Amazon: Get Better at Anything: 12 Maxims for Mastery
The author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Ultralearning explores why it’s so difficult for people to learn new skills, arguing that three factors must be met to make advancement possible, and offering 12 maxims to improve the way we learn.
Life revolves around learning–in school, at our jobs, even in the things we do for fun. Yet learning is often mysterious. Sometimes it comes fairly effortlessly: quickly finding our way around a new neighborhood or picking up the routine at a new job. In other cases, it’s a slog. We may spend hours in the library, yet still not do well on an exam. We may want to switch companies, industries, or even professions, but not feel qualified to make the leap. Decades spent driving a car, typing on a computer, or hitting a tennis ball don’t reliably make us much better at them. Improvement can be fickle, if it comes at all.
In Get Better At Anything, Scott Young argues that there are three key factors in helping us learn:
See—Most of what we know comes from other people. The ease of learning from others determines, to a large extent, how quickly we can improve.
Do—Mastery requires practice. But not just any practice will do. Our brains are fantastic effort-saving machines, which can be both a tremendous advantage and a curse.
Feedback—Progress requires constant adjustment. Not just the red stroke of a teacher’s pen, but the results of hands-on experience.
When we’re able to learn from the example of other people, practice extensively ourselves, and get reliable feedback, rapid progress results. Yet, when one, or all, of these factors is inhibited, improvement often becomes impossible. Using research and real-life examples, Young breaks down these elements into twelve simple maxims. Whether you’re a student studying for an exam, an employee facing a new skill at work, or just want to get better at something you’re interested in, his insights will help you do it better.
e360.Yale: Why Taiwan and Its Tech Industry Are Facing an Energy Crisis
As the world’s largest producer of advanced computer chips, Taiwan is struggling to meet demand for electricity. Highly dependent on imported fossil fuels, soon to shutter its last nuclear plant, and slow to build out renewables, the island is heading toward an energy crunch.
Good article explaining the complexity of the situation.
TorStar: David Suzuki, Peter Mansbridge, and other prominent ex-broadcasters are calling out CBC. Here’s why
Five eminent CBC alumni are urging the public broadcaster to deepen its coverage of the climate crisis in the face of an escalating “civilizational threat.”
“As journalists, members of the CBC family and as Canadians concerned about our future, we ask that the CBC treat the climate breakdown as the existential crisis and civilizational threat that it is,” reads a copy of the letter obtained by the Star.
Drafted by former broadcasters David Suzuki, Peter Mansbridge, Adrienne Clarkson, Paul Kennedy and Linden MacIntyre, the call to action was delivered to Brodie Fenlon, head of CBC news, on May 1, 2023. Attached were a raft of recommendations, including a “daily climate emergency report” for the broadcaster’s flagship news and current affairs shows.
via Apple News+
HowToGeek: Raspberry Pi 4 vs. 5: Which One Should You Choose?
- Raspberry Pi 5 offers a significant performance boost with faster CPU, GPU, and memory options.
- The Pi 5 has improved connectivity with more USB ports, HDMI 2.1, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.2.
- A Pi 5 is ideal for advanced projects like machine learning, 4K streaming, and demanding games.
HowToGeek: Why I Don’t Buy SD Cards on Amazon
Amazon might be one of the most popular stores, but it’s far from perfect. It has constant issues with knock-off products, especially in one category: SD cards.
Amazon allows third-party sellers to list products on the store with little oversight, and even pay for advertising to artificially place them higher in Amazon search results. That means low-quality or outright fake items are common, and even if you specifically purchase something from a reputable brand, you could still end up with a counterfeit.
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Clones of popular products are common on nearly every online store that allows third-party sellers, including Amazon, Temu, and eBay. However, sellers can optionally pay Amazon more money to push their listings higher in search results. That can make the products seem more legitimate, with only a small “Sponsored” text badge differentiating it from actual search results.
I think some of them are outright counterfeits but it is impossible to prove.
The Atlantic: We’re Entering Uncharted Territory for Math
Terence Tao, a mathematics professor at UCLA, is a real-life superintelligence. The “Mozart of Math,” as he is sometimes called, is widely considered the world’s greatest living mathematician. He has won numerous awards, including the equivalent of a Nobel Prize for mathematics, for his advances and proofs. Right now, AI is nowhere close to his level.
Guardian: Government to fund £120 blood test that could detect 12 most common cancers
The Mionco screening can identify 50 cancers before producing a false positive and is a form of the PCR test used during the Covid pandemic, according to the scientists involved in its development.
It checks the 12 most common forms of the disease: lung, breast, prostate, pancreatic, colorectal, ovarian, liver, brain, oesophageal, bladder, bone and soft tissue sarcoma, and gastric.
Last Updated: 05.Oct.2024 23:32 EDT
