Little Talk:

***

One more memory of my dad: We were watching the 2021 Nets-Bucks series, and suddenly my dad said, "That Dadhiwala is for New York? I thought he was Houston!" I might be biased, but "That Dadhiwala" seems to me to be the perfect basketball nickname for James Harden.

***

Notes On Technical Reading IV: This Time It's Technical

0. Skimming

1. Reading

2. Walk-through

3. Review questions (if any)

4. Exercises (if any)

5. Reflection, review, re-reading, repetition

I suspect what happens for many people in school is that because of pressure of grades, deadlines, dominions, principalities, powers, parties, they go from skimming straight to review questions.

***

 How Much Diet Does A Man Require?

Alas, I still don't know. But I have a at least settled on what my natural eating pattern is:

1. Morning Snack: 7-8ish

2. Breakfast: 9-10ish

3. Lunch: 1-2ish

4. Tea: 4-5ish

5. Dinner: 7-8ish

6. Evening Snack: 9-10ish

The morning and evening snack are, of course, probably optional, except possibly when exercising early, or exercising late. The people who do intermittent fasting inform us that breakfast and dinner are also optional, though, to be honest, I have never found them to be so.

The right way to go about it, perhaps, is to find a diet that works in terms of energy, alertness and enjoyment, and then decide what sacrifices, if any, you wish to make in order to propitiate the weight-loss gods. 

A less stigmatizing way to talk about weight might be to talk about energy/food ratios. People who have a tendency to put on weight easily can perhaps be thought of as people who have a tendency to have low energy/food ratios, and who therefore have a tendency to eat more, in order to try to keep their energy levels up. And when exercise helps people lose weight, my guess is that it is not because of the calories burned, but because, in these people, exercise increases their energy/food ratio. (To quote the Bette Midler character in Ruthless People: "My body's become a more efficient machine! I go farther with less food!") For - though no one will believe it - weight loss is a technical and difficult subject.

A bit of Wodehouse:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_Mr_Mulliner

"How do you do? A whisky-and-soda?"

"I thank you, no. I am a total abstainer. I found that alcohol had a tendency to increase my weight, so I gave it up. I have also given up butter, potatoes, soups of all kinds and . . .However," he broke off, the fanatic gleam which comes into the eyes of all fat men who are describing their system of diet fading away, " this is not a social call, and I must not take up your time with idle talk. . .

Wilfred's eyes narrowed. . .He gazed piercingly at his visitor, no longer deceived by the superficial geniality of his appearance. He had read too many detective stories where the fat, jolly, red-faced man turns out a fiend in human shape to be a ready victim to appearances. . .

To attempt to analyze the young man's emotions, as the next week dragged itself by, would be merely morbid. Life cannot, of course, be all sunshine : and in relating a story like this, which is a slice of life, one must pay as much attention to shade as to light: nevertheless, it would be tedious were I to describe to you in detail the soul-torments which afflicted Wilfred Mulliner as day followed day and no solution to the problem presented itself. . .

His eyes became sunken. His cheek-bones stood out. He lost weight. And so noticeable was this change in his physique that Sir Jasper ffinch-ffarrowmere commented on it one evening in tones of unconcealed envy.

"How the devil, Straker," he said - for this was the pseudonym under which Wilfred was passing, " do you manage to keep so thin? Judging by the weekly books, you eat like a starving Esquimaux, and yet you don't put on weight. Now I, in addition to knocking off butter and potatoes, have started drinking hot unsweetened lemon-juice each night before retiring: and yet, damme," he said - for, like all baronets, he was careless in his language, " I weighed myself this morning, and I was up another six ounces. What's the explanation? "

"Yes, Sir Jasper," said Wilfred, mechanically.

"What the devil do you mean, Yes, Sir Jasper? "

"No, Sir Jasper."

The baronet wheezed plaintively.

"I've been studying this matter closely,' he said,' and it's one of the seven wonders of the world. Have you ever seen a fat valet? Of course not. Nor has anybody else. There is no such thing as a fat valet. And yet there is scarcely a moment during the day when a valet is not eating. He rises at six-thirty, and at seven is having coffee and buttered toast. At eight, he breakfasts off porridge, cream, eggs, bacon, jam, bread, butter, more eggs, more bacon, more jam, more tea, and more butter, finishing up with a slice of cold ham and a sardine. At eleven o'clock he has his 'elevenses,' consisting of coffee, cream, more bread and more butter. At one, luncheon - a hearty meal, replete with every form of starchy food and lots of beer. If he can get at the port, he has port. At three, a snack. At four, another snack. At five, tea and buttered toast. At seven - dinner, probably with floury potatoes, and certainly with lots more beer. At nine, another snack. And at ten-thirty he retires to bed, taking with him a glass of milk and a plate of biscuits to keep himself from getting hungry in the night. And yet he remains as slender as a string-bean, while I, who have been dieting for years . . .am growing a third and supplementary chin. These are mysteries, Straker."

"Yes, Sir Jasper."

"Well, I'll tell you one thing," said the baronet, " I'm getting down one of those indoor Turkish Bath cabinet-affairs from London; and if that doesn't do the trick, I give up. . ."

***

 How Much Exercise Does A Man Require?

My current answer:  5 days of light/moderate exercise, 1 day of moderate/heavy exercise, 1 rest day.

My current definition of:

light: 2 short

moderate: 2 short, + 1

heavy: 2 short, + 2

where warm-up equals 0 to 10, short equals 10 to 30, medium equals 30 to 60, long equals 60 to 100.

***

How Much Work Does A Man Require?

My current answer:

core work hours: 9-10ish to 7-8ish

super-core work hours: 11-12ish to 5-6ish

super-super core work hours: 1-2ish to 3-4ish

extended work hours: 7-8ish to 9-10ish

super-extended work hours: 5-6ish to 11-12ish

super-super extended work hours: 3-4ish to 1-2ish

Perhaps another way to think about it:

6:30 to 10:30: ease in to work

10:30 to 6:30: work, with breaks

6:30 to 10:30: ease out of work

***

How Much Day Job Does A Man Require?

Back in the day, I was utterly defeated by the problem of combining diet, exercise, a day job, a passion project, and a longish commute. In hindsight, my opinion on what I should have done:

1. Leave enough time for at least 60-100 minutes of walking. For example, two two-mile walks, or one four-mile walk. The easiest way to do this might be a two-mile walk to work, and a two-mile walk back.

2. Divide the work day into 3 sessions of between 2 to 4 hours. For example, 10-1, 1-4, 4-7. Or 11-1, 1-4, 4-6. Or 10-1, 1-5, 5-7. Or 10-1, 1-5, 5-8. Or 9-1, 1-5, 5-8. Or whatever.

3. Keep the first 2 sessions for core responsibilities, whether at work or home.

4. Keep the third session as a wild-card session, to be used for core responsibilities, or passion projects, or work events, or community events, or friends & family, or whatever.

Would this have worked? Probably not. But it perhaps would have had a chance of working.

***

How Much Web-Surfing Does A Man Require?

My current answer: Several peeks, two of them named, and one poke.

Peek #1: The email, the messaging, the choosing of the playlist. Plus, the web!

Peek #2: More email, more messaging, more playlist, more web.

Poke: Leisurely loitering, without too much intent. If any.

Approximate timings for all this peeking and poking:

Peek #1: Before work

Peek #2: Short breaks from work

Poke: Long breaks from work / after work

Weekday:

Peek #1: Before 10:30

Peek #2: 10:30 - 6:30

Poke: After 6:30

Weekend:

No restrictions.

***

How Much Playlist Does A Man Require?

My current answer: 10 items in the queue

Types of podcasts:

Poco podcasts: short podcasts, to allow you to wet your beak, a little 

Pezzonovante podcasts: podcasts of substance, podcasts of the belly.

Paisan podcasts: light podcasts, chit-chat podcasts. After all, we're practically paisan.

"Ideal" playlist:

3 poco podcasts

3 pezzonovante podcasts

3 paisan podcasts

1 Podcast to rule them all.

***

How Much Week-End Does A Man Require?

My current answer: 

Baseline weekend activities: work/errands

In addition to baseline: 

One-Scoop Weekend ("Saturday"):

Morning-Noon: recreation, rest, or reflection

Afternoon-Night: recreation, rest, reflection or relaxation

Two-Scoop Weekend ("Saturday" & "Sunday"):

Saturday morning-noon: recreation & rest

Saturday afternoon-night: recreation, rest or relaxation

Sunday: reflection, rest, recreation or relaxation

Three-Scoop Weekend ("Friday", "Saturday" & "Sunday"):

Friday-Saturday noon: recreation & rest

Saturday afternoon-night: recreation, rest or relaxation

Sunday: reflection, rest, recreation or relaxation

If on an irregular schedule: Define different days as "Friday", "Saturday" or "Sunday"

If on a very irregular schedule: Define Tuesday as "Friday", Wednesday as "Saturday", Thursday as "Sunday".

It would perhaps be progress if people found ways of relaxing that do not dull the faculties. Perhaps.

***

How Much Cardio Does A Man Require?

My current answer: 2 short.

Types of cardio sessions:

warm-up: 0-10 minutes

short: 10-30 minutes

medium: 30-60 minutes

long: 60-100 minutes

Quantities of cardio:

In terms of sessions:

Absolute Minimum: 1 short

Marge Innovera Minimum: 2 short

Herbert-Sherbert Moderation: 2 short, + 1

Marge Innovera Maximum: 2 short, + 2

Absolute Maximum: 2 short, + 3

In terms of ranges:

abs min: 0-20 minutes

moe min: 20-60 minutes

hsm: 60-120 minutes

moe max: 120-200 minutes

abs max: 200-300 minutes

In terms of a number:

abs min: 10 minutes

moe min: 40 minutes

hsm: 90 minutes

moe max: 160 minutes

abs max: 250 minutes

Herbert-Sherbert moderation refers to the most sensible man in the world, Bob Herbert, and the most sensible dessert in the world, sherbert: not as rich as ice cream, not as skint as sorbet.

 https://washingtonmonthly.com/2007/10/01/why-is-bob-herbert-boring-2/

  ***

How Much Reading Does A Man Require?

My current answer: 

2 types of reading, tracked and untracked.

For tracked reading:

Non-difficult, non technical reading:

Absolute Max: 96,000 words / 480 pages a week.

Absolute Min: 6,000 words / 30 pages a week.

Difficult, technical reading:

Absolute Max: 48,000 words / 160 pages a week.

Absolute Min: 3,000 words / 10 pages a week.

For untracked reading:

It's not tracked.

***

Big talk:

***

One of my favorite blog posts is Kieran Healy's imagined conversation between a Bright and a Person On The Street. 

https://crookedtimber.org/2003/07/13/bright-is-as-bright-does/

Bright: Excuse me, did you inquire about my worldview, and my life-philosophy?

Person On The Street: No, I asked whether you had the time.

Bright: Well, actually, I am a Bright.

Person On The Street:

In that spirit, my opinions about effective altruism, as far as i can make them out:

1. If you can make a difference, you should.

2. It's difficult to make a difference in your own life, let alone in the life of someone else.

3. Nevertheless, perhaps because of the paradoxical nature of the world, sometimes it can actually be easier to make a difference for somebody else than for yourself. One should be alert for those opportunities.

A letter of CS Lewis: 

https://books.google.com/books/about/Letters_of_C_S_Lewis.html?id=fuz-CwAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description

To 'Mrs. Arnold': from Magdalen College

26 December, 1951

 I am v. glad you have discovered Francois de Sales. I would regard his prose and Geo. Herbert's verse as the sweetest of religious writings. And how remarkable it is that such a man's mere statement that anxiety is a great evil at once helps you to escape from that evil. That indeed seems to be one of the magical Laws of this very creation in which we live: that the thing we know already, the thing we have said to ourselves a hundred times, when said by someone else becomes suddenly operative. It is part of [Charles] Williams' doctrine, isn't it? - that no one can paddle his own canoe but everyone can paddle someone else's. . .

 ***

Podcasting shows promise for being one of those democratic mediums, like teaching or talk show hosting, which everyone assumes that they can do. My 2 ideas for podcasts:

1. Facts, Kibbitz, Outrage & Kiba

First, you start with facts. Facts, facts, facts, facts, facts. Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme.

When you have enough facts, time to kibbitz. Kibbitz, kibbitz kibbitz, kibbitz, kibbitz. Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme.

At some point in the kibbitzing, you should be feeling just and appropriate outrage at some of the more outrageous facts. It's time to express that outrage! Rage, rage, rage, rage, rage. Gimme gimme gimme gimme gimme.

But, as with most things, it's possible to rage too hard, or too long. Once we reach that point, we need the Kiban philosophy of charity, good will, and shepherding each other away from the path of poison and destruction. Perhaps that, along with walking the earth, will see us through.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karate_Kiba 

2. Method of Exhaustion

A big room, a big topic, and:

3-5 experts.

3-5 generalists.

3-5 gluttons and winebibbers.

3-5 publicans and sinners, of no merit whatsoever.

3-5 friends of publicans and sinners.

3-5 moderators, moderating web forums and audience call-ins.

3-5 editors

The experts pull more experts into the conversation, as needed. No one leaves the room until the world is set to rights and everything that can be said on the big topic, has been said. Then the editors get to editing, until they have a transcript of a podcast, and a podcast.

***

One of the challenges for democrats in this election is playing defense on crime, immigration and inflation. What I think I might want to hear from politicians on these issues:

On crime: Over-policing is a problem, and under-policing is a problem. We have thought about both, and have policies for both.

On immigration: Too little immigration is a problem, and too much immigration is a problem. We have thought about both, and have policies for both.

On inflation: Inflation is caused either by too much money, or too few goods. We have thought about both, and have policies for both.

On the issue of transportation inflation specifically, I would like democrats to make a commitment that every American should have a reasonably low-cost, reasonably convenient, low-emission way of getting where they need to go. I think that might be achieved partly by subsidizing low-cost EVs, partly by putting more money into public transit, increasing the the frequency of routes, and route coverage. For example, I was genuinely surprised to find that there were no bus routes that will get you to the Sawyer Camp Trail.

***

This seems like a good podcast to me:

Productivity and workforce whiplash

***

My ideal playoff format for major-league baseball:

1. A 140 game regular season. Every win in the regular season gets 1 point.

2. An end of season tournament of 25 games. The tournament games count as regular season games, so technically the regular season would increase from 162 to 165 games.

3. The top six teams in each league qualify for the first division tournament. The next 6 teams in each league qualify for the second division tournament. The bottom 3 teams in each league qualify for the third division tournament. If major-league baseball ever expands, the bottom teams in each league might qualify for a fourth division tournament, along with top teams from the minor leagues. The lower division teams compete for cash prizes.

4. In the tournament, each team plays each other 5 times. The higher-seed plays 3 games at home. 

5. The amount of points a team gets for each tournament win depends on how much you want the regular season to count. If each tournament win gets 4 points, it would be relatively easy for a wildcard team to overtake the top seed. If each tournament win gets 2 points, it would be more difficult.

6. The pennant winners for each league play in a nine-game World Series

 ***

My ideal playoff format for the NBA:

1. The top seeds from each conference get a bye into the conference semi-finals. 

2. The other 9 playoff teams would play in a playoff tournament, where every team plays each other once. The higher seed plays at home. 

3. The top 3 teams from the tournament would qualify for the conference semifinals.

4. The 1 seed and the 4 seed would play in a best of 8 series, where the 1 seed has to win 4 games, and the 4 seed has to win 5.

5. For a 1 seed to win the NBA championship, they would have to win the Moses Malone 4-4-4. Lower seeds would have to win more.

6. This system would increase the number of playoff games. But it would also increase the value of getting the 1 seed. And the top seeds would have the advantage in the tournament that they would have most of their games at home.

***

I've mentioned that there were two moments in the Trump presidency that shocked me.

The first was in the first week, when word started to come from the airports that some people with green cards were not being allowed into the country.

The second was the Comey firing. I have said before, and have no problem saying again, that until that day the US was not the type of country where the President could call in the FBI director, request lenient treatment for family and friends, and fire the FBI director when he refused to go along.

There were in fact two more moments.

The third was when Trump started promoting Ivermectin on national television. I remember thinking at the time, "Either this treatment better damn well work, or surely Trump will have to resign." Well, the treatment did not work. Trump did not resign.

The fourth was the rush to execute in the final weeks of the Trump presidency.

https://theintercept.com/2021/01/14/dustin-higgs-federal-executions-death-penalty/

 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55236260

The sins of democracy are sloth and envy, the sins of un-democracy, cruelty and servility. I think most democrats would agree that as bad as the cruelty of the Trump presidency was, the servility was even worse: Dr Birx looking at Trump during those press conferences, like the Healer at St. Mungo's looked at Gilderoy Lockhart.

Next post: December 29, 2022