Thinking under pressure

Challenging math problems are solved using a great deal of working memory, or "short-term" memory. Studies show that those who perform regularly with a higher degree of working memory are more susceptible to pressure because they rely on a working memory that has been crowded out by anxiety.

The solution to this is to either reduce reliance on working memory (higher reliance on automation or memorization) or become oblivious to pressure. Pressure seeps in through self-doubt and pessimism. Practice and familiarity can reduce the amount of self-doubt and reduce pressure, thus increasing thinking capacity in a high stress environment.

Nightmares

Whenever I'm stressed and I repress it during the day, it comes back to bite me when I sleep... in the form of nightmares. Ever since high school, stress comes to me in the form of bad dreams. So not surprisingly, ever since I registered for the CFA I've been getting nightmares every night. My friend says it's because I don't find ways to release it during the day. Well for me it's not about finding ways, but finding time. I simply just don't want to allocate time for stress relief, because I feel like it'd be a waste.

So for now I'll put up with my nightmares. Yeah... we'll see how long that lasts.

What smart people do: hold lots of information in short-term memory

Smart people have very active brains. That is, they're able to hold much more information in their short-term memory than non-smart people (however, that's not to say they have very good long-term memory... shockingly I've noticed that a lot of them don't).

I.e. today I started with the number 3 and kept taking the exponent (kept multiplying by 3), all in my head, until I just couldn't keep track anymore. A smart person would be able to go a lot higher, perhaps even going into 7 digits, which is my short-term goal.

You can't be good at everything

One of my problems is that I hate to do things that I've realized I suck at. Perhaps the most abhorred activity I can think of in regards to this mentality is skating. I don't think there is anything I suck at more in life than skating, which I'm completely hopeless in. It's not that I haven't actively tried to get better in it. I've gone to the rink probably three times in my life, and surprisingly each time was more disastrous than the previous.

So this leads me to my other dilemma. Whenever I try to "like" something, I feel like I have to be good at it, or understand what it takes to be good at it. But isn't there some life rule that states you can't be good at everything? When I try to like something, I sometimes have to tell myself Yes, it's possible to be good at everything. Otherwise I don't really want to try. Yeah... I know it's bad.

Commitment Reminders and FWYDWYD syndrome

I've learned that whenever you commit to something difficult that involves a great deal of sacrifice, like quitting your job to found an internet startup, you need to constantly remind yourself why you chose your path. This is because, almost always, distractions come by and you lose track of your original motives, and these motives were what drove you to do what you did in the first place, and these motives will always be the strongest.

What I've learned is that the syndrome of forgetting why you're doing what you're doing (FWYDWYD) is all too common, and almost always it creeps up on you without you knowing. You don't just wake up one day and say to yourself "wow, I've forgotten why I'm doing this," FWYDWYD is a lot more dangerous than this. The symptoms are always indirect. You start losing energy, you start doubting more consistently, it becomes harder to pull yourself up in the morning, you feel stressed some days and you can't even explain it. These are symptoms of FWYDWYD and the only way to prevent and squelch them is to constantly remind yourself why you do what you do. As an entrepreneur, I've found the following useful ways to do this:

1) Reliving those days when I started my commitment. Includes reading emails I sent back then, reading articles I had read back then when I was first inspired, getting back in touch with people I was in touch with back then.

2) Writing and communicating the original motives to people. I've learned that whenever I put something into words for me to hear and see, the ideas behind those words liven up and take on new meaning internally.

3) Interact with others who currently have the same motive as you did back then. When I was in China for the Spring Festival, I had the chance to talk with a product developer at a Chinese internet startup. The energy he had and the forcefulness with which he articulated his vision reminded me of how I was like back then, and brought back a lot of fire.

I think that for anyone committing to something great, the fire is always greatest when just starting. And to go back to those days is essential fuel to ensure that the fire doesn't burn out.

Agape Reunion

If there was one thing that defined my experience in college, it was being in the Christian ministry Agape. I'll admit that when I left my was heart a little bitter, and when you associate memories with some bitterness, they tend to become shallow or at least appear that way. So usually I don't think much of my college life because it seemed to have gone by in a breeze.

Last night, miraculously, I was able to hang out with three people from Agape I was probably the closest to, and people whom I thought I would never see again when I left (although I've been hanging out with Jon the past couple of months, heh). We reminisced a lot, dug up some old laughs, and recounted some embarrassing stories. I don't know if it's maybe bitterness clearing away or being able to see old friends again, but I realized there was a lot more to my experience at Agape then I give credit for. We all really did go through a lot, and as the memories came back they became a lot more vivid. Like that time we tried to burn the chest hair off of one of the bro's by using cologne + matches. Or that time my pastor came to talk to me one on one because he felt that one of my smallgroup members was gay. Or that time we left the rice cooker out uncleaned for a week and grew a whole multi-colored civilization out of it. Or that time one of our staff member's kids came out of our apartment bathroom crying because it was so dirty.

I can't believe I was almost ready to discount those years and pretend as if they never happened. Although a lot did happen between now and that day I left, most notably my trip to Europe and my leave from my job to start up an internet business, ultimately what can never happen is me forgetting those fond times at Agape that were undeniably crazy and life changing.

What smart people do: thinking over new information

Smart people think a lot, or at least a great deal more than average people, about what's communicated to them, including what they read, what they see, and what the hear. When reading, hearing, and watching, they're constantly thinking if what they're witnessing is valid. They think about how the information can be used practically. They themselves are able to have a logically valid reaction to the information, or find holes and flaws in that information.

P.S. I'm not trying to make the claim that I'm actually smart (in fact, I think I'm very mediocre at best, or maybe a smart wannabe), or even define what being smart really is. This is just a casual series of observations I've made of people whom I personally believe are highly intelligent, including successful entrepeneurs and highly motivated field experts/researchers. Basically people who set high goals for themselves and have managed to achieve them with their brains.

River Town, Being an Outsider and Why I love to Travel

Four weeks ago on my plane ride to China, I finished Peter Hessler's River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, a book bought for me by a mentor. The book is Peter's narrative as an American Peace Corps volunteer teaching in Fuling, a remote town in China's Szechuan province. It actually reminded me a lot of my friends Rishi & Paulette who are currently teaching in Japan. Being the first American to live there for so long, he experiences I would say a unique reaction from the Chinese living there, but most importantly he is also able to provide an outsider's perspective on Chinese culture. What happens when you're an outsider? You become more aware, more sensitive to what people accept as day-to-day.

When asked about my childhood, I just say I grew up in China but I lived in America. This means that my childhood experiences are Chinese while my the experiences of my youth are American. I think sometimes this creates a chasm because I've absorbed one culture as a child and absorbed a much different one later on throughout maturity. I believe that childhood memories are more dear to the heart while your adolescent memories determine more the way you live and how your life turns out. Thus when I think of China I think of fondness, of family, and of the past. When I think of America I think of life, career, and future. But moving on, reading this book shocked me because I feel like I identify with the author, who provides an outsider's perspective. Yet, on the flip side, I remember reading a Chinese narrative of life in America and I identify with that too. I don't know if others who've lived a similar life go through this as well, but I feel like I'm always an outsider who is constantly more or less observing a lifestyle rather than living it. I think this is why I'm in love with traveling. Traveling allows me to be myself and shows me that it's okay to be an outsider, because travelers will always be one. This is also why the only people I will ever truly get along with are travelers themselves because they know what it's like, and thus appreciate, to be on the outside.

Sometimes every now and then I do wish I could have been born and had stayed in one place, so I could know what it's like to truly fit in with a normal person's lifestyle. But I know that for the most part I don't think I would have had it any other way. I enjoy the open-mindedness that comes from being dual-cultured and I appreciate how it has made me adaptive to change.

Anyhoo, I'll post up some of my favorite excerpts from the book later. I think you'll enjoy them :)

Scrambled Eggs

I think I've got it figured it out. The trick to making good scrambled eggs is the quality of the eggs, temperature of the oil, and how long you leave it in the skillet. I think what makes eggs good isn't the flavor or what you add in it but the texture, which is controlled by the egg quality, the temperature, and the cooking time.

By the way, props to JJ and Rishi for their insightful comments on Overachieving... perhaps one day I'll try to write a more focused piece on this topic but for now you'll just have to settle for my scatterbrain arguments :p

Overachieving

Some thoughts of mine on Alexandra Robbin's recent article Confessions of a (Recovering) Overachiever featured in Forbes...

It may sound obvious, but it's very easy to denounce the over-achieving life when you yourself have gone through it. But to further explain... Robbins talks about the pressure to succeed. Most would agree that this pressure comes mainly from external factors like peer pressure. You want to succeed so you can look good to others, have something to feel good about. But it's cheap to cry out against the negatives of overachievement when you already have those trophies up to show people. It's so easy to live the easy, non-over-achieving life when you already have those safeguards in the arsenal that you can quickly pull out at anytime to show people that you've had great success in life, and thus make yourself feel better.

I also believe that it's easy to appreciate the easy life when you've gone through the pressured life. It's the old argument against "ignorance is bliss." Enlightened people are the only ones who know how to appreciate the so-called bliss that the ignorant ones are living. So I think one can make the alternative argument that if you've been living the easy way all your life, then you should give stress a try and push yourself to the limits, see how far you can go. I don't think you can fully enjoy doing what you love until you've experienced what it's like to do what you hate.

I know what Robbins is trying to do, and I appreciate her current life mission. I just feel that the other side to her argument should not be overlooked.