October: Mind Entropy and PARA
Traditional dog waiting for their human. Oh what, it’s the other way around this time:
Imagine asking a robot to re-arrange all your things randomly. What do you expect the result to look like? A mess! Random means messy, right? But technically, a perfectly ordered, color-sorted arrangement is still random. It’s just less likely. For each neatly organized arrangement there are millions and millions of messy chaotic arrangements.
This is what entropy is all about. It’s statistics: high entropy = the system is in a state that is more likely if you consider all possible states. Low entropy = the system is in a state that’s less likely.
A really sad thing about entropy is that it tends to increase. You don’t even have to do much, just wait. And this is true for your house and for your life in general.
Have you ever seen a desktop full of files dating from 2007, arranged in some sort of satanic symbol? Yeah, that’s entropy. And this is how your brain looks like when you let too much information in, but don’t do anything to control the entropy.
And I hate that feeling.
Every time I open twitter or reddit or youtube, I know I’m increasing my mind’s entropy. And if I want to be sane, I’ll have to work on decreasing it later. Somehow. Sort my things out. Think. Or rather not think. Be still.
Anyway, the thing I really wanted to say is that high productivity can be indistinguishable from high procrastination, because both increase mind entropy. Whether I waste time on social media or do important work, my mind just processes information. Of course, there’s a big difference between taking in other people’s information and processing your own thoughts, but in the end of the day, work too much and my mind is scattered and manic.
Yeah.
Well, whatever. No time for this bullshit!
Codexpanse is live!
Yay! The project I described in the last issue is finally live!
As promised, here’s your coupon code that enables 50% discount on all courses: niceletter2019. Enter it at checkout when buying any individual course or a site-wide membership. Here are currently available courses.
In September, the following will be added:
- JavaScript basics
- Computer Science for the busy developer
- Python Quick Guide
PARA method
I recently came across an interesting idea for managing projects and actions: PARA. Check out this article (it’s a bit meandering, though).
In short, the idea is to view all of your data and work through four lenses:
- Projects: actionable series of tasks with end goal.
- Areas of activities: broad areas (health, family, finances etc), with a standard to be maintained over time.
- Resources: topics or themes of ongoing interest (music, programming, etc).
- Archive: inactive items from the other three categories.
Your todo manager should contain projects + areas, your knowledge base (like Evernote) should have all 4 sections, and your filesystem should be based on that, too — 4 root folders.
Check out this low resolution blurry screenshot from the original article:
My current digital system is a mess, I’m in a transition period, and it feels very disorienting. This PARA thing seems interesting, and I might adopt it after all. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Alright, thanks!
Do remember, you can always drop me a line about whatever. Just reply to this email.
Bye!