Coming Soon:
Raw Data–i.e., Audio-Files And Transcripts–Of Book’s Research*
(*About Intrapersonal-Communication and Cognitive-Science)
Also, please visit the page below for my regular journal entries:
https://profseifsekalala.org/journal/
Quick Notes, 02-22-21:
Post 7; 02-22-2021:
A Philosophical View Of Writing, From One Writer’s Deck
>> Editorial-Notes:
1–Original title: “A View Of Writing, From The Writer’s Deck”
2–Constitutive sub-topics (in random order):
–> Time/history
–> Work and productivity/discipline
–> Thinking and thinking about how we think (metacognition)
–> Writing for what purpose?
+ Depending on the answer, different processes
+ E.g., creative vs. research-writing
–> Related to thinking: “hard work” vs. “smart work.”
–> Related to above: “attention/focus”
–> Coherence and relation of writing to rap (/spoken word, poetry, etc.)
–> Creativity, standards, and aesthetics
–> Arbitrariness
–> And (related to arbitrariness), typology—including taxonomies
Quick Notes, 02/10/21:
>> In the entry below (Post 4, “…Worth A Try“), note the words/clauses I’ve encased and numbered in these (^^) arrows, in addition to bolding, italicizing, and underlining them, for clear emphasis.
>> Those words/clauses were originally composed differently; I later revised them to clarify the meaning of the journal entry.
>> Whereas number [3]’s meaning-effect is minor–I originally wrote “week,” instead of “year,” together, numbers [1] and [2]–in their original wordings, would have considerably muddled the entry’s thesis.
>> How? Originally, instead of “many/most,” (i.e., on number [1]) I had written something like “all”. Later, as I was completing that second paragraph and mentally composing the third, I realized that that wording–i.e. “all” had tied my rhetorical feet, so to speak! By changing the “all” to the current iteration (“many/most”), I was able to untie myself!
>> I hope the above notes make sense to **YOU**, my (other) dear reader, apart from my **self**! 🙂
Post 4; 01/31/21:
It’s Always Worth A Try
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an entry in this public journal about a productivity hack I’ve discovered in the last few months—i.e., the challenge (to oneself), which I have used for a few months to date, with fairly good results so far. Another productivity trick I can personally vouch for is the famous “to-do” list. A public promise—or a promise to (a) specific someone(s) to whom you owe a deliverable—is yet another effective trick in my experience.
Great, thank goodness for such hacks/techniques. But what does one do, when sometimes (and yes, those times inevitably come up throughout life, here and there), ^^[1] many/most^^ of those tricks are ineffective because of low motivation, which is in turn caused by numerous factors? For let’s face it, in such circumstances, to-do lists and self-challenges are rendered weak.
^^[2] I guess one of the quick solutions for me, for those low-motivation situations, is the use of the other techniques mentioned above^^, which involve staking your reputation through public promises. For me at least, that is a good motivator; how do I let myself lose face, when all I have to do is simply do X (/“fill in the blank”) for my students, or a friend, colleagues, family-member(s), etc.?
But even then, I suppose one can fail in their obligations because of other good reasons outside of our control, as opposed to laziness or lack of motivation. And sometimes, chaotic situations cause us to abandon our fancy plans; in this vein, I really love that Mike Tyson quote, “everybody has a plan, until they get punched in the mouth.” Yikes.
One of the answers that come to mind in response to the above dilemmas, is this: it’s okay to fail. But there’s also a caveat to that maxim: it’s okay to fail, **but only if you at least try, or make a good faith effort!**
I believe most folks reading this journal entry can recall those numerous times in which they just didn’t want to get out of bed, didn’t feel like writing that paper, etc. At the end of the day, one can only entertain those failures so much, before eventually paying for that mistake—i.e., of easily entertaining failure.
But again, the good news is that you don’t have to get up at the crack of dawn every day, or write a perfect paper every time. All you have to do is **try**.
So, here’s a promise to myself for this ^^[3] year^^: I promise to at least try, surely. And try again if I fail or don’t perform as well as I wanted to the first time; and try again after that, if I have to, until I achieve whatever it is I am trying to achieve.
Aspiring Polymath 