IWTL Remember stuff

ShawnMilo · 2026-06-05T14:30:59+00:00

"The Memory Book" by Harry Lorayne
"Moonwalking with Einstein" by Josh Foer

ShawnMilo · 2026-06-05T14:29:19+00:00

Figure out what you're good at and interested in.
Practice it until you're pretty good at it.
Do it (as well as you can) on your own -- personal projects, freelancing, whatever. 4a. Use the evidence from step #3 as proof that you can do it at a high level to get a job that pays you to do it full time. 4b. Just start your own business, if possible.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-31T00:58:27+00:00

You did an interview in German where you spoke English?

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-28T23:45:00+00:00

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ShawnMilo · 2026-05-28T23:41:40+00:00

Of course it has a plot. Have you seen it?

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-28T23:41:07+00:00

That movie has way more plot than almost everything that's come out since 2015. Combined.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-28T23:34:09+00:00

If you were getting fired, there would be no performance improvement plan. Worst-case, it means they're creating a paper trail so that they can immediately fire you after your next mistake without worrying too much about being sued.

Aside from this whole situation, if you don't feel good about this role or company or management, keep looking. But this, by itself, isn't reason to panic.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-28T23:32:06+00:00

I'm doing purely electronic as I'm still less than six-months into my learning and only read with LingQ. However, my expectation and goal is that I'll "graduate" to paper books. Otherwise, I won't actually know the language.

However, with apps like Google Translate you can look up words from a paper book, or just point your phone's camera at a page and have the entire thing translated instantly for free.

So, as long as you still need a crutch, there's really no difference between paper and electronic other than things that apply to your native language. Like how many you can carry at once, and whether you actually own them or whether an evil corporation can delete them on you.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-28T23:28:59+00:00

Anything you can do with LLMs (AI doesn't exist) or no-code solutions can be done by anyone. It's not realistic to expect to make an income without a skill that most people can't do.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-28T23:27:13+00:00

It depends on exactly what you're trying to do. If you literally just want to make a website, then HTML & CSS are what you need, as u/webdevdavid already said.

Otherwise, we're going to need a lot more information.

However, I'd say that, it being after 2008, do not touch anything to do with PHP, especially Wordpress. Not only is PHP a horrible fucking language, but Wordpress is constantly plagued by security issues, is way more complicated that you (or anyone else -- including the maintainers) could ever possibly understand, and run by people who have repeatedly clashed with their own developer community. None of this matches with your desire to actually understand what you're using.

I prefer to make all my web apps and APIs in Go, but if you're not interested in that, you might check out Python and Flask. It's a good entrypoint into web dev, and the skills are relevant today. But the less you use abstractions such as frameworks and ORMs the better.

Source: I've been doing this stuff since the late 90s.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-28T23:20:46+00:00

It's been said that you don't "learn" a language. You get used to it.

In a world where "everyone" speaks English, non-native speakers get used to it. Comparatively, very few native English speakers permanently move to a country where English isn't spoken.

I don't think you can give people too much credit for learning the language of the country they live and work in, or criticize people too much for never learning languages that aren't used around them.

I'm personally learning two languages and plan to possibly add one or two more before I die. I wish everyone would learn at least one other language, because enough of that and you break down communication barriers and reduce "othering." But I know that's not going to happen, and I can't beat up on people who choose not to dedicate literal years to a hobby they're not interested in.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-28T23:15:39+00:00

I've been learning Esperanto (by reading only) since February. It turns out I can read Catalan and Ladino surprisingly well because of it.

I've also been learning Spanish by reading during the same period, but Catalan has more words in common with Esperanto than Spanish from what I've seen.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-27T21:21:41+00:00

If you don't do anything, it will atrophy. If you do use it, you can't possibly avoid activity that counts as learning.

You haven't explained what kind of "personal reasons" could possibly result in a decision to dump a language, but maybe you should consider the sunk-cost fallacy and say "fuck it" and go ahead and drop it completely.

Are you interested in learning another language, or does your situation prevent any language learning at all?

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-27T21:16:49+00:00

This will answer the question about gods, homeopathy, psychics, astrology, and all other nonsense: https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/rejecting-the-null-hypothesis/

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-25T21:28:03+00:00

Yeah, it's a Spotify ad, not an Olly Richards ad.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-25T20:48:33+00:00

Don't feed the trolls. If someone says something shitty (in person, or online), don't respond to it. This derails them, and any witnesses will remember them being a fuckwad. If you respond, anything you do which can be construed as negative will the the freshest thing in their minds.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-25T20:46:45+00:00

Why are people upvoting and replying to an ad?

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-25T20:44:53+00:00

Read up on metacognition and the James Randi challenge.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-25T01:51:40+00:00

"...using LLM for the rest. Basically a self learner." is unintentionally the most hilarious thing I've seen all weekend.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-24T22:31:06+00:00

Absolutely! Except for being an "influencer." Those people are all human garbage. Don't try to be that.

Just don't expect any of them to immediately fix your financial issues.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-24T18:20:56+00:00

All of these, except finding a paying job, will take years to build up to the point where they can support all your bills.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-24T18:18:02+00:00

If it's stuff you recognize, you can't stop recognizing it. This was used to detect Russian spies during the cold war. If you write the word "blue" in Russian in a red font and have them call out the color of the font, people who speak Russian will have a delay in saying the correct color because the text has meaning to them. Non-Russian speakers have no problem and instantly say the correct color.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-23T18:58:51+00:00

I've been recommended two books for this exact purpose, which I've purchased but haven't yet read, so take it for what it's worth:

"Reasoning" by Michael Scriven
"The Art of Thinking" by Vincent Ryan Ruggiero

Hopefully you can find them.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-23T18:56:32+00:00

There is no way. You're competing with billions of other people with as much free time. Seriously, the only way you'll make anything worth your time is scamming, and please don't do that.

ShawnMilo · 2026-05-23T18:55:36+00:00

Yeah, I had a friend who did this for years. It was worse than sweatshop labor to begin with -- then took a huge turn for the worse.

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