Rotating Logo Returns and Key Advice in Life
Today is the day to put my rotating logo back on the homepage with a bit of animation. I believe that life is a delicate balance of pushing past the hard bits, thinking clearly, journaling, using the 80/20-rule, and avoiding rabbit-holes. We must also be aware of the false dichotomies that label people and the power of those who oppose peace. Times are changing and the public is being held down, but I'm confident that we can break through.
Reinvigorate Your Life with Animation and Key Advice Today!
By Michael Levin
Saturday, December 17, 2022
Okay, it’s time to put my rotating logo back on the homepage, but make it have a bit of a acceleration and deceleration effect. Or do what you can get within the 80/20-rule. Don’t go overboard, but replace the version of my logo with my blurred beardless face and the NASA Nerd T-Shirt. Use instead the green version, but remove the lighting source so it looks good rotating. Keep it SVG.
Key Advice in Life
Push Just Past the Hard Bits
When you’ve found something special but its pursuit gets difficult, push past the hard bit. That’s where most people quit. There are likely to be rewards just past that point, or else it wouldn’t be so desirable a feat. But make sure you really love the pursuit. Such energies are for love-worthy things.
Think Clearly By Narrating It
Most of us think less than we think we think. That is because we are working on automatic most of the time, no different than with the instincts of non-human animals. You can sail through life this way and do pretty well. But if you want to exercise human free will and self-determination, you have to think it out loud.
Deliberately and distinctly narrating your thoughts to to yourself engages parts of your brain that are normally off. It’s not only how highly developed our language center is, but how well and how often we use it that sets us apart. It’s a skill that needs to be practiced, like anything else.
Keep a Journal For Life
Writing in a journal is a sure way to force yourself to narrate your thoughts, and thus think more — and eventually more clearly. Once you learn vim, keep a journal for life. One file, for the rest of your life. You’ll be amazed the changes this will induce. Keeping a journal ain’t easy. Push past the hard bits.
Use the 80/20-Rule
This is the corollary to pushing past the hard bits. Know when to bank your winnings and move on. Twenty percent of the time and effort you might be willing to put into something produces eighty percent of the results you’re looking for. Beyond that, diminishing returns sets in. The pursuit of perfection squanders precious resources.
In other-words, always try to front-load your efforts with the most important parts first, so that if you had to quit only 1/5th of the way in, you still will have won by getting out of it most of what you intended.
Escaping Rabbit-Holes
The world is full of Wonderlands. There are rabbit holes everywhere, and many white rabbits luring us in. Some rabbit holes run very deep, and once entered there’s no escaping. Be able to identify when you’re going down a rabbit hole and if it seems dangerous, watch your step and be able to back out again quickly. You can lose yourself down there for the rest of your life.
If that’s what you want, fine. It may even be what you’re looking for in life. Just be aware. It’s the skill of rabbit hole awareness and evaluation. If you’re unsure, give it a try, but leave a spelunker string-line if you feel you may get lost and need to find your way out again.
The Delicate Balance & Deliberation of Life
Everything is the way it is because of a delicate balance between forces that let something interesting stabilize in the middle. Orbiting planets are like this. The magnetic force that makes matter lump up is like that. A little too far towards either order or chaos kills life. We exist right at the vibrating edge… razor-thin boundaries. We live in highly fine-tuned space.
This vibrating front between order and chaos allows for us. Within this narrow band of viability, tiny differences are amplified all the more. Although most things invariably exist on some spectrum… shades of grey… steps on a scale or what have you, much appears black and white.
Thresholds over which you get categorized are what ultimately matter. Was the egg fertilized or not? Did they survive the accident or didn’t they? Is a cat in the picture or not? These binary distinctions are not made-up. They are just not the whole picture, and they are certainly not the norm, nor always desirable.
Keep your options open when you can. Don’t let others force you to label, categorize and pigeonhole yourself based on false yes or no questions — false dichotomies.
Fear Makes More Money Than Peace
The headline says it all. Opponents of peace hold power because their hatred of a settled-down time wherein anyone has enough time to ascend to higher social ranks terrifies those who currently hold power. I believe there is enough evidence that the public at large is indeed “held down”. But times are achangin.