Home - No Magic Pill
Thoughts, research, knowledge, and experiences in my life. Bolded entries are highlights for each section.
Recent changes can be found in the changelog. RSS feed here.
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Best Of
A selection of posts that I think are my best or give a good sense of who I am.
Thoughts
Philosophy
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Culture Comes From the Top: And pours down, whether asked for or not
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Competition: Benefits, detriments, implementation
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Identity I: Adjectives vs. Nouns: Nouns are specific and adjectives are general
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Identity II: Use Identities to Guide Behaviors: Behave or join the outgroup
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Identity III: Automatic Connection: Strangers to friends in an instant
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Pacing I: Deceleration: Or lack thereof, on bikes and in life
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Pacing II: Acceleration: Or lack thereof, on machines and in life
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Pacing III: Steady State: Staying consistent in efforts and in life
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Discipline I: Momentum: Using small tasks to accelerate discipline
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Discipline II: By Force: How to do things that aren't fun or desirable
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Discipline III: Ebb and Flow: Motivation fluctuates, but the front line always pushes or holds
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Discipline IV: Digging Graves: Make decisions that risk livelihood if not completed
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Discipline V: Non-zero-Sum Efforts: Unproductive time removed ≠ productive time gained
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Boredom I: Consistency: As an indicator of progress and being on the right track
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Boredom II: Preying on the Ignorant: Selling snake oil for a hefty profit
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Destruction I: My refuge and its "progress"
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Destruction II: Must progress and destruction go hand-in-hand?
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Destruction III: Gone, but not forgotten
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Destruction IV: The final piece of forest
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Moderation is My Enemy and I Will Wage War on It Wherever I Go With Whatever I Have
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Intelligence Is Knowledge Is Experience: Experience gives the illusion of intelligence
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Agency: Developing agency and the ability to achieve goals
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The Trust Function: Calculating flakiness one commitment at a time
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Selling Out: Compromising principles for materials and status
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Get Your Focus Right: Seek the important and dismiss the trivial
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Ruined: Has trying to get better made me worse?
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Seconds Matter: Accumulation is real... and fast
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Filtering Through Low Bars: Easy barriers provide valuable information when not passed
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Systems to Eschew Eschewing Performance: Competitors must earn statuses
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Fear is a Lack of Understanding: Take time to learn before making an assessment
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Excuses: Competitors don't bitch, they compensate
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Puzzle Learning: An approach to learning new subjects
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Fucking Around to Find Out: Unrestrained exploration can be a valuable learning opportunity
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Privilege Violations Need Stricter Punishments: Lack of punishment incentivizes violating rules
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Why Are Most of My Thoughts Posts Advice-Flavored?: A critical look at the why behind some essays
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Nobody Cares: Do things for yourself, not others
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Modern Life is War: Ways of life are being attacked and resistance is necessary
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Priorities: A hard truth, a feeling of freedom, and a lamentation
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Merit-Based Barriers to Entry: Your skill level must be this high to ride
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Distractions: Definitions, common examples, elimination, prevention
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Commitment Issues: The longer a commitment goes unfulfilled, the less likely it is to become fulfilled
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Creating and Developing: Fulfillment, balance, suggestions and considerations
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Against SEO: SEO isn't necessary if the content is good
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Consider Others' Cost Tolerances: Just because you won't, doesn't mean they won't
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Create an Environment of Convenience: Personal convenience makes everything better
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Problems with Livestreaming: Personal issues I have with livestreaming and its culture
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Empty: Empty words and the cost of betterment
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Social Defection: Rules separate us from the animals
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Life Philosophies: Running list of life philosophies I abide by
Ideas
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Climbing the Hill of Experiments: A better anything can be achieved with simple, low-cost tests
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The Airline Smell Tax: Passengers must smell not-bad to fly for no extra charge
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Misaligned Incentives in Service-Based Industries: Holding clients hostage without realizing it
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Environment I: Ambition: Success by osmosis
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Peters Hide Amongst Us and Must Be Exposed: It's not that they got there, it's that they stay there
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AI-Generated Music for Learning: Catchy tunes are easy to remember
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Conversation Visualizer: Voice to text to image to reflection
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Concert Voting: Crowdsourcing playlists for maximum fan satisfaction
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House of Horror (Movies): Prove those movie characters are idiots by beating the villain
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Personal Convenience Drones: Freeing up hands and minds for more important things
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Scenic Routes in Map Apps: Taking the longer way for fun
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Social Inertia: Present interactions influence all future interactions
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Beginner's Blindness: Resolution and appreciation are lost when limits are reached
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Deprivation for Satisfaction: Depriving myself of various wants/needs to increase satisfaction
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Productive Idling: Always have something productive to do during idle times
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For LaTeX: Pros and cons of using LaTeX vs. Microsoft Word, ideas on how to increase its prevalence
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Safer Driving: Rules, data, biases, behaviors
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Pro-Natalists vs. Pets: Fur babies must be stopped for the future of our regular babies
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Becoming Famous for Others: Using influence to support causes
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Using Movies to Teach: Low-cost integration of valuable lessons into movies
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Checking Dunbar: Finding Dunbar's number, variations, increases
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Cheating: Why cheating occurs and prevention methods
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Clothing Choices for Overlooked Purposes: Being boring, obvious, and weird can pay dividends
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Making Work More Enjoyable: Philosophy of work and how to make it more fun
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Making Driving Enjoyable: Why driving isn't fun and how to lessen that
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Time Optimization: Practical ideas for improving use of time
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Shortform: Random thoughts
Reflection
Research
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Semiconductor Fabs I: The Equipment: In-depth look at semiconductor processing equipment
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Where to Live for Happiness: Literature and personal considerations related to housing
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[Blank]-Free Foods: Healthy or not?
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Slowing Time: Notes on and suggestions for making time feel slower
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Problems with Modern-Day Science: Predators, perishing, peer review, reproducibility
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Financial Independence / Retire Early: Motivation, types, methods, investments, lifestyles
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Vacuum: Concepts, technologies, pumps, system design
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Ion Implantation: Theory, equipment, process, doping alternatives
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Stealing Political Signs: Does it help or hurt the thief's cause?
Experiments
Cost-Benefit Analyses
Knowledge
Repositories
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Links: Links I've read
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Life Advice: On health, finance, productivity, career, thinking, environment, and others
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Dates: Out-of-the-box ideas for both committed relationships and casual partners
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Predictions: Accountability and improving thinking skills
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Quotes: Quotes I like and/or abide by
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Comfort Zone Expansion for Social Interactions: Theory and varying difficulties of exercises
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Penances: Creative punishments for a variety of needs
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Things I Will Subsidize: Books, movies, food, drink, and others
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Home Ownership: Considerations, projects, information, suggestions
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Problem Solving: List of problem-solving techniques
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Life Improvements: Items and practices that have improved my life
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Puzzles: Fun puzzles and brain teasers
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Project Euler/LeetCode Solutions: Notes on and solutions to Project Euler and LeetCode problems
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Midwit Memes: Background and collection of midwit memes
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Prominent Pictureless People: Mysterious people who have few to no pictures on the internet
Notes
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Notes I: Papers, posts, ideas, information
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Notes II: Economics, medicine, (geo)politics, technology, science
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Notes III: Books, podcasts
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Notes IV: Electronics
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Notes V: Miscellaneous
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Spaced Repetition: Brief overview, information examples and suggestions, memorization practice
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Sleep: Effects and Hygiene: Information on sleep's importance and hygiene
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Food: Science and Recipes: Information on the science of food and recipes
Reviews
Productivity
Training
Personal
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Sleep Deprivation Training for Endurance Athletes: Literature, experiments, solutions
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Apnea (Breath Holding): History, science, training, personal experiments
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Weight Loss in Just a Few Hard Steps: "Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels"
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Weight Loss Using Small Items: Wielding inconvenience as a weapon against fat
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Cutting Sugar: Psychology and elimination of sugar, lessons learned, recommendations
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Misconceptions: Common exercise misconceptions explained and debunked
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Home Gym: Advantages, equipment, purchasing suggestions, setup
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Core Training: Myths, programming, thoughts
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Supplementary Exercises: Exercises that can be trained alongside compound strength movements
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Training Notes: Notes on training topics
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Bikepacking: Detailed notes and thoughts
Philosophy
Tutorials
Experiences
2025
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LessOnline 2025: Talking, talking, talking
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San Diego: Reuniting with friends, beaches, zoos, and flavors
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New York City III: Revelations, confirmations, and reflections
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Uganda: Nature is both peaceful and metal, just not at the same time
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Orlando: Parties, quality time, and Disney
2024
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Iceland: Green and black sprinkled with trust and horses
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Boston: American history combined with American food and American prices
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Fredericksburg: Embracing my German heritage through copious amounts of wine and beer
2023
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Tulum: Eating, tanning, and swimming in the ancient Mayan city
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Riding with Death at 50 mph: His whispers sound like gale force winds
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Germany: A whole lotta walkin' and a whole lotta talkin' in Deutschland
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New York City II: (Dis)connecting with others in the City That Never Sleeps
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Europe: Embracing and disguising my Americanism in four countries
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Salt Lake City: Climbing Utah's highest peak with an old friend
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Vancouver-Seattle: Mountain biking, hiking, and friending in the Pacific Northwest
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Mexico City: Food and history in an arborist's and artist's dream city
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New York City I: Four late nights fueled by pizza and alcohol
2022
2021
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Floating in Nothing: Experience in a sensory deprivation tank
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Mount Shasta: Attempting to climb the Cascades' second highest peak
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Philadelphia: Exploring the City of Brotherly Love, cheesesteaks, and early American history
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Mount Hood: Attempting to climb Oregon's highest peak
2019
2018
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A Long Drag: Running, walking, and finally crawling the 2018 Bataan Memorial Death March
Miscellaneous
About
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About: Contact info, personal info, website
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Now: What I'm currently doing and interested in
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Changelog: Changes to this site and my life