MAGA Mindset reading is up

I wanted to take this advantage to share a partial reading of Mike Cernovich's MAGA Mindset by Stefan Molyneux. I am not pushing a political party or person. I am sharing this as a State of the Union that only Cernovich can get.

Expansive and Contractive feelings

I recently heard of expansive vs. contractive feelings. I heard this on James Altucher's interview of Jewel.

The way I understand it, expansive feelings cause on to think of others. Contractive feelings cause on to close in on oneself.

From the scant sources that weren't from wild New Age-y sites, Love is expansive. Jewel said that excitement, on the other hand, is contractive.

I have not bought into all the premises, but think that this is excellent way of gauging feelings. One may temper feelings with meditation, by letting feelings simply pass without a reaction.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, in mind own experience, is noting a feeling cycle (thought, mood, actions=> which all impact each other in turn). It differs from traditional meditation, which seeks to separate feelings from action, by attempting to keep certain feelings over others.

I think CBT/ DBT (dialectical behavioral therapy) and meditation both build upon each other. Yet meditation is better.

Anti-Tech Revolution chapters 2+3

Kaczynski wrote, in Anti-Tech Revolution (Chapters 2+3), about self-propagating systems. These systems get more complex over time, rather than less complex. They also get more disorderly.

This apparent contradiction, plus the inability to predict the future of a world-system from inside of it, means that there will no Vingean Singularity. I wrote a blog a few years back, where I believed the Singularity was likely. I had not understood Roger Penrose or political philosophy well at the time.

I no longer believe that it will happen, either.

In the chapters (2+3), he also writes that poorly defined goals ruin societies. America had a clear goal for many years during the 20th Century, as the world was defined by the Communism vs. Capitalism struggle.

At the dawn of the Republic, the goal to establish a Republican government separate form Britain was prime. Republican, however, is not clearly defined. As more complexity entered the American government, so has more corruption.

The poor goals of governments doom them.

In America, I have argued before that the complexity of policing laws the Federal Government was to have little role in (according to the Constitution) ruined the viability of the US Government. It is not turned into the Nanny State, a la Snowden's leaks.

The only topic I strongly disagree with Kaczynski on is on page 93, where he asserts that "the Revolutionaries" formed a government which "has lasted until this day." The reason I disagree is that the first US Government (USG) was the Articles of Confederation. It has not lasted.

Kaczynski writes on the fact that Jesus' word has been interpreted differently by people who could not live to Jesus' ideals, such as the admonition against murder.

Feminism is a prime example, where it served a purpose, yet had no clear goals after suffrage. Feminism is falling.

Kaczynski also writes about Luther, Calvin, and the how it has brought us to today's events through the chapters. Today's events seem the logical conclusion of the Princeton Theology.

More updates will come as I read more chapters. I am enjoying the text. Keep in mind, that I received the book for free in exchange for an honest review.

The HIV Patient o

I was reading about the origin of the patient zero myth of HIV. Apparently, someone misinterpreted it to prove he was not patient zero. On Twitter, so many people wrote that he had been exonerated.

This is incredible. Almost 30 years after he was called "THE MAN WHO GAVE US AIDS," Gaétan Dugas's dignity has been restored https://t.co/GlyyA0oHKn

— David Mack (@davidmackau) October 26, 2016

Has it? I will not write for or against homosexuality. I am writing about the prevalence of myths after they have been disproven. Superstition is one way, but wive's tales are another. While peer review exonerated Dugas, the general public will not think too much of this story, because they heard it was true.

I wish there were a better way, as a doctoral student, to get stories from academic articles to the general public. Many discount the news today due to the clickbaity stuff. Thus, few believe why they say. Folklore is different than academic studies in that folklore is stronger.

Uncertainty in Societies

I am reading Ted Kaczynski's new book Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How. Yes. That Ted Kaczynski.

I noticed in a Facebook post yesterday that few leaders are as powerful as they seem.

This was from an observation in the book. Another observation is that you cannot accurately predict our society while being part of it. This uses a different law, but has kinship with Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. An outside actor can more accurately predict a society's destiny, yet it is impossible because of globalization. So, I have only read the first chapter and preface. I'll share other insights as I get further along.

I am noting that I received this book in exchange for an honest review, and I will be posting the total review on Goodreads and Amazon later.

On 21st century politics

It has come to my attention that voting with the in-crowd has become more important than speaking one's own mind. I never thought about this before I heard that Kim Kardashian was "endorsing" Hillary. First, is she an example? I respect her ability to bring her sex appeal and her relation to Jenner to her own fame. I do not consider her someone to emulate. Second, why does anyone care about the endorsement of a reality TV star? She is not endorsing. She is voting for Hillary, and wants everyone to do the same.

On the other hand, Colin Powell made some serious mistakes during his tenure as SECSTATE. That does not mean that we should not follow his endorsements. He did a great job as CJCS (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs) and was rewarded by W. Just because he party flopped, does not mean anyone else will. The cult of personality is pushed for Kim K and Powell, mainly because they vote with liberal media. First, does anyone want to remember how Powell is called out by the left for his voice in the UN Security Council meetings against Iraq? No one will vote with him on the left. The Right is voting for Trump. The center sways, but besides Neocons, which vastly affected the GOP, no one would vote for Trump because of what Powell says. They use him as reinforcement for their own ideas.

The 43rd President, W, was a neocon. He was mostly a moderate with Hawkish beliefs. The Right are voting for Trump. The Libertarians are not voting for Trump. They are mostly voting for Gary Johnson or writing in Rand Paul. The moderates are going third party (Constitution, Green, Libertarian, McMullin).

Powell, while a great CJCS, won't sway the hard right to vote for Hillary. Kim K won't sway anyone except for people reinforcing their own ideas.

Vote your mind. Don't vote to follow Reality TV stars, which the left only heckles because Trump was one.

Possible accountability group

I have joined the KaizenBrotherhood subreddit. Mostly, it gives me someone to be accountable to because I said I would do it. Weekly, we do a bit of goal setting and comment it off to others on the subreddit.

We also use Slack to keep some of our conversations together. I am new to it, but it is a good start. I had no one to be accountable to before I found it that was also interested in productivity minded things.

Plans and goals, of course, need to be actionable where the can be met and measurable. This goes along with the SMART goal setting framework that I learned years ago. Obviously, if you cannot meet your goal, you'll get discouraged. If you cannot measure it, then how will you know if you've met it.

Feelings don't help to measure anything. Feelings are BS.

WoW raid yesterday

My brother-in-law led a raid in World of Warcraft yesterday. We did okay, considering the gear level of most of the raid. I think my healing numbers were greatly improved to normal.

I am working on school work when I am not spending time with family, such as the raid yesterday. It was mostly family at around 830 Average ilvl.

I am also trying to keep productive. I fell back on my tracking yesterday due to a terrible headache, which I still have.

I also set up a bundle of subreddits on Reddit. I set it up for all the productivity and philosophy subreddits. I get tired of having to wade through standard subreddits that are always on the front page. This will cut down on time spent on reddit, since I mostly only read.

Health numbers falling

Went to the VA Hospital for a check-up today. My health, even though I have focused on doing the right things, has changed, at least in numbers.

My goals due to this:
1: After today, ditch sugary beverages again. I got into this habit when my sugars were better. I had been out of it, mostly drinking diet soda or water. I need to go back to the diet soda and water routine.
2: 1800 calorie diet starting now. I estimate using MyFitnessPal that I eat about 2000. I need to cut back to 1800. 1400 calories, which was my last recommendation, was too low.
3: Continue to lose weight. I lost ten pounds since my last visit six months ago. I need to keep the trend going. Keep up the same exercises or add more.

I won't go into too many numbers for fear of boring you all, but the care that had been my routine in the past needs to return, while keeping new good habits going.

Habits being added too fast

I discovered that my new productivity habit of tracking various things is moving along too fast. I am tapering back a bit. For example, I was putting too many habits in a day where I would be bringing my daughter out. This made it difficult to keep everything completed.

I am slowly adding things, but was not careful of what I was tracking. I'll keep tracking, but it was necessary to slow down in order to keep a completed list. I need to keep the progress going in order to feel pressure, but as habits pass incomplete I will need to be more careful for what I allocate for each day.

Right now, I am have been keeping about two weeks with a day skipped. I should get closer to a month before I add extra tasks, but change habits from day to day.

I am experimenting with my tasks of adding some of Sebastian Marshall's great tasks. I will look over his site in the next few days to prepare for the next couple of weeks, when I add more items to my tracking list.

Habits are daily items that need to be done, to me. By tasks, I mean things on the tracking list.

By habits, I will change daily. By tasks, I will add monthly things to be tracked.

I currently track health, wealth, relationships, fitness, and productivity, yet some of these items are dual-tracked as habits under the tasks.

Quantification project

I have read that "Real Artists Ship." Probably it came from Seth Godin.

I agree, but do not have an exceptionally interesting life. I teach my daughter, love my wife, and keep a quiet family life. Yet, I agree with Godin.

I am trying to write, due to this.

This week has gone great, with quantification of certain projects going great. I have managed to stretch or exercise every day this week. I have also taken my medicine when necessary and added more brushing and flossing. I have never been great at daily tasks like this, but keeping track has helped.

This week, I have a doctor's appointment and will go to the Gaslight Theater with my family. We are seeing Frankenstein, but most likely a comedic version of it.

I will try to write as soon as I have more to say.

Lost weight and started keeping track

I lost weight recently. I mean, by lost weight, around 20-21 pounds. I am about 145 at last weight.

I am working on quantifying progress by calculating times and actions and writing down these items.

I have also written some goals down that I will continue to work towards. I do not plan on adding them all in one day, but slowly incorporating a few things every day.

The goals:

• My Ed.D
• Different personal hygiene actions
• And a daily goal for health, wealth, and relationships

So far, I have been doing these tasks for about a week, but hope to keep adding and tweaking these goals.

Let me know how you quantify your goals and actions. I would like to add more eventually.