1. Always take the stairs
2. Twenty-min workouts matter
3. Daily smoothie
4. Deprioritize Uber: you shouldn’t be in such a rush that you can’t take the more natural route (e.g., walking, train). Seeing how a population moves as actually more important than seeing some tourist attraction you are rushing to see.

We need freedom from freedom in a world brimming with a level of temptation no human was evolved to navigate. Of course every student *feels* the endless buzz of electronic distraction, and nobody seems to dispute the literature declaring the superiority of handwritten notes, and yet we still can’t help ourselves in continuing to employ electronics. So please save us from ourselves and ban electronics in class. You will help us learn better, gain more of our attention—currently wasted on iMessage, YouTube, etc—and maybe even assist us in finding some peace in a world increasingly devoid of it.

But maybe you find this unpersuasive. After all, this is America, land of the free, home of the brave, and these are smart adults using their own free will however they damn well please—if they want to sabotage their attention, so be it. Yet this is not a victimless crime. Consider how a single cell phone lighting up in a dark movie theater draws attention from more than a single person. So just as people can’t “choose” to avoid breathing in secondhand smoke, diligent non-laptop students can’t well “choose” to avoid the TikTok video that crosses their vision due to the single laptop student and his inability to focus on your lectures.

willing to bear the child of a man who uses one of those plastic ball throwers to play fetch with a dog.

carry a bag (or whatever) for one person a week. Easy to do in an airport.

“right” to end sentences. More annoying than “um.”

In 1950, the average GPA at Harvard was estimated at 2.6 out of 4. By 2003, it had risen to 3.4. Today, it stands at 3.8.

The more elite the college, the more lenient the standards. At Yale, for example, 80% of grades awarded in 2023 were As or A minuses. But the problem is also prevalent at less selective colleges. Across all four-year colleges in the United States, the most commonly awarded grade is now an A.

Here

To detect your own shortcomings, it can be helpful to witness them in others. You start with judgment: Look at that kid next to me on a plane switching between iPad games every three minutes; he can’t even finish a single level in a maximally stimulating artificial world before jumping to something new. You feel better than. You are right to despise this behavior. And then. And then. Wait a second… Don’t I do something like that too? Maybe not as egregious, but categorically similar. I start a podcast and jump to a different one. Or start in a podcast and decide to go with music instead. I’m in such a rush to pierce the silence that I click buttons before thinking.

1. Let’s start pausing before acting
2. Let’s force ourselves to stick with our decisions
3. Doing either #1 or #2 habitualizes both items

Boy how nice it is to be in an establishment where no music is being played. Just the sounds of humanity.

1. Respect uncertainty
   • Nobody knows instead of a personal statement like I don’t know
   • Everything is there to be found out
2. Notice three new things
   • Multiple answers to any question
   • New stuff in your surroundings
3. When learning, avoid absolutes. Learn conditionally
   • Not is, could be, would be, possibly, it would seem that, might be
   • This shifts opens you to possibilities unavailable in absolutes

Tragedy or inconvenience?

Most stress is about things that never occur.

I’m capable of a better outcome.
I’m not capable of a better effort.