Daily Checkpoint Check-In Habit

For as long as I've been interested in self-quantification, part of my daily review has involved giving an overall grade to my days. This month I wanted to add more nuance to my daily grades by tracking how my opinion might fluctuate throughout the day. So I instituted a new practice where I divided my days into multiple phases (ex. breakfast → lunch, lunch → dinner) and at the end of each phase I grade it in the same way I would grade the day.

Carbon Footprint

"The concept of your personal carbon footprint was popularized by the oil producer BP in a 2005 ad campaign, arguably one of the most effective and sinister pieces of propaganda that still seriously distracts all of us from the reality of the situation. If you eliminated 100% of your individual emissions for the rest of your life, you would save 1 second's worth of emissions from the global energy sector. Even the most motivated person can't even make a tiny dent." [11:02-11:30]

Serendipity Gardening

I really resonate with the idea of maximising one's surface area for random opportunity. This month I wanted to put that idea into practice through what I'm calling serendipity gardening. The overall goal is to intentionally plant serendipity seeds and water them to see if they'll grow into something meaningful.

Spatial Cognition Mind Game

Distant Directions

In the exact spot and direction that you're sitting in, ask yourself what you would be looking at in another location.

Space Travel

Inspired by this video, I wanted to seek out a list of some of the benefits that I enjoy thanks to space exploration and I found this great list here:

Brain APIs

There are a lot of interesting studies looking at how to use our minds to control computer interfaces. I tend to only think of in-to-out operations (where the connection moves one-way from our mind outward to the computer), however I learned this month that there's the potential for the connection to work in reverse as well (where computers can input information into our minds).

Empathising with Mental Health

I think that people might have an easier time dismissing the mental health issues of others (such as anxiety or depression) because they struggle to grasp what isn't visually apparent. I really like this analogy comparing cognitive actions to bodily actions and I think that comparing difficulty controlling one's voluntary physical actions with difficulty controlling one's cognitive actions can be a helpful mindset to help to empathise with people who struggle with mental health issues. I can't imagine someone who dismisses someone's anxiety being able to do the same thing with someone who has Parkinson's disease, for example.

Hedonism

I think that I would opt for the tank in the experience machine thought experiment. Does that make me a hedonist?