Hey there—enjoy the week!
Articles to Read.
Get started with 2-minute rule
Whenever you find it hard to get started on a task, consider scaling it down into a 2-minute version. For example,
Read a book → Read one page
Write an essay → Write one sentence
Run 10 miles → Wear my running shoes
Do 100 push-ups → Do 1 push up
Eat more vegetables → Eat an apple
Study for interview → Skim through my notes
Build a program → Code a function
The idea is to make it super easy to get started. Once you pass the starting point, which is arguably the hardest step, you start to gain momentum to keep doing the task itself:
Read one page → Read 10 pages → Finish the first chapter
Write one sentence → Write an opening paragraph → Write the body
Wear my running shoes → Walk for 5 minutes → Run for 5 minutes
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1: You won’t code anymore.
I once heard some tongue-in-cheek advice about moving to management: “If the thought of never coding anymore turns your life to ash, don’t move to management.” Turns out it’s true.
The “should managers still code?” question is probably the most hotly debated question about the role change, and I’m taking a side: no. Maybe not immediately after the switch, because your team may be small enough that it needs your technical contribution or you may still be the subject matter expert, but as you climb the management ladder you will move further away from doing any implementation work. In fact, I’ll argue that managers who cling to coding work hold back the output of their team.
2: Management forces you to care more about everything.
3: Management creates an unavoidable power hierarchy.
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The cheap pen that changed writing forever
Gimbels was the first to sell a new kind of ink pen, the design of which had taken several decades to come to fruition. The pens, made by the Reynolds International Pen Company, promised an end to the messy mishaps users of fountain pens encountered – leaking ink, smudges and pooling ink blots.
The new Reynolds ballpoint cost $12.50 – convert that to 2020 money and it’s more than $180 (£138.50). Today, if you were buying your pens in bulk, from stack-‘em-high superstores, you could end up with more than 1,000 for the same price.
The masterstroke which would change the ballpoint pen forever came not from the US but from France. Michel Bich was an Italian-born French industrialist who ran a company making ballpoint pens. “No one understood better than Marcel Bich that potent 20th-century alchemy of high volume/low cost,” ran his obituary in the UK’s Independent newspaper when he died in 1994. “To this formula he added the magic catalyst of disposability. He invented nothing, but understood the mass market almost perfectly.”
Bich realised the ballpoints so far had been premium products – an alternative designed to be regularly replaced could be a lot cheaper. Bich acquired a dormant factory near Paris and set about creating his new company, Societe Bic. An advertising executive had suggested the industrialists shorten his surname to create an instantly recognisable three-letter trademark. The company’s trademark logo, the Bic Boy, had a smooth featureless orb as a face – a reference to the metal ball in the point of the pen.
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Study helps explain why motivation to learn declines with age
As people age, they often lose their motivation to learn new things or engage in everyday activities. In a study of mice, MIT neuroscientists have now identified a brain circuit that is critical for maintaining this kind of motivation.
This circuit is particularly important for learning to make decisions that require evaluating the cost and reward that come with a particular action. The researchers showed that they could boost older mice’s motivation to engage in this type of learning by reactivating this circuit, and they could also decrease motivation by suppressing the circuit.
“As we age, it’s harder to have a get-up-and-go attitude toward things,” says Ann Graybiel, an Institute Professor at MIT and member of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. “This get-up-and-go, or engagement, is important for our social well-being and for learning — it’s tough to learn if you aren’t attending and engaged.”
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Millions of animals may be missing from scientific studies
Most animals used in biomedical experiments are not accounted for in published papers, a first-of-its-kind study suggests. The analysis found that only one-quarter of more than 5500 lab animals used over a 2-year period at one university in the Netherlands ended up being mentioned in a scientific paper afterward. The researchers believe the pattern could be similar at institutions around the world, resulting in potentially millions of animals disappearing from scientific studies.
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How to deal with Extreme Physical Pain
It's OK to tell people you hurt. You're human. Talk about your pain. Cry. Yell. Sob. Talk some more.
When I'm done yelling, I'm trying to sit quietly and meditate about this pain. What is it trying to tell me? Can I mentally follow the nerve from the location (referred pain or otherwise) to my brain and determine what the body wants me to know? Am I being told there's danger?
The cognitive dissonance is overwhelming. Your body says you're actively dying but your conscious brain can - must - override it and let the pain flow freely. You observe it, rather than obstruct it.
I hate this process but I'm going to learn from it. I'm learning and listening to my body and how I react to something so extreme.
The pain is important to acknowledge because this pain is gonna make me better and stronger. But it still hurts. Here we go.
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More to Check Out:
- Dutch flying car gets permission to drive on European roads
- Are we losing our ability to remember?
- Stripe Climate
- The Earth Is Pulsating Every 26 Seconds, and Seismologists Don't Agree Why
- 2020's fastest-rising tech jobs? Programming language PHP leads the way
My Update:
Moved to Santa Monica!
Working—we’re bringing on more software engineers if you know anyone who may be interested.