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  1. Feb 2024
    1. Primus inter pares is a Latin phrase meaning first among equals.[a]
    2. After the fall of the Republic, Roman emperors initially referred to themselves only as princeps despite having enormous power.

      Even emperors continued referring themselves as such

    3. Historically, the princeps senatus of the Roman Senate was such a figure and initially bore only the distinction that he was allowed to speak first during debate
    1. Spartacus (Greek: Σπάρτακος, translit. Spártakos; Latin: Spartacus; c. 103–71 BC) was a Thracian gladiator (Thraex) who, along with Crixus, Gannicus, Castus, and Oenomaus, was one of the escaped slave leaders in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic.

      Spartacus was Thracian

    1. When writing ranges of numbers, most style guides agree on the use of an en dash (although the AP style guide prefers a hyphen). Do not use an em dash.

      Use en dash for number ranges and no space either side

    1. The Getae (/ˈdʒiːtiː, ˈɡiːtiː/ JEE-tee, GHEE-tee) or Gets (/dʒɛts, ɡɛts/ JETS, GHETS; Ancient Greek: Γέται, singular Γέτης) were a Thracian-related[1] tribe that once inhabited the regions to either side of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria and southern Romania.

      Getae were a Thracian tribe

    1. If this is true it refers not to its capture in the Second Punic War (211 BC), but to its submission to Rome in 338 BC. This places the date of foundation at about 600 BC, while Etruscan power was at its highest.[3]

      Etruscans submitted in 338 BC and were completely taken over in 211 (Second Punic wars)

    2. The name of Capua comes from the Etruscan Capeva.[2] The meaning is 'City of Marshes'. Its foundation is attributed by Cato the Elder to the Etruscans, and the date given as about 260 years before it was "taken" by Rome

      Capua belonged to the Etruscans before Rome took it

    1. Banu (بنو) is Arabic for "the children of" or "descendants of" and appears before the name of a tribal progenitor.

      Banu translates to "children of" or "descendants of" and precedes name of a tribe like (hashim tribe is "Banu Hashim")

    1. Banū Hāshim (Arabic: بنو هاشم) is an Arab clan within the Quraysh tribe to which Muhammad belonged, named after Muhammad's great-grandfather Hashim ibn Abd Manaf.
    1. "..man's task, is...to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious...As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence" Carl Jung

    2. Becoming Your True Self - The Psychology of Carl Jung
    1. 1:18) A persona is a mask you wear out in public. Parts that don't fit into persona (ie shadow) and then you understand who you truly are.

    2. Jordan Peterson - The Mask You Wear In Public - The False Persona
    1. Novus homo or homo novus (lit. 'new man'; pl.: novi homines or homines novi) was the term in ancient Rome for a man who was the first in his family to serve in the Roman Senate or, more specifically, to be elected as consul.
    1. "HAD THEY BEEN WILLING TO ENJOY THE FRUITS OF THEIR LABOURS IN PEACE AND TRANQUILLITY, THE GREATEST AND BEST PART OF THE WORLD WAS THEIR OWN. IF THEY MUST HAVE VICTORIES AND TRIUMPHS, WHAT SCYTHIAN HORSE, WHAT PARTHIAN ARROWS, WHAT INDIAN TREASURES COULD HAVE RESISTED 70,000 ROMANS, LED ON BY POMPEY AND CAESAR?" PLUTARCH

      What if Caesar and Pompey fought together?

    2. 07:48 Talk of victory and spoils were already being discussed whilst the battle had not yet begun. Pompey's side was overly confidence.

    3. "CAESAR AND THAT ARMY, WHO HAD STORMED A THOUSAND CITIES, SUBDUED OVER 3000 NATIONS, GAINED NUMBERLESS BATTLES OF THE GERMANS AND GAULS, TAKEN A MILLION PRISONERS AND KILLED AS MANY IN THE FIELD"

    4. Battle of Pharsalus 48 BC - Caesar's Civil War DOCUMENTARY
    1. The Battle of Dyrrachium (or Dyrrhachium) took place from April to late July 48 BC near the city of Dyrrachium, modern day Durrës in what is now Albania. It was fought between Gaius Julius Caesar and an army led by Gnaeus Pompey during Caesar's civil war.

      This battle happened before the deciding battle at Pharsalus

    2. Battle of Dyrrhachium (48 BC)
    1. The Second Triumvirate was an extraordinary commission and magistracy created for Mark Antony, Lepidus, and Octavian to give them practically absolute power. It was formally constituted by law on[1] 27 November 43 BC with a term of five years; it was renewed in 37 BC for another five years before expiring in 32 BC.
    1. Commentarii de Bello Gallico (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}Classical Latin: [kɔm.mɛnˈtaː.ɾi.iː deː ˈbɛl.loː ˈɡal.lɪ.koː]; English: Commentaries on the Gallic War), also Bellum Gallicum (English: Gallic War), is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative
    1. Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (died 495 BC) was the legendary seventh and final king of Rome, reigning 25 years until the popular uprising that led to the establishment of the Roman Republic.[1] He is commonly known as Tarquin the Proud, from his cognomen Superbus (Latin for "proud, arrogant, lofty").
    1. 1. We first read an excerpt from Ibn Khaldun, a great historian of the Muslim world. His family came from Muslim Spain, but he was born in North Africa. He spent many years working in the administrations of local rulers, until he eventually moved to Egypt, where he died in 1406. We will encouter him quite often in this course and will discuss his life in week 6. This week, we turn to his famous book The Muqaddimah (or, Introduction), in which he lays out his vision of history, its patterns and purpose. In the excerpt that we read this week he is trying to make sense of a question that should bother us too: how were the Arabs (meaning, pre-Islamic Arabs, not Arabs in the modern sense), a fragmented society, able to conquer the known world and establish their rule over it? What do you think of his answer, is it any good? 2. The other source we read this week is by another famous Muslim historian, al-Tabari. al-Tabari was originally from Iran, but lived most of his life in Baghdad, where he died in 923. He wrote a massive historical work, History of Messengers (or Prophets) and Kings, in which he collected all he knew about the world from its creation to his days. Translated into English in its entirety this work takes up 40 volumes. When we say that al-Tabari wrote this book, we need to understand that his role was often that of an editor, not an author: he selected, arranged and edited accounts that he found in the works of others. Usually, he names his sources. In the excerpt we read today, al-Tabari is telling what happened before a major battle between the Persians (representing the Sasanian Empire) and the Arabs, the battle of Qadisiyya that took place in the mid-630s (perhaps, in 636). On the eve of the battle, the Persians want to talk and the Arabs (Muslims) send an envoy. Here you have a vivid account of how this messenger arrives to the assembled Persians. Historically this encounter is not important: the battle took place regardless and the Arabs won. But the narrative is significant for how it shows the values of the two sides involved in the fight. So what are these values? For the Arab side, to what extent are their ethnic (that's the way Arabs are) and to what extent religious (that's the way Muslims are)?
    1. 30:00 Maintenance — cut something for every new item or have rules for new stuff entering.

    2. 24:00 Possession purging

      Put everything in one room. Make two piles — keep or cut? Question: does it advance my pursuits?

    3. 13:00 how minimalism can make flow easier to enter

    4. 11:00 Owning too much stuff as decreasing rumination/creativity

    5. 07:27 Lower cognitive load makes it easier to enter flow

    6. 04:00 Cost of ownership — leads to more thinking

      05:00 This increases cognitive load

    7. 2:30 Not about deprivation — rather of removing everything else from essentials

    8. 1:30 Warriors throughout history — Spartans, Samurai, Mongols — with life of simplicity

    9. This Ancient Idea Will Solve Your Modern Problems
    1. 16:00 Flow channel — where challenge meets ability

    2. 11:00 Spontaneous like experience emerges when in flow

    3. 09:00 Body and identity disappears — how I feel, what other people think — when in flow/ecstasy. We can't process more information when we are fully engaged with one task. "Existence is temporarily suspended"

    4. 06:17 Ecstasy is stepping into an alternative reality. Stepping out of ordinary routines (see Greek word translated)

    5. 07:23 Greek amphitheatre as place of ordered life and experiencing ecstasy

    6. 03:00 Mihaly attended Carl Jung lecture in Zürich on Second World War

    7. Flow, the secret to happiness7,449,106 views | Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi | TED2004 • February 2004
    1. 1:15 Kyle forced his progress from 25-30 years. Trying too hard, chasing too hard, is counter-productive ("cosmic paradox")

      See ZK on trying too hard is counterproductive

    2. How I Broke a Vicious Cycle To Get Into The BEST Shape Of My Life
    1. 24:41 Associate flow (dojo) with focused work. Also music, caffeine, etc.

    2. 21:52 Deter distractions

    3. 20:00 Eliminate friction

    4. 17:53 3. Change positions. (50% standing, 25% sitting, 25% walking)

      Standing setup: desk, motion board, treadmill (walking)

    5. 12.54 2. Anchoring bias. Default, norms, dictate behaviour. So, clear clutter. Be disciplined.

    6. 09:25 1. Filter out unnecessary option to distractions (put phone away f.e)

      11:30 "Have less to ignore, so you can focus more" Less devices. Simplify.

    7. 08:00 New information gives dopamine. Distraction arises from too many information that is goal irrelevant.

    8. The Top 1% Workspace Setup For Maximum Productivity
    1. To Al-Jallad, however, the inscriptional evidence, containing many references to peoples, events, and places that appear in the Quran and other early Islamic narratives, suggests the opposite: an evolution of Arabian ideas and practices. “This kind of society would have been very similar to the first audience of the Quran,” Al-Jallad said. “The inscriptions tell us what their world was like.”

      (see previous) Or perhaps, there was a slow evolution of ideas and practices, rather than a radical break?

    2. But traditional Muslim theology, along with much Western scholarship, regards the birth of Islam as a radical break with Arabia’s past.

      Islam was a radical break with the previous Arabic past

    3. The real Jahiliyya, the scholars argue, probably had much more in common with Islam than previously thought.

      Maybe these pre-Islamic people had more in common with the Muslims than we think?

    4. The time before Muhammad’s revelation is known in Arabic as the Jahiliyya, usually translated as the Age of Ignorance. According to Fred Donner, a historian at the University of Chicago, “The Islamic account of the Jahiliyya is a saga of unrelieved paganism, which emphasizes the difference between the darkness of unbelief and the light that Islam brought to Arabia.”

      Pre-Islamic Arabia was ignorant, unbelievers (jahiliyya)

    5. Michael Macdonald amassed a vast collection of photographs of these texts and launched a digital Safaitic database, with the help of Laïla Nehmé, a French archeologist and one of the world’s leading experts on early Arabic inscriptions. “When we started working, Michael’s corpus was all on index cards,” Nehmé recalled. “With the database, you could search for sequences of words across the whole collection, and you could study them statistically. It worked beautifully.”
    6. The effort to decode the Safaitic texts began in the spring of 1857, when a young Scotsman named Cyril Graham set off from Jerusalem on a tour of Syria
    7. The study of early Islam has traditionally depended not on rock inscriptions but on chronicles and literary sources composed a few centuries after Muhammad’s death—a method of research that Al-Jallad likens to reading the history of North America entirely from the perspective of the first European settlers. He is confident that scholars will soon be able to tell the earliest history of Islam using evidence from the time of Muhammad’s birth.

      Primary sources few centuries after birth of Muhammed.

    8. The history of Arabia just before the birth of Islam is a profound mystery, with few written sources describing the milieu in which Muhammad lived.

      Few primary sources before Islam

    1. Right as the Witch King says "The world of men will fall", the horn was blown. The Rohirrim came.

      02:44 "Forth and fear no darkness!" (and Theoden speech) "Ere the sun rises"

      03:27 "Death! Death! Death!" The Rohirrim ride to their death, willingly, facing it.

    2. Return of the King: The Ride of the Rohirrim [4K]
    1. Sirat Rasul Allah (The Life of God's Messenger) is a biography of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Ibn Hisham published a further revised version of the book, under the same title Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah.
    2. Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah (Ibn Ishaq)
    3. There doesn't seem to be a date on when it was published?

    1. 08:40 Sourcing clothes. Have keywords at this stage. AliXpress, Zara, H&M for cheap sourcing.

    2. 07:00 Find inspo. Check fashion shows. And, fora (like/malefashionadvice).

    3. 06:28 TLDR 1. Style is a lifestyle reflection of who you are 2. Good style requires understanding self 3. Bad style is trying to be something that its not

    4. 02:42 Clothing should be a creative expression. Men tend towards pragmatic clothing

    5. Find Your Fashion Style In 3 Steps (an evidence based guide)
    1. Different types of notes and use cases
    2. Can they really do all of them at once? While some may come close and do well enough, the added complexity and overreach of all these functionalities may be diluting the base power of what the zettelkasten is capable.

      Trying too many things with a Zettelkasten makes it worse. Adopt simplicity.

    3. While it can be used as a productivity tool specifically for writing, some are adapting and using it (and tools built for it) for productivity use writ-large. This includes project management or GTD (Getting Things Done) functions. Some are using it as a wiki, digital garden, or personal knowledge management system for aggregating ideas and cross linking them over time. Others are using it as a journal or diary with scheduling and calendaring functions tacked on. Still others are using it to collect facts and force the system to do spaced repetition. These additional functionalities can be great and even incredibly useful, but they’re going far beyond the purpose-fit functionality of what a zettelkasten system was originally designed to do.

      The ZK is a simple system. It isn't't a Second Brain. Nor is it GTD. Nor all the other things that people sometimes use it for. I have held this opinion for a while, and it is reassuring that Chris holds the same opinion.

    4. Zettelkasten Overreach
    1. during periods of stress or illness, you may feel an increased need for sleep.

      Oversleeping can be a result of stress, depression, and other (mental) illnesses.

    2. Physical Side Effects of Oversleeping
    1. Lewis Hamilton will make a shock move to join Ferrari in 2025. The Guardian understands that the seven-time Formula One world champion has agreed a deal with the Scuderia that is set to be announced as soon as Thursday evening.

      Announcement to be made on 2024-02-01 Thursday evening

  2. Jan 2024
    1. The Boy Who Lived came face to face with Lord Voldemort precisely seven times in the Harry Potter series. This number held a lot of significance throughout the series—there are seven Harry Potter books, Voldemort created seven Horcruxes, a wand costs seven Galleons, and the list goes on and on.

      7 is an important number in HP. Also, just an important number in general. Look at the 7 deadly sins, f.e.

    2. All 7 Times Harry Potter Faced Lord Voldemort (& Why Harry Always Escaped)
    1. Persbericht Waaromislam en Daliel aan Pegida: 1 tegen 1000

      Daliel geeft 1000 korans — tegen reactie op koranverbranding van Pegida

    2. Deze actie is blijvend: iedere keer dat hij (of iemand anders) probeert een Koran te verbranden, zullen wij duizend Korans uitdelen.

      Bij elke Koran verbranding, gaan ze 1000 uitdelen.

    1. ```dataview list where file.cday = date(<% moment(tp.file.title,'DD-MM-YYYY').format("YYYY-MM-DD") %>) sort file.ctime desc ```

      Didn't work.

    2. ew, show all notes created today on daily note with DD-MM-YYYY? .t3_1689wtl._2FCtq-QzlfuN-SwVMUZMM3 { --postTitle-VisitedLinkColor: #edeeef; --postTitleLink-VisitedLinkColor: #6f7071; --postBodyLink-VisitedLinkColor: #6f7071; } Tried all the stuff I have seen, simply get an empty table. Any ideas?If anyone has a way that would link it on the graph too, that would be great. Thanks :D

      Obsidian Dataview query — Show all notes today on daily note

    1. A number of temperance organizations exist that promote temperance and teetotalism as a virtue.

      Temperance and teetotalism as a virtue

    1. SPQR, an abbreviation for Senatus Populusque Romanus (.mw-parser-output .IPA-label-small{font-size:85%}.mw-parser-output .references .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .infobox .IPA-label-small,.mw-parser-output .navbox .IPA-label-small{font-size:100%}Classical Latin: [s̠ɛˈnäːt̪ʊs̠ pɔpʊˈɫ̪ʊs̠kʷɛ roːˈmäːnʊs̠]; transl. "The Senate and People of Rome"), is an emblematic phrase referring to the government of the Roman Republic.

      SPQR refers to "The Senate and People of Rome", the government of the Roman Republic

    1. 06.24 Giving into despair slips a person into his lower self. You must have hope, in dark times (Uncle Iroh). Despair is the lowest instinct.

    2. 05.44 Shame is inward looking, humility is outward looking

    3. 04.00 Humility is not thinking less of oneself, but rather less about oneself

      See 5.2 Musashi quote "Think lightly of yourself, and deeply of the world"

    4. Reflections on the Wisdom and Virtue of Uncle Iroh
    1. Podcast 3.03 - Arjan Broere - 'Ik zie dat kenniswerkers geen afspraken maken en niet normatief zijn'

      16:00 Begin van productiviteit is jezelf tegenkomen. "Zie het als een onderzoek"

    2. Ik maak gebruik van Moneybird, dat is niet de goedkoopste, maar wel fijn! Wellicht is het handig om iets meer context te hebben, ben je bijvoorbeeld ZZP-er of een andere constructie? En in welke branch?

      Joost Plattel en vele anderen op de Digitale Fitheid community gebruiken Moneybird als hun boekhoudpakket.

    1. 04:30 Use bottle of lubricant at end of reservoir.

      Doing this makes pulling reservoir easier.

      Rinse reservoir, fill halfway.

    2. 02:52 Water hardness test

    3. 0:55 Accessoires

    4. How To: Initial Setup & First Use of Gaggia Cadorna Espresso Machines
    1. 29.00 No matter what we experience(d), we can become anew. Kratos is still the man who destroyed Olympus, a monster, but also no more (see conversation between Kratos and Athena)

    2. 20.00 Masculinity isn't inward, but is outward.

    3. We Must Be Better - The Beautiful Masculinity of Kratos in God of War
    1. What Maximus meant is that Quintus shouldn't ask for forgiveness because he (Quintus) can handle the shame of his actions, and if he couldn't then he would simply act differently. Maximus essentially tells him to deal with the fact that what he's doing is shameful in both their eyes and not try to hide behind excuses.

      Quintus seems to look for forgiveness and excuses. But, he is a responsible man. He should take responsibility for his action. But, isn't there some extension to this? Doesn't the quote imply, also, that whatever burden is bestowed upon men, we can bear it? So, Quintus should take responsibility, but also could have chosen otherwise and would have been able to bear the burden.

    2. Quintus: "I'm a soldier, I obey"

      Maximus: "Nothing happens to anyone that he is not fitted by nature to bear"

      What does Maximus mean with this? Is it a jab at Quintus? Could Quintus have decided, perhaps, "to not obey", and bear his burden that is bestowed upon by nature, that anyone can bear?

    3. YOU are responsible for your deeds... not anyone else... you always have a choice

      So, take your responsibility, and accept the burden that is bestowed upon you by nature. You can surely bear it.

    1. Deep processing is the foundation of all learning. It refers to your ability to think about information critically, find relationships, make sense of new information, and organise it into meaningful knowledge in your memory.
    1. 2:00 In the mids of darkness, death, war; humans still can see light, the good, the beauty (stoic philosophy)

      Epictetus would say that there are two handle on a situation; you pick the one (see above). This also aligns to the notion that situations are what they are, it is about your reaction.

      How do you look at things? Do you only look at the bad, the ugly? Or, do you see the good, the light?

    2. 1:00 Gladiator (2000) happens during the Macromannic wars (one of the campaigns of Marcus Aurelius)

    1. 28.00 Put yourself in life situations that engage your higher self versus your lower self

    2. 27.09 be consumed by the system, or serve it purposefully

      Live in the system, don't try to change it, resisting it (Joseph Campbell)

    3. 25.00 The hero leaves the light into the darkness, at the threshold, and faces a creature of the unconscious self. (Belly of the whale)

    4. what all the myths have to deal with is transformation of consciousness

      16.57 Trials give revelations, which then transform consciousness

    5. 16.15 Heroism isn't easy. It is often denied by people (reversal of boon)

      "they come out of the forest with gold and it turns to ashes"

    6. 11:11 Heroes sacrifice themselves for something/someone

    7. 08.49 Campbell referring to Otto Ranke — transformation at birth (everyone is a hero)

    8. 06.05 "Why do heroes emerge so many times?" Campbell answers "that is worth writing about"

    9. Interview of Joseph Campbell at Skywalker Ranch of George Lucas

    1. Guts, accustomed to heartbreak and death, and empathising with the emptiness that follows the loss of a loved one (especially at the hands of Griffith), comforts her, encouraging Schierke to cry and express her emotions. He got a scalding from Godo months before; he now understands how dangerous it is to manage emotions poorly. Bottling up the pain cannot help Schierke. Guts allows her to have time to cry, and Schierke rushes to him for comfort. Her actions are childlike here, which is a change from her usual adult-like demeanour. Schierke is used to behaving older and wiser than she is, but with Guts, she learns to be a child again

      How to handle emotions — not bottling it up, letting them be.

    2. Akin to the pirates’ philosophy in One Piece, Guts doesn't set out to be anyone's hero. He's had a rough life and he lives for his own convictions, and yet somehow, people are drawn to him. Guts, regardless of what happens to him, keeps pushing forward. He had reason to give up numerous times each arc, but he never does. Instead, he uses his conviction and personal principles—initially a revenge quest but transforming into a means to restore his beloved—to propel himself through the story, and it's beautiful to read.
    3. At the same time, there is a slither of light that penetrates the dark narrative. Although the protagonists have all led fractured, traumatic lives, they never succumb to the impending desire to give up. Guts embodies stubborn perseverance, and through his struggles, the reader learns to cling onto hope.

      Throughout the dark narrative, there is a slitter of light. They never give up.

    4. Only recently when we discussed Berserk did we find a name for it: claustrophobia. Berserk makes you feel trapped, and its world is so small, and the hardships are so great, and it is so bleak and violent and unforgiving, that as a reader, you begin to suffocate with it. There is nothing you wish for more than Guts's happiness and Casca's peace and Griffith's destruction. Nothing more. It’s mind-boggling to consider just how much bad fortune Guts has experienced. Berserk is a story where bad things happen to decent people, and it can be depressing.

      Berserk makes the reader feel claustrophobic

    5. Thoughts on ... Guts, and Perseverance
    1. Akin to the pirates’ philosophy in One Piece, Guts doesn’t set out to be anyone’s hero. He’s had a rough life and he lives for his own convictions, and yet somehow, people are drawn to him. Guts, regardless of what happens to him, keeps pushing forward. He had reason to give up numerous times each arc, but he never does. Instead, he uses his conviction and personal principles — initially a revenge quest but transforming into a means to restore his beloved — to propel himself through the story, and it’s beautiful to read.”

      Like One Piece, Berserk isn't romantic. They aren't specifically anyone's hero. They have a rough life. But they keeps on pushing.

    2. Guts is a mentally broken character affected by the isolation and loneliness that he has both been cursed with and brought on himself. Despite this, he always finds a way to keep on going throughout the manga.

      Guts is broken and lonely. Despite this, he finds a way to keep going.

    3. You’re going to be all right. You just stumbled over a stone in the road. It means nothing. Your goal lies far beyond this. Doesn’t it? I’m sure you’ll overcome this. You’ll walk again… soon.”

      Berserk is about perseverance and healing.

    4. People bring the small flames of their wishes together… since they don’t want to extinguish the small flame… they’ll bring that small flame to a bigger fire. A big flame named Griffith. But you know… I didn’t bring a flame with me. I think I just stopped by to warm myself by the bonfire.”

      Guys doesn't want to put his dreams and hopes into someone else's. He wants to carve out a path for himself.

    5. In terms of the design he looks very similar to Mordred from Arthurian legend with his distinctive black armour, though this is just speculation on my part and Miura seems to maintain he wanted a distinctive medival swordsman with no clear influence in most of his interviews.

      Guts is influenced by Mordred from the Arthurian legend?

    6. At first I envisioned Guts as a hero who can get angry. Like Max in Mad Max or Kenshiro in Fist of the North Star. I focused on how to make him angry, how to make him get revenge, and how to effectively display his appearance and gimmicks, and what resulted after that struggle was the original Black Swordsman.”

      At first, Miura imagined Guts to be angry.

    7. Guts and Berserk — A character study on human will and perseverance
    1. 45 Theoden "I go to my fathers"

    2. 31:40 True love is turning away from one's one sorrow and being happy for another's joy (Theoden and Eowyn)

      • see Musashi "Think lightly of yourself and deeply of the world"
    3. 05.42 When all is dark, all seems dark. Giving up hope, into despair — this is the circumstance Theoden found himself in.y

    4. 04:00 Gandalf and Theoden scene — "Not all is dark" "A ray of light shine through" (see quote from book)

    1. York street, Dublin, December 1829.

      Written in December 1829

    2. and now that such diminution has become sensible, and that these diseases seem at last to be on the decline, will your Society proceed to give them new life and vigour by encouraging (19) the use of those very substances from which more than from any other single cause these diseases spring ? Your Society will not do so ; but will rather hasten to correct its error, to abjure the narrow policy which would substitute one evil for another, and to establish itself on the firm basis of the physiological principle that substances which exercise so powerful an influence on the nervous system as to produce intoxication, whether it be the intoxication of spirituous liquors, or of tea and coffee, or of opium, or of tobacco, cannot be used habitually without injuring the health of the body and impairing the faculties of the mind.

      Society causing rise of nervous illness? (promoting tea/coffee)

    3. If the influence of tea on the human health be such as I have described, we should expect to find that there had occurred during the above-mentioned period of one hundred years an increase of nervous diseases bearing some proportion to the increased use of tea.

      Increase import if tea as more nervous disease.

    4. This is the case with tea and coffee as it is with wine and spirits. Both belong to that class of substances which produce nervous excitement of mind and body

      "Nervous excitement of mind and body" both tea/coffee/alcohol

    5. The peculiar state of mind and body which tea and coffee produce, and which I have called intoxication, follows the use of those substances as regularly as vinous intoxication follows the use of spirituous liquors. Like vinous intoxication it is modified by the habits, circumstances, and peculiar constitutions of individuals, some persons requiring a larger, some a smaller dose to produce a given effect

      Intoxication of tea and coffee differs person to person

    6. The use of tea and coffee produces in all persons effects similar in kind to those detailed in the above related cases, but differing in degree according to the constitution of the individual, the quantity of active exercise which he uses, the intensity with which his mind is employed, the quantity of spirituous liquor which he drinks, and above all, according to the strength, the quantity, and the kind of the tea or coffee taken. All these circumstances vary so much in different individuals, and even in the same individual at different periods of his life, that the effects of tea and coffee on the health are subjected to an almost infinite variety of modifications, and cannot be traced to their true causes without great difficult

      Tea and coffee as diff effects for each person (see following for description of types of people)

    7. the substitutes will be thrown aside, and the use of spirituous liquors established on a firmer foundation than ever. Thus shall a deep wound have been inflicted upon the cause of sobriety, by the very persons who were most anxious to to defend it, and with the very instrument which they used in its defence

      Reuse of alcohol (spirituous liquors) bec of tea/coffee bad — advice of society backfires.

    8. A. B., a gentleman, who like the subject of the foregoing narrative had always abstained from spirituous liquors, and who had like him indulged in the use of tea and coffee, although by no means to the same excess, gradually lost his rest at night ; lying awake for several hours after he went to bed, and seldom falling asleep until two o’clock in the morning. At the same time his appetite became bad, his spirits extremely low, he had a fixed pain in the region of the heart accompanied with palpitations, and his life seemed to be in danger. By an accident he took neither tea nor coffee on one evening, and that night he fell asleep immediately on going to bed, and slept soundly all night ; he abstained the next night, and that night also slept. He then renounced tea and coffee altogether ; his distressing symptoms disappeared, and he has ever since enjoyed sound sleep at night, and his health has been perfectly good. On one or two occasions having for the sake of experiment returned for a single evening to the use of these substances, he has on those occasions had a return of the sleeplessness and of his other nervous symptoms

      Tea in evening as disturbing sleep (see p18 and 19 personal story)

    9. 18-19 Personal story of author with tea

    10. Page 8 and 9 is blurry

    11. Page 16 and 17 is blurry

    12. that all living bodies or parts of living bodies soon become insensible to stimuli to which they are accustomed. Hence the demand for a stronger stimulus to produce the required excitement. It is in this way that the habit of intemperate drinking is most commonly formed; the stomach demanding a larger and larger quantity, or as it is called, allowance of drink, until the temperate man becomes a drunkard almost without knowing it

      Alcohol tolerance leads to drunkenness

    13. Of the intoxicating substances which I have mentioned, tea and coffee are those to which the inhabitants of this country are most likely to have recourse as a substitute for strong drink, both because the taste for them is already formed, and because their use is approved of and recommended (3) in a pamphlet lately published by your Society, and attributed to a gentleman of the highest eminence in the medical profession.

      Coffee and tea as alternative bec of taste and pamphlet by society

    14. where the prohibition of wine has been followed by such enormous excesses in opium, coffee, and tobacco, and is in accordance with the known passion of man for that high state of excitement, which for want of a better name I have called intoxication, a term commonly applied to that particular species of excitement only, which is produced by spirituous drink.

      New substances (including coffee) for higher states of consciousness/excitement — "intoxicating substances"

    15. Your Society is threatened by two manifest dangers arising from this diversity of opinion and practice. The first and lesser danger is that it will on this account make less progress in the opinion of the public, and will be the more likely to have its numbers thinned by defection ; its members adopting first one plan, then another, and then a third, and at last perhaps, dissatisfied with all, returning to their original habits.

      (danger 1) Too many replacements for alcohol — regress back to "old habits" (consuming alcohol)

    16. The other danger to which your Society is exposed is still greater ; it is the danger that habits injurious to your own health and prejudicial to the interests of the community will take the place of the habits which you have laid aside ; that the use of one stimulus will be exchanged for that of another, and that some other intoxicating substance as opium, or tobacco, or tea or coffe

      (danger 2) Replacing one bad substance with other

    17. abandoned their former habits, but they are altogether at a loss to determine what new habits to establish in the place of those which they have abandoned

      Replacing alcohol with other substances (see page)

    18. But although abstinence from strong liquors has been at all times recommended by the few, and although it has been proved to be practicable by the experience of nations, yet has it happened that in this country, down to the present moment, no effective or even vigorous effort has been made to banish these destructive liquors

      England in a drunken state (no efforts made to reduce intake)

    19. Your Society, formed with a view to the adoption of such measures, carries with it the good wishes of all men, and already deserves the double praise of having discovered where the root of the evil lay, and of having used a powerful and well-directed effort to eradicate it.

      Drunkenness seen as evil

    1. 20.00 What if isn't procrastination at all, but rather a signal you should pay close attention to?

      See Musashi on how we can work with anxiety — letting it whisper in your ear, a signal.

    2. How to beat procrastination?

      07.00 Clear goals — goals that focus on the action, not the outcome. (Very specific)

      See GTD on next-actions that make a distinction between outcomes (projects) and clear goals (Next-Actions)

      "This keeps your brain from wondering, what is the first step?"

      10.00 Challenge-skill balance. Find sweet spot where challenge is slightly more than your skill level. Too much challenge is anxiety, too little is boredom. How to tune it? (1) Lower the hurdle. (2) Compress time for a given task. (3) Define scope (What needs to be done? Why? How long?)

      14.00 Bypassing/response inhibition. Engaging in a task as soon as you are committed. Don't waver. Sleep to flow is an example.

      17.30 Flow payoff — have long blocks of focus, where the struggle to get into flow is actually worth it.

    1. A variable is considered dependent if it depends on an independent variable. Dependent variables are studied under the supposition or demand that they depend, by some law or rule (e.g., by a mathematical function), on the values of other variables. Independent variables, in turn, are not seen as depending on any other variable in the scope of the experiment in question.[a]

      Dependent variables depend upon independent variables (whereas independent variables are independent).

    1. Shanks saves Luffy from a sea beast. He shows complete mastery over his mind. First, he saves Luffy without any regard to his arm that is bitten off. Second, he directs and focuses his attention and anger at the sea beast. His anger is focused and redirected.

      "It's only an arm. It's no big deal" says Shanks

      One Piece Ep 4.

    2. Furthermore, Shanks thinks of Luffy in a dire situation, rather than anguish at his arm that is bitten off. Shanks truly loves Luffy — love that is shown when we are ourselves suffer deeply

    1. Promoting coffee as an alternative to alcohol was a tactic of the temperance movement that had begun to take hold here in the early 1800s, and by the end of the century it looked as if it might actually be working. Certainly, it was more subtle than some attempts to curb drunkenness – in Islandmagee, for example, local landowner Lord Dungannon had dealt with “the appalling number of sudden, violent and premature deaths, solely from the effects of intemperance” by the simple act of smashing up all 14 pubs on the peninsula

      Replacing coffee with alcohol was a way to combat intemperance (Temperance movement)

    2. Coffee shops are the new pubs, a friend once remarked. And he may well be right. As traditional bars struggle, coffee outlets are popping up on every street corner. Many pub landlords, especially in country areas, are only keeping their doors open in anticipation of the day someone will make an offer for their licence. Meanwhile, young entrepreneurs in horseboxes can hardly turn out the mochaccinos fast enough. Somehow, we’ve gone from ‘fancy a pint?’ to ‘see you for a coffee’.

      Pubs making way for coffee shops

  3. Dec 2023
    1. 08:00 Ryan Holiday built in a bunch of structure — as he progressed more in his career, he transitioned to flexibility.

      • See ZK on balancing Confucius and Lao Tzu
    1. 31:00 Technological advancement makes flow more important than ever. We need flow to solve complex problems. However, flow is harder to attain with tech advancing — more distractions, less focus, more information.

    2. 04:18 All flow triggers are either (a) reducing cognitive load, or (b) increasing dopamine or norepinephrine, that drive focus.

      Rian Doris people to first start reducing cognitive load. People are overwhelmed and feel like they can't take on new habits and tactics. He recommends to remove clutter from one's life. The more clutter we remove, the more time is left for flow.

    1. The mind is an information processing and pattern recognition machine that we have a certain amount of control over based on our level of consciousness. The mind is a system – containing a complex set of systems – that accepts, rejects, and uses information to aid in the goals you feed it.

      The mind holds a set of goals. It either discards or integrates incoming information based on these goals.

      • see ZK on goals and projects as information filters
    2. A routine is a set of practical goals that order the mind. A writer who moves to a new location or travels for an extended period of time will have a stressful acclimation period until their mind runs on new systems. If they can’t write well in their normal routine, they feel threatened, because “who they are” may die.

      Routines order the mind

    3. Your bad habits don’t seem worth quitting because you don’t have responsibilities (or prioritize those responsibilities) that deserve you at 100% capacity.

      Goals and projects require sacrifices. Bad habits are/need to go.

      I am currently experiencing this. I want to do a lot of fun and important stuff. Because I have clarity on these goals right now, my bad habits — gaming mindlessly, going on news rabbit holes — "have to go".

    1. 1:04:00 Build information capital and social capital

    2. 59:00 Purpose and belonging as drivers for happiness. Try to balance both. Purpose can easily cannibalise belonging.

    3. 55:00 Being dispersed over many projects makes attention random and disultory. Whereas, when you have one big focus, attention is focused. Your default mode network productivity skyrockets.

    4. 43:00 Feeling that something is off/uneasy/anxiety is intuition and not listening to it is detrimental

    5. 29:00 We structure our consciousness around goals; else we fall into entropy (Rian Doris)

    6. 20:46 Flow brings you closer to the moment; to the essence of who you are; aligning with certain activities that "fit" with your being

    7. 20:00 Flow makes life meaningful

    8. 08:30 High action sports like F1 have a higher innate rate of pregression due to their being flow, naturally, in these sports

    1. 15:00 The ring is pure evil. It takes away choice and freedom — the thing that one needs to have a moral victory.