When writing there are few things better to do than to read and write. Specially the second.
The most curious thing is that the muscle memory does really kick in. Well I have found a writing gym. Its over at 750words.com Just half an hour everyday is all that is needed to get those 750 words out and then the rest of the day just flows. Breaking the inertia and reaching the reaction energy is all that is needed. It must be a very generic mechanism that drives motivation or action in our brains because similar effects are known with sports. Tu cut a long story short if you want to write and are itching for writing give 750words a try. It may just be what you need.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
The future starts now
Over the last few weeks, the last two to be more precise, a series of micro-events have occurred.
Micro-events are tings like a conversation or an e-mail which remind you of something. Well I have decided, like I did back in the first days of my landing in the UK, to start homing the skills necessary for the future. If on a geek note, staying clear from microsoft products, has meant that several years later I am operating in a completely microsoft free manner, other skills that I have need to be homed in a similar manner.
One of my recent epiphanies is that what really matters are ideas, and on top of that ideas that are applied to the real world. The main reason for starting a PhD was indeed that to have at least one full lifecycle of understanding a problem, bringing about a framework for its description, and in that framework formulate solutions. Then comes the tough work of bringing it around to the real world and most of it is disseminating it, through communication and or application. There pedagogy plays a big role, and the tools of pedagogy and dissemination are the oldest tools in the trade, writing and presenting. It took Hoofstadter nearly 30 years from its first Gödel, Escher and Bach to I am strange loop. So Rome was definitely not built in a day.
Ideas are a wonderful world but they exist only on top of subtract of symbols which are conveyed through diverse media. Each media comes with its set of rules, formats and idiosyncrasies. They all need to be mastered as language without these agreed conventions is devoid of content and substance.
So it is time to start homing those skills of communication, mainly written, once more. To build routines, to explore the wonderful world of ideas and to do without fear. To miss, really miss writing, is the only way to write, and the sense of missing comes out of the muscle memory, for at the end of the day, the body is also a medium.
Micro-events are tings like a conversation or an e-mail which remind you of something. Well I have decided, like I did back in the first days of my landing in the UK, to start homing the skills necessary for the future. If on a geek note, staying clear from microsoft products, has meant that several years later I am operating in a completely microsoft free manner, other skills that I have need to be homed in a similar manner.
One of my recent epiphanies is that what really matters are ideas, and on top of that ideas that are applied to the real world. The main reason for starting a PhD was indeed that to have at least one full lifecycle of understanding a problem, bringing about a framework for its description, and in that framework formulate solutions. Then comes the tough work of bringing it around to the real world and most of it is disseminating it, through communication and or application. There pedagogy plays a big role, and the tools of pedagogy and dissemination are the oldest tools in the trade, writing and presenting. It took Hoofstadter nearly 30 years from its first Gödel, Escher and Bach to I am strange loop. So Rome was definitely not built in a day.
Ideas are a wonderful world but they exist only on top of subtract of symbols which are conveyed through diverse media. Each media comes with its set of rules, formats and idiosyncrasies. They all need to be mastered as language without these agreed conventions is devoid of content and substance.
So it is time to start homing those skills of communication, mainly written, once more. To build routines, to explore the wonderful world of ideas and to do without fear. To miss, really miss writing, is the only way to write, and the sense of missing comes out of the muscle memory, for at the end of the day, the body is also a medium.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Adopted by another city
As the time that I borrow on this earth flows I get to feel adopted by another city. This time it is Porto. The birth city of my girlfriend. I feel adopted by it because of the warmth of its people, the sights and sounds that feel more and more familiar. Also the growing number of expriences associated with it. It is in Porto after all that we got a concert of AIR for free, just because we dared to say hi to Jean-Benoit. It is in Porto that I met Billy "bass" of George Clinton and Parliament fame with the attached picture as a backdrop. It is then that you get to realise that certain moments are unique.
It is also the sight at sunset over the Ponte do Infante. Or even better de S. João fireworks from our own uncrowded spot by the river Douro after having been stuffed with sardines bbq and caldo verde. Fruit salts being optional as we get more and more used to the customs. Its also realising that the language of the locals is becoming my own. Its meeting the grand parents and seeing the maternal house and village. All those unique experiences that just happen to occur here, and that makes the borrowed time feel more relevant. It makes it feel like it was put to better use.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Was diagnosed last n
Was diagnosed last night (by a friend) as suffering from Socialhypertrophia. Do you concur? #juanism
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Monday, May 09, 2011
Subtle pleasures in
Subtle pleasures in life: Pressing the submit button, for a paper. The question remains, will it blend?
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