What should you work on?

Finding out what to work on, how to work on it, and how to continue working on it is a difficult, ever elusive process, especially for those committed to uncertain terriority. This page is a dedicated support to the resolution of that problem. Additionally, I made this page as a reminder to myself; I sometimes get lazy and need inspiration.

The nature of self-education suggests an inherent unpredictability in its results. From this simple proposition comes a slew of consequence:

1) Intentionally inducing synchronicity and heightening exposure to positive Black Swans (unpredictable events) through stochastic tinkering (bricolage) and continual experimentation will yield greater results than over-planned top-down design.

2) The pre-condition of #1 is that you are actually working and experimenting. How then, do you maintain faith and effort? There are two main motives that can be leveraged to maximize distance and depth.

A) Social motives. I've wrote a longer essay about the efficacy of small groups here. Chances are that you will do better with a few peers compared to working in isolation or with an unfiltered population.

B) Motive of curiosity. Curiosity is to be cultivated; it is an infinitely supple, natural spring of lifeblood. It is self-fufilling, it makes for what is for others "work", for you, "play".

3) As our environment fluctuate without our regard, and as our consciousness will as result, therefore harming the effectiveness of self-analyzation, you cannot rely on willpower or deep introspection as fuel. Some days you are too tired or stupid for that. Remember the paradox of mindfulness: you can only be as mindful as you are. This doesn't mean your health is entirely irrelevant: avoid intoxicants in all forms, and eat and sleep well. Commit to energizing tasks while in high energy states, and find subtle ways to rebuild and remind yourself of where you want to be (like writing this webpage!)

Links to Blogposts of General Advice

Personal Checklist

I had terrible little lists of mid to long-term goals collected everywhere, so I've compiled everything (that I could find) here. A reminder for me, inspiration for you.

  1. Understand Gödel's Theorem & the Church-Turing thesis
  2. Hatch Butterflies
  3. Research history of punctuation - across time and linguistic boundaries
  4. Research history of mathematical symbolism - across time and linguistic boundaries
  5. Whittle a statuette
  6. Research the historical development of random number generation
  7. Research color standardization
  8. Understand and partake in new and old photographic methods
  9. Learn LATEX
  10. Understand word analyzer programs - write a word processor
  11. Learn how to use a raspberry PI to locally host a website (maybe this one?)
  12. Create software for easily ambient music composition
  13. Connect LISP to a GUI; use LISP in a web application
  14. Attempt to be still in an empty room for 30 minutes uninterrupted
  15. Learn how to identify and use local flora, then identify and use it
  16. Essay about audio sampling and digital image collage as expressions of post-modernism
  17. Essay about linguistic limitations in psychoanalysis - methods of circumvention
  18. Essay about writing mediums - comparing the experience in word processor, typerwriter, and handwriting
  19. Essay about destined death and it's paradoxical relation to Maslow's self-actualization
  20. Essay about the self-recursion in literary history, about writing for one's self
  21. Essay about Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Western U.S.A., or Spain
  22. Essay about cultivating curiosity
  23. Complete and compile poetry anthology
  24. Essay about Zen in landscaping
  25. Essay about the Upper South
  26. Learn more about Adobe Illustrator
  27. Complete your pixel art font
  28. Create nature-responsive synth