My biggest failure, the FreeBASE console...

It’s been almost 10 years since the FreeBASE idea was initiated. However, it was a massive failure due to realizing that we were competing in the wrong field and honestly being afraid of our shadow.

The biggest problem that I didn’t understand back in my university days is that good ideas don’t make good products. I mean, how great of a proposition is it? A game and media console that would play free content with thousands of freeware and open-source games and popular online series that were viewable at no cost.

We had a great team each with their own speciality me being software, someone else doing research for the free content, a web developer, a DevOps (before the term was even coined) expert but still looking for more. Several times, we even had amateur investors meeting with us because they were interested in taking the idea even further though all of them, at the end of the day, were skeptical of the idea and threw us out of the window.

At the time, the landscape was shaping up to be a quite competitive one and I was slightly scared of them. I mean, the giants Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo had a foothold on the market and we realized that we could never compete with them. But we had a bit of hope because other players tried to enter the market such as Boxer8’s OUYA and Valve’s Steam Machine made us feel like we can squeeze into the market too.

However, in retrospect several years later, after the project was canned, we saw Boxer8 and Valve fall flat on their faces with disastrous results. We were naïve at the time and couldn’t see the faults in our ‘competitors’. But, just like us, they were short-sighted, and failed to understand the market. Julie Uhrman, the founder of the OUYA project, had no idea what she was doing. For example, she claimed that the OUYA controller was the first to have a touchpad while she was oblivious to the fact that Sony’s Dual Shock controller beat them to it. What an embarrassment!

Valve’s idea fell on it’s face after selling so few Steam Machines that many people ended up buying them because they were cheap computers installing Windows on them to get rid of the subpar SteamOS. OUYA was even more embarrassing. The best selling game was TowerFall, but the developers revealed that only 7000 copies were sold. It was ported to PC and become a massive hit there.

At this point, I have to give up on insulting the other projects because ours was a much bigger failure. I was so confident that we would get somewhere but I began to feel fear and the whole team got disillusioned and split apart shortly after. The only evidence left is an idiotic YouTube video that looked like a teaser, for a teaser.

Our proposition brought challenges that our much larger competitors didn’t have to face.

First, we couldn’t build or design our own hardware, we decided to use off-the-shelf components but building such a machine was very expensive. We tried to make tiers to create multiple markets but it was as confusing as Windows Vista’s swath of editions. Our projections showed that our systems would be at least twice as expensive of current consoles with much less horsepower.

Second, we had to make money on hardware, we couldn’t sell it at a loss like the others. Since the games were free, we couldn’t make the creators pay licensing fees to have their game featured on the console. We saw Microsoft try this business model with making money on the console but they had to take so much shortcuts that the rings of death became a meme. In other words, these companies had such deep pockets that they could recuperate their losses with licensing fees, and that made their products make millions and billions of dollars.

Third, we made no market analysis at all. We didn’t know if anyone was actually interested in playing shoddy indie games made by someone in their free time. The quality of the games didn’t even touch the ones made by AAA publishers.

My main partner, who was helping me with building the software, put it so elegantly that we hit emotional walls and still haven’t learned our lessons from the failed project. It became really obvious that we didn’t have our shit together.

To this day, I still ruminate about the project because I wish it would be alive and successful. I did consider turning the hardware idea into just a Linux distro. There are already some poorly polished ideas such as Lutris which handles pretty much everything up to even installing patched versions of Wine for better compatibility.

The project still left a legend or legacy behind it, so here’s some images that invoked what we thought the FreeBASE interface would be like.

Leave some notes in the comments sections on your opinions and ideas on this failed project, or similar ideas you had, or even if you want to bring it back again.

Song of the Day 004 - Electric Youth - Marnie

Helen Marnie is a somewhat obscure artist known for her dark and sombre music with the iconic track The Hunter among others like Hearts On Fire, Wolves and Lost Maps with a slightly macabre held melody in addition to lyrics that cause a downturn in the morale of the listener. However, this kind of music reveals a kind of depression that exposes a more realistic outlook on life rather than the fake happiness found in the majority of pop songs.

[Verse 2]
A girl and a boy, just fun
No conversation, no complications here
Dark corners were made for dirty secrets
Work your way into my psyche
And hurt me
I'm my own worst enemy

[Pre-Chorus]
Hey now, hey now, boy
I am your water now
Hey now, hey now, boy
I am your water now

[Chorus]
When the nights are calling
Animal instinct always
Young blood cursing, violent flames
When the nights are calling
Signals pulse like we're electric youth
When the nights are calling you

[Post-Chorus]
When the nights are calling
When the nights are calling
When the nights are calling you

[Verse 1]
A story of us unfolds
I stand arrested, my education strewn
A girl and a boy, a guilty pleasure
Plain to see that you're taking over me
So, hurt me
I can't even help myself

[Pre-Chorus]
Hey now, hey now, boy
I am your water now
Hey now, hey now, boy
I am your water now

[Chorus]
When the nights are calling
Animal instinct always
Young blood cursing, violent flames
When the nights are calling
Signals pulse like we're electric youth
When the nights are calling you

Electric Youth changes the tone a little to something much more upbeat giving the impression to the uncareful listener that what’s being presented is something happy. However, it’s nothing but a façade and even charade of a dark meaning hidden behind excitement. It seemed that Helen wanted to make something lively but couldn’t help herself with morbid lyrics that are unintelligible until they are actually read.

A scene starts with an abandoned building full of graffiti and quite unkempt. Teenagers enter what seems to be a disguised dance room though completely unfurnished except with the shine of a disco ball. Curiosity shows up on their faces as they look around but they quickly get used to their entourage. The camera is pointed to demonstrate the group's impressive dancing talents but what lied behind them is the band.

The song immediately begins reciting the first verse right away revealing Helen’s existential disorientation. Dark lyrics of confusion become obvious but with no recourse to stave the chaos. She begins telling her story.

But that’s not the strongest part of the song, but rather the two climaxes in the chorus. It’s more important to begin with it as it unravels the loop that the song finds itself in. Essentially, it sets the tone for what it is to come and what came before it.

When the nights are calling
Animal instinct always
Young blood cursing, violent flames
When the nights are calling
Signals pulse like we're electric youth
When the nights are calling you

Lyrics start with a response to the call of night, a darkness and predator filled one and then followed by a plea to animal instincts which would help cope with the dim night-time. However, the day doesn’t come soon enough seeking refuge in violent flames, i.e. a camp fire. The reference to young blood is a sign of naivety, unprepared for the challenges that the night brings. As a result, she harks to the past, as a pulse of energy from an ‘electric youth’ where responsibilities were non-existent, wishing for it dearly. The verse ends again with another call to the night, because the first one hasn’t been answered.

Oddly, this is the most energetic part of the song, and the intensely dynamic choreography (performed by Urbaniks Street Skool of Dance) feeds into that energy. As soon as the chorus starts, the intensity of the dance fires up, turning the desolate abandoned building into a fire-filled dance. Perhaps this is how Marnie is trying to seek protection from the night, maybe projected through nightmares. However, that darkness is never seen in the music video. The enthusiasm presented is probably a retreat from the negativity.

We can see Marnie making an effort in order to suit her song to a wider audience, in addition to enliven her song a bit more to a mainstream listener, she picked the generally similar key and tempo found in other popular music. The main key is C# and she doesn’t really deviate much from it and a tempo of about 130 which is essentially the average key and rhythm of what plays in most popular radio channels.

Looking at the score, it is easy to find how strongly influenced is the song by pop music tendencies. The notes in both the accompaniment and bass note reside within the C# key seldom escaping from it. While the melody is quite novel, the percussion sticks to the modern tendencies of pop music with a very simplistic beat.

Chorus (First Half)

Interestingly, it seems that Marnie is trying to give the song an eighties vibe, something comfortable on a record player. While the dance is modern hip-hop style, the synth supporting it all is clearly less progressive. Like many songs of that era, leaving the instrumentation alone reveals that it’s not what builds the melody. Rather, the singing is the base of the melody. This is very common in music from that era as seen here by this example from Michael Jackson’s Beat It.

Hey now, hey now, boy
I am your water now
Hey now, hey now, boy
I am your water now

The pre-chorus is really simple but the intention is actually quite complex. It shows a submissive side where the performer is allowing themselves into water. We would imagine that humans would melt into quavering jelly, but the liquid has lost so much essence that it has become something drinkable. The previous line invoking a ‘boy’ could be a reference to a love story, the secret but obvious undertone of the video.

Several scenes of the teenagers in a landfill dumpster seem to be running and playing around. This represents some kind of innocence that Marnie wants to bring back into her life but all is thrown out when a girl drops a tire down a hill. This is an attempt to cancel out the choruses which it succeeds but subconsciously showing falling action as a narrative.

There is an expression that is commonly used just before being ‘hey now, hey now’. According to some urban dictionary definitions, the expression is made when someone is approaching to make their presence known. It can be worded in such as way to signal something positive is coming. However, there’s an odd contradiction, these lyrics, being an introduction to the intense dancing also introduces the dark chorus we analyzed earlier. In other songs, this expression is often used in a positive sense only like in Hilary Duff’s What Dreams Are Made Of.

In addition, while the pre-choruses are repeated twice, there is some subtle difference between the two. In the first one, the percussive instruments are almost completely cut-off, leaving only the leading synth instrument with Helen’s voice going down a few notes. In fact, while the music preserves the original key, the notes are so far down that it gives the illusion of a key change, nearly an octave. The melody almost becomes the bass. Now, the second iteration of the pre-chorus has the same attenuation in terms of instruments, clapping is added which gives the impression of humanizing the section a little more. This brings the hope needed to get into the second chorus, which is also what the second climax brings into view again. However, the tension never truly goes away as seen by the lazier dancing done by the group.

The Pre-Chorus

The clapping is a common technique used by video game music when describing more lively levels with a so-called fun aspect or gameplay. An excellent example is Carnival Night Zone Act 1 from the November 1993 prototype of Sonic 3. In this section, you can definitely hear the clapping before this music also goes into its bells-sounding climax.

Now exploring the verses, two of them, shows a slightly more dangerous aspect to Marnie’s idea. They’re essentially a sign of hopelessness, confusion and disorientation. When they play, the dancing scenes are put away revealing mundane scenarios instead. (such as throwing rocks at an empty wine bottle)

The first one, the teenagers haven’t even entered the building yet, laying instead on the wall. At this point, this is where the first verse is reciting, immediately before the instrumentation even starts a few seconds later.

A story of us unfolds
I stand arrested, my education strewn
A girl and a boy, a guilty pleasure
Plain to see that you're taking over me
So, hurt me
I can't even help myself

As Marnie puts it’s clearly, describing a story that unfolds, essentially a narrative for her enema. Arrested with a strewn education, in other words, uncertain knowledge implied by the use of the word education. She ends with a request to be hurt, unable to even help herself. This gives the section a very depressive feel, one where is so pained, they want more.

A girl and a boy, just fun
No conversation, no complications here
Dark corners were made for dirty secrets
Work your way into my psyche
And hurt me
I'm my own worst enemy

The second verse hints at the same meaning but with a slightly clearer undertone. Lost in dark corners where she hides her secrets of depression, work their way into her psyche as she states. This time however, the pain isn’t a request, but rather a result of her secrets. The fear gets to the point where she sees herself as her own enemy, presumably from some kind of trauma or longing for the past.

Both verses reveal a secret love story that Marnie never elaborates on. In both cases referring them to ‘a girl and a boy’. The girl being her, and the boy, presumable the one she mentions in the pre-chorus. There is a sense of innocence, amplified by her line ‘a guilty pleasure’ that isn’t sung anywhere else. However, the music video does show a couple being obviously attracted to each other with the subtle smiles between them and the kiss at the end. One of them inscribes a heart with the letters EYT (probably meaning Electric Youth) on their arm.

There are several scenes of some of the dancers riding old-school bicycles with the footage slowed down. I’m not entirely sure what meaning it serves, but it seems like the slowness represents a sense of hesitation, as if the singer is not really sure what direction to take the song into. However, I’m not certain if that was intentional as the music is very consistent despite going through two climaxes.

One more interesting aspect is how Helen presents herself in the music video, though only three times. Her hair is coloured grey, a sign of age and weakness. While she is desiring to relive her more lively-filled past-self, she can’t escape all the time that passed until she found herself participating in the band.

Finally, the song ends with a post-chorus which just repeats “When the nights are calling you” several times while the song slowly fades out and as the dancing slows down with the entire group on screen. It seems that the line accumulates positivity as the dark night becomes a lively party. I’d say that Helen has managed after several failed attempts of negativity, she finally manages to bring the song out of its hole.

Disappointingly, I don’t think the title of the song, Electric Youth, has much of a deeper sense to it. It just seems that it was put there just because the expression was in the lyrics.

There’s an interesting coincidence that the song title, Electric Youth, is also the name of a Canadian duo that just happens to sing electro-pop songs too. This is very likely to be accidental, in fact, I’m almost sure of it. While the other group does have some darker music at times, there is more positivity in what they compose and produce.

This endeavour of music analysis was probably the most difficult part because I attempted to go deeper than just the general feel of a piece of art. There’s always more ways to imagine a production because it gives a glimpse into the consciousness of the artist. Though this is certainly not a comprehensive analysis as I’ve missed quite a few parts. Feel free to comment with your own views!

You can’t afford to be an artist and/or author, let alone be respected.

Us denizens of the Internet have become familiar with concepts that were foreign more than a decade ago, one of the most that causes the most influence is going viral. There’s so much variety on the web with content providing the impression that anything could essentially make you rich. However, hidden behind the curtains of survivorship bias is a massive community of people that practice art and express their creativity in a way that’s absolutely thankless.

Due to the accidental underground nature of an artist’s work, it’s unlikely that they will make any dough out of their production. Seems like in order to practise their art, they need a reliable but remedial job to pay the bills. Unfortunately, the nature of that kind of work is energy depleting zapping any creative juices needed for the concentration and initiative to produce content. Let alone something of high-quality that doesn’t exude fatigue.

Turns out, for most of us, we can’t afford to be artists, authors and creatives. Having full control over your processes comes at a cost of uncertainty and instability of money supply.

I was a deluded believer at one point that what made things so popular was the quality of a project. Eventually, I realized that it’s not the best work and most original that makes it to top, but rather the mediocre. Luck plays a big part in climbing the ladder in addition to slick marketing. The creatives with eccentric personalities often fail. Why?

My walks across the web has exposed me to obscure concepts that I found serendipitously. It was exciting to find a new favourite music track only to discover that the video accompanying it to have only several hundred of views. In fact, seeking refuge in Spotify divulges no result for which to add to my library. Going back to our question, what makes things fail? I have the impression, as some others have taught me, rather than through my own intuition, that what ‘makes it’ is something that fits the most common denominator.

These include things like food where tasters spend weeks finding the bliss point, or a pop artist using the same chord progressions over and over again; with lyrics they probably didn’t even write. Or perhaps another sitcom with yet another ironic love triangle with predictable outcomes and endings so obvious that spoilers are not even warranted.

I grew respect for many of these artists and people who radiate originality. Writing another exciting book or a low-budget movie with a more esoteric story. Rather than feeding themselves, they are feeding us, unintentionally, or even unwillingly. They bestowed us with gifts that fit our niches so we can distance ourselves for yet another mediocre work.

Some of these types have divulged the differences between being unknown and popular. Many have revealed to me that if they get big enough, their fans’ expectations of a constant stream of content puts them on a production treadmill. As a result, turning their passion into yet, another job.

Many creative types, and arrogantly putting myself into that bucket, hope for some kind of impossible miracle of some type of passive income that will keep us alive with much initial effort but eventually getting big enough to put it aside but give us a positive cashflow.

I can see my projects present hints of tiredness of the obligatory 8 hours and I see it everywhere too. The inertia of the energy is no longer there anymore. What they had time for before moving out have become an insufferable chase for free time that simply cannot be filled with anything else of lifelessness.

Although I can throw the idea of donating to someone you like, it results in absolutely nothing. Even very popular, say bloggers, don’t get much money from donations. Ads and sponsorships work, but my inclinations whisper to me that it’s not kosher. Going back to my first blog post, I alluded that the nature of our jobs no longer matches its own output when it comes to money. I can’t think of a solution because abuse will be rampant. Say we introduced a pension for artists, it will be used by the same people who defraud for disability pay or early retirement.

The only thing I have right now is thankfulness and gratitude to the many obscure artists who keep me entertained and for free. I don’t want to sound cheesy and say that you’ll end up somewhere and to work even harder.

However, you have been so late and never attempted to defend yourself. Think of the world’s unions protecting workers in order to keep their job a bit more sane. Lobbyists have the power to push governments to submit to them. Too bad nothing like that can exist for my most loved makers.

There’s no judgement for the popular ones, but I implore that those who work white-collar jobs to have a bit more respect for something they take for granted. Endlessly rich CEOs, don’t look down at someone who is trying to make their voices and guitar solos heard on stage. If you don’t want to help, and I bet most of you wouldn’t even help yourselves, at least, give their content a chance. Take a break and admire, there’s much love in there. They are the true evangelists.

I believe it would be a very interesting topic to gather up ideas on potential ideas that would allow people to express themselves without having to suffer too much from the universal grind. Leave comments below.

Much discussion flourished on Hacker News: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32487190

Slowing Down Your Time Through Chaos…

Life brings you to meet many people and you start to arbitrarily and judgementally to make distinctions about what they do in life. It’s even more obvious when you consider yourself a productive person.

To give one anecdotal example, someone would work at the same time doing the same thing everyday churning out tickets. After work, they might have supper with their family and then run to their television or phone for the rest of the night. Then go to bed. Those who have a bit more pizzazz in their life might have gone to the gym as an item in their life before or after work. Assuming the matrimonial life hasn’t destroyed platonic relationships, you see your friends at the same day of the week in the same bar. Being drunk means, you talk about the same things over and over again.

My elementary, high school and university life went by very quickly. Every week, it was the same thing. Every night, it was homework and assignments. Every weekend, it was the same activities with your friends.

It gets trite really quickly and your birthdays get closer and closer. I realized that I didn’t want to live in a fleeting life that just flashed before my eyes with vague memories.

I had to kill routine.

The trickiest part was work, because that really forces yourself to follow the same schedule every week. Suddenly, my preferences made my job selection really small as flexibility wasn’t a luxury everywhere. Becoming a freelancer helped quite a bit because I held contracts with different clients doing different things every week. I attended the meetings and pulled on the due dates, but that was it. My hours were put all over of the place in both time and setting.

Other things such as hobbies can be spread out through the week in any way you want. Friends and family time become a choice based on convenience. Volunteering was outside of work hours and there various events were spread out well. I read whenever I felt like it and wrote at whatever time. Learning was no longer a forced setting, but rather according to my own pace and interests. On and on…

My organizational skills used to be based on a strict calendar. While it decided when and what I’ll do, I couldn’t account for any originality or even worse sudden interruptions. Instead, I started to decide the night before what activities I’d like to do. Then, I’d eliminate any temporal concept. Instead, anything could be done at any time as long as it was finished on time.

Things suddenly looked more colourful as they were based on whims and interests at a given moment.

I fell in love with the chaos that I lived in, and realized that I wouldn’t want to live my life in any other way. It was difficult at first because the discipline it needed. Every day was different and every day you had to adjust to your tasks.

Going back to the anecdotes, I realized that many people were only comfortable with the routine but it seemed so vapid to me. I respect people’s choices but I still feel a sense of arrogance because of my living arrangements.

My advice at this point, stop doing the same thing all the time. Explore your life a bit and enjoy discovering yourself. Sitting in front of Netflix every night isn’t going to get you anywhere. As I mentioned in previous blog posts, take that new-found time to learn and express yourself in ways that you never imagined.

Leaving routine is very difficult and sometimes soul-crushing to the point of bringing down morale. However, the journey will start slowly and eventually you will enjoy it.

How to Learn...

“You can do anything if you put your mind into it”

Some Optimist - Many Years (Eons?) Ago

The infamous quote is thrown everywhere so much that it has become sort of a platitudinal stereotype. However, it skips on one thing: the effort required to actually “put your mind into it” and what steps and procedures you’re actually supposed to take. Learning takes copious time and unending dedication to the point where you may have to sacrifice parts of your life to get to where you want to in a practice, art or field. You may face obstacles you believe that you can’t surmount and face fears that have never been shown to you.

Turns out, it’s not that easy.

The Dangers of Specialization

Universities aren’t the best place to learn - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by barnyz

As our world steers into a specialized one, where one only masters one very particular topic to detriment of ignoring everything else, we are losing our generalists who can be pretty good at many things at the same time. For the past few centuries, several institutions notably universities, how been touted as the primary way of learning. Amassing knowledge is expensive, time consuming and often loaded with boring lectures and unending sprint of assignments.

Intellectuality without the Formal

What a fancy diploma looks like serving but nothing as a decorative piece - CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 by mag3737

Many of the concepts I’ll be presenting here are based on anecdotes rather than hard science. I’m doing this on purpose because I saw what some have become although they didn’t even complete high school. I’ve met many people online and offline who have amassed quite some knowledge in addition to healthy critical thinking dipped in reason and even some emotionality. Some of the most intelligent people I’ve met have no semblance of any credentials such as diplomas still having a hunger for knowledge.

These people have become intellectuals without the need for anything formal. There’s a fine line between intelligence and intellectuality. The former is essentially a status that is achieved and grown through intellect; it’s the measuring stick. Being an intellectual represents a deep hunger for knowledge usually seen as simply a means to an end. In other words, learning for the sake of learning.

The average person has limited their knowledge to what their formal education has taught them, much of the content actually forgotten after the exam, and work in fields completely unrelated to what they studied. On the other hand, specialists are too engrossed in the tiny subject that they are obsessed about. I fail to see how these knowledge perspectives can actually be steps toward building a solid intellect. I’ll actually argue that they are both the same, they’ve hit a wall with no doors to newness or curiosity.

Neglecting Learning

Boxed and scared in by not learning - CC BY 2.0 by admiller

Knowledge a few centuries ago were limited to the elite who could afford to travel to absorb books and meet scholars. However, with innovations such as the printing press, known as the printer today, knowhow and many topics became accessible to many more. Oddly enough, libraries are frequented by few people being full with unread books collecting nothing but dust. There’s a few statistics about this, but I’ve been given the impression that few people read. Their bookshelf is nothing but a showpiece and the Kindle was a useless birthday gift.

Self-Learning

This is where self-learning comes into place. Rather than spend thousands of dollars to hear tasteless lectures that induce sleep better than most hypnotic agents, you can acquire knowledge and learn new arts on your own. The difficult part is the discipline needed to keep going. The avolition that stems from a fatiguing life steers us toward Netflix rather than say a book or a documentary.

Most will agree that the Internet has brought a paradigm shift to how knowledge can be acquired. Many resources are becoming free or simple to pirate bringing a endless world of paths towards expertise. Books are getting cheaper than ever with the advent of online stores and enjoyed in many formats from text to a talking audiobook. Google has made it possible to find things so quickly (at the price of losing any sense of privacy).

Approach

What I’m going to be touting here is an approach to learn, and learn quickly. I will be trying to combine effective techniques that modernity and technology has presented to us in addition to ancient proven methods that made our notable figures in history as polymaths.

Pick Something You Want To Learn

For me, this is the easier (or day I say. the easiest) part of the entire endeavour. Look at the many around us who can produce music in short moments or an author who writes world-renowned books. What about the more mundane such as knitting or geocaching? Do you want to become a simracer who tops the multiplayer charts or even learn how to fly an airliner in a flight simulator?

The end goal can be whatever you like but keep in mind that failing at achieving it isn’t the end of the world. You can always reset your compass whether you want to move to something else or find a new objective. Some of the more shallow purposes such as money and fame are more luck-based and will often lead to disappointment. While some other ideas such as developing your intellect and stimulating your brain can be more figuratively lucrative. Maybe you want to use those new powers for helping others or perhaps just for a sense of fulfillment. This is something that no one can pick for you and left to your own imagination and worldview.

Momentum

How momentum plays a role in learning - CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by Chris Devers

Like I mentioned before, learning resources have become so abundant thanks to our modernity and technology. They can come in so many forms that are easy to find, affordable (or even free) and copious. Formats are also of many mediums and styles.

The discipline will be difficult to develop and I can’t tell you how to forge it into your lifestyle. Everyone is geared to a method that only works for them as a means to success. Productivity isn’t found in a self-help book but rather through experimentation. I’ll admit that school forces us to discipline because we’re chasing a good grade but that is honestly quite artificial. Rather, try something more novel. Here are some ideas:

• Finding an accountability buddy where you can make promises to keep about a step you want to take. Either offline or online will probably work.

• Sharing your experiences with others ideally like-minded. Admitting grudgingly, I used to believe that no one was interested in the obscure things that I did, it turned out that many were lit up by it.

• Turn your learning into a game using perhaps a todo-list or a calendar. Keep track of your success of a reminder of your progress.

Many people talk about motivation and concentration to obtain a dopamine rush but we are not automatons who can enter learning mode in an instant. Through personal experience, I realized momentum played a more important role into actually doing something. In the likeness of pushing a heavy boulder at first seems unsurmountable but once it’s starts moving, it’s easier to keep it going. I’ll admit that this is my biggest challenge but I realized that it’s like your appetite. It doesn’t start until your first bite and then you keep going. Once you surmount your first steps, you develop a quasi-addiction that you can even claim to be enjoyable. You start looking forward to it all the time.

How?

Reading is one method of learning - CC BY-SA 2.0 by benuski

• Reading is the classical way to acquiring knowledge and even entertain ourselves. The advantage is that the subject is covered in-depth spread across hundreds of pages. No one is forcing you to read so you can develop your own pace that works with your life. However, in my opinion, this is probably the method that needs the most concentration and dedication. I didn’t mention a medium on purpose because there’s so much such as books, newspapers, blog posts, Wikipedia and countless others.

• Listening seems to be a very popular method to learn even for the more visual. The success of audiobooks is a clear sign that it seems to be working for many. A great advantage is how it can be integrated and mixed with other mundane tasks such as driving home from work or cleaning the house.

• Watching is an obvious one and we know how popular it is through the infiltration of cable TV at everyone’s place and the universality of streaming services. Documentaries are a great way to amass knowledge and the abundance of it means you can enjoy different perspectives of the same thing. I did say that it was boring, but that was my view, recorded lectures can now be found for free.

• Kinesthetic learning involves going through the motions of doing what you’re learning. It’s both a form of starting from scratch and practice towards expertise. Just like watching, it can be done alone or in a group. For those with more social predispositions, this might be very effective.

• Meetups are a great way to get exposed to a field quickly. It’s akin to diving into a cold swimming pool. There’s many places to find them such as Meetup.com or Facebook groups where you can meet like-minded people who have the same cravings as you. Some are more freeform while others more serious. Debate groups are abound and you’ll be forced to give in your two cents or ask difficult questions. This is ideal for the extraverted.

Now, I’ve heard so many claims about how one method leads to more retention than a another but these are based on simplistic views of psychology. The truth is that everyone has a different personality structure that prefers one method over another. The most effective technique is probably doing a combination of the above to make use of the advantages of each other.

Ducking Academia

As you may have noticed, I totally ducked the whole idea of academia. This isn’t an accident or an exercise of forgetfulness. We have been blessed by our technological advancements that make learning so cheap (or even free). No need to pull out a mortgage for tuition and putting ourselves in crushing debt.

One thing I would like to mention briefly, don’t put yourself into a money pit. Don’t go on a book shopping spree or buy the most expensive camera equipment for your new found love of photography. If you can, try to start with what you already have and control your spending. Many hungry knowledge seekers are young and don’t have any income as a means to purchase equipment. I’ll leave to your online search skills to find way to get things for cheap. At one point, once you’re in the zone, it will make sense to spend a bit. Remember, the equipment isn’t for showing off, but should be seen as method to become better at what you do.

Multitasking

Our minds work like single-core processors - CC BY-SA 2.0 by loan Sameli

Our brain is like a single-threaded processor, it can’t do exactly do two things as one. While you can do what most operating system schedulers do, switching between one task and the other constantly, it will lead to concentration issues and loss of the momentum I just mentioned earlier.

This doesn’t mean though you can’t dedicate yourself to more than one thing. You can alternate between many things over time and find yourself learning even more, widening your skillset and become an expert in many trades. The statement “jack of all trades, master of none” is a big fallacy in my view as I’ve seen people who’ve mastered many things. Look at our historical figures who were polymaths innovating in many fields and being pioneers in all sorts of arts.

Me

Personally, I was never satisfied enough with what was brought to me by high school or university. My diplomas are fancy papers that I hang on my entrance but don’t define my field or even my identity. As one of my favourite managers put it, I’m always “stuck in learning mode”. It’s an obsession where every question that pops up in my head must have an answer by the end of the day, otherwise I’ll going into a deep downward spiral (maybe this is a bit of catastrophizing). I enjoy the exercise of coming up with more questions on the spot. I find my browser full of tabs of keywords that I came up across up on Wikipedia. One article keeps leading to another. There’s a ongoing joke which is partly true that every link path links to philosophy.

This is a list of things that I’m trying to learn right now:

Learning how to use automatic landing in a crosswind on a 767 - Copyright 2022 Ahmed El-Hajjar

One of my aspirations is to become an author - CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 by vogmae

• Improve my writing skills which I’m doing through my blog and social media presence. I aspire to be an author and have many subjects in mind but I can’t pick yet. I feel like I’m still a mediocre writer so I’m reading as much as I can to determine what structure is ideal. On the other hand, I still want to have my special touch.

• Read more. I’ve been a lazy reader for a good part of my life and eventually realized on how much I was missing. My goal for 2022 was to read a book a week and so far so good. I’m managing to read two books a week sometimes. I mentioned that I wanted to become a generalist before, but this is the path I’m taking towards that goal. I’m a non-fiction lunatic and will read anything that isn’t a biography.

• I want to drive better. One of my hobbies is driving and it’s something I do daily despite not always having a destination. Learning better car control, improving observation skills and knowing local laws better. Most importantly, I want to drive standard transmissions more smoothly and use advanced techniques. I’m just about to do my first mod to make heal-toe easier with a pedal bracket.

• Learning more about flight. My first experience with flight simulator was when I was nine. Back then, I would constantly crash the plane on takeoff and couldn’t even do a simple pattern. I’m at a point now where I can do some procedures for different kinds of planes and have basic IFR navigation skills. I’m learning ATC phraseology so I can go on the VATSIM network.

• Making gadgets. I started with a free piece of software called Fritzing trying to design circuits. I kept it as simple as possible using the simplest of tools to make things. I can now program microcontrollers and design basic circuits. I’ve procured a cheap refurbished 3D printer having learned some 3D modeling.

A Desktop Application that I’m currently working on. - Copyright 2022 Ahmed El-Hajjar

• Make user facing applications. I spent a good part of my life doing web servers and APIs in the corporate realm. I want to make something that has a visual aspect to it. I’ve started to learn UI libraries in languages that I already know but also look at embedded web frameworks.

• Learn more about myself. This is very difficult for me because I only recently started to face the fears that I had about the various worldviews that life had for us. Finding out what I liked and what didn’t through experimentation. I feel like I’m nowhere near my maximum potential but I’m finally learning labels to describe my story.

Conclusion

My article doesn’t have the objective of telling you exactly what to do in order to learn and become proficient at something. Rather, try to build a framework that works for you and your unique personality and style. Most importantly, remember to enjoy the journey rather than zone-in on the goal. Trust me, it will eventually become an addiction to the point of having a faith that dictates what your life should look like: one that is as fruitful as possible. Self-learning is where it’s at!

Gems

A plug to my Gems List, except mine are coloured and much cheaper than these diamonds - CC BY-ND 2.0 by Kim Alaniz

I have compiled a long list of resources where you can learn different things for free on my website. This is a shameless plug for my Gems List, which is growing all the time.

Click HERE FOR Gems!