23/04/23 09:15:25
Summary
- Started reading ‘Making of the Atomic Bomb’.
- Did quite a bit of studying.
- Remember why I’m doing something. Not in an obligatory sense but in the curiosity, what interests me about it sense.
- Really feeling a lot more productive in early morning/afternoon, after that its a write off.
- Finding it hard to write this up write now.
- I think I’m a bit overwhelmed today. in general I need to get some focus o thigns, I’ve far too many things I’m trying to learn etc.
Actions from last week.
- Finish all assignments. Tried.
- 3 hrs probability theory. Only did 1.
- 1 hr irish history. Barely got 1.
Excerpts
18/04/23 09:45:47
- One thing I’m noticing today is that it feels good to get the stuff I really need to do done in the morning and then some of the more minor stuff (like my own reading in the afternoon).
- Then having to do literally nothing for the evening, even though sometimes the my own stuff doesn’t feel that hard (although it can be).
- In Succession, there’s a constant pining for glory of some sort. They’re not really happy, like, ever. I wonder how prevalent the notion of deriving a narrative for yourself influences theses things. It’s part of the reason I’d like to learn more about personality types, in Noise apparently Kahneman says we don’t really understand how different our beliefs (or priors) actually are. I would could personality encapsulate some of that.
- It’s fascinating how they are so warped by this game they’re in. Definition of a random incentive moloch just dictating random shit.
20/04/23 11:21:56
Some things on my mind this morning
- Dimensional analysis: maybe important not to over hype this but i found it useful this morning to get a handle on defining functions for a problem. Like in wind energy. That you can kind of break down relationships of variables, I think.
- Solar flares: what do we know about them?
- Olivine as storing water from solar magnetic field, heard on a podcast that the ejection of hydrogen from the sun could be stored in silicate minerals despite high temperatures in the early earth.
- Macro financial frameworks for the green transition, daniella gabor work. Thinking this is where important ideas are happening.
- Need to read How Asia Works to really get a good case study of the different market aspects that work.
21/04/23 18:18:38
- I’ve been reading the ‘making of the atomic bomb’. Oppenheimer is the most fascinating of the bunch for me so far, along with Bohr. Their philosophical viewpoints are interesting. Rhodes highlights the role that technology and science played in war. I think this is a very important point in the growth of physics as we know it in the early 20th century. Science in general has this implication of immediate utility sometimes. I dunno.
- It’s fascinating how there were so many discoveries in such a period of time and rutherford got about half of them!
- Pretty interesting video on the role women played in early cataloguing of stars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2k_LcdH960
22/04/23 17:42:06
It occurred to me, on my walk, that I’m often frustrated with how little I know, or can remember. There’s a dissatisfaction with not knowing, that I should know more as opposed to acceptance of who I am in a knowledge space sense. No more unique (worse off or better off) than the majority of the population. The practical response is curiosity and enthusiasm thats in there somewhere.
I’ve been thinking too about my statements on things. For example, I made a statement that my Spanish housemates are probably rich because of redistribution of land after the Civil War. It’s a strong claim that I literally have no evidence is true. I’m ashamed of myself when I make these claims but as Einstein says, we must all sacrifice at the alter of stupidity.