perpetualstudent wrote on Oct 19^th, 2021 at 9:59am:

seems interesting does it have schematics and methods of making the airguns/pumps/air tanks?
if you like the mechanisms check out how the huben k1 works, the concept reminds me of the piston valve you see on a lot of homemade airguns but more complex.

Since I'm near entirely self directed in my work these days (last year PhD now!) I've taken the time to read some productivity books and really review how I'm doing things.

Getting Things Done - David Allen
Atomic Habits - James Clear
Deep Work - Cal Newport

GTD has some nice ideas I've taken on board, though I think the system in it's totality is too much- I bleed too much time from my day and find myself faffing with todo lists and projects more than I need to. That said, my current setup is still pretty close to what is put forward in the book.

Atomic habits is a great book, very much changed my views on what shapes human behaviour and I've definitely adopted things from this. Since I read the book a few months ago I'm more or less kicked the habit of nail biting (a 20 year habit), I also run immediately on getting up at 7:30 most weekdays, which nearly guarantees I have a productive morning. I also do meditation, yoga/stretching and a little calesthetics every weekday morning to keep my body healthy and injury free. I credit most of that to the approaches I learned from the book.

Deep Work I read most recently. I don't think it is of the same quality as AH, nor is it as convincingly argued- though I think there really is something to gain in drastically increasing our focus and reducing distraction. I've been attempting to do this recently in my work, condensing my windows of concentration but also switching the internet and phone off to totally remove distraction. An underrated benefit is that being productive like that makes you happy. I call it the paradox of happiness: to be truly happy you have to make choices that make you unhappy (at least in the short-term), this means working solidly with no distraction at all!

Anyone else read productivity books?

JudoP wrote on Oct 19^th, 2021 at 12:43pm:

Hearing you write about those ones is definitely peaking my interest. THis year (as I have gone into too much detail elsewhere) I have basically written off. I've been "on holiday" from work since March and, though in a lot of ways it has been incredibly necessary and has allowed me to recover from burnout, it has meant I have put on weight, gotten lazy and spend the whole day sat around not working on things I would actually want to work on. Going to the competition has helped relight some fire in me (and I got to see what I look like in a big hotel mirror and on video...) so some strategies in how to use and organise my time could be a good thing.

Note: I'm not completely hating the way I look for those concerned, and what I'm saying is in no way to make others feel bad. In a lot of ways, putting on weight has been a sign that my stress has been relieved and I'm doing better mentally. I now need to use that better mental health to get my body healthy in a more positive way than running around at work putting out fires and stressing myself to death.

This comment ended up way longer than it should have.

Sarosh wrote on Oct 19^th, 2021 at 4:33pm:


Interesting, I'll check them out.

Kick wrote on Oct 20^th, 2021 at 5:26am:


I'm glad you are feeling better man, and I hear you on that stuff. Being a bit overweight doesn't have to be super negative, I've never been on board with fat positivity and all that, but your physical shape far from defines you, it's just something else to look after and balance with your work and other responsibilities.

Corona seems to have benefitted some people healthwise, but for me it's the opposite, working from home removes a bunch of my daily activity of just simply walking round etc, and also social sport activites and gym have been off the table this whole time. Although now Judo, football etc are coming back in, so I've gotta get back to doing some stuff like that. With the running I'm not super unfit, but I am the heaviest I've ever been now at 103kg, it's probably about 20kg more than when I'm in 'good' shape.

I would recommend Atomic Habits, first and foremost. AH is focused on hacking your behaviour and making positive life changes. It's no silver bullet of course but the approaches in the book allow you to effectively tip the balance towards making the right choices, which is often enough to get the ball rolling in the right direction.

Sorry about the book on Sir Thomas Beecham.
I wanted to know more about the man, not who the cheif bassoonist of the LSO was in 1923.
So, an error and only for musicologists.
PM me if you want it.
Cheers
Zud

Oh bugger, done it again. Reduced megapixies but not size.
Any suggestions  ?
Zud

My new rule is "sling every day". No max or min time just sling something every day. So far (two days) I've done it. but the weather is already freezing so I will need to move inside soon. Still working out where the best place is. There are indoor tennis courts nearby but I haven't had the chance to go over and explain what I need a court for. I feel that's better than booking a court and then taking them by surprise and getting chucked out and banned. Of course, that's the over the top worst case scenario, but it does need to be considered.