surgery… Read More »Can You Do Push-ups Every Day?
Take a look at this diagram from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s great book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience: Flow is a state where you’re “in the zone,” performing well at a task you care about. One of the requirements for getting into flow, as shown above, is that your skill level must match the challenge. If it’s too easy, you’ll be bored; if it’s too difficult, you’ll feel anxious.1 But this… Read More »The Three Kinds of Anxiety