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Mark Bao
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Seeing as a reader
Often when I read something, I come across something that I really wish the author really went into, and that I felt like it was obvious or it was the whole point of the article to go into something, but they don't. But authors have a different agenda than readers.... Continue reading
Posted Jun 26, 2021 at August
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Perception shifting and different modes of thinking
I wrote an article on the topic of perception shifting to consolidate experience into learnings and actions. (First blog post on that site in 5 years, and the second blog post at all, including this site, during that time, which to me is a bit crazy.) Originally, I wanted to... Continue reading
Posted Jun 26, 2021 at August
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Responsive writing: Structuring articles that align with readers' engagement levels
Posted Jun 10, 2020 at August
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Notes on procrastination
Posted Apr 8, 2016 at August
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The candidate paradox
Here's an interesting thing I thought about. Let's say everything a presidential candidate does can gain them voters or lose them voters. Let's say that a candidate is listing off their policy views sequentially. Each policy view wins them or loses them votes. Ones that win votes are great. They... Continue reading
Posted Feb 19, 2016 at August
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Mental Model: Picking a side to err on
Balance is important. Whether it be work–life balance, or balancing quantity or quality, or some other sort of balance, it's clear that many things require some calculation of the "right amount". The right amount of confidence, the right amount of time spent toward something, that sort of thing. But we're... Continue reading
Posted Feb 18, 2016 at August
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Organizing work and communication: Slack, email, and the ghost of Google Wave
Posted Jan 4, 2016 at August
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Takeaways from "What can a technologist do about climate change?"
Posted Nov 26, 2015 at August
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What is the value of something if you're not thankful for it?
I threw out a half bag of chips today because they went stale. I used 15 paper towels today and a few gallons of water. The first two go directly into a landfill, and the latter is used up and hopefully somehow recycled. Luckily, I live in a modern society... Continue reading
Posted Nov 17, 2015 at August
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A few notes on learning through muscle memory vs. cognitive memory
A friend of mine visited over the weekend. He, like me, took Chinese in college, and since I'm currently in it, we talked about the things we did to study and learn the language. He said something along the lines of that traditional Chinese is basically about radicals, and that... Continue reading
Posted Nov 17, 2015 at August
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A brief note on decision optionality
I've been doing pretty good at the time optionality thing lately, somehow getting a lot of my work done early as of late, which has been good. No wonder, then, that this post on Farnam Street caught my eye: #48 Early decisions have the greatest impact. Decisions made just days... Continue reading
Posted Nov 12, 2015 at August
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Observation: It's hard not to be authoritarian when you're oppressed
Two events led to this thinking: The protests at Yale The protests at the University of Missouri In both situations, people (including myself) pointed to the anti-free-speech culture that is developing on campuses. At Yale, an administrator is getting skewered for their opinion against PC culture; at the University of... Continue reading
Posted Nov 11, 2015 at August
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The curse of knowledge: a few notes on maintaining originality and creativity
One thing that I've been concerned about lately is how to maintain original thought when diving into a new field. I think that we are subject to the conscious or unconscious effects of the curse of knowledge when we learn about a new field. That is, once we learn how... Continue reading
Posted Nov 2, 2015 at August
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What are the downsides of quantification?
Take, for example, a group discussion. The moderator introduces a guideline: if you agree with what someone is saying, snap your fingers quietly. What results is when someone says something that folks like, there is a murmur of snaps that rises and falls in the group. It's a pretty cool... Continue reading
Posted Oct 31, 2015 at August
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Diminishing optionality for allocating time
Posted Oct 30, 2015 at August
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Labdoor and nonzero efficiency
One thing that I wanted to point out (read: note to myself) is how Labdoor, a company that tests and verifies dietary supplements, is a great example of nonzero efficiency. I don't really know how to define that term yet, but maybe an analogy is best. Using the same processes... Continue reading
Posted Oct 18, 2015 at August
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Reason and withholding information
Today, Barnard Divest, a student organization urging Barnard College (an affiliate of my institution) to divest their endowment from fossil fuels, is meeting with the Barnard administrators and are holding a protest in concert with that meeting. I'm in support of the movement to divest from fossil fuels – a... Continue reading
Posted Oct 14, 2015 at August
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Path dependence in large-scale government reform
Posted Aug 7, 2015 at August
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Around the web: July 19, 2015
Zen Habits — I Suck at Habits: How Do I Get Better? I also learned that I was often failing because I didn’t believe in myself — I would give up when things got hard, because deep down I didn’t really think I was going to succeed. I didn’t believe,... Continue reading
Posted Jul 19, 2015 at August
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Effectual components
In Seeking Wisdom, Peter Bevelin talks about how an increase of a prevalence of a disease may be caused by better measurement of diagnoses, better technology, or, in some cases, business interests. It may be in a company's interest to "widen[] a market by creating a new condition, redefining a... Continue reading
Posted Jul 14, 2015 at August
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The way things are
The way things are – are they like that because people have figured out the best way to do things and shifted things toward that zenith, or is the way things are merely convention that has been reinforced? If it's because it's already at a zenith, what mechanisms led people... Continue reading
Posted Jul 12, 2015 at August
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Thresholds for taking action
Came across a funny occurrence yesterday. I was at McNally Jackson, a bookstore in SoHo. I wanted a quiet place to read, and they have a downstairs place where people go and sit down and read books. Went down there, and lo and behold, no wifi nor cell service down... Continue reading
Posted Jul 11, 2015 at August
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Explorations: Structure for a "wide dive"
Yesterday and today, I've been thinking about how to best do the thing I'm about to do for the next 2 months, which is essentially "dive" or "exploration" into different fields for one week at a time. Lately, I've been thinking about how to structure this, asking a few friends... Continue reading
Posted Jul 9, 2015 at August
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Looking for books on learning
Looking for books on learning, in a) cognitive bases of learning and b) practical steps to take to learn better, in preparation for some deep dives I'll be doing in the next few weeks. Here's the books I've seen so far: Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning Education... Continue reading
Posted Jul 8, 2015 at August
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Around the web: July 8, 2015
Scott H. Young — Building, Searching and the Algorithm for Finding the Best Spouse Therefore, in a real context, I’d describe the split as being between searching and building. Searching, when you lack enough experience to know what to choose, and building, when you have enough data and now need... Continue reading
Posted Jul 8, 2015 at August
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