Why does this stick like a waxing strip...

Lights out Alice,

Why does this stick like a waxing strip, enormously painful to remove yet unassuming when attaching itself.

I am unable to bring myself (actually my brain, which rules over me) round to tear off this bad habit(s). The common culprits remain : Procrastination, Inefficiency, Lack of ability to focus on work at hand and not pushing harder everyday.

What do i do? How do i get over bad habits? My presumption was it would be a long process and not much more. In reality, it is a long process with no feedback as to tell you if you are making progress or not. You have no clue if you are moving forward or falling backwards. Don't forget:

Security is mortal's chiefest enemy

When you are feeling secure, it is the time that you are the most vulnerable. But then again, the point of feeling secure is to lay down that heavy armor that you have been carrying diligently against bad habits for a long time, while the enemy (bad habit) is playing his strongest weapon that is time and patience against you.


Solution suggested: Find immortality (please don't, just know that it is a bad idea, you don't wan't to be here forever) or fight this enemy. Remain volatile, open to suggestions and ideas, improvement and criticism.

Lights out Alice!

What you need to know, yet somehow find ways to ignore it all the same

Lights out Alice!
Funny how things work out, for a while you have no blog post, and this today it happens to my second post.

I came across this answer while procrastinating with my work on Quora ( didn't get my reference, check out my first post today here: When will this fight end?)

The question was: What is the one thing do you wish you had known about life when you were in your 20s?

The following is the paraphrased answer from William Beteet:

Dear Young Bill,

1. Porn is Ruining Your Life - So install a porn blocker and give Joey the Password
2. Life isn’t a Rom-Com -You aren’t going to marry Carol, stop trying to earn love, if a girl likes you awesome, if they don’t stop wasting your time.
3. Your Parents Are Amazing - Call Them More
4. You’re Not Special - You make yourself special using two tools, discipline and courage.
5. Say No When You Want To - Learn to say no more. That’s how you focus, by saying no to distractions and people.
6. Stop Planning - You have these huge plans for your life. None of these plans work. Just pick the direction you want your life to go and cultivate skills that are going to make that journey easier.
7. Laugh at Being Jealous - You get jealous a lot, it’s not a big deal. When you do get jealous, say what you’re upset about out loud and start laughing. It will make you feel better and it stops you from taking yourself so seriously.
8.  Don’t be Afraid of Being Alone - Time alone isn’t something to run away from it is to be cherished. So work on those novels and screenplays, go to the gym and read books - don’t cry, cultivate skills.
9. Stop Drinking - I know blasphemous, but when you’re 24 you quit drinking and you’re able to have even more fun when you go out to party and you save a lot of time not being hungover.
10. Work-Out - In the future you’re really muscular, part of what’s keeping you from going to the gym now is that you think you can’t put on muscle, you can, so start lifting.
11. Listen to Audiobooks When You Drive and Walk - You waste a lot of time listening to the same songs, over and over again. Listen to audiobooks, you’ll learn a lot and sound smarter.
12. Learn the Rules of Life - Look at life as it is not as you wish it to be.
    There are unspoken rules in life, find out what they are and make them work in your favor. This means reading self-development books about relationships, discipline, mastery, economics and body language. Also talk to your Dad more (See #3) because he’s unbelievably wise and you’re unbelievably foolish.
13. Take One Risk a Day - These risks should be to make you better not worse (This isn’t a license to drive drunk), so email CEO’s and talk to pretty girls, you’d be surprised how much doing stuff like this will impact your life.

Bill your life turns out great, and you are on a path for success, but if you did these things earlier, you would have enjoyed life more along the way. These things will not only make you more successful, they will make you happier while striving for success.

Lights out Alice!

When will this fight end?

Lights out Alice!

I have been facing a tough couple of days fighting procrastination. These days ride on the back of a hectic (believe me that's an understatement) week of examinations. I screwed up those, which was highly likely given the sloth like inefficiency that I have fallen into.

I am a failure right now, of the worst kind, since the only thing that is causing me to fail is my head itself, the one thing that is always supposed to be on your side. I am procrastinating like pandas, yet worse than them in the way that I have an exam coming up again in a few days that is going to be the toughest of them all.

I need to get my head in gear, or find a way to push myself to. This has been rising for the past few months, and now my bad habits are spiraling out of control. I have got myself into a serial complaining disorder, serial laziness, sloth like procrastination, excuse giving, failing to meet deadlines and all other related sickening habits that an empty mind brings.

Wow, I feel real bad (utter bad feeling in my stomach, yet my brain is fine), and yet there is this part of my brain that JUST DOESN'T FEEL LIKE DOING ANYTHING. That's a sorry state to be in, and I tell you, my dear friend, this is a bad disease, it is very painful. It is painful in the fact that it has no external symptoms (dwindling work efficiency may be one) and no one can externally diagnose this problem or provide you with a cure for it. It is an internal fight that you have to fight for yourself and the one that is not won easily. Once this habit grips you, it is like an ink stain on a white shirt, a nasty reminder of the gloomy day that it happened.

The questions that one might have: How do you fight this? Well, it's easy, just get about doing your job and that should be it. But, just like any other addiction where all you have to do is quit taking the substance, it is not that straight forward. More so here since here you are fighting with the greatest enemy that one can ever have the misfortune of meeting, your very own mind. Nope, Hitler doesn't even come close. Your minds knows all the tricks, all the tricks for the tricks, the tricks to trick your brain, everything. It is like the only source code on the server of VIKI from I robot getting corrupted, only the fact that you can't kill VIKI by pulling a Will Smith, since VIKI in this case is your brain.

Hopefully, I pull through. Since the fight for every battle starts with a single step, I am going to take that step. End my blog, close my laptop, breathe and start studying for the impending doom like I mean it. I just hope I can survive this quick sand of the mind.

Lights out Alice!

Why do i feel the blues

Lights out Alice!

A good friend of mine today reminded me that my self control is at a level that is negative of whatever is the highest positive level.

I can't control myself, my thoughts are freer than the wind, and when you try to rein it down, they explode into smoke. I just can't. Nope.

But as i have learned over the years, it is the control of the body, soul and the mind that is the greatest achievement of Adult life. So, yeah, i am a failure on that account till now.

No, not all areas of life need you to "grow up", but control over oneself is something that one should never give up on. This control over self is foremost threatened by the evil master, Procrastination, who with it's charm and comfort leads you to believe that everything is going fine even though it is actually a train wreck. Actually, it is more like a plane wreck, since the chances of survival are lesser in the later.

There is a pattern to this though. If all of your goals that you set out to achieve for the day end in frustration over lack of actual work done, then yes, you are doomed. Congratulations, Procrastination is now your master, and thou it's slave and thine wish shall never come true ever again. Only pangs of emotion, tearing your apart for not doing things that were meant to be done and instead focusing on things that give immediate comfort (and long term distress).

I really feel this urge to talk to someone special, but i know deep down that this will lead to my own doom and complicate things further, I realized after a heated argument with my brain that my heart is wrong and that silence is the option that i have to choose.

It isn't what i would like, since i would sincerely like to that someone and tell them that i am not wrong and i didn't choose the other side, i just didn't take sides and continued doing what i was. I could say this to that someone but experience (mostly sitcoms) have taught me that that someone might not understand the emotions behind the statement and interpret it in the million wrong ways i don't want it to interpreted as.

I wish i could say all this to that someone, but because i can't, i leave my words with you, the unfortunate reader, who had the misfortune to come across this blog and read the sorry state of affairs that i am stuck in.

Hope it doesn't happen to you too, and if it does, i sincerely wish that you can find a solution to it in the same way i hope that the grand master Time will show me the solution, because, in the end, all we ever lose is time, the every changing constant.

Have a good night Alice and Lights Out!

Wheel Bearings, their types and description

Lights out Alice!

It is not one my self loathing posts, but rather an informative one, whose purpose is to allow me to retain the information over a longer period of time.

https://www.carid.com/articles/wheel-bearings.html

By Michael Grayen

Wheel bearings are as old and important as the wheel itself thanks to their ability to allow free rotation without the damaging effects of friction and wear. In this article, we'll define and discuss the individual components so that you are better informed when you are ready to purchase replacement wheel bearings, hubs, seals, and components. We'll also cover the differences between "wheel bearings" or "axle bearings" mounted at the wheel itself along with "axle shaft bearings" located further inboard along axle shafts. "Bearings" are actually the small round pieces that spin within a bearing assembly. Even though bearings come in a variety of shapes, they all serve the same basic purpose.

Types Of Bearings

Ball bearings – These are perfectly round metal balls. While they're used in some automotive bearing assemblies, they are more commonly found in skateboards, electric motors, and household machinery. Because their spherical shape allows them to spin in any direction, they can handle both radial loads (weight from above) and thrust loads (sideways force). However, perfectly round ball bearings have a very small contact area. This limits them to light-to-medium applications and to locations on a vehicle that are not subject to heavy pressure and shocks from road impacts.

Straight roller bearings – These are cylindrically shaped, and have a constant diameter straight across their entire length - similar to a log. Because radial loads placed on them are spread out evenly across a much wider contact point, they are good for some heavier-duty applications. The drawback of straight roller bearings is that their shape does not allow them to handle significant thrust loads. Bearing assemblies with smaller-diameter straight roller bearings are often used in tight spaces such as gear boxes.

Tapered roller bearings – The rollers themselves appear to have a cylindrical shape, but they all taper to one side. They're placed inside bearing assemblies which are cone-shaped because physics allows this shape to handle heavy amounts of radial pressure, thrust loads, and hard shocks. Tapered bearings are most often used in wheel bearing assemblies mounted inside of wheel hubs. Some automakers use one bearing assembly with tapered roller bearings and others pair these assemblies up next to each other, facing in opposite directions.

Other Components Related To A Bearing Assembly

Race – This is a metal ring with smooth, machined inner and outer surfaces. Bearings are surrounded by a race which provides the surface against which they rotate. Races are often included with a new bearing assembly, but check to make sure you know what you're getting before making a purchase. If a new race is not included with bearings, it should be purchased separately and replaced as well, because an old race should never be re-used with a new bearing – no matter good its condition may appear to the naked eye.

Bearing cage – A special form of race specially perforated to cradle the bearings themselves. The bearing cage provides the inner surface against which bearings rotate. Bearing cages are not usually sold separately because they are typically part of a bearing assembly.

Bearing seal – An O-shaped round seal (usually hardened rubber) used to surround part of a bearing assembly so grease doesn't leak out and water doesn't get in. Bearing seals are a wear item, and should always be replaced with bearings. If the bearing assembly for your vehicle is not sold with a seal or does not come with a built-in seal, bearing seals can usually be purchased individually.

Wheel hub – A forged or cast piece of metal that an automobile wheel mounts to. Wheel bearing assemblies typically fit inside the center of the wheel hub to allow free rotation around an axle shaft or spindle. Bearing assemblies that mount inside a wheel hub are often called wheel hub bearing assemblies. Depending on vehicle manufacturer, some wheel hub bearing assemblies are constructed with integral bearing assemblies that cannot be replaced separately. Instead, the wheel hub must be replaced as a whole.

Bearing grease – This is a heavy-duty petroleum-based or synthetic grease designed to provide lubrication of high-friction surfaces. Unlike gear oil or motor oil, bearing grease remains thick and sticky at high temperatures because of its heavy viscosity, and will not run off surfaces the way thinner fluids do. Having clean grease on hand is essential when doing any repair work involving bearings or related parts. Grease in a container that's been left open to the air for a period of time tends to draw airborne dust and dirt like a magnet, so if you find the lid of your container was not on tight or has become compromised, your grease has too. Replace it with a new container.

Bearing grease packer – A specially shaped receptacle approximately the size of a large coffee mug with a center shaft. A grease packer allows you to drop an entire O-shaped bearing assembly inside of it where it will sit atop lubricating grease inside the packer. The top part of the grease packing tool is then inserted. With downward pressure applied, the bearing assembly becomes immersed into the thick grease which squeezes into all gaps between the bearings, cage, and race. This is the easiest and most efficient way to get grease inside most of the bearing areas. After removing your bearing assembly from a grease packer, it's also a good idea to apply a final coating of grease by hand around the outer circumference of the bearing assembly.

Front-, Rear-, And All-Wheel-Drive Vehicles

Shown in this picture is a replaceable grease seal that is not part of a wheel hub bearing assembly.

Bearing terminology gets a little trickier when differences for front-, rear-, and all-wheel-drive vehicles are factored in. Things also vary depending on which wheels are drive wheels and which are not. For example, bearings for drive wheels are known as "axle bearings" whether they're front or rear because those wheels are mounted to the hub of an axle shaft which rotates within a housing. Bearing assemblies on front or rear non-driven axles are correctly termed "wheel bearings", and they mount between a wheel hub and a simple spindle shaft. An all-wheel-drive vehicle would have four axle bearings. Regardless of these differences, most axle and wheel bearing assemblies are blanketed under the term "wheel bearings" – something to consider when looking for replacement parts.

Types Of Bearing Designs Used On Front Wheel Hubs

A wheel hub bearing assembly consisting of two tapered bearings paired next to each other.

This picture of a late-model General Motors integrated wheel hub is typical of how most modern vehicle manufacturers design a hub, bearing assembly, mounting, and wheel flange into an integrated unit for the front wheels.

Usually, a pair of tapered style bearing assemblies next to each other are used for front-wheel-drive hubs because vehicle weight is distributed more heavily up front, and lateral forces generated as wheels turn can be severe. In some cases, bearing assemblies for front-wheel-drive hubs are sealed units that never need lubrication. Others are designed to be serviced and feature a replaceable grease seal that's changed each time bearings are repacked with grease.

On older vehicles, front wheel bearings were designed to be serviced with repair kits because parts can be individually disassembled, cleaned, and re-packed with grease. Newer vehicles are typically equipped with assemblies for front wheels that include hub, bearing assembly, mounting, and wheel flange integrated into one unit. Depending on the vehicle manufacturer's preference, some bearing assemblies are pressed into the knuckle and can't be replaced without special tools. While most integrated wheel hub bearing assemblies cost more, they are easier to replace using standard tools.

Types Of Bearing Designs Used On Rear Wheel Hubs

This exploded drawing shows an older style wheel bearing setup where all parts at the hub can be taken apart, cleaned, and replaced more easily.

This exploded drawing shows an older style wheel bearing setup where a wheel hub is bolted to a disc brake rotor. Individual parts here can also be taken apart, cleaned, and replaced more easily.

Many rear-wheel-drive vehicles with solid beam rear axles use bearings of the straight roller bearing type design – sometimes with dual rows of bearings. In other cases, the axle tubes perform double duty and act as the races for those bearings. Front-wheel-drive vehicles with independent rear suspension layouts and non-driven rear hubs will usually feature tapered roller bearing type assemblies, or even ball bearing assemblies.

Axle Shaft Bearings

Axle shaft bearings are mounted at inboard locations and support the weight of the vehicle while keeping a drive axle centered in place as it rotates. Ball-type bearings, straight roller bearings, and tapered type roller bearings are all used in these axle shaft bearing assemblies, and they vary depending on manufacturer preference. Most ball bearings and tapered bearings are held in place by a bearing outer retainer, while axles with straight-roller bearings use a C-shaped clip located inside the rear differential.

Ball-type axle bearing assemblies are pressed on and off the axle shaft, and a retainer ring made of soft metal is pressed onto the shaft against the wheel bearing. Roller axle bearings are lubricated by gear oil inside the differential housing, and are most often pressed into that housing rather than onto the axle. Tapered roller axle bearings are sealed with typical axle grease for lubrication, and must be pressed on or off the axle shaft.

When it comes time to replace any bearing components, the "type" of bearings or bearing assemblies you need are determined strictly by how your exact vehicle was engineered from the beginning. You will save time, money, and frustration by focusing on getting the correct components the first time. Be sure to also get ALL the components you may need: races, seals, grease, and special tools as well as the bearings themselves.

Should you find yourself in need of complete wheel hub and bearing assembly kits, or individual parts to service or repair your existing bearing assemblies such as races, seals, grease, bearings, and grease packers, CARiD has all the high-quality parts you need in our Wheel Hubs, Bearings, and Seals category. Entering your specific make, model, and year in our website fields will guide you to specific parts that fit your vehicle, and if you have any questions our specialists are here seven days a week to help guide you through the selection process.

High Performance Culture

Lights Out Alice!

During my ritualistic wading through the internet scouring for content to "utilize my time", i came across this article that talks about the culture that a Formula Student team and community aims to build:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-drive-high-performance-culture-formula-student-michael-kogan

Excerpts:


Throughout my time participating in Formula Student, the world's largest university competition, I have learnt more than I could have ever imagined. It is a unique environment where a group of millennials are continuously motivated to devote up to 60 hours per week with no monetary rewards. Building purpose within a high performance culture is vital.
The competition itself prioritises reliability and methodical thinking, and with such a tight timeframe to design, build and test a racecar each year, strict project management is key. The teams that fail to perform consistently in this high pressure environment are those that chase “bursts” of innovation without thinking holistically. They are the ones that lose sight of the core priorities and biggest returns on investment.
Due to the rapid rate of individual turnover (as students have a very limited time at university) and the accelerated pace of learning expected, it is usually much quicker to observe the influence of culture change and process improvement. After interviews, surveys, discussions, and experience, I have structured the following framework that outlines the core components I have identified for a high performance culture in Formula Student (with the key drivers for each):

• Focus
• Data-driven decision making
• Continuous evaluation of priorities, goals and targets
• Clear and unified communication from the leadership team
• Accountability
• Clear performance expectations
• Recognition and reinforcement of exceptional performance
• Rapid and continuous correction of performance issues
• Psychological Safety
• Development of trust by ensuring everyone is made to feel important
• Continuous encouragement for constructive feedback
• Open and transparent dialogue across all levels of hierarchy
• Leaders are the most important contributors towards team culture; they are often the source of the beliefs and values within a team. Individuals in technical teams are often promoted into roles of leadership because of their performance in a particular skillset (such as structural design expertise), but this justification neglects their core purpose: to inspire others to bring forth the leaders within themselves. I have seen the impact of focus, accountability and psychological safety firsthand.
• Ultimately, a team’s purpose is not to create a particular culture, but to produce a particular output. Teams must first understand exactly what they want to achieve, and then nurture a culture that ensures the team is able to be effective in their core purpose.

The framework above was formed to guide leadership coaching and process development in my Formula Student team, Monash Motorsport. I hope this article has inspired you to create an environment where everyone can thrive, and operate at their full potential.


Lights Out Alice!

Why It Matters?

Lights Out Alice!

It has been a crappy day so far, and i don't expect that to change much over the course of the day. But that is not why we are here, because i wanted to take the time to share a good article written by the founder of Altair:

https://medium.com/@jrscapa/formula-sae-engineering-careers-just-beginning-32ce54f8b0f6#.o3w9bf7v1


Formula SAE — Engineering Careers Just Beginning
This article was written by James R. Scapa, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Altair.
Auburn University’s Formula SAE racing team posted a very nice thank-you on Facebook this week:
“We would like to extend our thanks to Altair University for their support of our program and FSAE in general. Without their unwavering support, our engineers would not have been capable of validating critical designs and innovating on past years’ designs. Thank you so much for your contributions and for allowing our engineers to learn and grow through Auburn University’s Formula SAE program.”





Over the last few months, we’ve received many emails from college design teams thanking Altair for our support of student engineering programs in 2016. Altair has been a proud sponsor of students and collegiate teams for nearly 20 years. The 2017 design cycle for SAE competitions in Formula, Baja, Clean Snowmobile, Hybrid, and Electric is underway and we look forward to continued great success for our sponsored teams.
These students are ready to take on the engineering challenges and opportunities in front of them. They are consistently coming up with new ways to innovate design with alternative energy sources, electronics, fuel efficiency, lightweighting, and much more. The world has problems to solve, products to develop, and experiences to create. It’s the stuff engineers have always done, but with even more powerful software tools coupled with broad global information access, our next generation of engineers will do it better than ever.
We can guess at some of the areas they will focus on during their careers: e-mobility, Internet of Things, sustainable design, nanomaterials, energy, and transportation infrastructure. We can hope for breakthroughs in biomedical engineering and it seems reaching Mars will be a goal too obvious to ignore. But what about the stuff we don’t know about? Which of this year’s Formula SAE graduates will work on things that don’t even have a name yet?
War Eagle!


Lights out Alice!

Am i heading towards self inflicted doom?

Lights Out Alice!

Am i heading towards a crash?
Am i going to implode?
Is my #1 priority still my studies, because my actions are showing that my priority is organizing an event, which, many people tell me won't help my career at all.

I have put more time on this event than would be safe for a side project. This has taken over my priorities and my schedules are often woven around the event work that i have.

This leaves me in a bit of a dilemma, since i often have to sacrifice time spent on studies for clearing out pending event work. It is a vicious vortex that has sucked me in its eye and i am unable to see clearly.

I am denting my chances for a technical future and moreover, for the first time in all the time i have undertaken event management, i feel like i am doing injustice to my studies.

It is a horrible sinking feeling in my stomach that is telling me every second that it is not right, yet i have to stay true to my commitments and see the event out, not just halfheartedly or for the sake of doing it, but the fact that i have given my word to the competition and its head.

But this also brings me to my next dilemma, how do i continue like this? Surely, it can't go on like this. Something has to give, and till now it has been my marks. I desperately want to change that.

Lights Out Alice! Sleep well tonight for there lay many sleepless nights to come.

The most deceptive of all Cancers: Procrastination

Lights out Alice!

Procrastination will kill you. So slowly that you would actually not feel like you are dying and the world will be removed from under your feet.

I will let Mikael Cho and his answer on productivity take it from here:
(Link to the answer)


I’m CEO of two startups. One was a happy accident that became one of the fastest growing photography websites. The other has yearly revenues in the millions and has grown an average of 300% year-over-year.
To work on these fast-growing companies while enjoying other parts of my life, I’ve had no choice but to figure out how to be as productive as possible.
Being a productive CEO is not any different than being productive at anything in life. It comes down to how well you manage the small choices you make every day.
Do you watch Netflix or do you go to sleep? Do you go to the networking event or do you write that sales email? Do you take that coffee meeting or do you work on your investor presentation? Everything you do has an opportunity cost.
Being a productive CEO is not about putting in the time. It’s about putting time in the right places.
Your level of productivity is one of the best ways you can push your startup toward success.Startups are defined by growth. And growth is measured by a metric (usually Revenue/Users) over time. If you can manipulate time (i.e. do something better and faster) you create an opportunity to build a successful startup. By managing your time well, you may fit in that extra product experiment that unlocks more revenue. You may get a few more days to think of that marketing strategy that gets you significant exposure.
As a CEO, you have your hand in everything from sales to marketing to product to hiring to fundraising. There’s way too much going on for you to put your attention everywhere at once. You have a limited number of decision-making points in a day.
This is why Mark Zuckerberg wears the same shirt every day.
"I really want to clear my life so that I have to make as few decisions as possible about anything except how to best serve this community,” Zuckerberg said.
Deciding what to wear is a waste of time compared to deciding how Facebook will impact the billions of people who use it.
Great CEOs like Zuckerberg focus on what will have the biggest impact. And remove everything else.
Maintaining good physical and mental health is also part of it. If you’re in pain, you can’t focus on being your best. If you have a back injury for example, that will probably make you less productive because you’ll be thinking about that pain rather than your work.
I’ve been a CEO for four years. And I’ve experimented with many different ways to improve my productivity. Here’s the list of things I do now. Hopefully, there’s some ideas here that might be useful for you.
1. Remove the noise.
· Turn off your phone/computer notifications. Though many things seem urgent, they hardly ever are. Most things can wait a couple hours. Notifications are poison for your attention. Turning off notifications allows you to focus. We can’t multitask. You might feel like you can but what’s really happening is your brain is switching between tasks. Shutting down and restarting every time. Switching is inefficient.
· Write everything down. I aim to keep my brain as empty as possible. I don’t try to remember anything. It’s harder to focus on one thing when you have thoughts, ideas, or tasks swirling in your head. Whenever I have an idea, I drop it the Notes app on my phone and forget about it.
· Automate anything you repeat. If you think you need to repeat something, write it down. We use the project management app Trello to document everything. We create step-by-step processes to automate tasks like setting up passwords to booking flights to marketing a new feature. Don’t waste brain power repeating things. Write it down once. Forget it forever.
· Use fewer tools. Figuring out a new tool or switching tools takes time. You don’t need ten tools. Pick a few good tools that could be used for many things. Our company picks flexible tools we expect to stick around. If you bet on a ‘hot’ tool just because it’s hot and you have to switch later, that’ll cost you. 90% of my day happens in 4 places: Google Chrome, TextEdit, Trello, Google Docs.
2. Focus.
· Chunk your tasks. As a CEO you need to do and give input on a lot of things. To reduce the inefficiency of constantly switching between tasks, I set aside blocks of time to do similar tasks. I create repeating events in my calendar and block out time between 1–3 hours depending on the task. For example, I check our team messaging app Slack twice a day. The rest of the day I quit Slack. I also bulk all my meetings together in the afternoons. Chunking tasks together helps keep your brain focused so you you can do better work in less time.
· Do focused work. Not all hours are created equal. Just because you work more hours, doesn’t mean you’re doing more (or better) work. When we try to multitask, we might feel like we’re getting more done but as research shows, we actually do less and make more mistakes. One hour of focused work with no distractions is more valuable than three hours of interrupted work. When you’re working on one thing, close your browser tabs and turn your phone on Airplane Mode. Put everything away except the one thing you’re focused on. Sometimes I even work from my phone because it forces me to only see one screen at a time.
· Remove the chance for interruption. It was hard when I first started working with extreme focus. I’d put my headphones on and ignore people if they spoke to me. I felt like I was being rude. Because I was thinking about my rudeness, my mind didn’t focus on my work. I realized one of the mistakes I made was not telling people how I was working. Taking the time to tell people how you’re working is much better than snapping or ignoring people if they ask you for something while you’re in focus mode. Both of these only lead to more stress which hurts ultimately hurts your focus. If you have kids and it’s hard to remove interruptions, try adding a work session when they’re asleep early in the morning or late at night. Here’s an example of what I send my wife before I go into a focused work session:





· Start your day with quick wins. Sometimes you wake up and don’t want to work. That first task on your list looks hard or you feel tired. One way to overcome this is to start your day with a couple easier tasks to get your momentum going. By simply opening my computer and doing something easy like cleaning off screenshots from my desktop switches my brain into work mode.
· Win your morning. Our biological clock makes most of us feel most alert in the morning. Even if you don’t wake up early, it feels good to start the day with the most important task. To find your most important task, think about yourself at the end of the day. If you only got one thing done, what task would make you feel most accomplished at the end of the day? Start your day with that.
· Constrain the time you work. I work in 1–1.5 hours sessions with untimed breaks in between. When researchers at Florida State University looked at elite performers, they found the best performers practiced in uninterrupted, 90-minute sessions andrarely worked more than four and a half hours in a day. I can feel my energy level and focus dip as I get to the end of an hour of focused work. Constraining the time you work helps you stay focused. I used to set aside full days for focused work. The problem was because I had all day, I would relax. This often led to procrastination. Now I use a timer to clock my 1–1.5 hour work sessions. If you feel like you have lots of time to do something, you’ll find ways to fill that time. Often by doing easier, less important things. By shortening the time frame, you’re forced to focus.
3. Maintain good health.
· You don’t have to workout every day. Just move. Though our bodies crave movement, you don’t need a huge workout to get the level of exercise you need to be healthy. National Geographic researcher Dan Buettner studied areas of the world where people are living the longest. One thing he consistently found was the impact of constant, low intensity exercise, either from walking, standing up and sitting down, or tending to a garden. Staying in any one position for too long causes our blood circulation to drop. Moving gives you a moment to refresh. Whether it’s walking to your office, taking the time to stretch while you’re microwaving your lunch, or playing a sport, any type of blood flow acts as a release. It’s an opportunity to refresh your brain.
· Hang out with someone who makes you happy every day. People who make us happy make us feel good. If we feel good, we do better work. No matter how much I have going on, I prioritize my family. It makes me happy. When I get back to work, I feel fresher.
· Make it easy to eat healthy. Eating well can help you work more efficiently. The challenge is preparing and eating well can take up 2–3 hours a day. That’s a big chunk of time. The trick is to figure out how to eat well without all the prep. Most meals I make take less than 15 minutes to make. I usually make 2 eggs in the morning with an avocado and salads for lunch and dinner along with a protein source like fish. I order the same things from the grocery store so I don’t think about what I should cook. This is my list of zero-prep snacks: Dry Roasted Edamame, Nonfat Greek Yogurt, carrots, and easy open cans of tuna. If you enjoy taking the time to cook, go for it. I do it sometimes. The feel-good oxytocin release can be a good break to fuel your work later. But if you don’t have time, make it easy to eat well.
· Use music to boost energy. Spotify conducted research on the benefits of certain types of music. Researchers found that musical tempo in the range of 50-80 beats per minute can help induce the alpha state in your brain, where your mind becomes calm, alert, and concentration is heightened. If I’m about to do a repetitive task, like answering email, I listen to my favorite songs to get my energy up. If I need to do a complex task that requires focus, I listen to songs without lyrics to help me get and stay in a state of flow. Music can have a significant impact on your mood and thus, impact your work efficiency.





This list of tips might make it seem like becoming productive means turning yourself into a boring robot. But that’s the trick.
If you see the day-to-day of most top performers - athletes, authors, CEOs, etc. - it looks boring. But that’s the ultimate productivity hack.
Remove the unnecessary. Automate decisions. Maintain good health.
It may seem boring but boring is how you clear space to do your best work.

Lights out and stay safe Alice!

Experience makes the difference

Lights out Alice!

I saw a movie today. *It is kind of a big deal, because i don't watch movies that often.*

The intern (2015) is a movie based on a retired gentleman "interning" for an e-commerce startup and follows his journey as a direct assistant to the founder of the startup. A beautiful movie that just tells you that is there is no better teacher than time and no wiser master than experience.

The one thing that strikes to you about Robert De Niro is how calm and cool he is under pressure. The way he can talk less and still make his feeling known was admirable, or should i say, like a true gentleman. "He was observant."

Throughout the movie, you could see that he takes his time to calculate his decisions (HOW HAVE WE FORGOTTEN TO TAKE OUR TIME), thus allowing his less patient opponents to jump the gun.

The character played by Robert De Niro is something that we should all strive to achieve, impeccable, flawless, punctual and always a gent. I look up to that character and his gentlemanly ways are ones that will strive to achieve in this turbulent and rash phase of my life, my college life.


Lights out Alice! 

The beauty of Approach

Lights out Alice!

Today, i came across an answer in Quora by Dr. Richard Muller who highlighted the beauty of approach when it comes to solving equations.

Note: The answer was compiled by Dr. Richard Muller and it uses the answers of Physics grad Prahar Mitra, engineer Jafar Alaa and mathematician Alon Amit.


How do you solve:  3 x2=94x+6
Dr. Muller writes in his answer that if you look at these three solutions, the solution that you find intrigues you will help you decide whether you want to be an engineer, a mathematician or a physicist.



Prahar's answer (personal favourite):

As many other answers have alluded, there is a solution for positive real x$x$ that is really close to 8 so that the real solution is something like x=8.000000⋯000#$x=8.000000\cdots 000\mathrm{\#}$. Can we estimate how close it actually is? For instance, can determine the number of zeros we have before we get to a non-zero digit?

Yes, we can!

The idea is to use Taylor expansions. Now, we know that the actual solution is really close to 8, so let us write x=8+ϵ$x=8+ϵ$. The equation is then

3(8+ϵ)2=38(8+ϵ)+6$3^{(8+ϵ{)}^2}=3^{8(8+ϵ)}+6$

Expanding both sides in ϵ$ϵ$ (which is legitimate since we know ϵ≪1$ϵ\ll 1$, we find to leading order

364(1+16ϵlog3)=364(1+8ϵlog3)+6$3^{64}(1+16ϵ\log 3)=3^{64}(1+8ϵ\log 3)+6$

which implies

ϵ=14×363log3$ϵ=\frac{1}{4\times 3^{63}\log 3}$

To estimate how small this really is, take a log10${\log }_{10}$ on both sides and we find

log10ϵ=63log103−log104−log10(log3)≈−30.7≈−31${\log }_{10}ϵ=63{\log }_{10}3-{\log }_{10}4-{\log }_{10}(\log 3)\approx -30.7\approx -31$

This implies that ϵ≈10−31$ϵ\approx {10}^{-31}$

Thus, we find that the actual solution in positive reals is something that is almost 8 followed by 30 zeroes.

PS - If you want to be precise and have a calculator with you, you can compute that ϵ=14×363log3=1.988×10−31$ϵ=\frac{1}{4\times 3^{63}\log 3}=1.988\times {10}^{-31}$

This implies

x≈8.0000000000000000000000000000001988

Jafar's answer:

From the graph we see one intersection for x<0. Since 3^(x^2) grows faster than 3^(8x)+6, there will eventually be another intersection for x>0. The 2nd solution will have too many decimal places due to the large value of the functions at the 2nd intersection.

Alon's answer (Salute):

As with any search for an answer or solution to anything, the first step is to know what the question is (or to accept that the question is vague, and that figuring it out is part of the journey).

But this question seems perfectly clear, no? Well, no, it isn't, in at least two ways.

First of all, what is x$x$ supposed to be? An integer? A real number? A complex number? This needs to be made clear since it makes a huge difference. The variable name x$x$ is often implicitly assumed to refer to a real number, so let's stick with that.

But then, what do we mean by “solve”? Most real numbers don't have a name. We can't pinpoint them using any finite description. “Solving” an equation involving an unknown x$x$may, therefore, mean one of several things:

1. Find an explicit expression for x$x$ using standard elementary expressions, such as x=log(23−−√+8)$x=\log (\sqrt{23}+8)$. Beware, there may not be such an expression at all, even if the equation has a perfectly good solution.
2. Find an explicit expression involving not-so-standard expressions, thereby connecting the solution of this problem with the solution of some other problem. For example, “x$x$is half the Feigenbaum constant”.
3. Find a numerical approximation for x$x$, as in x=17.2964123…$x=17.2964123\dots$
4. Prove that the equation has a solution, or that it has a unique solution, or that it has exactly five solutions. Often times this is all we can hope for.

Problems that are given as exercises in problem solving classes or calculus classes usually have a solution of the first kind, a nicely explicit one. I don't expect this is the case here. Exponentials and sums don't mix very well, and if there is a solution to an equation of this type, it's usually because someone specifically designed it to have such a solution. It's possible to develop some intuition around whether this is so. My intuition tells me this isn't the case here, but I could of course be wrong.

This reduces us to searching for solutions of type 2 (unexpected here) or 3 (very doable). There are many ways to numerically solve equations such as this. A good starting point is to guess approximate solutions, as follows.

The equation can be rewritten as 3x2=38x+6$3^{x^2}=3^{8x}+6$. If x$x$ is reasonably large, the exponents will be huge relative to the measly +6$+6$, so we guess that there must be a solution near x=8$x=8$, since this makes x2$x^2$ and 8x$8x$ the same.

Indeed, for x=8$x=8$, we have 364$3^{64}$ on the left and 364+6$3^{64}+6$ on the right. These numbers aren't equal, of course, but saying they are “close” would be an understatement worthy of the Black Knight (“all right, we’ll call it a draw”).

At x=8$x=8$, the right side is (barely) winning, while at x=9$x=9$ it is clearly losing as badly as the aforementioned knight. Therefore, somewhere in between, and very close to the 8$8$, there's an actual solution, since continuous functions can't switch sides without meeting. In the decimal expansion of this solution, I'd be surprised if there are fewer than ten 0’s after the decimal point before anything interesting happens.

We expect another solution when x$x$ is small, in fact negative: when x=−1$x=-1$ the RHS wins, while at x=−2$x=-2$ it loses. With a bit of care we can show that those are precisely the only two real solutions.

This, I suspect, is about as much as can be said about this problem.

If you do read closely through, the beauty shines through. I will let the answers talk for me.

Lights out Alice!