Did it ever happened for you to watch a Youtube video and go: "Hmm, this is an interesting bit, I would want to check it later again." And so you like the video, maybe add it on some playlist so you can return to it some other time. Time passes and you remind yourself about some interesting video that you watched some time ago and that it had some interesting bits of information at some point in…
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Goodbye Wordpress! You did a pretty good job keeping this blog together for the first two years of its life but now it's the time to take things to the next level and transform this blog into a static site with the help of Gatsby and NetlifyCMS. Yes, it's true that Wordpress is easy to use and appeals to a lot of people that don't want too much hassle when it comes to a CMS for their blogs but…
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What's this 100 Ways To Get Rejected challenge about? Check this introductory post to find out. I'm starting to get the hang of petitioning: I've petitioned yesterday the Ministry of Communications and Informational Society for the implementation of a national Public Transportation API and today I'm going to petition the government at http://gov.ro/en/contact (it was easy to find their email…
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What's this 100 Ways To Get Rejected challenge about? Check this introductory post to find out. While I was doing some research for a travel app I discovered that there are no cities in Romania that offer a Public Transportation API (PTA). What's PTA? it's basically public data that is accessible to anyone on the Internet, data about the public transportation system such as timetables, fares and…
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What's this 100 Ways To Get Rejected challenge about? Check this introductory post to find out. "Again, it's been a while since I have done something at this challenge" - I've written this in my challenge log because the idea of doing this project dates from June and I made little progress until a few days ago when I decided to take more action and wrote this post. The rest of this blog post is…
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It's time for a new personal challenge because it has been more than a month since I have finished the last one (100 Days of Writing) and I'm ready to get out of my comfort zone again and achieve new things and new heights. I have completed two challenges so far, 100 Days of Writing and Run a Marathon in 100 Days, it was hard completing them, at times I was asking myself why am I putting myself…
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I've been taken away from my little house on the hill and moved to the big city (metaphorically speaking) which I'm calling now "the machine, the factory", because this is what it actually is: the city is an artificial environment, it's Ford's assembly line, it's a big factory where everything is automated and streamlined, a place where you have your running water (almost) all the time, your gas…
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Model of Computation The Model of Computation - The Daily Concept In computer science, a model of computation is a model that describes how a set of outputs are computed given a set of inputs. Examples of models of computation: Sequential models: Finite State Machines, Turing Machine Functional models: Lambda Calculus, Recursive functions, Cellular automaton Concurrent models: Petri nets, Kahn…
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Referring to the old Persian adage: "This too shall pass" I have to say that my 100 Days of Writing Challenge came to its eventual conclusion after 100 long days and about 30000 written words. This challenge has been quite an adventure that took me to different places, made me think and write about all sort of things, made me a bit more disciplined when it comes to writing, made me get out of my…
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Staples Thesis Staples Thesis - The Daily Concept The staples thesis is a theory of export-led growth based on Canadian experience and that explains the development of the Canadian economy as lateral, east-west conception of trade. Scholar Harold Innis believed that Canada developed the way it did due to the nature of its staples economy: raw materials such as cod (in Atlantic Canada), fur…
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Gnosticism Gnosticism - The Daily Concept Gnosticism, from the Greek word gnosis meaning knowledge is a modern term for various religious and ideas and systems. In most gnostic systems, the "salvation" is the (inner) knowledge of the divine. For more Daily Concepts check out The Daily Concept App Get it on Google Play
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Replacement Child Replacement child - The Daily Concept Painters Vincent van Gogh and Salvador Dali are examples of "resurrected" children, they both had brothers of the same name who died before their birth. Replacement children are usually over-protected by their parents. The term replacement child is a term invented in 1964 by psychologists Albert C. Cain and Barbara S. Cain and it refers to a…
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Mentalism Mentalism - The Daily Concept Mentalism is an umbrella term used in psychology that refers to branches of study like mental imagery, consciousness and cognition, branches that concentrate on perception and thought processes. For more Daily Concepts check out The Daily Concept App Get it on Google Play
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Good and Evil Good and Evil - The Daily Concept For today, Conceptus, the god of concepts and ideas brought us not a fancy, ethereal sounding theory but a more common, down to Earth concept that we encounter in our usual day: Good and Evil. Cultures, religions, philosophers, psychologists, regular Joe's - they all have their own definitions of what is Good and what is Evil. Someone's Good might…
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Ietsism Ietsism - The Daily Concept When asked "Do you believe in God?" the typical ietsist responds "No, but there must be something". The word 'something' is iets in Dutch hence the term ietsism. Ietsism is basically the belief in 'something', an undetermined transcendent reality, an English related term being agnostic theism, eclecticism, deism and 'being spiritual but not religious'. Since…
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James–Lange Theory James–Lange theory - The Daily Concept The James-Lange Theory is one of the earliest theories of emotion in modern psychology. Simply put, this theory states that physiological arousal instigates the experience of emotion. The common belief is that the emotion occurs first and then the physiological (bodily) associated response occurs next. Modern theories and research propose…
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Multiomics Multiomics - The Daily Concept Multiomics is a new research methodology in biology in which multiple "omes" data sets are used such as genome, proteome, transcriptome, epigenome, and microbiome. The purpose of combining these data sets is to make the analysis of complex big data more efficiently and to find biomarkers more easily. For example, in order to find suicide markers in…
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The Werther Effect The Werther Effect - The Daily Concept Not long ago, the media highly publicized the suicide of fashion designer Kate Spade. Yesterday, Anthony Bourdain took his own life, another act highly publicized by the media. Both individuals were highly successful in what they were doing, were icons in their area of expertise and both were about the same age when they committed suicide…
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Object Relations Theory Object Relations Theory - The Daily Concept Object Relations Theory - The Daily Concept The object relations theory states states that the way people relate to others and situations in their adult lives is shaped by family experiences during childhood. For example, someone neglected or abused in infancy would expect similar behavior from others, these images of people and…
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PASS Theory of Intelligence PASS Theory of Intelligence - The Daily Concept The PASS theory of intelligence states that cognition is organized in three systems and four processes: Planning (responsible for controlling & organizing behavior, constructing strategies and monitoring performance), Attention (maintains arousal levels and alertness), Simultaneous Processing and Successive Processing…
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Anomie The state of anomie occurs when society offers little moral guidance to individuals, it's the breakdown of social bonds between individual and society, the fragmentation of identity. This concept was popularized in 1897 by the French sociologist Emile Durkheim. According to Durkheim, anomie usually occurs when there is a mismatch between individual or group standards and wider social…
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Triune Brain Triune Brain - The Daily Concept The Triune Brain is a model for the evolution of the vertebrates brain proposed by the American physician and neuroscientist Paul D. MacLean. The Triune Brain consists of the reptilian complex, the paleomammalian complex (lymbic system) and the neomammalian complex (neocortex). The reptilian complex is responsible for instinctual behaviors involved in…
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Orthogenesis Orthogenesis - The Daily Concept The concept of orthogenesis is similar to a concept that I wrote about in a previous post, the concept of Directed Mutagenesis. Basically, orthogenesis is a hypothesis that organisms have an innate ability to evolve in a certain direction, towards a certain goal (teleology). While this theory was popular at the end of the nineteenth century among…
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So I finally managed to do a marathon. About three weeks earlier before the deadline, 26 of June. The summer is here and it's getting hotter and hotter, hence my decision to do it as soon as possible to avoid the summer heat. It was an interesting road to this point, back in March when I started day 1 of this challenge and did my first run it was cold, there was ice and snow outside, the next day…
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Chaos Theory Chaos Theory - The Daily Concept The essence of the chaos theory can be summarized in the following quote by Edward Lorenz: Chaos: When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future. In some cases deterministic systems are unpredictable due to the element of chaos and small differences in initial conditions can produce…
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Divided Consciousness Divided Consciousness - The Daily Concept Carl Jung said in 1935 that "The so-called unity of consciousness is an illusion... we like to think that we are one but we are not." Later on, Ernest Hilgard believed that during hypnosis, consciousness can be split into distinct components. Hilgard's bimodal consciousness has a receptive mode and an active mode. For more Daily…
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Krogh's Principle Krogh's Principle - The Daily Concept This principle is important to the disciplines of biology that rely on the comparative model and states that for a large number of "problems" there will be some animal of choice on which it can be conveniently studied. Organisms use similar neural algorithms, behaviors and even structures to accomplish similar tasks. For example, in order to…
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I knew about hydroponics for a few years now and I've been curios but didn't took any action towards starting my own little "hydro-garden". Well that changed today because today is the day when I started messing with hydroponics a bit. It's an experiment where a lot of things can go wrong and there might be a lot of trial and error. What are hydroponics? For those unfamiliar with this term…
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Bott Hypothesis Bott Hypothesis - The Daily Concept The Bott Hypothesis was first formulated in a work from 1957 titled Family and Social Networks by Elizabeth Bott . This hypothesis states that the more interconnected are the separate social networks of the husband and wife the more marital roles are segregated. In other words, external close-knit social networks provide the spouses with…
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Cognitivism Cognitivism - The Daily Concept Cognitivism is a movement that started as a response to behaviorism. The difference between cognitivism and behaviorism is that behaviorists think that all behaviors are reflexes to a certain stimuli in the environment or a consequence of someone's history (including punishment and reinforcement), whereas cognitivists think that the way people think…
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Dispersed Knowledge Dispersed Knowledge - The Daily Concept The concept of dispersed knowledge in economics states that no agent has information to all the factors that influence prices and production throughout the system. In other words, no one has a complete image over everything that is going on at a given time in economy. One of the first economists to write about this concept, Friedrich…
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Culture of poverty Culture of Poverty - The Daily Concept This concept in social theory states that pauper people are most probable stuck to a cycle of poverty unless some outside intervention happens. According to anthropologist Oscar Lewis the poor develop aspirations, a character, a worldview and mechanics that tend to perpetuate their status. Newer research typically rejects the idea that…
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Free Will in Theology When it comes to the ongoing debate related to free will, religions don't have a satisfactory explanation for the paradox of the free will, a paradox that arises from the contradiction between an omniscient god that is everywhere, knows everything, present and future, and free will. The Daily Concept - Free Will in Theology In the Roman Catholic religion for example, it is…
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We can see from the rising levels of obesity across populations all over the globe that people don't really like healthy food. "Salad?" "Yuck!", "Cake?" "Thumbs up!!!". Since people don't like healthy food, one of the research themes of psychologists and consumer psychologists in particular is how to get these people to eat more healthy food. And this is where the Canmethod comes in handy. Forget…
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At the beginning of this month I wrote about the Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), a term with a lot of sophisticated words used to describe a common feeling of tingling that starts from the top of the head and continues down the spine. We all know and experienced that feeling, I don't think that there is a person that haven't, but only few of us know the scientific term for it. Where I…
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Symbolic Self-completion Theory The Daily Concept - Symbolic Self-completion Theory This theory states that people tend to acquire and display symbols that are strongly related to what they perceive as being the ideal self. For example, men who want to appear more manly and macho might be interested in acquiring products associated with manliness, a sports car, a watch, a cologne. We can see the…
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Antipositivism The Daily Concept - Antipositivism The Scientific Method of investigation goes through a loop of observation, formulation of a question, coming up with a hypothesis, making a prediction based on the hypothesis, testing the prediction, analyzing the results of the test and coming up with a conclusion. Well, antipositivism (interpretivism) states that the scientific method that is…
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Directed Mutagenesis The Daily Concept - Directed mutagenesis
This is an interesting hypothesis which challenges the standard theory of evolution and the mechanism through which evolution is achieved: random mutations. The directed mutagenesis hypothesis states that evolution occurs in a more "direct" way, that organisms have an innate tendency to evolve in a certain direction, towards a "goal…
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Went today for a little hiking on one of the hills outside the city I live in. On the way there I could not help but notice how the car traffic increased steadily in the past years. I don't know exactly the statistics and the car ownership percentage, it's just an observation. Another phenomenon that I observed is the steady increase in the average weight of the people in this country. There might…
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Reward Theory of Attraction What this theory basically says is that people tend to like (be attracted) to those whom they associate with rewarding events. In other words, people tend to be attracted to those that make them feel good or to those that remind them of people they enjoy being around. If a relationship offers more reward and pleasure than cost and pain than that relationship is more…
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Axiom of Cumulative Inertia The Daily Concept - Axiom of Cumulative Inertia The title of this sociological axiom sounds complicated and off-putting but the axiom itself is easy to explain: it basically says that the more time someone spends in a certain place the less likely the person is to move out from that place in the future. Some reasons for this kind of behavior might include: loss…
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Life is like a game of poker and living a good life is all about playing the cards that fate gives you to the best of your ability. It's not about regrets and having no regrets. What does this means anyway? Doing everything you want? Well, you can't do anything you want and you can't have anything you want so of course that there will be regrets. There is no person alive or dead that lived a life…
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Germ theory denialism The Daily Concept - Germ theory denialism The advocates of this theory consider that germs are not the cause of diseases but only a symptom of disease. They are basically saying that Louis Pasteur was wrong and that Antoine's Bechamp microzymian theory is right. The microzymian theory says that diseases are caused by unfavorable conditions in the host and environment cause…
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Not long ago I made a post about Flow and the Optimal Experience of Life which addresses subjects like the modern pursuit of happiness, the culture of personality and how to live a more happy and fulfilling life. Well, one of my interests is neuroscience and I'm always looking to discover and to learn more about how the mind works and one thing that I learned so far is that Homo Sapiens, the Wise…
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Three-sector Theory Economists Allan Fisher, Colin Clark and Jean Fourastié noticed that a country's level of economic development is determined by the income generated from its main economic sector. Countries in an early state of economic development obtain most of their national income from the primary sector (extraction of raw materials). Countries in a more advanced state of economic…
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Spring Rain Spring Rain by John French Sloan Rain, a time to write Rain and spring, a time to run Spring, a time to live
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The Paradox of Choice occurs in situations when you have to chose between multiple options that have similar levels of appeal. For example, it's easy to chose between three flavors of ice cream but when you have to chose between thirty flavors of ice cream you are most likely to succumb to the paradox of choice, you weight the pros and cons of choosing a flavor over another one and this makes…
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Contest mobility is a system of a changing social status hierarchy which is seen as a "contest", a competition where elite status is the end goal. Basically, a contest mobility can be seen as a meritocracy in which achievement is attributed to effort and where attributes such as enterprise and perseverance are valued. The term contest mobility was used in a 1960 work by Ralph H. Turner in which…
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Tangaroa is the Māori god of the sea and is the son of the Sky and Earth. Tangaroa is in antagony to Tānem the god of birds, trees and humans, the Māori thinking of the ocean and the land as two dimensions that are in opposition. This is why before any fishing or travel expedition they had to make offerings to the god Tangaroa in order to appease him and have a safe journey through his domain…
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Kafka on the Shore Kafka, a boy named Crow It is about all and nothing Time, Life, Death and Love Note: I'm reading Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami these days, hence the inspiration for this Haiku.
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Proved in battle Led my men to victory No man alive or dead commands me I answer to the Lord Hear my orders Question me and die What I say was said in heaven And so it shall be done Sabaton - Carolus Rex Imagine this: your age is fifteen, you are newly declared king, soon after this moment all your neighbors plan and attack your country. What would you do in this situation? You are young…
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It's day 50 of my 100 Days to Run a Marathon Challenge and the first thing that I can say about this challenge is that I'm a bit behind schedule. As mentioned in my first post, The 100 Days to Run a Marathon Challenge, I don't really have a schedule or a plan on how I will achieve this objective, my only plan is to incrementally run longer distances, so around day 50 I should be running 2…
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Elderflowers Image source: Wikimedia High up in the tree A bundle of sweet flowers Nectar of the gods Reference: Elderflower cordial
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The call to adventure Image source: Flickr Running over water, Taming air, passing mountains, The call of nature
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You know that feeling of tingling that starts from the top of your head and moves down your neck and spine? Well, this sensation has a name: Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR). Image source: Wikimedia ASMR is usually triggered by visual and acoustic stimuli like soft, whispering voices, listening to repetitive sounds from someone turning the pages of a book, watching someone perform a…
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Carolus Rex Image source: Wikimedia Victor of the North Proven leader in battle Eternal memory
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Writing a book was a long standing item in my bucket-list. I had some attempts at writing a book across the years but in the end they only materialized in a low number of pages and words, I couldn't even write enough material for a chapter. Add to this the fact that English is not my first language and it's not even my second language either. You see, I was stubbornly trying to write a book in…
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Imagine that you go to the theater or to the opera, you enjoy the spectacle, you laugh or cry, you applaud and at the end of the show you get paid for your performance as a spectator. This is the business of claque, the business of clapping, claque meaning clap in French. It sounds a bit ridiculous to get paid for being a spectator and enjoying a show but la claque was often employed in the…
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First, we crawl, then we get up, shaking and awkward only to feel the force of gravity and to fall down; there is someone close-by to cheer and encourage us so we try again and again, we fall, we get up and each time we walk a little bit farther. We master walking, it was an odd and novel experience but it's natural and it's not something special anymore so we try something else now, we run, we…
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My challenge of writing for 100 Days has been quite a ride so far, I wrote 50 posts and about 20000 words, covered various subjects like book reviews, startups, business, self-improvement, history, neuroscience, cryptography, reading lists and haikus. I've written most of those 20000 words in March, I have quite a lot of posts about 900+ and 1000+ words long. In April however, I started slowing…
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#DeleteFacebook Image source: Cliqz Only vanity, ego And social validation #DeleteFacebook now
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French Days is the French equivalent of Black Friday. This year is the first edition and it lasts from April 27 to May 1, "les jours imbattables du e-commerce français", the days with unbeatable prices in the French e-commerce world. Why did they named this event 'French Days'? I don't know exactly, seems like an odd choice of naming to me. Is there something nationalistic about buying something…
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The Mind Image source: Flickr A world without end, An unbroken chain of thoughts, Just firing neurons
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A Neighborhood Walk in the Spring Labyrinth of streets Twisting golden memories Green, purple and shades
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La Vie en Rose And do not forget Viens et prends ma main See la vie en rose
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Artificial Intelligence Wings and hearts are weak Behold, singularity! Can not be undone
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The Gun Kata Image Source: Wikipedia Cold, implacable Quick, straight to the target goes A rain of bullets
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Image source: Pixabay Morning Run In the morning cool, Dark shadow moving swiftly, Quick steps on the road
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time to ask the wind when words do not mean anything time to ask the dust
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My Top Psychology Books - Reading List Source: Pixabay Flow - The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszenetmihalyi Mindset - The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck The Moral Animal Why We Are, the Way We by Robert Wright 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. Peterson Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday Thinking, Fast and Slow By Daniel Kahneman Quiet:The Power…
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My Top Biography & Autobiography Books - Reading List Source: Pixabay Losing My Virginity By Richard Branson Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman Elon Musk: Inventing the Future by Ashlee Vance Titanic Thompson by Kevin Cook The Art of the Pimp - One Man's Search for Love, Sex and Money by Dennis Hoff Hemingway in Love - His Own Story by A. E. Hotchner
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My Top Business Books - Reading List Source: Pixabay The Millionaire Fastlane Crack the Code to Wealth and Live Rich by MJ deMarco The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss Side Hustle by Chris Guillebeau Zero to One by Peter Thiel The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz The 100 Best Business Books of All Time What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You by Jack Covert…
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My Top Mind & Neuroscience Books - Reading List Source: Pixabay The Idiot Brain by Dr. Dean Burnett How to Create a Mind by Ray Kurzweil Who's in Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain by Michael S. Gazzaniga The Shallows by Nicholas Carr The Moral Animal by Robert Wright Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
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My Top Marketing Books - Reading List Source: Pixabay The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu The end of Advertising by Andrew Essex Hooked by Nir Eyal Win Bigly by Scott Adams Influence by Robert Cialdini Purple Cow by Seth Godin
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My Top History Books - Reading List Source: Pixabay Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford The Great Divide by Peter Watson The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene Badass by Ben Thompson Bushido: The Soul of Japan by Inazō Nitobe
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My Top Books on Startups - Reading List Source: Pixabay The Lean StartUp - Eric Ries How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big - Scott Adams The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau Rework by Jason Fried The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development by Brant Cooper
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My Top Fiction Books - Reading List Source: Pixabay Zorba The Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis The Animal Farm by George Orwell Leaves of Grass by Walter Whitman Siddartha by Hermann Hesse Fountainhead by Ayn Rand Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
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Source: Wikipedia The word for this science comes from the ancient Egyptian word "khēmia" meaning transmutation of earth, is the science of matter at the atomic to molecular scale, dealing primarily with collections of atoms, such as molecules, crystals, and metals. I hope that you still remember those fun, magical hours of khemistry from school that you wanted to never end (ha!) because today's…
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Source: perseus.over-blog.fr Les Shadoks is an animated TV series created by Jacques Rouxel which was broadcasted between 1968 and 1974. The Shadoks characters were bird-like in their appearance, ruthless and stupid. There is a resemblance between Les Shadoks and Angry Birds, it's possible that the creators of Angry Birds might have been inspired by this French creation. Les Shadoks were noted for…
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And on the pedestal these words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings; Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' Ramses II also known as Rameses or Ozymandias in Greek sources and Percy Shelley's sonnet is considered the greatest, most celebrated and most powerful pharaoh of the Egyptian Empire. He ruled for 66 years and imposed his will and military prowess over his neighbors, hence the…
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What will we do with a drunken sailor? What will we do with a drunken sailor? What will we do with a drunken sailor? Early in the morning Way hay and up she rises Way hay and up she rises Way hay and up she rises Early in the morning Shave his belly with a rusty razor Shave his belly with a rusty razor Shave his belly with a rusty razor Early in the morning Now, with a proper pirate priming to…
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Deus Vult ("God Wills It") is a Christian motto associated with the Crusades and was first reported in the Gesta Francorum ("The Deeds of the Franks"), a chronicle written in Latin of the First Crusade. Now, for this crypto challenge: in the country associated with the word Francorum, this Catholic military Order was disbanded on the pressure from the country's king. Find out the name of this…
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This is another cryptographic challenge that I concocted. Figure out what symbol substitution system I used and discover the hidden message in the following image. Good luck! Hint 1: Microsoft Hint 2: Font
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Like the title says, find out what cipher was used to codify the following ciphertext and decrypt it. Have fun! Kyzj zj kyv gfjk eldsvi knvekp jzo fw dp fev yleuivu gfjkj ze fev yleuivu urpj tyrccvexv. Jf wri, jf xffu slk Z'd jkrikzex kf ile flk fw zuvrj jf Z uvtzuvu kf klie kf tipgkfxirgyp ze fiuvi kf drbv re zekvivjkzex gfjk. Zw pfl tre ivru kyvjv czevj, tfexirkj, zk nrje'k kyrk yriu zje'k? Z…
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Decision making, choices, outcomes. In my last two posts, I've covered some interesting ideas, facts and theories so far from various areas like chess, Bayesian filters, philosophy, The Way of the Samurai, Picasso and the Art of War in order to create a picture of the vast world of decision making and given this vastness I'm feeling that I've only started to scratch the surface of it. There is no…
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In the first part of my previous post I was quoting Balthasar Gracian on the importance of diligence before executing an action. I was also mentioning the fact that it can happen to come upon seemingly contradictory advice in different sources. In this post we will see the other side of the coin, the importance of quick decision making and celerity. Hagakure, The Way of the Samurai. Source…
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Diligence promptly executes what intelligence slowly excogitates. Hurry is the failing of fools; they know not the crucial point and set to work without preparation. On the other hand, the wise more often fail from procrastination; foresight begets deliberation, and remiss action often nullifies prompt judgment. Celerity is the mother of good fortune. He has done much who leaves nothing over till…
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Not long ago I was writing about La Joie de Vivre, the Joy of Living, and about the book Zorba the Greek. In a few words, Zorba's philosophy of life can be described as: work hard, play hard but this would be too reductionist to describe a complex character like Zorba. It's worth reading the book in order to discover a way of living that the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi would define as…
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The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie Spartan Up!: A Take-No-Prisoners Guide to Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Peak Performance in Life by Joe de Sena The War Of Art by Steven Pressfield The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan…
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What would Rembrandt do if he would suddenly appear in our time and age, in 2018? What would Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals and Jan Steen, painters from the Dutch Golden Age think about our times? Would they continue painting or take new occupations in areas like photography, they would certainly be mesmerized by it but maybe no strangers to some old form of it, camera obscura, Leonardo da Vinci…
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The more I learn about the world the more fascinating it gets, human creativity and ingenuity is boundless. Maybe Einstein was right when he said that the true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination. If you can imagine it, you can create it, you are limited only by your imagination. The world of business is no stranger to creative ways of money making. Here too, the limit is the…
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Everybody knows you never go full retard. I'm quite transparent on sharing what I'm doing and I've written posts before about what I like to call my experiments in the world of business and startups (links here, here and here). I don't mind sharing this kind of data, I hope that it's useful and informative and somebody can learn something from it. I'm doing the same thing, searching for…
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Names. We all have them and names are not the same everywhere in the world. In Myanmar names used to consist in only one syllable, it's only in the recent years that they started adopting names with two-three syllables: Ko, Mi, Min, Minh, Sa, Saya, U. Names usually offer information about persons, their social status, their occupation, their gender and even their age, for example, Mi for young…
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I was writing in my last post about my theory on Why Random Words Pop Up in Your Head. My theory is that the brain fires up random neural networks as a way to keep them 'fit'. If a neural network is not used then, given the brain's neuroplasticity, its components are redirected to other neural networks. For example, if a neural network corresponding to a skill is not exercised and fit then it…
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It may happen sometimes that a word unrelated to any thought processes that you are having or had to just pop up suddenly. I don't know how frequent random process is happening in the general population but for me it's rare, when I'm running it seems to happen a bit more frequent. I find this phenomenon interesting, my explanation is that it has to do with the unconscious, in recent years…
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On the Shortness of Life by Seneca The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Enchiridion by Epictetus
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I don't have to do much convincing in this post on why it's a good idea to #DeleteFacebook because much of it was done already by Facebook and its actions. Actions speak louder than words. This post has already written itself. This is how a guilty face looks like Numerous studies on the impact of social media in our lives were made and the consensus is that social media has a negative impact and…
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Time to unpack some memories and write about those times when I was roaming the roads of the great Camino without any answer to the following questions: Where am I heading? When I will get there? What will happen tomorrow? I had no answers, I just walked and walked and lived. On the endless road you become a ship without a rudder. Almost two years after, I'm still thinking a lot about it. It's…
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It's important to always challenge yourself, to get out of your comfort zone, to set goals and to have systems to achieve them. There can't be growth without getting out of your comfort zone. I've been wanting to run a marathon for about 7-8 years now, yet I haven't succeed yet to achieve this goal because of various reasons. It's time to stop wanting and to start achieving. The 100 Days to Run a…
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Bobby Fischer Against the World (2011) is a great documentary with rare footage about one of the best chess players ever, the Mozart of the chess world, Bobby Fischer. The documentary tells the story of his life, his highlights as a chess player and his later troubled years. Usain Bolt playing chess without a king. Source: chessgames.gr May 1972, Reykjavik, Iceland. Bobby Fischer and Boris…
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Source: Pixabay Each time I go on social media sites and when I'm saying social media sites I'm especially referring to Twitter (I deactivated my Facebook account) - I cannot help but observe the ongoing battle between the liberals and republicans in America, and all the Trump this, Trump that. I rarely check foreign news sites but when I do, it's the same thing, a lot of propaganda, politics - I…
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One of my favorite books that I've read last year is Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford. The author did a great job researching and tracking the footsteps of Genghis Khan and his ruling descendants through Mongolia and outside Mongolia. It was a pleasant experience to discover the complexity and depth of the Mongolian way of life through this book and to see beyond…
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Continuing from my last post, the Cyprus Experiment: ...However, if you start playing with genes in order to create the perfect society...that becomes another thing alltogether. Imagine this: genes editing can lead to a situation in which you can choose from a catalog the physical characteristics and personality type of your offspring. "Yes, I would like to order the Big Blue package please." I…
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Map of Cyprus What happens when you take a bunch of high IQ individuals, send them on an island and let them organize themselves? Will they become a superpower, solve the world's problems? Seems like an Utopia isn't it? In one of my previous posts I was writing about how high IQ individuals tend to think over the long term, have higher incomes, to be more cooperative and to be better informed…
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Hit Man in Amsterdam While working on yesterday's post - Why your Nation's IQ matters more than yours - and while checking my notes that I have on the book Hive Mind by Garett Jones I came upon some eyebrow-raising stuff: "And that brings us to why countries—high-average-IQ, low-average-IQ, and in-between—might actually want to run up massive international debts: it’s a way to commit to having a…
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When it comes to the National IQ, nations are not made equal. Let's see why the IQ of your countrymen is more important than yours. Source: Intelligence: A Unifying Construct for the Social Sciences, Lynn/Vanhanen, 2012 Humans are social animals as a consequence of aeons of evolutionary timeline that favored individuals with group selection bias that cooperated with each other in small…
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I was writing yesterday about startups and the startup ecosystem in Iasi and Romania in general, about the importance of the historical past as a way to understand the present, about Renaissance, Florence, the de Medici family and the importance of capital as a fuel of progress and great art. This post can be considered as an addendum to my previous one. I also mentioned yesterday about the feudal…
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Palatul Culturii Iasi This will be an easy and short blogpost for today because I'm writing about the startup ecosystem in my hometown, Iasi. It's easy and short because frankly speaking there are not many things to write about. Even the idea that an ecosystem exists is debatable, because in order to have an ecosystem you need to have various interacting parts that work together as a functional…
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What is Joie de vivre? Joie de vivre is a French phrase often used in English to express a cheerful enjoyment of life; an exultation of spirit. Almost three years ago I was finishing reading Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis. I started reading quite a lot during that period, reading non-fiction especially and trying to better understand the world around me. Three years later it's still an…
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Ever felt stuck in a routine? I know I do, sometimes I feel that I'm stuck and I have no options left to do anything else and thus I end up being "bored". The Germans have a word for this: Einstellung. Einstellung means installation and the Einstellung Effect refers to a person's predisposition to act or to solve a problem using the same way even though there are other options. This effect seems…
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Not long ago I've read How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams, a book inspired from the author's life. It was in this book that I first came upon the concept of systems versus goals. The author's first encounter with this concept was while he has travelling by plane: "I was seated next to a businessman who was probably in his early sixties. I suppose I looked like an odd…
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It's been more than a month now since I launched one of my recent projects that I've been working on: The Daily Concept app. The idea behind it is simple as well as the app itself: it shows a different concept from various domains like Biology, Math, Psychology, Sociology, Religion, Physics, Economics and so on so the idea is to learn something new and interesting day by day. Sounds like a great…
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The Bagan temples rise up like termite mounds from the surrounding green domes of the Kleinhovia and Shorea Siamensis trees. Some of the temples are still lighted by artificial light, their day earth tone colors of brown and tan are turning to gold during the night through the magic of the reflector lights. You feel like you are among the gods now. The water vapours from the nearby Irrawaddy river…
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The Native Americans called it To-to-kon oo-lah, the Spanish called it El Capitan. The Captain of the Yosemite National Park. The 900 meters tall granite monolith proudly stands and watches over the surrounding green little giants of the forest. Home to the mighty and elegant Golden Eagle and the Peregrine Falcon, you can see them owning the heights, you can hear them cry in a loud single note…
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Danylo has a fast walking pace. I'm not sure if this is his normal walking speed or it's because he is trying to keep up with his special pet, a white and black colored pygmy pony with blond hair. He looks quite funny to be honest. The fact that the pony is wearing miniature traditional footwear made from leather called opanak is also contributing to his funny image. I wonder if he also wears…
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World's Greatest Gamer - You probably are the world's greatest gamer. You achieved the highest score at dozens of games. I didn't thought that you are the gaming type. How can you achieve all of these things? When do you have the time? You are constantly traveling and going through all kinds of crazy and wild adventures. You are still a big mystery to me, I won't ask again about how you make your…
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Just launched The Daily Concept, a free Android app available for download on Google Play Store. What do you gain by using it? You get to develop your crystallized intelligence by learning a new concept each day from various domains like Science, Philosophy, Psychology, Social Sciences, Arts and so on. Download link: The Daily Concept iOS version coming soon. Screenshots:
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Did anyone actually followed my advice and bought bitcoins back in December 2013? I hope so because four years ago 1 Bitcoin was < $600 and now it's < $20000. The ROI on this one is tremendous, it's more than 3000%. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying that the most powerful force in the Universe is the compound interest. Well, he didn't knew about Bitcoin. My abstract image for Bitcoin is that of…
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Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality This is my second time reading this book, the first time being about two years ago. I don't usually read a book twice or more unless it's worth it so without further introduction let's get into the good stuff. The primary takeaway from this book would be the Action Method which has three components: Action Steps, References, and Backburner Items…
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First Search is a new product from First Round and it's also the Product of the Day on Product Hunt. Another premiere for this product is the fact that I decided to start my product review series with it. The idea behind this series is to pick a product, it will usually be the Product of the Day as seen on Product Hunt, to learn and discover what makes it successful. Short introduction: First…
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This book turned out to be well researched and to exceed my expectations. It helped me to better understand the world of introverts, myself and the world in general. So, according to the book, how exactly is the world shaped by the forces of introversion and extroversion? Let's start with the current status of the Western world: it's competitive and it's dominated by a "business culture" and a…
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What I like most about this book is the concept of "Ten years of experience in one hour": ten years of the author's experience as an accidental entrepreneur transposed in a concise manner in less than 100 pages. I'm actually surprised that this concept didn't caught on and became more popular because frankly speaking a lot of books contain a lot of filler information just to achieve a higher…
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About a third of the way into this book I was wondering why am I reading it. I had only 3-4 lousy notes added to my arsenal and a lot of information seemed to be redundant and uninteresting. However, my patience has been rewarded because after this desertified region of the book came some really nice bounty. The advertising model as we know it is changing. The author was shocked to find out in…
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I'm always on the lookout for new discoveries in the neuroscience field and to understand and learn more about the synergy of the human mind, brain and consciousness and this book by Ray Kurzweil, one of the leading figures in Artificial Intelligence, proved to be quite enlightening in this regard. I have a lot of notes and Kindle highlights on this book and here are some of them: There are no…
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I noticed a common pattern among the people I've been communicating with lately: even though they all are successful in their own ways they still think that they haven't achieved many things. In the following lines I will attempt to explain my idea of success. It's not bad to want to achieve more and be more successful but this modern prevalence seems to be the effect of the availability heuristic…
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What am I doing? Short recap: I am doing 3 days long sprints, 2 days allotted for picking up an idea and building a product/service around it and 1 day to promote the minimum viable product that results from the first 2 days. In the first day I settled on an idea based on online personal branding and to offer a service consisting on creating profiles on more than 50 social media sites. What a…
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I finally decided to take action so today is day one of my startup blitzkrieg. I didn't have any clue with which idea to start this morning so I just quickly went over my list of ideas (about 90+ ideas strong) and decided to go with something related to online reputation and personal branding. It should be noted that I already had an attempt at it a few years ago, the project was called Webhance…
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