2020

A new year. What is in store?

Career

I’ve recently just started my career. Just a little more than a year ago. Reflecting back, I did learn a lot. However, it doesn’t seem to be enough for me.

Do more programming. Solve more problems. Get better.

Books

I got back into reading books between 2017 and 2018, and was doing decent. However, I slumped after about February or March of 2019. I was struggling to finish reading “Thinking, Fast and Slow”.

I would want to get back to reading books. However, I want a system whereby I can also take notes in order to retain information. Perhaps, writing them down while reading and then posting them on a blog would do fine?

Here’s an interesting yet important quote I just found on HN:

Reading is an observational activity, and just like you can’t learn to swim by observing swimmers you can’t learn a subject by reading a book on it. The only thing that reading is good for is feeding fuel into the furnace of deliberate practice of the craft and discussions with practitioners of such. And that’s how true knowledge is really acquired - putting information to a practical use. If you’re not doing that you’re just grinding water. A quality conversation qualifies as “practical” in that exercises the relevant parts of the brain, in fact Socrates would have you believe it’s the only way to truly learn.

It is not just about reading. It’s about acquiring knowledge and then putting it into practice.

I’ve always pushed off audiobooks since I think that I can’t really concentrate on the content being read out when I’m working on other stuff. However, my commute back and forth takes about close to two hours daily. Maybe I could actually listen to audiobooks on the train. I might consider trying Audible.

Travel

I traveled recently. After having not traveled for years.

It was refreshing. I should do so more often.