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2026-09-13

Update

• Superceded by: X: I read Cate Hall's book. Y: I am more miserable as a result

2026-09-12

Update

• I take back this entire post.
• You are allowed to run experiments without computing all possible consequences. You don't have to be so harsh on yourself.
• I think the practical lesson I am taking away is something like: It is difficult for me to just do some hobby on autopilot on weekends. I will either fully commit to it (like I did for practising a song, or learning morse, or way back I tried mandarin), or I will give it up completely.
• Even learning salsa for that matter, I am kind of a noob right now, I kind of suck? If I actually brought my full weight to bear on the problem I would either become a decent dancer in 30 days or have quit dancing in 30 days. Lol

2026-09-12

"Tie yourself to the mast" but pick the right mast lol

Disclaimer

• personal
• target audience - strictly myself

Main

• Just finished reading Cate Hall's book - You can just do things
• Another takeaway - I am genuinely confused how I ended up with my current goal of cracking a ham radio exam in two weeks
• My actual goals were leaking info about US govt and US AI companies, and finding a partner. Learning ham radio is clearly extremely suboptimal for either of these goals.
• Deranged chain of logic I used:
  • "maybe pick some hobbies, you'll get a partner", "maybe pick some hobbies, you'll be happier hence more effective at work"
  • "I dont want to pick a hobby just for the sake of the women, I want to pick a hobby I actually intrinsically like"
  • "my backup plan is to go bomb TSMC"
  • "the most effective way to do that is probably to actually join a military for a few months, and I cant do that. second best is to just learn some skills on weekends"
  • "ham radio sounds possibly useful"
  • spoiler alert: "it is not that useful, even if your plan was to bomb TSMC and learn skills only on weekends. learning to shoot and learning to pilot drones is way more useful"
  • "at this point I have made a pre-commitment so I should just execute on it"
• Notice how far I have strayed from my original goals of "leak info about US govt and US AI companies" and "find a partner to marry (subject to certain constraints)"
• I am by default a creative person more than someone who executes rapidly. I use pre-commitments to force myself to execute rapidly instead of just endlessly spinning. (Spinning = Brain burning more CPU cycles with no input or output)
• But also, use pre-commitments on the correct thing lol. You have probably wasted a pre-commitment on the wrong thing honestly.
• I will still learn ham radio in order to respect the pre-commitment. But also realise you have burned 0.5-1 months on this when the end of the world may be only ~50 months way.
• Ensure your next task is more focussed on your actual original goals lol.

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