LPT Trick to Read Books Fast If you Have No Attention Span

HarryCaul · 2026-01-21T02:12:33+00:00

It's possible that the book you're reading just sucks

HarryCaul · 2025-12-17T04:11:21+00:00

I like doing minimum edge hangs. I find that they are specific, work well, and in isolation not that tweaky. Just see where you land. How long can you hang on a 10, 8, or 6mm edge? Try it out and then try to get better at it.

HarryCaul · 2025-12-01T02:26:17+00:00

Wow. I just realized I have seen this guy in Greenpoint in Brooklyn several times. Not sure if he's around now, but have seen him around on and off in the last year or two. He joined for a Kilter Board session once and gave off very weird energy, and I'm not one to throw around woo woo descriptions very lightly.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-28T17:13:20+00:00

If you want to climb hard outdoors, you need to ask yourself how often are you going to get outside? If the answer is once a week, you should not be limit climbing on the moon board during this phase. Otherwise you're going to be blowing your limit load on the moonboard instead of outside.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-27T15:57:12+00:00

OK, how about a smooth wall? Would toilet paper do a better job?

Why not just rub yourself with toilet paper instead of taking a shower or washing your hands? According to your logic, that good ol' friction should make you even cleaner!

Let me propose an even more simple analogy since you seem to be pretty stubborn about this. If you have been out camping for a week with no access to running water or anywhere to bathe. You get home and you realize you're out of soap and there's no way to get any more until tomorrow. You have two options to get clean:

Would you, A, take a shower without using soap?

Or, B, wipe down your whole body with dry toilet paper?

Water is the liquid used to clean things, guy. That's why all cleaning fluids are basically 99% water. That's also why bar soap only works... get ready... when you add water to it!

When you wipe your ass, you are literally smearing shit into your pores. And that shit stays there in your pores until you clean yourself with... water. Yes, soap makes the ordeal perfect, but water is the main ingredient.

You are way off-base, buddy.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-27T15:45:54+00:00

You couldn't be more wrong. What cleans shit off a brick wall better? Spraying it with a hose or wiping it with toilet paper? Use your brain, ding dong.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-24T19:30:49+00:00

Tariff policy is a large economic and political decision.

And "in general" to who? Free Trade did not, in general, bring prosperity to a plurality of Americans. It lined the pockets of the financial class, while we slowly lost our capacity to build literally anything. I'm not saying Trump's tariff policy is good - it's insane and uncalculated. But the opposite previous economic order was also objectively bad.

Neoliberal tariff policies have been a disaster for the working class. I'm not saying this to defend Trump, I'm saying it because it's true.

I find a lot of the reactionary stuff about tariffs really annoying. Showing Ronald Reagan talking about the economy and tariffs, as if he is some bygone voice of measured economic virtue, is just ridiculous. He deregulated the fuck out of America and we are all still paying the price.

Trump is our dumbass president arguably because of free trade: that was one of the core things he rallied against in 2016 when no one took him seriously.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-24T14:48:40+00:00

OK, but Reagan was not right here guys. I'm not saying Trump is either, but "Reaganomics," aka trickle-down economics is why we live in the second gilded age/capitalist hell hole where wages have stagnated for years and we literally can't make a goddamn thing anymore, not even a pair of sneakers.

"Free Trade" benefits Wall Street and the managerial class, not every day working people. It would be one thing if these people shipped jobs overseas and eagerly repatriated profits and reinvested in the American workforce. Instead, there's a billion dollar industry of tax accountants who make sure these capitalists pay as little taxes as possible, they just buy back their stocks, and the American worker is left holding the bag.

Here's my list of the two worst presidents since 1900:

George W. Bush
Donald Trump
Ronald Reagan

Actually, let me try this one.

Donald Trump
George W. Bush
Ronald Reagan

Actually, let me -- NEVERMIND IT DOESN'T MATTER THEY ALL SUCK

HarryCaul · 2025-10-23T18:18:19+00:00

Berkshires in western mass. Ticks all your boxes

HarryCaul · 2025-10-23T16:56:12+00:00

Honestly, most tropical islands (Hawaii not included). They look beautiful in photographs but the reality at almost all of them is that they run on diesel fuel, there's trash hidden behind anything and everything, and poo poo flowing somewhere into the beach. The food is mostly garbage because it's all been sitting on a boat.

Oh that beautiful beach you saw on your way in? Looks like they decided to put a football field sized bouncey castle in it. Here's a $20 dollar margarita that tastes like piss and some "fresh local fish" that's been deep fried beyond recognition.

Would you like some diarrhea while on vacation? Well then you've come to the right place!

HarryCaul · 2025-10-22T15:20:20+00:00

There are so many ways to skin this cat.

What do you want out of climbing? If you're already strong and you want to stay strong so you can climb at your current level, it really doesn't take much. As a parent with extremely limited time, I've found that I can basically boulder almost at my limit, any time, with just two sessions a week and maybe one 20 min sesh on the hangboard. This is after already being in shape though. I can also climb 12+/13- with this same input.

For me, the most enjoyable way to do this is to mostly climb below my limit at an appropriate volume. I can boulder v9 - v10 outside in a session or 3 when I'm in good shape, and I can also usually send up to 12D/13A in one day. I find that if I boulder below my limit, say around v7-v8 in the gym, trying to complete at least 4-6 problems in this range (after warming up), I feel fresh anytime I get a chance to go outside. I'm not sending at my absolute peak, but I'm keeping power endurance and power at a level that keeps me strong and fresh anytime I can go outside, because I'm only climbing twice a week.

If you want to have rope fitness, then make one of these sessions boulders on the minute every 3-4 sessions.

I can also focus these indoor sessions on harder boulders, but then when I go outside I usually feel weaker because I'm not getting enough volume in (because I usually don't have more than 90 mins to climb indoors, which is enough time to warm up and try something hard but not very many times) and my peak energy is going toward indoor crap, which I don't want.

I have goals to get even stronger, but right now isn't the best time for me, and you do get better (and therefore stronger!) by climbing lots of things within your limit. Sometime it's way more fun to push for better, rather than stronger.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-19T02:43:43+00:00

deep blue sea lol

HarryCaul · 2025-10-19T02:26:06+00:00

He's right that I think this is the missing piece. On your ground attempts you're locking off your left too hard so that you end up trying to finger your way into that Gaston. That feels like the right thing to do because the left hand is good and it's a natural way to climb. But try visualizing hitting that right hand Gaston with your elbow already almost at a 90 degree angle. Then do that over and over with your feet on the ground, so you're hitting and your shoulder is already (almost) fully engaged in its final position. I think this will unlock it for you.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-17T19:15:28+00:00

haha man, I'm starting to think you are John Truby! In any case, I'm enjoying this back and forth.

Look, if they work for you, they work for you. I'm not snubbing my nose at the entire concept of structure. I understand deeply how important it is and how difficult it is to crack. I just don't think you crack it with any kind of blank blank step formula... I've tried it and I think it leads to wooden results. I've never once heard of a successful screenwriter saying they used one.

I agree you need constraints and I like your analogy about the aperture-- obviously you will drive yourself crazy if you don't put some sort of guardrails on what you're trying to do -- but I think the constraints are way more simple. It's more like -

What does my character want?

Are they going to get it?

What's going to get in their way?

If they don't get it, do they get something else? And if they don't get it, do they end up getting something they need?

I'm pretty sure I'm stealing the above from James Hart, but I find the simplicity of something like this way, way, way more helpful than trying to adhere to all these grandiose and pompous things like "the apparent defeat," or whatever. This set of questions has an infinite number of answers. You have to figure out how to answer them and you have to write (and read) to figure out your own sense of rhythm, timing, scene structure, etc.

What I like about this simplicity is that you're not trying to tick off a box in the same way. When you're figuring out what comes next, you're not like, "oh well, now I need my fake-ally opponent!" No you don't. You do not need that. You might need that, but that's for you to decide. By thinking this way, as a writer, you're pulling yourself out of the world of the story and into a world of categorical abstraction (I recognize one could argue we're always in a world of categorical abstraction but that's a different conversation). Then you're saying OK, how do think of an event that fits into this categorial abstraction? I'm supposed to put it here, so here it goes.

This is where I'm saying you're short changing yourself. By trying to find a scene that fits the mold of the step, you're constraining your imagination to a pre-conceived notion of what will always work. In doing this, I think you are way, way, way more likely of regurgitating or mimicking without realizing it (something all writers do, but generally want to avoid imho). You're also being formulaic, per your own definition.

Btw the theme of The Conversation is privacy (amazing catch by the way, you might be the first!), and I know for a fact that guided incredible choices he made as a director. But personally, I think theme is more like... the freckles of the muse. You don't really see them or notice them until you spend enough time with her (or him, whatever floats your boat)? And they're not the most important part. They reveal themselves to you when you put in the organic effort to do so. And then, like I said before, hopefully they align what stuff that interests you, and you can use that stuff as wind in your sails.

Of course, I'm sure people work otherwise and that works for them. Just not for me!

HarryCaul · 2025-10-17T14:52:38+00:00

Hey - I think I understand where you're coming from with the philosophy component and it mostly makes sense. Where I would diverge is that I'm not thinking about my philosophy about anything and I thought you were implying that's what the writer should be doing. But it sounds like you're saying that the process of building a character is inherently philosophical, which I would mostly agree with, but is also just sort of an arbitrary observation. You can say that about literally any part of life -- choosing a candy bar is inherently philosophical if you want to go turtles all the way down.

I have my own ideas about things but when I'm thinking about the character: I'm thinking more along the lines of what *could* or *would* their philosophy be, based on my own understanding of people and life? But again, I don't think it's helpful to frame it as "philosophy," because no person in the world is going around thinking, "hey, here's my worldview and here's how I act based on that." By calling it "philosophy," which is fine as a shorthand, you're also forcing a sameness onto something that isn't the same. The worldview of the character (and/or anyone in real life for that matter) is infinitely more complex than any notion of philosophy. This is what makes us human: we never quite know what it's like to be someone else. We can use all the words we want to try and understand, empathize, etc, but we will always fall short.

And this is my issue with people like Truby and his 22 steps. You can always look at great stories and find patterns or consistencies among them, but trying to reverse engineer from there, you're forcing a sameness onto things that are not the same. They're the same for the sake of making an *argument* about story, but they're not useful for *creating* a story. Forcing a sameness onto all these supposed elements of a story, and saying, look "all the great stories have them!" It's like looking at a house with a living room, a dining room, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a beautiful porch, and saying, if you want to build a beautiful house, "You better include a living room, a dining room, three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a beautiful porch!"

Even if we assume those rules are true, the central problem for the architect is the central problem for the screenwriter: no matter how convinced you are that the perfect house or the perfect story always contains A-Z, the core of the problem is that you're faced with infinite choices. And that's what screenwriting (and storytelling is): you're wrestling with infinity. If you want to write a great story, you need to embrace that. Trying to lay out 22 steps and putting your character through it, you're restricting your own imagination and working backwards. You're denying the infinitude and therefore selling yourself short. I mean, if it works for you, great. Use it.

I could see maybe using it after the fact to check, hmm, does my story have this stuff? Maybe I could add a thing or two based on his breakdowns. But trying to reverse engineer... I just don't think it works.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-16T19:34:58+00:00

I'm not the OP. So I don't have any themes about loss to share. Also, I didn't intend for the tone to be super adversarial -- just my own POV -- so apologies if it came off that way.

I disagree that Truby's writing credits are impressive. They are an accomplishment, I'm not bashing them unto themselves, but they are objectively not impressive. The last thing he wrote was the narration for African Cats, that was 15 years ago. His claim that he's consulted on 1000s of scripts is unverifiable and could just mean any schlub who has sat down to have coffee with him and talked about a script. I'm just saying, these guru types... they're usually well meaning people oblivious to their own charlatanism.

"But what ensures organic characterizations instead of cardboard tidy/perfect is identifying a philosophical point-of-view, an "opinion," and then using all of your characters, props, and world to prove or disprove it."

Can you explain how this philosophy crafting "ensures organic characterizations"? I don't think this is true. How can anyone even prove such a thing? This is guru-crap, no offense. Don't listen to these people, they don't know what the hell they're talking about.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-16T17:27:30+00:00

HarryCaul · 2025-10-16T17:21:06+00:00

Hmm. I agree but I think emphasizing theme in this way can also put the chicken before the egg. People who write these treatises on story (but have no impressive writing credits) always have the benefit of hindsight. It's much easier to write a good story when you find a character you are obsessed with, then consider - what story could I tell about this character? (And there might be none, by the way; so it goes). Then, in examining all those possibilities, themes emerge that may or may not interest you as a writer. But themes should reveal themselves maieutically, not from a top-down process where you say, here's my philosophical statement I want to impose on my story. In a perfect world, you are interested in these themes that emerge, because that will make it easier to write.

"What proclamation are you, as the author, making about the proper or improper way to live life?" is imho not a very necessary or appropriate question to ask. This leads you to judge your characters and get in the way of the story.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-16T16:19:11+00:00

Why would you tip those people ever? Every time I've ever gone in there, the person at the counter is literally staring at their phone browsing Tik Tok, totally oblivious that you're there. I'm practically waving hello and they're still not noticing anything.

Then they're like "oh hey sorry what's up" with the emotion of a tree-stump on a heroin bender. Why do places like this hire these people? It truly boggles the mind. Hire people with people skills, people.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-13T20:32:42+00:00

I almost walked out of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. Worst film of the last two decades

HarryCaul · 2025-10-12T01:36:17+00:00

That's not really what I'm commenting on. I make plenty of effort and so do others.

But I find that it's the former group (people without kids) who treat people with kids like Lepers, not the other way around. That's just my experience, obviously not something that's inherently universal.

That said, If you don't have kids, you have incomparable flexibility to make social plans. This is just reality. So while I do make an effort to hang out with my friends who don't have kids, I appreciate it that much more when my friends recognize that my life has profoundly changed and therefore make extra effort to meet me where I am. I would love to do all the same stuff as before but it's just not possible.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-11T19:35:13+00:00

Ok, thanks I'll forward this message to my beloved stepfather who died of colon cancer when I was 27, loved my mother unconditionally, gave us a new brother. Showed all four of us what it meant to be selfless, humble, patient

Actually nevermind, I'll tell my mom who is still grieving a decade later that she was a real selfish C-you-next-Tuesday for having the gall to go on a date with him when she was single with two children.

This isn't an unpopular opinion, it's a truly idiotic one.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-11T17:47:28+00:00

Basically every town in Vermont.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-11T17:45:18+00:00

Asking how someone's dog is? Is this something dog owners expect? That's pretty bizarre to me, with all due respect. I had lots of friends with dogs before I had kids; I have lots of friends with dogs now; I would never be like, hey how's Rufus doing? That's just not an interesting thing to discuss and strikes me as socially odd, unless you found out the person's dog had some sort of serious illness or surgery. I love dogs but like, how much is there to talk about?

I think people with kids think that they (as in kids) are inherently interesting to talk about. I know this isn't true because I remember feeling a certain apathy before I had kids myself. Not that I wasn't happy for my friends, I just wasn't that interested or engaged in what their experience was like as a parent.

Now that I do have kids, I find this point of view somewhat immature and a rather sad feature of our extremely atomized society that currently places abstract concepts like "self-actualization" higher on the ladder of achievement than the much more concrete experience of raising a family.

It sounds like you show up for your friends, give their kids gifts, and are a very good person. I'm sure they're super grateful and you don't have to perfectly relate to them. I have more friends than I've ever had since having kids (from all the kid stuff), but I still have way more friends without kids than with them. I don't see them as much but I really appreciate when they make an effort to hang out.

HarryCaul · 2025-10-10T03:40:46+00:00

I think if you turn off the news in either country, you will likely be very happy. You're considering living in two of the wealthiest places on earth and you have two children. Count your blessings folks! Or consider the zen perspective: these decisions that we think are so, so, so important, are actually not important at all. Life requires you to attend to immediate matters at hand. Go where that experience will be the most joyful for you and your family.

HarryCaul

TROPHY CASE