Makoism (blog) posts

I've been reading some bunches of Makoism posts and I've been liking both 1) His periodic/weekly coffee posts with links to interesting articles, as well as 2) His own posts. The content has felt growth-oriented and honest about technology. I was starting to flood Whats Up with his posts, so I'm branching out to a new note instead.

From Makoism "About" page

To me, living a rich life of experiences and surrounding yourself with interesting people is what brings the diversity of thought into your life. Trying hard things (the things you thought were impossible) and going on fun, crazy adventures is all part of the journey.

I like this. Resonates strongly.

personal board of directors

have a personal board of directors. I like the idea of having a list of people in your mind who you turn to when facing important (or less important too) life decisions.

fixed growth

https://makoism.com/the_fixed_growth/

• "how often forward progress is tempered by you, your environment, and your mindset."
• TODO: watch Tedx talk "How to murder your mediocrity" (20 min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjfJSfR7QUk
  • though, mako notes down a quote - "Having a growth mindset means that YOU ARE NOT STATIC. you can learn new skills you can become a better person" - and I don't think I need to be told this... I like to believe I am a pretty growth-oriented person already and so obviously don't believe that my state of being / personal fulfillment / etc is fixed/unchanging. But I bet I could find some nuggets of useful sentiment in the video / rest of this article. Or maybe I'm wrong and I reallllly need these thoughts.
• Another Tedx talk: "The power of yet" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-swZaKN2Ic
  • "You're not yet there. But you will be, you can be; just keep going"
    • Now this is good. I feel like I need to hear this sometimes, especially when working on a skill. One example is piano -- progress learning is slow sometimes, but it really does accumulate, and I see myself getting better and better. It's important to trust that if you keep working at something, you will get to where you're looking to get.
    • I feel there's more than just skill acquisition to this, though. Like more life stuff. Like thinking about a phase of life that seems far away, maybe feels unreachable, but you have to trust that you'll get there eventually when the time is right.
    • (Not sure I caught this quote in the actual video. Maybe it's in there though. Taken from Mako's post.)
  • "Instead of luxuriating in the power of yet, they were gripped in the tyranny of now."
  • Talks a lot about students - better to reward "process" rather than "intelligence". i.e. praise someone when they try hard, when they care, when they show improvement, rather than just praising a good grade on a test.
  • When you push yourself to learn something challenging, your neurons form new/stronger connections. Discusses this one potential reason why certain students struggle, if they don't realize this. I can imagine that there could be people who don't realize that the way to improve is to push yourself past your comfort zone.
    • It maybe sounds obvious... But it's a good reminder that to improve in any area, you need to push yourself and put effort in. The more you do so, the more you'll improve. (Of course, there's a balance to be found. I wouldn't encourage overdoing it just for its own sake. It should align with one's goals.)
• "Finding your tribe... who believe in learning and improvement... will ultimately challenge your thinking with new possibilities... and help you think differently about things you hold as fixed truths."
  • External input is so valuable. You can only get so far in your own mind. The voices/thoughts/insights of others can really change things, either giving you new ideas or validating ones you're unsure about (or also shooting down bad ideas/mindsets).
• "The freedom of low expectations" -- i guess the idea is, for certain things, you don't need strict goals, but just see where things go