Note: I fully recognize the insanity of publishing a post about 2019 in November 2020, and I choose to ignore it. Sorry, not sorry.

2019 held a lot of surprises for me, but one welcome surprise was the return of my voracious appetite for reading. I read 29 books in 2019, most of them great.

Of those books I’ve chosen just 5, the creme dela creme, accompanied by a short summary of the lessons I learned, and a grade of the book. I wholeheartedly recommend all of these books. Read them.

Honorable Mention: When Breath Becomes Air — Paul Kalanithi

What happens when a young, smart, ambitious neurosurgeon is given only a few months to live? …

What is a web server?

You’re probably familiar with an explanation that goes something like this: A web server is a process running on a computer that accepts HTTP requests and sends back HTTP responses. But what type of process? Where is it running? How is it running? And most importantly: how do I build one?

In this article, I’ll dissect the basic software components of a simple web server — these concepts are language agnostic, and use some of the core infrastructure provided by our operating systems. …

Whether you like it or not, you’re either a winner or a loser.

I wish I could say you had a significant choice in the matter, but you didn’t; it was mostly decided for you by a society that believes in a limited number of seats at the top.

The winners are those who are deemed worthy of the top, and who now get to pursue their own interests & leisure, knowing that — even if they’re not rich now — surely they will always be comfortable. They succeeded in school, learned the right lessons, and befriended enough people; so they have the network, career, and education to sustain themselves, forever.

One common misunderstanding about winners is that they “got lucky”, but this is only half true. Most winners (aside from the true trust-fund babies) genuinely have what it takes — they’re smart, competent, and sociable. The luck (if you care to call it that) is in being told that they’re special, and often from a young age. …

There’s a tendency among those of us that dream big to… undermine our own ambitions. We grew up dreaming of the big screen, and rocket-ships, and political reform — but in the end, we eventually decided “it’s just not worth it”. We gave up before we really got started.

We threw away our shot.

We sell ourselves attractive stories about why giving up is actually the best thing to do:

• “Wanting to change the world was actually just an egotistical dream. Giving up on that is a sign of maturity.”
• “I just want to be happy. I couldn’t work that hard and pursue happiness at the same time.” …

As you may know, I recently attempted a 30-day polyphasic sleep challenge.

On day 10, I gave up. Here’s why:

1. Lack of focus

First and foremost, focus was at an all-time low. I could hardly maintain focus on a task if it was boring.

In particular, I found this difficult with the PVT (reaction speed test). I’d find myself zoning out by the time the next timer popped up, and I’d have to use all my energy just to keep paying attention.

Multi-tasking was completely out of the question, and I would sometimes just forget one of the tasks I was trying to maintain. (This happened once with a video game I was playing — I started browsing the web while on a loading screen, and forgot to go back.) …

Quarantine has left me with a completely flexible schedule, and a lot of time on my hands: but what if I could have even more?

The Problem

COVID-19 brought a variety of changes: the roads are empty, friends are bunking with parents for the first time in years, and some people have a year’s supply of toilet paper while others have none (yikes 😬).

The biggest post-COVID change to my day-to-day is that I work from home now. Working from home is a mixed bag. On the one hand, you have no commute and can work in your jammies; on the other hand, you have real s*** to do, and no one is there to keep you honest. Dilemma.

Work from home should be idyllic for knowledge workers. A perfect blend of comfort, productivity, and focused quiet. Everything we do is on a computer, anyway; this just eliminates the commute, the distraction, and the unnecessarily expensive lunches. …

How frequently do you tell yourself you’ll do something and completely fail? How many times have you thought “I’m going to the gym after work today”, or “I’m going to workout when I get up this morning”, or “I’m going to do my homework ahead of time for once” — only to promptly ignore your intention?

We all do this — it’s normal. But does it have to be?

I’ve been thinking recently about integrity… I heard someone give a definition as: “Integrity is following through on that which you said you would do.” …