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Showing posts from June, 2021

Scattered Thoughts

 I have less than 8 minutes to write this post. My internet will go out at 10pm sharp. I've been thinking a bit about the idea of storytelling as a means of representing oneself and "simulating", as Peterson puts it, the outcomes of different scenarios that one may try. One example that jumps out at me is Levin from Anna Karenina , whose name is derived from the author Tolstoy's first name Leo. Compared to last year, I think one change in my planning habits is that I've become more conservative with regard to my willingness to take on new commitments. About a year ago, I took on many responsibilities (some more compelling than others) and thought I could shoulder them all. But I don't think I could pay attention to each responsibility adequately. To illustrate my point, I'll compare my lifestyle during summertime and during the schoolyear. In both times of year, I have work to finish. But it's no doubt that work that presents itself during the schoolye...

Thoughts on Summer

I have a strong drive within myself to make sure that I have a meaningful summer. I think that meaning must be created if it does not come on its own. I've been fortunate to have encountered this sense of meaning in past summers. To create meaning, I have to start by imagining the type of person I would like to be and to remember how much better I could be if I became that type of person. I have to raise my own standards and make a plan toward elevating myself. I must subdue one's internal urges to break from discipline and endure difficulty. For the past few weeks, I've been setting an ideal about what a meaningful summer would look like for me. That meant a summer in which I would not feel guilty at having not worked enough. (It's a terrible feeling to regret my summer choices right when fall is around the corner.) I started by making a small number of goals for myself. For the next ten weeks, I set daily goals of: 1) Spending a minimum of 5 hours on my research proje...