\ud83d\ude0e<\/p>\n
I\u2019m getting an early start on my personal Kanban system.<\/strong> Since my new motivation to keep a schedule is still alive, I\u2019ve had some extra time in the morning for side projects, so I\u2019ve been spending it on getting into Kanban sooner. So far I\u2019ve assessed my history with Kanban (mainly a more limited and less informed attempt in 2022 that didn\u2019t stick) and assembled the sources I\u2019ll draw from. One of them I listened to this week, Scrumban<\/em> by Corey Ladas (intro article<\/a>), a book dense with insights that uses the kind of analysis I live on to helpfully compare Kanban to other approaches. With my new understanding of the framework, now I\u2019m seeing kanban systems pop up everywhere, such as the reservoirs I visit on my walks, which are buffers that helps the pipes manage the flow of stormwater through the system. There’s also my cooking routine, where the throughput is limited by my freezer space, number of food containers, and demand, since I make meals faster than I can eat them.<\/p>\n Zettelkasten has come up in my life again thanks to Tiago Forte\u2019s very good summary article<\/a> of S\u00f6nke Ahrens\u2019 How to Take Smart Notes<\/em>.<\/strong> I listened to Ahrens\u2019 book a few years ago and didn’t really know what to do with it, but this time my mind has been stirring with improvements I can make to my notes in Notion, so it may be time to revisit the book soon, since it\u2019ll affect how I write tasks for my Kanban board.<\/p>\n The 80-20 Learner<\/em> by Peter Hollins is helping me optimize my learning.<\/strong> As with Scott Young\u2019s Ultralearning<\/em> and Josh Kaufman\u2019s The First 20 Hours<\/em>, I listened to it to help me learn more efficiently when I\u2019m trying to get through large bodies of material, like entire math courses. It was short but gave me some food for thought. I especially want to explore the idea of writing out my thoughts on a topic before I learn about it (1) to focus my learning on my questions, (2) to give my new knowledge a firmer tree of existing knowledge to attach to, and (3) to make a bunch of guesses to be wrong about, since mistakes are how you learn.<\/p>\n My new weeknote writing schedule is shaping up.<\/strong> I got through much more of the content before Sunday this time. The process still has some issues to work out, such as the amount of time I spend writing, but it\u2019s an approach I can work with.<\/p>\n \ud83d\ude0c<\/p>\n I started my math iteration.<\/strong> To kick things off with some planning, I decided on the textbook to use (Intermediate Algebra<\/a><\/em> by OpenStax), the learning techniques I’ll try (the 80\/20 principle; just-in-time, mnemonic flashcards; and writing by hand), metrics for measuring success (flashcards and assessments), and some things I won’t include in the project for now (adding to my math programming cheat sheet<\/a>, updating my math relearning<\/a> pages on the wiki, and doing anything with my math student simulator<\/a>).<\/p>\n Then I started on the first chapter, and \u2026 I\u2019m still not learning algebra\u2014it\u2019s a review of prealgebra. But I\u2019m having a good time anyway with the work journaling approach I\u2019ve picked up since my last foray into math, which lets me work more consciously and record thoughts that may become essays at some point.<\/p>\n Mental calculation is one of my lifelong tensions around math, and Arthur Benjamin\u2019s Secrets of Mental Math<\/em> gives me some potential ways to relieve it.<\/strong> I don’t have much math anxiety, but when it does come up, it’s because I\u2019m expected to do math in my head. Yet in past iterations of my math relearning project, I\u2019ve been too impatient to do the examples on paper, so mentally is how I’ve done them. That works for the most part, but with more complex concepts like fractions it\u2019s a strain to keep track of all the details. That probably means I should just slow down and do them on paper, but Arthur Benjamin tells me to a certain degree there\u2019s a way to have my mental cake and eat it too.<\/p>\n Everything in life is related to everything else, and that\u2019s especially true in math, so it\u2019s interesting to see that these relationships mean there are tricks that make arithmetic calculations easy enough to do in your head. It was also good to see that when the tricks don\u2019t make things easy enough, even mathemagicians use the familiar mnemonic techniques.<\/p>\n \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Friday\u2019s walk brought some rare sights.<\/strong> (1) A clear view of a green heron, which I\u2019ve only seen once before. (2) Chipmunks galore, when they\u2019re normally in hiding or rushing out of sight. I think summer must be the time to spot them. Earlier I even caught a glimpse of one scurrying into a hole by the back entrance of my apartment building. (3) A lily pad with an actual flower.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n A post shared by Andy Culbertson (@thinkulum)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nMath<\/h2>\n
Nature<\/h2>\n
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