#60 Memory is context

ByLukas
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Memory is context – in language and in general.

Context of words surrounded by other words and sounds within a sentence.

  • apple orchard

Context of words surrounded by actions – actor, action, object affected (in whatever way or order your mother tongue expresses it).

  • I pick an apple from the tree.

Context of words and the images they spur.

  • An apple falls on Newton’ head.
  • An apple falls off a tree in my grandparents’ garden.
  • I bite into a green apple – a bit sour. I don’t like it.
  • The first time I combine an apple part with peanut butter. Delicious.

Context of words and the feelings they evoke.

  • I’m thirsty and hungry after a volleyball game. The first bite of an apple – what a relief.
  • My grandpa cuts an apple and gives me a part. Safety. Home.
  • I eat 2 apples and my mouth starts itching. Allergy? Fear.

When learning another language, you can link words to the context of your mother tongue.

But to truly understand them, you’ll have to create a new context too.

For example, an apple in Spanish: una manzana.

Seemingly the same object, now perceived through new sounds.

  • huerto de manzanas (apple orchard)

New actions.

  • Yo limpio una manzana. (I wash/clean an apple.)

New images.

  • I see una manzana in a Mexican supermarket. Someone is polishing it with wax to make it extra shiny. The first time I saw was in Mexico. So I didn’t see the guy polishing an apple. Vi a un hombre encerando una manzana. (I saw a guy putting wax on an apple.)

New feelings.

  • Compré una manzana (I bought an apple) and ate it without washing it well. My stomach wasn’t happy with my actions.

Keeping all that in mind, are we really still talking about the same object? Is the Spanish manzana encerada that made me sick in Spanish the same as the apple my grandpa helped me pick? If it is, do I now have a richer perception of that object that once up on a time, I could only interact with through the limits of one language?

Learning vocabulary lists with isolated words will never get you fluent in a foreign language.

If you don’t build a new context of sounds, actions, images, feelings, you’ll always keep imposing your mother tongue on the foreign language.

That’s why you can’t just learn a foreign language. You have to live it.

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    #285 It can be this easy

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    When you’re having a busy day and life gets in the way, writing one word can make all the difference.

    One minute of running makes all the difference.

    Thirty seconds of meditating.

    Ten seconds of stretching.

    One second of envisioning who you want to be.

    That’s all it takes to change how you feel about yourself and who you are.

    Because now, instead of giving up, you’re still on track.

    It’s that easy.

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    #184 Why bad work is necessary

    ByLukas

    Every day in which I write, I build my body of work.

    As I build my body of work, I also build a hierarchy of quality.

    Because every day, my writing will be slightly better or worse than the day before.

    That means that the more I write, comparatively, the more good writing I’ll do.

    It also means that the more I write, comparatively, the more bad writing I do.

    Both are necessary.

    Good writing, to feel progress.

    Bad writing, to know what good writing looks and feels like in the first place.

    It’s all part of the process.

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    #48 Volume matters

    ByLukas

    The Pareto principle states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes (the “vital few”).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pareto_principle

    I’m okay with publishing 80% rubbish if that’s what it takes to stumble upon something good.

    But if only 20% of what I publish is any good, and I publish one post a week, then on average, I’ll only publish something insightful once every five weeks.

    If I publish once a day, then on average, I’ll publish something insightful more than once a week.

    This is why I’m okay with publishing a daily blog post.

    It’ also why I write pages and pages of stream-of-consciousness journaling every day, most of it rubbish, whining, scattered thoughts, if that’s what it takes to get to that one insight or breakthrough. Sculpting away, day by day.

    Write more rubbish, and you’ll write more good stuff too.

    Volume matters.

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    #25 Pre-emptive disqualification

    ByLukas

    In the series of self-sabotaging behavior I’ve observed in myself and others: “pre-emptively disqualifying yourself”.

    Before you even start, you’re depriving yourself already of any potential benefit of the exercise because you don’t know if you’ll get the EXACT benefit promised/desired by you.

    “This exercise might have cured your neck pain, but I’ve always had neck problems, it won’t chage anything.”

    “You might be able to write every day, but for me, in my situation, that would never be possible.”

    This shows a lack of understanding of learning principles. Because with any exercise, program, diet, methodology, you’ll never get the exact same results as someone else, because you can never replicate the exact circumstances and actions of a person.

    Instead, you do the exercise/program/diet/… within the framework of your own personal context/skills/past experience. Within that context, it will guide your learning process. But the outcome resulting from it is personal.

    Variance is to be expected, and this is a good thing. Because this is how innovation happens: actions in different types of circumstances lead to slightly different results. Sometime that leads to disappointment, sometimes to real breakthroughs.

    Getting different results, then, is not a reason to pre-emptively disqualify yourself, or to claim something doesn’t work. Because the true value doesn’t lie in getting the exact same results as someone else, but rather, to consciously set the general direction of our lives.

    Every day, we have to make so many decisions that lead us down different future paths, so modeling someone and using their actions as a guiding principle will greatly increase the probability of you going in the direction you desire, and getting results in the same ballpark.

    For example, I’ve been doing Dylan Werner’s yoga classes on Alo Moves (my go-to online yoga/fitness/meditation app) consistently for almost two years now. Even if I continue to follow his exact schedule for two more years, chances are, I still might not be able to do something like this:

    After all, we have a different body structure, different gene disposition, different circumstances, and I’ll have to adapt his schedule to my personal capacity.

    Still, if I follow his schedule I’ll definitely become much stronger and healthier than if I chose to model a couch potato, watch TV and eat fries and burgers all day. And that’s what it’s all about.

    Modeling, in that point of view, are an effective way to accelerate your progress and lead your life in the direction you want, without you having to know exactly which results you’ll get.

    In other words: when you let go of the need to predict exact future outcomes, you can stop pre-emptively disqualifying yourself, and start pro-actively setting the direction of your life.

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    #51 Reversing the causal arrow

    ByLukas

    Who is the person who has already done (or is already doing) what you want to do?

    What does their life look like?

    Where are they?

    What do they say, think feel?

    What do they focus on?

    Who did they have to become?

    What would life be like if YOU have already done (or are already doing) what you want to do?

    It’s hard to achieve change if you’re stuck in your current identity (where you haven’t achieved that change yet).

    Using your imagination to reverse the causal arrow can help you get out of that rut.

    First imagine what it feels like to have already achieved (or to be already doing) something.

    Then choose your present actions according to that feeling and identity.

    Let every action you take help you become more of who you want to be.

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