Figuring out life's finite state automata | Report

19 Jul 2021 . category: report . Comments
#radicali #startup #singapore #fitness

Welcome to #238

Over the last week, our team was busy working on a State Machine for our no-code app builder. Probably i’ve been listening to too much Lex Fridman, but this has made me wonder about the FSM sitting inside our skulls. If we can learn the triggers coupled with state transitions, we can probably master our mind. For example, if i wake up and look at a text message which yells fire, my brain is going to transition to a state where i take bad decisions without thinking them through.

Work has been hard over the last few days, as i had to work the weekend and get a production ready product for this week’s trials. Things are still manual and are at a stage where single-points-of-failure are present, but i would say that it’s our phase of doing things that don’t scale. Managing my time has become an amazing optimization problem, and reminds me everyday of why discipline equals freedom.

One thing that i’m actively training my mind to do is block negative or spiralling thoughts - even the initiation of such a thought thread leads to suboptimal productivity. i am able to do a similar blocker when it comes to reading up about unnecessary news events and i’m able to stick to what truly matters, but this trend needs to translate within my thoughts as well. As Naval says, there’s almost always two ways of looking at everything and we have the choice.

On the fitness front, i put in two runs bringing up July’s mileage to 25K so far. i put in my standard 3 BJJ classes, and hit one leg workout at home. This week, i’m planning for 2 runs, 2 gym workouts and 3 Jiujitsu classes, coupled with some yoga in the mornings/nights.

i broke my nofap streak earlier in the week on Day 18 and could immediately feel the energy dip. The longer the streak i break, the higher the energy delta is - amazing to see how these hormones & chemicals affect me. The life force energy is real.

i’ve been reading a biography on Stalin, which is teaching me quite a bit about the Soviet era - it’s a huge book, and i need to trudge through to get to the interesting parts. i also started reading the Messy Middle by Scott Belsky, one that had been on my list for a long time since i heard him on the Tim Ferris show - proud to say that i’m able to carve out about 30 mins for reading on a daily basis.

i realized that i feel much better about my weekends when i’m productive - there needs to be a structure to every day, even if that structure involves me to unwind. Off late, i’ve been using the weekend morning/afternoons to catch up with family & friends, and that keeps alive a good sense of community in my head. i shall continue this proactively, and plan calls/meetups with folks over the weekends.

i was running my weekend 10K this Sunday listening to Tim Ferris and Balaji Srinivasan, and for a brief while they were talking about achieving financial independence via various means. They talk about it as self-defense for your life, and that got me thinking about how irresponsible it is for me to not care about my finances or investments in a more intensive manner. If i spend upto 6 hours every week working on physical self-defense, i should carve out at least some fraction of that for the financial aspect of my life. i’ll turn this around, will share updates here.

Have a good week y’all. Keep hammerin’

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