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Notes III: Books, Podcasts

This is a place for me to take notes and write thoughts on books I read and podcasts I listen to.

Blockquotes (see below for example) are essentially direct quotes. For example, if the quote says "In our lives, we are constantly ...", I will shorten it to "We are constantly ...". No information is lost, but the note is shorter for reference and typing. Anything in [square brackets like this] is my personal note.

This is a blockquote example [and here is a personal note].

Notes Series

Notes I: Papers, posts, ideas, information

Notes II: Economics, medicine, (geo)politics, technology, science

Notes III: Books, podcasts

Notes IV: Electronics

Notes V: Miscellaneous


Contents


Digital Minimalism

This practice suggests that you keep your phone in Do Not Disturb mode by default. On both iPhones and Android devices, for example, this mode turns off notifications when text messages arrive. ... When you’re in this mode, text messages become like emails: if you want to see if anyone has sent you something, you must turn on your phone and open the app. You can now schedule specific times for texting—consolidated sessions in which you go through the backlog of texts you received since the last check, sending responses as needed and perhaps even having some brief back-and-forth interaction before apologizing that you have to go, turning the phone back to Do Not Disturb mode, and continuing with your day.”
Leisure Lesson #1: Prioritize demanding activity over passive consumption.
Leisure Lesson #2: Use skills to produce valuable things in the physical world.
The most successful social leisure activities share two traits. First, they require you to spend time with other people in person. As emphasized, there’s a sensory and social richness to real-world encounters that’s largely lost in virtual connections, so spending time with your World of Warcraft clan doesn’t qualify. The second trait is that the activity provides some sort of structure for the social interaction, including rules you have to follow, insider terminology or rituals, and often a shared goal. As argued, these constraints paradoxically enable more freedom of expression.
Leisure Lesson #3: Seek activities that require real-world, structured social interactions.

Here’s my suggestion: schedule in advance the time you spend on low-quality leisure. That is, work out the specific time periods during which you’ll indulge in web surfing, social media checking, and entertainment streaming. When you get to these periods, anything goes. If you want to binge-watch Netflix while live-streaming yourself browsing Twitter: go for it. But outside these periods, stay offline.

There are two reasons why this strategy works well. First, by confining your use of attention-capturing services to well-defined periods, your remaining leisure time is left protected for more substantial activities. Without access to your standard screens, the best remaining option to fill this time will be quality activities.

The second reason this strategy works well is that it doesn’t ask you to completely abandon low-quality diversions. Abstention activates subtle psychologies. If you decide, for example, to avoid all online activities during your leisure time, this might generate too many minor issues and exceptions. The part of your mind that is skeptical of your newfound enthusiasm for disconnection will use these objections to undermine your determination. Once undermined, your commitment to restriction will crumble and you’ll be thrown back into a state of unrestricted and compulsive use.

On the other hand, if you’re simply corralling these behaviors to specific periods, it becomes much harder for the skeptical part of your mind to mount a strong case. You’re not quitting anything or losing access to any information, you’re simply being more mindful of when you engage with this part of your leisure life. It’s difficult to paint such a reasonable restriction as untenable, which makes it more likely to last.

When first implementing this strategy, don’t worry about how much time you put aside for low-quality leisure. It’s fine, for example, if you start with major portions of your evenings and weekends dedicated to such pursuits. The aggressiveness of your restrictions will naturally increase as they allow you to integrate more and more higher-quality pursuits into your life.


Models: A Summary

Link: Models: A Summary

Non-neediness is when you care about your perception of you more than other people’s perception of you. Your actions are primarily motivated by your own desires and goals.
Many people try to get dates by being as boring and neutral as possible, hiding anything weird about themselves, in the hopes it prevents rejection. This is literally the opposite of what you should do.
And that brings us to vulnerability. Vulnerability is the willingness to stick your neck out, even if people might think you’re stupid or weird or make fun of you about it. It’s making jokes that might not be funny, sharing fears that might make people think you’re a coward, trying things that you might suck at, telling someone you like them when you might be rejected. Vulnerability is saying: “this is who I am and I am not going to be anyone else.” ... Be willing to admit to your embarrassing moments, your flaws, your mental health issues, your weaknesses, your mistakes, and your habit of drinking milk out of the carton. This is attractive.
Move your shoulders back until the seam on your shirt that extends from neck to sleeve is straight. Raise your chin to a 90 degree angle; make the back of your neck as straight as possible. Your feet should be shoulder-length apart and either straight ahead or at a slight outward angle. Swing your shoulders and your arms a little as you walk. (Not too exaggerated; just a little swagger.) Speak from your chest voice. If your voice sounds different when you hold your nose closed, you’re speaking from head voice. Speak slowly yet loudly (without screaming).
The best three pickup lines are “hi, I’m X”, “hey, this is kind of random, but I wanted to meet you,” and “hi, I thought you were cute and wanted to meet you.” Smile. Teach yourself to notice jumping-off points in other people’s statements. For example, if someone says “I go to Harvard now, but I want to move out west because the weather is too cold,” you can talk about Harvard, the west, or the weather. Open up about yourself. Talk about your passions, your ambitions, the best and worst things that have ever happened to you, your childhood. That will get them to open up about themself, which leads to an emotional connection.
Have dates at night, but early enough that you can spend three or four hours together if it’s going well. (Lunchtime and afternoon dates often come off as platonic.)
Whenever possible, try to include multiple activities on a date. For example, you might meet for coffee, get ice cream, go swinging at the empty playground, and then go to a bookstore.
Have deeper and more personal conversations, without becoming a job interview.

Manifold: Carl Zha: Xinjiang, Ukraine, and U.S.-China relations — #10

One hot take of Hsu's in this episode is that the Ughyur genocide is not occurring, at least not to the extent that the Western world believes. His reasoning? The YouTube videos he watched out of the Xinjiang province (where the genocide is supposedly occurring) don't show anything out of the ordinary. I'm probably dumbing down his argument, but the gist is there. I disagree: absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Hsu is really freaking smart, so I'm a bit surprised at his argument here.

That being said, there are absolutely extremists coming out of that region, probably much more so than others, so I understand the Chinese government's efforts in detaining high-risk individuals (how they deem those is likely unfair and catch-all). I also see evidence in it of the records of people who have gotten out or lived there—while they could be lying, I'm skeptical given the consistency of accounts I've seen.


The Scout Mindset, Julia Galef

Goodreads review here. u/femmecheng's review here.

Directionally-motivated reasoning: "When we want something to be true, we ask ourselves 'Can I believe this?', searching for an excuse to accept it. When we don't want something to be true, we instead ask ourselves, 'Must I believe this?', searching for an excuse to reject it." Accuracy-motivated reasoning instead of asks the straight question of "Is it true?".

When you tell a lie, it's hard to predict exactly what you've committed your future self to.

Yet another great, albeit selfish, reason to be honest. Those commitments can be inconvenient or unreachable altogether, and make the liar look like more of a fool than had they simply told the truth.

viewing yourself as rational can backfire. The more objective you think you are, the more you trust your own intuitions and opinions as accurate representations of reality, and the less inclined you are to question them.

This really resonated with me. I proud myself on being rational and objective in most thoughts and decisions I make, but this puts a twinge of doubt into my mind now. What haven't I considered in the past? Could this be a Dunning-Kruger-type effect, where the y-axis is actual rationality and the x-axis is perceived rationality? I wouldn't be surprised.

To gauge your comfort with criticism...examine your track record. Are there examples of criticism you've acted upon? Have you rewarded a critic? Do you go out of your way to make it easier for other people to criticize you?

While critici[sm/ze] is a strong word (I prefer "review" in appropriate cases), this is a good point. A good way to make it easier for people to review you is to regularly ask for feedback.

You can't detect motivated reasoning in yourself just by scrutinizing your reasoning and concluding that it makes sense. You have to compare your reasoning to the way you would have reasoned in a counter-factual world, a world in which your motivations were different.
If I find myself agreeing with someone else's viewpoint, I do a conformity test: Imagine this person told me that they no longer hold this view. Would I still hold it? Would I feel comfortable defending it to them?

I find myself doing this a decent amount (no estimate on #/[time period], but more than I should). I will use this test in the future.

Imagine this evidence supported the other side? How credible would you find it then?
"status quo bias", a motivation to defend whatever situation happens to be the status quo. Leading theory for why is we're loss averse: the pain we feel from a loss outweighs the pleasure we feel from a similar-size gain.
You're doing yourself a disservice if you throw yourself into the pursuit of a goal without asking: "Is this goal worth pursuing, compared to other things I could do instead?"

Everything has an opportunity cost, some more than others.

You can boost your social confidence through practice speaking up in groups, hiring a speech coach, dressing better, improving your posture—all without compromising your ability to see things clearly.
They [scouts, forecasters] revise their opinions incrementally over time, which makes it easier to be open to evidence against their beliefs. They view errors as opportunities to hone their skill at getting things right, which makes the experience of realizing "I was wrong" feel valuable.
To best learn from disagreement, listen to people who make it easier to be open to their arguments. People you like, respect, have common ground with, find reasonable, who acknowledge nuance and areas of uncertainty, and argue in good faith.
Holding your identity lightly is what allows you to make those judgment calls as well as possible...Holding your identity is a favor to yourself—a way to keep your mind flexible, unconstrained by identity, and free to follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Mindfulness in Plain English

PDF here.

I read this book before beginning practicing meditation due to the results niplav had.

Chapter 1: Meditation: Why Bother?

We categorize experiences. We try to stick each perception, every mental change in this endless flow, into one of three mental pigeon holes: it is good, bad, or neutral. Then, according to which box we stick it in, we perceive with a set of fixed habitual mental responses. If a particular perception has been labeled “good,” then we try to freeze time right there. We grab onto that particular thought, fondle it, hold it, and we try to keep it from escaping.When that does not work, we go all-out in an effort to repeat the experience that caused the thought. Let us call this mental habit “grasping.”
Over on the other side of the mind lies the box labeled “bad.” When we perceive something “bad,” we try to push it away. We try to deny it, reject it, and get rid of it any way we can.We fight against our own experience. We run from pieces of ourselves. Let us call this mental habit “rejecting.” Between these two reactions lies the “neutral” box. Here we place the experiences that are neither good nor bad. They are tepid, neutral, uninteresting.We pack experience away in the neutral box so that we can ignore it and thus return our attention to where the action is, namely, our endless round of desire and aversion. So this “neutral” category of experience gets robbed of its fair share of our attention. Let us call this mental habit “ignoring.”
“Suffering” is a big word in Buddhist thought...The Pali word is dukkha, and it does not just mean the agony of the body. It means that deep, subtle sense of dissatisfaction that is a part of every mind moment and that results directly from the mental treadmill. The essence of life is suffering, said the Buddha.
Take any moment when you feel really fulfilled and examine it closely. Down under the joy, you will find that subtle, all-pervasive undercurrent of tension that no matter how great this moment is, it is going to end. No matter how much you just gained, you are inevitably either going to lose some of it or spend the rest of your days guarding what you have and scheming how to get more. And in the end, you are going to die; in the end, you lose everything. It is all transitory.
Underneath lies another perspective...a level of functioning in which the mind does not try to freeze time, does not grasp onto our experience as it flows by, and does not try to block things out and ignore them. It is a level of experience beyond good and bad, beyond pleasure and pain. It is a lovely way to perceive the world, and it is a learnable skill.
You have to see who you are and how you are without illusion, judgment, or resistance of any kind. You have to see your place in society and your function as a social being. You have to see your duties and obligations to your fellow human beings, and above all, your responsibility to yourself as an individual living with other individuals. And finally, you have to see all of that clearly as a single unit, an irreducible whole of interrelationship.
Buddhism does not advocate faith in the sense of believing something because it is written in a book, attributed to a prophet, or taught to you by some authority figure. The meaning of faith here is closer to confidence. It is knowing that something is true because you have seen it work, because you have observed that very thing within yourself. In the same way, morality is not a ritualistic obedience to a code of behavior imposed by an external authority. It is rather a healthy habit pattern that you have consciously and voluntarily chosen to impose upon yourself because you recognize its superiority to your present behavior.
Meditation changes your character by a process of sensitization, by making you deeply aware of your own thoughts, words, and deeds.

Chapter 2: What Meditation Isn't

All meditation procedures stress concentration of the mind, bringing the mind to rest on one item or one area of thought. Do it strongly and thoroughly enough, and you achieve a deep and blissful relaxation, called jhana. It is a state of such supreme tranquillity that it amounts to rapture, a form of pleasure that lies above and beyond anything that can be experienced in the normal state of consciousness. Most systems stop right there. Jhana is the goal, and when you attain that, you simply repeat the experience for the rest of your life.
you will become more and more attuned to your own emotional changes. You will learn to know yourself with ever greater clarity and precision.
There are three integral factors in Buddhist meditation—morality, concentration, and wisdom. These three factors grow together as your practice deepens. Each one influences the other, so you cultivate the three of them at once, not separately. When you have the wisdom to truly understand a situation, compassion toward all parties involved is automatic, and compassion means that you automatically restrain yourself from any thought, word, or deed that might harm yourself or others; thus, your behavior is automatically moral.
Meditation is running straight into reality. It does not insulate you from the pain of life but rather allows you to delve so deeply into life and all its aspects that you pierce the pain barrier and go beyond suffering. Vipassana is a practice done with the specific intention of facing reality, to fully experience life just as it is and to cope with exactly what you find. It allows you to blow aside the illusions and free yourself from all the polite little lies you tell yourself all the time. What is there is there. You are who you are, and lying to yourself about your own weaknesses and motivations only binds you tighter to them. Vipassana meditation is not an attempt to forget yourself or to cover up your troubles. It is learning to look at yourself exactly as you are to see what is there and accept it fully. Only then can you change it.

Chapter 3: What Meditation Is

All Buddhist meditation aims at the development of awareness, using concentration as a tool toward that end.
Conscious thought is tightly connected with self-concept. The self-concept or ego is nothing more than a set of reactions and mental images that are artificially pasted to the flowing process of pure awareness.
Vipassana is a direct and gradual cultivation of mindfulness or awareness. It proceeds piece by piece over a period of years. One’s attention is carefully directed to an intense examination of certain aspects of one’s own existence. The meditator is trained to notice more and more of the flow of life experience. Vipassana is a gentle technique, but it also is very, very thorough. It is an ancient and codified system of training your mind, a set of exercises dedicated to the purpose of becoming more and more aware of your own life experience. It is attentive listening, mindful seeing, and careful testing. We learn to smell acutely, to touch fully, and really pay attention to the changes taking place in all these experiences. We learn to listen to our own thoughts without being caught up in them.
The object of vipassana practice is to learn to see the truths of impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and selflessness of phenomena.
Vipassana is a form of mental training that will teach you to experience the world in an entirely new way. You will learn for the first time what is truly happening to you, around you, and within you. It is a process of self-discovery, a participatory investigation in which you observe your own experiences while participating in them. The practice must be approached with this attitude: “Never mind what I have been taught. Forget about theories and prejudices and stereo types. I want to understand the true nature of life. I want to know what this experience of being alive really is. I want to apprehend the true and deepest qualities of life, and I don’t want to just accept somebody else’s explanation. I want to see it for myself.”
The whole meaning of the word vipassana is looking into something with clarity and precision, seeing each component as distinct, and piercing all the way through to perceive the most fundamental reality of that thing. This process leads to insight into the basic reality of whatever is being examined. Put these words together and vipassana bhavana means the cultivation of the mind toward the aim of seeing in the special way that leads to insight and full understanding.
We train ourselves to see reality exactly as it is, and we call this special mode of perception mindfulness.
Vipassana meditation teaches us how to scrutinize our own perceptual process with great precision. We learn to watch the arising of thought and perception with a feeling of serene detachment. We learn to view our own reactions to stimuli with calmness and clarity. We begin to see ourselves reacting without getting caught up in the reactions themselves. The obsessive nature of thought slowly dies.

Chapter 4: Attitude

Don't expect anything. Just sit back and see what happens. Treat the whole thing as an experiment. Take an active interest in the test itself. But don't get distracted by your expectations about results. For that matter, don't be anxious for any result whatsoever.
Don't strain: Don't force anything or make grand exaggerated efforts.
Don't rush: There is no hurry, so take you time. Settle yourself on a cushion and sit as though you have a whole day.
Don't cling to anything and don't reject anything: Let come what comes and accommodate yourself to that, whatever it is.
Let go: Learn to flow with all the changes that come up. Loosen up and relax.
Accept everything that arises: Accept your feelings, even the ones you wish you did not have. Accept your experiences, even the ones you hate.
Be gentle with yourself: Be kind to yourself.
Investigate yourself: Question everything...Subject all statements to the actual test of your experience and let the results be your guide to truth.
View all problems as challenges: Look upon negatives that arise as opportunities to learn and to grow.
Don't ponder: ... All that is necessary is a clear, non-conceptual perception of what they are and how they work. That alone is sufficient to dissolve them. Concepts and reasoning just get in the way. Don't think. See.
Don't dwell upon contrasts: [don't compare yourself to others.]

The following quote seems to be the essence of the book itself, and for that it is in bold:

When the meditator perceives any sensory object, he is not to dwell upon it in the ordinary egotistical way. He should rather examine the very process of perception itself. He should watch the feelings that arise and the mental activities that follow. He should note the changes that occur in his own consciousness as a result. In watching all these phenomena, the meditator must be aware of the universality of what he is seeing. That initial perception will spark pleasant, unpleasant or neutral feelings. That is a universal phenomenon. It occurs in the mind of others just as it does in his, and he should see that clearly. Following these feelings various reactions may arise. He may feel greed, lust, or jealousy. He may feel fear, worry, restlessness or boredom. These reactions are universal. He simple notes them and then generalizes. He should realize that these reactions are normal human responses and can arise in anybody.

Chapter 5: The Practice

we strongly recommend you start with focusing your total undivided attention on your breathing to gain some degree of shallow concentration.
Seeing with wisdom means seeing things within the framework of our body/mind complex without prejudices or biases springing from our greed, hatred and delusion. Ordinarily when we watch the working of our mind/body complex, we tend to hide or ignore things which are not pleasant to us and to hold onto things which are pleasant. This is because our minds are generally influenced by our desires, resentment and delusion. Our ego, self or opinions get in our way and color our judgment.
Our goal is to reach the perfection of all the noble and wholesome qualities latent in our subconscious mind. This goal has five elements to it: Purification of mind, overcoming sorrow and lamentation, overcoming pain and grief, treading the right path leading to attainment of eternal peace, and attaining happiness by following that path.
Once you sit, do not change the position again until the end of the time you determined at the beginning.
The mind can never be focused without a mental object. Therefore we must give our mind an object which is readily available every present moment. What is present every moment is our breath. The mind does not have to make a great effort to find the breath, for every moment the breath is flowing in and out through our nostrils. As our practice of insight meditation is taking place every waking moment, our mind finds it very easy to focus itself on the breath, for it is more conspicuous and constant than any other object.
As soon as you notice that your mind is no longer on your breath, mindfully bring it back to it and anchor it there.
Earlier in your practice you had inhaling and exhaling as objects of meditation. Now you have the sign as the third object of meditation. When you focus your mind on this third object, your mind reaches a stage of concentration sufficient for your practice of insight meditation. This sign is strongly present at the rims of the nostrils. Master it and gain full control of it so that whenever you want, it should be available. Unite the mind with this sign which is available in the present moment and let the mind flow with every succeeding moment. As you pay bare attention to it, you will see the sign itself is changing every moment. Keep your mind with the changing moments. Also notice that your mind can be concentrated only on the present moment. This unity of the mind with the present moment is called momentary concentration.

Chapter 6: What To Do With Your Body

The purpose of the various postures is threefold. First, they provide a stable feeling in the body. This allows you to remove your attention from such issues as balance and muscular fatigue, so that you can then center your concentration upon the formal object of meditation. Second, they promote physical immobility which is then reflected by an immobility of mind. This creates a deeply settled and tranquil concentration. Third, they give you the ability to sit for a long period of time without yielding to the meditator's three main enemies--pain, muscular tension and falling asleep. The most essential thing is to sit with your back straight. The spine should be erect with the spinal vertebrae held like a stack of coins, one on top of the other. Your head should be held in line with the rest of the spine. All of this is done in a relaxed manner.
Your objective is to achieve a posture in which you can sit for the entire session without moving at all. In the beginning, you will probably feel a bit odd to sit with a straight back. But you will get used to it. It takes practice, and an erect posture is very important. This is what is known in physiology as a position of arousal, and with it goes mental alertness. If you slouch, you are inviting drowsiness. What you sit on is equally important. You are going to need a chair or a cushion, depending on the posture you choose, and the firmness of the seat must be chosen with some care. Too soft a seat can put you right to sleep. Too hard can promote pain.
The clothes you wear for meditation should be loose and soft.

Chapter 7: What To Do With Your Mind

There is a difference between being aware of a thought and thinking a thought. That difference is very subtle. It is primarily a matter of feeling or texture.
A useful object of meditation should be one that promotes mindfulness. It should be portable, easily available and cheap. It should also be something that will not embroil us in those states of mind from which we are trying to free ourselves, such as greed, anger and delusion. Breathing satisfies all these criteria and more. Breathing is something common to every human being. We all carry it with us wherever we go. It is always there, constantly available, never ceasing from birth till death, and it costs nothing.
Breath is a phenomenon common to all living things. A true experiential understanding of the process moves you closer to other living beings. It shows you your inherent connectedness with all of life. Finally, breathing is a present-time process. By that we mean it is always occurring in the here-and-now.
The first step in using the breath as an object of meditation is to find it. What you are looking for is the physical, tactile sensation of the air that passes in and out of the nostrils. This is usually just inside the tip of the nose.
It is full of delicate variations, if you look. There is inhalation and exhalation, long breath and short breath, deep breath, shallow breath, smooth breath and ragged breath. These categories combine with one another in subtle and intricate ways. Observe the breath closely. Really study it. You find enormous variations and a constant cycle of repeated patterns.
In the wordless observation of the breath, there are two states to be avoided: thinking and sinking. The thinking mind manifests most clearly as the monkey-mind phenomenon we have just been discussing. The sinking mind is almost the reverse. As a general term, sinking mind denotes any dimming of awareness. At its best, it is sort of a mental vacuum in which there is no thought, no observation of the breath, no awareness of anything. It is a gap, a formless mental gray area rather like a dreamless sleep. Sinking mind is a void. Avoid it.

Chapter 8: Structuring Your Meditation

Find yourself a quiet place, a secluded place, a place where you will be alone.
You will probably find it helpful to sit in the same place each time. A special spot reserved for meditation and nothing else is an aid for most people. You soon come to associate that spot with the tranquility of deep concentration, and that association helps you to reach deep states more quickly. The main thing is to sit in a place that you feel is conducive to your own practice. That requires a bit of experimentation. Try several spots until you find one where you feel comfortable. You only need to find a place where you don't feel self-conscious, and where you can meditate without undue distraction.

Chapter 9: Set Up Exercises

Chapter 10: Dealing with Problems

Rather than hide it or disguise it, the Buddha’s teaching urges you to examine it to death. Buddhism advises you not to implant feelings that you don’t really have or avoid feelings that you do have. If you are miserable you are miserable; that is the reality, that is what is happening, so confront that. Look it square in the eye without flinching.When you are having a bad time, examine that experience, observe it mindfully, study the phenomenon and learn its mechanics. The way out of a trap is to study the trap itself, learn how it is built. You do this by taking the thing apart piece by piece. The trap can’t trap you if it has been taken to pieces. The result is freedom.

The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

Link: The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence

Background: Gavin de Becker is considered one of the world's leading security specialists, focusing on government and high-profile figures, e.g., Jeff Bezos.

[Violence statistics presented are meant] to increase the likelihood that you will believe it is at least possible that you or someone you care for will be a victim at some time. That belief is a key element in recognizing when you are in the presence of danger.
The human violence we abhor and fear the most, that which we call "random" and "senseless", is neither. It always has purpose and meaning to the perpetrator.
...intuition is soaring flight compared to the plodding of logic. The human brain is never more efficient or invested than when its host is at risk.
We tend to give our full attention to risks that are beyond our control while ignoring those that we feel in charge of, even though the latter are far more likely to harm us.
We are constantly bombarded with kangaroo signals [false information that is purported to be true] masquerading as knowledge, and our intuition relies on us to decide what we will give credence to.
"I don't believe in such a thing as the criminal mind. Everyone's mind is criminal; we're all capable of criminal fantasies and thoughts." [This should also include actions.]
The stakes of some predictions require that I intimately recognize and accept what I observe in others no matter who they are, no matter what they have done, no matter what they might do, no matter where it takes me in myself.
Acts of extraordinary violence happen, and we cannot learn why they happen by looking at rare behavior as if it is something outsides ourselves. That idea you just conjured was in you, and thus it is part of us. To really work toward prediction and prevention, we must accept that these acts are done by people included in the "we" of humanity [as opposed to "them"].
One thing that does predict violent criminality is violence in one's childhood. Research confirmed that 100 percent of serial killers had been abused as children with violence, neglect, or humiliation.
Recklessness and bravado are features of many violent people.
Seeing a vision of the future better than most people because the present is not distracting is a characteristic common to many criminals. You can spot this in people who do not react as you might to shocking things.
The need to be in control is another characteristic common to predatory criminals.

These notes are from pages 1-55. I stopped after that out of boredom (not bored of the book, but bored of entering all these notes, as I forgot to mark important passages with a pen).


Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

Link: Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel

In reality, long-term travel has nothing to do with demographics—age, ideology, income—and everything to do with personal outlook...it's about being a student of daily life...Vagabonding is about looking for adventure in normal life, and normal life within adventure. Vagabonding is an attitude—a friendly interest in people, places, and things that makes a person an explorer in the truest, most vivid sense of the word.
Most of us have never taken such vows [saying you'll travel in the future], but we choose to live like monks anyway, rooting ourselves to a home or a career and using the future as a kind of phony ritual that justifies the present.
As citizens of a stable, prosperous democracy, any one of us has the power to create our own free time, outside the whims of federal laws and private-sector policies. Indeed, if the clock appears to move faster than it did in sixth grade, it's only because we haven't actualized our power as adults to set our own recess schedule.
The act of quitting [a job or career] "means not giving up, but moving on; changing direction not because something doesn't agree with you, but because you don't agree with something. It's not a complaint, but a positive choice, and not a stop in one's journey, but a step in a better direction. Quitting means taking a turn so as to be sure you're still moving in the direction of your dreams."
The notion that material is somehow more important to life than personal investment is exactly what leads so many of us to believe we could never afford to go vagabonding.
On a basic level, there are three general methods to simplifying your life: stopping expansion [don't add any new items to your life], reining in your routine [start living more humbly, e.g., cook meals instead of eating out, do free activities instead of paid ones, etc.], and reducing clutter [downsizing current inventory].
"Preparation no more spoils the chance for spontaneity and serendipity than discipline ruins the opportunity for genuine self-expression in sports, acting, or the tea ceremony...The goal of preparation is not knowing exactly where you'll go but being confident nonetheless that you'll get there."
As a general rule, good guidebooks Contain useful, condensed travel information relating to a specific region: historical and cultural background; pointers regarding local languages in customs; data on the climate and environment; advice and getting visas and changing money; tips for staying healthy and out of harm's way; instructions for using local transportation; and recommendations for lodging, food, and entertainment.
The value of your travels does not hinge on how many stamps you have in your passport when you get home—and the slow, nuanced experience of a single country is always better than the hurried, superficial experience of forty countries.
Find a partner who exudes an attitude of realism and open-mindedness; these are the virtues you yourself will want to cultivate.
[Bring on your travels] as little as possible... a guidebook; a pair of sandals; standard hygiene items; relevant medicines; earplugs; small gift items; simple, function clothes and one nice outfit for customs checks and social occasions; pocketknife; flashlight; sunglasses; day pack; camera; boots or walking shoes; padlock.
The secret to staying intrigued on the road—the secret to truly being different from the frustrated masses—is this: Don't set limits. Don't set limits on what you can or can't do. Don't set limits on what is or sin't worthy of your time. Dare yourself to "play games" with your day: watch, wait, listen; allow things to happen.
The secret of adventure is not to carefully seek it out but to travel in such a way that it finds you.
Learn to treasure your worst experiences as gripping new chapters in the epic novel that is your life. "Adventurous men enjoy shipwrecks, mutinies, earthquakes, conflagrations, and all kinds of unpleasant experiences,"" wrote Bertrand Russell. "'So this is what an earthquake feels like', and it gives them pleasure to have their knowledge of the world increased by this new item."
Wherever you go, a few basic precautions will apply. Avoid bringing expensive or irreplaceable, and don't flaunt what wealth you do have. Keep cash and traveler's checks in discreet places, and be wary of public distractions or dense crowds. Keep extra cash in safe. In tourist areas, be wary of new "friends".

See Also