<ul><li>How would you behave differently?</li><li>How would you walk and talk differently?</li><li>How would you play, work, and perform differently?</li><li>How would you treat others differently: your friends, relatives, partner, parents, children, and work colleagues?</li><li>How would you treat yourself differently?</li><li>How would you treat your body?</li><li>How would you talk to yourself?</li></ul>

In a world where you had unlimited
confidence

1. A feeling of certainty or assuranceThe first definition of confidence - a feeling of certainty or assurance is by far the most widely used. Most people think of self-confidence as a powerful feeling of certainty or assurance: a sense of being cool and at ease; an absolute belief that you will perform well and achieve a positive outcome; an absence of fear and anxiety; a lack of self-doubt or insecurity; and an absence of negative thoughts about mishaps or failure.

CONFIDENCE: TWO DEFINITIONS

2. An act of trust or relianceThe second definition is used far less commonly. In this definition, confidence is not a feeling, but an action; it is 'an act of trust or reliance'. The word 'confidence' is derived from the Latin words 'com' meaning 'with', and 'fidere', meaning 'to trust'. When we trust or rely on someone, whether ourselves or others, we rarely have feelings of absolute certainty or assurance. In fact, the more there is at stake, the more we have feelings of fear and anxiety, and thoughts about what might go wrong.

CONFIDENCE: TWO DEFINITIONS 

Few individuals have inspired people like Nelson Mandela. He stood for justice, freedom, and equality in the face of incredible odds. He risked his life over and over, opposing the brutally oppressive apartheid regime of South Africa. But when the South African authorities did eventually capture him, they sentenced him to twenty-seven years in jail, the first eighteen in the atrocious prison on Robben Island. Many men would have crumbled, living year after year in that hell. But not Mandela. He never gave up on his cause.

Nelson Mandela

When others saw Mandela walking through the grounds, holding himself proud and erect, their spirits soared. As Stengel puts it, the sight 'was enough to keep them going for days'. When Mandela strolled confidently across the prison courtyard, was that an example of 'confidence, the feeling' or 'confidence, the action'? Obviously, it was the latter. He was not feeling calm, assured, and certain. He trusted himself to walk in an 'upright and proud' manner, even though he was feeling terrified. He did not eliminate his fear. It was learning to overcome his fear.

'OF COURSE I WAS AFRAID!'

Is your mind getting annoyed or frustrated: 'Oh please, don't tell me he's going to go down the old "fake it till you make it" path? I've heard that one before!'? Or is it predicting the worst: 'Oh no. He's going to tell me I just have to put up with these feelings of anxiety, grit my teeth, and force myself to do it!'?If your mind is telling you something like the above, that's perfectly normal and only to be expected; as we shall see later, the human mind has a natural tendency to predict the worst.

BACK TO THE GAP

'You can't fake confidence, earn it', he says. And in his opinion, there's only one way to do that: 'You have to do the work. This is a key point. If we want to do anything with confidence: speak, paint, make love, play tennis or socialize, then we have to do the work. We have to practice the skills over and over until they come naturally. If we don't have adequate skills to do the things we want to do, we can't expect to feel confident.

CONFIDENCE

Of course, it's very easy to say all this, but it's not so easy to do in real life. Why not? Because to develop and practice skills requires time and effort, and our minds usually give us many reasons not to do it: 'It's too hard', 'I'm too busy', 'I'm not in the mood' 'I've got no motivation', 'I can't do it', 'I've got no discipline', There's no point trying because I'll be no good at it and so on. When we get caught up in these thoughts, it's all too easy to give up - especially if we're afraid of making mistakes, or we're not feeling too good, or our progress is slower than we'd like.

PRACTICE

Do you have a mind that is never satisfied? Is it like a little fascist dictator inside your head, always demanding more? If so, you can easily become fearful of making mistakes, and very self-critical if you don't meet your own expectations. This is commonly known as 'perfectionism'. All of us, if we're honest, get caught up in this way of thinking. And there's nothing abnormal in that; the human mind is rarely satisfied for long and is usually quick to find fault and insist on more.

EXCESSIVE EXPECTATIONS

Does your mind undermine you?Does it tell you that you don't have what it takes, or that you're no good at what you're doing? Does it claim that any moment now you're going to screw it all up?Do you ever suffer from 'impostor syndrome', where your mind convinces you that you're not really competent, you don't know what you're doing, and you've got away with it so far, but at any moment you will be found out as a fraud? If you answer yes to any of these questions, then that shows you have a normal human mind.

HARSH SELF-JUDGEMENT

Are you surprised to hear that? Most people are because we've all been brainwashed about positive thinking. But the fact is, the human mind is not naturally positive. Eastern models of psychology such as Zen, yoga, and the Tao have recognized for thousands of years that the normal human mind has a natural tendency to judge and criticize, to find the negative and predict the worst; to tell us scary stories about the future and dredge up painful memories from the past. In the West, we have somehow failed to see that this is the norm; this is what normal minds naturally do.

SURPISED?

Do you buy into this idea? Then let me quote you a couple of people whom you could hardly call 'weak': legendary long-distance cyclist Lance Armstrong, one of the greatest athletes of all time; and blockbuster movie star Hugh Jackman, whose rippling muscles cause both men and women to swoon. 'I fear failure. I have a huge phobia around failure.' - Lance Armstrong 'I've always felt that if you back down from a fear, the ghost of that fear never goes away. It diminishes people. So I've always said "yes" to the thing I'm most scared about.' - Hugh Jackman

FEAR IS A SIGN OF WEAKNESS

This is really a variant of the last two myths. The story is that fear somehow holds you back from achieving what you want in life. Luckily, this isn't the case. What holds you back is not fear, but your attitude towards it. The tighter you hold on to the attitude that fear is something bad and you can't do the things you want until it goes away, the more stuck you will be. The danger lies in refusing to face the fear, in not daring to come to grips with it.

FEAR HOLDS YOU BACK

The story goes confident people don't feel anxious or afraid. This is simply not so. Back to the first two myths. The fact is, in a challenging situation, even the most confident people on the planet experience fear. However, when you know how to handle it effectively, it does not destroy your confidence. This gives us the second rule of the confidence game:Genuine confidence is not the absence of fear; it is a transformed relationship with fear.

CONFIDENCE IS THE ABSENCE OF FEAR

The head monk scratches his head and thinks for a moment. Then he says: 'Find the man who tells you he has eliminated all negative thoughts. And if you find such a man, you'll know that's not who you're looking for.'

'Master, how do I find the greatest Zen master in the entire land?'

Just a small chunk of what I've extracted so far.  Interesting ideas though. This is the first part, I'll come with the rest later.

Drawing on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and mindfulness practices, this guide offers breakthrough insights and simple techniques for developing deep-seated, long-lasting confidence Too many of us miss out on opportunities in life because we lack self-confidence. Whether it’s public speaking, taking on a leadership role, or asking someone for a date, there are situations in which we just don't feel equipped to handle the challenges we face. Russ Harris offers a surprising solution to low self-confidence, shyness, and insecurity: Rather than trying to “get over” our fears, he says, the secret is to form a new and wiser relationship with them. Paradoxically, it’s only when we stop struggling against our fearfulness that we begin to find lasting freedom from it. Drawing on the techniques of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a cutting-edge form of cognitive-behavioral therapy, The Confidence Gap explains how to: • Free yourself from common misconceptions about what confidence is and how to build it • Transform your relationship with fear and anxiety • Clarify your core values and use them as your inspiration and motivation • Use mindfulness to effectively handle negative thoughts and feelings. “This book could save you years of psychological struggle, yank you out of negative emotional patterns, and help propel you to a much happier, more productive life.” —Martha Beck, author and Oprah Winfrey’s life coach

books

Books

Drawing on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and mindfulness practices, this guide offers breakthrough insights and simple techniques for developing deep-seated, long-lasting confidence Too many of us miss out on opportunities in life because we lack self-confidence. Whether it’s public speaking, taking on a leadership role, or asking someone for a date, there are situations in which we just don't feel equipped to handle the challenges we face.  Russ Harris offers a surprising solution to low self-confidence, shyness, and insecurity: Rather than trying to “get over” our fears, he says, the secret is to form a new and wiser relationship with them. Paradoxically, it’s only when we stop struggling against our fearfulness that we begin to find lasting freedom from it.  Drawing on the techniques of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a cutting-edge form of cognitive-behavioral therapy, The Confidence Gap explains how to:   • Free yourself from common misconceptions about what confidence is and how to build it  • Transform your relationship with fear and anxiety  • Clarify your core values and use them as your inspiration and motivation  • Use mindfulness to effectively handle negative thoughts and feelings.   “This book could save you years of psychological struggle, yank you out of negative emotional patterns, and help propel you to a much happier, more productive life.” —Martha Beck, author and Oprah Winfrey’s life coach

Russ Harris

The Confidence Gap

The first economist, this Adam Smith was an actual person, not some contemporary telejournalist’s pseudonym. His historic book, an Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), propounded the idea that competition acted as the “invisible hand,” serving to regulate the marketplace.

The first economist

COMMODITIES: Commodities fall into two categories: goods, which are tangible, and services, which are not. An easy way to remember this distinction: these days, goods are Chinese and services are American; they make textiles; we make lawyers. CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION: Consumption is what happens when you actually use commodities; production is what happens when you make them. EXTERNALITIES: Effects or consequences felt outside the closed world of production and consumption, things like pollution. Economists keep their own world tidy by labeling these messes “externalities” then banishing them.

MACROECONOMICS VS. MICROECONOMICS: Further evidence of the tendency of economists to see things in pairs. Here, “macro” is the side of economics that looks at the big picture, at such things as total output, total employment, and so on. “Micro” looks at the small picture, the way specific resources are used by firms or households or the way income is distributed in response to particular price changes or government policies. One problem economists don’t like to talk about is the difficulty they have in getting the two views to fit together well enough to have any practical application.

MARKET FAILURE: This is one of a number of terms that economists use to put down the real world. Here’s the way it works:<ul><li>When things don’t go the way economists want them to, based on the laissez-faire system (see above), the outcome is explained as the result of a “market failure.” That way, it’s not the economists’ fault-they had it right, it’s the market that got it wrong.</li></ul>

ECONOMETRICS: Yesterday’s high-level hustle. Econometrics used to mean studies that created models of the economy based on a combination of observation, statistics, and mathematical principles. In the Sixties, however, the term referred to a lucrative mini-industry whose models were formulated by computer and hired out to government and big business to help them predict future trends.

Government, in fact, soon became the biggest investor in econometrics models, spending millions to equip various agencies to come up with their own, usually conflicting, forecasts-this, despite the fact that the resulting predictions tended, throughout the Seventies, to have about the same record for accuracy as astrology. Today, econometrics models are still expensive and still often wrong, but they’re accepted.

FED: Known in financial circles as the Fed (and not to be confused with the feds), this government body, our central bank, wields enormous control over the nation’s purse strings. In fact, it’s said that the Fed’s chairman is the second most powerful man in Washington. He and his six colleagues, or governors of the Federal Reserve Board, direct the country’s monetary policy. Simply put, they can alter the amount of money (see “Money Supply”) and the cost of money (see “Interest Rates”), and thereby make or break the economy.

When the Fed tightens, interest rates rise and the economy slows down. When the Fed eases, interest rates fall and the economy picks up. Or so it used to be. The balancing act is so difficult, and the Fed so mistrusted, that its actions often have a perverse effect. So much for simplicity. Many swear that the Fed is the root of all economic evil. In his landmark work, A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960 (coauthored by Anna J. Schwartz), Milton Friedman placed blame for the Great Depression squarely on the Fed (for tightening too much).

MONEY SUPPLY: This is what the Fed is supposed to control but has a hard time doing. For decades, the Fed, and the people who make a living analyzing what money is doing, monitored the money supply because of the effect it was believed to have on the national economy. The Fed measures the money supply in three ways, reflecting three different levels of liquidity-or spendability - different types of money have.

By the Fed’s definition, the narrowest measure:<ol><li>M1, is restricted to the most liquid kind of money-the money you’ve actually got in your wallet (including traveler’s checks) and your checking account. </li><li>M2 includes M1 plus savings accounts, time deposits of under $100,000, and balances in retail money market mutual funds. </li><li>M3 includes M2 plus large-denomination ($100,000 or more) time deposits, balances in institutional money funds, repurchase liabilities, and Eurodollars held by U.S. residents at foreign branches of U.S. banks, plus all banks in the United Kingdom and Canada.</li></ol>

Last time we looked, the M1 was around $1.2 trillion; the M2, $6 trillion; and the M3, $8.8 trillion. The Fed, by daily manipulation, can alter these numbers. If the Fed releases less money into the economy, interest rates rise, corporate America borrows and produces less, workers are laid off, and everyone’s spending is cut back. When the Fed pumps more money into the economy, the reverse happens. And if it moves too far in one direction or another, the Fed can create a depression (the result of too much tightening) or hyperinflation (the result of too much easing).

These are some insights regarding economics extracted from this book. Further more about other topics is yet to come.

A completely updated, revised edition of the classic, outfitted with a whole new arsenal of indispensable knowledge on global affairs, popular culture, economic trends, scientific principles, and modern arts. Here’s your chance to brush up on all those subjects you slept through in school, reacquaint yourself with all the facts you once knew (then promptly forgot), catch up on major developments in the world today, and become the Renaissance man or woman you always knew you could be! How do you tell the Balkans from the Caucasus? What’s the difference between fission and fusion? Whigs and Tories? Shiites and Sunnis? Deduction and induction? Why aren’t all Shakespearean comedies necessarily thigh-slappers? What are transcendental numbers and what are they good for? What really happened in Plato’s cave? Is postmodernism dead or just having a bad hair day? And for extra credit, when should you use the adjective continual and when should you use continuous? An Incomplete Education answers these and thousands of other questions with incomparable wit, style, and clarity. American Studies, Art History, Economics, Film, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Religion, Science, and World History: Here’s the bottom line on each of these major disciplines, distilled to its essence and served up with consummate flair. In this revised edition you’ll find a vitally expanded treatment of international issues, reflecting the seismic geopolitical upheavals of the past decade, from economic free-fall in South America to Central Africa’s world war, and from violent radicalization in the Muslim world to the crucial trade agreements that are defining globalization for the twenty-first century. And don’t forget to read the section "A Nervous American’s Guide to Living and Loving on Five Continents" before you answer a personal ad in the International Herald Tribune. As delightful as it is illuminating, An Incomplete Education packs ten thousand years of culture into a single superbly readable volume. This is a book to celebrate, to share, to give and receive, to pore over and browse through, and to return to again and again.

Discover the world of business and economics.

economics

Economics

A completely updated, revised edition of the classic, outfitted with a whole new arsenal of indispensable knowledge on global affairs, popular culture, economic trends, scientific principles, and modern arts. Here’s your chance to brush up on all those subjects you slept through in school, reacquaint yourself with all the facts you once knew (then promptly forgot), catch up on major developments in the world today, and become the Renaissance man or woman you always knew you could be! How do you tell the Balkans from the Caucasus? What’s the difference between fission and fusion? Whigs and Tories? Shiites and Sunnis? Deduction and induction? Why aren’t all Shakespearean comedies necessarily thigh-slappers? What are transcendental numbers and what are they good for? What really happened in Plato’s cave? Is postmodernism dead or just having a bad hair day? And for extra credit, when should you use the adjective continual and when should you use continuous? An Incomplete Education answers these and thousands of other questions with incomparable wit, style, and clarity. American Studies, Art History, Economics, Film, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Religion, Science, and World History: Here’s the bottom line on each of these major disciplines, distilled to its essence and served up with consummate flair. In this revised edition you’ll find a vitally expanded treatment of international issues, reflecting the seismic geopolitical upheavals of the past decade, from economic free-fall in South America to Central Africa’s world war, and from violent radicalization in the Muslim world to the crucial trade agreements that are defining globalization for the twenty-first century. And don’t forget to read the section "A Nervous American’s Guide to Living and Loving on Five Continents" before you answer a personal ad in the International Herald Tribune. As delightful as it is illuminating, An Incomplete Education packs ten thousand years of culture into a single superbly readable volume. This is a book to celebrate, to share, to give and receive, to pore over and browse through, and to return to again and again.

Judy Jones

William Wilson

An Incomplete Education

Without the fear of heights, there can be no appreciation for the beauty of high places.

The doctor smiled tolerantly.“Don’t you get it? I’ve given my most profound love to an illusion!”“Are you under the impression that the object of everyone else’s love actually exists?”“Is that even a question?”

Does love actually exist?

“Sure. For the majority of people, what they love exists only in the imagination. The object of their love is not the man or woman of reality, but what he or she is like in their imagination. The person in reality is just a template used for the creation of this dream lover. Eventually, they find out the differences between their dream lover and the template. If they can get used to those differences, then they can be together. If not, they split up. It’s as simple as that. You differ from the majority in one respect: You didn’t need a template.”

What's love about

Time is the one thing that can’t be stopped. Like a sharp blade, it silently cuts through hard and soft, constantly advancing. Nothing is capable of jolting it even the slightest bit, but it changes everything.

How to stop time

Make time for civilization, for civilization won't make time.

The Great Ravine

“There are no homes now. No one has them. Marriage, family, they went away after the Great Ravine. That will be the first thing you’ll have to get used to.”“That first thing is something I won’t be able to get used to.”“Oh, I don’t know. In history class I learned that marriage and family had already begun to disintegrate in your own time. Lots of people didn’t want to be tied down. They wanted free lives.”

Life after the Great Ravine

Soon to be a Netflix Original Series! "Wildly imaginative." —President Barack Obama on The Three-Body Problem trilogy This near-future trilogy is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience this multiple-award-winning phenomenon from Cixin Liu, China's most beloved science fiction author. In The Dark Forest, Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasion-in just four centuries' time. The aliens' human collaborators may have been defeated, but the presence of the sophons, the subatomic particles that allow Trisolaris instant access to all human information, means that Earth's defense plans are totally exposed to the enemy. Only the human mind remains a secret. This is the motivation for the Wallfacer Project, a daring plan that grants four men enormous resources to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from Earth and Trisolaris alike. Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is a total unknown. Luo Ji, an unambitious Chinese astronomer and sociologist, is baffled by his new status. All he knows is that he's the one Wallfacer that Trisolaris wants dead. The Three-Body Problem Series The Three-Body Problem The Dark Forest Death's End Other Books Ball Lightning Supernova Era To Hold Up The Sky (forthcoming) At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

sciencefiction

Science Fiction

Soon to be a Netflix Original Series! "Wildly imaginative." —President Barack Obama on The Three-Body Problem trilogy This near-future trilogy is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience this multiple-award-winning phenomenon from Cixin Liu, China's most beloved science fiction author. In The Dark Forest, Earth is reeling from the revelation of a coming alien invasion-in just four centuries' time. The aliens' human collaborators may have been defeated, but the presence of the sophons, the subatomic particles that allow Trisolaris instant access to all human information, means that Earth's defense plans are totally exposed to the enemy. Only the human mind remains a secret. This is the motivation for the Wallfacer Project, a daring plan that grants four men enormous resources to design secret strategies, hidden through deceit and misdirection from Earth and Trisolaris alike. Three of the Wallfacers are influential statesmen and scientists, but the fourth is a total unknown. Luo Ji, an unambitious Chinese astronomer and sociologist, is baffled by his new status. All he knows is that he's the one Wallfacer that Trisolaris wants dead. The Three-Body Problem Series The Three-Body Problem The Dark Forest Death's End Other Books Ball Lightning Supernova Era To Hold Up The Sky (forthcoming) At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Liu Cixin is a Chinese computer engineer and science fiction writer. He is a nine-time winner of China's Galaxy Award and has also received the 2015 Hugo Award for his novel The Three-Body Problem as well as the 2017 Locus Award for Death's End. He is also a winner of the Chinese Nebula Award.

Cixin Liu

The Dark Forest

The universe is a dark forest. Every civilization is an armed hunter stalking through the trees like a ghost, gently pushing aside branches that block the path and trying to tread without sound. Even breathing is done with care. The hunter has to be careful, because everywhere in the forest are stealthy hunters like him.

If he finds other life another hunter, an angel or a demon, a delicate infant or a tottering old man, a fairy or a demigod—there’s only one thing he can do: open fire and eliminate them. In this forest, hell is other people. An eternal threat that any life that exposes its own existence will be swiftly wiped out. This is the picture of cosmic civilization. It’s the explanation for the Fermi Paradox.

Soviet astrophysicist Nicolai Kardashev once proposed that we can divide civilizations into three types based on the power they can command for communication purposes, let's say.

Dividing civilizations

A Type I civilization can muster an amount of energy equivalent to the total energy output of the Earth. Based on his estimates, the energy output of the Earth is about 10^15 to 10^16 watts.A Type II civilization can marshal the energy equivalent to the output of a typical star - 10^26 watts.A Type III civilization's communication energy can reach 10^36 watts, approximately equal to the energy output of a galaxy. Civilization on Earth is currently about Type 0.7 not even a full Type I.

The Kardashev Scale

And to attain that state, you need to empty yourself.I said, "I'm empty enough. Fame and fortune are nothing to me. Many of the monks in this temple are worldlier than me." The abbot shook his head and said,"No, emptiness is not nothingness. Emptiness is a type of existence. You must use this existential emptiness to fill yourself."His words were very enlightening to me. Later, after I thought about it a bit, I realized that it wasn't Buddhist philosophy at all, but was more akin to some modern physics theories. The abbot also told me he would not discuss Buddhism with me.

Emptiness is not nothingness

Interesting that I’ve found this book as a side note in “The denial of death” by Ernest Becker. Didn’t expect something from it, and for sure didn’t expect it to grab my attention at all. Unquestionably an enthralling book, first of the “Remembrance of Earth’s past” trilogy. I would recommend it to anyone who dares to imagine beyond our existence.

Soon to be a Netflix Original Series! “War of the Worlds for the 21st century.” – Wall Street Journal The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin. Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision. The Three-Body Problem Series The Three-Body Problem The Dark Forest Death's End Other Books Ball Lightning Supernova Era To Hold Up The Sky (forthcoming) At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Soon to be a Netflix Original Series! An NPR Best Book of the Decade Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel “War of the Worlds for the 21st century.” – Wall Street Journal The Three-Body Problem is the first chance for English-speaking readers to experience the Hugo Award-winning phenomenon from China's most beloved science fiction author, Liu Cixin. Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision. The Three-Body Problem Series The Three-Body Problem The Dark Forest Death's End Other Books Ball Lightning Supernova Era To Hold Up The Sky (forthcoming) At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

The Three-Body Problem

We all get anxious, it’s a part of life, yet how we deal with it is critical. If we don’t know how anxiety shows up or why, we might get caught up in temporary distractions or short-term fixes that actually feed it, creating bad habits in the process (have you ever eaten ice cream or cookies when you’re stressed?). Or we might spend our whole lives adding to our anxiety by trying to cure it (why can’t I just find why I’m anxious and fix it?).

Anxiety hides in people’s habits

The anxiety and its close cousin, panic, are both born from fear. It's well known that fear’s main evolutionary function is helping us survive. Fear is the oldest survival mechanism we’ve got. Fear teaches us to avoid dangerous situations in the future through a brain process called negative reinforcement. Evolution made this really simple for us, we need only three elements in situations like this to learn: <ul><li>an environmental cue</li><li>a behavior</li><li>and a result</li></ul>

Anxiety and its close cousin

Sometime in the last million years, humans evolved a new layer on top of our more primitive survival brain; neuroscientists call this the prefrontal cortex (PFC).  From an anatomical perspective, this “newer” brain region is located just behind our eyes and forehead. Involved in creativity and planning, the PFC helps us to think and plan for the future. The PFC predicts what will happen in the future based on our past experience. Yet critically, the PFC needs accurate information to make accurate predictions.

The prefrontal cortex

If information is lacking, our PFC plays out different versions of what might happen to help us choose the best path forward.  It does this by running simulations based on previous events in our lives that are most similar. For example, trucks and buses are similar enough to cars that we can safely assume we should look both ways to avoid any fast-moving vehicle.

The lack of information 

Anxiety is born when our PFCs don’t have enough information to accurately predict the future Without accurate information, our brains found it easy to spin stories of fear and dread, based on the latest reports that we had heard or read. And because of the way our brains are wired, the more shocking the news, increasing our sense of danger and feelings of fear, the more likely our brains are to remember it. When we can’t control our anxiety, that emotional fever spikes into panic (defined online as “sudden uncontrollable fear or anxiety, often causing wildly unthinking behavior”).

Anxiety

We map out how the pieces fit together and drive one another. Sometimes simply becoming aware of the habit patterns helps us step out of them, with significant results. At other times, we need a little hand-holding along the way. How often have you struggled to force yourself to overcome old habit loops and failed? How can you fix something if you don’t know how it works? Mapping out habit loops is an obvious place to start. This mapping effort is defined as the first gear.

Mapping a habit

In neuroscience, the default mode network (DMN), or anatomically the medial fronto-parietal network (M-FPN), is a large-scale brain network primarily composed of the medial prefrontal cortex and the posterior cingulate cortex and angular gyrus. The DMN was discovered by Marcus Raichle and his crew at Washington University in St. Louis. It was called the default mode network because this is what our minds go to whenever they are not engaged in a specific task. The DMN gets activated when our mind is wandering, thinking about things in the past or future, caught in repetitive thought

The default mode network

A hub of the DMN called the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) connects a bunch of other brain regions. The PCC is interesting because it gets activated when people are shown pictures that are reminders of or triggers for their addictions. For example, the PCC lights up with cocaine cues (e.g., a picture of a few lines of cocaine on a mirror) in cocaine-addicted individuals, with smoking cues (e.g., a picture of someone smoking) in nicotine-addicted individuals, and with gambling cues (e.g., a picture of someone playing roulette) in individuals addicted to gambling.

The posterior cingulate cortex

There are different types of people depending on how they react when facing danger. These people can be categorized into three different groups based on their reactions. These groups are fight, flight, and freeze.

When we face dangerous situations

You must let the pain visit.You must allow it to teach you.You must not allow it overstay.

Every time you pay attention to your actions, you become more aware of what you actually get from them.  If you notice that potato chips make you feel crappy when you eat too many, you get less excited about eating the whole bag next time. Not because you have to force yourself to not eat them, but simply because you remember what happened last time (and the time before that, and the time before that, and the time before that).  This also holds true for worry, procrastination, or any other anxiety habit loop that you’ve learned over the years.

Pay attention

The theory sounds—and is—simple. Yet this can easily fall into the thinking trap that was mentioned in the last chapter: you can know that something is bad for you, but thinking doesn’t change behaviors on its own. It isn’t strong enough. Watch your thoughts. They become words. Watch your words. They become actions. Watch your actions. They become habits. Watch your habits. They become character. Watch your character. It becomes your destiny.

The thinking trap

Worrying does not take away tomorrow’s troubles. It takes away today’s peace.

The instant New York Times bestseller A step-by-step plan clinically proven to break the cycle of worry and fear that drives anxiety and addictive habits We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic or as personal as having kids at home and fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone. We think of anxiety as everything from mild unease to full-blown panic. But it's also what drives the addictive behaviors and bad habits we use to cope (e.g. stress eating, procrastination, doom scrolling and social media). Plus, anxiety lives in a part of the brain that resists rational thought. So we get stuck in anxiety habit loops that we can't think our way out of or use willpower to overcome. Dr. Brewer teaches us to map our brains to discover our triggers, defuse them with the simple but powerful practice of curiosity, and to train our brains using mindfulness and other practices that his lab has proven can work. Distilling more than 20 years of research and hands-on work with thousands of patients, including Olympic athletes and coaches, and leaders in government and business, Dr. Brewer has created a clear, solution-oriented program that anyone can use to feel better - no matter how anxious they feel.

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

habits

Habits

mentalhealth

Mental Health

New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller A step-by-step plan clinically proven to break the cycle of worry and fear that drives anxiety and addictive habits We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic or as personal as having kids at home and fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone. We think of anxiety as everything from mild unease to full-blown panic. But it's also what drives the addictive behaviors and bad habits we use to cope (e.g. stress eating, procrastination, doom scrolling and social media). Plus, anxiety lives in a part of the brain that resists rational thought. So we get stuck in anxiety habit loops that we can't think our way out of or use willpower to overcome. Dr. Brewer teaches us to map our brains to discover our triggers, defuse them with the simple but powerful practice of curiosity, and to train our brains using mindfulness and other practices that his lab has proven can work. Distilling more than 20 years of research and hands-on work with thousands of patients, including Olympic athletes and coaches, and leaders in government and business, Dr. Brewer has created a clear, solution-oriented program that anyone can use to feel better - no matter how anxious they feel.

Judson Brewer is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Judson Brewer has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Judson Brewer's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Judson Brewer

Unwinding Anxiety

This is called the 40% rule, and the reason it’s so powerful. If you follow it, you will unlock your mind to new levels of performance and excellence in sports and in life, and your rewards will run far deeper than mere material success.

The 40% rule

Sadly, most of us give up when we’ve only given around 40 percent of our maximum effort. Even when we feel like we’ve reached our absolute limit, we still have 60 percent more to give! That’s the governor in action! Once you know that to be true, it’s simply a matter of stretching your pain tolerance, letting go of your identity and all your self-limiting stories, so you can get to 60 percent, then 80 percent and beyond without giving up.

When you feel like giving up

New York Times Bestseller Over 2.5 million copies sold For David Goggins, childhood was a nightmare - poverty, prejudice, and physical abuse colored his days and haunted his nights. But through self-discipline, mental toughness, and hard work, Goggins transformed himself from a depressed, overweight young man with no future into a U.S. Armed Forces icon and one of the world's top endurance athletes. The only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller, he went on to set records in numerous endurance events, inspiring Outside magazine to name him The Fittest (Real) Man in America. In this curse-word-free edition of Can't Hurt Me, he shares his astonishing life story and reveals that most of us tap into only 40% of our capabilities. Goggins calls this The 40% Rule, and his story illuminates a path that anyone can follow to push past pain, demolish fear, and reach their full potential.

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

New York Times Bestseller Over 2.5 million copies sold For David Goggins, childhood was a nightmare - poverty, prejudice, and physical abuse colored his days and haunted his nights. But through self-discipline, mental toughness, and hard work, Goggins transformed himself from a depressed, overweight young man with no future into a U.S. Armed Forces icon and one of the world's top endurance athletes. The only man in history to complete elite training as a Navy SEAL, Army Ranger, and Air Force Tactical Air Controller, he went on to set records in numerous endurance events, inspiring Outside magazine to name him The Fittest (Real) Man in America. In this curse-word-free edition of Can't Hurt Me, he shares his astonishing life story and reveals that most of us tap into only 40% of our capabilities. Goggins calls this The 40% Rule, and his story illuminates a path that anyone can follow to push past pain, demolish fear, and reach their full potential.

David Goggins is an American ultramarathon runner, ultra-distance cyclist, triathlete, public speaker, and author. He is a retired United States Navy SEAL member who served in the Iraq War.

David Goggins

Can't Hurt Me

<ul><li>There are two realms: JS and Native which are not really aware of each other and do not share the same memory</li><li>The communication is async through the bridge between the two realms</li><li>It is slow to transfer large chunks of data. Since the memory is not shared, all the data passed between js and native is a new copy</li><li>No way to update the UI in a sync way. </li><li>The library repo is HUGE. It makes the library heavier and also making it slower to contribute code from outside or release new fixes</li></ul>

Some of the main disadvantages of the current structure

Don’t get them wrong, Facebook is using React Native by themselves for the Marketplace app, Ads app and more which servers millions of daily users. In addition, some well-known companies like Wix, Bloomberg, Tesla, Zynga and much more using RN in production with the current architecture. But all of the above companies and especially Facebook got to a point where they understood that if they want to make a better native experience and better developer experience they have to do a huge move and change and this is exactly what they are in a process of doing (part of it is already completed)

The current Arhitecture

Now, let’s explain about all the new words you see here: JSI, Fabric, Turbo ModulesJSI is gonna replace the BridgeJSI (Will replace the Bridge) — Its purpose is to make the JS and Native are aware of each other. There won’t be any need to serialize JSON through the bridge and even more than that — there won’t be a bridge! It will allow to expose native object as js objects and vice-versa. It will also expose an API for synchronous calling on this object on both sides. Actually, all the rest of the architecture will be built on top of that (Fabric, Turbo Modules which will be explained next).

The New Arhitecture

Fabric — the new name for the UIManager which will be responsible for the native side. The biggest difference now that instead of communicating the JS side by the bridge, it will expose its native function using the JSI so the JS side and vice-versa can communication directly those ref functions. Better and efficient performance and passing data between sides.

Fabric

Remember the native modules from the last post? Text, Image, View. So their new name is Turbo Modules. They have the same purpose but implemented and acting differently. First, they are lazy-loaded (only when the app needs them) comparing to loading all of them on the launch time. In addition, they are also exposed using the JSI so JS holds a ref to use them on the React Native JS lib side. Result => better performance especially on launch time.

Turbo Modules

CodeGen — Suppose to make the JS side a Single Source Of Truth. Can let you create static types of the js so the native side (Fabric and Turbo Modules) will be aware to them and avoid validating the data each time => better performance and less place for mistakes when passing data.Lean Core — A change in React native repository structure. The purpose is to make the lib lighter and help the community resolve more pull requests faster than before. Facebook splits some of its parts to an external repo. It is already a process in progress that you can follow in their Github here.

CodeGen & Lean Core

We now go over the flow from the previous post and will show the differences. There isn’t a bridge anymore<ol><li>User clicks on the app icon</li><li>Fabric loads the native side (no native modules)</li><li>It tells the JS thread that it is ready and now the JS side loads all the main.bundle.js which contains all js and react logic + components</li><li>JS called through the ref native function (the one that was exposed as an object using the JSI API) to Fabric and the shadow node creates the tree as before</li><li>Yoga does the layout calculation converting from flexbox-based style to host layout</li><li>Fabric does its thing and shows the UI </li></ol>

The new flow

We discussed the current structure until now and it is time to talk about the stuff that was not the perfect choice, looking backward as React team leader on Facebook at this time mentioned in her…

computerscience

Computer Science

softwareengineering

Software Engineering

React Native — A Bridge To Fabric 

His mission was destined to yield great wealth to many people. It was destined to bring to the South the most far-flung benefit since the Civil War. For more than an hour, behind the prescription counter, the old doctor and the clerk talked in low tones. Then the doctor left. He went out to the buggy and brought back a large, old fashioned kettle, a big wooden paddle (used for stirring the contents of the kettle), and deposited them in the back of the store.

50 years ago, an old country doctor drove to town, hitched his horse, quietly slipped into a drug store by the back door, and began “dickering” with the young drug clerk.

The old doctor was glad to sell the outfit for five hundred dollars. The money would pay off his debts, and give him freedom of mind. The clerk was taking a big chance by staking his entire life’s savings on a mere scrap of paper and an old kettle! He never dreamed his investment would start a kettle to overflowing with gold that would surpass the miraculous performance of Aladdin’s lamp.What the clerk really purchased was an idea ! The old kettle and the wooden paddle, and the secret message on a slip of paper were incidental.

Read this story carefully, give your imagination a test! See if you can discover what it was that the young man added to the secret message, which caused the kettle to overflow with gold. Remember, as you read, that this is not a story from Arabian Nights. Here you have a story of facts, stranger than fiction, facts which began in the form of an idea . Let us take a look at the vast fortunes of gold this idea has produced. It has paid, and still pays huge fortunes to men and women all over the world, who distribute the contents of the kettle to millions of people.

The kettle overflowed with “gold”

The Old Kettle has converted a small Southern city into the business capital of the South, where it now benefits, directly, or indirectly, every business and practically every resident of the city. The influence of this idea now benefits every civilized country in the world, pouring out a continuous stream of gold to all who touch it. Gold from the kettle built and maintains one of the most prominent colleges of the South, where thousands of young people receive the training essential for success.

Whoever you are, wherever you may live, whatever occupation you may be engaged in, just remember in the future, every time you see the words “<a href="http://clickamericana.com/tag/coca-cola">Coca-Cola </a>,” that its vast empire of wealth and influence grew out of a single idea , and that the mysterious ingredient the drug clerk — Asa Candler — mixed with the secret formula was… imagination ! Truly, thoughts are things, and their scope of operation is the world, itself.

A world-famous success

The clerk inspected the kettle, reached into his inside pocket, took out a roll of bills, and handed it over to the doctor. The roll contained exactly $500 — the clerk’s entire savings! The doctor handed over a small slip of paper on which was written a secret formula. The words on that small slip of paper were worth a King’s ransom! But not to the doctor! Those magic words were needed to start the kettle to boiling, but neither the doctor nor the young clerk knew what fabulous fortunes were destined to flow from that kettle.

creativity

Creativity

The Enchanted Kettle, aka the legend of Coca-Cola

An inverse ETF is an <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/etf.asp">exchange traded fund (ETF) </a>constructed by using various <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/derivative.asp">derivatives </a>to profit from a decline in the value of an underlying benchmark. Investing in inverse ETFs is similar to holding various short positions, which involve borrowing securities and selling them with the hope of repurchasing them at a lower price. An inverse ETF is also known as a "Short ETF" or "Bear ETF."

What Is an Inverse ETF?

<ul><li>An inverse ETF is an exchange traded fund (ETF) constructed by using various derivatives to profit from a decline in the value of an underlying benchmark. </li><li>Inverse ETFs allow investors to make money when the market or the underlying index declines, but without having to sell anything short. </li><li>Higher fees tend to correspond with inverse ETFs versus traditional ETFs. </li> </ul>

Key Takeaways

Many inverse ETFs utilize daily futures contracts to produce their returns. A <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/futurescontract.asp">futures contract </a>is a contract to buy or sell an asset or security at a set time and price. Futures allow investors to make a bet on the direction of a securities price. Inverse ETFs' use of derivatives—like futures contracts—allows investors to make a bet that the market will decline. If the market falls, the inverse ETF rises by roughly the same percentage minus fees and commissions from the broker.

Understanding Inverse ETFs

An advantage of inverse ETFs is that they do not require the investor to hold a <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marginaccount.asp">margin account </a>as would be the case for investors looking to enter into <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/short.asp">short positions </a>. A margin account is one where a broker lends money to an investor to trade. Margin is used with shorting—an advanced trading activity.Investors who enter into short positions borrow the securities—they don't own them—so that they can sell them to other traders. The goal is to buy the asset back at a lower price and unwind the trade by returning the shares to the margin lender.

Inverse ETFs vs. Short Selling

An inverse ETF is an exchange-traded fund that uses various derivatives to profit from a decline in the value of an underlying benchmark.

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

Exploring the Benefits and Risks of Inverse ETFs

I’ve seen a lot of bubbles in my time and I have studied even more in history, so I know what I mean by a bubble and I systemized it into a “bubble indicator﻿” that I monitor to help give me perspective on each market. We now use it to look at most markets we are in. I want to show you how it works and what it is now showing for US stocks.

These are the six factors that Ray Dalio analyses when it comes to a bubble in the stock market:<ol><li>How high are prices relative to traditional measures?</li><li>Are prices discounting unsustainable conditions?</li><li>How many new buyers (i.e., those who weren’t previously in the market) have entered the market?</li><li>How broadly bullish is sentiment?</li><li>Are purchases being financed by high leverage?</li><li>Have buyers made exceptionally extended forward purchases (e.g., built inventory, contracted forward purchases, etc.) to speculate or protect themselves against future price gains?</li></ol>

Each of these six influences is measured using a number of stats that are combined into gauges. In the stock market we do it for each stock that we are looking at. These gauges are combined into aggregate indices by security and then for the market as a whole. The table below shows the current readings of each of these gauges for the US equity market as a whole, and the chart below it shows the aggregate reading derived by combining these gauges into one reading for the stock market going back to 1910. It shows how the conditions stack up today for US equities in relation to past times.

The Confidence Gap

An Incomplete Education

The Dark Forest

The Three-Body Problem

Unwinding Anxiety

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