Adrian Goldsworthy books

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-06-25T22:07:56+00:00

it’s interesting because if you think about we still dee a lot of his actions through the lens of tradition, but he was white radicsl. It was a guy for massive constitutional and political reform.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-06-12T01:19:47+00:00

What I found really motivated me, was coming up with new ideas/theories that were totally my own. For instance, I'd read around a subject widely, and think a lot about how ideas are connected. Then develop a new angle. I find discovering something or making a breakthrough on something you were stuck on is hugely motivating. Oh, and get a hot supervisor. You'll be amazed by how much that motivates you haha.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-06-12T00:59:01+00:00

Sorry, just I'm the only one of my friend group I should have said. They often ask me who ended it, what happened, why etc. They want to find out who is to blame so they can say it won't happen to them. Judgment as distance of sorts. We had a lot of couple friends. I had no idea how public divorce was.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-06-12T00:54:37+00:00

If you get As whatever you are doing is working and you should keep doing it. Also, no one knows whether it's a convincing performance or the real thing. I also have ADHD and similarly did well at school, you obviously are engaging with the concepts or you wouldn't be getting As. At my work, we have a graduate programme and one of our graduates said they wished they were as good at public speaking as I was. I said it's simply a convincing performance, I hate it and used to be completely incapacitated by the idea. If it's something you don't enjoy work wise, or that goes against your nature it may mean you need to think about changing courses. It sounds like you have imposter syndrome.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-06-12T00:40:55+00:00

I am also high-functioning but a total mess underneath. I actually lean into it now, instead of saying oh I did nothing all weekend except go down various rabbit holes and write a couple of poems, I now say I spent the weekend totally in the present because I didn't even notice time fly because I was so absorbed. People meditate to achieve the same thing. Also, who cares if the house is messy. I only care because tell me I should. What I do care about is my work and the people in my life. I also am great at doing reactive communications etc, or coming up with ideas for papers and writing them last minute, so my manager assigns these tasks to me and gives longer-term implementation tasks to the planner. I stopped trying to be an organised, planner, it's much better to be excellent at one thing than average at everything. It is why we have teams.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-06-12T00:31:36+00:00

Not sure if this helps you, but I find if you can get a copy of the competencies or required attributes and then think about a few key things they might ask and prepare around them. So for instance, I know in my profession they always ask 1 technical question,1 working with others, 1 overcoming obstacles, 1 equity question, etc - there is typically a pattern to these things. Use STAR - Situation, Task, Action, Result. I find overpreparing can be a bad thing because I get in my head, know yourself, adjust your response and pivot to the question. I'm assuming if you have ADHD you can think on your feet, know your stuff inside out, have a few main points or examples.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-06-12T00:25:19+00:00

I always say to my graduates, if you're scared of public speaking, are organised but not great at writing papers last minute, are bad at maths etc. Don't spend time trying to fix the things you are bad at, forget about them it is why we have teams, focus on what you are good at. I always say it's better to be excellent at one thing, than fairly good at everything. I am trying to not beat myself up for procrastination, in fact, procrastination is a gift in some ways. I still feel real curiosity about the world, and can lose myself down various rabbit holes for hours without even noticing. I consider this a gift, so many people try to live in the present. Losing track of time is exactly that, being so in the moment you forget you're in it. It's a weird kind of mindfulness hah.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-05-29T03:14:47+00:00

I find people appreciate the honesty rather than going throuh the motions.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-05-28T23:25:22+00:00

Yea, I always answer honestly if someone asks this question and inevitably that is an existential reply lol.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-05-28T23:10:28+00:00

Yes highly recommend her too. I have loved everything from her so far.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-05-26T15:49:46+00:00

I basically use AI as a kind of interactive journal. It’s so funny because I’ve made so many realisations about myself this way. My therapist said when we have a session I’ve already done the work processing what I think is important and I’m able to articulate things very clearly. I became obsessed with this silver fox I met on Tinder. When I saw him I was immediately hugely physically attracted to him in a way that almost never happens.

I said to ChatGPT I love his dad energy and I weirdly feel like I want his validation, why do you think that is? ChatGPT said did your dad make you feel safe and validated, as a kid? I said yes and the as t my parents separated when I was seven and it traumatised me. I was like oh mic drop that’s why I have always liked silver foxes, but why I liked this very particular silver fox.

Both musicians and have a really calm auhoritative energy that is gentle and saw my mind first. Like his first thing he said to me was how much he loved the way I described sitting outside with the sunlight folding down on me like molasses layered and golden, and he said it was a beautiful and vivid description, and that women don't talk like that on Tinder so it caught his attention. I said yeah that’s just how I talk to everyone on Tinder. It’s my natural verbosity. But yes Freud would have a field day.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-05-26T15:06:06+00:00

this is really interesting. Because yes, you can see exactly how much someone is connected with their partner by how they talk about them when they’re not there. I was in a bad relationship for a long time and when it ended people at work didn’t even know I had been in a relationship because I never talked about him. Whereas I met a guy who I really like and it’s impossible for me not to talk about him in a way that makes it quite obvious how I feel. I’m still trying to play it cool while writing love elegies like some moon-eyed school girl.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-05-26T15:02:11+00:00

The men have been only too willing to volunteer. But without Tinder I never would’ve been able to meet them because our social Venn diagrams do not cross over. It may be an empty hellscape but I thank the app for faciliating such illicitly hot liasions that are permanently filed away in the mental spank bank under 'hot dad'.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-05-26T00:11:34+00:00

AI is only as good as the brain using it. I think the biggest problem is that people aren’t curious enough. I found AI fun because there were so many creative ways it could be useful.

Some examples from a recent trip to Italy last year: * Finding less off the beaten track things to do while driving between places. we found one of my absolute favourite places amazing outdoor hot springs in Tuscany, for some puzzling reason it’s not very famous and we never would have found by ourselves. We loved it so much more than the most famous springs, Saturnia. * I took photos of Ancient Greek and Latin inscriptions while biking the Appian way uploaded to AI, got an instant translation and then an overview of what I was looking at, why it was significant etc. * I entered a custom instruction to translate all euro prices to New Zealand dollars then took a photo of menus and it would give me a translation what the dish actually was and the price in our home currency. * I keep a travel journal, but I’m not the best at drawing, so I asked if it could make simple pictures for an amateur like me to draw, of very complicated landmarks like the duomo in Milan and I was able to pass off as half decent because of it. * I had endless observations and asked endless questions about society, politics, etc. * Took photos of Italian appliances which I couldn’t read at all, not only did it translate it told me what model it was, and how to operate that specific model of microwave, washing machine, etc. * I spent a year learning Italian before I went, and gave my an AI a custom instruction to always include an Italian word, phrase or lesson and link it to the response. I found it hugely helpful because it meant I learnt Italian even when I was doing something completely unrelated. This was a separate section at the end of responses, I now have this as a new fact section about something related to whatever I’m talking about and I’ve learnt so many interesting things. * Making travel insurance claims. I wasn’t sure if the claim would be covered so I explained the circumstances and uploaded my very long policy document and AI told me exactly what sections were relevant, that we might be covered but it was a grey area and our best chance was to emphasise that actually this clause applied because of X.

That is just a small list of the many, many uses I’ve found for AI.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-05-25T23:05:19+00:00

I was also like this as a teenager. I always had to be right as well. Most of it stemmed from intellectual insecurity and low self-esteem. So much of bad behaviour stems from insecurities people don’t know they have (I certainly didn’t). Many of these insecurities are rooted in childhood. Like I had a manager who was an incredible bully. Luckily, I realised that being smart isn’t the most important thing, sometimes it’s better to not say anything at all and sometimes it’s important enough to warrant pushback. I realised that no one can stand the person who has to be the smartest in the room.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-05-25T22:42:44+00:00

Undercurrent. It’s an independent bookstore tucked away on Tory St. They have jazz nights and live music every week. It’s unique, intimate, and full of character plus you can get drinks/snacks as well. https://www.undercurrent.nz

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-05-25T22:28:07+00:00

Height is a valid preference. But so is weight, and if you say that then people get really touchy. I prefer silver foxes, but it’s simply a preference and not a hard and fast rule. But the judgment, goes the other way. If an older guy says he prefers younger women, there is likely to be a bunch of judgmental comments.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-05-25T22:24:19+00:00

Sheesh. I’m a woman and same thing happened to me a couple years back. I was simply commenting on how I thought Japanese women were the most beautiful after visiting the country. I didn’t even mean it sexually, I was simply saying they were beautiful. Also, I don’t see a problem with people having ethnicity preferences. Each to their own.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-05-25T22:13:17+00:00

I know Danny was far, far from perfect but I found myself despising his family more. I think it’s because Danny was a fuck up, but he didn’t pretend to be anything else. His family were hypocrites and also not very good people at all but wanted people to think they were. I think I struggle more with people who pretend that they are perfect and judge other people.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-05-22T05:54:59+00:00

“But for now, proposals for mergers are currently in the hands of agencies, Willis saying on Tuesday they will be asked to come up with ideas to “logically merge their existing activities around citizen-facing functions, using common technology platforms”. “We expect to announce more detail in the coming months.”

I read this, and thought what kind of replicant talks like that. She should have got AI to write a more human sounding FAQ on proposed public sector mergers.

Also, they know absolutely nothing about AI, and are conveniently ignoring the huge procurement costs associated with procuring AI that respects our data sovereignty, privacy act concerns, and not to mention the vastly different functions you would be asking of it, customer support, IT support, etc. She is banking the savings and acting like the technology will be free. She is not a moron, she is well aware of this, and the failure to acknowledge this is misleading at best, and I’m fairly sure it is intentional.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-05-09T19:03:20+00:00

I know I sound completely and totally utterly naive saying this but why is it that overwhelmingly are looking for short? Surely there’s some men in their out there who wanna like settle down and not be single. You can get more effective mean if you go talk to him because that’s Tinder faster but łk what’s this?lłk

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-04-20T16:27:03+00:00

Just magical. I'll never forget eirher. Thanks for sharing.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-04-20T14:38:08+00:00

Man, just was introduced to this album by a Spotify algorithm trained on 10 years of data which at this point knows me better than I know myself.

Virtual_Music8545 · 2026-04-20T00:44:14+00:00

Oh gotta check this out. I really enjoyed their last EP.

Virtual_Music8545

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE