Knowing a concept's name is really useful

We live in an age of wonders where learning an entity’s truename allows anyone to pull up a practically limitless pool of information on it. I feel like I appreciate this much more, having growing up in a world where it was not true. This is relevant because many educational resources continue to assume the world is like the way it was in 1994 and overstuff you with information about a concept, because where else would you find more information about the concept?

In 2024, I think it’s much more effective to pique someone’s curiosity by giving a single, punchy example to illustrate the concept and providing its truename. Then they will know whether they want to learn more, and do that on their own if so. For example, Benford’s Law is the observation that in many real-world data sets, like a list of the altitude of every US city in feet, the number 1 occurs significantly more than 10% of the time, the number 2 the is second-most frequent, and so on. You are now free to do with that information what you will.

Get back onto the horse

Sometimes, things are difficult, your skillset and personality just make your current challenges worse, or you’ll have an off week, and it might feel like nothing’s working and everything is terrible forever.

Every time this has happened to me so far, the feeling eventually passes, and then the most important thing that I can do is put one foot in front of the other again and get back onto that horse, even if I don’t feel like it, because sometimes action can lead to emotion. If you’re trying to get out of feeling this way, uninspired action leading to positive emotion is probably what you need most right now.

The world is more complicated than you think

The world is more complicated than you think, even if you already think the world is really complicated. The linked example doesn’t even begin to touch on the complexity created by things that are alive, let alone things that are conscious. I feel like this belief is something that’s easy to memorize and recite, but much harder to really know in your bones.

The animal is also you

You, the entity reading this by converting millions of stimuli with slightly different intensities into symbols or sounds and then extracting meaning from them, cohabit your body with an animal who is also you. That animal is a good girl/boy/pal who wants to be helpful and tries its best but can’t communicate with you in words the way that I am doing here. It wants plenty of rest and sun and good food and a stimulating environment. When it feels good, you feel good, because it’s you. And when it feels bad because maybe you’re like young me and don’t know the animal is trying to tell you it needs exercise and you get confused and angry when the animal is grumpy and destructive, you feel bad, because the animal is also you.

Be generous with appreciation

Being generous with appreciation feels great. It is a learned skill that you can dramatically improve with practice. A simple, genuine aside of “I appreciated that you X, thanks!” can make both you and the other person feel good, and makes it more likely they will do similar things in the future. Appreciation isn’t a limited resource, so it’s not helpful to try to save it up for when it really matters.