Pay attention to what you’re paying attention to

There are two modes of experience: appreciative, and evaluative.
Concrete example: let's say you're listening to a piece of music. Are you sinking into it, awash in emotions? You're in the appreciative mode.

Are you the mixing engineer, listening to the snare hits to make sure they're consistent? You're in the evaluative mode.

Much of sanity, and ha

Cognitive endurance refers to the capacity of independent engagement with a challenging problem, in the presence of accessible solutions. For example, a student’s cognitive endurance regulates how long they struggle with a math problem before looking up the solutions in the textbook’s appendix.

Like athletic endurance, cognitive endurance can be tra

But this isn’t really about the software. It’s about what software promises us—that it will help us become who we want to be, living the lives we find most meaningful and fulfilling. The idea of research as leisure activity has stayed with me because it seems to describe a kind of intellectual inquiry that comes from idiosyncratic passion and inter

People who like rocks see cool rocks everywhere.

People who like birds see interesting birds everywhere. The tree on your yard could be an exceptional specimen. The world around you could be amazing and magical, but you aren't enough of a nerd to see it.