furidamu - bookshttp://www.furidamu.org/2019-02-18T22:25:00+00:00Reading July - September 20182019-02-18T22:25:00+00:002019-02-18T22:25:00+00:00Julian Schrittwiesertag:www.furidamu.org,2019-02-18:/blog/2019/02/18/reading-july--september-2018/<html><body><h1>Books</h1>
<p><strong>Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach</strong>, <em>John L. Hennessy</em> and <em>David A. Patterson</em>. Great book covering low level details of computer architecture, from instructions sets, memory architectures to custom machine learning accelerators. I definitely recommend this for anyone with an interest in computing or software engineering.</p>
<p><strong>The Age of Comfort</strong>, <em>Joan DeJean</em>. Interesting content, but way to verbose and repetitive. Stopped reading half way through.</p>
<p><strong>Hight Output Management</strong>, <em>Andrew S. Grove</em>.</p>
<p><strong>Why We Sleep</strong>, <em>Matthew Walker</em>. This book got me to take my sleep cycle a whole lot more seriously, there's hardly a night now that I sleep less than …</p></body></html><html><body><h1>Books</h1>
<p><strong>Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach</strong>, <em>John L. Hennessy</em> and <em>David A. Patterson</em>. Great book covering low level details of computer architecture, from instructions sets, memory architectures to custom machine learning accelerators. I definitely recommend this for anyone with an interest in computing or software engineering.</p>
<p><strong>The Age of Comfort</strong>, <em>Joan DeJean</em>. Interesting content, but way to verbose and repetitive. Stopped reading half way through.</p>
<p><strong>Hight Output Management</strong>, <em>Andrew S. Grove</em>.</p>
<p><strong>Why We Sleep</strong>, <em>Matthew Walker</em>. This book got me to take my sleep cycle a whole lot more seriously, there's hardly a night now that I sleep less than eight hours.</p>
<p><strong>Capitalism without Capital</strong>, <em>Haskell and Westlake</em>. Interesting perspective on modern technology companies, but feels like it could have been a bit more concise.</p>
<p><strong>Never split the difference</strong>, <em>Chris Voss</em>. Fascinating book on negotiating and how to approach it. Can't wait to try the advice, which seems much more broadly applicable as well. Example: As open ended How or What question to make the other person feel like they are in charge while they reveal important information to you.</p>
<h1>Papers</h1>
<p><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.09055">DARTS: Differentiable Architecture Search</a> great way of searching neural network architectures really efficiently, and also applicably to a any other problem where you want to optimize or create an expression!</p>
<p><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.05695">Evolving simple programs for playing Atari games</a>. Quite fun to see how much a very small evolved program can do in many games.</p>
<p>The Push3 Execution Stack and the Evolution of Control</p>
<p>Improved Regularization of Convolutional Neural Networks with Cutout</p>
<p>Fast Algorithms for Convolutional Neural Networks</p></body></html>Reading April - June 20182018-07-19T13:09:00+01:002018-07-19T13:09:00+01:00Julian Schrittwiesertag:www.furidamu.org,2018-07-19:/blog/2018/07/19/reading-april--june-2018/<html><body><h2>Books</h2>
<p><strong>The Power</strong>, <em>Naomi Alderman</em>. Interesting point of view on gender and power dynamics. Turned out different (better) than I expected from the beginning.</p>
<p><strong>Letters to a Young Scientist</strong>, <em>E. O. Wilson</em>. Half very interesting advice about how to do science, half anecdotes from the life of a biologist with a speciality in ants.</p>
<p><strong>How we got here</strong>, <em>Andy Kessler</em>. Whirlwind tour of the history of the industrial revolution, technology and how it lead to modern capital markets.</p>
<p><strong>Pitch Perfect - how to say it right the first time, every time</strong>, <em>Bill McGowan</em>. Chock full of tips to improve the way …</p></body></html><html><body><h2>Books</h2>
<p><strong>The Power</strong>, <em>Naomi Alderman</em>. Interesting point of view on gender and power dynamics. Turned out different (better) than I expected from the beginning.</p>
<p><strong>Letters to a Young Scientist</strong>, <em>E. O. Wilson</em>. Half very interesting advice about how to do science, half anecdotes from the life of a biologist with a speciality in ants.</p>
<p><strong>How we got here</strong>, <em>Andy Kessler</em>. Whirlwind tour of the history of the industrial revolution, technology and how it lead to modern capital markets.</p>
<p><strong>Pitch Perfect - how to say it right the first time, every time</strong>, <em>Bill McGowan</em>. Chock full of tips to improve the way you communicate, in any area of life. I definitely recommend reading this.</p>
<p><strong>On the shortness of Life</strong>, <em>Seneca</em>. Good to reflect on what are you doing with your life, and if it's really meaningful in the long term.</p>
<p><strong>The Enchiridion</strong>, <em>Epictetus</em>. The most succinct summary of Stoicism I've read. If you only read one book from this list, read this one.</p>
<p><strong>How Asia Works</strong>, <em>Joe Studwell</em>. A convincing historical account of how the successful North East Asian countries (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, China) managed their transformation from poverty to rich developed country: land reform to support household farming, export-oriented manufacturing, closely controlled finance to support the two. An eye-opening book, making the case that developing country economics is not the same as rich country economics, and state guided economy and protectionist measures are essential to develop a country.</p>
<p><strong>Legends of the Condor Heroes: A Hero Born</strong>, <em>Jin Yong</em>. Entertaining martial arts story, but without too much depth.</p>
<p><strong>Development is Freedom</strong>, <em>Amartya Sen</em>. Very verbose and circular, I stopped reading after a hundred pages.</p>
<p><strong>12 Rules for Life</strong>, <em>Jordan B. Peterson</em>. Interesting suggestions for how to lead your life, some overlap with Stoicism. Frequently uses examples from the bibble as illustrations for why to behave in a certain way, without being religious.</p>
<p><strong>Measure what matters</strong>, <em>John Doerr</em>. An excellent introduction to OKRs and how to use the to improve the focus of your work, both personally and at a company level.</p>
<p><strong>Brothers Karamazov</strong>, <em>Fyodor Dostoyevsky</em>. Great novel (both in terms of physical size and writing quality), I really started getting hooked a few hundred pages into the book.</p>
<p><strong>The Mind Illuminated</strong>, <em>Culadasa (John Yates)</em>. An in-depth description of how to meditate and what to expect along the way. Reading this book I realized how much overlap there is between meditation / Buddhist thought and Stoicism.</p></body></html>Reading January - March 20182018-04-15T20:19:00+01:002018-04-15T20:19:00+01:00Julian Schrittwiesertag:www.furidamu.org,2018-04-15:/blog/2018/04/15/reading-january--march-2018/<html><body><p>Inspired by <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cHM6Ly9lbGkudGhlZ3JlZW5wbGFjZS5uZXQvMjAxOC9zdW1tYXJ5LW9mLXJlYWRpbmctamFudWFyeS1tYXJjaC0yMDE4LyIsICJjYWNoZSI6ICJjYWNoZS9ibG9nXzIwMThfMDRfMTVfcmVhZGluZy1qYW51YXJ5LS1tYXJjaC0yMDE4L2VsaS50aGVncmVlbnBsYWNlLm5ldF8yMDE4X3N1bW1hcnktb2YtcmVhZGluZy1qYW51YXJ5LW1hcmNoLTIwMTgvZWxpLnRoZWdyZWVucGxhY2UubmV0LzIwMTgvc3VtbWFyeS1vZi1yZWFkaW5nLWphbnVhcnktbWFyY2gtMjAxOC9pbmRleC5odG1sIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="https://eli.thegreenplace.net/2018/summary-of-reading-january-march-2018/">
Eli Bendersky's post</a></span></p>
<h2>Books</h2>
<p><strong>The Obstacle is the Way</strong>, <em>Ryan Holiday</em>. A modern introduction to Stoicism. If you don't like the writing style, try Seneca or Marcus Aurelius.</p>
<p><strong>Cicero - Selected Works</strong>, <em>Penguin Classics</em>. One of the greatest orators of all time, contrasting his speeches with modern politicians gives you a lot of perspective.</p>
<p><strong>Lessons of History</strong>, <em>Will & Ariel Durant</em>. Lessons from their history research, personally I found it a bit underwhelming compared to the tittle, but it has a concise summary of many historical events.</p>
<p><strong>The Master of Go</strong>, <em>Yasunari Kawabata</em>. An account of the last title …</p></body></html><html><body><p>Inspired by <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cHM6Ly9lbGkudGhlZ3JlZW5wbGFjZS5uZXQvMjAxOC9zdW1tYXJ5LW9mLXJlYWRpbmctamFudWFyeS1tYXJjaC0yMDE4LyIsICJjYWNoZSI6ICJjYWNoZS9ibG9nXzIwMThfMDRfMTVfcmVhZGluZy1qYW51YXJ5LS1tYXJjaC0yMDE4L2VsaS50aGVncmVlbnBsYWNlLm5ldF8yMDE4X3N1bW1hcnktb2YtcmVhZGluZy1qYW51YXJ5LW1hcmNoLTIwMTgvZWxpLnRoZWdyZWVucGxhY2UubmV0LzIwMTgvc3VtbWFyeS1vZi1yZWFkaW5nLWphbnVhcnktbWFyY2gtMjAxOC9pbmRleC5odG1sIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="https://eli.thegreenplace.net/2018/summary-of-reading-january-march-2018/">
Eli Bendersky's post</a></span></p>
<h2>Books</h2>
<p><strong>The Obstacle is the Way</strong>, <em>Ryan Holiday</em>. A modern introduction to Stoicism. If you don't like the writing style, try Seneca or Marcus Aurelius.</p>
<p><strong>Cicero - Selected Works</strong>, <em>Penguin Classics</em>. One of the greatest orators of all time, contrasting his speeches with modern politicians gives you a lot of perspective.</p>
<p><strong>Lessons of History</strong>, <em>Will & Ariel Durant</em>. Lessons from their history research, personally I found it a bit underwhelming compared to the tittle, but it has a concise summary of many historical events.</p>
<p><strong>The Master of Go</strong>, <em>Yasunari Kawabata</em>. An account of the last title match of Hon'inbō Shūsai, stretching out for nearly a year during world war 2. Must read if you like Go (the board game), if you don't know it you should try it.</p>
<p><strong>Ego is the Enemy</strong>, <em>Ryan Holiday</em>. How to not get cocky in the face of success. I liked this a lot more than Ryan's other book I read.</p>
<h2>Papers</h2>
<p><strong>In Search of an Understandable Consensus Algorithm</strong>, <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cHM6Ly9yYWZ0LmdpdGh1Yi5pby8iLCAiY2FjaGUiOiAiY2FjaGUvYmxvZ18yMDE4XzA0XzE1X3JlYWRpbmctamFudWFyeS0tbWFyY2gtMjAxOC9yYWZ0LmdpdGh1Yi5pby9yYWZ0LmdpdGh1Yi5pby9pbmRleC5odG1sIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="https://raft.github.io/">Raft</a></span>. Simple to understand distributed consensus algorithm, much clearer than paxos.</p>
<p><span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cHM6Ly9hcnhpdi5vcmcvYWJzLzE3MTAuMTEwNDEiLCAiY2FjaGUiOiAiY2FjaGUvYmxvZ18yMDE4XzA0XzE1X3JlYWRpbmctamFudWFyeS0tbWFyY2gtMjAxOC9hcnhpdi5vcmdfYWJzXzE3MTAuMTEwNDEvYXJ4aXYub3JnL2Ficy8xNzEwLjExMDQxIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.11041">Unsupervised Neural Machine Translation</a></span>, <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cHM6Ly9hcnhpdi5vcmcvYWJzLzE3MTEuMDAwNDMiLCAiY2FjaGUiOiAiY2FjaGUvYmxvZ18yMDE4XzA0XzE1X3JlYWRpbmctamFudWFyeS0tbWFyY2gtMjAxOC9hcnhpdi5vcmdfYWJzXzE3MTEuMDAwNDMvYXJ4aXYub3JnL2Ficy8xNzExLjAwMDQzIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.00043">Unsupervised Machine Translation Using Monolingual Corpora Only</a></span>. Straight out of SciFi, learning to translate with no bilingual data at all!</p></body></html>Work Rules!2016-10-03T21:42:00+01:002016-10-03T21:42:00+01:00Julian Schrittwiesertag:www.furidamu.org,2016-10-03:/blog/2016/10/03/work-rules/<html><body><p><a href="http://amzn.to/2dM5Ncu">Work Rules!</a> is the title of a great book by Laszlo Bock, SVP of People Operations at Google.</p>
<p>It's a pretty accurate portrait of life at Google (at least from what I've seen over the last three years), and at the same time it is a great guidebook for companies that haven't yet come as far along the path of employee empowerment.</p>
<p>If you are in any way involved with work - be it employer or employee - this is a must read, with lots of practical advice on how to improve your organization (and your life!). It may also give you …</p></body></html><html><body><p><a href="http://amzn.to/2dM5Ncu">Work Rules!</a> is the title of a great book by Laszlo Bock, SVP of People Operations at Google.</p>
<p>It's a pretty accurate portrait of life at Google (at least from what I've seen over the last three years), and at the same time it is a great guidebook for companies that haven't yet come as far along the path of employee empowerment.</p>
<p>If you are in any way involved with work - be it employer or employee - this is a must read, with lots of practical advice on how to improve your organization (and your life!). It may also give you a bit of an idea of why I consider Google such a great place to work, probably the best I've seen so far anywhere.</p></body></html>Tidy your Life2016-01-09T15:58:00+00:002016-01-09T15:58:00+00:00Julian Schrittwiesertag:www.furidamu.org,2016-01-09:/blog/2016/01/09/tidy-your-life/<html><body><p>I just finished Marie Kondo's <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2dwL3Byb2R1Y3QvMDA5MTk1NTEwNi9yZWY9YXNfbGlfdGw_aWU9VVRGOCZjYW1wPTE3ODkmY3JlYXRpdmU9MzkwOTU3JmNyZWF0aXZlQVNJTj0wMDkxOTU1MTA2JmxpbmtDb2RlPWFzMiZ0YWc9ZnVyaWRhbXUtMjAmbGlua0lkPUtOV0hQNlgyWEZNMlJVS04iLCAiY2FjaGUiOiAiY2FjaGUvYmxvZ18yMDE2XzAxXzA5X3RpZHkteW91ci1saWZlL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tX2dwX3Byb2R1Y3RfMDA5MTk1NTEwNl9yZWY9YXNfbGlfdGw_aWU9VVRGOCZjYW1wPTE3ODkmY3JlYXRpdmU9MzkwOTU3JmNyZWF0aXZlQVNJTj0wMDkxOTU1MTA2JmxpbmtDb2RlPWFzMiZ0YWc9ZnVyaWRhbXUtMjAmbGlua0lkPUtOV0hQNlgyWEZNMlJVS04vd3d3LmFtYXpvbi5jb20vZ3AvcHJvZHVjdC8wMDkxOTU1MTA2L3JlZj1hc19saV90bC9pbmRleC5odG1sIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0091955106/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0091955106&linkCode=as2&tag=furidamu-20&linkId=KNWHP6X2XFM2RUKN">The Life-changing Magic of Tidying: A Simple, Effective Way to Banish Clutter Forever</a></span>, but even before I was halfway through I couldn't stop myself from reorganizing half my room and finally disposing of many clothes I hadn't even looked at in two years.</p>
<p>I had always considered that I could just let things sit at the back of a shelf until the next time I moved flat and then I'd finally get rid of them, but while tidying yesterday I realized that I actually had many nice clothes I'd wanted to wear that I …</p></body></html><html><body><p>I just finished Marie Kondo's <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2dwL3Byb2R1Y3QvMDA5MTk1NTEwNi9yZWY9YXNfbGlfdGw_aWU9VVRGOCZjYW1wPTE3ODkmY3JlYXRpdmU9MzkwOTU3JmNyZWF0aXZlQVNJTj0wMDkxOTU1MTA2JmxpbmtDb2RlPWFzMiZ0YWc9ZnVyaWRhbXUtMjAmbGlua0lkPUtOV0hQNlgyWEZNMlJVS04iLCAiY2FjaGUiOiAiY2FjaGUvYmxvZ18yMDE2XzAxXzA5X3RpZHkteW91ci1saWZlL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tX2dwX3Byb2R1Y3RfMDA5MTk1NTEwNl9yZWY9YXNfbGlfdGw_aWU9VVRGOCZjYW1wPTE3ODkmY3JlYXRpdmU9MzkwOTU3JmNyZWF0aXZlQVNJTj0wMDkxOTU1MTA2JmxpbmtDb2RlPWFzMiZ0YWc9ZnVyaWRhbXUtMjAmbGlua0lkPUtOV0hQNlgyWEZNMlJVS04vd3d3LmFtYXpvbi5jb20vZ3AvcHJvZHVjdC8wMDkxOTU1MTA2L3JlZj1hc19saV90bC9pbmRleC5odG1sIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0091955106/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0091955106&linkCode=as2&tag=furidamu-20&linkId=KNWHP6X2XFM2RUKN">The Life-changing Magic of Tidying: A Simple, Effective Way to Banish Clutter Forever</a></span>, but even before I was halfway through I couldn't stop myself from reorganizing half my room and finally disposing of many clothes I hadn't even looked at in two years.</p>
<p>I had always considered that I could just let things sit at the back of a shelf until the next time I moved flat and then I'd finally get rid of them, but while tidying yesterday I realized that I actually had many nice clothes I'd wanted to wear that I simply had forgotten about because they were obscured by all the obsolete ones.</p>
<p>Think of it in terms of software engineering: you want to refactor old code and clean up your codebase, otherwise you accumulate lots of technical debt. It's similar in your house/flat - if everything is flowing over with things that you never use anyway, you get less joy out of the things that you do like. </p>
<p>Definitiely go read this book - it's quite thin anyway -, it will definitely transform your rooms. </p></body></html>Reading Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us2014-11-09T09:41:00+00:002014-11-09T09:41:00+00:00Julian Schrittwiesertag:www.furidamu.org,2014-11-09:/blog/2014/11/09/reading-drive-the-surprising-truth-about-what-motivates-us/<html><body><p>After mentioning that I was reading <a href="/blog/2014/11/04/reading-influence-the-psychology-of-persuasion/">Influence</a> to my good friend <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL2Fkcmllbm5ldHJhbi50dW1ibHIuY29tLyIsICJjYWNoZSI6ICJjYWNoZS9ibG9nXzIwMTRfMTFfMDlfcmVhZGluZy1kcml2ZS10aGUtc3VycHJpc2luZy10cnV0aC1hYm91dC13aGF0LW1vdGl2YXRlcy11cy9hZHJpZW5uZXRyYW4udHVtYmxyLmNvbS9hZHJpZW5uZXRyYW4udHVtYmxyLmNvbS9pbmRleC5odG1sIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://adriennetran.tumblr.com/">Adrienne</a></span>, she recommended <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2dwL3Byb2R1Y3QvMTU5NDQ4NDgwNS9yZWY9YXNfbGlfdGw_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" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594484805/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1594484805&linkCode=as2&tag=furidamu-20&linkId=R33HMPYWZQ2JBM3J">Drive</a></span> as my next book. The theme is quickly explained: While there are three different ways to motivate us - biological urges like hunger or sex, external reward & punishment, and intrinsic reward from performing a task - only intrinsic reward can consistently foster creative behavior.</p>
<p>Pink starts out by showing how traditional external motivation - cash bonuses et al. - overly constrain our focus, interfere with creativity, extinguish internal rewards and even lead to unethical behavior (think doctoring sales numbers to meet a bonus target). Only in special …</p></body></html><html><body><p>After mentioning that I was reading <a href="/blog/2014/11/04/reading-influence-the-psychology-of-persuasion/">Influence</a> to my good friend <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL2Fkcmllbm5ldHJhbi50dW1ibHIuY29tLyIsICJjYWNoZSI6ICJjYWNoZS9ibG9nXzIwMTRfMTFfMDlfcmVhZGluZy1kcml2ZS10aGUtc3VycHJpc2luZy10cnV0aC1hYm91dC13aGF0LW1vdGl2YXRlcy11cy9hZHJpZW5uZXRyYW4udHVtYmxyLmNvbS9hZHJpZW5uZXRyYW4udHVtYmxyLmNvbS9pbmRleC5odG1sIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://adriennetran.tumblr.com/">Adrienne</a></span>, she recommended <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2dwL3Byb2R1Y3QvMTU5NDQ4NDgwNS9yZWY9YXNfbGlfdGw_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" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594484805/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1594484805&linkCode=as2&tag=furidamu-20&linkId=R33HMPYWZQ2JBM3J">Drive</a></span> as my next book. The theme is quickly explained: While there are three different ways to motivate us - biological urges like hunger or sex, external reward & punishment, and intrinsic reward from performing a task - only intrinsic reward can consistently foster creative behavior.</p>
<p>Pink starts out by showing how traditional external motivation - cash bonuses et al. - overly constrain our focus, interfere with creativity, extinguish internal rewards and even lead to unethical behavior (think doctoring sales numbers to meet a bonus target). Only in special circumstances can external motivation still be useful: If a task is routine and boring to begin with, then there's not much creativity to lose.</p>
<p>He then makes the case for why intrinsic motivation is better suited to our highly evolved and demanding work environments. Everyone who's ever been in 'flow' will know what he's talking about.</p>
<p>In fact, the most valuable part of the book might be the end, where Pink gives clear instructions on how you can harness intrinsic motivation in your personal life, when raising children, running a business or simply trying to get fit.</p>
<h3>Nine Strategies for Awakening Your Motivation</h3>
<p>This includes giving yourself a "flow test" to determine how to have more flow experiences, taking a Sagmeister, doing your own performance reviews and asking big and small questions:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In 1962, Clare Boothe Luce, one of the first women to serve in the U.S. Congress, offered some advice to President John F. Kennedy. "A great man," she told him, "is one sentence." Abraham Lincoln's sentence was: "He preserved the union and freed the slaves." Franklin Roosevelt's was: "He lifted us out of a great depression and helped us win a world war." Luce feared that Kennedy's attention was so splintered among different priorities that his sentence risked becoming a muddled paragraph. </p>
<p>You don't have to be a president - of the United States or of your local gardening club - to learn from this tale. One way to orient your life toward greater purpose is to think about your sentence. Maybe it's: "He raised four kids who became happy and healthy adults." Or "She invented a device that made people's lives easier." Or "He cared for every person who walked into his office regardless of whether that person could pay." Or "She taught two generations of children how to read." </p>
<p>As you contemplate your purpose, begin with the big question: What's your sentence?</p>
</blockquote></body></html>Reading Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion2014-11-04T19:11:00+00:002014-11-04T19:11:00+00:00Julian Schrittwiesertag:www.furidamu.org,2014-11-04:/blog/2014/11/04/reading-influence-the-psychology-of-persuasion/<html><body><p>The theme of <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2dwL3Byb2R1Y3QvMDA2MTI0MTg5WC9yZWY9YXNfbGlfdGw_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" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006124189X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=006124189X&linkCode=as2&tag=furidamu-20&linkId=XGG7URZXL7KDE3N3">Influence</a></span> is clear: unable to keep up with the onslaught of information and decisions we fall back to mental shortcuts and learned behavior.</p>
<p>Robert Cialdini orders them into six large groups:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Reciprocation</em>. Giving a gift or doing a favor makes us much more likely to comply with a subsequent request, even if the favor was unwanted. The same concept applies to making an initial high demand and then "conceding" to a lower one. Example: charities giving you a free gift.</li>
<li><em>Commitment and Consistency</em>. We will change our opinions and desires to be in line with our …</li></ul></body></html><html><body><p>The theme of <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL3d3dy5hbWF6b24uY29tL2dwL3Byb2R1Y3QvMDA2MTI0MTg5WC9yZWY9YXNfbGlfdGw_aWU9VVRGOCZjYW1wPTE3ODkmY3JlYXRpdmU9MzkwOTU3JmNyZWF0aXZlQVNJTj0wMDYxMjQxODlYJmxpbmtDb2RlPWFzMiZ0YWc9ZnVyaWRhbXUtMjAmbGlua0lkPVhHRzdVUlpYTDdLREUzTjMiLCAiY2FjaGUiOiAiY2FjaGUvYmxvZ18yMDE0XzExXzA0X3JlYWRpbmctaW5mbHVlbmNlLXRoZS1wc3ljaG9sb2d5LW9mLXBlcnN1YXNpb24vd3d3LmFtYXpvbi5jb21fZ3BfcHJvZHVjdF8wMDYxMjQxODlYX3JlZj1hc19saV90bD9pZT1VVEY4JmNhbXA9MTc4OSZjcmVhdGl2ZT0zOTA5NTcmY3JlYXRpdmVBU0lOPTAwNjEyNDE4OVgmbGlua0NvZGU9YXMyJnRhZz1mdXJpZGFtdS0yMCZsaW5rSWQ9WEdHN1VSWlhMN0tERTNOMy93d3cuYW1hem9uLmNvbS9ncC9wcm9kdWN0LzAwNjEyNDE4OXgvcmVmPWFzX2xpX3RsL2luZGV4Lmh0bWwifQ==" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006124189X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=006124189X&linkCode=as2&tag=furidamu-20&linkId=XGG7URZXL7KDE3N3">Influence</a></span> is clear: unable to keep up with the onslaught of information and decisions we fall back to mental shortcuts and learned behavior.</p>
<p>Robert Cialdini orders them into six large groups:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Reciprocation</em>. Giving a gift or doing a favor makes us much more likely to comply with a subsequent request, even if the favor was unwanted. The same concept applies to making an initial high demand and then "conceding" to a lower one. Example: charities giving you a free gift.</li>
<li><em>Commitment and Consistency</em>. We will change our opinions and desires to be in line with our behavior; extracting initial admissions and behaviors can make us want to comply with later ones. Example: Claiming you would do public service when surveyed.</li>
<li><em>Social Proof</em>. In uncertain situations we will look to others for guidance on how to behave. Example: Bystander effect, advertisements with "people from the street".</li>
<li><em>Liking</em>. We are more likely to unquestioningly help our friends. Example: Overly friendly salesman that has suspiciously a lot of common interests.</li>
<li><em>Authority</em>. Humans are prone to blindly following authority, doing things they would normally never do. Example: Milgram Experiment, doctors recommending a toothpaste.</li>
<li><em>Scarcity</em>. We automatically desire goods in limited availability more, though we don't experience them as better. Example: closing sale.</li>
</ul>
<p>Given their nature, we are especially vulnerable to these shortcuts under stress or when we are (mentally) exhausted - the time when we have the least energy for expensive rational thoughts.</p></body></html>Reading Dataclysm2014-09-23T20:09:00+01:002014-09-23T20:09:00+01:00Julian Schrittwiesertag:www.furidamu.org,2014-09-23:/blog/2014/09/23/reading-dataclysm/<html><body><p>As probably many of you, I've long been an avid follower of <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL2Jsb2cub2tjdXBpZC5jb20vIiwgImNhY2hlIjogImNhY2hlL2Jsb2dfMjAxNF8wOV8yM19yZWFkaW5nLWRhdGFjbHlzbS9ibG9nLm9rY3VwaWQuY29tL2Jsb2cub2tjdXBpZC5jb20vaW5kZXguaHRtbCJ9" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://blog.okcupid.com/">OkTrends</a></span>, OkCupid's blog. After a three year long silence, finally some new articles appeared, and it soon became clear why: Christian Rudder had been working on a book, <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL2RhdGFjbHlzbS5vcmcvIiwgImNhY2hlIjogImNhY2hlL2Jsb2dfMjAxNF8wOV8yM19yZWFkaW5nLWRhdGFjbHlzbS9kYXRhY2x5c20ub3JnL2RhdGFjbHlzbS5vcmcvaW5kZXguaHRtbCJ9" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://dataclysm.org/">Dataclysm</a></span>.</p>
<p>It contains tons of interesting findings extracted from the copious amounts of data available to todays datascientists, but I wanted to show a short excerpt I found quite striking:</p>
<p><img alt="Woman like Men roughly their own age" src="/images/2014-09-23-reading-dataclysm/woman.png"/></p>
<p>The numbers roughly following the diagonal line are the median ages of the men. As you would expect, women prefer men roughly their own age.</p>
<p>Now compare this …</p></body></html><html><body><p>As probably many of you, I've long been an avid follower of <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL2Jsb2cub2tjdXBpZC5jb20vIiwgImNhY2hlIjogImNhY2hlL2Jsb2dfMjAxNF8wOV8yM19yZWFkaW5nLWRhdGFjbHlzbS9ibG9nLm9rY3VwaWQuY29tL2Jsb2cub2tjdXBpZC5jb20vaW5kZXguaHRtbCJ9" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://blog.okcupid.com/">OkTrends</a></span>, OkCupid's blog. After a three year long silence, finally some new articles appeared, and it soon became clear why: Christian Rudder had been working on a book, <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL2RhdGFjbHlzbS5vcmcvIiwgImNhY2hlIjogImNhY2hlL2Jsb2dfMjAxNF8wOV8yM19yZWFkaW5nLWRhdGFjbHlzbS9kYXRhY2x5c20ub3JnL2RhdGFjbHlzbS5vcmcvaW5kZXguaHRtbCJ9" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://dataclysm.org/">Dataclysm</a></span>.</p>
<p>It contains tons of interesting findings extracted from the copious amounts of data available to todays datascientists, but I wanted to show a short excerpt I found quite striking:</p>
<p><img alt="Woman like Men roughly their own age" src="/images/2014-09-23-reading-dataclysm/woman.png"/></p>
<p>The numbers roughly following the diagonal line are the median ages of the men. As you would expect, women prefer men roughly their own age.</p>
<p>Now compare this to</p>
<p><img alt="Men always prefer Women around 20" src="/images/2014-09-23-reading-dataclysm/man.png"/></p>
<p>Again, the numbers indicate the median, the shading shows the top two quartiles. Essentially, men always prefer twenty year olds, no matter their own age. Later in the book you'll see that they actually message women more consistent with their own age (up to ten years younger), but I still found these two graphs very interesting (data is from ratings of OkCupid users, graphs are copied from the book).</p>
<p>Finally, for all of us online dating users: </p>
<p><img alt="Short messages have the highest success rate" src="/images/2014-09-23-reading-dataclysm/response_rate.png"/></p>
<p>Or, in other words: Very short messages - a single tweet - are actually more successful. Now this is across all users and might not hold true if you only consider more educated users, but still. (I wish I could run some of my own analysis on OkCupid data!)</p></body></html>Reading Live on the Margin2014-09-07T15:51:00+01:002014-09-07T15:51:00+01:00Julian Schrittwiesertag:www.furidamu.org,2014-09-07:/blog/2014/09/07/reading-live-on-the-margin/<html><body><p>After a recent recommendation I read <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL2xpdmVvbnRoZW1hcmdpbi5jb20vIiwgImNhY2hlIjogImNhY2hlL2Jsb2dfMjAxNF8wOV8wN19yZWFkaW5nLWxpdmUtb24tdGhlLW1hcmdpbi9saXZlb250aGVtYXJnaW4uY29tL2xpdmVvbnRoZW1hcmdpbi5jb20vaW5kZXguaHRtbCJ9" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://liveonthemargin.com/">Live on the Margin</a></span>, a book about following your dreams while paying for it by trading. It's mostly an introduction to short term trading, but starts out with an introduction to slacker lifestyle.</p>
<h3>Slacking</h3>
<p>The principle is simple: You want to follow your dreams now, not wait for retirement when you are old. You have a bit of money, so how do you make it last longer while you travel the world? First step, figuring out the burn rate: How much money you actually need to spend to do so. Try to get …</p></body></html><html><body><p>After a recent recommendation I read <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL2xpdmVvbnRoZW1hcmdpbi5jb20vIiwgImNhY2hlIjogImNhY2hlL2Jsb2dfMjAxNF8wOV8wN19yZWFkaW5nLWxpdmUtb24tdGhlLW1hcmdpbi9saXZlb250aGVtYXJnaW4uY29tL2xpdmVvbnRoZW1hcmdpbi5jb20vaW5kZXguaHRtbCJ9" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://liveonthemargin.com/">Live on the Margin</a></span>, a book about following your dreams while paying for it by trading. It's mostly an introduction to short term trading, but starts out with an introduction to slacker lifestyle.</p>
<h3>Slacking</h3>
<p>The principle is simple: You want to follow your dreams now, not wait for retirement when you are old. You have a bit of money, so how do you make it last longer while you travel the world? First step, figuring out the burn rate: How much money you actually need to spend to do so. Try to get it as low as possible to make your money last longer.</p>
<p>Second, what if you could actually make some money while traveling, no matter where you are? Enter trading. While long term investing is safe it only works if you have a lot of capital since the returns are quite low, so you have to take a more active approach and take more risk.</p>
<p>The authors introduce swing and fade trading to solve this, for both holding stocks only for a few days. They recommend picking a few stocks you have personal experience with - say because you use their products every time - so that you have a better chance of judging their actual value, then watching for opportunities in those stocks.</p>
<h3>Fade Trading</h3>
<p>They take a very technical approach to trading, their fundamental approach to fade trading (buy on a dip in stock price and sell when the stock rallies) is as follows:
- use <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvUmVsYXRpdmVfc3RyZW5ndGhfaW5kZXgiLCAiY2FjaGUiOiAiY2FjaGUvYmxvZ18yMDE0XzA5XzA3X3JlYWRpbmctbGl2ZS1vbi10aGUtbWFyZ2luL2VuLndpa2lwZWRpYS5vcmdfd2lraV9SZWxhdGl2ZV9zdHJlbmd0aF9pbmRleC9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvcmVsYXRpdmVfc3RyZW5ndGhfaW5kZXgvaW5kZXguaHRtbCJ9" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_strength_index">RSI</a></span> (ratio of higher to lower closes) to identify when a stock is oversold (RSI < 30)
- look for unexpected dips where the stock price touches the lower 3rd standard deviation <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL2VuLndpa2lwZWRpYS5vcmcvd2lraS9Cb2xsaW5nZXJfQmFuZHMiLCAiY2FjaGUiOiAiY2FjaGUvYmxvZ18yMDE0XzA5XzA3X3JlYWRpbmctbGl2ZS1vbi10aGUtbWFyZ2luL2VuLndpa2lwZWRpYS5vcmdfd2lraV9Cb2xsaW5nZXJfQmFuZHMvZW4ud2lraXBlZGlhLm9yZy93aWtpL2JvbGxpbmdlcl9iYW5kcy9pbmRleC5odG1sIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollinger_Bands">Bollinger Band</a></span> (these are simple the std deviations for the 20-day moving average) and there is no fundamental reason for it in the news
- wait for a rally to the old price (and higher) to be confirmed by the next trading period (usually 1h intervals) closing between the 1st and 2nd BB
- if all of the above have come to pass, buy the stock and use a stop-loss order at the low of the move to protect yourself
- sell the first half when it moves up to reach the 20-day SMA and move up your stop-loss to the entry point of the trade
- sell the second half when the price touches the upper 2nd bollinger band
If the correction doesn't come quickly (2-3 days) it won't come, cut your loses and sell any position you are holding!</p>
<p>Over the next chapters they explain trading with Options instead of naked stocks to increase your leverage and limit your risk and describe a few advanced trading techniques (call spreads, strangles, etc). They finish with a chapter on investor psychology, the gist being: Try to be as rational as possible, awareness of your own <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnL3dpa2kvTGlzdF9vZl9jb2duaXRpdmVfYmlhc2VzIiwgImNhY2hlIjogImNhY2hlL2Jsb2dfMjAxNF8wOV8wN19yZWFkaW5nLWxpdmUtb24tdGhlLW1hcmdpbi9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnX3dpa2lfTGlzdF9vZl9jb2duaXRpdmVfYmlhc2VzL2VuLndpa2lwZWRpYS5vcmcvd2lraS9saXN0X29mX2NvZ25pdGl2ZV9iaWFzZXMvaW5kZXguaHRtbCJ9" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases">cognitive biases</a></span> will help you immensely. Most importantly don't get attached to your positions and make sure to decide when to cut your losses before you buy a stock.</p>
<h3>My Opinion</h3>
<p>All in all a very interesting book, the first part about slacking I definitely agree with. I'm not so sure about the trading part - yes, humans are very good at recognizing patters, but we are also very good at recognizing patterns that are not actually there. A lot of the technical trading, bollinger bands and all, seems to be mostly trying to predict future from past performance, something always fraught with peril in domains as random as the stock market (see <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL2xvY2FsaG9zdDo4MDAwL2Jsb2cvMjAxNC8wOC8xMC9yZWFkaW5nLWZvb2xlZC1ieS1yYW5kb21uZXNzLyIsICJjYWNoZSI6ICJjYWNoZS9ibG9nXzIwMTRfMDlfMDdfcmVhZGluZy1saXZlLW9uLXRoZS1tYXJnaW4vbG9jYWxob3N0L2xvY2FsaG9zdDo4MDAwL2Jsb2cvMjAxNC8wOC8xMC9yZWFkaW5nLWZvb2xlZC1ieS1yYW5kb21uZXNzL2luZGV4Lmh0bWwifQ==" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://localhost:8000/blog/2014/08/10/reading-fooled-by-randomness/">Fooled by Randomness</a></span>). In any case it provides a good introduction to the fundamentals of trading and explains more complicated derivatives like put options.</p></body></html>Reading Fluent Forever2014-08-30T00:33:00+01:002014-08-30T00:33:00+01:00Julian Schrittwiesertag:www.furidamu.org,2014-08-30:/blog/2014/08/30/reading-fluent-forever/<html><body><p>After being tempted for a good while, I finally read Gabriel Wyner's <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cHM6Ly9mbHVlbnQtZm9yZXZlci5jb20vdGhlLWJvb2svIiwgImNhY2hlIjogImNhY2hlL2Jsb2dfMjAxNF8wOF8zMF9yZWFkaW5nLWZsdWVudC1mb3JldmVyL2ZsdWVudC1mb3JldmVyLmNvbV90aGUtYm9vay9mbHVlbnQtZm9yZXZlci5jb20vdGhlLWJvb2svaW5kZXguaHRtbCJ9" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="https://fluent-forever.com/the-book/">Fluent Forever</a></span>. It's a solid introduction to language learning and teaches you a lot of good techniques. While I knew most of it already in theory, I hadn't put everything into practice yet, so reading it was a good way to take a look at my own language learning and see what I could improve.</p>
<h3>Introduction: Stab, Stab, Stab</h3>
<p>Gabriel starts of with 3 basic keys to language learning:
1. Learn pronunciation fast
2. Don't translate
3. Use SRS</p>
<p>He then recommends to get a few books …</p></body></html><html><body><p>After being tempted for a good while, I finally read Gabriel Wyner's <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cHM6Ly9mbHVlbnQtZm9yZXZlci5jb20vdGhlLWJvb2svIiwgImNhY2hlIjogImNhY2hlL2Jsb2dfMjAxNF8wOF8zMF9yZWFkaW5nLWZsdWVudC1mb3JldmVyL2ZsdWVudC1mb3JldmVyLmNvbV90aGUtYm9vay9mbHVlbnQtZm9yZXZlci5jb20vdGhlLWJvb2svaW5kZXguaHRtbCJ9" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="https://fluent-forever.com/the-book/">Fluent Forever</a></span>. It's a solid introduction to language learning and teaches you a lot of good techniques. While I knew most of it already in theory, I hadn't put everything into practice yet, so reading it was a good way to take a look at my own language learning and see what I could improve.</p>
<h3>Introduction: Stab, Stab, Stab</h3>
<p>Gabriel starts of with 3 basic keys to language learning:
1. Learn pronunciation fast
2. Don't translate
3. Use SRS</p>
<p>He then recommends to get a few books (or websites): Definitely a grammar book and a phrasebook, optionally a frequency dictionary, a pronunciation guide, a bi- and/or monolingual dictionary and a thematic vocabulary book.</p>
<h3>Upload: Five Principles to End Forgetting</h3>
<p>He continues with explaining how to properly remember foreign words and new concepts:</p>
<ul>
<li>make memories more memorable: learn words by combining structure + sound + concept + personal connection (search for images on google!)</li>
<li>maximize laziness: only study until you can repeat it once</li>
<li>don't review, recall: helps most for learning</li>
<li>wait, wait! don't tell me!: recall just before forgetting is most efficient</li>
<li>rewrite the past: successful recall strengthens memory, even when you do forget feedback brings back memories</li>
</ul>
<p>Basically, just use a SRS like Anki. Deck building is actually incredible important, don't just use premade decks from someone else. If you made your own deck, studying the cards will then hook into the memories made when creating the cards. Read <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL3d3dy5zdXBlcm1lbW8uY29tL2FydGljbGVzLzIwcnVsZXMuaHRtIiwgImNhY2hlIjogImNhY2hlL2Jsb2dfMjAxNF8wOF8zMF9yZWFkaW5nLWZsdWVudC1mb3JldmVyL3d3dy5zdXBlcm1lbW8uY29tX2FydGljbGVzXzIwcnVsZXMuaHRtL3d3dy5zdXBlcm1lbW8uY29tL2FydGljbGVzLzIwcnVsZXMuaHRtIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://www.supermemo.com/articles/20rules.htm">20 rules for good cards</a></span> if you haven't yet.</p>
<h3>Sound Play</h3>
<p>Gabriel proposes a three step approach to learning a language, starting with learning sounds. This is important so you can actually connect spoken and written language. You can use minimal pair testing to learn all phonemes of your language, he's <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL2ZsdWVudC1mb3JldmVyLmNvbS9wcm9udW5jaWF0aW9uLXRyYWluZXJzLyIsICJjYWNoZSI6ICJjYWNoZS9ibG9nXzIwMTRfMDhfMzBfcmVhZGluZy1mbHVlbnQtZm9yZXZlci9mbHVlbnQtZm9yZXZlci5jb21fcHJvbnVuY2lhdGlvbi10cmFpbmVycy9mbHVlbnQtZm9yZXZlci5jb20vcHJvbnVuY2lhdGlvbi10cmFpbmVycy9pbmRleC5odG1sIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://fluent-forever.com/pronunciation-trainers/">selling Anki decks</a></span> for this purpose.</p>
<p>Being able to recognize your language's sounds then allows you to get a good accent by learning how to pronounce correctly. Use the backchaining trick for long words - start by learning how to pronounce the last bit, then successively add letters to the front. </p>
<p>Also make sure you know how to go from written words to correct pronunciation - use IPA if necessary. <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL3d3dy5mb3J2by5jb20vIiwgImNhY2hlIjogImNhY2hlL2Jsb2dfMjAxNF8wOF8zMF9yZWFkaW5nLWZsdWVudC1mb3JldmVyL3d3dy5mb3J2by5jb20vd3d3LmZvcnZvLmNvbS9pbmRleC5odG1sIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://www.forvo.com/">Forvo</a></span> has recordings of words by native speakers if you want to make sure. (Also put these on your flashcards!)</p>
<h3>Word Play and the Symphony of a Word</h3>
<p>The next step is actually learning words. Start with the most used words, best by following frequency lists. He <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL2RpcmVjdC5mbHVlbnQtZm9yZXZlci5jb20vYnVuZGxlcy8iLCAiY2FjaGUiOiAiY2FjaGUvYmxvZ18yMDE0XzA4XzMwX3JlYWRpbmctZmx1ZW50LWZvcmV2ZXIvZGlyZWN0LmZsdWVudC1mb3JldmVyLmNvbV9idW5kbGVzL2RpcmVjdC5mbHVlbnQtZm9yZXZlci5jb20vYnVuZGxlcy9pbmRleC5odG1sIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://direct.fluent-forever.com/bundles/">offers premade ones</a></span>, but you can also just check Wikipedia.</p>
<p>Then use google images (basic version will show captions) to find the meaning of your word - often subtly different from your own language - and connect it to a personal memory so you can better remember it. Optionally use mnemonics to memorize grammatical concepts - male words explode, etc.</p>
<h3>Sentence Play (Grammar)</h3>
<p>Finally, you need to learn some grammar. Simply use example sentences from your grammar book, only a few per grammar point, and put them in your SRS. Grammar only has 3 basic operations: new words, word forms, word order; you can learn all of them using <span class="archive-container"><a class="archive-link" href="/cache.html#eyJyYXciOiAiaHR0cDovL2Fua2lzcnMubmV0L2RvY3MvbWFudWFsLmh0bWwjY2xvemUtZGVsZXRpb24iLCAiY2FjaGUiOiAiY2FjaGUvYmxvZ18yMDE0XzA4XzMwX3JlYWRpbmctZmx1ZW50LWZvcmV2ZXIvYW5raXNycy5uZXRfZG9jc19tYW51YWwuaHRtbCNjbG96ZS1kZWxldGlvbi9hbmtpc3JzLm5ldC9kb2NzL21hbnVhbC5odG1sIn0=" rel="nofollow">[cached]</a><a href="http://ankisrs.net/docs/manual.html#cloze-deletion">cloze deletion</a></span> (My homework was eaten _ the dog).</p>
<p>Similarly, use (made up) sentences to remember declensions, conjugations, etc and mnemonics for grammatical groups. For this, the Person-Action-Object system is quite handy, e.g: Arnold (plural 1) explodes (masculine) a dog. </p>
<p>Also make sure practice writing - you can write about whatever you want - and get corrections on lang-8 (this is also useful for your made up grammar sentences). Put any corrections you get in your SRS.</p>
<h3>The Language Game</h3>
<p>In the long run, you should learn roughly 2000 basic words, then specialize. Once you have enough vocabulary, use monolingual dictionaries and learn other words passively while looking something up.</p>
<p>Reading books while listening to the audio book is great for passive vocabulary acquisition and also makes sure you follow the natural flow of the language and don't get hung up on details.</p>
<p>Once you are more advanced, watch movies and especially TV shows in the target language, without subtitles. You can optionally read the summary first to make it easier. It's also great practice to only talk in the target language, especially if you don't know how to say a concept. There's a lot of language exchange websites out there (Verbling.com, LiveMocha.com, busuu.com, MyLanguageExchange.com, italki.com with paid teacher), you can either find a partner to talk online or meet up in real life.</p>
<h3>SRS</h3>
<p>The book concludes with a few more very detailed chapters on how to make your own flashcards, and how to make minimal pair testing cards to learn sounds. I won't summarize these here, if you feel you lack experience in that area check them out.</p>
<h3>Final Remarks</h3>
<p>The book also includes a list of 625 most popular words (in the English language), this can be quite helpful to get you started in your new language.</p>
<p>Overall this is a great book, especially if you've never learned another language. I'll definitely recommend it to my friends and start loaning out my copy of the book now. But first I'm going to throw out all premade Anki decks I've downloaded and instead start adding example sentences for all the grammar points I read about in Japanese.</p></body></html>